InsaneJournal

Ice Cream and Ducks
Who: Lily, Susan
What: a random encounter
When: Thursday late afternoon
Where: near a duck pond in a park
Rating: Low
Status: Complete

For nearly a week -- sometime tomorrow it would be a full week officially -- Lily had thought to pretend this was just some sort of spell gone wrong. She went through the motions of attempting to settle in, to find a job, to make friends -- for as well as that had gone. The longer she was stuck here, the more convinced she was it was all real, all true, that she truly was stuck here. She hated to think in terms of 'forever' but if no one knew how they'd gotten here (and no one appeared to), then what were the odds they'd be able to reverse it and send everyone home? Even if they managed that, would they be able to get the times right, or would she wind up in some different version of her own universe, some different time? With no luck yet on the job front -- she was starting to think that 'we'll get back to you' was just code for 'thanks for wasting our time' -- Lily had spent most of the day just wandering the city. She'd bought a few groceries that morning and eaten lunch in her room before drifting out for more wandering. Later that afternoon, she found herself at an ice cream shop near a park. It was a warm enough day that she'd appreciate the cool ice cream, so she'd bought a strawberry cone before heading out to sit on a bench near the pond. For a little while, she'd simply watched the people but it only served to remind her just how alone she was. She had no real friends here, and she envied the couples she saw walking, or the groups of friends chatting and laughing. It seemed wrong to be so melancholy on such a nice day, but there it was. Once she'd finished the ice cream, she tore of bits of the cone, tossing them to the trio of ducks in the pond. Once it was gone, she licked the crumbs off her fingers along with the few sticky drops of ice cream on her thumb before she rested her hands on her thighs. She didn't know what to do with herself just then, and since she wasn't interested in going back to her room, she simply remained where she was. Lily lost herself in her thoughts, unaware that her expression had fallen to reflect the intense sorrow that her thoughts had created.