Sebastian Sullivan (copy_writer) wrote in genome_backsl, @ 2012-06-10 17:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | june 2012, penny zimmerman, sebastian sullivan |
Who: Sebastian Sullivan and Penny Zimmerman
What: Just a simple day of no importance
Where: Crescent Beach
When: August 2032
Rating: HIGH for scenes of potential cuteness. Might be deadly to those with blood sugar problems. You have been warned.
Status: Complete
"Plan" was quite possibly the dirtiest four letter word in the world when it came to Penny and Bast knew it. Which is why he also didn't admit to the fact that he had been planning this for a long time even though it had just been last night that he sent a text to Penny wondering if she wanted to spend a day at the beach. Last summer had been so full of hospitals and sickness that she could use some actual sun before starting back to school at Hobbs. Even with her pale complexion some sun would do her some good. True, there was a giant umbrella involved to block the same sun but he still planned to get her out in the water. It was just going to be a regular day at the beach as far as she needed to know. Everything had been set up ahead of time so as long as it didn't go all crossways it should be a memorable afternoon.
“It’s quiet over here and if you want to make a sandcastle there’s a lower chance of someone coming along and just crushing it under their feet.” Oh yes, he had thought of about anything no matter how slightly childish it sounded. Plus he was the one voluntarily carrying most of it so if he wanted to have a bucket for sand he was going to bring a bucket for sand to go along with the cooler of water, plenty of extra towels to go over the beach blanket, and sunscreen. All he really needed there in the end was Penny.
Sand castles. Penny couldn’t remember the last time she’d made a sand castle, nor the last time she’d been to the beach like this. Last summer had been a nightmare. For months, she had been living her worst fears, that her family and friends were suffering by watching her in the state she was in. Death didn’t scare her, only in that, she knew a lot of people were going to be upset by it and that it was sure fire way of keeping her from accomplishing her dreams. Yet, the idea of it had become such an integral part of her every day life that Penny had grown to accept it.
Things were so much different this summer. There was still a twinge of guilt within her every time Bast sneezed or coughed longer than normally. Indirectly, she had changed his life, made it more difficult to live, and that was something she had never wanted to do. However, they were both in relatively good health, a far cry from the state they were in last summer. It was a start at least. Penny had even managed to gain some weight now that she wasn’t allergic to so many things, though she still wore a loose-fitting sundress over her bikini. No need to show off her slowly disappearing rib cage to anyone.
“Looks good,” she replied with a grin. If she let herself, she would notice that she was actually excited about today. The sun was shining brightly, and it was perfect beach weather, not a single cloud in the sky. “I’m gonna go test the water.” She slipped out of her sandals and slowly headed out toward the shoreline. The second her toes hit water, Penny sighed. There had to have been God out there somewhere, right? It was only through some miracle that she was still here, still living and breathing on this earth, in good health and with so many people who loved her. And Sully. Yes, this was all perfectly real.
Bast smiled out at her and let Penny just enjoy the moment while he started setting up their little area and trying to get the umbrella just so with the likelihood of the sun doing something silly like moving around. "Just don't end up getting your dress all wet in the lake or start screaming if the little fish decide to come check you out." He was in no rush for her to find the bottle that was just barely in sight in a pool of water that had formed with high tide and kept from floating off with extra rocks and sand around it so it didn't get lost out in the lake. At least there was always Plan B... Or possibly it was Plan C considering B involved hopefully convincing enough acting long enough to point out 'Hey, there's a bottle over there. We should check it out'. Subtlety was not his middle name... Her finding it first though added all the more feeling of spontaneity
“And are you sure you even remember how to swim? Not that I’d mind saving you. CPR just kind of puts a damper on a date though.” Yes, they needed this after the last 18 months of seemingly nothing but shit going down one after the other. You could forget about that when the sun was shining down and there were things to do. Which is why he was already grabbing the bucket to fill it up with water to soak together a patch of sand.
“I’m not scared of the fish, Sully,” Penny called out over her shoulder. She just walked a little bit farther, until the water lapped up on her legs with happy little splish splash noises. She reached up and pull off her straw hat, just letting her short hair feel the wind gliding by. It had been a tough decision to make to keep her hair short. She loved her long hair, but after everything with the chemo, she decided to leave it short as a reminder of the difficult times she had to go through. She was humbled every time she looked in the mirror, and it was not something she was ever going to forget.
Her dress was actually designed to get wet, or at least it wasn’t one of those fancy dresses where you couldn’t let a drop of water get on it without ruining it. That was why she didn’t think twice about just tucking it under her as she took a seat on the moist sand as the tiny waves washed in and out of the beach all around her. In a quieter voice that was unlikely for him to hear, Penny said, “You don’t have to save me anymore.” He had already saved her in every way possible.
"You never know. Maybe the fish have powers too and you can't tell because you only know human abilities." He gave her a long serious look. Yeah, it was pretty unlikely, but still if some fish started making her see weird stuff then there was legitimately going to be a reason to do whatever it took to get the hell off this island. He could deal with people having weird abilities and even with the fact that he had to be careful about what he said over his own journal because someone was watching. Animals that could do the same sort of stuff was all the more reason to get away and hope that things were different on the outside. Maybe they could run away to Ireland or something where no one would ever find them.
Bast didn't hear her though and just went about trying to spread the water as much as possible across the sand before starting to fill his bucket and packing it in tightly until it was full and then trying to even it out. "Wanna help me out here or just going to enjoy the water for now? Not that there's anything wrong with the water. Other than the weirdo fish and all."
Penny rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but be amused by Bast’s imagination. He was far too creative for his own good sometimes, and it often showed in his work. Journalism was supposed to be about facts, but Bast had a way of making even Penny’s strict journalistic mind wander and become lost in his words. As much as that bugged her about him, it was also one of the reasons she adored him. She wiggled her toes as another wave came in, and she could feel the salt slipping in between her toes and all over her legs. Dipping her head back a bit, she closed her eyes and just let the sun bathe her in warmth and juicy vitamin D.
By the time, he spoke again, she had lowered her gaze. Her eyes were significantly affected by her face turning up toward the sun, and when she looked back over at the water, she could see little spots of black appear before her. She sighed and was about to get up to help him when she saw it... something. It was almost winking a flash of sunlight at her as waves washed up and over it before allowing it to gleam again. Penny tilted her head to the side, her body in a sort of half motion of getting up but never actually making it there. “What-- what is that?”
Bast wasn't sure he would call it creativity as much as just being silly which was usually what she did to him. Giving people a vivid image of events was supposed to be part of the job after all even if it was probably better suited for documentary work than a local newspaper where you had limited word space. It was still a reporting of the facts to the very best of his abilities while jazzing it up just a little bit so people weren’t yawning in their coffee. You had to do something when you were stuck on the filler story beat for so long. As much as he hated to be thankful for someone dying, he did have Alan to thank for starting to be taken seriously around the Mainelander as someone other than Penny’s boyfriend. Finally he felt like he was standing on his own two feet and didn’t have people thinking he needed to consider another occupation.
“What’s what?” It only took a moment of seeing the direction she was focused on to slip a hand by his shorts pocket and make sure that it was still there. Maybe the sand castle was going to have to wait and thankfully it hadn’t been part of the grand plan. He just stood up and started trying to look in the same area like he was searching for whatever it was that she had found. “Did you find a fish with telepathy?”
“No,” she said as she stood, reaching behind her without looking and feeling around in the air for him. Her other hand pointed out to it. “It’s like... something reflective. Like a mirror or something.” But then, she shrugged. She had no intentions of going to find out what someone had tossed into the water like trash. Maybe it was nothing or a piece of discarded aluminum foil. Or... didn’t some people have strange religious rituals around the island? She wouldn’t put it past anyone to just dump their religious paraphernalia all around the island and into the ocean.
She turned and went to head back to their sand castle. “Did you want me to start on the mote?” Penny was no expert on sand castles. The few times she had been to the beach in the past had her making simple sand castles with her brother. She was best at making the mote though, maybe because it was just a circular trench around the castle itself. Didn’t really require too much work so long as you had enough water that wasn’t evaporating the second you poured it into the mote.
He gave her a hand just to make sure that she didn’t end up falling right back into the water. “Huh...” And... of course she was just going to wander off and forget all about it. Hadn’t he purposefully put it somewhere that she could just go over and pick it up? Then there was no saying just because he fetched it that she had to open it immediately. “Well you might not care about the poor creatures around here, but I do. You can start the moat though until I get back.” With that he was making half a show of trying to balance along the rocks and picking up the old resealed wine bottle. Considering the trouble he’d gone through to make it waterproof and look like it had been out there for ages the least she could do was admire the outside handiwork. It also provided a good enough cover to make sure the ring was still attached to his swim shorts pocket with the safety pin.
He brought it back though and dropped it a few feet from her. “Not a mirror. Looks like there’s something inside, but I don’t think anything more than my pinky finger could get down the neck of that bottle. It’s not going anywhere though if you want a lesson in proper tower building.”
Penny just gave him a curious look as he went about tightrope walking on rocks to get the shiny object. It wasn’t as far away as Penny thought it was, but she still wasn’t all that sure she wanted to see it. What if it was broken and he cut himself? “Be care--” But she stopped herself, because well, she was always telling him that, and he was likely sick of it. She tried to keep herself from frowning though, as this was supposed to be a nice time out. No worrying allowed today. Only enjoying the crisp sun, the waves and the rocky sand beneath her feet.
She headed back to where all their supplies were though and just started up her mote before he was dropping what looked to be an old as hell wine bottle by her feet. What the hell? “Whoa.” Shovels and pails were instantly discarded as Penny wrapped her hands around the bottle and looked it over carefully. “What do you think it is?” A treasure map? Treasure? Okay Robinson Crusoe. He had peaked her interest though, and she was immediately struggling to get the bottle open. “I could probably get it. My fingers are thinner than yours. Who knew piano lessons would come in handy outside the realm of music?”
Of course she would have just heard back his usual retort which had proven false on more than one occasion. Sebastian was far from “always” careful, but today was meant to be completely carefree as far as she was concerned. Which was also why with even her new level of excitement he was trying his best to downplay it and go about filling up his pail and evening out the sand on the interior of the beginnings of her moat for a solid base. Part of the key was to pack everything as tightly as possible so it would stay up.
“I think it’s old. And that I don’t carry around a Swiss Army knife so I don’t have a corkscrew to help out much, but if you’d like me to give it a go with the pulling?” Honestly he hadn’t even considered the idea of a whole treasure hunt that could have taken her all over the island, but most of the time that was also more likely to give away the surprise considering he would have chosen places that had some sort of significance to the two of them. The phone booth in the park, the flagpole at Moses Pearson, the desk at the office, and probably even something at the hospital considering they had both ended up there in the last year and a half. A pirate in the middle of Maine likely wouldn’t leave a note to the destination of his booty in her closet either, but that was yet another important spot to be considered. “And then you could get the paper inside and we could find out what’s on it.”
Penny had most of the strength that she had lost last year (and more) back in her possession. She wasn’t Alfie or anything, but with just the right twisting, turning and angling of the cork, she managed to pop it open with a little jump. A curious grin spread across her cheeks as she turned the bottle over and stuck her littlest finger inside, easing the piece of paper out of the bottle neck. It took her a bit of time as she had to keep pulling her finger out every time it got stuck. A very tedious process to say the least, but finally, she had it out. “Didn’t even tear it,” she said with a bit of an exhausted smile.
Looking it over though, Penny couldn’t help but find it intriguing. And suddenly, she was just as frightened as she was excited about its contents. She glanced over at Bast. “Don’t you want to see what it says?” He was the one after all who had risked his life (okay not so much really) to bring her this bottle. Was he just going to sit there and feign disinterest now that it was finally out? “Come here. Come on. Read it with me.”
Bast was just trying to get his starter tower done and slowly lifted up the pail to an almost perfect cylinder. Hopefully it might hold another on top of it, but then Penny was also being insistent about the note. Really, it would have worked just a little better if he had a bit of a castle done. There might still be time for that though if she didn’t just throw sand in his face and go running off. Then she wouldn’t really do that to him, would she? … Likely not. “Fiiiine” He went over next to her and tried to look over her shoulder. Just because he knew every word by heart despite getting a little off track at time didn’t mean that he couldn’t admire it.
Two pages came out of the bottle which had been a subject of a fair bit of consideration for Bast. After all if they had been in there forever would they really have aged much? It had also taken some borrowing around to make sure that his handwriting didn't shine right through to the surface. Adoptive Muscle Memory was surprisingly useful when it worked out in the end.
To whomever finds this letter,
I can only hope by the time that you come across this letter that you are still able to find its recipent and that she is good health when she gets it. If it brings but a smile to her face then it will have done what it was meant to do.
For being kind enough to deliver this, I can only hope that you'll one day find someone who means as much to you.
My Blackbird,
There are, I admit, many times that I wonder if I'm going to fall asleep and wake up to find that you're just gone with barely the whisper of a kiss left for comfort. You are the first person that I think about in the mornings and it's a rare occasion that it doesn't bring a smile to my face. It only intensifies when you're there with your hair all messed up from sleep while you're still lost in hopefully another happy dream. The same goes for every night hoping and praying that there is some higher power taking care of you while you rest.
I would build you castles to try and keep you safe though I know you would be likely to just laugh at me. Perhaps I am being silly. You should know by now that you bring out my most protective side that would do whatever it took even if it is exagerating slightly. I'm more likely to end up hurting myself, but the effort is there all the same to be willing to defend your honor to my last breath.
We have had our harder points. In the end I think it has only made us stronger together because we can both trust the other to be there for comfort. Lies and trickery are things that I would rather leave in the past however if that is quite alright with you, sweetheart. Then for all I know I will never be able to give you this letter myself. It's the reason I feel the need to get this out on paper for as long as my ink can last. It will hopefully then last longer than you or I even if it is not added to the list of great love letters.
The point shall remain with this: I adore and love you more than even I can put into words if I had all the time in the world. The sad fact remains though that we don't have all the time in the world and I want to be able to spend as many moments as we do have by your side.
And I would give anything for you to be my wife.Your Paperback Writer,
Sebastian D. Sullivan