Deposit and Withdrawl, part one

Jillian first mistook the approaching figure for a gathering of startled wild birds whose games were often faintly concealed in the tall weeds hedging the back of the Quaker meeting house next door.

She always found herself physically disoriented when she realized the initial impression of her senses had failed her; and now, watching the approaching figure materialize from what her mind had first believed to be a stirring of frightened wrens was enough to disturb the normally lulling rhythm of her work behind bank teller window.

Like the roll of a breaking wave, the bird-shadow suddenly parted its cover of weeds and, to Jillian's fascination and slight astonishment, move with a manner of ethereal bearing over the rubbled pavement cracks of the parking lot. What on earth....her brain began, as her knees felt the sickened urge to sway.

Suddenly aware of the people around her, she began to realize that she was the sole witness to this event. Her mouth opened in an attempt to communicate; her jaw resisted as if it had never opened before. Her brain screamed in confused protest. The figure drifted closer.

And then she saw him. Her urge to panic was muffled by a paralyzing fascination. His skin was barely translucent and warm-toned, just as the flesh of any living creature, yet a rythmic pulse of pink and gold barely beneath its surface reminded her of wheat fields yielding to a gentle wind.

Until he removed his covering, she did not realize that she had not seen his face.