A New Wonder

"So I was telling you that I have never been great with people. One minute we are friends and the next minute I am not interested." Diaz began with the same statement that caused Davis to wonder.

"Were you bullied?" He was not patient to hear this story.

"Oh no! Did you just grow a heart?" She exhibited her sarcasm.

"I can be compassionate too. I always have a heart." He giggled. He was not aware of how much he was getting used to her. She was the only person in the entire city that was trying to make him feel like he was in a community. "Stop being distracted and continue. Why were you not good with people?"

"Okay. When I was 14 years old, I started losing interest in school. This was rather unusual for me because I used to love school a lot. My mother was the first one to notice. She talked to me but I couldn't help it. There were days that I felt happy and energized but later on, I would go to school low." This was nothing close to the story Davis expected to hear but he let her continue as they strolled slowly across the big city.

It was a difficult story to hear because of the noise coming from everything taking place around them. Davis would even lean towards Diaz a little bit just to hear her narration. He got frustrated and decided to ask Diaz to hold her narration until they found someplace to eat.

"But we are almost at my stylist's place. Let's go first then we will go eat later. I miss him and now that you brought me here I want to see him first." Her puppy eyes were out, blinking rapidly with her lower lip extended outwards a little bit.

This was the kind of look that was not resistible. Besides, Davis understood that getting a job was his priority and this required that he gets himself new job-looking clothes to replace the sweat-filled, oxidized, filthy clothing. No one even knew how long he had them on but judging by the stain next to his pocket, it was as if he got it from his grandfather who had it for ages and never had the time or strength to wash it. In other words, he desperately needed clothes.

"Okay, but once we are done, we go and get food because I am hungry." He looked at her on her cheeky face to make sure they were on the same page. Diaz might have been used to walking around the city like that but one thing that was certain was that Davis had not worked out for a long time judging from his panting. This made him wonder where he was for a month.

He knew that the only thing that made him not wake up early in the morning to work out was his tricky situation. He loved his morning run and cardio. He must have been drunk the entire 32 days then. But still, drunk and woke up in another place. That was not a valid theory.

"I'm taking you to the mall, stranger." Diaz was keen enough to notice the boredom on Davis' face every time she called him a stranger. She wasn't intrigued by it at first but now she did it on purpose to see his reaction.

They walked for about one hundred and fifty meters and there it was. The big blue ball at the center made it a phenomenon so easy to remember. The lights shone brightly as if it were nighttime. The heavy traffic of human beings going in and out of the mall made it look like an airport.

Diaz noticed that Davis had been staring at the ball from his first sight on it. "You are really going to embarrass me like this in front of all these people?" she teased him and pulled his hand so that they could walk faster.

"You have to let me enjoy my moments." He finally had his eyes off it.

Diaz looked back at him and giggled. They went into the stream of people that were entering the mall in an organized way. The sight of people moving in order was dizzying. Davis was not used to these kinds of scenery where he was from. It was as if he was in another country a second time.

He would get lost in between them. He tried as much as he could to maintain his focus on Diaz because looking at anything else would make him collapse. He had never seen many people converge in one place like that.

After a few seconds of waiting in line, it was their turn to enter the mall. The guard opened the passage and greeted Diaz with an ear-to-ear smile. Immediately they entered the mall, Davis felt paralyzed. Diaz noticed that he was not walking.

The mall was so big that Davis couldn't tell whether he was out or inside. If you thought that the number of people leaving and entering the mall was big, you should not think about it ever again. The worst part of it was that the roof was just flat from outside.

It looked like a one-story building but once you got inside you saw lifts that were always full. It felt like a dream. Davis started feeling mildly delirious. He was still standing there being pushed by people who were rushing to enter.

He could not even hear Diaz who was screaming 'stranger' right in front of him. He was dumbfounded and completely mesmerized.

'Thwat!!' a fiery slap from the teenager brought him back to reality as he had wandered off to the land of surprise.

"What was that for?" Davis was getting furious.

"I kept calling you and you kept dreaming about who knows what. I used a technique my mother taught me."

"Your mum taught you to slap people around?" That one had hit me good. He felt the chill move around his entire body. He was okay to finish the journey now.

"No, dummy! My mother taught me how to cure daydreaming, and it was not in theory." She led on a smile and held Davis' hand to pull him because he was still staring at everything. The dominant blue lights on every store represented the beauty of the mall in more ways than one. Their reflection on the floor tiles gave the mall's floor a shade of light blue that made it more beautiful than the sky.

"We are here, you can quit the weird behavior now. Hey Jason!" She quickly turned to one of the guys who was there. He hadn't seen her because his back was facing the door. From Diaz' call, he turned to her and smiled with a long smile.

"I thought you were never coming back. When your mom took you from my house last time I thought I'd never see you again." No one could doubt that he was super elated to see her.

It felt like a family reunion. They exchanged a few words then Diaz remembered what had brought them there.

"Oh, sorry stranger." She laughed. "Jason, I have a friend here who needs your services." That was the introduction she gave.

"Hey, I'm Jason. You are?"

"Davis." He looked at Diaz in boredom. He didn't even know what stylists in this country do. Everything was new to him and the only thing he hated more than new things was the Nazis.