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 Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:16 pm
Jack grinned to himself as he stood on the sidewalk and held out his hand in the direction of the smart block of flats in front of him. Half-closing his eyes, he resisted the urge to laugh. It would figure she would find a place like this to live. In fact, put down on the dark side of the moon, his Bea would be able fo find a quiet, tastefully landscaped apartment building in a middle income neighborhood in which to live. It was the law of averages or the rules of synchronicity or the mandate of irony. Something like that.
Whatever it was, this understated little building was where his tricks had led him. Absently, he brushed his fingers through his ruffled dark hair as he padded up the spotless concrete path. Once he was through the door, he hardly glanced at the mailboxes. His nose said up, up, up. He checked that his shirt-tails were still hanging loose out the back of his sweater; he knew that wound her up like few things could. He climbed to the second floor.
His nose said to the right and he obediently turned until he reached a door marked 204. Figures she would go for something easily divisible. Jack paused a moment longer to once more disarrange his hair. Then, humming Beethoven's Fifth under his breath, he lifted his hand to knock.
Bea had never left her address. This is what she got when she forgot social niceties.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:55 pm
From far-off, there was the sound of a television; it was Ernie from Sesame Street, singing a song about how he didn't want to live on the moon. The door was opened, and the true horror of the fact that he didn't call ahead was revealed: Beatrix was wearing a huge old sweater that she had stolen from him years ago (stolen from his father, to complete the cycle) and fairly ratty jeans with holes in the knees. Her hair was even in a sloppy ponytail. Thwomp was dancing around beside her head, pleased to see him (at least somebody was). She went red behind her bandage, then white, and then proceeded to hit him with the dishtowel.
"Jack," she said, totally exasperated, and then drew him in close for a hug. As she did this, she also forcibly tucked in his shirt. "Jack, you total wretch!"
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:04 pm
He laughed, without shame, and wrapped his arms around Bea's waist for a reciprocating hug. "Oi, now," he replied, "you're the one who didn't leave an address or come back t' visit. I missed you."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:12 pm
"I got busy," she said, and buried her face momentarily in his shoulder. "I teach all those Liberty children their multiplication tables and I wrote you masses of letters but I never sent any of them, and Jack, I am a very bad mother."
Even the flat didn't quite properly look like a Beatrix Darnell special; it looked gently lived-in. Usually Beatrix managed to make anywhere she lived look as though nobody lived there, but there was even some laundry folded up on the sofa in the background and a stuffed bunny-rabbit lying propped-up next to a table. When the blonde finally detangled from Jack (mainly to also pull Thwomp away, who was coyly nibbling at his collar in case Jack had a cough drop) she was already pulling the tie out of her hair.
"Let me go put the kettle on," she said, with the unspoken and do my hair properly. "Your goddaughter is hanging around in front of the TV, despite all attempts on my part to never let her watch it which, might I add, lasted three whole days."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:28 pm
Jack looked bemused as he reached out to snatch the hair tie from her fingers with one hand and push her hair behind her ear with the other. "Goddaughter, huh? So the cabbage sprouted. Does she look a thing like her mum?" Neatly, he stepped through the door and his foot finally touched floor inside the flat. His nose stopped itching. "I reckon I'll just saunter on over an' introduce myself, hmm?"
With that, he winked and saw himself into the other room, following the sound of the television.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:34 pm
The little girl who was sitting in front of Sesame Street was as unlike Bea as a little girl could possibly get; she was redheaded and orange-eyed and suntanned, pushing a little tonka truck on the floor and making vroom noises. Her legs also ended at her thighs in clean stumps, but she didn't appear to pay much notice to this.
She looked up frankly at Jack when he came in, pausing her truck-vrooming to look him over. "Hi," she said, interested: nobody ever came to visit except the mailman. Then she said importantly: "I has a truck."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:39 pm
"Uh huh." Completely unmoved by the singular appearance of the girl (after all, he was father to kids who grew out of cups and flowers), Jack crouched beside her. "That's a monster o' a truck," he added. Then he held out his hand. "I'm Jack, your mum's friend."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:43 pm
Not at all sure what to do with his hand, she eventually reached out a chubby fist and high-fived it with her slightly sticky paw. "I's Jack," she said, bemused at them having the same name. Obviously there had been some mistake. "Jack-ooooba."
She looked over her shoulder at the telvision. "Elmo sucks," Jacoba informed him.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:51 pm
"Yep," Jack replied easily, unperturbed by her vocabulary. With an overdramatic grunt, he dropped himself backwards to land on his butt. Then he crossed his eyes at her. "So, Jacoba, I'll have t' tell your mum thanks for honorin' me."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:57 pm
Immediately charmed by his crossed eyes, she crossed her own back at him and stuck out her tongue. This made her laugh, but she had to uncross them as she wasn't good at keeping them crossed for long. How come her mother hadn't introduced her entertaining friends before? Sheesh.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:12 pm
Jack idly rolled onto his side to better put him on level with the little girl and he reached out to drag the truck towards him with a finger. Obediently, he also made "vroom" noises. "So you came outta the cabbage, huh?" he asked. "I'm glad. You'll be more fun now."
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:21 pm
"Cabbajes booooring," she immediately told him, and stuck out her tongue at one of the tables; perched on top of it was, hysterically, another cabbage. Beatrix had obviously gotten maternal in the time of Jacoba's existence. "I'm fun!"
Her little red head bobbed as she drove the truck carefully and parked it next to his arm. "I's gonna go to school," she said conversationally to him, warming up to this visitor who demanded little out of her. "Wif Harper."
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:36 pm
"Harper, Harper, Harper," Jack mused out loud. Then he shook his head. "Nope, don't know him. But I do know another cabbage-head. He lives with me. Antony." He looked down to study the truck parked demurely inches away from his hand and grinned. "I don't think he's a truck kind o' kid, though." Lifting his hand, he stretched it out and ruffled her short hair. "So promise not t' beat him up, huh?"
Jack was ignoring the other cabbage on instinct. People person that he was, with an extra sense of Dexter self-preservation, he had a hunch that Jacoba was not a fan of her new agrarian sibling.
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 7:49 pm
Jacoba knew Antony! "Antony tol' me not to puke," she said matter-of-factly. "We et icecream an' went onna walk." Obviously high excitement in Toddler Land.
Her mother came in from the kitchen, two mugs clasped in each hand and a sippee cup full of water wedged firmly under one arm. She passed one of the mugs to Jack and set the sippee cup down next to her toddler; Jacoba took a manly swig, but mainly only because Jack had a drink as well and she wanted to show him that she was properly grown-up.
"What do you think of her?" Beatrix looked a little wistful, tucking her legs in indian-style. She had tidied up her hair. "Not at all like me."
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Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:20 pm
Jack grinned over the rim of his cup, drawing out the moment through pure wickedness. Finally, he laughed. "She's got opinions an' strong ones. That's like you," he answered. "I like her." He turned to regard the little girl solemnly. "Jacoba, luv, you're alright by me."
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