Simian Eyes

She dragged her three hundred dollar Michael Kors shoe from the sucking mud at the edge of the Thames. Damn, she couldn't stay angry while looking him in the eye!

She'd been sitting in the shade at a table for two - alone of course, in a fug of foreign odors and car exhaust, pondering her dateless state for the evening.

Her body seized with horripilation as she watched his hairy hand reach through the black iron fence, bump the table, then grab her purse. How dared the rascal abscond with her purse, her room key, her ID, and worst of all, her makeup?.

He ran off into the sea of bodies, crossing the road, leaving her agog with surprise and shock at his actions, well, until the anger set in.

Gazpacho turned out to be a lousy lunch choice as she was now wearing it on her jeans and that induced her red-headed temper to kick into gear. The other patrons looked at her as though she were the intruder as she swore and jumped up, knocking the chair backwards. She grabbed the banana she'd been saving for dessert and her precious opus she was to deliver to the producer at the Embassy dinner tonight, and vaulted the 40 inch fence. Ha, the workouts to skinny into her new golden dress were already paying off!

She knew how to play fifth-column from her salad days of outwitting boy cousins when they tried to ambush her, and that purse snatcher was going to be ruthlessly hunted down.

He didn't blend in with the crowd as a clever thief would, and drew much attention to himself as he scuttled by the produce stands and around the camera laden tourists, and she followed easily.

As she neared the entrance to Kew Gardens a crowd gathered at the river bank. Sure enough, at the waters edge was the thief, hunched over her purse, rummaging through her makeup, not at all interested in her ID, money or passport, and the crowd was laughing.

"Nice group of helpful so and so's", she thought to herself. No one appeared to be thinking of helping her retrieve her purse so she slowly inched down the river bank. He was completely absorbed trying to pull the cap off her lipstick and ignored her approach.

"Damn, he's cute", she thought as she held out the banana in trade for her lipstick. His soft brown simian eyes looked at her in surprise as her shoe slipped into the gooey river mud.