Lilliana's Gift (Chapter 1)

            “C’mon, slowpoke. If you drag too far behind, we’ll lose track of each other, and then I’d never find you again, no matter how close by you were,” Haley teased, tugging at David’s hand as she led him through the brightly-dressed parade crowds.

            “All right, I’m coming,” David laughed, following obediently after his best friend. He watched the ground to track the motion of her leather boots strutting through the chaos. In truth, he’d hoped the muggy June climate might lead Haley to wear something a bit more open-toed, but then again she had a certain style: all jet-black and denim, with her tattoos on full display, and a couple color accents breaking up the darkness. Plus, there were still plenty of sandaled and flip-flopped feet among the masses here for him to admire.

As they traversed the throngs, David busied himself trying to predict what color socks were concealed in that midnight-black knee-high footwear of hers today. Generally they were mismatched due to the frequency Haley almost-literally melted through her socks, thanks to the swampy volume of sweat she had cooking in those tight boots day in and day out, which made it fun to guess until the day was ended and she peeled the boots off her sopping peds, revealing the moist cotton sleeves congealed to her skin. Green and blue, or maybe red and purple?

            “They’re rainbow, actually,” a mysterious voice slurred in David’s ear, accompanied by a hand brushing his shoulder. “Of course.”

Startled, and even more so because the feminine tone spoke as though in direct answer to his private thoughts, he stopped in his tracks, and so too did everyone else around him, though this went unnoticed at first. Haley’s hand still clutched his as David turned around, coming face-to-face with an absolute demigoddess of a woman. With angelic wavy golden locks and hypnotic brown eyes, she was toned as an Olympian, yet still juicily curvy everywhere that mattered to magnetize attentions. The mere sight of her made David go weak in the knees, and she seemed to acknowledge and expect this, with a coy smile crossing her lips.

“W-What did you say?” he stammered.

“Haley’s socks. This is a pride parade, after all,” the woman replied matter-of-factly. “I’m sorry, did I misunderstand, or were you NOT trying to guess what color they were? Not that I had to be very intuitive to guess that. Honestly, if you were staring any harder at those boots of hers, you might just scorch a hole through them. But I’m guessing you wouldn’t stop at just seeing through her shoes, would you? No, you’d like a peek at the treasure inside, but then again, if you saw her feet too soon, she wouldn’t have the chance to get them good and sweaty for you: marinating in hot dark leather for hours on end, until every step she takes sounds like wet galoshes. You know. Exactly the way an obsessed foot fetishist such as yourself likes it. Now isn’t that right, David?”

Blushing and flabbergasted into silence by this utter dressing-down, David averted his gaze from the seemingly omniscient stranger.

“I d-don’t know what you’re talking about, I… I-”

“Please, there’s no need to waste either of our time making excuses, or pretending it’s not true. You’ve been pining after this girl’s feet since you could even wrap your mind around sex, let alone a fetish. And she’s such a sweetheart, and cares for you so much even if she happens to swing the other way, that she has no idea how much it makes your heart sing every time she rips those boots off at the end of the day, no matter how bad the stink waiting inside. It’s never occurred to her that her best friend would happily spend his days inhaling her worst scents, if it meant his love for her feet could be… requited.”

“Who… a-are you?”

“My name is Lilliana. And just to save you the full game of twenty questions before finally getting to the truth, no, I’m not human, though I certainly pass for a beautiful one, don’t I? You don’t have to be embarrassed. I made myself look this way just for you, to catch your eye. See, I even went shoeless. Of course, we both know you’ve only got eyes for one love… well, in your case, two, since Haley has two feet.”

Only getting more anxious and panicked by the second, David turned to Haley, almost more terrified of her reaction to all his sexual secrets being openly discussed by a supernatural stranger than he was of the stranger herself. To his shock, Haley was standing still mid-stride, one black boot planted to pavement and the opposite with the gritty treads arched elegantly off the ground.

It wasn’t just her. Every other body around them, previously celebrating and flag-waving, was quietly frozen. Looking over the sea of people, David realized that seemingly the whole world as far as he could spy was crystallized in time, except for himself and Lilliana. After the lovely creature had so effortlessly divulged the embarrassing contents of his brain, however, David found it difficult to be surprised that she could also will all of humanity into stillness. Paralyzed by nerves, he took a step back, looking upon Lilliana with reverence and fearful respect.

“There’s no need to have a breakdown, little David, though I understand that this might all be overwhelming,” Lilliana said. “But rest assured, I come bearing gifts. I’m what some might call a wish-granter, you see. To be clear, though, I’m not some genie enslaved to your whims. Rather, I go where I’m needed, and “fix” things as they were meant to be: often in the way those silent deserving beings such as yourself, with no power to achieve their deepest most desperate desires otherwise, would want it, but perhaps didn’t even know they wanted it yet. Until I showed up, that is. And that’s what I’m going to do for you and Haley.”

“W-What are you talking about?” he gulped. “You’re… going to g-give me… us… what I want?”

“In a way. Like I said, I don’t just drop by and bless you for nothing. See, after you’ve been at this for six millennia like me, it tends to get a little boring if you don’t throw in a curveball here and there. And I do like to have fun. Which means your happiness here isn’t going to come without some… challenges, shall we say. But it’s all in how you look at it. Don’t just see the glass as half full instead of half empty: see it as absolutely full to the brim with a mighty churning sea of the saltiest gunk squeezed out of Haley’s socks after a day of trouncing around in 100% humidity. Does that make sense, little David?”