Read Path of Jen: Bloodborne for Free Online

walked closer to the display and looked
closely at the cases. Everything was so colorful and many of the
accessories were fixed with rhinestones or sequins. Jen was more
interested in the beautifully painted cases without the additional
“shiny stuff” that younger girls would go crazy for. She picked up
a white case with black scrollwork. The flowing design was much
more sophisticated than the other cases on the wall. She turned it
over and nearly coughed at the price tag. “150,000!” she mouthed
silently. Then she remembered her father saying something about the
exchange rate. It was somewhere near thirty thousand Iranian rial
to one US dollar. “That would make this case around five dollars!"
Jen turned to ask her aunt if she could buy it.
    “ Where is she?” Jen turned in a
circle. “Where is Armand?" They were gone! Realizing she had
done this to herself, she pressed her lips together and quickly
inhaled and exhaled through her nose. “This is not good." Jen took a couple of steps away from the kiosk to look up and down
the bazaar. “There are just too many people here!" She tried
standing on her tip toes, but that made no difference.
    A strong hand gripped her arm. She gasped.
Jen was spun around and stood face to face with the shop keeper. He
looked angry. He said something Jen didn’t understand and gestured
at the phone case she was still holding. “Oh!” Jen thought.
She held it out to him and tried to apologize. He snatched it from
her and turned back to his store. Jen quickly moved down the street
in the direction her aunt had been moving. She didn’t want any more
trouble. “What if I can’t find them?” she thought. “I
have no money and no phone. I don’t even know how to tell a taxi
where to take me." She frantically searched the faces
surrounding her for her aunt or Armand. “Please!” she begged
Jesus quietly. “Please, help me find them!"
    Up ahead there was an open area. Jen hurried
toward it and moved out of the crowd to find a good vantage point.
She came to a busy sidewalk and a two way street. The far side of
the street was not nearly as crowded as the side nearest the
bazaar. “If I stand over there I can watch for Armand and Aunt
Fatima. They will be able to see me easier too,” she reasoned.
Jen wasn’t sure about jaywalking or even traffic patterns, so she
followed a few other people who were also crossing the street.
Several people were giving her odd looks by now. “Can they tell
I’m American?” she wondered. She tried to ignore them and
concentrate instead on finding her aunt.
    After twenty minutes of waiting and watching,
Jen decided to go walking back through the bazaar. “They’re
probably looking for me right by that cell phone shop,” she
thought. She followed two twenty-something men across the street
and into the bazaar. “All the women are wearing full length
clothes and hijabs, but the men are wearing whatever the heck they
want,” she observed. She could feel a drop of sweat sliding
down her back. “That’s not unfair or anything!” she
complained. She wanted so badly to rip the scarf off of her head
and just start shouting for her aunt. “Why should I be punished
for being a woman! I don’t even live here!"
    Jen took a calming breath and sighed. She
looked around carefully. She was back in front of the cell phone
accessory kiosk so her aunt should be nearby. She spun in a slow
circle. Nothing. “Ugh, why didn’t I just tap her on the
arm!" Jen felt defeated. She crossed her arms in sort of a
self-hug and walked farther into the bazaar. She passed by some
shops she recognized and many she did not. Soon, she stopped seeing
shops she recognized.
    It had been over an hour since she lost her
aunt and Armand. Jen felt like crying. “I feel so stupid!” she thought, and she looked down at her feet in shame. “Please
God, help me!” she prayed for the hundredth time that day.
Lifting her head, she looked around again and saw that she was