Wandering: Sparrow & Evelyn
What: A ride home
Where: Highway, near the school district
When: Afternoonish
Warnings/Rating: Doubtful
She never came this way. Except that wasn't true at all.
It wasn't that it was far, because nothing was really far, not here. Not compared to subways and buses and across the country. Everything felt small in this town, and the ringleted blonde that walked along the side of the road, she felt small too.
The day was cold, bitterly so. Her dress was the 1920s, burnt orange and sleeveless, thin and to the knees. It was a beautiful thing, embroidered and with appliques that clung on despite the passage of time. She remembered buying the dress in Virginia, and she'd only been there once, on her trip out here. She remembered, and she allowed herself to remember, because she wasn't sure how long the memory would be there for her to clasp and hold.
She wore a thick coat over the dress, sage and pea-coat, and her stockings were white, and her boots were brown. She would look transient, if not for the quality and cleanliness of the clothing. And her hair, her hair was too brilliant bright blonde for someone who didn't shower regularly.
Still, she was a sight, there, wandering near to the schools and wondering why she kept being drawn here. She didn't have any children, and she didn't know any children. She never wandered close enough to be threatening, to have someone call the police and say there was a strange woman around the children. But, in her head, she knew that it was the school that drew her near, like moth to flame, and even on that bitterly cold day.
She ventured a little closer than normal, and she could almost hear the sound of laughter dancing on the cold wind. It felt like holidays, and holidays made her yearn for people, and the holidays made her yearn for things, and the maw in her soul seemed to widen with the winter chill. She walked, as if that would make it any better, even a little better, even better at all.