Chapter Three

Nasia watched closely as the old woman tried to cross the street. Three people passed her without a second glance her way. It was clear you could tell she was struggling holding two grocery bags and walking with a cane. Her steps were slow and yet no one stopped to help her cross. The light was soon going to turn green and while the waiting vehicles would have to wait the world wasn’t as patient as it used to be.

Back in the fifties and sixties there once used to be humans who had decency to help someone like her. But like all animals on this planet it was everyone for themselves. Nasia wasn’t blind that animals were just as selfish and unkind as humans were, but the difference between the species was the fact that animals weren’t doing what they could to kill their own planet for their own selfish needs.

She was about to head back to her little house deep in the woods miles away from here when she stops and watches a young boy race across the street. Staring at him she blinks when she notices that he starts helping the woman cross the street. Smiling down at her he doesn’t rush them and even ignores the man that starts honking and cursing up a storm.

She frowns wondering why he would run out like that and risk the angry wrath of the man that looked to be willing to run them both over. Not moving she continues to watch them both. She has seen humans do this type of kindness before; it wasn’t new to her. More times than not it was an act of proclamation than just doing it out of the kindness of their heart. They wanted to have people recognize their efforts rather than just doing the right thing. It was common among them and something she had accepted long ago.

But the boy didn’t look around to see if anyone saw him and she didn’t see another person with what they had invented called a cell phone to show the acts of kindness either. He just says his goodbyes and continues on his way. Again, something she has seen done before. She was going to turn away when she cocks her head as he helps a young woman with two children that was struggling to get in the building he was heading too.

One man just simply opened the other glass door ignoring the woman all together while a young teenage girl stood inside watching her struggle without so much as an offer to help. He quickly holds the door open and continues to hold it open for others to follow in. Walking closer to the edge of the sidewalk she watches him closely. Curiosity flowing in her she heads for the crosswalk wanting to observe this boy a little more.

She has done this before, many times. Following individuals seeking something she wasn’t quite sure of. Every time they failed her expectations. Falling into the category of a selfish human being. While some showed kindness their treatment of their planet was left to be undesirable. They were kind to others but not to the nature they desperately needed to depend on. She wasn’t expecting anything much different with this one, but one may never know.

She stands at the light waiting for her turn to cross, keeping an eye on him through the glass windows of the store. A young woman walks in that immediately grabs his attention and he displays that look she has seen many times before. The look that makes humans act foolish. She never understood that look, wondering why people make them when seeing another person. Especially one they have never met before.

When the light changes into the human walk picture she goes while watching the display of him turning red when the woman comes to stand behind him. He becomes a bit stiff but smiles at her and she doesn’t smile back. In fact she ignores him completely. He swallows hard, turning away from her. As the line lessens he turns back around and says something to the girl, who then nods and walks in front of him while he backs away.

Now why would he do something like that if the woman was being rude? She learned long ago that humans didn’t like being ignored and often became angry. She had to look up the word in a dictionary to understand what the emotion was about. Even reading the words, something she learned during her travel to earth, she still didn’t get it. Her kind always ignored one another, it was common on her world. Yet for humans it was what they considered rude.

And this boy accepted her rudeness and was yet doing something kind for her. Why? What was the purpose? What was the end goal of doing that? She just didn’t get it. Opening the door she walks in. Normally she tries her best to stay a good distance from them and never tries to allow attention to fall on her. But there was just something about this human she couldn’t quite walk away from.

She just stands there staring at him.

He finally looks over to her and flinches when he notices her presence. He gives her a small smile that makes her tilt her head at, blinking. He then tears his eyes away from her and starts fidgeting as the line moves up. Side glances were then thrown her way, but she didn’t move, didn’t look away.

After watching him order, she cranes her neck to see what he was doing as he takes the backpack he had and pulls something out. He hands the barista a reusable cup that she gladly takes from him. He then walks to the side and waits on his order. He doesn’t look her way again, but the stiffness was still there, and he kept rubbing the back of his neck. She’s never seen anyone use a reusable cup before and wanted to know why he just didn’t take the ones they were giving to everyone else.

Her curiosity builds even higher, and she knew she wanted to keep following him, keep watching all the things that he does that was out of the norm in this day and age.

“For Ry!” One of the other baristas call out and she watches him walk up and take his cup.

Ry? Was that what he was called? What an unusual name. He starts walking out on the other side of the building and she leaves from where she had entered. Watching him cross the street again at a jog. The human picture goes away, and a red hand starts to blink with a countdown. She doesn’t follow, staying on the other side watching as a bus comes to stop in front of him and he gets on. Keeping her eyes on him he sits down and looks out the window and straight at her.

Their eyes connect once more, and a strange occurrence happens in the middle of her chest. Frowning deeply at the oddity of it she watches him quickly look away and the bus speeds off down the road where she never took her eyes from until it could no longer be seen.