Strange appeal

Like you, it would seem, certain people appear to be searching for something.

And also like you, they have the air of someone who's walked into a room and can't remember what it was they came in for.

It occurs to you that they're almost, but not quite, wandering aimlessly. Many seem to be window-shopping, looking distractedly at shop displays as if seeing them for the first time.

At first glance, there seems little about the fly-blown, faded windows to hold their attention - but now that you look properly...

At the door of a shop selling cheap gifts, you almost collide with a woman wiping at her eyes. She sniffs and smiles apologetically at you.

"I'm so sorry," she says. "Don't know what's come over me. It's just that I went in there for something, I know I did. But when I looked around, none of it was what I wanted. It was just so... so frustrating, you see..."

Her voice trails off, and she scurries away. You look at the tat on sale, and you wonder what she ever thought she might find there in the first place. Well, apart from that little ornament, and that pen set...



Part Two begins here.