Repose

[After this. He thinks of her before anything else, of course he does, but she's not the type to send him presents. Not when they're actively trying to forget each other. Still, there's a good chance he'll get drunk and hack into the post office security cameras later...]

I appreciate the booze, secret admirer. I do. But, I'm not interested.

[Well before dawn, the lights go on in the apartment above Crust & Crumb, just like they do every day. Shortly after, a figure wrapped in a thick jacket, carrying a steaming travel mug, makes their way from the apartment door to the bakery door, and the lights go on inside there as well. It's several hours yet until the door will open for the day, but the scent of baking bread and sweets starts to creep its way outside the building. In the apartment window above, a cat sits and watches the sun rise.]

Wanted: Room or rooms available to rent. 1 occupant. Prefer quiet, upper level(s). Price negotiable. Heating mandatory. No pets.

[Posted 7 AM. The lights in the antique store are on, but the door is closed and locked.]

I would be obliged if someone could inform me where I might find drinkable coffee at this hour.

[In Repose, the day dawns cloudy and windy, and it feels like change is in the air.

Children at the elementary school insist there is frost on the slide, though teachers find the metal dry when they look. Leaves, brown and yellow, blow across quiet streets and abandoned orchards. Heaters come alive, bright and warm behind curtained windows, and wooden floors creak with the new cold. Branches quiver a tap-tap-tap against the outside of houses and buildings late into the night, making residents of the sleepy town turn on night lights and television sets. Pipes moan, and children crawl into beds with their parents, complaining of nightmares.


The flurries begin at midnight. Winter, it seems, has come early to Repose.]

[Public, as Sparrow D.]

Birds ate up all the berries early, and crows gathered and huddled on naked branches, and there was a pretty, pretty halo around the moon last night. This winter promises to be long and cold, and they'll tell stories in summer, whisper about how it was endless.