| New Beginnings |
[26 Nov 2009|05:31am] |
Destiny stretched out on the beach. The person whose former life she now possessed didn't have any sign of a job. The bungalow was empty, a one bedroom deal within walking distance to the beach. Not knowing what else to do, she grabbed a book from the bookshelf in the living room and made her way to the beach. The bookshelves in that room rivaled the shelves at Unseen Insight. She felt a pang. She hadn't seen Emmeline Keddle since Aidan's funeral. It was way too painful and with the passage of time, they gradually grew apart. Destiny left for Jersey without even saying goodbye. She ran a finger across the ridged spines as she moved towards the open French doors, white sundress billowing in the wind. What did she do in her previous life to wake up in paradise? She caught her naked ring finger out of the corner of her eye. Well, almost paradise.
Shunning her flip-flops, the Slayer sunk her feet into the sand and closed and locked the door behind her. She hung the key around her neck on the rawhide lanyard and walked down the beach. It was gorgeous out, as usual. Finding a quiet stretch of beach, she watched the snorkels of divers bob and weave through the azure sea. She leaned back and closed her eyes, novel forgotten. Breathing deeply, she exhaled and looked out, watching the waves retract into the sea and disappear into the horizon.
There was very little that could keep Emmeline Keddle out of the water these days. She was determined to master her first element by the winter season's end, and with the ocean on all sides, water was in ample supply for a start. She had been out with her snorkel and dive bag again, this time in the shallows off the beach, just observing the brightly colored schools of fish and searching out a stray rock here and there that might prove useful in her craft, for the better part of the afternoon. With Bailey and her father set to arrive for a holiday meal the following evening, she hadn't much time to spare before she needed to begin preparing their feast, but the draw of the ocean was just too much.
Never one for flippers, she swam up to where the water shallowed enough to stand and walked up the surf towards her beach bag and towel in the sand, foregoing a dry-off for just slipping back into a long gypsy-styled skirt and wearing the black halter of her swimsuit as a top. Her hair, long and wet and threatening to dampen her bottom with the free-swinging dripping tendrils, was quickly pulled up messily into a black plastic clip retrieved from her bag, and she started up the beach to comb for shells and whatever other treasures it might yield. Spotting a new face near a vintage beach bungalow, Emmeline paused to offer the stranger a smile.
"Afternoon!" she called cheerfully. "Beautiful day, isn't it? Then, it most often is in the Keys!"
Emmeline Keddle. In a two piece swimsuit. Snorkeling. If Destiny hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she would have ridiculed the person who even suggested it, but there her best girl friend in the world was standing. From underneath her palm, the Slayer squinted as the woman got out of the water and draped a skirt around herself, the wetness of the suit and her hair revealing more of Emmy than she had ever seen in her previous life. She reddened slightly. "Em?" She cleared her throat. "Em, is that you?"
Emmeline gave the other woman a puzzled smile. "Oh. I'm do apologize, have we met before? I usually remember most everyone, though I suppose even the best of us can lose track of names and faces with the stream of tourists we get through the island."
She paused in the sand, wondering briefly if she should have fished out her sandals before beginning her trek. Thinking of better of it, she left her sandals tucked safely in her beach bag. After all, she'd gone barefoot most of the summer months already, and preferred to stretch it out as long as possible before resigning herself to shoe-and-sock season.
"I'm Emmeline," she confirmed, holding out one water-pruned hand to the other woman in greeting. "Emmy, if you like, or Em. I'm terribly sorry, I just can't recall your name at all!"
Destiny couldn't close her mouth; it remained slightly agape as she stretched out her hand. "Destiny... Destiny Brown. Des, for short." Visions of an earlier meetings rushed into her brain and she squeezed her eyes closed at the onslaught of emotion. She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. Having a bit of an interesting month thus far. It's very nice to... meet you." Or re-meet you. This place is awfully strange. Who knows who else she'd she, if she was finding Emmy. Rhiannon? William? Who else would make it into this dreamworld?
"Oh dear! Have I upset you?" Emmeline asked, noticing the other girl's demeanor. A frown of worry crossed her brow. "I really didn't mean to, honestly. I'm very sorry... Destiny, was it? My what a beautiful name!"
She flashed another smile, balancing her beach bag on her hip and crossing her arms over her chest. "I've often taunted my father, you know, giving me a name you'd find on some ancient church lady back home in Essex! But I suppose it's grown on me, over the years. Oh, do chin up, Destiny. I'd hate to think I've gone and spoiled your holiday."
"No! No, you didn't spoil a thing!" Destiny hastily got up and brushed off her sundress. "I'm not on holiday. I'm a new emigrant." Destiny smiled, not believing her luck. "I've been looking for people to meet. I've become a little bit of a recluse as of lately, so I decided to just relax at the beach with a book." Destiny glanced at the cover. She hadn't really looked at the book she grabbed. "I just randomly picked this book up. By a Tiffany Lancaster." Destiny shrugged and scratched the back of her calf with her other foot. "I haven't read very much lately."
"Are you a local?"
A very faint blush rose to Emmeline's softly freckled cheeks, a pleased smile playing at her lips. Though she never considered her published work to be anything but a bit of fun - nothing to terribly cerebral or important - it always gave her a quiet thrill to see others reading them. She preferred a bit of Stephen King and Charles Dickens for her own pleasure reading, but the romance was so much fun to write.
"I am indeed," she agreed. "I've a small house on Eliza Street, not too far from here. I'd wanted to take a place on the beach myself, but my father is such a worrier, insisted I go at least a bit more inland. Your author there is also a local, from what I've heard."
"Oh? Well, I bet I'll run into her at some point." Destiny smiled. The Slayer's smile faltered a bit. "Your father? Your father is around?" Destiny remembered that Em and her family were not on the best of terms at all. All three, mother, brother and father, were long dead, even before the two had met. Then again, this was not the same Emmeline Keddle. So, it stood to reason that the Keddle family was much different. This was not her Emmy. Her best friend was now a woman whose habits would have branded her a hussy if Emmeline Keddle, Searchlight, Nevada, had seen her. Her last link to Searchlight was lost. Who knows what was going on in this weird-ass... dimension. Outside of Florida, how was life progressing? What the hell did she get herself into? Or what the hell got her into this?
She had to start over. Years of friendship, the good times and the bad times... the really bad times, all of it did not matter anymore in the face of this new Emmeline. She couldn't even call her Em or Emmy. She wasn't her. Her last link to... Aidan... gone. The urge to cry overtook her. She tried to hold it in. New Emmy wouldn't get it. She'd sound crazy. Destiny decided to opt for acting on this one, pulling from acting lessons she hadn't done since high school. "I'm sorry, Emmeline. It's really hard being away from loved ones this time of year. I lost them all pretty recently, and being alone has taken a bit of a toll on me."
"My father lives in St. Augustine on the mainland," Emmeline explained. "My brother, Bailey, as well... when he's not out gallivanting about the country, that is."
Emmeline's eyes widened in abject horror. "Oh! Oh no! I'm so, oh, I'm just terribly sorry, Destiny! I had no idea! And here I am, prattling on about my... oh, goodness me, you poor thing!" She pulled the girl into an impromptu embrace, unable to help herself. The memory of the loss of her mother, though nearly twenty years past, was still fresh enough for an immediate outpouring of sympathy. "You poor thing.." she repeated.
"I know this is not much for comfort, but my father always says that 'friends are the family you make for yourself', and you've already made a friend in me! I'm having a dinner tomorrow night for the Thanksgiving holiday, and you have to come. I won't take no for an answer," she finished with a grin. "Must seem strange, yes? A strange Englishwoman popping out of the waves and inviting you to dinner!"
Oh, lady, if you only knew the strange things I've seen... Destiny fought the urge to correct her and wiped her eyes. She picked through her words carefully, settling on "It would be my pleasure. Would you like me to bring anything? I'm afraid I have no guests to bring, so possibly a pumpkin pie or something?"
"That would be lovely!" Emmeline agreed. "I'm afraid I've no knack for desserts myself, though I make the best turkey you'll ever have, promise you that! Funny thing, too, as for some reason I can never quite stomach the sight of raw poultry..." She trailed off, then shrugged. "Perhaps it has something to do with all of the feral chickens running about as though they own the streets!"
Destiny snorted. "I can't imagine why you'd be adverse to fowl after hearing a kid call one 'Sparky'," she teased. "So, Eliza Street? What time?" Destiny was surprised that she was going to a virtual stranger's home for Thanksgiving, but... some part of her knew it was Emmeline, deep down. And, hey, who knows who or what else she'll meet? She highly doubted she'd meet anyone who remembered the Destiny from Nevada. This was her re-do, in essence. So, she had to start forgetting the past and move forward. This was the first step.
|
|
mellow
working![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
blah
curious