Continued from Love Laced Larceny

Some people spend every day worrying about every situation that they will be in before they even know what the situation is. I was one of those people, always imagining every potential outcome that could ever evolve from possible events that were not guaranteed to transpire.

I used to be like that. Rosy had brought me out of my shell. After one month of steady dating I was beginning to feel like this is how it was always supposed to have been. Living with my ex-wife Cressida always seemed to be a bit tense and now I felt that I was getting what I had always wanted, a possibly deserved quiet life. I had just recently started looking for acting jobs again, an audition here, an interview at the theatre company there, and a begging letter to my favorite Bollywood actress, all of which so far had not worked out.

Rosy was to meet me at the Nature Rotary Center and we were going to feed the birds, a pastime that I had never felt remotely interested in before but now I found it to be therapeutic to say the least. I also wanted to seize this opportunity to ask around if anyone knew one “Cindy Radcliff”, a tall, gothic woman who was the previous owner of a black purse that I now found in my possession the night I met Ruby. I had examined the bags content for clues of the whereabouts of Cindy. I had called to the address written on her ID three times to no avail. I had tried to access the phone numbers in her cell phone but they were protected by password. I found a piece of paper with the word “work” and a ten digit Oakland number written on it. Nobody ever answered when I called it and most of the time it made a fax sound. So one day I went to Kinkos and faxed a piece of paper saying, “what the hell is this number, can you please contact me…Eassum”. Two days later I got a call from Kinkos telling me a fax came in for me. Within Five minutes I am reading the response fax in my hand. “STOP SENDING US CRAZY FAXES, YOU LUNATIC”, it stated but I couldn’t but notice in the heading at the top of the page that it was sent from the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt.

Ruby arrived professionally late as usual. She greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and handed me a loaf of inexpensive bread.
“OK lets go feed the ducks” she exuded.
“Well, can we stop by the Bonsai garden for a second?” I asked.
“Oh don’t tell me your still carrying around that bag”
“Well I think that the best way to get rid of it is to find the owner and that’s why I want to go to the Bonsai Garden as I think she worked or works there”
“Ok well I’m going to feed the ducks, you can meet me back here in half an hour, and give me back the bread”. With that she grabbed the loaf out of my hand and stormed off towards the pergola or whatever you call it. I stood there for a moment, then turned and started walking towards the Garden Center.

Its always hard to keep everyone happy!

Next: Unforgettable novel