The Enchanted Island

Ben

I was at home, making myself handsome for a date with a girl I had spoken to online a few days ago. Oh, she had the most breathtaking voice. I didn´t hear everything she said, I was too distracted by the melody of the words. However, I did catch the most important part of the conversation, the part where she mentioned wanting to meet me. There was something about an interesting job offer too, but I couldn't tell for sure. Probably, it was just to cover up the fact that she was really interested in me.

So, I was walking towards the cafe we were supposed to meet and I saw this stunning girl wearing a yellow flower in her hair and I remembered that we agreed to wear something yellow. There was a guy approaching her, he started talking to her and she smiled. What? He had a yellow shirt, I was hoping she did not think this was the man she was supposed to meet with. I had to find something yellow and fast. I had totally forgotten our agreement, it seemed so pointless that time, but while there was a yellow-shirted guy competing with me it became extremely important.

I saw some yellow flowers near the entrance and tried to grab one. I thought it was a living flower that I could snap fast and silently and continue walking forward. Instead, it was one of those artificial flowers that had wire inside. So, when I pulled one blossom the whole bush came off. I was trying to shake it to break it, but the flower did not fall off. The bush just jumped up and down, not even close to giving up. I focused on braking it by bending it in all directions, finally managing to get it off, piercing my finger with the sharp wire. I slipped the flower into my breast pocket and squeezed the bush back to its original place.

I looked around me to see if anyone noticed me doing that flower dance. The air was clear, so I corrected my posture and walked in. I started walking towards the girl I noticed from the window when I heard the voice.

“Yellow team, please this way!”

I turned around to look at the owner of that voice, but she had already disappeared in the next room. Some people passed me, moving towards the voice to the next room. The Yellow-Shirted Boy. The Flower Behind the Ear Girl. Someone just stood next to me and said

“I don't think they actually NEED us to have Yellow markers. You just need to know where you belong.”

I was looking at this colorful person next to me.

“You had a date with her as well?” I mumbled. My self-esteem started to brittle a bit by bit.

“Uhh, a date? Oh, wow.. I doubt she would look at me.” Rainbow-Cap waved with their hand as if they were hot, then rolled their eyes and laughed as if it was a silly dream.

We were walking towards the other room and I started wonder, how did they know about me having a yellow marker?

“You saw me outside with the, umm… yellow…” I tried asking casually not giving away any detai in case they did not see anything.

“Hey! If I had any fraction of a chance I could get a date with That Woman, I would have done anything, ANYTHING, I tell you! So if this flower made you one step closer, then man, I do not judge. Hehe, I sure have done some crazy stuff for love, man. “

“Cool. Cool. Yeah. I am Ben.”

“Hey, Ben. I´m Kai. They, Them.” Kai gave me a hand as a greeting.

“The what?” I was so confused

“So, I am fluid, I have no gender, I prefer you talk about me using the pronouns ´they´ and ´them´. I am very open about it. I am sure you noticed my rainbows everywhere. I understand this is a new world for you, no worries, I get it. Just ask. ”

Before I could say anything we were guided further and placed us behind desks. Each had a paper and a pen in front of us. The melodic voice instructed us as I was swimming in her tunes. It was even harder to listen to her now that she was standing in front of us. Gorgeous. How can one living creature be so breathtaking? I signed the paper and walked towards The Woman. She smiled at me and took the paper from my hand.

“Here is the map and the four items are listed on the other side. Good luck!” The woman said, handing me a green map with some colourful circles on it.

Kai was behind me, giving me a little push, so I continued moving, eyes still attached to her.

“Oh, Ben, you are so screwed! She could have made you sign anything, couldn´t she?” said Kai with a deep sigh and patted me on my shoulder.