“We have always existed in this world. We hid from you in the hills, in the forests, the mountains. We have always lived a reclusive life. So naturally we watched, while you slowly became the power over this world. While you battled, and later made war with each other, we began to hide in fear of you. Fear of your anger, which seemed limitless. Your ability to hate so passionately. Your seemingly careless ability to end each others lives.” said the man with a small sigh. He re-arranged the utensils on his napkin and looked up at her, concern in his eyes and a gentle frown on his forehead.

“As you advanced in technology, we watched you more carefully. You invented more powerful weapons to harm each other with, you found the plants which carried poison and fed it to each other. We watched all this and more, and began to hide deeper in the forests, further back into the hills, and began moving into the mountains. Yet for all your hatred, you are among the most curious on this planet. A few among you had seen us and told others. Whispers spread among you. Myths and legends were born. Faeries, you called us, sprites, imps, sidhe. We did not come out of hiding then, and yet more of you sought us out. Wished to catch even the barest of glimpses. I will admit, many of us were beguiled by these tales of us, and they were even in some small parts true. Many of us taunted you, letting ourselves be caught by you, pretending to be mysterious and magical. We then fed the myths more, and the tales grew and grew until even the best among us could not compete with your imaginations. That was when we fell back, when we stopped venturing out. We kept watch, but became even more reclusive.” he continued, stopping every so often to look at up at me, to see if I understood what he was saying.

I stayed silent, and gave the barest of nods when he looked up. My grandfather was schizophrenic, so I learned early on to do your best to humor them. This seemed very important to the man, so I gave him my full attention, though being careful to seem non-threatening. I didn’t want to agitate him.

“Now skip forward a few centuries. This was around the 16th century. Your civilization was growing in leaps and bounds. We knew that we could not stay hidden for very long. We could not keep receding back into the forests and further into the mountains, for eventually we would run out of places to hide. That was when we decided to come up with the Charms.” he said.

I gave a small glance to my manager, Roxanne, which she returned with a nod. She and I have been asked to talk with plenty of male customers before. Some are fairly nice about it, but others are not so agreeable. The glance served as a warning, telling her things may not stay so pleasant for very long, and to keep an eye on us.

“But I cannot talk about the Charms without first explaining how your mind works. You see, none of you can actually forget anything. Your minds are far too vast for knowledge to be erased. Things are merely misplaced. Your minds are like huge labyrinths, and it seems that even as owners of your own labyrinth you cannot navigate it as well as to be expected. We learned this, after observing you for so long. And we realized with the Charms, if used in coincidence with what you call Glamour, we could live among you without much fear.” he said with a thin lipped smile.

“Of course, this notion did not go over well. Assimilating among your population would mean that we would be apart of your battles. We would fight in some of your wars. Some of us would inevitably die at your hands. But this, we realized, would only be inevitable. If we failed in hiding from you, you would eventually see us as an enemy, and would come after us en mass. So a quiet integration was decided. But I digress. You forget nothing, as I was saying. Everything in your entire life is in your brain, just filed deep inside the labyrinth. Most things you experience are filed away into a place of insignificance that you cannot access without great difficulty.” he said before taking a long drink from his soda.

I couldn’t really remember bringing him a soda it seemed, or remember him coming in to the restaurant for that matter. I frowned at this, and he chuckled softly.

“I see you’re starting to put things together. The Charms very basically make us insignificant. Your attention rolls off of us. We appear to you as unremarkable, disinteresting, and nothing worth noting. For those like you, who work in the customer service industry, we do get a bit more attention than usual. We can order food, but only because you write down the order and take it to the back. I’ve been to restaurants where to waitress doesn’t write down the orders, and I never get served. She comes to me and takes my order several times during the night, but never delivers it. I’ve learned to just walk out of those types of places. But for all extensive purposes, no one notices me. We use what you call Glamour to appear as you do, to strengthen the work of the Charms, but otherwise we are unnoticed. We live on paper, mostly. Deeds to houses, titles to cars, drivers licenses. Our existence is solely via records. We are that quiet tenant that you never really see, but you know someone lives there. We are the neighbors you never really got to know, though you borrowed sugar from us once you think. We are merely excused away in your minds as an anomaly and not thought of again. This was precisely what we hoped for as well.” he said with a bright smile.

“So…why are you telling me all this?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

Against my wishes, I actually half believed him. Mainly because I could not remember him entering the restaurant, or serving him, or anything except when he asked me very politely if I would sit down and talk with him. It was the end of my shift, and I didn’t particularly relish going home to my messy apartment, so I thought I might humor him. He seemed nice enough.

“Ah, I was hoping you would ask me that. You see, I have lived like this for all my life. I have carried the Charm with me since birth, and no one has ever really noticed me. With the exception of you.” he said “ I came into your charming restaurant one rainy evening a number of years ago. I sat down in this very booth, as I almost always do, and you came up and took my order. I immediately noticed that you were different. You remembered my special request for a lime in my soda, even though you hadn’t written it down.” he said as I just noticed the crushed lime sitting at the bottom of his glass

“You made small talk with me. You noticed me. I first thought there might be something wrong with the Charm. But after getting it checked, after replacing it several times, I learned that it was in fact you that was the problem. For some reason, you remember me. Just barely, I still only appear barely significant to you, but for someone like me who lives my life without recognition it was all I could do to stay away. I have been here in your restaurant more times than I can count. I can recite your menu by heart. I’ve watched new waitress’s get hired, cooks quit, and the style get changed countless times. Nearly every time I come here you serve me, sometimes I ask this by special request since I know they won’t remember after they write it down. I think I have seen every shoe you own. Every shade of lipstick, every perfume you wear. I’ve seen your hair short and long, blonde and brunette. I’ve watched you, for almost ten years now.” he said very quietly.

He was looking at the table now, running his finger in a crack in the formica. I think he was blushing, but I couldn’t quite tell. He looked up at me finally, and I began to take more notice in him. His eyes were a deep brown, the color of aged oak. His hair was longer than I cared for on men, just ending below his jaw line in thick wavy foams of chestnut. He had a handsome face, but nothing to write home about. His chin was too strong, and his nose looked like it had been broken a few times. I opened my mouth to ask him about it when he continued.

“In fact…I have actually been in your house once. You were holding a party, I overheard you inviting a friend who had come into the restaurant. It sounded as if a lot of people would be there, so my presence would not necessarily be noticed even surreptitiously. I went to the party, I observed some of your friends, and had a drink or two. I actually don’t go to many parties, for the obvious reason that I never get invited.”

“But you must be friends with others…like you, right? You must have parties or get togethers?” I interrupted.

“There aren’t many of us left. Most of us live in Europe, in the country. Others in the mid-west. There’s even a small town where only we live out in Colorado, in the mountains. But for the most part, it seems that the others enjoy their solitude. I do have friends, but they aren’t very close save for a precious few.” he said with another thin lipped smile. “Anyway, I was talking about your party. You did notice me there, and for a very fleeting moment you looked almost as if you recognized me. You didn’t, of course, but I pretended that you had.” he said with a deep sigh.

“I have told you all this because the idea that you will never know that I love you, with all the depth of my soul, is unbearable. I cannot imagine a week without coming in here and seeing you. Sometimes I follow you after you get off work, watch you shop for clothing in the mall, or have lunch with one of your friends. I cannot stop thinking about you, for believe me I have tried.” he said breathlessly, and looked up at me expectedly.

“I can’t remember you…really.” I said lamely. He looked crestfallen, but recovered quickly.

“Of course you don’t. That would be the idea. It would be silly for me to expect you to love someone you can’t even remember. I haven’t even told you my name. It’s Rio, by the way.” he said with a smile.

He sighed deeply again, and took something from his pocket. He held it tightly in his hand on top of the table.

“I told you all of this so that in those deep parts of your mind, you will remember me, and know that I love you. Just being able to sit and speak with you, to have you watch me, listen to me, is more than I could ever have hoped. To know that for this brief time, you care enough about me to sit here, to keep talking to me, to smile at me…I cannot thank you enough. In a moment I will put my Charm on, which happens to be a necklace, and you will remember nothing of these moments we have been sitting here. Your mind will excuse away the lost time, and you won’t dwell on it but for a moment. This is how it must be, and I am sorry. More than you will ever know, I am sorry.” he said.

I was quiet for a moment, just looking at him. I knew that if I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t ever get another chance, so suddenly I sat up, leaned over, and kissed him. I sat back down, and he looked rather stunned.

“I thought, maybe deep down in that place that my memory of you goes, maybe I love you too. And that if I didn’t kiss you, I would never get a chance to again, and I didn’t want that part of me deep inside to wish for it.” I said with an embarassed smile.

“Thank you. Thank you so very much.” He said in a cracked voice.

And with that, he opened his hand. In it sat a large pewter medallion, unremarkable save for how large it was. He placed it around his neck, took a long look at me and got up.

I sat there staring at where he had sat for a long while. Eventually I got up, and went back to the kitchen. My boss Roxanne was back there,

“Hon, what are you still doin’ here? You should’ve been off an hour ago! Get on home, why would you wanna stick around this joint?” she said, shooing me out the door.

On the way out I bumped into a man with long brown hair. I apologized to him, and he smiled and told me not to worry about it. I began walking through the parking lot to my car, humming a senseless tune and smiling to myself. I was in a pretty good mood, for working such a long shift. I wonder why?