Someone is watching me.
That skin-crawling sensation of being observed was a feeling Peri had become all-too familiar in recent years. Cautiously she put down her textbook and glanced around the park. She was virtually alone; Howard certainly wasn't around. Relieved, she relaxed and looked closer at the few people nearby. The only one even looking in her direction was a young-ish man wearing a long brown coat that was too warm for the day and feeding the ducks without any great enthusiasm. He was sort of cute, Peri decided. Pale, scrawny, and kind of odd-looking, but definitely cute.
As she continued to study him he looked up and caught her gaze. Rather than look away they kept watching each other until finally he offered her a sheepish grin.
He looks sick, she decided.
On an impulse she rose and crossed the grass to sit next to him on the bench, careful to keep arm's length from him, just in case he turned out be a psycho.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "You don't look well."
"I've been better," he admitted in an accent she couldn't place, other than "English". "Be right as rain eventually," he continued. "Whatever that means. I mean, if you were living somewhere that was in the middle of a drought, some rain would probably just the thing you needed. But then again, it would probably feel absolutely wrong..."
Peri found herself inching backward just a bit more.
"Sorry, I tend to go on a bit sometimes."
"I hadn't noticed."
"I'm sure."
For a moment there was silence, then he blurted, "You're Peri, aren't you?"
It sounded more like a statement of fact than a question, but Peri nodded anyway. "Yeah. Do I know you?" It seemed unlikely she'd forget someone this odd.
"No, but I know some friends of yours. I've seen photos. I didn't mean to disturb you." He nodded in the direction of her textbook, abandoned on rug a short distance away. "What are you studying?"
"Math." She couldn't stop the reflexive wrinkling of her nose.
"Isn't is summer?"
She nodded glumly. "And I need to be a lot better at it before fall."
"Why?"
"I've got a chance to start college a year early, but only if can ace the math SAT." She blushed and looked at the ground. None of her friends understood why she was prepared to give up her summer, and skip Homecoming, and the Prom and everything that went with being a senior just to go to college a year earlier. And she couldn't tell them why.
"So what do you want to with your life, Peri?" He was suddenly serious, and she knew that he'd understand even if she couldn't give him the whole reason.
"I want to be a botanist. And travel. There's so much to see out there, and sometimes I feel like I'm suffocating here..." Abashed she stumbled to a halt. "Guess you're not the only one who rambles."
"No, you're right. There is so much to see. Life is short, Peri. Much to short. Don't give up what you need to do just because others don't understand or don't approve."
Peri suddenly felt her throat tighten with tears. She didn't know why. "Thanks," she whispered.
The strange man stood. "I'd best be off. Better let you get back to it. Don't worry, you'll get your escape."
He stood for a while longer on the opposite side of the park, watching as she returned to her maths. He hadn't meant to talk to her, just like he hadn't meant to talk to Rose, or Liz, or Harry. He should have known she'd sense him watching and come to him. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, so many things he couldn't say. Perhaps one of these regenerations he would find the courage to visit Krontep and discover what had truly happened to her. This one no longer had time.