Participants:
| Scene Title | Collecting Cards |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | June meets Raquelle as she ventures through the island. |
| Date | August 28, 2009 |
It is early afternoon when Raquelle dares to make his rounds. He's got a streak of green in his emo fringe but a black fedora like hat pulled down low, piercings in and eyeliner worn, dark shades pulled on to match his black leather jacket, fitted black t-shirt, black jeans and a docs on his feet. He walks along the streets with his bag of supplies resting against his hip ala messenger bag style and dark green knitted scarf tossed around his neck. He seems to be on the look out for people who need his help, making mental notes and occasionally pulling out a snickers bar to toss to somebody.
There are certain parts of June's brain that still don't reconcile things properly. One is the fact that occasionally she needs to eat a meal. She's seen Thalia on and off the past few days, but because the girl was in the hospital, they haven't really connected. June started out the day in fresh clothing, but fresh, they are no longer. She's been busy picking up trash and fixing the occasional broken window, bent sign or cracked sidewalk on her question to beautify the island. It's her calling, she feels.
Her hair, once pulled back into a ponytail, is now more frazzled than not, the hairband slipping towards the end of the tail and some loose strands of hair are crazily waving about. She's dirty, with hand prints and streaks of oil and dirt on her shirt and jeans. The one thing she does hold in her hand is a bottle of water, which is still more than three quarters full. As she walks, she carefully steps over the lines that cross the sidewalk, counting along the way. "Four hundred seventy six, four hundred seventy seven.."
Raquelle's head tilts to the side at the sound of a voice, a female voice and he looks over his shoulder in time to catch a glimpse of June. He's a hairdresser so his eyes do a quick sweep over the young woman from her hair to her shoes and back up with some concern, brow furrowing. He reaches into his bag for a small bag of gummy bears and a snickers bar and thusly armed approaches the woman.
"Oh my lord honey, aren't you the cutest thing I've seen in the longest time…so adorable, here I'll even letcha take your pick between gummy or chocolate…" He holds up the sweets in each hand and flashes a smile, cutting straight to the chase as he takes in all the dirt and what not from behind his shades.
There's a look of scrutiny as June's counting is interrupted by Raquelle's approach and offer of candy. His outspoken wardrobe and look catches her attention as she gives the man the once over with her blue eyes before she reaches up and brushes something off her face, or so it seems. All she really ends up doing is adding another smudge of dirt from her hands to her cheek.
Of course, the decision as to whether to take the chocolate or the gummy bears comes with a tad look of confusion. Everyone she's met so far on the island has been very friendly towards her, which may be more luck than the general demeanor of those who live on Staten. The woman, who's probably in her mid-twenties looks from one offer to the other before she glances at the man. "I'm sure which to pick." When faced with the decision, the woman now seems utterly lost.
Raquelle's expression grows even more concerned as he listens and watches the woman. He frowns and lowers the candies, shifting them to one hand as a sleight of hand leaves a hankie in his now free hand and he offers it to the woman. "Well do you prefer fruity things or chocolatey things? If it was me, I'd just pick both but I have a sweet tooth." He winks and flashes another charming grin. "Here, you've got a bit of smudge on your cheeks darlin'…"
He looks around a bit warily before looking back to the woman. "Then you can pick out your candy and we'll find a nice place to settle down and get to nibbling."
Whether it's that June doesn't know what to pick or that she doesn't know what she'd like, is debatable. You would think that she would come into contact with choices everyday, but even such a simple decision causes her to hesitate.
As if to deflect the moment to decide, she glances up at the hat he wears on his head. "It's an interesting hat. I'm not really sure what it means though." It's as if she thinks there needs to be a reason for someone to wear a hat. "Are you from California?" Which, of course, seems to be the obvious reason. She starts walking down the sidewalk as if that's what they were supposed to do.
Raquelle walks along beside the woman, well groomed eyebrows raising a fraction as he tries to follow the conversation. It is a tad challenging and he removes his hat, offering it to the woman with a soft smile. "It means that I was feeling a bit…like wearing a hat today honeybuns, but here. I think it'll look more…hmm."
He trails off now, literally at a loss for where to go from here so he just does what he does best. "Nope, not from California darlin', I'm from Tennessee. Lots of music and good food and all those good things. I'm Raquelle, folks call me Kelly though." He chirps, actually handing the candy over now and worrying his bottom lip. "What's your name gorgeous?"
As she walks, June is careful to avoid stepping on the lines that cross the sidewalk. Almost as if stepping on them would bring on something bad. "June." She stops suddenly, as if she something just occurred to her. "Do you have any tattoos?" she says, spinning on her heels to face him now.
Then she's distracted as she tilts her head, looking past him. She slips over to a battered blue maildrop. There's some rust and dents. She wrinkles up her nose. "Let me help." It doesn't really matter to her that there probably is no mail that runs out this way, or that any letters inside the box have probably been sitting there for weeks or months. She slides her hand across a rusted spot and blue begins to smear across it until it completely covers the rust. As she runs her hand across the dents, they smooth out like clay under her touch. It's not perfect, but she steps back to access her handiwork.
"Mmhm…I have tattoos and piercings in some very personal places honey. My tattoos though I could have more I'm sure." Raquelle's hand flutters up to brush his hair out of his face and he just toys with his hat.
He watches her move towards the mailbox and do what she's doing and he sucks his two front teeth, he pulls out his wipes and just sighs softly. "Give me your hands honey." It is a reflex as a father as he pulls out a wet one and is prepared to make sure he cleans her hands if allowed. "Good job."
June doesn't seem to object to being handled as she allows him to clean her hands. "Devi had tattoos. She had a lot. She wanted to give me one, but I don't like to be pinched. But Devi and Thalia both work in garages." As if that last line would explain her interest in tattoos or anything for that matter.
Her blue eyes look down as the dirt comes off her hands and onto the the cloth. "It's dirty here." she notes, explaining her appearance. "I'm trying to clean it up, but I think that there might be too much. I think maybe it will never be clean." A weary sigh comes from the woman. "If I live here, it should be cleaned though. Right?" She lifts her gaze to meet his as her head tilts slightly to the side, whiffs of hair begins to blow softly as a breeze comes through.
Raquelle's eyebrow raises as he cleans up June's hands and he examines her nails carefully. "Tattoos hurt a bit sugar, you should never get one unless you really really really feel it." He keeps his voice soft, gentle even as his gift wraps around his words reflexively to be soothing. "What type of garage, hm?"
Then her words really catch his attention. "That's why I come around darlin', to be a fairy god father to the people I can meet here ya know. I give 'em candy and smokes and boxers." Then he pauses. "You live here honey? Where do you live?" He eyes her hair now with more concern.
June's nail are either a little too long or chewed down. And dirty. In contrast to the way she cleans up around the island, hygiene is not high on her own priority list it seems. "I think smoking is bad for you." She's not entirely sure, so perhaps she's repeating something she's heard before somewhere. "How about food and water?" she asks as if that makes more sense.
After her hands are clean in her own mind she tugs them back gently and begins to walk down the sidewalk again. "Thalia lets me stay at her house. There's 16 doors and 46 windows on her house. But I fixed the broken ones already, so it's okay." Her hand slips up to scratch at the side of her head gently as she walks.
"Smokin' is horrible for ya honey. Kills ya dead, however sometimes people love smoking so much they do stuff they shouldn't and get in trouble for trying to do bad things to get the cigarettes. So I just try to give people the smokes so they don't have to do bad things to get them." Raquelle explains sheepishly. "That many doors? Daaaaayum sweetie, that's a lot of doors." He twirls his hat on a finger as he walks.
No specific place to go, it leaves him a bit uncertain but he wrinkles his nose and tilts his head to the side. "Is Thalia nice to you, takes real good care of you? Can get you to my place some time so that I can take care of you?" A pause. "My salon that is…"
"She's nice. She got hurt though and was at the hospital, but she's home again. But she still hurts. She was out late last night." June doesn't seem to think any of this is too personal of information to be just passing out to someone she just met. Either that, or June just doesn't have too many boundaries.
"Salon?" she asks as she stops walking and turns to look at the man. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a card and shows it to Raquelle. It's Aude's card with her name and number on it. "Do you have a card like this?" The card itself is wrinkled, from being pushed into and pulled from her jeans pocket on a daily basis.
Raquelle frowns as he listens and he adjusts his shades again, offering the hat once more distractedly. "She got hurt? Well I'm sorry to hear that honey." He bites his bottom lip.
"Do I have a - yes, I have a salon and a card." He reaches into his bag to pull out the black with purple writing card advertising his salon 'Cambria Salon and Day Spa' address, email, phone number, his name….all that typical stuff. He offers the card to June and scans the card he's being shown with a thoughtful hmm.
For the first time, that brings a smile to June's face as she takes the card and carefully lines them both up, even as one is crumpled and shoves them both deep into the bottom of her pocket. As she removes her hand, she nods. "Okay. If I need something I'll call." It's what everyone else who has given her a card has told her. Call if you need something. Seem to be protocol.
She turns and starts down the sidewalk again, only stopping to turn back and look at the man. "Nice to meet you." Manners happen. Check. She turns and starts running down the sidewalk and turns the corner as if her mother was calling her into dinner.
Raquelle arches an eyebrow and smiles softly as he watches June take the call. "Anything at all okay…you just call." Then he looks a bit surprised as she takes off and his mouth opens and closes and then opens again. "Pleasure to meet you as well!"
He waggles fingers and just sighs softly, letting his hand drop and he toys with the scarf around his neck. It is always an adventure coming to this darn island.