birthright_rpg | Window Shopping

Entry tags:

echo,
emmeline

Window Shopping

Echo was surprised to find a New Age type shop in a place like Searchlight, and she studied the facade of the building for a few minutes before twisting the doorknob to let herself in. It would probably be as dusty and rundown as everything else around here, but she'd been on a furniture run that morning and wanted to try something non-intense like browsing to celebrate. At least now she had a couch, second-hand though it might be. Tomorrow, she'd focus on getting more dishes.

Compared to the glare of the mid-afternoon sun, the store seemed very dim, and the hybrid glanced at the metal shelves before taking a few more steps inside. Maybe she could afford something simple, like a candle or a protection crystal. She was spiritual rather than religious, but she did believe that there were forces at work in the world that she didn't understand. Did they do Tarot readings here? She'd never tried that.

There was a counter near what seemed to be the center of the shop, and Echo checked her pockets to make sure she had some cash on hand. She was going to have to see about that job sooner rather than later. She could always wire home for money, but she wanted to be independent. Her parents had agreed that she could skip college for a year or so if she could pay her own way, and she didn't want to burden them if she could foot her own bills.

They didn't even seem to sell books here, but books in places like this tended to be a little dear. But she needed other things besides books, anyway. Like home furnishings. Maybe if she made nice with the proprietor, they could direct her to someone who was hiring. The brunette looked down at her clothes. At least she looked presentable, since she'd taken a shower after helping to wrestle the couch into the trailer.

The counter was glassed in, so she was reluctant to knock on it to get the attention of whoever ran the place. She gingerly rapped one knuckle on the wooden partition that held the glass in place, then tucked that hand into her pocket. "Hello?"

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The heat of the day was finally beginning to dissipate, leaving Emmeline feeling a little less like she was muddling through a warm haze. She had been at her desk fielding phone calls for about an hour, trying to get a lead on a book auction set to take place in New Orleans in a week's time, when she had finally given up and let herself slip into a more quiet meditative state, eyes half-lidded and mind wandering.

The radio was playing, Donovan's greatest hits, something a little different than a southern rock kick she had been on, and the air smelled heavily of the strawberry incense she had been burning for most of the morning. Emmeline had been dreaming of her mother, all small frail hands and soft blonde hair, when a knock coming from the store proper brought her back to herself. With a quiet sigh, she stood and stretched, the white lace camisole top she wore lifting with her shoulder to reveal a strip of pale skin at her navel for just a moment before it fell flush again with the ankle length skirt tiered with flashes of deep burgundy and a flower print in the same shade.

There was a soft chime of bells from her silver anklet as her bare feet padded against the hardwood floors and out her office door. Spying an unfamiliar face among the bits and bobs in her store, Emmeline smiled, tousled hair of dark waves cocked to the side as she took in sight before her.

"Hello there," she called. "Something I can help you with, dear?"

Echo heard her before she saw her, sensitive ears picking up the sound of footsteps on the uncarpeted floor, and her mouth opened to issue a friendly response to the greeting, and then she closed it again because if she said the first thing that came into her head she'd make a fool out of herself. She looked down at her clothes again, jammed her free hand into her other pocket, then found something that was worth looking at on the shelves.

A goddess, she was a goddess, and if she looked straight at her her brain was going to seize up. Guys she could talk to, but women made her tongue-tied and weird because she liked them better. She plucked at one of the crystals where the afternoon sun shone through it, creating a prism on the metal shelf. Speak, damn it!

"I wasn't really looking for anything," the brunette said. "I'm new in town and just saw this place, so I decided to stop in. I'm guessing you're the owner?"

She took a couple of steps towards the other woman, smelled the remnants of the incense wafting through the open office door, and the corners of her mouth fought it out with the rest of her face in an attempt to form a smile. "Do you sell protection runes, or just crystals? I just rented a trailer in the park a few blocks over, and I was wondering if I could get one of those and a dreamcatcher to hang up, since...well...you never know."

Emmeline smiled, almost preened a little, glancing around her little shop. It was a labor of love more than anything; the torrid little novels she wrote in her spare time were what brought in her real income, leaving the store as almost a hobby, and a beacon in the desert for those who were of a similar mind. Still, she was proud of it, be it ever so humble. There was much work that could be done, but the hardwood floors were polished and the stock was of good quality, and even the errant practitioner happening in on a whim was enough to make her smile. Yes, Peddler's Rest was just a little blip on Searchlight's radar, but it belonged to Emmeline and it made her happy.

"Yes, this is my shop," she agreed with a nod. "I'm glad you stopped in. Searchlight isn't always so friendly to those of us who wander by and decide to stay."

She paused, hands on her hips, and glanced around at her wares. There were many methods of protection: charms and amulets, spells and runes, crystals, gemstones, smudge sticks and blood magicks, all sorts really. What would work for the young woman who came looking for such a power could be anyone's guess; why she might need it, however, was the more intriguing question.

"I have many protection stones," she began, gesturing towards bins of mixed minerals. "Many gemstones have protective qualities. Bloodstone and amber and malachite and the jaspers..." Emmeline went on.

She plucked a particularly large stone, just small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, and held it aloft, jet black with splashes of white that looked almost like powdery tufts of snow painted against the stone.

"Snowflake obsidian is a personal favorite," she said, glancing towards the young woman with a small smile. "It's also known as a purity stone, and a healer. I could make you a bracelet, if you like, something to take along with you. A smudging kit would be good for your new home, to clear out anything negative remaining behind... perhaps some runework to safeguard it thereafter."

She paused, and considered the other options. Native American magicks were new to her, but she had met a man who was considering teaching her more, should she prove her worth.

"I haven't any dreamcatchers here now, but there is a lovely Lakota woman living near Golden Valley who gladly makes them for me on order," she said, then frowned. "Are your dreams troubling you, dear?"

"Uh..."

Was she pure? Papa would have said yes, that she was conceived in love and born into a world where she was wanted, that the demon was only as dominant as she let it be. Echo never really thought of the Wolf as a taint, just an accident of birth. A priest might disagree, but she didn't feel as if she needed cleansing.

"They're not nightmares," she said, lowering her voice a notch, and now she was blushing, both because it was weird to talk about with someone else and because the presence of someone so lovely was turning her stomach into one solid knot. "I thought it was something I ate at first, that something at dinner didn't agree with me, but then I got off the road and the dreams were still there."

The hybrid coughed self-consciously, drew a line on the polished floor with the toe of her shoe. She wanted to draw the other woman's face, to sketch it out on paper when she was alone. She'd worked from memory before, maybe she could do her justice. There were, what, five or six years age difference between them?

"I didn't figure this place to be enlightened enough to sustain a place like this," she said, risking a look at the other brunette and wishing she was suave - and brave - enough to go ahead and ask her name. "I traveled down from Seattle, so I didn't know really small towns kept up with funky places that do your kind of business."

"Searchlight is only enlightened enough to leave me to my own devices," Emmy explained, a small laugh pulling her lips into a smile. "I do get the occasional religious pamphlet shoved through the mail slot, telling me of the many ways I'll be roasting in hell in the hereafter, but luckily I don't believe in their hell. No one has yet put a brick through my window, though, and I'm glad of it. I handpainted the hamsa on the plate, I'd hate to have to do it again."

She paused and frowned, a troubled look beginning to cloud her dark eyes.
"Oh, but I've been so rude," she said, shaking her head. "My name is Emmeline. Emmy, if you like. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself; you caught me in a bit of a daze, I'm afraid."

Dreams were funny things; Emmeline's most vivid often came when she was resting during her midday meditations at the shop. She'd had frightening ones, of course, about Mother, about Bailey... but none so bad as to make her seek outside help. But then, her father had taught her well enough to handle the problem herself, should it ever arrive.

"Calea ternifolia!" she said suddenly, snapping her fingers as she thought of it. "Leaf of God, you know. Good for your stomach as well, should it trouble you any more. I grow it myself, I can make you a nice tea, mix it with some Valerian root to help send you off to sleep, peppermint maybe for taste. It can be bitter and the peppermint can mask if quite well."

Emmeline. It was a poetic name, like something out of one of Shakespeare's plays. Echo had struggled through Much Ado About Nothing because it was required reading in her English class for senior year, but she wasn't much for plays, not even the comedies. Just because she was more or less a romantic at heart, that didn't mean she could deal with the old-timey language.

"Echo Bishop," she said with another attempt at a smile. "And I guess with days this hot it's easy to go into a trance. In Seattle it rains a lot, so you don't really notice the heat. I was just thinking to myself the other day that the desert climate will take some getting used to."

The younger brunette fell silent while she turned the crystal she'd been examining back and forth on the shelf, watching the colors shift and change where the light reflected through it. "My mama makes tea in the winter, brews it up in a pot on the stove so the whole kitchen smells like mint. She grows it in a little patch next to the house, says it's better than store bought."

The memory made her smile genuinely that time, but it was wistful. She'd wanted to be independent, but she was young enough that she could miss home. Maybe she would take Emmeline up on the offer of that tea. If she could sleep through the hot nights, maybe she'd get used to her new place faster.

"Do you live in the trailer park too? I...I'd like to think I'd remember you if I saw you before."

Emmeline moved swiftly from bin to bin of dried herb and spice, plucking leaves, stems, and petals of what she needed and carrying them over to the mortar and pestle she kept behind the main counter. They were too dry to become a paste without any liquid introduced, but that's not what Emmeline was going for as she ground the plants down into manageable broken pieces beneath the polished granite of her pestle.

"You'll need an infuser for this since its not bagged," she said, speaking more to herself than her customer as the scent of peppermint began to fill the air. "I don't sell those here, unfortunately, but you might just tie the tea off in a coffee filter and toss it into the pot."

She glanced up and offered a friendly smile. "Echo. That's an unusual name. Lovely, though," she went on, pouring the newly crushed tea mixture into a plastic bag. "I've been to Seattle. I rather liked the rain. But it didn't feel right to stay... didn't feel right until I found this little place, as it happens."

She held the bag of tea aloft. "Here you are. On the house," Emmeline told her, eyes crinkling at the corners as she smiled. "Your mother is right, home grown is always better than what you'd find in most stores. Luckily I grow this all myself, so you get the best of both worlds."

"I don't live in the trailer park," Emmeline went on. "I've had a house built out on Hobson street. I've never been fond of the more temporary structures. Sometimes difficult to create a safe space."

Say something. Say anything.

"One bedroom is all I can afford right now," Echo said as she reached out to take the bag of tea, being very careful not to brush Emmeline's fingers with her own as she did so. She'd already memorized the sway of those womanly hips while the other woman prepared the packet for her, she didn't need to touch her on top of that. "But it seems like a pretty quiet place. I'm not...I'm not really worried about being safe."

And that was all she could say without having to explain about the Wolf. She'd learned to master her other half through meditation and concentrating on her human side, but it was dangerous when provoked. She wondered briefly if the dreams she'd been having were a portent of things to come for someone like herself. If she continued to dream, maybe she would speak to her parents. They'd be able to advise her.

The hybrid dragged herself out of her reverie, smiled self-deprecatingly. "When I was a kid I used to hate my name because the kids at school made a joke out of it. Always said it twice like, well, like an echo. I guess I was lucky since they weren't really cruel, but I could have done without the teasing."

She fumbled for something else to say, just to prolong the conversation, then came up with, "I guess you've been here for a while if you're living in an actual house. Can you recommend the best place to look for a job?"

Emmeline frowned to herself, pondering Echo's question while she used her slim arms to brace herself and hop backwards to sit atop the counter, bare feet swinging.

"Finding work in Searchlight, that may be a bit tricky," she mused. "We've mostly bars and the like around here, diners too. Have you done waitressing? I'd tried it once myself but I never did develop a knack for it."

She reached for a bowl of little wire angels that sat on the counter top and pulled one out, twist and untwisting its wings as she sat, still swinging her feet.

"I've been here long enough to know that no one is likely to hire you if they don't think you'll be staying put for a while," she added, brushing a lock of her hair behind her ear before returning to twist the little wire angel wings. "Having a place of your own already will probably be a boon to your search."

"I waited tables for one summer before my senior year of high school," Echo said with a nod. "It was in a coffee shop type place, they served sandwiches and root beer floats with handmade ice cream." Not that she wanted to go back to that, but if she had to, it would be better than making the commute to Las Vegas. The van was in decent shape for an older vehicle, but gas cost money.

"And I signed a six month lease for the trailer, so I'm not planning to go anywhere right away," she added. "I was hoping to do some sketching out here, maybe rent some space for my artwork I've applied for a couple of grants, but I haven't heard anything back yet."

She became less self-conscious as she spoke, since the subject of her art always put her at ease. "I figure if I'm gainfully employed, it might make the grant people see me as not a flake. It would be different if I had stayed in Seattle, but I told my folks I wanted to try something different instead of going straight to college."

The younger brunette was watching Emmeline's hands while she talked, the little wire angel in her fingers. She reached out and plucked a second one from the bowl, accidentally brushing the shopkeeper's left hand with her callused fingers. Eye contact was established for a second, and then Echo looked away, blushing.

"Did you make these? It's really intricate work."

"I can't guarantee that you'll find something, but I can tell you this," Emmeline intoned. "This town, for all of its quiet emptiness on the surface? It has a habit of holding on to people who should stay. I mean, here I am, for you to talk to. And I could have landed just about anywhere, the way I was traveling!"

She smiled as Echo spoke on her artistic side; Emmeline considered herself an artist of sorts, conjuring up something from nothing, mixing together strange bits and pieces of what was never there before. She reached out and took the girl's hands in her own, pressing the wire angel into Echo's palm.

"An artist, I should have known, with these hands," she said, still smiling. She concentrated deep within herself, pulling at her most buried sensations of peace and calm, and directed it to flow through her hands as best as she could. Emmeline was not an empath, but even she could see the girl seemed skittish. She only hoped the girl could share even a little bit of the peace she had found.

"I did make the angels, yes," she went on, letting go of Echo's hands after a moment. "Ordered the wrong wire for beadwork, had to find something to do with it." She paused and laughed. "Perhaps I should make some devils to go alongside them!"

Let go. Don't let go. Your hands are soft compared to mine. Jesus, let go!

"I used to use lotion on my hands to try and get rid of the calluses," Echo said with a shy smile. "But Papa said it's a badge of honor, something to prove you created something that will last. I finally started to listen to him, I guess."

Common sense said that she should leave Emmeline be at this point, that the other woman probably had things to take care of, but it seemed like it would be worse to cut the conversation short. Bad manners or something. So instead she said, "I've done some work with wire, but it's easier for me to mold clay. My hands are probably too beat up to work with something so small anymore, anyway." She held out her palms as if for inspection, halfway wishing Emmeline would touch her again. That was all she was likely to get because of her damned shyness. Where was the Wolf's confidence when she needed it?

"I can at least pay for this," the hybrid said, holding the small wire angel the older woman had pressed into her hand aloft. "It's not fair that I come in and cadge things for free. How much for the angel?"

"There's no cost for the angel," Emmeline told her. "I'm no artist, its just something I fiddled with on my own. I never charge anyone for them. Take it, keep it, it's no trouble."

Her eyes went a fraction wider for a moment, a soft tugging at the back of her mind grabbing her attention. Clearing her throat, Emmeline wiped her hands on her skirt and slipped behind the counter, pulling a battered notebook from beneath the register.

"Tell you what," she said. "You take the tea and the angel -- and that tea is only for when you're ready to sleep, mind, otherwise it'll leave you too drowsy and open -- and come back in a few days. I'll start putting together a little totem bag for you, and speak to my supplier about a dreamcatcher," she went on, writing herself notes on what supplies she would need and who she needed to call. "Then you can tell me how the tea worked out for you. How does that sound?"

The hybrid had the ridiculous - and completely inappropriate - urge to take one of Emmeline's hands and press a kiss into the palm so she'd know what it felt like, but she controlled herself. At best the other brunette would think she was a freak, and at worst she'd actually get slapped. She looked down at the angel in her hand, made a mental note not to put it in her pocket so the wings wouldn't get bent.

"I like tea anyway," she said inanely. "I make sun tea in the summers, so I'll probably be doing that for when the weather gets really scorching. Thanks for the note about when to fix a cup. I usually have milk when I'm about to go to bed to help me sleep, but this might work better."

Echo took a hesitant step backwards away from the counter, pushed her free hand through her hair. "You've got a really great place here, I bet you're really proud. I'll see you in a couple of days. By then my place should be more put together. Have a nice afternoon, Emmeline."

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Window Shopping

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