doc_smith (ex_doc_smith506) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-10-19 11:33:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | ^ week 21, alice munroe, louisa may smith, | alice and louisa may |
WEEK 21: FRIDAY
Characters: Alice and Louisa May
Location: Living room
Summary: Alice and Louisa May are awkward and touchy, but play nicely. After all, it's Christmas.
Rating: G
Louisa May awkwardly deposited her small package at the foot of the tree, attempting to be unobtrusive. A farmer’s almanac, and several packages of seeds from her daddy’s general supply store -- summer squash, pumpkin, zucchini, a mix of heirloom tomatoes that did well in Oregon soil, non-hybrid corn, carrots, lettuce, and some raspberry and blackberry seeds to boot, wrapped in some yellowing newspaper with “From Doc Smith” written on it in neat script. She didn’t want to be showy about it, but she did want to show her appreciation to the people that had provided her first meaningful human contact in months, especially since she was still considering moving up with them.
She straightened up from the tree stiffly, taking a look around the pleasantly appointed room as she turned around from the tree. For having a lot of people living here, there wasn’t an oppressive amount of stuff laying around, which made it less claustrophobic than she’d imagined. The living room was almost cozy, in fact.
The smells coming out of the kitchen were heavenly, and outside they had the huge feral hog roasting away in the cooker they’d had to raid special for it. It had been far too large to stick in the kitchen’s woodstove without chopping it into sections and furthering the cooktime. Altogether it was taking three different cooks in the kitchen, and Alice had to admit that it was starting to become an assault to her elbows. She brought out the most recent batch of pre-baked treats to the table in the living room, checking the level of the thermos containing the spiced cider by lifting it and giving it a little swish. Everything appeared to be okay. Maybe I should sneak a little break while I still can, she thought absently, spying an empty fold-up chair and planting herself in it.
Louisa May paused a bit as Alice came into the room and sat. She’d been wrapped up in introductions and the other woman had been busy enough when she’d arrived so that she’d been able to avoid any awkward confrontations until now. She decided to keep this one as short and painless as possible for the both of them.
“Alice,” she said by way of greeting, nodding her head at the other woman. She decided it’d be best for her to simply make her way over to the table with food, take some, and make a graceful exit to another part of the house.
Something about the older woman’s tone set Alice on edge almost immediately as her eyes moved up to meet hers. It was quite clear from the over-politeness that Louisa May hadn’t gotten over their first real meeting. Alice had trouble even mustering up the urge to be agitated; mostly she was just tired, and wanted the evening to be over.
“Nobody’s forcin’ you to talk to me,” she said plainly. Alice opened her mouth to add more, but then closed it and simply shook her head. “Unless you’d rather we just let whatever happened be water under the bridge and try again.” I’m not holding my damn breath, though, she added inwardly.
“I’m not the type of person who’s forced into anything,” Louisa May replied back calmly, pausing on her way to the table. She was expecting a bit more of an exchange of niceties, but should have known better when it came to the other woman. She was at a disadvantage here -- this was Alice’s house, with Alice’s people, and that man -- Leo -- he was here too. Furthermore, it was patently clear to Louisa May that Alice wanted to forget not only their conversation, but anything bad about Leo’s past to boot, and that was something Louisa May would find a lot harder to do.
She shook her head. “I figure we’re just gonna have to agree to differ on this one,” she replied. It was more than a simple disagreement, of course, but if Alice was taking Leo’s side, she was not about to waste her time and energy trying to do anything about it. She made her way over to the table, and couldn’t help but be impressed by the spread. It reminded her of the piles of food her family would have over the holidays, especially when relatives came to visit, and it gave her a pang of nostalgia for their warm and friendly faces. She didn’t want to linger, so she grabbed a plate and put a few spoon fulls of food on it, hardly noticing what she was sampling from.
Again, Louisa May’s tone grated on Alice’s nerves. She could feel the anger bubbling up in her belly, her face flushing with anger, and stiffly stood. The cheeriness of the living room had lost all its appeal, and she moved toward the hall closet to get her coat, intending to check the progress on the hog outside even though it wasn’t one of her designated courses to keep tabs on.
Although she didn’t hold any particularly warm feelings towards Alice, Louisa May felt at odds leaving their conversation so abruptly. It seemed spectacularly impolite, given that she was a guest, at least for the time being, and might eventually become more. “Hey, Alice,” she called out to the other woman. Alice turned her body toward Louisa May while she put on the jacket, gloves, scarf, and hat, but otherwise said nothing.
“Y’all got a real nice place here. You should be proud.” Louisa May paused, looking down at the plate of food she held awkwardly in front of her. “And thanks for the food,” she added.
That seemed to stop Alice in her haste to leave, if only for a moment. The younger woman pulled her lower lip between her teeth, gnawed on it, then gave an almost imperceptible nod. “S’Christmas, after all,” she said slowly. “Season of giving.” Or whatever, she mentally tacked on. After another uncomfortable pause and shift on her feet, she added: “Have you seen the whole place yet?”
“No, not yet. Meg’s offered to take me on a tour of the house, though.” The fact that Meg was blind was not lost on Louisa May, but it certainly didn’t seem to dampen the other woman’s enthusiasm for the task, and she couldn’t help but smile at the thought. She paused. “Gotta give the little kid -- Walker -- a checkup, too, before it gets too late.”
It wasn’t too hard to see the dodge, and for the briefest instance Alice felt let down. It didn’t take much of a turn-around to feel a little rueful that it was Meg giving her a tour though. “Well we got more’n a house,” Alice replied. “There’s a barn and a garage, too. And given the fact that Walker’s already eaten his weight in cookies before dinner’s even started, he’s probably too hyper to go falling asleep anytime soon.” She shrugged her shoulders lightly. “Up to you though.”
A tour was fairly safe territory -- one tended to point and talk about the things one was pointing at rather than delve into awkward or touchy subjects -- so Louisa May decided to take the offered olive branch for what it was worth. “Let me get my coat,” she replied.