The Beach [mid-afternoon]

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

After a very frustrating class in childcare (honestly, those children had been monsters, and grocery shopping should not be that difficult), Rilla picked up Jims from daycare and went down to the beach.

It was ridiculously hot outside, and while she was careful to put Jims on a blanket in a shady area, she needed to be drenched head to toe in a vain attempt to cool down a bit (in a swimsuit from 1915, so it wasn't like she had much skin showing...).

She was trying to stop Jims from eating a handful of sand when the raven arrived. She let out a shriek of surprise to see it (and another one when it took a nip from her finger), but then realized he was carrying a message for her.

She smiled with relief to hear from Dany after all the time and rummaged around looking for paper to write a very long letter back in reply.

[OOC: Open beach is open. Goddamn, it's hot.]

Comments

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

Rilla was staring at her now, mouth slightly agape. "I think I'll stay of Prince Edward Island in this timeline, just in case," she said faintly. "We're in the midst of a war at home, and I can't bring myself to look up how it ends in the library in case it goes badly."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn opened her mouth to let Rilla know that it didn't, but she stopped herself, figuring that would spoil her or something. She frowned, wondering on that for a little bit.

And then curiosity got the best of her, as it always did. "What if someone told you that it didn't?"

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"It would be wonderful, but what if it didn't go that way in my world?" Rilla asked. "Then it would be completely heartbreaking."

She stared out at the sea for a moment. "My eldest brother is in Belgium now, with one of my dearest childhood friends. Another brother and friend will join him in July."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn realized all this talk of alternate universes should have had her thinking about that. She dropped her eyes a little. "Oh, yeah," she said. "Good point. I hope they make it out okay. My father was in a war, too, but he messed up his hand while he was there. But my half-sister's uncle didn't...But if my half-sister's uncle hadn't died in the war, then my father probably wouldn't have gotten with her mother, and then she wouldn't even exist. It's weird; things like that almost seem to happen for a reason, but I'm not really sure I believe that."

Because then she'd have to accept that she was born the way she was for a reason, too...

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"You don't believe in God?" Rilla asked, still sounding vaguely scandalized by the idea.

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn blinked a little at Rilla, surprised by the question. When your mother went marauding around, making sure that you were raised in an environment completely free of higher beings, it was easy to forget that not everyone else was the same way.

And that she couldn't exactly explain that it was hard to believe in a God that would do to a person what had been done to her, too.

"No," she said. "Not really."

And she remembered Lurleen telling her that she should never be ashamed of that, either. That people who did believe in gods tended to use it as a crutch, and that the world was so big and complex that some people needed something to blame it all on.

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

Rilla was just going to cling to the "not really" and pretend that meant "I don't attend regularly."

"I don't see a lot of other students at church either," she lamented.