18-04-2019, 11:22 AM
A Little Night Music Ch. 19
"There was a castle by a waterfall, with a pink and purple wall,
and a princess living there.
She had no parents and was all alone. She got by her own,
and she liked it pretty well.
Cause she never wore her socks. She had a pet snake.
She bought a red guitar, and she ate a whole cake.
And there wasn't anybody there to tell her what to do,
so she did what she wanted to.
And everybody knew the story of The Princess Who Saved Herself."
-Jonathan Coulton, "The Princess Who Saved Herself"
The Route 500 bus dropped Denise Cole off at the SeaTac Mall transit center in Federal Way. She walked through the rain, over to the comic shop, and picked up the Equals household's hold boxes; then grabbed a coffee on the way back to take the connecting bus to their house. As a teenage girl with a distant, sad look on her face, wearing a backpack and carrying a coffee; she blended in perfectly with the bus crowd until she came to their stop.
She walked down their street, looking at the houses. It was nicer than the part of Tacoma where she lived, certainly. It was always when she got to their house that she stopped for a moment. It had been a big house when they'd bought it, and the addition of the four-car garage and library made it bigger than any other on the street. She looked across the road, where Rob, one of the neighbors, was wearing a raincoat and had and waxing his car.
"In the rain?" Denise thought, then dismissed it. Lots of people did unusual stuff in the rain in Washington, simply because if they waited for it to stop, the things would never get done. The yellow rain gear that he wore, like the girl on the salt can, told Denise they hadn't lived in Washington long.
While she walked over to their mailbox, Eric, the other neighbor, came out of the house. He started toward her, when Rob called out his name. That made Denise look too, and she saw Rob giving him a gesture and saying something she couldn't hear in the rain from across the street, but the idea she got from it was that he was telling his husband "Dude, it's Denise, calm down."
She waved to them while she got the mail. Eric calmed down and they both waved back before he went back inside and Rob went back to his waxing. It made her smile a little to know that their neighbors cared enough to watch out for their place while they were gone. They looked like strong guys, too. Between them and what Julie, Susan, and Troy could do, Denise didn't envy anyone looking to steal Julie's jewelry collection.
Denise retrieved the hidden key, brought in the newspaper, and turned off the alarm. She set the mail, comics, and newspaper on their kitchen table, and picked up the three hundred-dollar bills that were sitting on a note reading:
Denise, (probably)
Gotta run. Thanks for doing all this.
If we're gone more than a week, there'll be more.
Anything in the fridge is yours. (Except the booze!
)
Two friends over, max. Keep them out of the bedrooms, please.
Believe in the Ruins?
Julie
Denise dumped the cold pot of coffee from yesterday that had been made on a timer after everyone had left in a hurry. She replaced the filter, unplugged the machine, and washed out the pot. She then filled a pitcher with water and went around the house, watering the plants. They were paying her a lot to come by every couple of days for this, but then, the Equals and Susan were just cool like that.
The day they'd met, Julie had talked Denise out of a plan to kill herself when a girl she'd been attracted to had threatened to out her as a lesbian to her parents and everyone at college. Later, Julie talked to the girl and convinced her to forget about the whole thing; then came to Denise's house and had a word with her parents; at the end of which, coming out to them had been easier than she'd ever imagined, and they accepted who their daughter was with open arms.
She also found out that first day that Julie was a lifelong friend of a woman she truly admired; a beautiful, powerful woman who took shit from no one, and whom she only admired more when Julie told Denise that she also liked girls. She was into guys too, but nobody's perfect. Someone smart enough to run her own country and beautiful enough to be the face of its tourism campaigns. Someone whom Julie had prank-called on Denise's phone and whose number was still in it, but she was always too scared to call after the woman had yelled at them the first time. She figured her number had to have been blocked by now anyway.
"There was a castle by a waterfall, with a pink and purple wall,
and a princess living there.
She had no parents and was all alone. She got by her own,
and she liked it pretty well.
Cause she never wore her socks. She had a pet snake.
She bought a red guitar, and she ate a whole cake.
And there wasn't anybody there to tell her what to do,
so she did what she wanted to.
And everybody knew the story of The Princess Who Saved Herself."
-Jonathan Coulton, "The Princess Who Saved Herself"
The Route 500 bus dropped Denise Cole off at the SeaTac Mall transit center in Federal Way. She walked through the rain, over to the comic shop, and picked up the Equals household's hold boxes; then grabbed a coffee on the way back to take the connecting bus to their house. As a teenage girl with a distant, sad look on her face, wearing a backpack and carrying a coffee; she blended in perfectly with the bus crowd until she came to their stop.
She walked down their street, looking at the houses. It was nicer than the part of Tacoma where she lived, certainly. It was always when she got to their house that she stopped for a moment. It had been a big house when they'd bought it, and the addition of the four-car garage and library made it bigger than any other on the street. She looked across the road, where Rob, one of the neighbors, was wearing a raincoat and had and waxing his car.
"In the rain?" Denise thought, then dismissed it. Lots of people did unusual stuff in the rain in Washington, simply because if they waited for it to stop, the things would never get done. The yellow rain gear that he wore, like the girl on the salt can, told Denise they hadn't lived in Washington long.
While she walked over to their mailbox, Eric, the other neighbor, came out of the house. He started toward her, when Rob called out his name. That made Denise look too, and she saw Rob giving him a gesture and saying something she couldn't hear in the rain from across the street, but the idea she got from it was that he was telling his husband "Dude, it's Denise, calm down."
She waved to them while she got the mail. Eric calmed down and they both waved back before he went back inside and Rob went back to his waxing. It made her smile a little to know that their neighbors cared enough to watch out for their place while they were gone. They looked like strong guys, too. Between them and what Julie, Susan, and Troy could do, Denise didn't envy anyone looking to steal Julie's jewelry collection.
Denise retrieved the hidden key, brought in the newspaper, and turned off the alarm. She set the mail, comics, and newspaper on their kitchen table, and picked up the three hundred-dollar bills that were sitting on a note reading:
Denise, (probably)
Gotta run. Thanks for doing all this.
If we're gone more than a week, there'll be more.
Anything in the fridge is yours. (Except the booze!
)Two friends over, max. Keep them out of the bedrooms, please.
Believe in the Ruins?
Julie
Denise dumped the cold pot of coffee from yesterday that had been made on a timer after everyone had left in a hurry. She replaced the filter, unplugged the machine, and washed out the pot. She then filled a pitcher with water and went around the house, watering the plants. They were paying her a lot to come by every couple of days for this, but then, the Equals and Susan were just cool like that.
The day they'd met, Julie had talked Denise out of a plan to kill herself when a girl she'd been attracted to had threatened to out her as a lesbian to her parents and everyone at college. Later, Julie talked to the girl and convinced her to forget about the whole thing; then came to Denise's house and had a word with her parents; at the end of which, coming out to them had been easier than she'd ever imagined, and they accepted who their daughter was with open arms.
She also found out that first day that Julie was a lifelong friend of a woman she truly admired; a beautiful, powerful woman who took shit from no one, and whom she only admired more when Julie told Denise that she also liked girls. She was into guys too, but nobody's perfect. Someone smart enough to run her own country and beautiful enough to be the face of its tourism campaigns. Someone whom Julie had prank-called on Denise's phone and whose number was still in it, but she was always too scared to call after the woman had yelled at them the first time. She figured her number had to have been blocked by now anyway.
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