Big Yellow Taxi

Chapter 3

There were cops hanging around this market. He hadn't spotted any yet, but at a big outdoor shopping spot like this, there had to be pigs lurking around somewhere. Merle had at least five years prison worth of pot in the front pocket of his leather vest and he had no interest in trying to make a run for it through five packed aisles of shoppers, vendors and tables full of vegetables. Taking the quickest way back to the bikes, he was careful not to walk too fast. His rough appearance was already earing him stares from small children and rich old ladies carrying baskets and fancy reuseable shopping bags.

Weaving between minivans and sedans, he approached the spot where he left his bike. Once Merle got there he cursed. Not under his breath like he should have but very loudly, earning him a very dirty look from a nearby mother that was busy snapping her brats into their car seats. She looked like she was thinking about saying something so Merle glared at her. The woman practically leaped into her car, hitting the automatic lock button before her door was even shut.

Merle chuckled under his breath as he mumbled to himself, "Don't flatter yerself sweetheart, yer not my type." After his momentary amusement over the woman's obvious fear faded away, Merle's annoyance at his wayward brother returned with a vengence. He told Daryl's stupid ass to stay and watch the bikes. And now the dumbfuck was nowhere to be found. Merle lit up a smoke and paced around, hoping that maybe Daryl had just gone for a piss and was on his way back. But once he had smoked his cigarette down to the filter there was still no sign of Daryl.

Merle was torn between his distaste for waiting in the parking lot until his idiot brother finally decided to show back up and his desire not to go back into the crowded market. Never a patient man, after a few more seconds Merle flicked his cigarette butt to the ground and stomped on it with his boot as he headed back the way he had come. He cursed again, much quieter this time. Like he figured there would be, now there were cops standing at the front entrance of the place. The black one cast a suspicious glance in Merle's direction as he walked by.

"Swear if I get pinched up looking for Daryl in this goddamn market like he's a three year old lost in the fuckin' mall I am beating his fuckin' ass," Merle mumbed to himself, "beatin' that ass fer real this time." Daryl had one fucking job. Watch the damn bikes. Fucker couldn't even get that right.

Lucky for Merle it only took him a few minutes to spot his brother. Daryl was leaning against one of the support poles that held up the roof of the place. Merle had tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe he had some important business to do inside this place. But he wasn't doing anything at all. Daryl was leaning against a pole, keeping himself slightly out of the flow of traffic, sipping on a cup of coffee like he didn't have a care in the world.

Usually Daryl was on high alert. Listening and watching everything around him. But Merle was able to get almost on top of him before the younger man even noticed he was there. His gaze was focused on something a little further down the aisle of vendors with such intensity that Merle had to elbow at him before Daryl even acknowledged his presence.

"Oh," Daryl huffed his surprise at the sudden contact. He turned his head, realizing it was only his brother that was poking at him. "Hey." He offered up only a simple greeting, then turned back to whatever he had been staring at before his brother showed up. Merle's anger drained away, quickly replaced by curiosity. He had never seen his brother this interested in anything that he wasn't getting ready to shoot with a bow. He followed Daryl's line of sight, snorting out a laugh when he finally realized why his brother had been missing from the parking lot. Girls. Daryl was in here staring at girls.

There were two of them. One with blonde hair and one with dark hair. They were both a little on the skinny side, but not bad looking. Merle didn't see anything special enough about either one of them to hold Daryl's interest with such intensity. But then again Daryl had strange taste in women. He was a picky little motherfucker too. So if Daryl saw something he actually liked, Merle figured he would go ahead and help a little brother out.

Merle watched the young women for a few moments, just like Daryl was doing. They obviously knew they were being watched. They kept smiling in his and Daryl's direction and giggling together. This was going to be easy.

"Which one?," Merle asked, shoving his elbow into Daryl's ribs for the second time.

"What the hell you mean?," Daryl hissed back. He took a sip of his overpriced but better than he thought it would be coffee and crossed his arms. Merle knew he hated it when he got up in his personal space like that. Daryl could feel him breathing he was so close.

"Which one o'them girls you staring at dumbass?," Merle asked. Daryl narrowed his eyes, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation.

"Don't fuckin' go over there Merle," Daryl muttered, knowing it was hopeless. No matter what he said, he knew he was about to be publicly humilitated. He should have gone back to the bikes when he had the chance. Instead he had stayed here staring at that damn girl and now Merle was involved. And whenever Merle got involved, things went bad in a hurry.

"Call dibs now or I'm takin' my pick," Merle informed him. Then he made a very annoying clicking noise with his tounge, like a timer that was counting down. When Daryl refused to answer, Merle finally shrugged his shoulders and started off towards the two women. He only made it about a half a step before Daryl grabbed him by the edge of his vest and hissed at him again.

"The dark haired one," Daryl admitted. Normally he would never admit to liking a girl, especially not to his asshole brother. But the thought of Merle going over there and hitting on that woman made him sick to his stomach. Mostly because he knew whatever Merle said to her would proably gain him access to her vagina. Daryl could never figure it out. The man was a complete and total asshole at all times. But Merle always had good luck with women. They loved him. Until they didn't anymore. But by then the man had always gotten what he wanted out of them already.

Merle snorted. He had guessed Daryl was after the blonde girl. She had bigger tits. Merle shrugged it off, figuring it was all the better for him. Then he started moving again. To Daryl's absolute horror, his brother grabbed him by the elbow and started dragging him along like a trailer behind a truck. Daryl tried jerking away, but the bastard had a strong grip on him. If he wanted to get loose, he would have to fight Merle. Since there were people all around them, some who were already staring at the two men because Merle had almost run them over, Daryl quickly decided that he didn't want to make an even bigger scene and allowed himself to be dragged along towards the girl's vegetable stand. He tossed his mostly empty coffee cup into a trash barrel as they passed it by.

"Hey there ladies," Merle drawled, giving them both his biggest and most charming smile. Now that he was up close to the girls, he assesed their looks again. The dark haired girl was completely coated in freckles. And the blonde one had a stumpy little pig nose. However, these imperfections were greatly made up for by the fact that both women were young and slim and there was not a bra to be seen between the two of them. Neither of them was wearing makeup. Another plus. Merle had seen some good looking women that turned into horrible evil witches once their faces melted off.

"Good afternoon." It was the dark haired girl that spoke. The blonde one only giggled. The dark haired girl spoke to Merle but she was looking at Daryl. Her cheeks were pink and she was smiling at him. She bit at her bottom lip, waiting expectantly for Daryl to speak to her, but of course he was staring at the ground like he forgot how to talk english. "I'm sorry again about earlier," she added, dipping her head down to try and catch his eye.

"S'alright," Daryl mumbled. There was an awkward moment of silence. Merle waited, hoping Daryl had the sense to strike up a conversation with this woman and wondering what in the hell happened earlier that she was apologizing for. When it became obvious that Daryl wasn't going to say boo to a goose, Merle opened his mouth to speak again. He was cut off by the slightly older woman that was running the stand with the two younger ones. She hadn't caught Merle's attention at first, but he noticed her now. Something about the way the way the woman was looking at him gave him the chills despite the heat of the day. He felt like she could see inside his head.

"Girls," the woman said, "go take a break by the truck." Rowan's mother would have rather they stayed where she could see them. She approved of the younger man that her daughter had her eye on. But the other one gave her a bad vibe. He radiated insincerity. But be that as it was, the men were clogging up the front of her table and people that actually wanted to shop were shuffling around behind them, not wanting to get too close.

Rowan motioned for the two men to follow her. The older man seemed eager and she watched to make sure the man she wanted to speak to was following behind him. They had to turn sideways to squeeze between her table and the next vendor over. Rowan led them over next to the small gated area where she had her puppies penned up.

"Merle," the older man said, sticking his hand at Ayla first. Shaking hands might seem lame, but he had found it was a sure fire way to gauge women. How quickly they grabbed for his hand let him know how easy it would be to get them into bed. The blonde girl reached for his hand right away, telling him her name was Ayla. A strange name, but at least it wasn't something he couldn't pronouce. He planned to hold onto her hand a while, maybe clasp it between the both of his but she beat him to it.

"Blessed be," she told him with a smile. Clasping his hands between both her smaller ones, she held on and gave an odd little courtsy. She bent her knees and lowered her hips slightly, but kept her head up. It was a little weird, but he had seen weirder shit than that. When she moved to pull her hands back he kept hold of her a moment longer, stroking his thumb across the back of her hand. Then he stuck his hand out to the other woman.

She reached for him quickly, but not in the same way the other girl had done. It felt more like she wanted to get the physical contact over with as quickly as possible. She didn't do the same weird courtsy, but she did say the same thing as the other girl.

"Blessed be," she said, "I'm Rowan." Her voice was more formal and less flirty than Ayla. And she was smiling at Daryl the whole time like she couldn't wait to shake his hand. Merle had to fight back the urge to swear at his brother. This girl, Rowan, was staring at him again and waiting for him to make a move. And what was that idiot doing? He was ignoring her completely, petting a couple puppies like he was five years old instead of a grown man.

"This 'ere is Daryl," Merle finally announced, kicking at his brother's ankles to try and get him to stop messing around with the damn dogs, "my baby brotha." Merle was about to kick the dumbass again when Rowan moved forward and did the hard work for him.

Rowan couldn't stop smiling. This man was so handsome. And she could tell by the way he was touching her dogs that he liked animals. The other man she wasn't so sure about. He seemed friendly enough but when she touched him something happened. She blinked while he was shaking her hand and got a flash image. This was not totally usual for her. Sometimes she got a glimpse of a favorite pet or a loved one. But this time she had seen a pile of money. A large pile that was covered in drops of blood. She didn't like it. Once Merle let go of her she yanked her hand back and wiped it off on her dress.

Daryl watched the woman out of the corner of his eye while he petted the dogs. So he saw her coming. She touched him on the arm again like she had in front of the pretzel cart. Like it had earlier, the feel of her hand gave him a jolt. He was glad his shirt was untucked and loose, because she was standing close enough that he could smell her and he was pretty sure if she got any closer he was going to get a hard on.

"They're bullmastiffs," Rowan explained since he seemed interested in her dogs.

"Where's the one that jumped me?," Daryl asked her with a grin. That made her smile even bigger and she moved just a fraction of an inch closer to him. Her hair smelled like peaches and sandalwood oil and her eyelashes were so long he wondered how she even made it through the day without getting them all tangled up while she was blinking.

"Chained to the back of the truck," Rowan admitted. She was impressed. Most of her dogs looked a lot alike and this man had been able to tell that Lily wasn't in the pen with the rest of them. Daryl laughed out loud before he could stop himself. He had not been expecting this gentle woman to announce that she had chained a dog to her truck. He laughed and then he covered his mouth like he was embarrassed at himself for laughing. That made Rowan laugh. Unlike his, her laughter was musical and unapologetic.

Merle cleared his throat. This dog talk wasn't getting anyone anywhere. "What are you ladies doing tonight?," he asked. There was no point in beating around the bush and making more small talk. In his experience, which was extensive, women usually responded to being asked out in such a direct way.

"Oh," Ayla squeaked out, getting a very excited look on her face. She scurried away and returned with a small white square of paper, which she handed to Merle. He squinted at the flyer. "We're having a full moon festival," she explained.

"All are welcome," Rowan added. She smiled at Daryl again, her hand still resting on his arm. All visitors were welcome. But it was possible that a certain handsome man with strong arms and eyes as blue as the cloudless sky was just a little more welome than everyone else.

"Twin Oaks," Merle read. He squinted at the smaller print on the flyer. Then he did what Merle always did. Opened his big mouth and inserted his foot directly into it. "This is that fucking hippie commune out past highway 20. You girls know those freaks?"

"We are those freaks," Rowan informed him without missing a beat, "We live there." She didn't seem as upset as Daryl thought she might be. He guessed this wasn't the first time she had heard a comment like the one Merle just made. And Merle was a first class fucking idiot. Where did he think these girls were from? They were selling vegetables directly under a giant rainbow sign that said fucking Twin Oaks right on it. Moron.

"Well, well, well," Merle clucked, rubbing at his chin with his hand as he tried to think of a way to weasle out of his comment. The blonde girl wasn't smiling, but she hadn't stormed off yet either. He smiled a big grin at her and leaned in close enough that she could feel his breath. "Nothin' wrong with getting a little freaky," he whispered. Ayla giggled, leaning away like she had been scandalized but then moving closer again and letting him touch her.

Merle's quiet voice was only a notch lower than his loud voice, so Rowan heard what he said to her friend. To Daryl's relief she laughed at the joke. Then she spoke quietly to Daryl. Rowan thought he looked worried about his brother's comment and he didn't need to be. They got comments like that all the time. She was used to it. The weirdo questions people would ask her were even worse. Like did they have sex orgies out there or how many sister wives did she have? Did they slaughter goats as a sacrifice? Was she part of a cult? That one was the stupidest question of all. She didn't know much about cults, but she was pretty sure the whole point of them was not to let the members involved know they were in one. Rowan tried her best to be kind to everyone but she had lost her patience once and told an especially rude and nosy woman who accosted her in Farm and Fleet that yes she was in fact part of a cult and that she planned to shave her head once the grand goat master impregnated her anus with a thousand hissing snakes. Rowan's mom said she wasn't allowed to go back to that store anymore.

"It's okay," she assured Daryl, "people say stuff like that all the time." The comment was accompanied by a roll of her eyes and a slight shake of her head. Aside from noticing that she was slightly annoyed by his brother, which pleased him in some small way, Daryl also noticed that Rowan had a slight accent. One he hadn't heard before. He thought about asking her about it, but after Merle's idiot comment he was afraid he might offend her further.

"So what time does this freakshow start?," Merle asked the girls, waving the flyer around. Rowan tried not to laugh, but ended up laughing anyway. What the man lacked in manners he made up for in confidence, she would give him that.

"It's already going on," Ayla told him. Merle was still standing close to her, one arm wrapped around her waist and his hand resting on her hip.

'The sex orgies don't start until after 7," Rowan informed the man. If he wanted to be a smartass, she would treat him like one.

Daryl choked on his own spit and started coughing. Rowan lifted her hand and gave him a few whacks on the back. Once he had control of himself she made sure to explain that she was only joking. "I'm sorry, it's the live music that starts at 7," she said, her hand still lingering on top of Daryl's shoulder. Merle was laughing like a jackass, half at her comment and half because of the look on Daryl's face when she made it.

"We will see you ladies after 7 then," Merle announced. His hand was resting on the girl's waist and he liked what he felt. She had a nice firm body under her flowy dress. He let his hand slide down, giving her ass a firm squeeze. She jumped a little, like she was surprised by his advances. But then she giggled. He smiled at the girl, thinking about how he was definitely getting himself a piece of her later. If she was going to let him grab her ass in a public market, then he knew she was going to let him do a lot more than that once he got her alone.

Merle was ready to go. Preferably before he said anything worse and ruined this for himself. However, Daryl was showing no signs of heading towards the bikes anytime soon. He and the dark haired girl with the smart mouth weren't even talking. They were just standing there staring at each other. Merle reached over and smacked Daryl in the chest to get his attention. When that didn't work he grabbed his brother by the vest he was wearing and started hauling him towards the parking lot.

"Uh, bye," Daryl told her. Rowan had her hand on his shoulder. As he moved away from her, she let it trail down his arm to his hand. She grasped his hand in hers for just a moment before his brother dragged him away. In that split second she saw it. A navy blue handkerchief was hanging from the back pocket of his pants. She didn't know why she focused on that detail but it seemed important for some reason unknown to her.

Daryl looked back at her once before he disappeared from sight. Ayla was already hurrying back to help Lola with the customers, but Rowan lingered by the truck. The same hand she had touched Daryl with came up to grab the tiger's eye that hung from a silver chain around her neck. She had deja-vu before but what she felt when she touched Daryl's hand was something different and far more powerful. Images came at her in rapid fire, so quick she could hardly make sense of them.

She was standing naked in a street she had never seen before, wearing nothing but the hanky she had seen in Daryl's pocket tied around one ankle. That image came more than once. Then she was riding a black horse with Daryl seated behind her, his arms around her waist. They were standing in the woods together and her spirit animal was there, along with the brother she had just met. Expect the man looked years younger and was dressed like he was in the military. In the last image Rowan was lying back on a table. Her mother's friend Robin was there, along with Rowan's father. He and Daryl were touching her stomach and she could feel life stiring inside her. The image was so strong she dropped her necklace and placed her hand flat against her stomach to reassure herself that the image wasn't real.

Rowan took a few deep breaths and tried to clear her head. She wasn't sure what had just happened to her. If she had to guess she would say she had possibly seen images from another life. Maybe even another reality. But Daryl was clearly tied up in all of it somehow. Maybe he was her soulmate or the key to something else in her life's path. She wasn't really sure. But there was one thing that she was sure of. After today her life was never going to be the same again.