how can you help it when the music starts to play Who: Cheila, Linnea & Satu Where: Niemi property When: Late afternoon
Rain, rain, go away… No, that wasn’t right. Cheila couldn’t remember how she knew the beginnings of that rhyme, but she knew that wasn’t right; why would anyone want the rain to go away? It always put her in a better mood, and she really needed it since—Since… since… since Caelia? Which was wrong as well, because that just made it sound like it was since forever and she didn’t always have any kind of problem past Caelia. Except maybe that one time she had tripped over her sandals, but she wasn’t even sure it was Caelia’s sandals she had tripped over and she had been seven at the time. They were probably my own if they were in the middle of the floor. But she hadn’t had that logic all that time ago and she hadn’t even been annoyed. Just pouting with a sore knee. She—‘Even your tangents are going off on tangents.’ The elemental blinked. That… No, she didn’t know precisely what that meant. ‘That your thoughts are all over the place.’
“My thoughts are always all over the place,” Cheila replied, a little confused, but not as confused as the person passing her who thought she was talking to them. If she could have done, she would have left her hoodie off so everyone could see that her musings were actually addressed to the little bird trying to hide from the rain in her hood, but Lala had already pointed out that she was in public and her dress was white. She did not want it to go completely see-through. That would have been quite indecent. She probably should have worn something heavier while she wandered.
‘To?’
“What?” Her eyes turned to the sky even though she knew full well the bird was not there.
This time the question was a touch less patient. Neither of them had just wandered off in this direction before. ‘Where are we going?’
“Oh. I don’t know. Do you remember the way back?” Because Lala was the navigator and the navigator was supposed—“Oh!” The rest of that thought and any answer her familiar might have given was completely swept from her mind as a car past with music blaring loud enough for Cheila to hear it clearly through closed windows and doors. “I know that song!” Which might have said something, because she didn’t know many songs at all. Certainly not the ones that had been playing around Scarlet Oak when she had gone out. Lala didn’t understand the significance of any of it. “I like that song!” she clarified, soon humming a few notes as she walked – which then turned into singing the words (she knew them!) and dancing along to the rhythm in her head. Snapping your fingers was also necessary. Sometimes. Which didn’t really make it necessary at all, but she liked to do it anyway.
‘Cheila? I think… This is someone’s property.’ A pause. ‘Yes, it is.’