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| Scene Title | Chasing Butterflies |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Children's games can be affected by the future. |
| Date | July 21, 2011 |
Greenspace near Bay House
The green spaces around Bayhouse are the few places that the children who were once of the Lighthouse are allowed to play in. The sounds of laughter and joy sometimes come from such a place, and other areas there's a strange silence hanging over the air. Today it's a mix of both. A blonde girl, a tween moving towards teen, sits in the grass, staring intently at a small bird that's hopping around pecking at the ground in search of something.
A tree nearby occassionally drops a leaf or two toward the ground, but the branches make no sound to give away the inhabitant who's hanging from a high limb.
Since it's hard to cart around a burgeoning toddler in the city when you have to delve beneath the ruins of midtown or scrabble over the wall of some Greenwich Village brownstone, this place - the home of all the former Lighthouse kids who survived the flu - is where Abby brings Kasha. So she can be with the others, get the attention she needs and fresh air. She'd disappeared into the home about a half hour before but now, Abby was coming back out, her fingers used as supports for the wobbling kid in the pink sundress who she's helping tool around one of the green patches not far away from the tree and the tween/teen combo.
Dark hair broken up by streaks of blonde, the tattoo's that mark her back seen from around her tanktop since it's too hot for her/comfortable in not wearing a long sleeved shirt while out here and pale legs poking out from beneath her khaki shorts. "One more step you! I'm going to let go. Go get that butterfly" And she does that. Lets go carefully, ready to grasp again should Kasha need the support as she takes steps forward without the needed help.
"Kasha!" the young blonde exclaims, looking away from the bird which suddenly takes off and flies away. Hailey follows it for a moment before straightening up and waving joyfully toward Abby and covering some of the distance over to the toddler as she takes slow steps in cropped grass. The hot summer has burned some patches brown, but many have retained enough green to still call this place a green space.
"Didn't know you were visiting today. Did you see? I was holding that bird here! Well, not really, but I was taking away it's desire to fly away for a bit…" Hailey tries to explain when a stick from above suddenly falls on her head. She never even heard it snap off. Glaring up, she can't even see the person responsible, but she knows who it is. "Lance is trying to break his neck."
"I am not!" a sound suddenly comes from above, along with the sudden rustle of leaves and branches. "It's up here, I just have to get to it! It seems to be higher every time I spot it." The rustling disappears almost as quickly as it appeared.
"Hmmm hmm, we're visiting. She's going to come stay for a few days again. If you want to keep an eye on her and help her keep learning to walk." This spoken to Hailey, a glance to the bird that has taken off with a smile. "It sounds like you're getting better. But just remember that all gods creatures deserve respect and free will is a very valuable thing. I'll have to ask Eileen to come down and sit with you, help you with the birds"
Incorrigible Lance though. Abby looks up, her eyes following Kasha's as the she strains to catch a glimpse of the invisible tween. "Just what on earth, are you trying to get Lance, I swear to the lord on high that if you fall and break your neck, I will be very unhappy. Kasha will be too" Light scolding. "
"I wouldn't be unhappy!" The boy's older sister calls up, through the lie is in her eyes. Hailey would have been. Even if Lance had been one of the rare ones not to get sick, despite being just as exposed as the others. She can't even hear or see the raspberry that get's blown at her from above.
"I know— I mean I can't really make them do anything, I can just kinda… change their feelings sometimes. It usually doesn't work. I can still feel what they feel better than I can change what they feel. Usually I can just… calm them down if they're scared or something." She looks a little embarassed before she steps over to get closer to Kasha. "And I'll totally help her while she's here! Does she talk much yet?"
"Ahh, well, you'll get better with the birds, over time. I'm sure. I was twelve when I learned to heal. I got better at it as time went by before i lost it" And now turn into fire. She won't delve into how her learning with that has been exponentially better. "She's talking a little, but not too much. Maybe you can help teach her that too, to talk. She calls Huruma Uma, but doesn't call me anything yet" Mom or otherwise. Abby takes a step to the tree, hand settling on the branch, peering up past the dark lenses of her sunglasses. "lance, what are you trying to get at?" She's fully prepared to climb up there herself if he doesn't answer.
"She called Lance 'La-la' last time. Lance was furious," Hailey says in a soft voice trying to keep her voice to a whisper. "Can you say Hay-lee, Kasha," she says as she kneels down in front of the baby, repeating her name slowly. She probably won't even mind if the girl calls her Hay at this rate.
Another small branch falls and hits the ground, before the rustling can be heard again. "Someone's putting stuff in the trees here! I've found five so far. Hah! Got it!"
The sound vanishes and from down below the movement of the trees marks his slow descent down.
"Putting What in the tree Lance" Abigail's voice suddenly a little tight. What would someone be putting into a tree, that there's five of. "You get down here La-la or I will tan your hide unless you give me an answer and don't think that I won't do such a thing!"
Kasha meanwhite is steady on her feet and smiling at Haylee with her gap toothed gummy grin. "Leeeee" She says, eschewing the Hay part. Some letters are harder to make her tongue manipulate to say. The Lee promptly followed by babbles of nonsense - Well, nonsense to everyone else.
Some people say be careful what you wish for.
There's a sudden visible rustle in the trees, which make noise a second later as something dark drops toward the ground. There's no thud to accent the boy's fall, but a moment later there's a very soft 'Ow'. There's a moment of surprise as Hailey forgets her smiles and giggles at being called Lee to yell "Lance!" in worry.
Not a moment later there's an immediate. "I'm okay!" and the boy is already starting to sit up again. Dark hair is cropped shorter than before, and the babyfat has started to dissolve from his cheeks. Despite the wince as he sits up, his blue eyes are wide and bright. Likely he'd say he's okay if his arm was broken, but he will probably only have bruises and scrapes from this fall.
And he clutches something small and hard in his right hand, probably the reason he fell, with only one hand free. A small circlular rock-like thing.
"Lance Armstrong, you are not" Abby's moving forward, trusting Haylee to keep an eye on kasha and wrangle her if need be, kneeling down to the teen, giving him a quick once over to make sure there's no obvious injuries, bumps to the head or wounds that may come back to haunt them later. Then, it's a glance to the rock like object, fingers picking it up from his hand - if he lets her - so she can look at it. "Fifth time you've come across it or there's four others up there?" What are rocks doing in tree's? "Did you get it out of a nest lance?"
"Hey that's mine!" Lance says, but he allows it to be taken, as well as the inspection. The small item is about the size of a bracelet, all near seamless stone, except a small break on one edge. Could have happened in the fall. It seems to have been carved into the shape of woven flowers and twine. "I found the others the last couple of months. Every few weeks there's one up a tree where we play." He explains, rubbing his arm a bit.
"Joe found the first one," Hailey corrects, which earns her a blue-eyed glare. "But Lance is convinced they're all his."
"The first one was a broken arrow made of stone, like the shaft and the arrow head. Joe did find it— and Paul found one of the others — a stone feather! — but…" He shifts where he sits. "Anyway it's mine! Even if this one is really is girly."
"This has been going on since you guys moved in?" She turns the stone bracelet over and over in her hand, frowning at it, fingers tracking over the carving. "Did you tell an adult at all guys? Or just kept it?" her creep factor a bit high but so far it doesn't seem to be offhand, a weapon. "If I gave you twenty bucks, think I could keep this? I mean, twenty bucks, think what you can get with that" Something nags at the corner of her mind as she turns it over and over in her hand.
"Joe found the first one while the others were still sick," Lance says, looking at the stone flower bracelet with a frown, despite the price being put on it. "Brian was a kid when we found it and Samara spent most her time with the little kids, so we just kept them." He opens his mouth, then closes it. As if he's about to add something else.
One wouldn't think twenty dollars would be much a decision, considering he just found it.
Suddenly he reaches out to snatch it back. "I don't want to sell it. It's mine." There's a stubborn-kid set to his mouth
"Out with it Lance, I'm here now. Spill. It's written all over your face" She's not giving it back, just yet. She looks over to Haylee, see if she has anything to say about this situation at all. "And for the record, if something happens again, and there's no adult, go to Juniper. Juniper will know who to talk to, and who to tell. Something like this-" She lifts the bracelet up. "Is something that we need to know. They don't get up there on their own" She points out,.
"Juniper knows, and I know who's putting it up there! I snuck— " Lance stops and bites down on the words. Never admit to crimes one doesn't have to! "It's a lady that Samara and Brian knows. It's just a game, that's all. Like an easter egg hunt. The one around Easter was even an egg."
Hailey looks surprised at this part of the confession, before she remembers to put her hands around Kasha and help her walk toward the butterfly that's trying to get away. Insects, unfortunately, are not within her ability. But it could be Abby's gotten a few things out of him that he didn't tell his big sister.
"Uhuh Lance. A lady that Brian and Sa-"
Hold up.
Abby glances down to the bracelet again, dark brows furrowing in thought, thumb tracking over the rock that comprises the jewelry. She rattles off a description of Cash, watching Lance the whole time, waiting for any flicker that might say he recognizes who she's describing. Kasha meanwhile, is oblivious that Abby's describing her analog, much older analog and is motoring along with Hailey's help to try and grasp a butterfly. Unsuccessfully that is.
"Yeah, that's her. See, you know her too," Lance says, reaching still growing hands for the rock bracelet, even if Abby's still trying to keep him from it. "So it's not like no adult knew about it. She did. And she's old."
The butterfly continues to elude the little girl whose analog they are speaking of. "She said they were mine. Mine to keep if I could find them." And the challange seemed to have lit up his eyes. "There are probably more." But he hasn't found more yet.
The bracelet is relinquished, offered up to the searching hands. "She's a safe person. I know her. It's a game, nothing more. Nut mark my words Lance Gerkin, if someone else does this or goes lurking, you tell an adult. or I'll tell Kasha some day what you did and she'll tan your hide, you hear me" Pointed look to the teen before she's now looking around the property. Cash, is playing games with her future husbands child self.
At some point in that thought, the memory slash dream of grown Lance laid out on a table irreversibly cold and prone, Kasha turned to stone and mourning him while Abby cleans his body surfaces and when he claims the bracelet, she's dragging him in for a hug, eyelashes damp. Squeezing him tightly to the point of probably complaint.
"Hey, I'm not an idiot," Lance says defensively, before he loses his breath from the sudden hug that almost lifts him off the ground a bit. "Hey— hey! I just fell out of a tree, lady. You're breaking my ribs or something!" If he can still have breath to speak, it can't really be that bad.
"Kash would never hurt me," he adds stubbornly, on the end. Even nearly saying the kid's name the same as the elder. Only a slight change in the 'a'-sound would be needed to match it.
'No, you're right, she wouldn't" She'd just.. something. "Tell you what, you save this bracelet, tuck it away. And when the time comes to give it to someone, you give it to your girlfriend. You'll know who it is, that should get it. She'll appreciate it, I'm sure" She turns him loose, ruffle of his hair before her pale legs start to carry her over to her daughter, lifting an arm to wipe at her eyes. "Haileeeeeeeey, Kashaaaaaaa. I'm feeling like.. oh I dunno, popsicles. If I go grab a shirt, you guys want to come with me to go get a box of them for everyone?"
"Awesome!" Hailey calls out in a cheerful voice, picking up the toddler rather than allow her to continue stumbling towards the butterfly that remains just out of reach.
Lance moves away, rubbing at his shoulder a bit as he looks off toward the butterfly. "I'll be right behind you. You guys go ahead." Guys who happen to all be chicks, but guys is so universal.
"You better be Mr. Gerkin" Abby replies, letting hailey deal with Kasha, directing them back towards the house. She'll need to slip the white shirt back on, hate, get her wallet. She reaches over at least to chuck a finger under Kasha's chin, tickle it then let go. "We'll see who else wants to come. If there's any special requests." A summer afternoon, it'll b e good to put smiles on faces with some popsicles, especially when the future is so uncertain and internally, she still hurts. Live in the now, some would say.
Before they get too far away from the green space, a shadow can be heard behind them and Lance appears holding his hands outright and cupped. "Wait, wait," he says as he raises his hands up enough so that they're at a level with Kasha. When his hands open, inside is the bright blue and black butterfly that she'd been chasing, gently captured in his hands. It flutter's it's wings twice and then flies away right in front of her.
"I'm good at catching bugs," he explains almost defensively. He didn't catch it for her or anything. Even if he's smiling at the baby smile, until he catches himself doing it.
"Time for popsicles!"
Sometimes butterflies get stepped on, and sometimes, they just get caught.