Who: Henry and Rose What: A first meeting When: Backdated to shortly after Henry signed on to the network Where: Local park Rating/Warnings Low Status: Complete!
Rose was currently in between jobs as she chose a shady tree to sit under. She had a couple hours to kill between Baxter’s and Inferno, but not enough time to go home and relax. She didn’t mind too much; it wasn’t such an early morning for her, something she always enjoyed and appreciated. Really, she needed to prepare herself for tonight: Friday night’s at the Inferno always seemed to bring some interesting patrons in. She was finally getting use to some regulars and knowing which tipped the best, which to try and stay away from. Plus, she had a few people she knew coming in to visit, always a fun way to hang out with people while she was working.
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the tree, letting the sounds around wash over her.
Someone had once told Henry the best way to get to know a new city was to go out into it, get hopelessly loss and then find your way home. “All it takes is one afternoon. Just go out and wander around with no set destination in mind and when it gets late enough try to make your way back home. If you can’t find it again, just ask someone to point you in the right direction. You’d be surprised at what you can discover and the people you can meet.”
Henry couldn’t remember who had told him that. His grandfather, probably. Not that John Townshend had spent much time in unfamiliar cities. As far as Henry knew neither of his grandparents had ever left the small rural town of Londonderry. They’d both been born there, lived their entire lives there and had died there. Then again, Granddad did know Mr. Johnson, the man whom Henry was now more-or-less working for and Mr. Johnson didn’t strike Henry as a person who was from Maine. Granddad had to have met him somewhere.
Whoever had given the advice, Henry’d decided to take it that afternoon. It had worked. Kind of. He had wandered all over the city and currently had no idea where he was or how to get home and he was getting a little hungry. Ok, he was getting a lot hungry and he had no idea where a place to eat was.
He’d found a park though and it was beautiful with its lush green grace and tall shade trees. Henry was making his way along one of the footpaths, his camera on a strap around his neck and taking a few pictures.
He really was getting hungry, though. Maybe he should consider doing the other part of whose-ever advice it was and ask someone to point him in the direction of home. Or a place to eat.
It was about then that Henry spotted a woman leaning against the tree seemingly attempting to commune with nature. Carefully, Henry approached her. “Uhm, excuse me?” He called out carefully.
It was always strange when someone was calling to you and you knew it. Rose debated for a moment if she should pretend to know it wasn’t her he was calling to, but decided against it. She opened her eyes, her hand coming up to shield them as she looked up at the stranger speaking to her.
She was immediately pleased that she had opted to not ignore him. She sat up a little, a smile on her face.
“ ‘ello,” she said, her accent a bit thicker than it had been since she had moved. “Lost?”
“Yeah, a little,” Henry admitted sheepishly. He felt bad for waking her up. “I don’t mean to bother you, it’s just, I’m, uh...I’m new in town and I was out kinda trying to get to know the city and...well...I don’t know how to get back home. It’s getting late, and I’m getting hungry…” The more Henry talked the more foolish he felt. He could feel his face growing hot.
The blush that crept across his face only made Rose smile wider. “A gentleman in distress huh?” She grinned, teasing him a bit. “I dunno if I’m the best person to help you find your way home, but I’m happy to do my best!” Even being there half a year now, Rose was still finding new routes home and to work, trying back ways to try and avoid traffic. She only took the transit when needed, enjoying the outdoor walk instead.
“Where is it that you’re headed? I know a good place to eat if you’re alright with a transit trip.” She glanced at her phone for the time; early still to get to the Inferno, but she could always have a bite to eat too, depending on where this guy needed to be.
Henry noted the British accent in the woman’s voice. He was nowhere near wordly enough to know where in England exactly her accent would have placed her, but that detail didn’t really matter at the moment. Suddenly Henry was worried that not only had he woken the poor woman up, but now he was bothering a tourist who just wanted to soak up a little bit of California sun!
She didn’t seem particularly bothered, though. She was grinning at him, though his anxiety deflected her teasing tone and sent it sailing right over his head. At least she wasn’t yelling at him. Henry’s shoulders relaxed a little, taken in a bit by the Englishwoman’s charm. “Uh well…” he fished his phone out of his pocket. He hadn’t been staying at the shop long enough to have memorized the address and had it written in his phone. “I’m staying at [address]. I, uh, I work there.” Should he tell her that? This wasn’t Londenderry. Not everyone here knew everyone else. Should he tell a complete stranger where he was living and working?
Well, it was too late now at any rate. And Henry was rambling, something he tended to do when nervous. “It’s a photography store. I’m a photographer,” he showed her his camera, as if she couldn’t have seen the bulky thing hanging from a strap around his neck. “Or, at least, I’m trying to be. I’m not bad, but…you know…” Shut up, Henry! he yelled at himself. “But. Food. Yeah. Transit? You mean the bus? Yeah, I don’t mind taking the bus.” Nervous chuckle, “I should probably learn the routes anyway.”
Rose glanced at his phone that he offered to her, not recognizing the address. “I don’t know about that, but I’m sure we could plug it into a maps app and find where you can go! We’ll be able to get you back home right enough.” She grinned at him, feeling his nerves and wanting to make him feel more at ease. “I’m guessin’ you’ve been doing a lot of exploring to try and familiarize yourself with the area?” She stood up from the tree, brushing herself off as she did so. She glanced at his camera at what he said and looked back up at him. “Or trying to find things to photograph?” Hadn’t she just met someone on the network who said they were a photographer?
“You wouldn’t be Henry, would you? Newly arrived to the OC, photographer in the making, hard to type on a phone?” She smiled again, holding her hand out. “I’m Rose. I think we’ve talked on the network!” It was always funny how those sorts of things; Rose had met more people online and then in person then she could keep track of. It always seemed like those on the network were pulled to one another.
After he released her hand, she nodded her head down the path. “Yeah, if you’re alright taking a quick bus ride, I definitely have a place with good food. Unless you had other plans for today?”
A maps app! Why hadn’t he thought of that? Henry looked at his phone. It did have a GPS feature on it. He should have just put in the address and let it guide him back to the story. It was funny, but Henry hadn’t ever needed to use the GPS navigation on his phone before. He’d spent literally his whole life in Londonderry and the surrounding area. He knew it like the back of his hand
Henry blinked in surprise when Rose called him by name and reached a hand to him. In his home town, people knew everyone else, usually stretching back generations. Henry was used to that. However, California was different. Orange County was different. He never expected to meet any of the people he spoke to online while out wandering. All the same, he was glad to have met Rose, in person. She was at least someone he kind of knew. He smiled at her, a nice smile. “Yeah. I’m Henry,” he said as he reached out to take her hand. “It’s nice to meet you Rose.”
He shook his head, “I’m pretty much done for today,” he said. “I’ve done enough wandering around, so I don’t mind taking a bus ride to get some food. Thank you very much for helping me.”
“You’re welcome! I definitely needed help when I first got here. It was a completely new place.” She glanced back at him and grinned, pointing to her mouth. “If you couldn’t tell, I’m not a local.” She gave him a wink and nodded towards the bus stop. She started to walk that way, stuffing her hands into her back pockets.
“How are you likin’ Orange County so far?” She glanced down at his camera. “How’s the photography goin’?” Henry laughed a little and nodded his head. Yeah, he could tell Rose was definitely not a local. Still, he appreciated her willingness to take the time to help him out. He started walking with her. He felt a little better now that he had someone to show him around, not quite as small or as insignificant in such a large city.
As for how was liking Orange County, Henry wasn’t sure. He hadn’t really been there long enough to make up his mind. “It’s different than what I’m used to,” he said. “I grew up in a pretty small town. There are so many more people here than I’m used to. The photography is going really well, though,” he smiled. “I got a job photographing an event and I’m adding more and more shots to my portfolio all the time. It kind of helps that I have access to my own darkroom, now and I don’t have one that doubles as a bathroom.”
“Where was it that you grew up?” Rose glanced over at him, her hand brushing against his with the motion of their walk. “I guess my town was pretty small. Why I wanted to move here actually. Felt like I needed something bigger, ya know?” Or maybe he didn’t. She knew not everyone came to this area for pleasure, but for opportunity. It seemed he had a calling for his photography and there may be more chances here than back at home for him.
“How can a bathroom be like a darkroom?” she asked, her brain trying to remember how it was that photos were developed. “Aren’t there too many areas for light to get in?” She supposed it had to do with the type of bathroom too.
“I grew up in a little town in Maine,” Henry answered. He felt her hand against his and glanced down. Was he walking too close? Was he invading her space? Maybe he should be a little more mindful of where he stepped….then again, she wasn’t trying to move away from him. Maybe he was reading too much into the gentle brush. Henry turned his eyes up again. “The kind of place where everyone knows everyone else.” He glanced at Rose. “You came here specifically because you wanted to live somewhere larger?” His eyes moved upwards at the buildings around him. Orange County definitely fit that requirement.
He smiled a little bit. “The downstairs bathroom in my grandparents house was interior,” he explained. “No outside windows, so it was really easy to turn it into a darkroom. Plus with the sink and linoleum floor, it was easier to clean up if I spilled any of the developing chemicals. It was kind of small, though,” he said with a shrug.
Rose smiled as he described his hometown, sounding so much like her own. “Yeah, I think I know what you mean,” she said. “That sounds like my own. Or maybe it was just the complex we lived in. But it seemed I couldn’t go anywhere without someone knowing me or my mum. It would have been great if my mum wasn’t such a gossip.” She couldn’t help but roll her eyes, thinking back to all the phone calls and arguments she had with her on who got to be on the phone. “That part was hard. Everyone knew what was going on in each other’s lives, the good and the bad. It just got to the point where I felt like more people were talking behind my back than to my face.” She looked over at him and gave him a small smile. “I just wanted a fresh start so I could be myself and not have to worry what other people were thinking.” Which really, that would never change. Even as she started to get to know the neighborhood she was in now, wouldn’t the same pattern start to happen again? They arrived at the stop just as the bus was pulling into the area. “Ah, perfect timing!” She grinned at Henry, grabbing his hand to rush ahead to where the bus was waiting. She hadn’t even thought about invading someone’s personal space, it was an action that just seemed natural now after all her dreams with the Doctor.
She let go once they arrived, dropping it to dig in her pocket for her bus pass. She waited for Henry before choosing a space towards the back of the bus. “Sounds perfect, except for the space,” she commented, once they were settled and on their way to the Inferno. “But now you have your own? You were able to convert one of your bedrooms to work? Or do you go somewhere?”
Henry could sympathize with what Rose was saying. Londonderry had been very similar with everyone knowing everyone else. Gossip had run rampant through the town and it was basically impossible not to hear it. Henry was a quiet man and he’d been a quiet young man and a quiet teenager. There wasn’t much gossip that could be flung around town about him aside from his parents having died early in their lives. Henry had heard a few “stories” about what other townsfolk had thought had really happened to his mother and father. Some had been pretty close to the truth (or the truth as Henry knew it) of a car accident on the way home from Boston. Other stories, however, had been more outlandish and others downright mean heavily (if not right out accusing) the late Mrs. Townshend of having an affair and somehow being responsible for the crash that had killed her and her husband. At an early age Henry had developed a thick skin and had learned to ignore them. Mostly.
Henry could have commisterated with Rose about how frustrating gossip could be when they arrived at the bus stop and Rose excitedly pulled him onto the bus. Interestingly enough, he didn’t mind Rose grabbing his hand. It was pretty natural and he hurried after her to hop onto the bus before it left.
“My own?” Henry raised a brow once they were seated. “Oh, you mean darkroom? Yeah, I have my own now. I, uh,” he looked at her a little sheepishly, “I live the same place I work. I mean, there are upstairs apartments and I live in one and the store owner lives in the other when he’s in town. The store itself has it’s own darkroom and I get to use that. It’s pretty nice.”
If he might have been embarrassed by his living situation, Rose didn’t show any indication that it mattered. She grinned, leaning against the side of the bus to look at him. “Blimey, makes it easy to get to work! Just gotta walk downstairs and there ya are! Much better than having to ride this terrible beast all day.” To prove her point, she gave the seat in front of her a little kick. Unfortunately there had been in a person in that seat who gave them both a glare before turning back to their newspaper. Rose had to cover to mouth from laughing out loud, her head turned to Henry to share the joke.
Once she had controlled herself, she cleared her throat, the smile still on her face. “Pretty nice benefits if you ask me. Being able to have your own work space! Do you sell some of your photos at the shop?”
Henry gave the woman in front of them an apologetic look when she turned in response to Rose’s kick. His silent apology didn’t seem to help, though and the woman just glared at them both as if accusing each of them of kicking her on purpose. Henry’s shoulders creeped up towards his ears as the woman’s eyes bore through him.
Rose, however, wasn’t at all put off by the woman’s look and her stifled laugh drew Henry’s attention back towards her. Her smile, even hidden behind her hand was infectious and drew a small one from Henry as well. His shoulders relaxed a little and eased back into their conversation. “The shop mostly sells camera and darkroom supplies,” he explained. “But sometimes the owner will sell some of his own work if he thinks he can get something for it. I haven’t sold anything of mine yet. I’d like to sometime, though.”
“I’ll have to check this place out sometime!” Rose didn’t know much about photography, but she imagined someone like Henry had a natural talent for it. “And I’m sure you’ll have your own pictures up for sale in no time! Just gotta get use to everything around here, yeah?” She grinned at him, settling back into the chair a bit. They had a ways to go until they reached the Inferno. “You’ll have to show me your workplace sometime! I’d love to see how photos get developed!”