-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(loc: Victoria Square)
(loc: Victoria Square)
Another uncomfortable citizen, Theodore was having to take three breathes for every one that her calm son took. It wasn't the crowd itself that bothered her, or the people behind and in front of her despite how uncomfortably close they seemed to hover. It was the suffocating noise. The sounds of way too many things happening at the same time. The sound of a baby crying, the sound of shoes on the cobblestone, the sound of laughter, and more than a hundred conversations going on at once. (Most of which were irritable.) And unfortunately, she didn't have the common sense to step out of line. Instead she was feeling dizzy on her feet and on the brink of snapping, herself.
Fortunately for her, Canton could see it in her face. Or perhaps, he had remembered the couple dozen times she had reminded him that she usually takes the festival off to clean the cafe. That he always went to the festival. That she didn't.
His cool fingers could be felt on her forearm as he passed her his canteen and the comfort of his dark eyes where he seemed comfortable amidst the chaos, "The therapist said you should see the festival and get used to crowds on a day when everyone's having fun celebrating."
A woman had just snapped at a man who had snapped at someone else some ways ahead of them at the front of the line. It was looking messy. Even a kid had jumped in.
"Right. Afuncelebration."
The sentence comes out so forced it's nearly one word. Theo takes a sip of his water and hands the container back shakily.
"Th... Thank you, sweetie."
And thank the deities that they were almost at the front of the line. They had been waiting for what felt like an hour of fifteen minutes and it was their turn in line already. Theodore digs into the pocket of the apron draped over her shoulder and fishes out a few coins.
"Three tickets, please. For me, my son, and --"
"You know," her son interrupts, pausing just long enough not to be rude. Muttering, when he sees his mother's faltering look, "You know that grandpa won't leave the bakery. It's a miracle he likes to do the food stand for you."
She stutters. That's right. She hadn't even intended on getting one for him in the first place. Every year at the festival Canton took the day off and her father Lionel worked the booth while she took over his usual duties in the bakery. It was the one nostalgic bit of work about running the cafe that he still allowed himself outside of kitchen duty. She knew that, and yet she had ordered for him automatically, as though she had been ordering take-out somewhere.
"Stay calm. It's an honest mistake. People do this all the time..."
Nerves. Its just nerves.
Theo's fingers smooth out her apron a second in thought as she recovers. The gentleman at the booth, holding three tickets worth of change didn't look quite as patient.
"And?"
"--And his little girlfriend there."
She motions a finger toward the beige dress floating outside of the line where Aiden had been left after interfering in the earlier squabble. Theodore didn't have to look, she could see the wisp of a girl from the corner of her eye with her pale colour. Kind of like how Canton's face was losing all of his.
Situation diffused.
She recites her name and her son's.
She takes her first soothing deep breath.
And she lifts her chest a bit to look more authortative.
Even for a minute, she was going to look like a proper mother. Despite looking a bit bigger, her voice comes out in a whisper, just loud enough to be heard above the crowd:
"Be a gentleman and give that young girl the extra raffle ticket. She looks like she's been out of the line for a little while. Heavens knows that no one here is going to let her back in."
"But--?!"
And with that, Theodore Bynks puts her apron back on and becomes herself again. It gives her just enough confidence to get out of the bustling line and into the thinner crowds of festival. Since most of the crowd was still concentrated on the line, the festival itself wasn't nearly as oppressive yet. If she was lucky, this was certainly the time for her to find something to enjoy about the place. If not, she could at least hope that her father would be out of bread and she could take a nice quiet walk back to the shop before trying this again.
Nothing was luckier than being a mother though. She was grateful for the distraction of her son, even if he was taking the blunt side of an awkward situation.
---------------------------------------------------- "nothing more, nothing less, than regret. it's a mess!"
[[Score: Theo - 1, Canton - 0]]
[[Score: Theo - 1, Canton - 0]]
