Meeting Eccles

I leant back against the wall and looked down the busy street to my left, the cars slowly crawled past bumper to bumper and on the footpath the situation wasn't much better. People bumped past me, all with their heads down, each trying to get in front of the other. Everyone was in a rush to get somewhere, but not me, I stood among them yet so aloof, so disconnected I might have well been far away on top of mount Everest. Suddenly I saw a tall blue hat go past, this struck me as rather odd but it rung a bell somewhere in my mind so I decided to follow them since I had nothing better to do. I kept a few heads behind them and they weren't hard to follow, the hat was a good foot and a half above the heads of the surrounding people. After about a block they turned down into the subway, I followed them down the stairs and onto a platform where they walked over to a bench and seated them self. I could see now the person was a tall woman or perhaps a man, it was hard to tell for they had a long drawn face with a long, sharp nose, thin lips, large dark eyes and long black hair reaching past their shoulders. Their attire was of black and white striped pants, a dull green vest and dark blue shirt dotted with yellow stars, a red tie and of cause the tall, blue top hat. "Ello, what you lookin' at then" they had caught me staring at them, I stuttered "I-I-I was just admiring your lovely hat" I said trying to smile. They squinted at me as if to gauge whether or not I was telling all, "Okay then, have you seen Davonshire about lately?" they said after a moment, I frowned "I'm sorry?" "You heard me" they pulled a long file out of their pocket and started filing their nails, which were painted blue, red and green. I walked over beside them, "Who's Devonshire?" I asked "Davonshire -with an A" they corrected me, "Who's Davonshire?" I asked again. "You'll know 'im when you meet 'im" was the response. "What do they call you?" I asked "Eccles" was the reply. "Do you know why you followed me?" said Eccles, I shrugged "I was bored and saw a blue hat go past so decided to see where it went" "Wrong" said Eccles, "You followed me because I have something for you" "I think you have me confused with someone else" I said confused. Eccles reached into a pocked and brought out a small box wrapped in brown paper with a red ribbon "This your name?" they said holding out the name tag, "Yes, yes it is" I said, for my name was indeed neatly written on the tag. Eccles put the box back in its pocket "I'll give it you later" I dearly wanted to know all about this person but thought it rude to ask and didn't know where to start. The train arrived and we both got on and walked to the last car, no one had said anything but we were now friends. We sat in silence till after the next station when Eccles nudged me "You'll be getting off with me then?" I hadn't really thought about what was going to happen, "Where are you going?" "To see Davonshire of cause" said Eccles, "Oh" I couldn't think of anything else to say. "Who's Devonshire again?" I asked, "Davonshire, with an A as in Bat or Dwale" Eccles corrected me, "Who's Davonshire?" I said sounding out the "A" carefully, ""You'll know soon enough" Said Eccles. We were both silent for another while when Eccles pulled out a pack of cards and shuffled them "Pick three cards and don't look at them" I pulled out three cards, Eccles thought for a moment "You have the King of Spades, the Eight of Diamonds and the Two of Clubs" I turned the cards over and to my surprise this was indeed what they were. The train had stopped at a station, "Come now, lets go see Davonshire" said Eccles helping me up and a few minutes later we out in the chilly night air and on our way to meet Davonshire.