Three minutes. Until what?
Kepa gazed around, watching the landscape around him rapidly freezing. The hum of the city has become quiet now, the rising din of silence making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. What was going on? He turned his back to the city to focus on the only other thing that appeared unaffected by whatever was going on: the vendor.
“What’s going on?” He asked.
“You have less than three minutes”, came the response.
“Yes, I realise that, you already said”, Kepa replied, annoyed. “Three minutes to what?”
“Why so blue?”
” Why so blue? What’s that even supposed to mean? ” Kepa began to pace back and forth in front of the man leaning on his wares. “I was just sitting here, just sitting here on my own because…well, my granddad just passed away”.
“Really?”
“Yes really! I just came from the hospital. I was there when, when”. He paused. “The Stribs have already been”. What had started as an angry tirade ended in a whisper. “He was a good man. Better than most. Better than me.”
“He just died?” The vendor wafted the steam with his tongs. “Tell me then. If he just died, why do you have memories of time after this?”.
Kepa stopped, startled at the question. What on earth was he talking about? He stared at the man again, and that’s when it hit. He was looking with both eyes. Didn’t something happen to his eye? He remembered an injury but not what or why. Wasn’t there a church? Light and then dark, a familiar voice from the past…He looked up at Ellie, pouring out blue light. Wherever he was, he was not at home.