As with most of my stories, this tale is based on a dream I had. Unlike most of my stories, this one is not a horror/bloody/everybody dies type tale. Sometimes even the most benign meetings can turn into something magical, without being sinister in any way. Please keep this in mind as you read through this tale.

***

The night began as any other for Jon; he got up, checked his email, and got ready for work. He hated his job, but it paid the bills, and that was something to be proud of. His modest living arrangements were comfortable, but certainly not luxurious. He worked for most everything he had.

At 26, Jon had lived more than most men his age. He had loved many times, and lost. He had made mistakes that cost him his job on more than one occasion, although he believed it was more than being a little careless. Perhaps it was his icy gaze, his big, brown eyes penetrated the souls of those who dared cross him. Or perhaps it was his demeanor, the constant scowl on his face, hardened by years upon years of disappointment, failure, and rejection.

But Jon had a secret side, a side he hid from most people. Beneath the "darkness" he extruded through every pore of his body, he was a kind, gentle man. He loved children, and hoped one day to start a family with his fiancée, Sue. He loved animals and nature; he always saw the beauty in all of natures' creatures.

Jon packed his things, kissed Sue goodbye, and headed out to work.

His job involved him having to interact with people, which is something he absolutely dreaded, even though it was via the telephone. He found most people to be completely uneducated, apparently lacking even the slightest bit of common sense. They seemed to panic about every minute little detail, as if the world was going to end if one little thing was not right. These people gave the humanity, at least in his mind, a bad name.

After trudging through half the day, he set off to have the lunch that Sue packed for him. It was a rather dull lunch, consisting of a bologna and cheese sandwich, a baggie of chips, a Little Debbie snack cake, and a can of Pepsi, which was mysteriously missing.

He went to the break room across the hall from his cubicle. A large sign hung on the one and only drink machine in the building that proclaimed that the damned machine was out of order again.

"Fuck!" he said briskly as he stormed down the hall and out the building.

***

Jon ended up at the grocery store down the street. This rather dingy store is the only food outlet on this side of town that is open at this late an hour, so it's not as if he had much of a choice.

Muzak purred softly from the speakers overhead as the automatic doors whirred open in front of him. The store was rather busy for this time of night, usually, when he comes here, the only people he has to contend with besides the staff of the store are a couple drunks trying to get their last minute fix before the two-AM alcohol sales cutoff.

Shrugging this off, he passed through the vacant registers, pausing for a moment to look at the single, panicked looking cashier who was obviously left alone tonight, as she surveyed the unfolding situation.

He scurried to the back of the stores, plucked one ice-cold Pepsi from the cooler, and made his way back to the front to check out by way of the candy aisle, pondering momentarily over the heaps of sugar goodness, then deciding against splurging on an additional sugar fix.

By this time, every person in the store had finished shopping, and an enormous line began to form, converging on the panic-stricken cashier. He quickly got in line, but there were still several people in front of him, all with carts full of items.

With a deep sigh, he settled in to what was surely going to be a very long wait. He began looking around, wondering what he did to deserve this fate, to be stuck behind so many people, buying so many things, yet he holds a single bottle of Pepsi in his hand.

To kill time, he began thumbing through a National Enquirer, noting the front page says that Nov 14, 2001 will be when Armageddon begins, and this time they have "credible sources". Chuckling, he skimmed through the rag, and finding nothing else of note, he put it back on the rack.

He began looking aimlessly around, and noticed in front of him, a child, perhaps 6 or 7 years old, and her mother.

The child had the most beautiful brown eyes he had ever seen. She had light brown hair, and a slight tan, which was a stark contrast compared against her mother, with her firey auburn hair and milky white skin.

She waved at him and smiled.

"Hello!" he said softly

Her mother glanced back at John for an instant, then returned to center and began slightly trembling.

Jon noticed an odd, yet familiar smell. Perfume, his long, lost high school sweetheart once wore. It was a blend she made herself, that, when blended with her own scent, drove him crazy. He had never smelled anything like it before, and had not since.

"What's your name?" He asked the little girl.

The mother swatted her hand and told her not to talk to strangers.

"It's ok" John said, smiling. "Your daughter is absolutely adorable."

"I know she is. Don't you like her eyes? She has her father's eyes", The lady replied monotonously, and not turning around.

Jon froze, looking at the little girl. He noticed several features on the girls face that matched his own. Same high cheekbones, same nose, and those eyes: They were his eyes.

"Brigit?" Jon queried, puzzled.

"Yes, Jon. I'd like you to meet your daughter, Cassandra." She said, turning around.

It was his long lost lover, the only woman, until recently, he would have died for. For three years, his world revolved around her, and then suddenly, she disappeared, saying she had "no time" available for him. He later found out that she had no time for him because she was preoccupied with another man.

He stood there, mute and staring at the little child spawned from his love for her 7 years ago.

By this time, they had both advanced in the queue enough that Brigit was unloading her cart onto the belt.

She grabbed Jon's Pepsi and put it with her items.

"I know I've caused you some pain in the past 6 years. At least let me buy you this drink", she said.

Jon said nothing; he could only look at his beautiful daughter in wonder.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked.

"What would you have done if I did tell you? Marry me? Do you think we were to have a life together based solely on a child?" She scowled as she queried him. "You can not base a relationship on a child, you said so once yourself."

"No, you can't", he replied. "But you can base it on love, which was the reason I was with you for three years!"

"Love was never our problem", Brigit replied. "I always loved you, and I've never stopped loving you, and I know for a fact you've never stopped loving me."

The cashier finished ringing her items. Brigit paid the bill, handed Jon his drink, and headed for the door, with Jon following closely behind her. They made their way to her car, a late model dark blue Chevrolet Cavalier. It was in pretty good shape, although the paint job was fading to a sky blue tint that made the entire car look like it was covered in a patchy frost.

"How do you know that I never stopped loving you?" he asked her?

"I know many things about you, Jon" she replied.

"Well, enlighten me", he quipped, cracking a smile.

"Well, let's see, let's start with something easy. You live just over there, right?" She pointed to the northeast. "About 5 miles or so, no?"

"Yes. But that's easy to find, all one needs is the right internet address and.."

"..and speaking of internet," she interrupted, "you used to use your cat's name, which is 'Louie', as a password for all your internet applications, until that awful woman you insisted on being with ran off with your now ex best friend."

"How did you know about that?" He replied.

"Who do you think set them up?" She responded.

"Why?" He asked.

"Jon, she wasn't right for you. She stifled you in ways you may never know. She was hurting you, she was ruining your life. I could not let her hurt you any more."

"And the others? Did you interfere with them?" He was trembling now, but not out of fear.

"Some of them left on their own accord, others took some prodding, but in the end, they were as weak as I knew them to be. For the most part, though, it wasn't nearly as difficult as it was to get you to change jobs", she replied, beginning to put her groceries in the trunk of her car.

"What, now you expect me to believe that you had a hand in my failures at work?" His anger began to show on his face, he was now getting visibly upset.

"Yes, and whether or not you believe it, I tried to make career decisions for you, because you never made good career moves on your own."

"So you're telling me that you have been sitting in the background shaping my life since you left, always in the shadows, always watching, with our child, and you said nothing?" His anger was reflected in his voice now. His eyes were burning with rage.

"I said many things, but you chose to ignore them in fear of what could have been. You thought you were happy with your life, but only I could see the misery in your face. Those women you took in and tried to love, they did not see it. They were blind to the fact that you are a beautiful man, if they would just open their eyes to it."

Her words were soft and kind in his ears, they soothed him, and his anger melted away.

"And what about my life now?" He quipped.

"Sue is a good woman for you, perhaps a better match than you and I could ever have been. She is kind to you, she understands you better than anyone before her, aside from me. She loves you like no other before you, and she will make a wonderful wife for you, and a wonderful mother for your children", she said, looking down at Cassandra.

"And as for your job," she continued, "all I can say is that you need to keep your eyes open, my love. You are too good for them, and they know it. You will find something better, and you can be sure of that."

She finished packing her groceries into the trunk, and began loading Cassandra into the car.

"So that's it? You're leaving?" He asked.

He desperately wanted to ask her things about them, about how she found him, about why she didn't speak up, about why she tell him about his daughter.

Brigit got in the car and rolled down the window.

"Remember, Jon, I will always be watching you", she said.

With that, she started her car and began driving off. Jon waved at his lost love, a love that had been recently found again, or perhaps never lost, as her tail lights disappeared into the thick mist that rolls off of the ocean on chilly nights just like this one.

He was alone for the first time in six years.

He opened his bottle of Pepsi and took a swig, taking in the events that had just happened. As he glanced down, he noticed a piece of paper caught on the cuffs of his jeans. He reached down and was going to throw it away, but something caught his eyes. It read:

Now Hiring: Computer Techs. Best pay in town, experienced techs only. TIER TWO SUPPORT: NO CUSTOMER INTERACTION REQUIRED.

Perhaps he wasn't so alone after all.

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