17. Chapter 3

"Ah! Keith, here again?"

After that phone call, I was turned away politely by Sherlock's relatives whom he was staying with. I didn't know what happened to Sherlock after that so I had been bidding my time in Farnham.

I had been establishing friendly relationships with the locals and also Matty for the whole week. The lovely middle aged lady, Mia who was a vegetable seller was beckoning me again to her stall while I was strolling around the market place.

"Yes," I sighed wearily as I approached her stall. "I'm stocking up."

"You poor dear! Alright, take these vegetables, I'm giving you a special discount." She winked at me, whispering the last few words before quickly picked a few fresh greens for me.

"Mia!"

"Shush! You have been such a help these days, these are thanks for taking care of my stall when I was on a date with Jasper."

She gave me a hard look while firmly pushing the bag of greens into my arms. Jasper was a butcher who was just a few stalls away from hers. They had a few dates before. Yet, this woman didn't want to tell me that they were a couple. It was almost like telling me would destroy my innocence or something.

I sighed in exasperation before smiling at her gratefully.

"So what are you going to do, young lad? You can't be going around jobless."

I shrugged, unconcerned.

"I think I can manage by. There have been a lot of odd jobs around here. It's alright, Mia. I love how concerned you are about me but you don't have to worry about me. I'm already an adult."

I puffed out my chest as I proudly declared. She nodded slowly, still unconvinced by my words.

"If that's what you say, Keith."

I smiled, a little helpless by her motherly ways. It is unfortunate that I can't remember my previous life's mother. Nevertheless, she would have been a sweet and caring one like Mia. When I turned to leave, Mia suddenly stopped me before furtively looking around. She then stuffed a couple of circus tickets into my hand.

"A friend of mine passed me a lot of tickets so you can have some of them. Everyone has all been dying to go to this renowned circus called Ecstasy."

"Ah... thank you, Mia."

I scrutinised tickets in my hands. The logo of the circus was a circle with an eye that has a cross on it. The iris was purple. It was certainly an odd symbol for a circus but who was I to criticise? Our organisation had a gold leaf as the logo.

Yet, I wonder where I had seen this logo?

Saying our goodbyes, I head over to Amyus Crowe's cottage.

Did I mention that I was also learning from him just like how Sherlock learned his detective trades from him?

Well, now you do.

~~~~~

"How was Sherlock?" I asked out of the blue.

It was fishing lesson today. And boy, it was really sweltering hot. Every second under the sun made me feel like I was increasing my chances of getting skin cancer. Fortunately, I am not human so I don't have to worry about something like that.

"Hmm...? Haven't met him in a while but last I heard, he's recuperating."

"From a small bump like that? Did he get amnesia or something?"

Amyus shrugged, his watchful eyes on the surface of the water, looking out for tell-tale sign of fishes. Amyus had done a simple demonstration to look out for ripples because that was where the fishes were and even imparted a useful advice if I ever have to track down prey.

Pen it down, kids because you may need it in the future.

His advice was, "know the habits of your prey, know what bait he's likely to go for and know what signs are that he's in the vicinity. Do all that and you've maximised your chances of a successful hunt."

I spotted an area where there was numerous tiny ripples before slowly moving my line towards there. It took a while to feel a gentle tug. I patiently waited for a while to feel another tug again, a little more forceful than the previous one. Immediately, the line began to lengthen as the fish had bit into the bait and began to swim away.

Instantly, I reeled in quickly while pulling the rod back to pull the fish in.

"Come on..." I gritted my teeth as I pulled hard and with a final strong tug, the fish was out of the water and landed in our boat. It flopped and jumped about helplessly. Its mouth gaping and closing, vainly trying its best to take in oxygen.

"A small fry?! How did it have so much energy?"

"Or maybe you are just lacking in the muscle department. Toss it back into the water, kid. There's not much use for it unless you want to turn it into fish bait."

"That's almost the equivalent of fish cannibalism, Amyus." I wrinkled my nose at the gory image of the fry getting devoured by its own species.

"Alright." I scooped up the little fish. "You are a lucky fish but only for today."

Then it was tossed back into its home where it swam far away from our boat.

"Am I going to do it again? The heat is killing me." I asked him wearily.

"You got a fine hat on your head to shield you from the sun." He glanced at me before returning his gaze at the water.

I stared at him for a few moments. He didn't budge. Resignedly, I plopped myself on the seat, making the boat rock a little.

"After I caught this fish."

I mentally cheered as my expression perked up and I observed my current mentor's movements. He chuckled as he reeled in another fish.

~~~~~

"Are you going to see Sherlock?" I asked as Amyus and I walked back to his house, him carrying his bucket of fishes.

"No. You're awfully curious about him, aren't you?"

I nervously laughed.

Whoops.

"Alright." He suddenly spoke up. I stared at him in surprise, not expecting an agreement from him. "You have been learning from me for a while now. It's right for students under the same tutor to meet."

Finally!

I get to meet the young private detective before he got famous!