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 Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:37 pm
With one last pathetic look at Alice, Angie chewed blankly on a piece of burnt toast and begun to gather her things.
"Don't worry," Chyre said coaxingly, handing Angie her coat. "Everything'll be fine. We're all here to look out for her."
"Okay," she said mechanically, though she shot Chyre a dirty look as she shuffled out the door.
The weather wasn't terribly extraordinary - Angie left her coat unbuttoned in the breeze that promised a warmer spring as she trudged half-heartedly to the library. At least there weren't any old ladies to trip her up this time.
Upon her arrival, Boss Lady welcomed her back with a great big perfumed hug and what she could've sworn were a tear or two - and then shoved her into the children's section to reshelve books.
As she put each one in its respective place, she flipped through them briefly, subtly deciding whether or not Alice would like them.. and then promptly decided she had thought no such thing and shoved the book onto the shelf rather forcefully. Ever wonder why library books are so beaten up? That's why.
After an hour (which had seemed like five, or six) Boss Lady came back to formally request that she take care of Story Time; IE, shoved a book in her hands and pointed to the circular rug that looked like a clock. Angie said nothing, simply walked over to her plastic chair, sat down, and cracked open the book.
"This is the story of Little Red Riding Hood," She began, though her voice was high-pitch and so much different than the one she thought she had. "By.. By.. By some dude. I dunno. Uhm."
She stared at the tiny pudgy faces gathered around her, who promptly returned the favor.
"Uh.. once upon a time..." She began, quickly looking down at the book to avoid their blank gaze. It was rather creepy. "..there was a little girl, and, um... they called her.. Little Red Riding Hood."
Silence - clearly, her audience was unimpressed.
And then the inevitable struck - she swallowed quickly, but it didn't help. Quickly, she looked around for Boss Lady, whom she spotted watching from the entrance to the Children's Section of the library and sent her the most pitifully pouty stare she could manage to muster at the moment. She strode over quickly, mumbled something to Angie that she didn't quite catch, and took her place as she stood up and ran in what she hoped to be the general direction of the bathroom.
Her heart throbbed, but she couldn't quite place her finger on what she was feeling at the moment - usually her emotions were so cut-and-dry, but this time.. it was different. She couldn't tell what was going on. She choked on what she really hoped wasn't a sob as she stared at her reflection in the mirror, red-eyed and flushing rapidly; what was going on?
Feeling utterly hopeless, she left after about ten minutes of splashing cold water on her face to talk to Boss Lady; mercifully, she excused the young girl and she trudged back home, feeling very patronized.
Then, finally, she was back home; she knocked quickly and the door was opened almost immediately by the butler, who gazed at her plaintively for a moment before looking away.
Ignoring his rude gesture, she peered over his shoulder to the main source of noise she could hear now; Chyre and Kokoro were huddled together, speaking in odd tones and controlling stuffed animals forcefully. Little baby Alice sat in the middle of the chaos, giggling and grabbing the trunk of Kokoro's elephant.
Chyre looked up briefly and gaped openly. "You're home early," she said bluntly, but moved over so that she could sit between them. "Everything okay?"
"Sure," Angie mumbled, settling down next to her sister. She couldn't help but crack a grin at Alice's beaming face.
"Told you she'd be fine," Chyre said in a low tone and elbowed Angie in the ribs - she made a small sound of protest and made as though she was going to return the favor, but stopped.
"What is it?" She asked, a blissfully ignorant but gentle smile on her face.
"Oh.." Angie said, but trailed off.
"..nothing," she said, and picked up a teddy bear.
How could Chyre's butterfly marking gotten bigger? It must've been a trick of the light. Something in the back of her mind, however, told her that something was Not Quite Right.
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:38 pm
[reserved - where is home]
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:39 pm
[reserved - where is my family]
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:40 pm
[reserved - one down, two to go]
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:41 pm
[reserved - a little bit of mother/daughter bonding]
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:42 pm
[reserved - the monsters under my bed, monsters all in my head]
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Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 11:44 pm
[reserved - my life is a downwards spiral of death]
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