Chapter Five: A day off?

Chapter Three 

Forever And Ever

Part One

“Woah!” arriving at mid afternoon, near a pier, Nëmi’s eyes glistened as she laid her eyes on the very first civilization she had ever encountered. A small town, but thriving with activity. A man fishing just up ahead, casting his line with a bucket full of fish to his side. A variety of people walking down the street carrying groceries and fixated on their phones. “THIS IS SO COOL! HAHA!” Nëmi jumps around in excitement and begins running around at a worryingly fast pace. Her little feet moved so fast that they became a blur to the naked eye. Her eerie smile peered into passenger vehicles as she casually kept pace with the moving traffic before hearing and seeing Sarah doing her best to chase her down whilst screaming her head off. 

“YO KID! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!” Nëmi comes to a complete stop allowing Sarah to catch up to her. The sounds of screeching tires and horns fill the air as the cars around Nëmi break and swerve to avoid hitting the little girl. Sarah runs out to the chaos, grabbing Nëmi by the arms and dragging the little one back onto the sidewalk. 

“What's wrong Miss Sarah? You don’t have to worry about me, I can take care of myself!” Nëmi proudly boasts with her hands on her hips and in a confident stance. 

“Yeah, It’s not you I’m worried about.” Sarah is barely able to speak as she was completely out of breath from chasing after Nëmi. 

“Huh?” Nëmi, again with a look of confusion on her face before hearing the frantic and angry screams from a man in his car. 

“KEEP YOUR KID UNDER CHECK THERE LADY! WHAT KIND OF PARENT ARE YOU!?” The man then speeds off while flipping Sarah off. 

Sarah takes hold of Nëmi by the shoulders as she looks her dead in the eyes. 

“Listen kid, If you wanna stick around with me, you’re gonna have to learn to blend in.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Well for starters, do NOT go running off at supersonic speeds.”
“Pft. oh please that was nowhere near super sonic. But I can totally go supersonic if you wanna see!” Nëmi’s eyes begin to glow in their ethereal hues when Sarah again grasps Nëmi by her hands.

“Don't. you. dare.” Sarah’s stare sends daggers  that causes the little one to quake in her feet. Nëmi nervously giggles as she scratches the back of her neck. 

“Just kidding hehehe.” Sarah takes in a deep breath and neals down. 

“Listen kid, I’m on a secret mission, remember? So that means don’t do anything that a normal person wouldn't be able to do, Okay? Do your best to blend in.” 

“Ohhh… okay. Got it!” Nëmi excitedly whispers as she salutes Sarah. Nëmi’s body, and only her body, slowly becomes more and more translucent. 

“hey! what are you doing!?” Sarah begins to look around her, trying to cover Nëmi from any bystanders that may see the strange disappearing girl. 

“i’m blending in.” 

“that’s not what I meant! seriously! stop that!” Sarah shakes Nëmi back to reality, as the fading little girl returns to her solid visible self. Sarah lets out a sigh of relief, standing back up and catching her breath. “Seriously kid, what part of “normal” did you not get? And what good is going invisible if the clothes around you doesn't.” Nëmi looks away, fumbling with her hands. 

“I’m sorry, I still don't have a grasp on the rules of your world, I could have tried making the clothes invisible too, but I didn’t want to risk another explosion again.” 

“Again? No, Never mind that. Listen kid, by blending in I meant to act like everyone else around you, try your best to not stand out or get unwanted atten…tion.” Sarah looks around, noticing the passing glances of bystanders. They were whispering to each other, covering their mouths as they passed by. Nëmi, completely oblivious to her surroundings, simply bursts out. 

“How do I do that?” Sarah looks down at Nëmi, only now realising why, despite not everyone catching Nëmi’s otherworldly fast speed, stared at the two with disdain. Nëmi practically looked like a kidnapped child. Nëmi was completely barefoot, wearing Sarah’s open blue overcoat with nothing but a simple brown robe underneath.  Despite the one man calling Sarah a parent, her and Nëmi looked nothing alike. 

“Well for starters we should get you some actual clothing, I mean seriously, what kind of goddess dresses up to look homeless?” Nëmi looks down at herself in confusion, twisting and turning to look at herself at every angle.

“What do you mean? This is your jacket.” 

“Jesus Christ, I meant underneath that. Is there no sense of fashion from where you’re from?” Nëmi takes a Step back resting her hand on her chin, as she seemingly enters a deep meditation. 

“Well, when all you have to reference is your infinite self, things tend to get a little blurry, after all the memories I looked at weren't my own. This is the best I could come up with until I got here.” The more Nëmi talked about herself the less Sarah understood about the other worldly child. 

“Either way, the way you are now is drawing a lot more attention than if you dressed normally. If you’re gonna stick with me here might as well get you something to blend in better.” Nëmi gets all excited as she scrunches her little arms close to her chest as to restraining herself from the overwhelming excitement that wants to explode out of her frame. 

“Really! You’re going to get me people clothes!? Can I have Anything?” Sarah facepalms herself as the stares of the people walking past the two only intensify. 

“Yeah…  I’ll buy you anything that catches your glowing little eyes. The quicker the better.” Nëmi then raises her little hand and points directly past Sarah. 

“Then I want that one!”  Coincidentally enough, the two were right in front of a youths clothing store, with a bright orange summer dress being on full display. Nëmi’s eyes glisten as she looks past Sarah’s shoulder, the vibrant colour drowning out the rest of the world around her. 

“Oh… well isn't that convenient. Alrighty kid, lets go-” Before Sarah could even finish her sentence, Nëmi finally burst out.  

“YAY!” Nëmi shouts out in excitement as she rushes through the front door of the clothing store whilst Sarah follows behind. Nëmi makes a B-line towards the dress, swiping it off the mannequin and showing it to Sarah. 

“I’m pretty sure that’s just a display kid, we should make sure we find one in your size.” 

“But I want this one.” 

“Yeah I know, but there are a variety of sizes and we want to-” 

“You said I could have anything I wanted and I want this one!” Sarah’s patience was wearing thin, but it was her that said, the quicker the better. 

“Alright, have it your way, lets go to the counter and make it officially yours.” Nëmi quickly looks around and spots a young lady with a name tag behind said counter. Filled with pure excitement, Nëmi rushes over and in a blink of an eye, she slams the orange dress hard onto the counter, startling the receptionist behind the counter.  

“We want to buy this one!” Nëmi stares up, her ethereal hues intensely glowing from her eyes as she stares intensely at the young woman working the counter. 

“Oh my! Aren't you a strange little one, is your mom here with you?” Sarah just now catching up with Nëmi and speaks on her behalf.
“I’m her babysitter, I took my eyes off of her for one second to load in her laundry and bam! She spilled her grape juice all over herself. Her tears immediately stopped after I suggested we could go shopping instead of waiting on the laundry.”  Nëmi tilted her head in curiosity, why was Sarah lying? Maybe it had to do with Sarah’s secret mission, Nëmi thought. So, Nëmi decided to play along. 

“Well it was your fault for bumping into me!” Sarah was completely surprised that Nëmi managed to catch on to Sarah’s desire to stay discrete, and couldn't help but feel proud for the little one. 

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry kid, hope this makes up for that.” Sarah says as she swipes her card and hands the dress over to Nëmi.
“Yay!” Nëmi screams out in excitement as she throws Sarah’s coat off of herself and then begins to do the same with the brown robes she had on. Sarah quickly grabs Nëmi’s hands as she yanks down on them before Nëmi could throw them off. 

“Hold it there kiddo, let's get to the dressing room before you do that, alright?” Sarah picks up her blue jacket and drags Nëmi across the store to the woman's dressing room. Once inside, Nëmi immediately threw off the simple brown robe she had on, over and across the dressing room stall. Sarah instinctively shuts her eyes, and in one fell swoop, pulls down the orange dress on to Nëmi. Nëmi had already had her arms up, and in an instant, was dressed before her previous robes even made it over the dressing room stall. 

Nëmi looks at herself in complete admiration with the provided mirror inside the stall. “This is so pretty!” Nëmi then turns around and tightly hugs Sarah. “Thank you, Miss Sarah.” Sarah was surprised at first with the sudden hug, but couldn't help but smile at the genuine reaction Nëmi gave. 

“Yeah, no problem kid.” Sarah Says as she pats the little one on the head. 

The stall door then slams open with vigorous force as Nëmi happily marches out from the room, 

“Alrighty then! Our adventure awaits!” Sarah who follows closely behind reaches out and grabs Nëmi by the collar, 

“Calm down there buddy, don’t go out walking all bare foot on me, we should finish your get up while we’re here. 

The two then spend the next forty minutes browsing and trying out shoes and pants. Nëmi ends up with her bright orange v neck dress that spanned down just past her knees, with a brown leather belt around her waist, and black legging shorts. A black knitted cardigan bolero jacket, And ending off with black flats. Nëmi takes a final look at herself in the mirror, her eyes glistening with joy as she admires her new cute outfit. 

“This outfit is totally worthy for a Goddess like me!” Nëmi hugs Sarah once again, cradling her head up against Sarah’s chest. “I’m glad you’re the first real person I ever met.” Nëmi’s ethereal voice, mixed with those soothing words, made Sarah’s heart skip a beat. Sarah couldn’t help but reach out and hold Nëmi, in a warm embrace. 

“Now that you have normal clothes we can finally relax. Come on kid, let’s get a quick bite to eat.” The two begin to make their way out of the dressing room when Sarah’s heart immediately drops. Up at the counter stood a Large burly man, speaking to the receptionist in his raspy russian accent. 

“S**t!” Sarah takes hold of Nëmi as she retreats back into the dressing room and closes the door behind her.