Re: Outside: Clementine & Rudy
Clementine would argue there wasn't any such thing as overpolished. There was just right, and there wasn't near enough, and just right meant folks saw what you wanted them to see when they looked at you. Her whole damn life, she'd wanted limelight. She'd wanted adoring, because adoring had taken the place of salvation in a little girl's mind, and she hadn't never been able to shake that impression. It chased her down, followed her day and night, and it made her up now, same as bone and sinew had when she was living. It kept her from feeling like that prey he was thinking on, and she wasn't oblivious to it any. She knew why she was a bitch, and she knew why she was polished 'til she shined. Clementine, she didn't have a hint of clueless to her, despite the heavy accent making folks think her brain was lacking.
And he wasn't wrong about her being cold, not any.
She would hate knowing she smelled scared. Scared was something that belonged to her young, and she wouldn't acknowledge it any now. It was something real left behind, like the scent of piss in forest tents, replaced by something angry in the center of her that she didn't even recognize as being fussed anymore. It was just how her stomach felt, like stones were stitched in, and she had to swallow 'round them constant.
His cigarette sparked, and she thought of fireflies during sticky Georgia summers. "Chasing when you ain't got the right shoes, that's downright romantic, sugar. If you ain't careful, I'm going to compare you to one of them men on romance novels again, the ones you claim not to know a lick about. And I'm always planning on being adored. Any woman tells you they ain't, she's made full of lying." She glanced at the door. "Only thing that man adores is his science and superstitions."
Beside them, the door opened heavy, voices loud and Clementine looked over. The man there, drunk as skunks, asked Rudy for help with the door some. His woman was slipping all over herself, and Clementine nodded gracious. "You go on and help, sugar."
And there was plenty of time for her to take off, which was likely what she did, seeing as she was plenty gone and no sign of her at all once he turned back from helping them folks.