Fated Watcher

Sitting in a corner booth at Thomasville’s only diner, eating my usual evening dinner of liver and onions while drinking a steaming cup of black coffee, I listen to the conversations around me, trying to catch word about my fated muse, who claimed to be Teri Meekman in this reincarnation. Not far from me, having his customary nightly pecan pie is Police Chief Walters. District Attorney Ricker entered the diner and headed toward Walters’ table, signaling to Susan he wanted a sweet tea. My fortune is ever golden, as my Aunt Meredith always told me, and here is further proof of it. Soon, I will be able to hear more inside details than anyone in town will know, other than law enforcement. Inside, I quiver from the excitement and continue eating as if nothing is happening.

Walters' and Ricker’s words carry over to me faintly. Not many would be able to hear their whispered conversation, but I had been blessed with an acute hearing and had no trouble deciphering what was being said. Eating slowly, for I didn’t want to finish before their conversation, I paid close attention while pretending to be interested in the scene outside the window beside my table. I didn’t have long to wait after they performed their usual bantering greeting.

Ricker was upset with Walters because there were no leads in either of the two cases, Freda's or Teri’s. There were now two murders in quiet Thomasville and no one to blame for them. The DA's office was being flooded with calls from concerned citizens, demanding to know if a culprit had been caught, or if the townsfolk needed to watch for a serial killer. The police chief wearily confirmed that the station house was also flooded with similar calls. Ricker was growing frustrated with Walters and Walters was getting agitated with Ricker. Neither one wanted to admit that they had both been outsmarted yet again.

As the two tossed blame around for the lack of evidence, and used each other as sounding boards as to possible motives or suspects, I sat and drifted in my mind, half listening to them. When Susan, the near-empty diner’s lone waitress, stopped by my table, I ordered a slice of German chocolate cake, not because I wanted it, but because I needed a reason to stay at my table. Attempting to appear as normal as possible, I tried to eat it even though it was stale and dry.

As I stared at the scene outside the diner, my mind drifted back to my preordained meeting with my second destiny in this lifetime. I mulled over the details of how I held her struggling body in my arms as I slid my knife into her rapidly beating heart and how this time, as she took her last breath, I licked the tears from her cheeks. I laid her out with her hands on her chest upon a bench, since our meeting this time was in the park instead of the church. I remember the smell of gardenias, as I held her in my embrace, much like my Aunt Meredith’s Jungle of Gardenia perfume. What I recalled the most, and would forever take with me, was the sweet, savory taste of her warm blood as I licked it from my blade as I stood, hard, above her lifeless body. The ecstasy I felt as I grew hard while she struggled, and how again when I finally felt release later that night while in the shower, reliving the night's prophetic finale.

The chief and DA went to the cash register at the counter to pay their tabs, interrupting my thoughts. As they told each other and Susan goodnight, I saw a movement out in the diner’s parking lot. Startled, I jumped in my seat, spilling my hot coffee across my lap, drawing the attention of everyone in the cafe. Smiling, I tried to play it off and commented that I must have a hole in my lip because the coffee went right through, and then I laughed. Inside, I was quaking, for it couldn’t be true.

Stepping out of a black BMW Z4 convertible, with a canary pinstripe, was my soulmate reincarnated for a third time in my one lifetime. As I watched, she fluffed her magnificent mahogany brown hair, adjusted her hoodie, and started across the pavement towards the diner. As the bell above the diner door dinged announcing fate's unbelievable arrival, gardenia wafted over to me, and I knew my fated lover had miraculously returned to me.