Enigmatic

One

Another year, another town, another new beginning. But this time the beginning really was new- a different haircut, clothes that actually fit and a more mature look than past years. This mattered even more now that it was a small town, where he had actual opportunity to get noticed. And according to his father, this would be their final stop for his last three years of high school. Sebastian's hippy mother could stay or go once the year was up and her wanderlust returned. He hoped she'd stay, and wondered again how she stayed with a man like her father, who was always trying to put down roots. It added to the tree of a man effect he had going, tanned, tall, and thick, with bark-colored hair and a large beard. Compared to him, Sebastian's mother was a doe, short and thin with large brown eyes, wispy hair, and always walking with a lilt in her step. They matched each other, tree and doe, pieces of the forest. Despite all their differences the fit together, one needing the other no matter how much discord went on. He envied them but didn't want to end up like them. It warred constantly.

As ever, his first thing in this new town was an assignment imposed by his mother. It was the same each move: walk around the neighborhood and downtown and learn it. In this case, Sebastian figured, he'd go a little further, as he'd seen some abandoned buildings and a park on their drive around town. His next stop was downtown- the neighbourhood was boring and he needed something interesting to get back into it. Then again, how interesting could a small-town downtown possibly be? Eh, there were probably people out. Sebastian had looked up the route to downtown in this case. It turned out that their apartment was only a few streets away from it, which worked wonders for his trip. He'd hate to walk all the way across town for this.

Many people were out on the street, most of them teenagers or older people. Two guys sat on the steps outside the general store, eating candy and talking. One had buzzed blonde hair and wore a sleeveless shirt with an upside-down space triangle on it and ripped jeans. The other was black with dreads pulled into a ponytail, wearing a Sesame Street t-shirt and beige shorts. Triangle Shirt tossed a piece of candy at Sesame Street, who caught it in his mouth. They celebrated with a quick kiss. Sebastian raised an eyebrow. He hadn't been expecting that. It was a small town, you'd think they'd have to hide it. Sesame Street noticed him and nodded. Sebastian nodded back and paused, considering walking up. Now Triangle Shirt looked over. Sebastian took a deep breath and walked up.

"Hey, I like your shirt," he said, gesturing to Sesame Street. Sebastian himself was wearing a Courage the Cowardly Dog shirt that he'd made himself. Shirts for that show just didn't exist.

"I like yours too," Sesame Street said.

Triangle Shirt cut in. "Where'd you get it?"

"Oh, I made it myself. Like, drew it and colored it in with some fabric markers my friend had. You can't find shirts for this show and it sucks," he explained.

The two nodded their agreement. "You drew that?" Sesame Street asked in slight disbelief. His tone was mostly impressed.

Sebastian nodded. "Boss, dude," Triangle Shirt said. "Yo, what's your name?"

"Sebastian," he said.

"I'm Seth, and this is Jack," Triangle Shirt said. "You just move here?"

"Yeah. From Montana." Thankfully, their last home was in-country. Out of country places usually led to odd looks. Jack nodded.

"Nice meeting you, man," Jack said.

"Nice meeting you too," Sebastian said.

He continued on his way, popping into the few stores that were down there. There was a thrift store, in which he had an hour-long conversation with the owner, Monique. She gave him a coupon and wished him luck in the town. In the music store, Dansefolk Records, he had less luck. It was quiet and dusty, and the wheezing of the singular shopkeeper got old after five minutes. A diner slouched further back from the streets than the rest. It appeared packed, both inside and out. Sebastian avoided it for the moment. Maybe he'd go in when there was an actual chance of being served.

There was nothing else to see. Sebastian checked off downtown in his head and figured out what to tell his parents later. The next stop on his list was the park, which looked like it took up a quarter of the town. He was on his way to that now, swinging his head back and forth to learn the landmarks. Forget street signs, landmarks stood out more and were easier to navigate by. He'd seen couple on the drive- the only problem was getting to them. Sebastian had passed one already- a large red house with skeletons on its lawn, despite it being late June- and was desperately trying to remember how to get to the other one.

At long last, he found the right street. The other landmark was a huge boulder with "MUTINY" painted on it, and at the end of the street was the entrance to the park. Into it he strolled, looking around. There wasn't much in the beginning of it: just a tar path with trees lining one side and a field on the other. He sped up, anxious to turn the corner and see the whole park. Not that the fields and woods weren't nice, but there weren't any people in them. People were part of the assignment- meet someone or at least learn a few names. He drew closer to the corner. It was a Saturday afternoon, people had to be out. At long last, he rounded the corner, and was mildly disappointed.

A few children played on the playground, watched by four middle-aged men and women and one grandmother. Sebastian could hear their shrieks from here. Several yards away, two teenage girls walked, talking as a seemingly over excited teenage boy walked backwards in front of them, adding to the story at random points. Sebastian never saw his mouth stop. He observed them for a moment. The blonde girl was the tallest, wearing a band shirt and red jeans. Her counterpart had short, dark red hair and wore a lime green tank top with black shorts. The boy was Indian, it appeared, and had a man bun. His white shirt was tucked into a pair of jean shorts that were torn up at the bottom. They looked absorbed in their conversation, but Sebastian figured he'd at least get noticed, so that later, when school started, they'd say hello. Perhaps he'd run into them again. You never knew. He jogged across the playground, curved around a set of benches, and then walked casually until he was a bit in front of them. He had a plan: to "accidentally" bump into the Indian guy and introduce himself.

Getting bored, Sebastian decided to jog backwards a bit. He was more ahead of them than intended. There wasn't anyone else on the trail, he believed, so it wouldn't matter what he did. That was stopped quickly by a shout.

"Duck, fucking duck!" A guy shouted. Sebastian paused for a split second, then dropped to the ground. Something wooshed over his head. He stayed there, frozen, waiting, until a chuckle broke him out of the spell. "You can stand up now, you know."

Sebastian was aware of a shadow next to him. The shadow didn't extend a hand, it just stood there, like the person above him. He grunted and stood, brushing dirt off his stomach. He found himself face to face with a guy a couple inches taller than him, with dark green eyes, a pale, slim face, and slightly messy blue hair. The stranger stared, stoic. Then his face broke into a more pleasant countenance. Sebastian glowered still.

"What was that?" he asked.

The stranger gestured to a tree several feet away. "Throwing knife." Sebastian looked over and saw a medium-sized silver knife stuck into a tree, along with many others. There was several red dots painted on said tree, and a knife was stuck in almost every one. A few had missed and a few, apparently, had yet to be thrown. The stranger stepped away, and walked over to a black bag. He picked one up. "You have to be more careful. You were about five seconds away from being impaled." Sebastian scurried out of the way as he threw the knife, which landed in a red dot. The stranger smiled at it.

Seeing that the conversation was over, Sebastian walked away, back towards the group. He passed them, no longer interested in conversation. The encounter he'd just had was too jarring. The assignment could wait another day. Right now he just wanted to go home and ride out the shock of a near-death experience. Mom would understand.

He walked out of the park, nothing but that boy on his mind.