(Lucy) Fleeing the scene

Lucy had stayed on her bench. Awash with the afterglow of her moment of perfect bliss. Listening to the splatter of raindrops against her shelter’s plastic roof and feeling the occasional bracing spray as one made it past that defence. The cold began to return, along with the vague disappointment of her unlooked-for angel’s disappearance. She didn’t mind really. She was used to both… What exactly had she expected to happen? This wasn’t a fairy story. Beautiful, miraculous people didn’t just swoop in to save orphans like her. She wasn’t the secret heir to some heroic bloodline. Lucy already knew what happened when people let those sort of ideas get into their heads. It had only been half a week since she had left the Zoo. Not that Ms. Pandora had really been any worse than all the rest…

A cool presence had appeared against her forehead. Lucy opened her eyes in sudden panic, hardly realising she had closed them… just to squeeze the last few seconds out of her memories of that angel-woman… Only… She was there. Above her. Now! Her long, slender fingers reaching out to caress the homeless girl’s face. Her hair bedraggled with rain and dripping against still perfect breasts. Up close the woman’s divine beauty took on a more physical, human solidity. There were still signs of the tramp-pack’s leavings dribbling over pale skin, slowly being washed away by the downpour. Yet, somehow, all that seemed only to qualify the wonder of this being’s existence further. She took no notice at all of the slimy messes that were tangled in her hair and dripping down her thighs. Showed no signs of feeling cold or embarrassed to be completely naked in the dark torrents of this night. All her attention was directed simply at Lucy. A quiet approach of genuine care and concern.

“Are you alright, little one? Why are you all alone?”

Lucy ran. She didn’t even stop to pull up her pants and panties. She scurried off into the twisting hidey-holes of the city, not thinking twice about why she did so. She slept in a doorway under some musty-old carpets. There was an old lady she knew who might offer a cat-covered couch and a cold shower the next morning, but it was too late to bother her now. She awoke the next morning to the usual chorus of up-and-coming young office ladies who had ‘innocently’ found themselves walking through the local building sites on the way to work. ‘Grit-diggers’ the workmen themselves called the women. Those who had nice cushy positions in the city-centre but were bored to **** by the timid attentions of their co-workers or ageing impotence of their bosses. ‘Squawking pigeons’ Lucy herself called them, their overly-enthusiastic moans echoing off unfinished concrete. She scrounged up some breakfast, sucking the eager, young bagel-boy’s cock for the pick of his selection. He was a nice guy, fresh out of school and still spotty for it. He’d asked her out on dates several times and continually told her she didn’t have to blow him for a free bagel or two. She blew him off on both counts every time though… a trade in services, that’s all it was.

Her feet took her around the city, just as they always did. She watched the cab drivers getting head from their fares. Watched the sales-girls bending over for their customers. Watched the tourist’s taking cum-shot selfies after the street performers had doused and amazed them. She watched the nurses having quickies on their smoke-breaks, only to be left hanging by a thread when the surgeon was suddenly paged. Watched police officers of both sexes use their handcuffs for a little bit of on-the-beat immediate justice. Students and the unemployed rolled all over each other in every public park, making it very hard to tell the difference. Male, female. Young, old. Those that looked like one but dressed like the other. Those that made every effort to keep you guessing whether they were any of the above. All of humanity writhed around her, fucking and sucking and squealing with the joy of it. Yet, there was only one place she returned to four times over the course of the day. Only one plastic box she kept infuriating the bus drivers by occupying. Her angel wasn’t there. Not the first time or the third. She must’ve returned to roost among the stars, Lucy thought, as she nonetheless found herself heading back in that direction. Just for one final check. What on earth made her think the woman would be back there waiting?