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 Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:45 pm
Setting: Rockefeller Center, New York City in late December, before Christmas. Light Snow. Late at night.
Alan Murrow walked out of the NBC building in a rush. He had just come from his last "appointment" before his Christmas break (Alan REFUSED to use the blasphemous words 'holiday break')--a follow-up interview with Dateline, regarding his exploits with Allison Parker, former intern and current plaintiff--and now could not wait to head home.
Alan was dressed in his old fedora hat and tan overcoat, invoking the memory of his uncle Edward in his reporting day. He held his hand on top of the hat to keep the wintery gale from blowing it off his greying hair.
He scanned the plaza--the world-famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was aglow and the rink was open, but the cold weather and snow had chased many of the tourists away. Good, he thought, at least I can go home without running into the crowds.
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Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:57 pm
[Autumn Chandler]
Autumn was walking around the plaza, observing the falling snow & eyeballing the Christmas tree. With her, she had a camera bag, in hopes that she could perhaps grab some interesting photos while wandering around the place. She had finally worked enough to merit her a "vacation" of some sort, & she had always wanted to go to New York to see what it was like during the holidays.
Autumn wore a Columbia snowboarding winter coat over her usual black t-shirt, & wore jeans & a pair of faux-fur lined boots she had bought a year before. Her hair was down, showing off her purple streaks. Her purple-streaked hair often drew her weird looks from people, but it was something she had gotten used to during the summer, back when her two streaks were orange. Overall, she was sporting a rather casual, normal look, save for her hair.
As a strong gust of wind blew by, she huddled in her coat; despite living in the Northeast, she had never quite adjusted that well to the cold, which explained the snowboarding-quality coat. As Autumn looked around again, she noticed someone else who also seemed like he was out on the town. She began walking in his general direction, wondering if there was a spot where she could get a shot of the giant tree. If anything, she could wander on over to the rink & see what was going on.
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Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 11:40 pm
As Alan walked across the generally open plaza, he looked over at the giant tree. So magnificent, so large, so...grand, even in the snowstorm. Some higher up at NBC must be compensating for something, he thought with a smirk.
Alan continued to look up at the tree, ignoring the almost-invisible black ice only a few steps ahead of him. As he turned his head back, his foot hit the ice, and Alan stumbled backwards, his feet moving like some sort of cartoon before violently landing on his rear.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:46 am
As Autumn wandered a bit closer, she too also gazed at the large tree. It looked so lovely, all decorated with lights. She sighed, & wished she had enough living space to fit a tree so that she could decorate it. Working at a craft store seemed to get her a bit more into a decorating mood, & Christmas was always the prettiest holiday to her.
Suddenly, Autumn saw the man slip up ahead of her. Without thinking, she rushed over to help.
"Are you ok, sir?" she asked, arriving at his side. "That looked like one nasty slip. Darn ice," she continued, bending down to help the poor man up, her brown & purple hair being blown into her face.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:56 am
Alan gritted his teeth. The fall did hurt--much more than it would have 20 years ago--but it was really the shock of the cold impact that was making him wince. Slowly, he tried to get up, still hurting, as a young woman walked over to him.
"Oh, yes, I'm fine," Alan said, looking up. The girl looked normal enough...except for her hair, some sort of purple streak. Must be a punk, he evaluated.
Alan leaned on the girl to catch his balance, just as his fedora was picked up by a breeze and blown down towards the nearly empty ice skating rink.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:04 am
Autumn helped the man up to his feet, unaware of his first-hand assessment of her. It wasn't until he was on his own two feet & able to stand that she went after his hat, which was blowing along in the wind.
After retrieving the fedora, she hurried back over to the stranger to return it. "And, of course, it's just gotta be windy as well." She smiled, hoping that the man hadn't been hurt from the fall.
"Glad to hear that you're ok. Falls on the ice always hurt," she added, thinking of a fall a year beforehand, which wound up bruising her tailbone. Yet another reason for Autumn to dislike the winter.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:28 am
"Thank you," Alan said as the girl returned his hat to him. "It's funny, really--it almost never snows around Christmastime in New York." The last time it did was in the year 2000, when he lost his job, wife, and sister.
He turned to look at the Christmas tree, then back at the girl. "I thought you people didn't like us older folks," he said, trying to make a friendly conversation and oblivious to the wide generalization he had just made.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:34 am
Autumn nodded her head as he began to speak.
"Yeah, we haven't gotten any snow back home, either, back in New Hampshire. We've had one snowfall, & that was it. Pretty lousy, actually. Sucks for the ski resorts, too."
She sighed before he spoke again, this time asking about her "people" & older folks. She gave him a confused look. "'You people?' What are you talking about?" She still hadn't quite caught on to premature judgements he had already made in his mind.
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:05 pm
"Well, I mean punks of couse!" Alan smiled. "You aren't like those other ones, though--the anarchists, you know, the ones that hate American values."
He continued on, unaware of the hole he was digging himself into. "I've got to tell you, I was so relieved when I heard that place--Sea Bee Sea Gee's is it--closed down."
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 1:42 pm
Ah, yes, the hair, Autumn realized. Her first guess about this man was that he was some old-fashioned person. And perhaps religious as well. She could find that out easily enough.
But.. Punks? Here began the stereotyping.
"I'm not a punk," she said, her voice tainted with a hint of aggravation. "I'm just me. That's it. I dyed my hair because I chose to. I don't follow the whole labels thing. It's just stupid. People are people. It's just the morons who go about believing that & judging people upon silly beliefs like that."
She laughed when he said that punks were anarchists. "Boy, you really do believe the stereotype stuff, don't you? Not all punks are anarchists. And even non-Punks," she stated, air-quoting the 'non-punks' & 'punks' as she spoke, "can be anarchists. I know of a few people who you would assume to be "normal" people, yet they hate the way the goverment is running things." Autumn shook her head. "But then again, with the way the President is running the show, I can understand why," she muttered under her breath, not knowing if the wind carried it off before the man heard.
Then again, did she really care what he heard? Perhaps if he was so patriotic, he could understand the whole "free speech" bit. Ah, who knows?
"And I've never heard of that place. Care to inform me, Mr.. Sir?" she said, realizing she didn't have his name & instead just referring to him as 'sir.'
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:13 pm
Alan's face fell at the sound of the "punk" girl's critique of the President. His mouth fell into his trademark grimace.
"Our president is doing a fine job," he said, ignoring all the other questions and only going for what was in his mind the "big" one. "He opened up Iraq and brought down one of the most dangerous dictators in the world today. He's also led our country through one of the most tragic events in recent American history and is making the world safe for democracy." His voice started to break--Alan was preparing to get into a debate, pundit style.
"The only reason the Democrats took back the house is because stupid punks like you and the rest of your generation can't see the long term goal."
He smiled smugly, awaiting her response.
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Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:08 pm
Autumn shook her head ever so slightly.
"I don't think that the entire world exactly wants democracy," she simply replied, not wishing to be drawn into a big political debate. Politics weren't exactly her strong point. "And it seems like the more troops Bush sends over, just gets us even more entangled into Iraq's musings & problems. Everything has just become chaotic, & it seems like it just won't end," she continued, adding a tone of finality. There was more she wanted to say, but decided against it. She only added one last statement: "I'm not a Democrat. I'm an independent."
Autumn sighed, & began to twirl one of the purple streaks of hair. She looked up towards the sky, at the clouds & the falling snow, blinking whenever snowflakes decided to fall right into her eyes.
"You seem to be the big sterotypical kind of guy, huh?" Autumn said. She was curious to figure out what else this guy disagreed with. "Are you religious?"
In most cases, she found most people who acted like he did to be quite religious. Autumn believed that religion did nothing but cause problems in the world, & that it always had & always will.
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:04 pm
"How can the entire world not want democracy?" Alan asked incredulously. "Who wouldn't want to make their own decisions?" He laughed internal despite his own myopic view of the world and the girl's use of the word "independent"--or, as he saw it, not having enough backbone to choose one party.
Alan looked over at the Christmas tree. "Why, yes, I am a Catholic." He looked back at the girl, who was staring up at the heavens. "You aren't an aethist, are you?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:07 pm
Autumn looked back at the man. "Well, if the entire world desperately wanted democracy, then there wouldn't be all of that crap happening in Iraq." With a smile, she asked, "You're a Republican, arn't you?"
As he mentioned he was a Catholic, Autumn shoved her hands into her pockets & glanced back at the tree. "What's wrong with atheists?" she said, indirectly answering his question with a mock tone of innocence. Maybe she'd have just a little fun yanking the old guy's chains. Unlike him, she would learn more about the man before making a final judgement.. Although, so far, the man seemed to be quite a dink.
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:46 pm
Alan, meanwhile, was starting to get a little suspicous of the girl. Why was she asking so many questions? He usually hated it when people asked too much, but especially after that girl at the book signing...what was it with these young women who seemed to harass him? It seemed like a curse ever since Allison Parker.
If this kept going on and he revealed more about himself, there could be another scandal on the front page--the last thing he'd need, now more than ever.
"You know damn well what's wrong with aethism. You can't be right about everything!" Alan said, low and terse. He started to walk away from the girl.
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