Well, thought as I read this, all that is very non-specific. All that about "mystery"! What exactly is the nature of this place that he refers to as a flea-market? Why should he be checked at the door? Is the interior utterly dark, or does it flash with blinding colours, and resound with a babel of tongues? Does it contain angel dust, whizz bang, flash gordon, arcade machines, wizards with sparkling incantations? But these are only my associations...
And now the narrative is getting to the point! "... but this afternoon was to be special. It was to be my first encounter with the Pearly King".
"He stood in the depth of the room, partially obscured by shadow, illuminated now and again by a flashing light, his outline confused by the gesticulating arms and bobbing heads of the crowds that filled the fleamarket.
And yet he seemed solid, ominous, and meaningful, standing apart from the crowd, smiling softly and ambiguously, and looking, or so it seemed, in my direction... Why he struck me so profoundly I can't guess. The place was full of odd characters, weird hangers-on, misfits who would arrive suddenly for a few days, and then disappear.
It was only that there was something about him that was inexplicably bizarre, perhaps a taint of madness, of grizzled eccentricity, but all under the cloak of an almost beatific calmness, as embodied in his ambiguous smile.
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