In Decent Spirits

Participants:

abby6_icon.gif huruma3_icon.gif nora2_icon.gif

Featuring:

kasha2_icon.gif

Scene Title In Decent Spirits
Synopsis Care and transportation is Abby's concern when she meets up with Nora and Huruma before a trip out of the country.
Date June 18, 2011

Central Park


It's a fine art, arranging people to arrive just so when you can't use telephones only messages sent via other members of the Ferry. Something sent to the terminal to bring Kasha, another sent to the Island or wherever it was that Huruma had been parking herself of late. All three individuals to culminate into the point, this latitude and longitude on the planet earth in this precise time with the purpose of making arrangements for her daughter. No matter how strange and awkward that just might be some people.

But Abigail waits, with pasty white legs poking out from under khaki shorts that might be a smidge too short for the should be blonde and a white long sleeved to hide the ink across her back that would otherwise make her stand out. Sunglasses, straw hat, cardigan, backpack over shoulder, she's waiting, for a tall dark woman and whomever it is that's delivering her daughter to her on this really early morning. Before she has to take off to part unknown in the world on Ferry business.

Around the bend of the trail comes the small form of what might look like a (very) young mother with a baby in stroller; Nora's eyes are covered by sunglasses, her hair in a ponytail but for the long bangs that fall across one eye in a swoop. She's singing softly to the toddler who peers out from under the sunshade of the stroller, the words and melody recognizable as "Penny Lane" of all things.

Kasha squeals when she sees Abby waiting on the bench, and Nora looks up from tipping her head to look at the baby to wave, picking up her sedate walk (as sedate as anyone has ever seen the teenager, for sure) to hurry over. "Hey, Abby!" Nora says brightly.

Usually Huruma is incredibly punctual- especially when it comes to Kasha. This afternoon is a bit different for some odd reason, but Huruma does show up, though not as early as she may have. Abby has always known her to be quite quick, so when she comes trawling along the sidewalk from another part of the park, it is easy to see the hurriedness she carries with her. Running late? A little. With a pale blouse, and a high-waisted dark red skirt, she looks as if she had just walked from a building with such a dress code. No jacket, though. Business casual, it seems.

Huruma does slow her pace when she notes that no, Abby is not going to be gone because of a few minutes. She blinks her colored-in eyes once more, softly this time, teetering to a more peaceful walk on her dark pumps. Nora, Abby, and Kasha make a cute little scene by themselves- Huruma hesitates to ruin it by thundering in.

It should be hey Martha, but she won't quibble at this early hour, coming to a stand as the small sturdy stroller comes into view, moving swiftly to catch up to it, reach out and move trays out of the way and unbuckle the blonde baby so that she can heft her up out of the seat with a grateful look to Nora. "I hope she wasn't too much trouble bringing her here" can't be easy to bring a baby out of the tunnels, she's done it before.

Bubbly joy, creeping through the dark layer of Abby's emotions that seem to have taken up permanence save for whenever she's around the baby. "Hello you! I hope you behaved for Auntie No-" Oh. Maybe it's not Auntie? She looks over to Nora. "Too weird?"

Possibly too weird. She can't see Huruma approaching, her back to the other woman, but she smiles when Kasha makes a grab for sunglasses and pulls them off. "Must be very strange. To see her as a baby and know her as the grown woman"

A sincere smile blossoms on Nora's face watching Abby handle the baby, and the smile becomes a smirk at the "Auntie" comment. "A little weird," she admits, moving to sit on the bench, crossing her ankles to swing them as she watches the reunion.

"She's kind of like my aunt in a way, you know? I mean, the big one. Has she seen herself? That has to be weird. I guess I'm kinda glad I don't exist twice here. It's weird enough at times, you know?" the teen bubbles a little. Pushing her sunglasses up to her head in the shaded spot she sits in, she looks both better (it'd be hard not to) and worse than the last time Abby saw her. Not sobbing as she had at the meeting on Pollepel, and yet thinner, with dark circles under her eyes that make it clear she's not sleeping well or eating well.

Those dark eyes catch sight of Huruma, and she raises a hand to greet the fourth member of their reunion.

Despite the rangy looks that either of them might have, Huruma is able to still find solace in seeing them share a seat together. Not to mention Kasha's obsession with glasses is always a winner. Huruma tilts her head back to Nora when the girl raises her hand, preferring a more subtle greeting to the more extroverted one. The picture was nice to see, yes, but Abby did call her out here for a reason. And it wasn't to mill around and watch things happen, surely.

"You both seem in decent spirits-" Though Huruma can't exactly block out the sun, she does a good job of blotting some of it as she nears, only to pass the sunbeams through and pause beside the further part of the bench. "-though it is probably b'cause of her, hm?" The dark woman does give them a short, smooth chuckle, and a slow smile.

"Uma!" Kasha in her sturdy baby body dances in Abby's arms, rocking back and forth, fingers opening and closing, reaching for the dark woman. Abby doesn't really have much time, places to go, council business to do but didn't want to leave without burying herself in Kasha's curls and making sure that she was safe.

"Well now, you are repaying her, only… in a more weirder way. Have you heard from her? I haven't seen her lately and she wasn't able to make the party" She turns, shifting to let her view encompass the trio, offering up Kasha to Huruma. "I have to go out of town for a few days, Council business. I was hoping that you can bring her to the bay house, with the other kids. She needs to spend time with them but…" But doens't want to just leave Kasha there.

Nora smiles at Huruma, then simply shakes her head at Abby's questions. "Not since before the last time I've seen you," the teen says quietly, watching the baby reach for Huruma and chuckling.

Bending her knee, she brings her foot up to the bench in front of her so she can retie her sneaker, then turns to look back at Abby. "She'll be okay. They'll look after her. And the kids love her," she says, trying to sound reassuring. "It'll be okay." A slight scowl mars her features, though she smiles, and reaches to pat Abby's shoulder.

"Unafanya nini, mtoto?" Huruma slips closer, and takes up Kasha's reaching hands in her long fingers to play with them in the air. "Nini nishati-" She speaks with that kind of deliberateness that one gets when talking rhetorically to babies- and that is exactly what she is doing. Huruma looks to Nora after a moment, the expression vague enough- but knowing, as well. She looks back towards Abby, lips flattening just slightly.

"I am sure that is right. She will be fine, with them. They know her as well as we do." They know how to actually take care of Kasha, she means.

"Well, I know she'll be fine with them. She was fine with them and I trust Meredith to take care of them, take care of her." She presses her lips to Kasha's temples, inhaling deeply, unable to shake the worry that Huruma can sense. Which makes her lie all the more apparent to the black woman. "I'm not worried about her. Never worried about Kasha. Many people would give their lives for those kids, her included" She looks over to Nora. "You included"

Because Nora, in a way is a lighthouse kid. She relinquishes Kasha to Huruma, trusting the woman to get the babbling toddler to where she'll need to go. "I'll call, when I'm back." She caught the expression on Nora's face too, but unlike huruma, she can't sense the emotions that go with it, and looks questioningly at Hana's spawn.

Nora stands, nudging the stroller closer to Huruma so it will be there when the other woman is ready to buckle the baby in. "She'll miss you. But she'll be okay," she reasserts. "She's strong and resilient. I guess it's no surprise, given her beginnings, right?" The teen smiles, then pulls the sunglasses back over her dark eyes.

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she watches Huruma and the baby for another moment, then turns back to Abby. "I'll go do my tour of duty at the house, a few guitar lessons with the bigger kids and coloring books with the littler ones and pattycake with Kasha. Though I refuse to change her diapers. That is just too weird." Her words are punctuated with a smirk.

Huruma puts her hands under Kasha's arms and picks her up, light as a feather, to hold her up against her torso. "Salamu, Kasha." She presses a glancing kiss to the girl's hair, peering down to watch her face, as well as the raw intricacies of a baby's emotions. They obviously get more complex with age, but it is still interesting to note the differences between now and then, or there and now.

"I would agree with you, but I knew this one first. I am much too used to wrestling them off of her." Huruma comments to Nora, offhandedly, and with a tiny smirk. "I do miss those kids being with us, out there. I think that one of them kept all of th'drawings we'd all done." Huruma frowns, looking faintly disgusted. She is a terrible artist, and someone kept the evidence.

"Oh no, no, I never expect anyone to have to do her diapers" She's always made sure that that duty, she's done, unless someone volunteers. "But it's good, it'll.. it'll ease my heart to know that there's some people watching over her defacto daughter. Someone from both camps, so to speak. It really is one less thing that I'll need to worry about that's happening back here" She can't do a thing about worrying about Francois, but know that he too, is in more than capable and competent hands.

She worries at the strap of her pack, remembering at the last minute, digging out some money, shoving it into the bag that holds Kasha's needs. "For Diapers or anything else she needs, and uh… uh I'll have my phone with me. Just in case. Uhh… if she gets sick, bring her back to the Island, take her to Megan, or, you know, someone who won't…" turn her into social services.

And she looks at Nora again. Noa. It's a little strange. "How are you doing. With… you know… everything" Everything.

The drawing comment earns a soft chuckle. "Sorry I never saw that. Maybe I can get one of the boys to show it to me," Nora says wryly, shoving her hands in her pockets as she turns from Huruma to Abby.

Her jaw sets, and in that moment it's hard to deny just whose daughter she is. "I'm fine," is muttered tersely, and a backwards step taken. "Good luck on your trip."

"I think there needs t'be more than luck. You will need all of your wits about you." Huruma knows about the trips- well- she knows enough. Being such a consultant has its perks, even if something awkward to know. As for Nora, Huruma simply slips her a very terse look of her own, and manages to keep her tongue behind her teeth rather than say something about it. Abby can see it for herself, that the third woman is probably putting up a front.

"I would ask Megan, first. She has enough experience with these things." Huruma breaks her in-between silence with this much.

Abigail's opting for silence, sharing a look with the other woman. The only difference really - besides ability - that Abigail see's between the two is she's not so much intimidated by Nora. Whereas Hana scares the living shit out of Abby and that's on a good day. But she's not going to press, now is not the time to press.

'Right. Okay, uhh yeah, Megan" Nora is retreating and Abby should be heading out, so she can get properly changed for the appropriate travel that she's about to do. "Take care of her. Both of you. I mean it" Laying the responsibility on both their heads, reaching over to squeeze Kasha till she objects, kiss her again - then again - and gather the courage to start leaving too.

The combination of being asked about "everything" and seeing the bittersweet farewell between mother and daughter is too much for the teen who is probably too young to really be without a mother and yet is, as the mother who birthed raised her is younger than her in this time line, and the one whose blood she carries is a stranger. There is another swell of envy from Nora, but she pushes it away to flash a bright toothy smile at the two women.

"I'll check in soon. I gotta go," Nora says, taking another step backward before spinning on it and turning it into a jog, her lean form smaller than Hana's, but still holding some of the elder Gitelman's grace as Nora darts away, around the path and out of sight.

Huruma is there for a few moments longer, watching both of the young ladies depart with a tired swivel of her head on her neck. She doesn't offer them more than a courtesy murmur of 'goodbye', as that is all she feels that she needs to say. To Kasha, however, that is another matter- Huruma lowers her chin to the girl before leaning down to buckle her into the stroller again. Probably much to a minor fuss about it, as she had just gotten out.

"It seems it is just you and I, if only for a little while." Huruma murmurs softly again, this time only for the baby.


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