Liliana Castle | Sunna (solsken) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2011-07-20 19:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | mani, sunna |
Shadows Jumpin’ All Over The Walls
Who: Max & Lily
What: The Castle siblings go out to buy their Aunt a birthday gift
Where: Fashion Island Shopping Center
When: Early evening, Saturday
Notes: Placehold for Gdoc Completed!
Liliana frowned at the gardening gloves she was holding. Gardening gloves, really? They were a cute pattern but how many times had Lily gotten Aunt Jill gardening gloves as a gift? Far too many times was what Lily concluded after making a quick mental count. She gently placed the gloves back on the shelf and took a step back, looking over the displays in the gardening section and trying to think of what Aunt Jill could possibly not already own.
Turning to Max, Lily shifted the strap of her purse on her shoulder and tossed her curls over her shoulder. “Do you think we should try another store? I hate buying Aunt Jill stuff. I always feel like it’s not enough.” Because really, what would be a good gift for the woman who took you and your little brother in and raised you when you were perfectly happy being a bachelorette? The thought crossed Lily’s mind more than once and she let out a frustrated sigh. It had been a few weeks since Max had admitted to seeing their father and it had taken Lily some time to leave Pax without looking over her shoulder, feeling like she was being watched, but for Max she worked hard to appear calm, cool, and collected.
Max was busy occupying himself with a strangely shaped gardening tool that reminded him of a pizza cutter. Was it so you could have pizza while you planted? He was very confused by it, but Lily’s voice pulled his gaze away from his momentary curiosity.
“Lil, you know she’ll be fine with whatever we get for her. She’s not a picky woman,” he replied, making the faux-pizza-cutter fly through the air like the SS Enterprise. “What about, I dunno, some bath soap or something? Or a movie?” His eyes went back to his newly found toy, starting to make the sound of an engine under his breath.
Lily watched her brother for a moment, allowing his play before gently placing a hand on his, stilling the flying garden tool. She knew he would rather be sleeping or playing his games. He’d probably rather be cleaning the bathroom, actually, than be out shopping with her. Even Lily found the search for birthday presents to be a tedious but a necessary evil. “Bath soaps sound like a good idea. Maybe we could get her a nice bathroom scent. Something that smells like lavender. You know how much she likes that scent.”
She quickly glanced the garden section of the store they were in and sighed. “How about you pick what we should get exactly and I’ll wrap it all up,” she suggested with an arch of an eyebrow. He stifled a yawn with the back of his hand, at last putting the tool back on the hook where he’d found it. The prospect of being handed this little sliver of responsibility enticed him, and his brown eyes widened.
“Sure, that way you’re not just signing my name on the card,” he joked, elbowing his sister gently as he walked past her. They were in a mall, and he knew that if he just followed his nose and the growing sensory headache in his skull, he knew he’d find some kind of a perfume store that would have its shelves stocked full of various scents in various mediums, bath soaps being only one type. The mingling of so many different smells always made him feel a bit nauseous and wonder how the retail clerks managed to put up with it for so long. Maybe they eventually lost their sense of smell?
The mall wasn’t as crowded as it could have been, given that it was a weekend, but Max was thankful since his coordination was thrown due to the exhaustion that always settled over his muscles during any daylight hours. He was also prone to moments of micro-naps and sometimes hallucinations, and that’s what he thought he saw in the form of a black shadow moving through the crowd - a man, dressed in black slacks and a dark jacket, staring at him in deep concentration. Max stopped and looked over his shoulder to be sure the man was making direct eye-contact with him, but when he looked back, the man was gone.
Lily allowed Max to lead the way, she considered the different gift options they could make. A bath scrub? Just soap? Maybe they had nice aromatherapy candles. She had given Max the responsibility but she could always suggest a gift or two, help her brother along with picking out what he wanted.
Before she could finish her thought, Lily walked directly into Max. Letting out a quick breath and taking a few uneven steps back she gave her head a shake then immediately flew around Max to look at him. “Are you okay?” She wasn’t even concerned that she had plowed into him. She knew how daytime hours were for Max and he was even worse during the summer when the sun was up for longer spans of time. She was hoping he wouldn’t drop to the floor in a dead sleep, knowing she damn well wasn’t strong enough to drag his body to the side, and he wouldn’t be thrilled if someone called 911 and he woke up without some type of an exciting ride in an ambulance.
“Max, what’s wrong?” He shook his head, gave his sister a reassuring smile, and then motioned for them to continue walking.
“S’nothing - just thought I saw something. You know how my eyes get when I’m this sleepy,” he replied, continuing to move through the people at a careful pace. There, Bath & Bodyworks, that was one of those million smells stores, right? It had bath in the title, so it had to be right. Making a motion toward the store with his hand, he led Lily into the decadently smelling belly of the beast.
“OK, you said lavender? Uh...which one is that?”
Lily allowed Max to lead once more and followed him to the store with a lingering frown on her face. She stood beside him in the entrance way, grimacing from the strong mixture of scents until they were accosted by a worker.
“No thank you, we don’t need any help,” Lily said with a sweet smile before grabbing Max’s hand and pulling him towards the back of the store. Talking to Max over her shoulder she made a quick explanation. “This stuff over here looks like lavender. Lavender is kind of a purple flower so it’s typically in purple packaging.”
They stopped before the display and Lily looked it over. A million bathroom options all with the scent of lavender. Suddenly she didn’t quite want to figure out what to get Aunt Jill. “All right Max, it’s all you now.” A hand reached up to adjust his glasses, feeling himself shrink before the all too large task of selecting one of a million different kinds of bathroom paraphernalia. What did they do with all of this stuff, anyway?! Body butter? What the heck was that for?
Soon he was lost in just examining the objects, confusion plain on his face. Putting down a bottle of lotion that he’d been reading the directions to, he helped himself to some of the sample of perfume - he thought he’d be sly, squirt some in the air and have a quick sniff. Unfortunately, it ended up going straight into his face, his eyes saved only by his glasses. His tongue did not escape as easily, though.
“Augh!” Shoving the bottle back onto the shelf, he stepped away, waving his hands to dissipate the overpowering smell of lavender that now seemed to settle into his clothes. “You do it, I don’t think I can handle this.”
Lily laughed slightly, rubbing her hand on top of Max’s hair to ruffle up his curls. “You’re helpless, you know that?” She stepped up to the display and looked it over. “You know, it probably would have been easier if we had just sent her a plane ticket to see us. Granted it would’ve killed the bank but it would’ve definitely been easier.”
She considered the display once more then reached out for an assortment of products. “Look, body wash, shampoo, lotion, stuff you can spray on your bed to make it smell nice, and a candle. Sound good?” She turned casually towards Max with her arms filled and looked up at him. Lily’s eyes settled on someone beyond Max and her color paled considerably. She blinked once, twice, and the man was lost in the crowd again. Their father. Lily suddenly wanted this shopping trip to be over with as soon as possible.
Max opened his mouth to respond, but Lily’s change in coloring stilled his tongue. He turned to look over his shoulder, but after a few careful moments of inspection, he could find nothing amiss in the crowd.
“Lil?” He waved a hand in front of her face. “Yeah, that looks fine to me. Don’t know why she needs more than soap, but you know this stuff better than I do. Want me to carry it to the cash register?” Without waiting for a reply, he took the items from his sister, easily able to handle the lot of it. He moved forward, further into the interior of the store and toward the register, expecting his sister to follow. Lily slowly pulled herself back into the real world. Her eyes followed her brother as he gripped the gifts from her arms and made his way to the counter. Still, it took her a moment to really snap out of it and follow him.
She eased up beside her brother, standing much closer to him than usual. They were close siblings and often times took on the role of parent and child. They were comfortable enough to share hugs and close personal space. However, she was much closer than usual and couldn’t get herself to step away from her brother if she tried. For a few awkward moments she was silent then quietly she began to dig into her purse for her bank card. “Once we get this, let’s leave, lets go straight home. We can... we can order food, have it delivered. I know I said we could eat out but I want to go directly home,” Lily whispered to Max, her voice shaking slightly as she spoke. “I’m... I’m sorry. You can order whatever you want.”
Dropping the chosen items onto the counter, Max gave Lily a slow look, confused. The cashier raised her overplucked brows at the siblings secretive manner, but said nothing as she began to run barcodes under the decisive eye of her scanner gun.
“Why? I wanted to go to that pizza place, Big Eats. It’s the only one in the area that makes non-gluten, you know, and we never go out...” His voice took on a whining edge, wilting under the fact that she had rescinded her promise of letting them eat out. They were rarely even awake at the same time, and their separate schedules kept them busy enough that Max rarely saw the outside of a classroom or his own bedroom. Another reason why he wanted to go to Big Eats was its retro arcade. Whatever Lily’s problem was, he wanted to know so he could help ease her worry and keep the evening’s plans on track.
Lily fought back a frown as she handed the cashier her card, not answering Max under this woman’s watchful eye, and thanked her before quickly grabbing the shopping bag and turning to leave. But rather than walking directly out of the store doors she pulled Max to the side while glancing uneasily outside of the store. She felt guilty for ruining their plans and she didn’t want to particularly admit this to Max, she’d rather protect him from the information, and yet she wanted him to know who was potentially waiting for them.
“I... I thought I saw dad,” She whispered to Max, lowering her eyes and looking like she could cry. Her hands had a slight tremor in them and she gripped the shopping bag tightly in her hands. “I thought I saw him standing outside of the store but then he was gone so I don’t know if I’m seeing things.” She let out a shaking breath and regained some of her control, trying to change gears and quickly regretting that she had been honest with Max. She wanted to keep him safe, had to. “Maybe I’m just hungry. Maybe we should go get food...”
The news jarred him. With the recent sighting of their paternal parent on his bus ride home from school, Max had been hoping that it’d been a fluke. Or maybe someone who had looked marvelously like their father - after all, they’d been no sightings since, except for the brief moment earlier that exact evening when he’d noted the man dressed in dark clothing. But he kept that information to himself, not wanting to multiply Lily’s fears and cause her undue stress.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. There’s a Mrs. Field’s back that way, get you some sugar, yeah?” He took the bag from his sister’s hand and then, in a move of gentlemanly politeness, wrapped her arm in his to lead them both out of the store. It was just another normal day for them, out shopping for their aunt’s birthday, there was absolutely nothing amiss. Yeah, right.
Lily couldn’t help but smile at her brother as he took the shopping bag and led her out of the store. He was growing up. Well, he had grown up quite some time ago but now he seemed to be acting his age a little more. “You’re a good kid, Max,” Lily said quietly with a gentle punch at his arm with her free hand. They walked quietly for some minutes but Lily’s mind was still stuck on what she thought she saw.
“Max, do you really think it might have been him?” She whispered to her brother, making a cautious glance over her shoulder before she continued. “He was just standing there... watching us. He was there one minute then gone. You said when you saw him he didn’t seem all that threatening... right? Or am I just telling myself that.” As she whispered to Max she began to tighten her grip on his arm while her eyes passed over the people around her.
He kept his gaze straight out in front of him, busying his mind by concentrating on weaving through the crowd of people that seemed to have grown in the short time they’d been inside the store. “He just looked at me, on the bus. He seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see him,” he replied, trying to calm his sister. Of course, at that time he wasn’t even sure that it had been his father, just that the man had looked familiar. Maybe the guy had just been wondering why this kid was staring at him like he knew him. That was just as likely of an explanation.
Mrs. Field’s came into view, the smell of baking cookies and chocolate brownies enticing. They were still a good twenty feet away from the store when Max saw the man again, the man dressed in dark clothes. He almost stopped, startled, but instead quickly turned on his heel to direct his sister away from the confectionery stand. “You know what, I kinda want to go home now, too...”
Lily picked her head up and looked at Max while he turned her the other direction. “You sure?” She stared at him for a moment then glanced around, looking over her shoulder, to see the man that was obviously their father following them. “Max...” her voice was soft but there was obvious alarm in her tone. It was momentary that she paused and the man seemed to make eye contact with Lily. Their father, that man who had terrorized them as children. She grabbed Max’s hand tightly with her own and began to walk quickly. They were near the parking area so it wouldn’t take long to get there, thankfully, but Lily wished they could run. Still, there were other people around and she didn’t want to draw attention to them.
Picking up the pace as much as he dared, Max was afraid to look over his shoulder. What if the man had gotten closer in the short period of time it had taken the two of them to move toward the exit? Would looking at him make him move faster? What if he couldn’t be seen, was jumping around and waiting for Max to look over his shoulder, only to jump out and surprise him the moment he turned away?
Quickly they moved through the crowd, Max tugging at Lily’s arm; almost like when they’d been children, and he wanted to show her a bug he’d found or impress her with a puzzle he’d completed. Except those childhood memories didn’t have the tinge of fear that he was now feeling, the thought that they were potentially running for their lives.
Lily turned her attention to walking as quickly as possible without making people stare. She could feel the tension from Max which worried her and only caused her to walk faster. They were both tall, sharing the family trait of long legs, so it was rather easy to make a few long strides and move forward by leaps and bounds. However, they got their long legs from their father who Lily could feel was still following them. Her intuition could be wrong, she might have been feeling nervous because they had actually seen him. Still, the skin on her neck crawled and sirens were sounding in her brain to get Max to safety.
But he was taking charge, being the one to lead Lily along in the direction of her car and Lily took this opportunity to dig for her keys. The sight of it was welcomed and Lily hit her automatic unlock as they now began to jog through the parking lot. There weren’t many shoppers in the parking area but by this point Lily didn’t care if people saw them running.
They reached the car faster than Max expected - perhaps that was a side effect of the concentration he’d been pouring into his efforts, much like how he didn’t note the passage of time when deeply involved in a particularly engrossing video game. He came to a halt behind the little two door, glancing at Lily to see if she’d dug out her keys. The thought that he should let go of her hand and go to the passenger side door dawned on him, but he was afraid that if he did, one of them would disappear. So he remained, paused and waiting for his sister to take the lead once again because he’d come to an obstacle he wasn’t prepared to deal with.
Lily stared at her car for a moment, catching her breath from the exertion of fear mixed with the rush to get to the car. She looked at Max, seeing him waiting for her to give direction, and gave his hand a squeeze. “Car doors are unlocked: let’s get in, lock them immediately, and go straight home. Okay?” She gave his hand a final squeeze, trying to smile to comfort her baby brother but wanting badly not to let go, still she did and rushed to the driver’s side.
Slipping into the car she slammed her door shut and hit the lock button, waiting breathlessly for Max to join her as she stared out into the parking lot, jumping at the sight of any person that passed nearby. He gave a swift nod, and the moment her hand left his, he darted to the passenger side door. It opened easily, and he slid into the seat almost simultaneously as Lily did hers. Anyone watching would certainly have raised a brow toward the sibling’s odd behavior, but Max gave it no mind. Instead he made sure he performed his process - the door was locked, next came his seat belt, and then he was ready to go. He’d always been sure to buckle his seat belt; Lily had taught him since he was young that safety was important, especially considering how their mother had died.
After a moment he realized he was nearly out of breath. Taking in a deep gasp, he let it out slow. “I keep expecting him to come up and run at the glass or something,” he joked, turning to look over the shoulder of his seat. “But that’d be kind of dramatic...”
“I keep thinking that will happen too,” Lily said quietly and her voice cracked. She clamped her mouth shut and swallowed. She felt her eyes burning so she stared directly in front of her, refusing to blink, and most certainly not intending on looking at her brother. They were doing rather well for themselves and Lily could honestly say that she had come to forget her father in some way. But this... his sudden appearance was frightening her more than she would let on. She already wasn’t doing a very good job at keeping control of her emotions but behind the weak mask she wore for her brother was the frightened child she was.
Slowly, out of the necessity that they were fleeing from their father, Lily started the car and gripped the steering wheel, but still she paused as she tried to gather her breath and emotions.
Max’s head swiveled to look at his sister - it was a rare moment indeed, if Lil was on the verge of tears. He could probably count on one hand the number of times he’d seen his sister actually cry, and whenever it happened he always felt helpless. Now was almost edging on being one of those times, but he was older. Shouldn’t he take some of the responsibility? Stop letting Lily shoulder everything, you idiot, he mentally berated himself, and a tentative hand stretched out to touch his sister on the shoulder.
“Hey. Hey, it’ll...it’ll be OK, all right? Let’s just go home. And, we can get some food, and...I’ll even let you use my Wii Fit to do some yoga, or something. All right?” His offer was small and probably disinteresting to her, but anything to distract his sister in that moment was better than nothing at all. If he could have given her a hug right then, he would have, but the seat belt kept him snugly in his seat; Lily had instructed him to never take it off when the car was on, and it was ingrained into his very subconscious at this point in his life.
Lily made a small sniff and rubbed at the tip of her nose, the moment passed and she regained control over her emotions. Reaching to her shoulder she took her brothers hand, gathering it into her own and squeezing it tightly. Looking shyly at him she made a small smile. “Thanks, Max. I’ll be happy to give that game thing a try. So long as you’re patient as you show me how to use it.” She let go of his hand and turned her attention back to the car, setting it in reverse she began to back out of their parking space. Concentrating on driving was already serving as a good distraction to what had just happened and Lily felt herself calming down. She only hoped that this wasn’t the beginning of some nightmarish trend.