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 Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 10:03 pm
despacito
Very, very slowly, at a time she was sure she had to herself, Stormy began to approach piano playing again. It had sat in the corner of the room like a burden for so long, she had grown used to simply overlooking it, let it blend into the wall like everything else she didn't want to see in her life. Now it seemed to stand out just a little too much, like it was begging for attention. Or judging her for being left alone for so long.
Very, very slowly, she sat down and pressed middle C.
The sound was so innate, so ingrained in her, that it was like hearing a familiar melody in itself. You're in tune, it seemed to say. I'm really not, she answered.
There was a small pile of books by the piano, but Stormy didn't pick them up. Baby steps. That was the new mantra these days. She pressed middle C again. Remember this? Her right hand curled over the keys as she played a simple scale, thumb crossing under so she could complete it without help. Back down again with the middle finger crossing over to bridge. But C was easy. She moved to D...
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Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 10:06 pm
and mirrors
At the dinner table, a somewhat rare moment they could share together, she put forward a box of cigarettes by her plate and pushed it slightly towards Gale. It wasn't an offering, but rather it mimicked the motion someone might make when they put their phone by their meal.
"I know I should quit," she said without much energy behind it.
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Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 10:08 pm
shopping
"So." Stormy's voice was so naturally quiet, it was easily eaten up by the dull roar of the mall. "So," she repeated, leaning in closer, "did you make a list?"
She reached into her pocket and produced a small notepad. "I made some notes: tea, snacks, candy..."
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Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:31 am
shopping
He had indeed made a list.
Sort of.
"More shirts for me," said Gale, looking down at the piece of paper he'd unfolded and was now squinting at without his reading glasses. "I've messed up too many recently. And perhaps some more groceries? I think we're out of flour, I'd like to make some more biscuits..."
His fingers twined through Stormy's automatically, Gale making sure he wasn't going to lose her in the crowd.
"Where would you like to go first?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:36 am
despacito
He sat somewhere close by, but not close enough to crowd, or to make her feel overwhelmed. The last time Stormy had played a piano had been a long, long time ago; the memories were stuck in Gale's mind, quietly biding away, and he pulled them out every once in a while, let them flutter around in his thoughts.
Music had always been an integral part of her life, especially; he wanted it back for her, wanted her to watch the joy spread across her face, let the notes curl their way into her heart.
Gale's eyes flickered towards Stormy, quietly watching, then looked back at the book in his lap again, not really reading, but listening.
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Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:40 am
and mirrors
Gale slowly lowered his fork, swallowing his bite of food. The box of cigarettes was glanced at, but he didn't reach for it, just contemplated it the way that someone might study a paper or a painting they were trying to figure out and understand.
"I want you to," he said, a quiet admission, after a moment, "but I know it's not an easy thing."
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 9:11 pm
and mirrors
"It's better than drinking, and it gets me favors sometimes." It wasn't so much that she couldn't hold her liquor than it was that alcohol removed her inhibitions. And if Stormy went from too wrapped up to too loose, well...It'd become a nightmare. It always did.
"My mom used to smoke," she said as she turned back to her food. "Before she had my sister. Nobody told them it was bad back then. She went cold turkey when she found out she was pregnant. But my other cousins didn't stop. It made family visits awkward."
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 9:25 pm
despacito
She was entranced for what seemed like an hour but really must have been ten minutes, lost in thought. She remembered the keyboard at her home in Michigan. She remembered the old grand in the town's classroom. She remembered the taste of the tea that had brought back memories of that hateful, black recital. Rachmaninoff.
Stormy paused in her fingerings for a moment. It had been her hardest song. The man had 11th sized hands that had made her hands cry stretching to accommodate to the keys. It was a dark melody that had last been played in anger and unsung resentment, equal parts bitter and righteous in its headlong melody.
She forgot she was supposed to be taking baby steps and said, "Gale? D'you want to learn a little?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 9:28 pm
shopping
"Shoes," she determined, already leading Gale by the hand towards the map of the mall nearest them. "Roland's are too big for him still. I told him I'd find some next time we went out, since I need to replace one or two anyway."
After determining the closest appropriate store, Stormy added, "They're so small, you know. I don't understand why Creation did that. Did he want to bring them with him...?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:50 am
despacito
Gale, also forgetting that he was supposed to look as though he was actually reading, lifted his head, a look of surprise on his face behind the glasses. Only a short time had passed; barely ten minutes, and the question was unexpected - though not unwelcome.
He slowly closed the book, sliding it off his lap and stood, padding over to where Stormy was.
"Are you going to teach me?" Gale asked, the corners of his lips quirking a little.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 9:04 am
shopping
It made him smile to think of Stormy taking care of Roland. "He's a good kid," said Gale, letting her tow him towards the storefront. After a moment, he added, a little quietly, "He reminds me a little of myself when I first came to the island. I was younger than him, I think, but..."
He shook his head. "I don't understand it either. It makes little sense; reverting them back to their teenage years doesn't serve any purpose, unless the purpose was just to cause disarray."
Gale's eyes moved around the store, looking for where the shoes were. "Not that Deus isn't already in disarray sometimes..."
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 9:07 am
and mirrors
It had been so long since she had started that he couldn't actually remember anymore how long it had been. Gale lifted his fork again, absently stirring vegetables around on his plate. "Cold turkey is always the hardest route, I've heard. My father smoked as well," he added, though that was hard to remember too. "I didn't...live much with him once I got older, but he used to go sit on our front porch because my mother wouldn't let him do it in the house."
He could still smell the smoke, curling upwards through one of the front windows. Gale's gaze went to the box again.
"Do you want to stop?" he asked, after a moment; not accusingly, but quietly curious.
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 10:02 pm
despacito
"Us," she corrected him, patting the space left of middle C she had made for him on the seat.
In the time Gale took to reach her, Stormy had pulled a yellowed book from near the bottom of the pile, a collection of various preludes. She flipped pages until she reached one named "Prelude in C# Minor" and flattened the sheets against the spine. It definitely wasn't anything for a beginner to start with, by the look of the notation.
"This one is special," Stormy told him, eyes tracing each line like she was reading a book, "for a couple've reasons. Have you ever read sheet music before?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 9:14 am
despacito
He couldn't help but give her a small smile, Gale sliding onto the bench beside Stormy, gaze automatically moving to the book she had spread out in front of them. He didn't recognize any of it; but the book itself looked careworn and loved, or perhaps just old.
"Why special?" Gale asked, and then, "I've...glanced at it, a bit, back when I was in school, but not a great deal. I've never really had the chance, I suppose."
He gave Stormy a sideways look. "Are you going to teach me to?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 11:52 am
despacito Stormy didn't answer at first, suddenly uncertain. Her arm crossing in front of Gale, she quietly played the first three notes: somber, heavy, and dark. They hung in the air like fog, ominous as black clouds, and it wasn't just because her foot was on the pedal. "I wouldn't start you on this one," she said after a moment. "That would be cruel." She pulled her hand back to her lap and became pensive. "This was the last piece I remember memorizing," she told him, eyes still scanning the pages. "Before I just...stopped. I really liked it. I did. But it doesn't have good memories attached to it." Stormy's hands laced together. "I thought, maybe I could try again. But it's a big one for a first step." --- and mirrors "The favors, no. The habit, yes." Stormy frowned at her hands sadly, at scars seen and unseen. "But I'm afraid I'll find something worse to replace it." Again.--- shopping "Mm..." She smiled a little at the thought of a younger Gale as she plucked out this pair and that, trying to decide what might look comfortable but cool for Roland. There was a teen there that looked his age; she glanced at him periodically to help gauge her choices. (It wasn't that she didn't trust Gale's judgment. It was that Gale dressed like a prep school boy still, which she didn't think Roland shared.) "Maybe it wasn't with an ulterior motive," she mused. "Maybe some part of each of them wanted a second chance, and the legacy just reacted to it." There was an abject sense of longing in Stormy's voice.
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