Recognition

"You caused me to drop my water bucket on those poor flowers," said the old woman.

Peach and Roil looked to where she was pointing and saw the damage done.

Roil smirked and launched the bucket into the air with a flick of his wrist. Never spilling a drop, the can skidded to a stop beside her feet. The old woman's draw dropped in complete astonishment and then she shook her head like she was having a hallucination.

"Why did you do that in front of her?" Peach asked.

"To shut her up mainly," said Roil.

"But what if she tells someone? People will find out you're here!"

"Who is she going to tell? This old woman is all alone. Isn't she?" Roil began circling her. "No one comes to visit her anymore. Do they?"

The poor old lady never answered his questions. She stared ahead, her astonishment turning into fear.

"How can you treat her this way? What's the matter with you?" Peach was outraged by his cruelty. She wanted nothing more than to run away from him, but she couldn't even get off his shoulder. She had to sit there as he circled the old woman like a wolf, the sphere holding her fast.

"But, you see, I know her!"

"You know her?" Now it was Peach's turn for astonishment.

"Why do you think she shakes so strongly? Why do you think we landed here? Here of all places! She recognized me from the first, didn't she?"

"I don't understand."

"Did you think we landed in this particular backyard by coincidence?"

"I don't know. What do you mean? What's happening?"

Roil laughed heartily in the face of Peach's confusion.

"Let's put it this way: This woman never dreamed she would see me again."

He shot her walker across the yard and as she tottered on the verge of falling, Roil enclosed her in a sphere like Peach's. He shrunk her till she fit in the palm of his hand.