Re: Webster's: Holly & Elijah
Didn't mind voyeuristic. The tinge of the era that seeped out of the sides, dope-smoke and free love and carelessness added to the general flavor and sentiment. Elijah didn't watch a great deal of what was intimate. Couldn't say he wouldn't: opportunity hadn't presented itself. Watched from windows as a boy. Now watched from distances. It wasn't the same as either the Serge on the record or Holly's internal implication of what to voyeur meant in a digital age. But he wouldn't rule it out.
Paypal. It was considerate, but the boy in the store had remained open late in consideration so it was not unexpected so much as surprising to be given another momentary consideration. Didn't care about his card. Wasn't careful as a general rule, probably wouldn't have been at all if he'd lived another life. Now careful was an impression he left behind, like a man carefully trussed up in a costume leaves an impression.
Reached for the pen. Didn't expect the boy to pick up after him, and reached thoughtlessly thinking of Paypal and whether the boy - girl, didn't matter - in the book store would do similarly. His fingertips skimmed Holly's; knew it in the split-second it happened. Elijah's hands ran cool. His fingers were ice and in a moment he had the echo of pain in the joint of his ankle and white noise in his head. There was probably logic to how it worked, it was easier to puzzle through how to fix something if you yourself knew exactly how it felt and where it was. Felt it, knew Holly would no longer feel it.
Silence, white noise, pain. Elijah drew breath through his mouth, a shallow sound like a cat curling lips back from their teeth. It was only a small pain but wasn't prepared. For Holly, it was gone. Elijah let the pen go, stood instead.