I also wrote an accompanying story. Click "Read More" to view.
The pushcart vendor held a can of cola against his beady forehead and sighed. The sun beat down on the ratty red canvas top above his head. Just two more hours of this heat and he could pack up his cart. The only thing getting him through the full day's shift was the volume of business. The heat was tough to endure, but that just made his drinks sell faster. He felt lucky to have found a spot in the park where no one else had set up shop.
"One water, if you are pleased to dispense of it."
The quiet, velvety voice took him by surprise, almost as much as the woman from which it came. Shuffling slowly up to his cart was a short, pale young woman decked head-to-toe in a massive, luxurious gothic dress. Her voluminous white hair glowed in the intense sunlight, creating a sort of halo effect around the entire profile of the black gown.
Her wide, blue eyes and tiny black-lipped frown told him everything -- she was deathly thirsty. Even with the lace parasol she was holding, her dress must have been soaking up heat from the bright summer day.
He snapped out of his befuddled stare and quickly put the can of cola back into his cart's ice box, then retrieved a bottle of water from it.
"That's a gorgeous gown, miss. Aren't you...uh...aren't you awfully hot in that?"
The girl lowered her chin slightly, gazing down at the layers of ruffled fabric pressing against the cart. Her lips crooked upward in a vaguely pleased expression, though the vendor could hardly believe it was possible to have any pleasant emotion in such an outfit at this temperature.
"Woe, my current situation circumvents personal agency." She spoke barely louder than a whisper. Her words were carefully chosen but seemed to drip out of her mouth with such a casual air it seemed she was performing a script or reciting poetry.
"Um...yeah. Well this ought to help," he said, placing the bottle on her side of the counter.
The girl looked down at the bottle and then up at him. "If it is of no large consequence, would you be so kind as to unfasten the top?" She held up her hands and waggled her fingers, showing him they were covered in black silky gloves clearly unsuitable to the task.
The vendor nodded and easily twisted the lid to break the seal. "One, um, one dollar, please."
Her eyes widened for a second. "Oh... I have come to the embarrassing realization that I do not...possess...a purse..." She trailed off, looking down at her hands. There, hung on the arm holding her parasol, was a small black purse decked out in frills and other fancy trimmings. The vendor stared at it carefully, certain that it wasn't there before.
The girl seemed just as surprised, but all the same, she slowly unclasped the fastener and opened the little bag to retrieve a dollar bill. She handed it to the vendor. As he gently took it, his fingertips brushed against the fine fibers of her glove. Its smoothness and warmth made his breath catch in his throat.
The girl stood there silently for a minute, fumbling to close her purse with her gloved hand and then carefully picked up the water bottle, taking a long, slow drink. He envied her polite restraint. It looked like she really wanted to chug the entire thing right then and there, but she merely finished her extended draught and placed the cap back on the bottle.
"My sincere gratitude, sir. Have a pleasant afternoon." She curtsied to him, her entire dress rippling down to the ground as she did so. The vendor didn't take his eyes off of her until she had disappeared over a distant gentle slope.
"'SCUSE ME, SIR," a gruff male voice said, jerking his attention to a line of park-goers that had evidently formed. "Can I get a diet Pepsi and some chips, or do you want I should come 'round there and get 'em myself?"
The vendor sighed as he dove back down into the ice box. Two more hours...
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