---Arinzechi

I expected it, the laughter, laughter at my own detriment, gladness in the fact that he had hit me exactly where I thought I could not be hit. He laughed, and he laughed, glee, and where anxiety fought to take over, the fact that he was a total stranger puzzled me. Arinzechi was not big, we were a small community, everyone knew everybody, it was eternally difficult to keep anything a secret. But I had never seen him, and if I had, I would have remembered. It was impossible to forget such a person, he'd have stood out like a sore thumb wherever he went. And even if I'd not seen him, I'd have heard of him from someone, maybe one of the init girls

“Oh! Stop with the fretting. I can see it, and I can even hear it, if I could try imagining as hard as I can it wouldn’t be a feat to hear all the alarm bells going off in your head.”

Then he smiled at me, and within his eyes, brown eyes so light and bright, fair in fact, that they looked so odd on him, held a great deal of warmth, loving, he said,

“Don’t fool yourself."

And with an eyeroll which spoke of years of being great at giving the,

'you are stupid look' ,

he declared,

"You don’t know everybody, Arinzechi isn’t as small as you think.”

Then he smiled, turning to face the river again.