| A Rabbit in a Snare |
| Summary: | Good intentions go awry for Lillie, during a trek into Walker territory. |
| Date: | 1942-02-02 |
| Related: | None. |
| Players: |
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Walker Place, Higsi
Thurs Feb 02, 1942
This is a temporary description.
(OOC Note: Set in the area surrounding Walker territory. Dirt road, thick wilderness, etc.)
Weather:
It is winter. The weather is cold and drizzling.
It's a drizzly afternoon, waning toward the later portion of it with just a few hours before evening sets in. To look upward is to see a lazy mother-of-pearl-colored sky, dashed by a smattering of darker clouds bearing their payload of rain. Luckily for one such young lady, traipsing along and following a rough dirt path, the downpour won't come into fruition til' another few hours yet. If Lillie has followed the directions given to her closely enough, hopefully her wending path along the backwoods area of Higsi will take her into the general stomping grounds of her blind friend. It had taken the Irish lass the better part of an afternoon to pry the information out of Josephine, with a final firm declaration to 'Be careful.'
This was meant on many different levels, but Josie simply had to let the girl find out for herself because she knew Lillie to be all-heart, wanting to help out. The elderly woman watched the snippet of girl pack up a satchel full of something substantial and clinking, and depart into the afternoon on a mission. Which leads us back to the present: Lillie has something for a one Jesse Walker, to repay him for his kindness to her. She is trying to /find/ this young man, and was actually on some semblance of the right track until she got distracted and stepped off of the path. Spying a red fox off on the grassy crest of a hill, Lillie wants a closer look.
Promising herself not to traverse too far, she yet walks far /enough/ …. people around these parts either don't want trespassers /or/ they seek wild game. Her left foot swings into the waiting loop of a wire rabbit snare; foreward motion hikes the nasty thing up past her ankle and cinches, biting into her lower calf. Lillie lurches with a yelp, and slams unceremoniously onto her stomach in the loamy earth. A few birds take off into the gray sky, like a shot.
Clifton was heading back from The Gallows, having helped Frank clean up some. Satchel over his shoulder, hands in the pockets of his jeans, he walks in the light drizzle of rain with his rain jacket providing some shield against the weather. He was enjoying the quiet of his surroundings…until the disturbance from the birds flying off into the sky. Frowning, his gaze follows the birds up before he looks in the direction they had come from. Heading that way and keeping his approach silent.
Sprawling in a daze, Lillie looks up as she pushes herself up into a seated position only to find abruptly that her afflicted leg won't cooperate. Curling her right leg beneath her thick, flared skirts the Empath glances sharply toward her opposite leg. The snare is tight enough to not warrant passage of her foot through the opening; to struggle harder is to only cinch it tighter or make the situation more painful. But pain is the least of Lillie's concerns; her belly begins to instantly roil with a growing worry that will shift into fear eventually. "Oh no," The young woman utters, brow knitting. "Oh shit." Comes a more satisfying word, sounding rather funny in her sweet, lilting voice.
No need to panic, because it's a snare… but she's stuck. Lillie curls herself inward toward the offending thing and looks at it, comes up blank on how to free herself. She then looks skyward with big green eyes, and around… she does what any sensible foolish bleeding heart girl would do.. calls for help. She pulls her satchel in toward herself and cranes her neck, crying out loud and clear and more than a little troubled. "Help! … Help!?" All the while cursing her blazing stupidity.
With the sudden cry for help raising up, Clifton pauses and lofts a brow "What in the…" If it was an attacker, this sure was a new approach. However, chances were not likely of that now. With quickened steps, Clifton hurries towards the source of the cry. Last thing they needed was for somebody to hear a woman crying for help up by the Walker place! "Hold on! I'm coming!" Coming out between a few of the trees, he sees Lillie. "You're…the girl from the diner? What are you doing here?" His form stiffens. No matter how harmless she seemed, she was on their territory…he wanted to know why.
God above what if nobody comes? What if a coyote finds her? Or a catamount?! Are there catamounts in Tennessee? With Lillie's luck there will be one along once the sun goes down to say hello, if she's still here caught like a friggin' rabbit. Or what if somebody unsavory finds her? Who knows who or what lurks in these woods? Lillie hugs her satchel close to her chest, feeling the reassuring weight of heavy glass within. She's no athlete but surely one solid throw will clock an assailant in the head, or—-
Then, a voice. Vaguely familiar; Lillie realizes this in her paranoia and looks around again, heart throbbing. Someone is coming to help!? Her lips press into a tight line and when Clifton finds her, he will see a young lady in a fashionable ladies' raincoat, hiding the blouse and skirts beneath…. and classy (yeah no) gumboots. She's hugging a bag close to her chest, and it looks cumbersome… and she's very clearly stuck in a primitive albeit effective device. It's actually possible: her eyes get wider the moment she spies Clifton through the trees… but he does not have that ease about him as noted in the diner.
"Clifton..?!" Lillie cries, and takes a deep breath. "I was.. looking for a friend. A one J—Jesse Walker."
Ok. Damsel in distress was a hell of a weak spot for Clifton, but he couldn't think about that right now. He had to protect his home. Their home. "Jesse hasn't mentioned you. How do you know him?" Observing the way she was clutching that bag and her overall behavior, he takes a step closer "What's in your bag?"
The young lady cannot fault Clifton this behavior because save for the brief interlude in which he traded saucy remarks with Raphael, she doesn't know a thing about him. She may have some crappy luck but Lillie isn't /really/ a fool; she knows now that she is on someone's property and that she /really/ should have stuck to the path. But hindsight is… yadda yadda. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, as the wire around her calf feels decidedly heavier, Lillie watches the man quietly. Jesse hasn't mentioned her, to Clifton or whomever else? Okay, so perhaps Clifton and Jesse know one another; perfect reason to explain herself. "We met just before New Year's eve.. he was there at the hall, with the musicians. We met a few times after, and have been cordial since. He has shown me kindness recently, and…" A nod toward the bag, as it is asked about.
Blushing deeply, Lillie opens it up with shaking hands and allows about five substantially-sized mason jars (with clean lids!) to tumble into the grass. She clears her throat, looking up awkwardly from beneath hooded lashes. "Last I saw him, he helped me at a flea market when I had a… hard time. H—he was looking for these. I suspect for canning..?" Yeah. /Oblivious/.
Clifton watches as the Mason Jars tumble out, hesitating another moment before sighing. "Here…" Moving to her side "Let me get you out of that." Stooping down he'd work on getting her ankle out of the snare. "So I'm guessing Jesse wasn't expecting you?" He looks to her.
… whew. OK, some progress. To be out of this snare would be a wonderful thing, and Lillie shuffles aside and stretches her afflicted leg out just a bit so that the snare is easier to get at. Gingerly, and out of desperation to do something with her hands, Lillie gathers up the glass jars and carefully slides them back into the bag. "No. I meant for it to be a surprise, but… it's silly, isn't it? I just didn't know how to call ahead, or…" Blink, Lillie glances over a shoulder at Clifton as he works at the wire. "I really am sorry if I was trespassing.. I didn't know of any other way. I just grew so sick of how people were responding to my wanting to do something nice for him and wanted to go about it my /own/ way."
Lillie knits her fingers into the fabric of the bag. "I feel as if I'm missing something.. I am yet new here. New enough.. I should have done my homework on property lines."
Clifton listens to her ramble on, shaking his head "Yeah…surprises aren't usually good out here. As you can tell." Surprise! Rabbit trap! At least she was lucky that Clif had come across her and not Clyde. "Jesse isn't here." He didn't know if that was true or not, but he had to get her out of here. However, part of what she says catches his attention and makes him look at her with a furrowed brow. "How were people responding?"
"I.. understand. If I could be pointed back onto the path I can easily maky my way home, back the way I came." Lillie says warily, feeling deeply embarrassed but knowing it to be her fault in taking this expedition. She ruminates Clifton's latter question, and looks to him levelly. "Innocuously enough, not outright cruelty… but concerned to see me spending time with him at length. Or simply chattering.. surely people cannot be so cruel as to talk about a blind man like that? He responds to them with an indulgent grin here and there, and hardly seems bothered. But it bothers me. Is it because he is a young man who simply goes about his own way? Maybe there is a raucous side that I don't know about.. but that's the gist of it."
Long story short: idle gossip, old biddies wondering what the young Walker is up to.
Clifton frowns at her explanation, helping her out of the snare and setting it back. "Yeah…you'll learn something real quick around here. You either avoid us. Or you get lumped in with us. People don't talk too kindly about us Walkers around here…not that they care what's true or not." A huff of breath, obviously worked up by the topic, before he shakes his head "No C'mon. I feel bad about you getting caught in the snare" despite it being due to trespassing! "Let me at least walk you back to down to make sure you get there alright. I'll tell Jesse you came by too…"
<FS3> Lillie rolls Empath: Good Success.
In Clifton's proximity, even the innocuous grazing touch as he removes the offending wire, this results in Lillie 'tuning' into him. With her own thoughts and feelings running potent, this only serves to awaken the sense more. She watches solemnly as the young man sets the snare back into position, and clutching her bag to her chest she slowly rises to her feet. It is in this moment, in more ways than just the one, that Lillie comes to know more about the Walkers. Things she could have found out by asking, but somehow… she didn't. Doe eyes watch Clifton quietly as he discloses to her the way Higsi treats the family, and she is just about to feel bad until a great rush of something accosts her mind and body.
Not rage or the like, but the building sense of disgruntled frustration that comes with a hot topic that one tries to quickly skirt. The Empath's embarrassed blush brightens into the heightening of color that comes with strong emotion, her brow furrowing and eyes darken. Her lips pull down into a moue of unhappiness; Clifton may very well assume she is feeling upset by the reality of associating with the Walkers. What she is /really/ feeling is what he began to experience upon breaching the topic. She tosses her head back, breathes sharply through her nostrils, wills it away. All that is left now is her sadness. "I am sorry to hear this.. I really am. I did not know… and I don't like it.."
Trailing off, Lillie notes the darkening sky. Regarding being walked toward home, "I would like that. Thank you for helping me, Clifton." She says gently, still feeling a bit hot under the collar.
"You're welcome…and yeah…I don't like it either, but what are ya going to do eh?" Trying to make light of the situation perhaps, but either way Clifton makes sure she's alright to stand and walk unassisted before leading her back towards town. "Well…at any rate. It was nice of you to try and surprise him. Like I said, I'll be sure to tell him. But I'll let you still give him the jars and won't tell him about those if you prefer."
Now back upon the path proper, and after a few more soothing, deep breaths of damp mountain air, Lillie is herself again. Still a tad disturbed and embarrassed, but grateful enough. "If I had the solution, surely I would let you know…" Lillie admits, listening to the sound of their footwear crunching the dirt. "For what it's worth, and call me naive for saying this but I.. I know my own thoughts," She looks toward Clifton, yet doesn't break stride. "I don't think you're a bad sort, any of you.. those whom I've met anyway. But towns as a whole seem to have minds of their own. I'm here from a bigger city." The Empath muses in her gentle way, shifting the bag to her shoulder. "Regardless of it all, I call Jesse friend and I would like very much to extend the same to you, for what it's worth. Had you not found me, it wouldn't have been a good night…"
The route back to town is easily backtracked, especially wit Clifton's expertise. "Please pass on my regards to Jesse, and the jars are no big secret. I shall gladly give them to him, next time I see him in town. Once we get closer to the town proper, by all means make your way home. It's going to rain heavily soon and I'd hate for you to get caught in it."
Clifton says, "Only solution is to realize that people are going to people no matter how pleasant or unpleasant that makes them." Perhaps feeling the mood was getting too serious again, Clifton looks to her as they draw near town. "Thank you…for the thought. In coming up here. Even if it didn't turn out right…I'm glad to see Jesse has such a good friend." He offers her a small smile at her mention of him being a friend now too. "Can never have too many friends I suppose…it was good to see you again, Lillie.""
"Forgive me my foolishness this evening." Lillie offers in return, laughter in her tone even if her expression still looks rueful. "Regardless of my folly, I am glad to have least tried. I truly meant well, I did." She admits, now at the edge of town. Familiar streets are ahead, and Lillie knows her way home from here. No snares or the like to be found, lest someone is playing a /mean/ joke! She dips her head once in farewell to Clifton, pulling her braid over a shoulder. "Likewise to you.. see you at the diner someday, I hope. Til' then travel safe and get out of the rain, Clifton."
A fond lifting of her hand, and the Irish lass traipses off for her home at a fast clip before the brooding clouds overhead have their way. Her only reminder on the morrow will be the barest bruising of her calf.