Friday, December 21, 2007
Who: Nuray, Jay and OPEN
When: Evening, Friday December 21
Where: The town ice rink
What:An old man and a mermaid go ice skating.

Nuray met almost nothing in the world with any sense of trepidation. This was no different. Jay said, "Let's go ice skating," to which she gave him an utterly confused look and then said, "Okay." All without having the faintest conception of what ice skating actually entailed. Sure, she had seen it on television, grainy black and white stuff because the reception on the boat was horrible and they rarely stuck around on land long enough to watch anything, much less for her to process the information for anything truly specific. As it stood, she saw ice skating as something that people did in skin tight outfits and did little twirly dances during. That was not the kind of ice skating that Jay, a native New Yorker, cared to even call ice skating.

"The sport is called ice skating, which is really a misnomer. It should be called: ice dancing," he explained as they walked from the forest cottages in the direction of the rink that the town erected for the purpose of recreation. "Nobody in their right mind is going to try to do most of that stuff on a rink with other people."

Ice skating on rinks with other people generally meant avoiding those who didn't know how to skate while trying to stay out of the way of those who did know how and tended to skate faster than those around them. Oddly like driving if one was completely honest. Nuray absorbed all the various little things he had to say as they walked. This was the most time Jay spent speaking since they came to the haven, Nuray was glad to feel that the ice around him was finally starting to break. The knowledge that he was starting to get used to their current reality made her spontaneously decide to hug him, an action that he took good naturedly by wrapping his arms around her waist and not commenting on the fact that she was far too heavy to be doing this kind of thing to his poor back. She'd have probably swatted him for being mean; after all, she wasn't that heavy, was she?

Lights shone all around the rink making the ice seem magical in an odd way despite the fact that it was probably one of the many things in this particular town that wasn't.

"All right, now once you're on the ice, mind your balance okay? Your feet are going to slide and that means they'll want to get ahead of the rest of you." Still she listened, bobbing her head in the appropriate places, even managing to pay attention in sections when she wasn't being fascinated by the ice and the lights and the motions of the people once they were out on the ice.

The humans were swimming on top of frozen water. Well, that was something for her to see. The pair stepped out onto the ice and Nuray immediately slipped and landed on her butt. An action that only managed to engender a fit of giggling from the woman in question. Jay made a face and sighed.

"What am I ever going to do with you?"