Neighbors

[wolfs_daughter]

Spring was here. The change in temperature had happened, and while there were no shade trees to sprout green leaves, there was a sparse offering of grass in some places. Even in the desert, things could grow.

Echo had gotten the job at the daycare center. She'd lucked out and they hadn't wanted someone with a teaching certificate, just someone who was good with children and could drive the communal van to take them on the occasional outing. The job wasn't going to make her rich, but she enjoyed it and it got her out of the house.

She'd finished dinner, and was now contemplating a run out in the desert. She'd kept up with the practicing, and shifting didn't hurt anymore. Searchlight was so quiet at night that she no longer worried about being spotted. One of the benefits of living around so many retirees was that they all seemed to go to bed before it got dark.

There were two lawn chairs on the trailer's front yard, and a plastic table for drinks and sometimes sandwiches. Echo didn't really have visitors, but sometimes one of her close neighbors would stop by to talk.

Life was pretty good.

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[wolfs_daughter]

Inside Echo's skull, the Wolf made a noise, and as she looked at the hand her dark eyes flashed briefly gold. Her hands were callused from the sculpting she'd done in the past, and her fingers made contact with Dori's a little tentatively. The blonde's hand was cold.

"Hi. It's nice to meet you."

Shy was not the same thing as afraid. It might be a thin line, but it was there. The hybrid's stern and occasionally sour mouth lifted slightly at the corners.

[dori_bell]

The eyes were curious and Dori watched them with great interest, unsure if the flicker had been internal or caused by the setting sun. She squeezed the rough hand and let go with no harm done. The girl was wary of her and so be it; she took no pleasure from it. She supposed that all people experienced her this way, except perhaps the vampires.

“Shall I let you go, Echo?” Dori wrapped her arms around her chest. “You seem bothered.”

If the dream catcher was authentic, she thought, it might work overtime tonight.

[wolfs_daughter]

"I don't know if bothered is the right word," Echo answered thoughtfully. "You're...different. I'm not sure how, though. You're out in the sun, so that's one thing."

One shoulder lifted, a shrug that said 'I have no idea', and she said, "Maybe I will ask you to make me a wind-chime later. My hands are too beat-up to work with wire and stuff. Somebody with smaller fingers could manage it, though."

She was wondering about the potential for dreams too, and had decided to take that run after all. To see if she could exhaust herself. Dreamless sleep might be a good thing.

[dori_bell]

Dori could not explain herself to Echo, or to anyone else for that matter. Meeting Whistler in the library had been a singularly refreshing experience; he recognized her. ‘Custodi me a morte personam’, he had said, as if she couldn’t have simply stolen his life if that was her intention. It had been a rush, though, to toy with his life force, to snap it like a rubber band.

“I see things that others don’t,” she said instead. “It makes me different. What a person sees marks them. It clings to them, like a smell… like lilies.”

She blinked.

“I’ll hang the chimes from your box when they’re finished,” she said, abruptly changing course. “I think you’ll like them.”

[wolfs_daughter]

"You're right about the metal ones," the hybrid said, still pondering Dori's Otherness. "Metal on metal sets my teeth on edge. Besides, trailers have enough problems possibly getting blown away by tornadoes. I wouldn't want to attract random lightning bolts on top of that."

Her mouth quirked again, and she looked at those strange eyes for a moment before re-directing her gaze towards the mailbox. She wondered if the blonde came off as weird to the people at the community center too. When you were as used to the strange as she was, to say nothing of being descended from the strange, maybe it was all relative.

"I'll put some money in your mailbox after you bring the chimes over," she said. "To pay you for your time."

[dori_bell]

"But they're a gift."

Dori's fingers twirled in the fabric of her long-sleeve shirt, which was much too warm for the weather.

"Well I should go," she said. "It's almost dark and I haven't finished my walk. I'm pleased to meet you, Echo." She gave a faint smile and started walking in the direction of town proper, where most of the shops had closed for the evening.

[wolfs_daughter]

Echo had been about to say something to say something when Dori mentioned continuing her walk, and then she closed her mouth again. Maybe it was best not to try figuring it out. Even if it was a little like having a haint walk up to you and start a conversation.

"Yeah, it was nice to meet you too," she said to the blonde's retreating back. She wasn't sure Dori heard her.

The hybrid started back across her yard, avoiding the hulking shape of her van where it lurked in the shadows. She would change into sweats, then go in the opposite direction to the edge of town so that she could shift.

To have a run of her own.