Big Yellow Taxi

You girls know those freaks?

There were cops hanging around this market.  He hadn't spotted any yet, but at a big outdoor shopping spot like this, there had to be pigs lurking around somewhere.  Marv had at least five years in prison worth of pot in the front pocket of his leather vest and he had no interest in trying to make a run for it through five packed aisles of shoppers, vendors and tables full of vegetables.  Taking the quickest way back to the bikes, he was careful not to walk too fast. His rough appearance was already earning him stares from small children and rich old ladies carrying baskets and fancy reusable shopping bags.  

Weaving between minivans and sedans, he approached the spot where he left his bike.  Once Marv got there he cursed. Not under his breath like he should have but very loudly, earning him a very dirty look from a nearby mother that was busy snapping her brats into their car seats.  She looked like she was thinking about saying something so Marv glared at her. The woman practically leaped into her car, hitting the automatic lock button before her door was even shut.  

Marv chuckled under his breath as he mumbled to himself, "Don't flatter yerself sweetheart, yer not my type."  After his momentary amusement over the woman's obvious fear faded away, Marv's annoyance at his wayward brother returned with a vengeance.  He told Daniel's stupid ass to stay and watch the bikes. And now the dumbfuck was nowhere to be found. Marv lit up a smoke and paced around, hoping that maybe Daniel had just gone for a piss and was on his way back.  But once he had smoked his cigarette down to the filter there was still no sign of the younger man.

Marv was torn between his distaste for waiting in the parking lot until his i***t brother finally decided to show back up and his desire not to go back into the crowded market.  Never a patient man, after a few more seconds Marv flicked his cigarette butt to the ground and stomped on it with his boot as he headed back the way he had come. He cursed again, much quieter this time.  Like he knew there would be, now there were cops standing at the front entrance of the place. The black one cast a suspicious glance in Marv's direction as he walked by.

"Swear if I get pinched up looking for Daniel in this goddamn market like he's a three year old lost in the fuckin' mall I am beating his fuckin' ass," Marv mumbed to himself, "beatin' that ass fer real this time."  Daniel had one f*****g job. Watch the damn bikes. Fucker couldn't even get that right.  

Lucky for Marv it only took him a few minutes to spot his brother.  Daniel was leaning against one of the support poles that held up the roof of the place.  Marv had tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe he had some important business to do inside this place.  But he wasn't doing anything at all. Daniel was leaning against a pole, keeping himself slightly out of the flow of traffic, sipping on a cup of coffee like he didn't have a care in the world.  

Like most adults that had suffered abuse as children, Daniel was usually on high alert.  Listening and watching everything around him. But Marv was able to get almost on top of him before the younger man even noticed he was there.  His gaze was focused on something a little further down the aisle of vendors with such intensity that Marv had to elbow at him before Daniel even acknowledged his presence.  

"Oh," Daniel huffed his surprise at the sudden contact.  He turned his head, realizing it was only his brother that was poking at him. "Hey."  He offered up only a simple greeting, then turned back to whatever he had been staring at before his brother showed up.  Marv's anger drained away, quickly replaced by curiosity. He had never seen his brother this interested in anything that he wasn't getting ready to shoot with a bow.  He followed Daniel's line of sight, snorting out a laugh when he finally realized why his brother had been missing from the parking lot. Girls. Daniel was in here staring at f*****g girls.  

There were two of them.  One with blonde hair and one with dark hair.  They were both a little on the skinny side, but not bad looking.  Marv didn't see anything special enough about either one of them to hold Daniel's interest with such intensity.  But then again Daniel had strange taste in women. He was a picky little motherfucker too. So if Daniel saw something he actually liked, Marv figured he would go ahead and help a little brother out.  

Marv watched the young women for a few moments, just like Daniel was doing.  They obviously knew they were being watched. They kept smiling in his and Daniel's direction and giggling together.  This was going to be easy.

"Which one?," Marv asked, shoving his elbow into Daniel's ribs for the second time.  

"What the hell you mean?," Daniel hissed back.  He took a sip of his overpriced but better than he thought it would be coffee and crossed his arms.  Marv knew his brother hated it when he got up in his personal space like that. Daniel could feel him breathing he was so close.

"Which one o'them girls you staring at dumbass?," Marv asked.  Daniel narrowed his eyes, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation.  

"Don't fuckin' go over there Marv," Daniel muttered, knowing it was hopeless.  No matter what he said, he knew he was about to be publicly humiliated. He should have gone back to the bikes when he had the chance.  Instead he had stayed here staring at that damn girl and now his brother was involved. And whenever Marv got involved, things went bad in a hurry.  

"Call dibs now or I'm takin' my pick," Marv informed him.  Then he made a very annoying clicking noise with his tongue, like a timer that was counting down.  When Daniel refused to answer, Marv finally shrugged his shoulders and started off towards the two women.  He only made it about a half a step before Daniel grabbed him by the edge of his vest and hissed at him again.

"The dark haired one," Daniel admitted.  Normally he would never admit to liking a girl, especially not to his asshole brother.  But the thought of Marv going over there and hitting on that woman made him sick to his stomach.  Mostly because he knew whatever Marv said to her would probably gain him access to her v****a. Daniel could never figure it out.  The man was a complete and total asshole at all times. But Marv always had good luck with women. They loved him. Until they didn't anymore.  But by then the man had always gotten what he wanted out of them already. s*x.

Marv snorted.  He had guessed Daniel was after the blonde girl.  She had bigger t**s. Marv shrugged it off, figuring it was all the better for him.  Then he started moving again. To Daniel's absolute horror, his older brother grabbed him by the elbow and started dragging him along like a trailer behind a truck.  Daniel tried jerking away, but the bastard had a strong grip on him. If he wanted to get loose, he would have to fight Marv. Since there were people all around them, some who were already staring at the two men because Marv had almost run them over, Daniel quickly decided that he didn't want to make an even bigger scene and allowed himself to be reluctantly dragged along towards the girl's vegetable stand.  He tossed his mostly empty coffee cup into a trash barrel as they passed it by.

"Hey there ladies," Marv drawled, giving them both his biggest and most charming smile.  Now that he was up close to the girls, he assessed their looks again. The dark haired girl was completely coated in freckles.  And the blonde one had a stumpy little pig nose. However, these imperfections were greatly made up for by the fact that both women were young and slim and there was not a bra to be seen between the two of them.  Neither of them was wearing makeup. Another plus. Marv had seen some good looking women that turned into horrible evil witches once their faces melted off.  

"Good afternoon."  It was the dark haired girl that spoke.  The blonde one only giggled. The dark haired girl spoke to Marv since he had spoken to her but she was looking at Daniel.  Her cheeks were pink and she was smiling at the younger man. She bit at her bottom lip, waiting expectantly for Daniel to speak to her, but of course he was staring at the ground like he forgot how to talk english.  "I'm sorry again about earlier," she added, dipping her head down to try and catch his eye.  

"S'alright," Daniel mumbled.  There was an awkward moment of silence.  Marv waited, hoping Daniel had the sense to strike up a conversation with this woman and wondering what in the hell happened earlier that she was apologizing for.  When it became obvious that Daniel wasn't going to say boo to a goose, Marv opened his mouth to speak again. He was cut off by the slightly older woman that was running the stand with the two younger ones.  She hadn't caught Marv's attention at first, but he noticed her now. Something about the way the woman was looking at him gave him the chills despite the heat of the day. He felt like she could see inside his head.  

"Girls," the woman said, "go take a break by the truck."  Rowan's mother would have rather Ayla and Rowan stayed where she could see them.  She approved of the younger man that her daughter had her eye on. But the other one gave her a bad vibe.  He radiated insincerity. But be that as it was, the men were clogging up the front of her table and people that actually wanted to shop were shuffling around behind them, not wanting to get too close.

Rowan motioned for the two men to follow her.  The older man seemed overly eager and she watched to make sure the man she wanted to speak to was following behind him.  They had to turn sideways to squeeze between her table and the next vendor over. Rowan quickly led them over next to the small gated area where she had her puppies penned up.  

"Marv," the older man said, sticking his hand at Ayla first.  Shaking hands might seem lame, but he had found it was a sure fire way to gauge women.  How quickly they grabbed for his hand let him know how easy it would be to get them into bed.  The blonde girl reached for his hand right away, telling him her name was Ayla. A strange name, but at least it wasn't something he couldn't pronounce.  He planned to hold onto her hand a while, maybe clasp it between the both of his but she beat him to it.

"Blessed be," she told him with a smile. Clasping his hands between both her smaller ones, she held on and gave an odd little courtsy.  She bent her knees and lowered her hips slightly, but kept her head up. It was a little weird, but he had seen weirder s**t than that. When she moved to pull her hands back he kept hold of her a moment longer, stroking his thumb across the back of her hand.  Then he stuck his hand out to the other woman. 

The dark haired girl reached for him quickly, but not in the same way the other girl had done.  It felt more like she wanted to get the physical contact over with as quickly as possible. She didn't do the same weird courtsy, but she did say the same thing as the other girl.

"Blessed be," she said, "I'm Rowan."  Her voice was more formal and less flirty than Ayla.  And she was smiling at Daniel the whole time like she couldn't wait to shake his hand.  Marv had to fight back the urge to swear at his brother. This girl, Rowan, was staring at him again and waiting for him to make a move.  And what was that i***t doing? He was ignoring her completely, petting a couple puppies like he was five years old instead of a grown man.  

"This 'ere is Daniel," Marv finally announced, kicking at his brother's ankles to try and get him to stop messing around with the damn dogs, "my baby brotha."  Marv was about to kick the dumbass again when Rowan moved forward and did the hard work for him.  

Rowan couldn't stop smiling.  This man was so handsome. And she could tell by the way he was touching her dogs that he liked animals.  The other man she wasn't so sure about. He seemed friendly enough but when she touched him something happened.  She blinked while he was shaking her hand and got a flash image. This was not totally usual for her. Sometimes she got a glimpse of a favorite pet or a loved one.  But this time she had seen a pile of money. A large pile that was covered in drops of blood. She didn't like it. Once Marv let go of her she yanked her hand back and wiped it off on her dress.  

Daniel watched the woman out of the corner of his eye while he petted the dogs.  So he saw her coming. She touched him on the arm again like she had in front of the pretzel cart.  Like it had earlier, the feel of her hand gave him a jolt. He was glad his shirt was un-tucked and loose, because she was standing close enough that he could smell her and he was pretty sure if she got any closer he was going to get a hard on.  

"They're bullmastiffs," Rowan explained since he seemed interested in her dogs.

"Where's the one that jumped me?," Daniel asked her with a grin.  That made her smile even bigger and she moved just a fraction of an inch closer to him.  Her hair smelled like peaches and sandalwood oil and her eyelashes were so long he wondered how she even made it through the day without getting them all tangled up while she was blinking.  

"Chained to the back of the truck," Rowan admitted.  She was impressed. Most of her dogs looked a lot alike and this man had been able to tell that Lily wasn't in the pen with the rest of them.  Daniel laughed out loud before he could stop himself. He had not been expecting this gentle woman to announce that she had chained a dog to her truck.  He laughed and then he covered his mouth like he was embarrassed at himself for laughing. That made Rowan laugh. Unlike his, her laughter was musical and unapologetic.  

Marv cleared his throat.  This dog talk wasn't getting anyone anywhere.  "What are you ladies doing tonight?," he asked.  There was no point in beating around the bush and making more small talk.  In his experience, which was extensive, women usually responded to being asked out in such a direct way.  

"Oh," Ayla squeaked out, getting a very excited look on her face.  She scurried away and returned with a small white square of paper, which she handed to Marv.  He squinted at the flyer. "We're having a full moon festival," she explained.

"All are welcome," Rowan added.  She smiled at Daniel again, her hand still resting on his arm.  All visitors were welcome. But it was possible that a certain handsome man with strong arms and eyes as blue as the cloudless sky was just a little more welcome than everyone else.  

"Twin Oaks," Marv read.  He squinted at the smaller print on the flyer.  Then he did what Marv always did. Opened his big mouth and inserted his foot directly into it.  "This is that f*****g hippie commune out past highway 20. You girls know those freaks?"  

"We are those freaks," Rowan informed him without missing a beat, "We live there."  She didn't seem as upset as Daniel thought she might be. He guessed this wasn't the first time she had heard a comment like the one Marv just made.  And Marv was a first class f*****g i***t. Where did he think these girls were from? They were selling vegetables directly under a giant rainbow sign that said f*****g Twin Oaks right on it.  Moron.

"Well, well, well," Marv clucked, rubbing at his chin with his hand as he tried to think of a way to weasel out of his comment.  The blonde girl wasn't smiling, but she hadn't stormed off yet either. He smiled a big grin at her and leaned in close enough that she could feel his breath.  "Nothin' wrong with getting a little freaky," he whispered. Ayla giggled, leaning away like she had been scandalized but then moving closer again and letting him touch her.

Marv's quiet voice was only a notch lower than his loud voice, so Rowan heard what he said to her friend.  To Daniel's relief she laughed at the joke. Then she spoke quietly to Daniel. Rowan thought he looked worried about his brother's comment and he didn't need to be.  They got comments like that all the time. She was used to it. The weirdo questions people would ask her were even worse. Like did they have s*x orgies out there or how many sister wives did she have?  Did they slaughter goats as a sacrifice? Was she part of a cult? That one was the stupidest question of all. She didn't know much about cults, but she was pretty sure the whole point of them was not to let the members involved know they were in one.  Rowan tried her best to be kind to everyone but she had lost her patience once and told an especially rude and nosy woman who accosted her in Farm and Fleet that yes she was in fact part of a cult and that she planned to shave her head once the grand goat master impregnated her anus with a thousand hissing snakes.  Rowan's mom said she wasn't allowed to go back to that store anymore.  

"It's okay," she assured Daniel, "people say stuff like that all the time."  The comment was accompanied by a roll of her eyes and a slight shake of her head.  Aside from noticing that she was slightly annoyed by his brother, which pleased him in some small way, Daniel also noticed that Rowan had a slight accent.  One he hadn't heard before. He thought about asking her about it, but after Marv's i***t comment he was afraid he might offend her further.  

"So what time does this freakshow start?," Marv asked the girls, waving the flyer around.  Rowan tried not to laugh, but ended up laughing anyway. What the man lacked in manners he made up for in confidence, she would give him that.  

"It's already going on," Ayla told him.  Marv was still standing close to her, one arm wrapped around her waist and his hand resting on her hip.  

'The s*x orgies don't start until after 7," Rowan informed the man.  If he wanted to be a smart ass, she would treat him like one.  

Daniel choked on his own spit and started coughing.  Rowan lifted her hand and gave him a few whacks on the back.  Once he had control of himself she made sure to explain that she was only joking.  "I'm sorry, it's the live music that starts at 7," she said, her hand still lingering on top of Daniel's shoulder.  Marv was laughing like a jackass, half at her comment and half because of the look on Daniel's face when she made it.  

"We will see you ladies after 7 then," Marv announced.  His hand was resting on the girl's waist and he liked what he felt.  She had a nice firm body under her flowy dress. He let his hand slide down, giving her ass a firm squeeze.  She jumped a little, like she was surprised by his advances. But then she giggled. He smiled at the girl, thinking about how he was definitely getting himself a piece of her later.  If she was going to let him grab her ass in a public market, then he knew she was going to let him do a lot more than that once he got her alone.  

Marv was ready to go.  Preferably before he said anything worse and ruined this for himself.  Or got arrested. However, Daniel was showing no signs of heading towards the bikes anytime soon.  He and the dark haired girl with the smart mouth weren't even talking. They were just standing there staring at each other.  Marv reached over and smacked Daniel in the chest to get his attention. When that didn't work he grabbed his brother by the vest he was wearing and started hauling him towards the parking lot.  

"Uh, bye," Daniel told her.  Rowan had her hand on his shoulder.  As he moved away from her, she let it trail down his arm to his hand.  She grasped his hand in hers for just a moment before his brother dragged him away.  In that split second she saw it. Her father’s face. She wasn’t sure of the connection but she kept the vision in the back of her mind.  Her visions always explained themselves in the end. Just not always in the way she thought they should.

Daniel looked back at her once before he disappeared from sight.  Ayla was already hurrying back to help Lola with the customers, but Rowan lingered by the truck.  The same hand she had touched Daniel with came up to grab the tiger's eye that hung from a silver chain around her neck.  She had deja-vu before but what she felt when she touched Daniel's hand was something different and far more powerful. Images came at her in rapid fire, so quick she could hardly make sense of them. 

She saw money.  A pile of it. Her mother with more grey in her hair.  The puppy she had tied to the truck running in a field as a full grown dog.  Then her father again. He and Daniel were touching her stomach and she could feel life stirring inside her.  The image was so strong she dropped her necklace and placed her hand flat against her stomach to reassure herself that the image wasn’t real.

Rowan took a few deep breaths and tried to clear her head.  She wasn't sure what had just happened to her. If she had to guess she would say she had possibly seen images from the future.  Maybe even another reality. But Daniel was clearly tied up in all of it somehow. Maybe he was her soulmate or the key to something else in her life's path.  She wasn't really sure. But there was one thing that she was sure of. After today her life was never going to be the same again.