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 Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 5:11 am
Family
A small smile tugged at Collin’s lips as the man’s left hand sifted through literally hundreds of small colourfull cardboard pieces. They were piled in the bottom of the jigsaw puzzle box waiting to be plucked out and put in the right place. Over the years Collin had become good with this type of puzzle but he still found them quite the challenge. He wasn’t really pitting himself against the puzzle though, there was no clock and no score. It was simply a problem to be solved, a problem that; provided all the pieces were there always could be solved. Collin had always found comfort in that fact.
It had been a long day at Chester’s, he’d been playing out on the patio and there had been a family there for a little girl’s birthday. One special request turned into a dozen as siblings and cousins demanded the right to pick songs too. While Collin liked to be obliging many of the songs did not flow well into each other and it had always made him feel strange to play sets where the songs were not complimentary. At least though no one had asked for anything he couldn’t play. No one had objected though when he’d given each song a slightly Jazz flavoring either. It hadn’t been a bad day really just a long one.
His grey eyes narrowed for a moment as Collin spotted another edge piece and picked it up. There were still too many open side spots to know where it went yet and the bit of colour on it wasn’t that helpful. Still, he’d be making progress once he found a few more pieces like it. For all that his day had been tiring Collin didn’t find the long quest for just the right piece to be all that stressing. Nell always said she’d never understood how it didn’t make his head explode. Though he kept the opinion to himself Collin had always believed his cousin was jealous that he had a head and patience for such things and she didn’t.
Collin’d finally gotten the outside of the puzzle put together when the door opened and Nell bounced in with a grin. She shrugged her coat on and tossed it at the old wooden standing rack, then shook her head and sent her long dark curly hair flying every which way. “There was something in the air today I haven’t had tips this good in ages and all the customers seemed to be in good moods.” The woman stalked towards her cousin still smiling even as she shook her head upon sighting his latest puzzle in progress.
“ Kids are going back to school soon, parents are thrilled.” At least that was the logical explanation, not that Collin was trying to spoil Nell’s mood. Considering how very much customer's moods affected her day he was happy for her when things went well.
“Could be that ” Nell admitted with a sharp nod. “ Anyways how was your day?”
“Birthday kid.” No other words were needed.
“Ahh.” A brief look of pity crossed his cousin’s face.
Collin nodded and gave her a wry smile “ She was cute though, asked me to play the unbirthday song.” A weird request but amusing since he used to play it for Nell on her birthday.
Predictably Nell’s face lit up with glee at that “ Best request ever,” she proclaimed than sat down beside him and propped her legs up on the free space that remained on the table. “Chinese and pay per view?”
“Chinese and pay per view.” The response was automatic, when they were doing well, when either of them got good tips it was a chinese and pay per view night. The habit dated back to their school days when they’d go out for Chinese and see a movie after getting rewarded for good grades on report cards. It was their own personal family tradition.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 5:59 am
Puzzling phone calls
“ What?” Nell was normally a fairly cheerful woman but phone calls at three am brought out the cranky in her. Whoever this was had better have a damned good excuse.
“ Nelly is that you?” The voice on the other end of the line was tired and a bit gravelly.
“ Great Uncle Bastion?” Oh well of course he would call now, Nell thought. The black sheep of the Revington family was well known for his tendency to have no disregard for other’s need for sleep when he wanted to talk. Though what he wanted to discuss and why her Nell had no clue. The last time he’d called it’s been to talk about a race of people that were like hermit crabs and interesting as it had been it was not a conversation Nell had needed to have right then. The woman prayed this was more important.
“ Of course, I just got back from a wonderful off planet cruise, you wouldn’t believe the places the galaxy has to offer if you put down the right money.” He began.
“ Um Gre-“ She had work tomorrow, travel advice needed to wait until a more reasonable hour.
“ Now now child didn’t your mother teach you manners, don’t go cutting a man off. Anyways, yes so I was on a cruise of sorts on different seas in different worlds and when I got back I realized I hadn’t gotten you anything.”
“ I see” Ok well that sort of made sense, he did have tendency to send the family souvenirs from his many trips. Still there was no need to wake her up to apologize. Infact if he hadn’t called she’d probably never even have known he’d gone away.
“ Indeed anyways I heard about this man who’s also a traveler of sorts and got you something from him to make up for it. Expect it to arrive in the next few days.”
“ What did you get me?” Maybe, hopefully it would be something like the colourful clay beads made by another worlds indigenous people like last time. That had been a rather thoughtful and appropriate gift that she still treasured.
“ A surprise, oh and tell Collin I said hello and that the gift is for him too.”
Before Nell could object there was a click and then a dial tone. Surprise gifts from her Great Uncle Bastion were always interesting but not necessarily always something she wanted. Surprise gifts, unlike the clay beads which he’d told her about, meant it was something he didn’t think she’d agree to having if she knew what it was beforehand.
The fact that Collin had been lumped into this was also a bit annoying, they were cousins living as room mates not a couple, didn’t they deserve separate gifts?
Nell hung up the phone and rolled over in bed, she sighed and closed her eyes again. Collin could learn about their surprise present and the phone call from Bastion in the morning. She doubted he’d be thrilled with the news either. Both of them loved their great uncle but even when they’d been children his infrequent appearances and odd behavior made him a loveable but trying relative. Now he was just… Great Uncle Bastion.
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Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:53 am
Non returnable gift of unknown origin.
“ Do you think he knew?” Collin asked as he sat on the living room couch beside his cousin. The pair stared unabashedly at the little silver haired girl before them. She wasn’t paying them any mind at the moment though. Instead she walked about the large black metal crate she’d arrived in, ran her fingers over it from time to time and climbed in and out of it as if she hoped to find something.
Nell shrugged “I don’t know, I don’t think so.” Their Great Uncle Bastion had ordered some highly unusual and unwanted gifts for people in the past, and some had been living but none of them had been children. “ He probably thought he was getting us a robot to help around the house or something, maybe some advanced thing from another planet.” The dark haired woman curled a strand of hair around a finger and tugged on it as she thought about that. Such a thing might have been useful and for that she'd have forgiven the single gift snub. This though, she wasn't sure what to make of this.
They certainly couldn’t send the girl back from where she’d come from, it would have been weird and they had no idea where she’d actually come from to begin with. The girl herself had no clue either, she didn’t even know her name or what her species was. Assuming she was some sort of genetic cybertronic species and not just some sicko’s experiment. the thought made the young woman's skin crawl.
“She needs a name,” Collin murmured. For better or worse the strange girl was theirs now and the first thing she needed was a name. It would, if nothing else help Collin deal with the fact that this was really happening. Not to mention that to talk with her at all they needed to call the child something other than ‘ little girl’. And she'd need registration papers so they could take her to doctors and the like.
“I don’t have name.” The girl’s eyes flicked blue then red then blue. “ You are Collin, she” she pointed at the woman beside the man. “ Is Nell. .I” A buzzing cracking noise came from her throat and then she shrugged. “ I don’t have name, I have nothing.” The girl frowned then and tightened her hands into tiny fists. it was clear by the expression on her face that this face was distressing or at least confusing her.
Collin watched as the weird electronic eyeballs located on her head and arms swiveled a bit before they locked onto him like her main ones had. “ It’s. It’s okay we can give you a name for now and if you remember later we can change it.” Her tried to keep his voice calm and reassuring, it was the only think he could think of for the moment. It bothered him that she had no name she could remember but letting her stress over it is bad.
“There is no name.” She insisted.
“Names are something people give you “ Nell interjected “ Nobody gave you one before maybe but it doesn’t mean you can’t have one.”
Nells comment made Collin wondered how alive the girl was, had she ever had a name? Had she had some sort of life before coming here.?
“I don’t want a name. It's not here I don't want one.”
Regardless of where the little cyborg girl had come from she was with the Revingtion’s now and already showed strong signs of the stubbornness that plagued the family.
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Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:57 pm
Daycare
Ai Revington was holding court in the play yard. The fenced in section of dirt and grass was where the silver haired girl was all powerful. The young cyborg child hadn’t tried to gain dominion over her fellow daycare playmates, it had just sort of happened. Perhaps or because her reflexes had allowed her to catch the cricket that had wandered into the play yard ion the first day she’d been at daycare. Perhaps because she secretly shared her snacks with people who made her happy. There might even have been no reason at all and the girl had just lucked out and become the popular child. How it had happened didn’t much matter in the grand scheme of things though, she was just going to take advantage of the fact that people liked her and wanted to do things for her.
Incomplete
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:43 pm
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