| It's Raining Shovels! |
| Summary: | Someone help the poor man find a 1943 Farmer's Almanac before he takes down the entire Woolworths! </unnecessary dramatics> |
| Date: | 1943-09-20 |
| Related: | NA |
| Players: |
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Woolworths, Higsi
Thu Sep 20, 1943
Woolsworths 5 & 10 is a popular general store in the area. They sell a little bit of everything for a decent price. To the right where it can be seen through the large front window is the ladies clothing department, then the children's and men's as one heads to the back of the store. To the left is a soda fountain where one can get sodas, malteds and other assorted non-alcoholic beverages and ice cream. In the back of the store is a sewing section, a small hardware section and a limited amount of groceries.
Weather:
It is summer. The weather is hot and clear.
===
<FS3> Lillie rolls Empath: Success.
Well here's one more thing that sets Lillie apart from the gentle, pretty birds of Higsi: she. hates. shopping.
After one too many commands from her charge, Matilda Barnes strong-armed Lillie into getting a 'pretty' new dress for Sunday services. Between her own hectic personal life and the plans with the boarding house, Lillie was nonetheless hard-pressed to deny the moneyed dame her request. Ugh. So she was either to sink some precious coin into a dress for church or be skinned alive come Sunday if she were to turn up at Butler Street on Sunday morning in her typical attire.
So here she is, ladies and gentlemen, standing in the ladies' clothing section of Woolworths. In all honesty Lillie found herself veering away from the clothing racks more than once, floating like a little butterfly in the very meagre selection of hardware. She needs a birdhouse. Now THERE is something sensible. Somewhere for her summer darlings to make their nest before the winter.
For the fifth time — no lie — Lillie has lost sight of her original cause and pads into said hardware section, not quite watching where she is going. Her sense precedes her, weakly. Any emotions she discerns from others will be surface, at best.
If there's something Father Larry doesn't have to decide, it's what to wear on Sunday. Wandering Woolworths, he's given up on finding that latest edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac here, even though a certain Walker told him Woolworths. If he can't figure out when to start planting, he may as well start finding the proper tools. Larry's mood, for the time being, seems to be one of curiosity and determination.
Finding himself looking at a shovel, he picks it up. Then, a pain jolts in his left leg, and he drops the shovel with a loud "Clang!". Embarrassed, he grumbles a few words and glances around to see who noticed.
Go figure Lillie passed by the latest edition of that well-used and well-loved tome. On her way firstly to the racks. Then to the hardware section. She's just about to reach for a particularly charming birdhouse when a 'CLANG!!!' resounds through what is, in fact, a modest store in comparison to the branches in bigger cities. Of course people notice! As other shoppers gather their wits and before they see fit to see to the Father, the Irish woman is already making her way toward him, little wooden birdhouse in her hands. "Oh!" She recognizes him immediately. His embarrassment sizzles across the forefront of her mind as quickly as a flame licks the heat of a grill.
"Hallo Father." Offers the Empath kindly, "I thought I was the only one to make a ruckus in here. I was just planning on what to do next until you beat me to the punch." A fond smile; Lillie isn't making fun, just trying to break ice. "Is everything alright?"
The pain vanishes as quickly as it came, subsiding in his leg. The priest may be used to eyes on him, especially in this town of gossips, but nonetheless the red on his face is slow to fade. That is until he sees a friendly face. "Well, hello there Miss Lille." He gives her a smile as he unclutters things with plenty of metallic sounds to boot.
"Everything will be alright, nothing seems to be broken. So, I think there's no reason to snap my cap." Father Larry looks around the small space again. "What brings you to Woolworths, besides coming to the aid of a clumsy priest?"
Pain registers in a different way to an Empath. However, her sense must be 'stronger' than what it is now for it to hint in that manner. Lillie is no dummy however; had Larry not composed himself quickly enough, she will have bore witness to the response to the pain in his leg. However she came to his aide seconds too late. All she can do is chalk it up to a tiny bit of clumsiness or sheer circumstance. She even has the grace to help right things that may have been jostled in the dropping of said shovel, though one-armed as she yet holds the birdhouse to her chest.
"It's alright, truly. I don't think many really noticed." She offers, and to look around is to indeed see some averting their gazes quickly. Being a holy sort affords some advantages, perhaps. Lillie glances at one of the clerks who happened to be the last to look away and she smiles sunnily at her. She then turns her green eyes to the priest, addressing his query. "I am supposed to be finding a new outfit for church." A sly smile, which turns rueful. "But I've been distracted, you see. Have you been settling in alright?"
"An outfit for church? Perhaps you'll have to teach me what qualifies as appropriate attire in Higsi." Larry says, seeming in much better spirits, especially with things better organized now. "I'm starting to get a feel for town, I hope. The Church provided me with a small place to live. That's actually why I'm here." A fond remembrance moves across his face, pulling from his pocket a small, brown bag. "My mother let me take some of her famous heirloom tomato seeds with me when I left my last parish. So, that's my mission today."
"Oh yes. Any gentlewoman worth their salt had best be marching out their Sunday best. I've slacked terribly in that aspect of things." Lillie admits, trying to look rueful but she's honestly putting out more of an amused vibe. Though her look of amusement, as she adjusts the shovels just so, softens some before she looks up with curiousity darkening her gaze. "How far did you have to travel, Father, to find your way here? Wherever did you come from, if it's not too forward of me to ask?" The Irish woman inquires, standing proper and straight-backed now with the birdhouse held in the cradle of her palms like an offering.
A flush of amusement, "Ah, a green thumb!"
Shaking his head with a grin, Father Larry seems amused by something as well. "I'm of the opinion that all too often Sunday best is almost like a costume." He pauses, touching his collar. "Yes, so says the priest in a robe." He appraises the equipment, seeming satisfied that all is as it should. Maybe even improved in organization. Perhaps it was a good thing he knocked that shovel over. Yep.
"My family's from near Baltimore, which is where I studied and took my vows. How long have you been here?" He says, perhaps referencing her accent.
The Empath listens with interest, always given to lending all of her attention rather easily to those with whom she converses. Lillie does not fidget much or do things like play with her hair or the life, as some gentle ladies are apt to do. Sometimes the directness of her observing another comes off as unsettling. Either way.. at least she's pleasant with it. She's outfitted for the busy day ahead in a fitted tea-length dress, cream-colored with delicate plaid embroidery along the neckline and hem. Hair? Woven back into a loose braid and finished with a complimentary-colored ribbon.
"Heavens, not too far off the mark from where I strayed from." A little quirking of her lips into an amused smile. "My family and I settled in Charlestown, an old burgh in Boston, when I was but a little one. We came, of course, from Ireland. I've been in Higsi since November of '41."
Larry puts the bag back into his pocket, treating it with tender care. He even gives it a quick pat once it's back in the pocket, for…luck? Or reassurance? If he gave it much thought, he'd connect that his father does the same thing. The priest is either used to being given attention or isn't bothered by Lillie's focus.
"Ah, another East Coaster. And what, may I ask, brought you to the mountains here? Did an Archbishop tell you to go?"
Watchful eyes note the careful storing of the bag and Lillie's lips quirk upwards at their corners again, liking to see what indeed must be a long-seated habit. She's no stranger to little mantras and procedures to help one get through the day. She squints sideward at the shovels again, eyeing a set of minor gardening tools. She needs to get a basic set to leave at the boarding house, for any prospective tenants who like to work the earth. She's even earnest enough to give the good set to the location where she isn't living! Lillie is a stubborn mule when it comes to keeping her tried and true, archaic tools.
She looks back to the priest at the query, "It was pure chance, Father. I graduated from high school, lumped myself in with an intrepid group of peers and set out for the West. We touched down here; most continued on but I remained. It felt right. Do you understand in how a place just calls to you? I made fast friends with some of the locals and before I knew it, I signed my life away to a little house and here I stay, buying birdhouses. It's an odd little town but I love it—"
A bubbly, curious clerk intrudes upon the conversation, blinking big blue eyes at Lillie and Larry. "Can I help ya'll find anything?" So nosey.
Following her gaze to the gardening tools, Larry looks back. "Ah, a fellow horticulturalist, then! Any particular plants you've grown accustomed too?" The priest seems to be a little excitable at the topic, his eyes too looking at the gardening tools, even though those weren't his primary reason for coming. "As for a place calling to you, yes, I can certainly relate to that. Places, people, even plants can do that. Call me hokey, but I like to thing there's the hand of the Divine at work in moments like that." The priest says something priestly - surprise!
He turns to the clerk, who now appears bubbly. Even though they were absent amidst the clanging of metal on the ground. "Actually, I was looking for a copy of the Old Farmer's Almanac? I'm afraid my 1931 copy is much outdated."
The Empath eyes the clerk in a pleasant albeit level fashion. She's thinking much of the same: where were you when it was raining shovels? Funny people here, sometimes… Lillie is certain this one was tucked away behind a counter with a co-worker, watching to see what would happen. Or maybe they spied Lillie herself going over to help first; more gossip-fodder! Lillie seems rather accustomed to the ways of some of the locals by now, and she shakes her head politely at the offer of help. Though.. "What birdhouse do you think, miss, might nuthatches favor? Or how about wrens?" Asks Lillie without guile.
The clerk smiles in beautiful incomprehension, before turning back to Larry. "Oh! I thought I saw them in this area.. we had a bit of a mishap with our ordering. Let me go see, alright~?" She chimes, moving away.
Lillie smiles wider, "I picked one up last week. They're actually over by the malt shop, in this place. My gardening skills are novice at best but I do so enjoy the Almanac. Follow me, Father." Is offered as the Empath turns on a heel. "Were those tomato seeds that I spied, then? Have you a vegetable garden well-established already?" Asked as the two press onwards into the store and Lillie, mercifully, is granted blessed reprieve from having to shop for a new Sunday best. c.c
(OOC: Fade here, RL ate us. :) )