I Made A Friend Today.
Sep. 7th, 2007 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmerriamI sat at the kitchen table working on the laptop. My brain has started thinking in and about stories again, considering new pieces, looking at different angles for works in progress, considering characters and plots and theme and tone. It's a bit like having a beloved friend return from a long trip where they were incommunicado.
Except it's doing it at bed-time, which is a bit of a frustration.
Last night I pulled out the notebook and hand-wrote four pages of outline and notes for the ever expanding Fey and Mage story. But now I have an ending in sight, something I can write toward, though I've all ready moved away from the outline I wrote last night.
But I digress.
I sat at the kitchen table, typing out the outline I had written last night. I have the windows closed and the AC running, mostly because the sun is hitting the house and warming it a little too much for my taste. I can hear voices outside, but that's nothing new, I live in a townhome complex and we have a lot of children and teenagers. I ignore the voices outside and go on working.
Until I hear a high-pitched yell, a solid thump on the dining room window, and an elaborate string of curse words. Our dining room window, which is four feet off the floor, is also level with the ground outside. The cursing increases in volume, speed, and complexity. I decide to get up and investigate.
I open pull open the shades and find myself face to face (well, there's a glass window between us, but still) with a young woman, somewhere between sixteen and eighteen years old if I'm any judge. Pretty face, platinum shoulder length hair with about two inches of fuchsia at the ends. Nose piercing, multiple piecings in the ear I can see. She's holding her arm and letting fly the worst of the English language, in a manner that would make a sailor pale and back away.
I open the window as she notices me. For a moment we stare at each other, forty-two year old man and late-teenage alterna-girl.
"Are you going to be okay?" I ask.
"Um, yeah." She looks a bit embarrassed, but in true teenage spirit, she's going to game it out. She flashes me a smile full of perfect teeth before she turns and looks up the small mound that leads down to my window at another young woman. This one has short black hair, is dressed in muted earth tones and wearing heavy boots. "Someone was supposed to roll down the hill with me," Platinum and Fuchsia-haired alternative-grrl says, glaring at the black-haired young woman, who appears to be laughing quietly.
Note: There's a rather large hill/earthen berm that leads down to the south side of our townhome. Kids roll down it all the time in the spring and summer, and in winter small children slide down it on sleds. There is a large electrical box and about three feet of rock garden right outside my window.
Alterna-grrl has apparently rolled all the way into the rock garden. She holds up her arm so she can examine where she has scrapped it up.
"Fuck-shit goddamn!" She looks back at me and gives me a small smile. "Sorry."
I shrug and return the smile. "Don’t worry about it. I just wanted to make sure no one needed an ambulance or anything.
"I'm all right."
"Well, don't come crashing in through my window or anything, okay?"
"Yeah, hey, no problem."
"Good, 'cause I'd hate to have to explain to my wife why some strange woman is lying on our floor, bleeding all over the carpet."
She laughs aloud and stands, hitting her head on the overhang. More colorful language follows. I cringe in sympathy, having hit my head on it once myself. By now her black-haired friend had come down the berm to retrieve her.
"Maybe we should get that looked at," black-haired girl says, leading P&F grrl, who is now rubbing the top of her head, away.
Platinum and Fuchsia-hair alterna-grrl turns and looks at me. "Really, sorry."
"It's all good. Be careful," I say. I close the window as they move up the hill.
I settle down at the laptop and look up, watching them out the window for a few moments. They sit on top of the berm. Black-hair looks at Platinum and Fuchsia-hair's arm, finally kissing her injury. P&F Hair throws back her head and laughs before grabbing Black-hair by the collar of her shirt and yanking her over. They both roll down the hill toward my window, a tangle of limbs, laughing and shrieking. They stop well before the rock garden.
P&F grrl ends up on top the other young woman. They both laugh and then P&F leans down and places her lips on her friend's. The kiss is both gentle and fierce, and I realize that I'm intruding on something private. I reach over and, as they deepen the kiss, wish them well wherever fate may take them, close the window shade, and return to work.
Except it's doing it at bed-time, which is a bit of a frustration.
Last night I pulled out the notebook and hand-wrote four pages of outline and notes for the ever expanding Fey and Mage story. But now I have an ending in sight, something I can write toward, though I've all ready moved away from the outline I wrote last night.
But I digress.
I sat at the kitchen table, typing out the outline I had written last night. I have the windows closed and the AC running, mostly because the sun is hitting the house and warming it a little too much for my taste. I can hear voices outside, but that's nothing new, I live in a townhome complex and we have a lot of children and teenagers. I ignore the voices outside and go on working.
Until I hear a high-pitched yell, a solid thump on the dining room window, and an elaborate string of curse words. Our dining room window, which is four feet off the floor, is also level with the ground outside. The cursing increases in volume, speed, and complexity. I decide to get up and investigate.
I open pull open the shades and find myself face to face (well, there's a glass window between us, but still) with a young woman, somewhere between sixteen and eighteen years old if I'm any judge. Pretty face, platinum shoulder length hair with about two inches of fuchsia at the ends. Nose piercing, multiple piecings in the ear I can see. She's holding her arm and letting fly the worst of the English language, in a manner that would make a sailor pale and back away.
I open the window as she notices me. For a moment we stare at each other, forty-two year old man and late-teenage alterna-girl.
"Are you going to be okay?" I ask.
"Um, yeah." She looks a bit embarrassed, but in true teenage spirit, she's going to game it out. She flashes me a smile full of perfect teeth before she turns and looks up the small mound that leads down to my window at another young woman. This one has short black hair, is dressed in muted earth tones and wearing heavy boots. "Someone was supposed to roll down the hill with me," Platinum and Fuchsia-haired alternative-grrl says, glaring at the black-haired young woman, who appears to be laughing quietly.
Note: There's a rather large hill/earthen berm that leads down to the south side of our townhome. Kids roll down it all the time in the spring and summer, and in winter small children slide down it on sleds. There is a large electrical box and about three feet of rock garden right outside my window.
Alterna-grrl has apparently rolled all the way into the rock garden. She holds up her arm so she can examine where she has scrapped it up.
"Fuck-shit goddamn!" She looks back at me and gives me a small smile. "Sorry."
I shrug and return the smile. "Don’t worry about it. I just wanted to make sure no one needed an ambulance or anything.
"I'm all right."
"Well, don't come crashing in through my window or anything, okay?"
"Yeah, hey, no problem."
"Good, 'cause I'd hate to have to explain to my wife why some strange woman is lying on our floor, bleeding all over the carpet."
She laughs aloud and stands, hitting her head on the overhang. More colorful language follows. I cringe in sympathy, having hit my head on it once myself. By now her black-haired friend had come down the berm to retrieve her.
"Maybe we should get that looked at," black-haired girl says, leading P&F grrl, who is now rubbing the top of her head, away.
Platinum and Fuchsia-hair alterna-grrl turns and looks at me. "Really, sorry."
"It's all good. Be careful," I say. I close the window as they move up the hill.
I settle down at the laptop and look up, watching them out the window for a few moments. They sit on top of the berm. Black-hair looks at Platinum and Fuchsia-hair's arm, finally kissing her injury. P&F Hair throws back her head and laughs before grabbing Black-hair by the collar of her shirt and yanking her over. They both roll down the hill toward my window, a tangle of limbs, laughing and shrieking. They stop well before the rock garden.
P&F grrl ends up on top the other young woman. They both laugh and then P&F leans down and places her lips on her friend's. The kiss is both gentle and fierce, and I realize that I'm intruding on something private. I reach over and, as they deepen the kiss, wish them well wherever fate may take them, close the window shade, and return to work.
