Halcyon (Alexandria Haley) (dead_memories) wrote in the_colony, @ 2011-03-21 18:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 35, halcyon days, thomas galloway, | halcyon and tom |
Week 35 - Monday
Characters: Halcyon and Tom Galloway
Location: Settlement; near the extension works.
Summary: Halcyon comes to Tom for some conversation, and ends up telling the truth to him.
Rating: G
Halcyon had spent the last days doing whatever she was asked to, not really minding the work, as menial as it might seem to her, mostly because she was still at odds with sticking around. The idea of giving Colleen a chance at being in this settlement by staying herself -and thus no lifting any kind of paranoiac suspicions had lost most of its strength after a couple of days, and now she was wondering if she could actually open herself to others. It was either doing that or leaving quietly, she thought.
Now that she had free time, the woman decided to pay Tom a visit. As one of the apparent authority figures, Halcyon supposed that if someone needed her complete honesty, that was Tom. And Alice, but she didn’t know if she could behave in front of both at the same time. She was simply too much of a nervous wreck around people. Soon after starting her little search, Halcyon saw Tom sitting not too far away, so she waved a hand as she closed the distance.
Tom was in the process of devouring a sandwich when he caught sight of Halcyon out of the corner of his eye. The veteran had been helping with the construction of the extension on the house, which was progressing rapidly now that they had the basic frame of the structure completed, but everyone had taken a break for lunch. He finished wolfing down the meal and nodded in acknowledgement of the young woman’s greeting.
“Halcyon,” It was an odd name for a girl, or for anyone for that matter, but the young woman was a bit of an odd duck in general. “What’s up?”
“Oh! Well...” She had expected the question, and yet it had taken her by surprise anyway. “Just walking around, getting to know the place. How are the, um, works going on?” She had done what she could to help with the construction, but she wasn’t one for that kind of physical activity; that in a way made her feel like she owed this people. More.
“We’ve got the frame up and the roof on,” Tom gestured toward the building. “Now comes the more tedious part of putting up the rest of it. How are you getting along?”
Hands hidden on her pockets, Haclyon gave Tom a somewhat uncomfortable shrug. “It’s okay, I guess. Everyone is nice and nobody seems to mind much the fact we are taking extra space. Or at least they are very good at talking at one’s back.”
“You’re part of the community now,” Tom smiled at her. “You’ll find your niche around here soon enough. Help out with chores, go on raids and generally help out and you’ll be pulling your weight. What are you good at?”
Now that was something she could answer with at least a bit of confidence. “I build stuff. A-and repair stuff. Cars, toasters, guns, electric generators, as long as I have tools and time I can put most things to work. I’m just really, really bad with the names of the tools and the parts a-and, well, stuff.” Her left hand left her pockets to go up and rub her neck; she could also see how the conversation would go.
“You have trouble with names of stuff?” Tom repeated, frowning slightly as he tried to decipher what she meant by that. “Mike’s an electrical engineer, and he could probably help you out with some of that. How can you be good at fixing things if you don’t know what they’re called?” He would have thought that would be one of the first things a person would learn after all.
For a moment, Halcyon didn’t say anything; she just stared at the ground as if she had found the most interesting thing in the world between her feet. “I don’t...remember. Not only the names of the tools; I don’t really remember anything,” said slowly as she looked up. “I mean, Halcyon isn’t really my name, but it’s all I have left. You should probably think I’m completely nuts now.”
“Did you tell any of this to Dr. Smith when you came in?” If the young woman hadn’t seen Louisa May, she would very shortly. “What is the first thing you remember and how long ago was it?”
“Um, no?” She didn’t have anything against the woman, but Halcyon felt slightly uneasy about doctors. “I woke up on a hospital, back on February; I know this because there was this...ah, the thing with the dates. On the wall. A calendar. I have no idea of why I was there, how I ended up in a bed, leave alone why I can’t remember a thing. Someone left me a note that said ‘Halcyon Days’ and I ended up using it as a name.” And with that, Halcyon went back at staring at her feet.
“I see.” Tom rubbed his eyes, finally letting his fingers pinch the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming on. I’m getting too old for this shit.
“All right.” He dropped his hand and looked over at the young woman. “We’re going to go see Louisa May and have her look you over, just to be safe. You’re still welcome here, a part of the community, but I want to make sure you’re healthy. Amnesia is a big deal.”
Noticing how she was actually not being yelled at, or kicked out of the settlement , Halcyon looked up, not quite managing to keep a smile out of her face. “All right,” repeated as she nodded.
“And I know, I know it’s a big deal, but I can’t quite make myself worry about it; I’m too caught on trying to stay alive to go wondering what I was doing before.” She still daydreamed of it, but Halcyon hadn’t tried to find out more about herself so far. Where would she start anyway?
“If it hasn’t come back by now, I don’t know that it would,” Tom mused, “but I leave medical stuff to Louisa May. She’s the doc, I’m not.” He stood up and offered a hand to her. “Come on, let’s go talk to the good doctor.”