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 Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:59 pm
"What, am I going to burn in Hell because I don't believe in God?" Autumn asked just as he started to walk away.
"What's wrong? Too scared to talk to me now or something?" she hollared after him. It seemed that she had pushed just the right buttons, & she wasn't even done bugging the man.
"You just find something wrong with anyone who's not religious & patriotic?" she continued, taking a few steps towards the man before stopping. "Do you hate everyone who's not American, or religious, or anything like that?" she said aloud.
It was crap like this that usually got Autumn into trouble. She figured that if he had more to say, then he would stick around.
"His own fault. He's just his head stuck up his a** so far, perhaps it won't ever come out now."
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:29 pm
"Leave me alone!" Alan started to walk away, crossing the rest of the plaza. "I can have you arrested for harassment!" He tried to ignore the questions as he walked, but they dug into him like icy daggers. Patriotism...religion...America...the professional life of Alan Murrow was built on such pillars.
He turned away from the girl with the purple streaked hair, towards the far street where he could catch a cab...or if he was in a pinch, go take the subway.
As the girl finished her last retort, Alan had heard too much to not reply back. He turned around in a complete circle...before slipping on black ice, again. This time, however, it seemed much more painful and damaging--Alan heard a distinct snap in his hip as he landed on his side.
He turned to the girl. "See what you made me do? I'm going to sue you!"
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:40 pm
"Arrest me for harassment? I bet you've done much worse," Autumn simply replied.
Just then, the man fell on ice once again, this time making threats against her to sue.
"Sue me? For falling on your a**?" she laughed. "That's about as stupid as someone suing because they spilled their coffee on themselves." This time, Autumn made no move towards the man. She doubted that he would accept any help from her.
"Besides, I could probably say the same to you, about being arrested for harassment. Sitting here, saying all of these rude things about me.." she said loudly. "I hope you're a bit more friendlier towards your family than you're acting now."
Autumn looked at her feet & watched the snow fall around her feet, occasionally being blown by the wind. She wanted to help the man, but again, she doubted that he would accept her offer. If anything, the stubborn mule might just hurt himself even more, she thought.
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:59 pm
Alan struggled to get back up as the girl laughed at him. He tried to listen to the various insults that she threw at him, but the dull thumping pain in his now undoubtably injured hip took most of his attention. I hurt my hip? Alan asked himself in shock. I'm not that old.
He tried to grasp onto something, anything nearby to help prop him back up, but to no avail. He was almost in the exact center of the open plaza, and too far from the planted trees or bar around the ice rink. He fell down onto the ground again, making wheezing sounds as he tried to push himself up from it.
He was almost up again when he made the remark about his family. Alan's body paralyzed in shock, then fell limp. He once again fell down onto the ground, causing him to groan in pain.
It was the final straw. Alan rolled over, gingerly getting up. "Don't EVER mention my family again!" he snarled at her, remembering Helen, and his mother and father, and Rebecca, especially Rebecca.
"Where's your family, huh? Why are you alone here? On Christmas!!" he tried to yell between gasps.
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:07 pm
Autumn watched as he tried to get up, & again thought about helping him. She took a step before he suddenly yelled, causing her to jump.
"My family's back home, off doing their own thing," she replied. "I came here on my own, since I was the only one who felt like going out on a little trip." Her voice was rather flat, giving no hint as to her relationshop with her family. She & her family weren't exactly at each others throats, but they weren't exactly one big, loving family, either.
Autumn figured that Alan must not get along with his family very well. Even though he said not to mention them again, her curiosity got the better of her. "Do you hate your family?"
He only said again, & we're still on the topic, she thought to herself, reasoning it out in her head.
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:16 pm
"None of you GODDAMN business!!" he said again, now slowly standing upright. The girl wasn't standing there alone, now--he saw his mother and father in the windswept snow, looking disapointed, and Rebecca sitting cross-legged, not looking like herself at all but a skeleton of the woman who he had last seen in Georgetown 15 years ago. But the wind died around the girl, and so did his family.
He started to hobble towards the street, before turning around in realization. "What's your name?" he asked, hoping the girl would slip up and give him information that would be useful to his lawyer.
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:22 pm
Autumn was startled yet again, as he yelled that it was none of her business. A sudden gust of wind blew some snow around her before dying down again.
"I guess so," she simply stated.
"My name?" she asked, wondering why he wanted to know. "Autumn," she answered, hoping that she didn't make a mistake in giving out her actual name. Then again, she didn't give him her last name.
"And yours? I do believe you never quite introduced yourself."
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:34 pm
Alan eyed her suspiciously. No way he could give his real name... "Edward," he said, using the name of his famous uncle.
His eyes narrowed and his mouth grimaced, making Alan seem like the Grinch (without the green fur, of course). "Autumn? What kind of name is Autumn? Some kind of hippie name?" he asked, not seeing that he was making the same mistake that got him in that situation in the first place.
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:39 pm
"Edward, huh?" she asked. "M'k.."
Autumn raised a brow when he inquired about the "hippie" name. "A hippie name? What, you've got a problem against hippies, too?" She shook her head. "What else have you got problems with? Are you racists or sexist? Or a homophobe?" If he answered yes to any of these, particularly the homophobe, Autumn wasn't going to be too happy.
Autumn never took too well to people who were like that. Not once.
"If anything, ask my parents about the name. They're the one who gave me the name. And before you start firing off unjust statements about them, they're not hippies. In fact, they're tightwads like you. Just not quite to your extremes," she replied.
"It's just an uncommon name, Mr. Edward."
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:53 pm
It was just not Alan's night.
At her remarks, he became VERY angry. The pot that is Alan Murrow had been stewing for several months now, with bad things just piling on top of one another...but this girl broke the last straw, and the pot was boiling over.
His eyes glimmered with new determination, like some sort of savage in the heat of the moment. "I thought I told you NOT to TALK ABOUT MY FAMILY!" Alan screamed, his face a shade of tomato red. "NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE BEFORE I CALL MY LAWYER!"
He turned violently, nearly slipping again and hurting his bad hip, not noticing the valuable piece of information that he had let slip out.
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 10:13 am
Autumn jumped when he practically screamed at the girl.
"Your lawyer? What for? Because you slipped & I was standing here? That's kinda silly," she simply said.
She didn't leave, either. Instead she just wandered a few feet away & just stared at the tree, her hands still shoved into her pockets. If the man really was done with her, he'd wander off. Besides, she thought, I'm now just standing here, minding my own business.
"A lawyer. ********. People nowadays.." she muttered to herself, still a bit peeved by the arrogance of the injured man.
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 10:49 pm
Alan regained his balance on the ice and slowly shuffled away from the girl, muttering to himself about things past. He walked past the giant Christmas tree, ignoring the lights and wonder, only focusing in on himself as he turned at the end of the plaza around a building, hiding both the tree and girl from view.
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