The one that led me astray

 My name is Bandara I am a simple scrap metal collector near kandy.

That saturday morning I had come across a stash of steel, copper and brass taps and pipes. Dumped there, most certainly by another scavenger, so he could pick it up another more convenient time. I saw the heap of banana leaves and knew it was a give away for the laziest way of hiding your treasure. It was mine to pick  up. Whoever this other collector was tehy had chosen the worst way to deposit. I myself kept a small trough in my cart and would bury whatever I could, especially when parts of my country were under curfew, and I wouldn't be able to finish my haul.
I had stacked the find in my little wooden cart which rolled on two car tyres worn down to their trecherous radials. It had been a nervous venture, Because I knew the real owner would be back soon to claim his treasure. But today it was mine, from now on it was mine.
I hid the load under some cardboard in case another collector got curious by the weight inside my cart, and by the way I was struggling to pull it.

I did pull the cart and all the way to Gohagoda, where there was a perfect girl slim and graceful, working in the pet bottles department. She wouldn't look at me, I had nothing to offer. But I'd often go out of my way to pass her area just to get a look at her. It was like spying on a leopard. When she felt my eyes on her, she would move out of sight. So I called her Kotiya.
That day I got a good look her and she had looked back. Not with interest, just tolerance. And so I thanked God "Sadhu" all the same. With enough money for the week. I headed home. With no expectations I would enjoy my saturday. I left my cart in the yard near my mother's small wattle and daub house. I tucked the money into a crevice inside the cement block holding up my bed.
I walked out looking for more fortune.

I took the same route as I had when I had found the stash and kept walking, without my cart it seemed I could walk for miles. Without the sound of the rubber and radials on the stones of the unpaved road I was able to hear everything down to the Naja Naja hiss. Animals didn't see me or hear me coming.
It was nearing noon and the heat was unbearable on the exposed part of the road I was walking. I wandered off the road Seeking the cool of nearby trees. One of those trees was a four story tall Jackfruit. I looked up and counted nine huge fruits hanging grom the trunk.
I suddenly noticed a flicker of movement from the corner of my eye.
I used my instinct to turn slowly and my eyes found a leopard, Kotiya. It was moving through the outcrop of trees silently. A tear formed in the corner of my eye, just to seee the way those legs moved.
Would I follow it?
I would.