After they had both showered and found a change of fresh clothes for themselves, Serana and Tia headed down to the local farmer’s market. Serana had been ecstatic when the produce market had opened; just as short of a time as three years ago she had had to drive out of the inner city to the local suburbs to try and find a nearby grocery store. Now she could walk the three and a half blocks both ways and be done shopping in under the time it would have taken her to drive one way to a local Walmart. It was definitely easier to keep money tight this way, and for that she was very appreciative.
“I never bothered to ask,” Tia began as the two of them stopped at a four way intersection, and they waited for the walk signal to appear, “but what was it you did before you became unemployed Serana?”
“Oh, I was a manager at a party supply store,” she said with smile on her face, “College was never going to be the path for me; I wasn’t much of a book person.” She winced a little, “I’m definitely regretting it now, though. It’s hard to sell yourself with only a high school education. When the time for the pink slips came around, I was one of the first out of the door; they’d found someone with a business degree who was about five years younger than me. Since nobody in the area is hiring in anything I know about, I’m kinda stuck until either I find a job or the money runs out.”
The stoplight perpendicular to them turned red, and the walk signal lit up in front of them. The two of them made their way onto the next block. As Tia looked down the street, half memories poured into her vision. The buildings of her vision weren’t as high as the ones in front of her, and the roads were cobbled brick and tamped dirt rather than concrete and asphalt. The architecture was curved and ornate in the city veiled by her foggy mind; gilded white spires sprung up towards a mountain’s peak.
“I live in a city!” she exclaimed in renewed excitement. Some of the passersby gave her odd glances before continuing on their way, but Serana didn’t care at the moment.
“Does any of this look familiar?” Serana prompted hopefully, as she waved her hand at the horizon in front of them.
“No,” Tia responded, “It’s..It’s a capital! I live in the capital of a country.”
Serana quick flipped out her smart phone, “What can you remember about it?”
“Statues and marble everywhere,” Tia said as she began to walk in circles trying to recollect, “There was this one big statue in the central square that was of a winged unicorn, and it had a Cutie Mark shaped like a golden sun.”
Serana had been entering information into her phone as Tia had been talking, but she stopped and stared at the screen for a moment before she turned and looked up at Tia, “ ‘Cutie Mark’?”
“Yes, a Cutie Mark,” Tia said matter-of-factly.
“Tia, no offense, but what the hell is a Cutie Mark? I never studied horses all that much, but I think a name like that would’ve stuck out a bit.”
Tia’s eyes went vacant temporarily, and she shook her head a little, “You’re right. I don’t even know what I’m saying. I could have sworn that-”
A large van suddenly parked on the street with a screech of its brakes, almost it seemed to deliberately get their attention. As the two woman turned to look, a group of four men and women rushed out of the van and towards them.
“Federal agents!” one of the men roared, and he trained his taser on Serana, “Don’t move!”
People on both sides of the street stopped to watch; some were panicky, while some immediately reached for their phones to take photos of the event while it was in progress.
“What the hell is this?” Serana yelled in a half state of panic herself, as she was handcuffed and forced to the ground, “We were just walking down the street!”
Tia, having been evidently insecure about herself just a moment before now, suddenly and eerily became authoritative and commanding of respect. “What is the meaning of this?” she demanded, and her eyes flashed violet.
The four officers were temporarily stunned by the woman’s gravitas, but they quickly reasserted themselves, “Under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act, you are under arrest.”
“I never approved of any such law,” she retorted sternly, “You will stand down now, or you will receive probation and potential expulsion from the Royal Guard.”
The four of them stared at her for a minute before one of them looked to the others, “Is she going Emperor Norton on us?”
“I don’t give a damn one way or the other,” the senior agent declared, “Sanders, cuff this screwball.”
Agent Sanders, restraints at the ready, made a lunge for Tia. Before he know it, Sanders was falling towards the pavement, the cuffs suddenly binding his own hands, and he faceplanted hard on the sidewalk. The crowd screamed in fright, though there were a few among them who laughed or clapped at the display. Everyone was wondering how the brown haired woman had cuffed the man without even touching him. Serana was gawking up at her, wondering what had just happened, when the senior officer simply fired his taser right into Tia’s chest, causing her to fall without any form of grace to the pavement in the street.
“We bagged the big one,” he smirked, “Kowalski, pick Sanders up and get him in the van before he finds a way to embarrass himself even more.”
“Yes, sir,” the blonde haired female agent replied as she wrapped her arms through the fallen agent’s arms. Serana, frightened beyond belief, was loaded into the back of the unmarked van along the unconscious body of Tia. As the vehicle screeched away, the people stood around for a while longer to talk about what they had seen and heard. Eventually, though, they all went their separate and myriad ways, and before long it was as if nothing unusual had even happened that morning at all.