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 Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:33 pm
"Come back here!!" Crysta called aloud, then laughed in a giddy manner. It was mid-day in the park woods. She -should- have been in class....but she had determined the spirits would not have given her such a strong desire to skip if that was not what she'd been meant to do.
SO! She had skipped. She had dropped her backpack in a bush and thrown her jacket over some random tree limb. The morning had passed so quickly for her! And now? Now...Crysta was running around in circles. Left and right she jerked randomly as she ran through the thin tree's. All because she was currently following the path of a green, black, and blue butterfly. She scooped her hands towards it, attempting to catch it without actually grabbing it. She didn't want to hurt it, and she knew grabbing it would kill it. But if she scooped her fingers under it, it would latch onto her hand with it's little legs and still it's flight for a few moments. "Ah ha ha! I will get you little sister!!"
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:04 pm
The giddy girl wasn't the only one with skipping school on the brain. Jayke had only made it through first period before he had struck his teacher and bolted; the stupid she-yak had been slipping snide remarks about him during class all week long, like staring very pointedly at him when discussing the descendants of the lowly primates, or demanding to know who he had cheated off of when his homework had been flawless. But the final straw was when he had seen a brute of a classmate (who looked more like a primate that Jayke himself ever could), horking spitwads at the window and trying to frighten off a curious sparrow perched on the ledge. Jayke had punched him, the oaf had blubbered like a grossly huge baby, and the teacher had loomed over him and told him in the slow, deliberate tone reserved for the mentally slow, "We...don't...do....that...here." Feeling his rage boiling over once more, he had struck out at her and then bolted, first from the classroom, then from the school itself, not stopping until he had reached the park, where her cries of outraged pain could finally begin to fade.
Right now he was hanging upside down from a tree, eyes closed and ears open. He was focusing on calming himself down, and preparing for what he was sure to face when he got home. He heard what he thought was a child playing somewhere nearby, but he tuned it out along with all of the other unwanted noise and focused more on the slowing of his heartbeat and the gentle swinging motion as the breeze rocked him like a sympathetic mother. So immersed in the feeling was he that he didn't so much as flicker his eyelids when a butterfly landed on his nose.
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:31 pm
Crysta's chase came to an abrupt halt when the butterfly she had been chasing finally landed. Her blue eyes widened and she stepped up to stand face to upside down face before the boy. he appeared to be sleeping!
"Oh Little Sister, you surely have a funny sense of humor." She spoke plainly to the butterfly, then looked at the boy more closely. "It seems you have caught a boy, what a amusing way to end our game!"
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:40 pm
His senses abruptly jangled at the sound of the girl who had been playing far enough away to not bother him mere seconds ago. His forehead puckered in annoyance as he opened one eye. Where his vision wasn't obscured by powdery butterfly wings he beheld an upside-down girl, peering at him with a big smile. No, not at him; at the butterfly.
He swallowed the question he was about to grunt, "You talkin' to me?" No need when it became painfully obvious that she was talking to the bug happily dusting his nose and ignoring Jayke as though he were merely part of the tree. He concluded that either she was slow in the head, or she had a healthier respect for nature than the other Neanderthals that shared their age.
Instead he tried for a more productive question. "What do you want?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:36 pm
Crysta's eyes focused on the boy, who clearly was not sleeping at all. She folded her hands behind her and rocked back on her heels. "Eh-hee hee!" She laughed as she rocked back and forth for a moment. "So you are not asleep. I am sorry. I was playing a game with Little Sister there. I did not realize she was going to catch you though." Crysta turned her attention back to the butterfly. "Perhaps she wanted me to come and see you. The Spirits have been very strong today, I can almost hear them!" She turned her gaze upwards to peer into the tree's leaves above. "But there is so much city, even out here. Their voices are just so weak. Poor Spirits..."
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Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:47 pm
Jayke's scowl only deepened at Crysta's innocent laughter. Was this girl laughing at him? He had had plenty of that back at the school, the place he had just run away from. He didn't need some airhead giggling at him. But was she really an airhead? His look of annoyance turned to puzzlement at her strange words. Was she calling the butterfly a little sister? He had been around tribes who often referred to the animals as their literal kin; something he had always admired as sound thinking; animals always made much better companions than humans.
When Crysta had finished, he sighed, being careful not to startle the butterfuly into leaving his nose. "Tell me about it. This whole place sucks. This dump of a city would look so much better as a village; they could crap in the nearest stream and it'd STILL smell cleaner."
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Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:30 am
Crysta continued to smile, even when the boy seemed less then enthusiastic with her little rambling. She couldn't help it...she just talked as the words tumbled from her lips. Her sister told her she needed to talk less and listen more. But...she didn't see why she couldn't do both.
"A village?" She repeated softly, curiosity was clear in her voice as she spoke. "I can't imagine what it would be like in a village. Smaller I suppose, and a lot more friendly..." She glanced in the direction of the city and pursed her lips. "Though the city is full of spirits that are lonely or ignored, so I think I would prefer to be here. At least here I can try and speak to them, so they are not entirely alone. I like to think it's my purpose to be here with them." Crysta turned then to look at Jayke and smiled brightly again. "Little sister seems to really like your nose. She must be tired from our game. Either that or your nose must be very comfy. Hee hee!" Giggling happily, Crysta rocked back on her heels again. "My name is Crysta! What is your name?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 7:55 pm
Jayke sighe a little as Crysta continued to ramble on. He supposed she didn't consider herself to be among the unspoken targets of his few angry remarks. Perhaps she really wasn't; he'd certainly never seen any person act like her before, not even any of the wacko foster parents that he had been passed down to over the past few years. At least if they had, they would have been amusing.
He managed a wry smile then as he looked down his nose at the butterfly, curiously probing him with its tiny little tongue. "Maybe she thinks my nose is a flower. Hey, how do you know its a she anyway? It could very well be a guy butterfly, though I can't see how they'd be any different....what, do they pull up the little butterfly skirts and check?" Snorting, he bent his body so that he could reach up and take the branch his legs were dangling from, in order to right himself and lightly leap down, blinking in surprise that in spite of all that, the butterfly still remained perched cheerfully on his nose. "'m Jayke. So, did you ditch school too?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 10:00 pm
Crysta grinned faintly at Jayke and watched him as he righted himself from his hanging pose. She took a step back, and marveled that the butterfly had not taken off yet. "Perhaps she does think your nose is a flower...or she may be tired from our game." Crysta offered with a strange sense of thoughtfulness. She then lifted a hand, and pointed carefully and slowly without touching the insect. "It's head is rounded. If it were a male, it would be more triangular on this species." She explained with a bright smile, then giggled as he had before. "Eh-hee-heh! It's nice to meet you Jayke...and no. I did not ditch school. I just listened to the voice of the Spirits and they told me to go to the woods today...OH!" She brought her hands together in front of her and bounced upon her toes as a excited light came to her face. "Maybe they intended for us to meet!"
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Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 12:34 am
"Oh, and what sort of game do butterflies play?" Jayke inwardly flinched at the tone of voice that automatically came with that statement. He supposed those years of growing up rebellious and pratically friendless had given his tone that perpetually sarcastic sound. He hoped Crysta wouldn't take offense, though having just met her, and when he wasn't particularly looking for friends, it might not have bothered him as much as he thought it would.
He blinked in genuine surprise at her statement; it wasn't everyone who thought to look so closely at a butterfly to determine such a minute difference. Had he been the sort to consort more with the insects, he might have noticed it, but certainly not discovered the connection with its gender. Now he was throughly intrigued; she may have seemed as flighty as one, but here was no bimbo from a clique, prattling and giggling on about nothing. He almost found himself smiling back at her, but not quite.
"The voice of the spirits, eh? Are you Native American? Or maybe a more obscure aboriginal tribe? I bet I will have heard of it. My parents took me all over the world to see them; I must have met at least a hundred different ones."
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Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 3:17 am
"I suspect Butterflies create their games as they go. They do not seem much the sort to stick to rules. They play in whatever way amuses them most. So in the end there are no winners or losers, just a sense of happy accomplishment over a day well lived." Crysta cheerfully answered Jayke. Despite his seemingly snappish sounding voice, Crysta did not allow it to bother her any. Clearly the Spirits had meant for her to meet this boy after all.
"Native American? Well...I was born in America. But my Ancestors are from Africa. My parents bloodline runs from the Mandinka tribe. My great great grandparents came here to America. They had a son, who went back home to choose a bride for himself. They in turn had a son, who did the same. My sister and I are the first females in three generations born to my line." She spoke with clear pride in her voice. Her blue eyes sparkling as she shared a part of her family history with this perpetual stranger. "When my mother lived with us she used to sing me the stories of our people, so I'd be able to sing them to my daughters and sons when they are born. I won't be fortunate enough to have a husband from the tribe but I'm sure the Spirits will find a good man for me when I'm older. I prefer to follow the older religion of my people instead of the traditional Islamic that many of them follow now..." Crysta paused then in her babbling and realized she was...well... babbling! Smiling a bit sheepishly she glanced down at her toes. "Sorry. Sometimes I ramble on and on and on. I haven't even asked you anything!"
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Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 6:06 pm
"Well, that would definitely explain their flighty behavior." Jayke wasn't acutally being mean to the butterflies; he actually was fond of the bugs and their playful way of flitting about. Of all the time he had spent in dense forests and steamy jungles, nothing spoke of a clean, man-less environment like a drove of butterflies, fluttering about like tiny jewels among the flowers. In a way, he was jealous of the tiny scraps of free spirit; they had merely but to visit as many flowers as they could to consider each day fulfilling. He could recall a time in his life when he considered himself fulfilled after every day; living the life with his real parents and being surrounded by friends from all over the world. Now, with his folks gone, he was stuck living someone else's life; the one that The Man wanted him to live.
He tilted his head as Crysta spoke to him, now genuinely interested. He and his parents had been to Africa multiple times, and he could remember the Mandinka. "That's a pretty big bunch, if I remember right. They like to tell stories and sing lots of songs. I think my mother was learning how to play a kora when we had to leave. She said she would come back and learn better......." He looked up and smiled, almost every trace of his hostility gone. Apparently he had found someone as close to his predicament as he could get; a follower of traditions and rituals that made them the butt of so many jokes and pranks, and most of all, an apparent disregard for the way things are 'normally' done. He couldn't have asked for a better person to spend his impromptu day of hookie with. "I don't mind. You can ask me anything you want right now. I think I like hanging with you."
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Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 5:40 pm
Crysta's reaction to such a comment was a rather light hearted laugh. Her eyes crinkled upwards as she smiled. Jayke understood! That was better then anything else right now. Even seeing the butterfly catch him! "Oh yes. My sister has actually been there, but I've never been. I hope to change that someday. I want to see the village of my ancestors." She spoke with a hopeful note to her voice. Crysta clasped her hands before her and tightened her fingers around each other. "Yes yes! Isn't that a much better way to learn things? It makes history so much more personal and involved! I'm going to write a song about my own family history some day. Soon as I visit my ancestors and learn all that I can, so I can sing it to my own little babies."
Crysta unclasped her hands and swung them wide out to either of her sides. She spun about in a quick circle so her hair fanned out, then took a nimble little leap to Jaykes left. "My mother has a kora. She brought it from her home. I've never heard her play it though, my sister says that she used to when she was pregnant with me. She also say's that's why I seem so high strung all the time. Because I'm so in tune with a stringed instrument. I tell her she has silly spirits addling her head...from there we usually end up in some sort of food or pillow fight." Laughing again, Crysta folded her hands behind her back and set a rather serious look upon Jayke. He had said that she could ask anything right?
"Anything Anything? Or just. Within the commonly accepted limitations of personal preference Anything?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:00 pm
"It's pretty fun," Jayke said with a smile, "Of course, it's not for everyone. But still, most people who seem scared of Africa don't seem to want to see the beauty of it. Or any untamed land, for that matter. Seriously though, what's so pretty and majestic about huge concrete buildings and nasty-smelling streets that crack and break? What about just hard-packed earth, where the plants can still grow if they want to? Everyone seems so intent on burying nature like it isn't even there. It.....it sucks!" Taking a deep breath, Jayke managed a smile at Crysta. "Well at least some people still care. Hey, maybe sometime we can compare what songs we know; I bet we know some of the same. And I know there are some that I can remember the tunes to, but not the words. I bet if we sang songs in school instead of learning all that crap from books, we'd learn more."
Jayke tilted his head and followed Crysta with his eyes as she danced around him, so much like one of the butterflies that she seemed to love so much. "Sounds like fun; I don't have any real brothers or sisters to pal around with, and most of my foster siblings throw things not nearly as soft as pillows at me." Still smiling, he nodded at the girl. "Sure, whatever you like. At least you seem to want to know things out of curiousity and not ask the questions to be stupidly mean or make fun of me with."
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Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2010 3:37 pm
Crysta unclasped her hands and lifted them to cover her eyes as Jayke spoke. "People in this age are blind. They don't know how to use all their senses, or they merely are not aware that they are blinded." She cheerfully shared her opinion with Jayke. Her fingers cracked open, and she gave him a wider grin. "When you grow so used to one sort of beauty, you tend to miss out on the other types of beauty that can exist." Crysta allowed her hands to fall to her sides and she rocked back onto her heels in a slow swaying. "That would be lots of fun. I would love to compare songs. It would be nicer if they taught lessons in stories and song. Sometimes I feel like my brain is going cross-eyed from boredom."
Giggling softly Crysta ceased her rocking and shifted her weight to one foot. Bouncing up and down energetically on the ball of her foot. "I love my sister, even if she tries to be too much like a mom. She's too young a soul to be trying to act so old.." She added after a moment, then switched to her other foot to bounce on. "Every day I make a mental list of all the spirits I've met, and what they have asked of me. I count out the fun or good things I've had happen that day. I also write a list of all the bad and ugly things too. All the things that made me sad that day. At the end of the day I keep the good list inside me, and I take the bad list and I tear it all up. I throw it out the window and let the spirits carry them away." Crysta stopped her bouncing and looked rather intently at Jayke. "What would you do at the end of today? Would you make a good list or a bad list Jayke?"
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