Outside Luke's, Saturday afternoon

[vdistinctive]

After spending much of the morning flinging himself full speed up and down the stairs around the island with Val leaping after him frantically to keep up/probably yelling at him to be more careful, Eliot decided it was time to spend some time relaxing.

So he picked an awning he rather liked, shoved a battered copy of meta for Treasure Island down the back of his pants, and climbed up on one of the outdoor tables to get into reach of one of the supports.

He loved reading. He especially liked to do so in extremely awkward and hard to get to places. They made it way harder for Gertie to come bug him and get him in trouble for not playing with her.

He lost his grip trying to swing his legs up around the support beam, and barely managed to break his fall by grabbing onto one of the closed umbrellas leaning against the wall. Momentum carried him and the umbrella down to the cobblestones with a thud, and he lay there for a moment staring up at the awning.

"Ow."

Then he grinned, jumped back up, and tried it again.

[open!]

Comments

[geniuswithasmartphone]

There was a troubled voice coming from out the window. "You're doin' that again? That's stupid. You're a get hurt an' hospitals is 'spensive."

[vdistinctive]

"'If at first you don't succeed,'" Eliot quoted with great self importance. "'Sides, it's fun."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You got some weird ideas 'bout fun," Hardison told him. "...I don' like heights. They're scary!"

[vdistinctive]

"But that's the part that's fun!" Eliot looked around, confused. "Where are you?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison poked his head out the window, just for a minute. "'M up here!" he called. "Inside! There's all sorts of cool stuff up here an' none of it is up way super-high!"

Where it would be scary!

[vdistinctive]

"Well duh," Eliot said. "Nothin's super up high indoors." He looked around for a good way to get into the window, but wasn't spotting one. "You wanna come outside and play?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Play what?" Alec didn't mean to sound so suspicious, but, well...Look, like was tough in the projects, especially in a group home. And Eliot had already proven his preferred playing involved heights.

[vdistinctive]

They didn't just involve heights. He wasn't Parker.

"Tag? Or hide and seek. Or we could pretend we're ninjas. Or pirates. Or antarctic explorers or soldiers or pioneers. . . ."

Eliot didn't play 'cowboys and indians'. He played 'settlers make friends with the native population and ask nicely if they can live there too and fight anyone who tries to make them leave or kill them.'

[geniuswithasmartphone]

That's cool. Alec didn't play 'cops and robbers.' For one thing, no one back home wanted to be associated with being police.

"We could see if this place has a Nintendo," he suggested as a counteroffer. "There's lots of fun games for that. Even some co-op games so we ain't gotta take turns."

[vdistinctive]

"I guess," Eliot said, sounding extremely dubious. "Maybe for a little while."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You don't like video games?" Alec asked. "Why not? They're superfun!"

And hard to play when the whole group home had to share one outdated system. Unrestricted access to one was unprecedented!

[vdistinctive]

"Too much sitting," Eliot said. He was very bad at just sitting. "I like games where you move around."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Alec scrunched up his nose. "But then someone's always yellin' at you for runnin' where you ain't s'posed to be."

Alec's life thus far hadn't included a lot of safe places for horsing around outdoors. The streets were full of cars, the basketball courts with teens, the alleys with adults...

[vdistinctive]

Eliot looked around. "Nobody's yelled at me yet, and I been runnin' around all morning."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Must not seen a lotta adults then," Alec noted. So young. So cynical.

[vdistinctive]

"Nope," Eliot said happily. "Not a single one."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I wonder where they all went," Alec said, troubled. Not by the lack of adult supervision, but by the absence of what should be all around.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shrugged, not terribly concerned. "Maybe they're sleepin' in. Or at work."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You ever seen a time an' place with no adults?" Alec asked. "I ain't." Frowning, he added, "But this island is pretty small..."

He'd never been in such a small town before!

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shrugged. "Sure." He'd grown up in a very different environment than Alec had, after all. "You just gotta wander far enough away from home."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"How far is that?" Alec asked. "Cause even if you go 'way from home, there's still cops an' homeless folks, an' dealers, an' single moms with they kids, an'..."

Yep. Very different.

[vdistinctive]

"Maybe you're going in the wrong direction," Eliot guessed. "Back home you go far enough and it's all fields and horses and cows and sometimes woods and things."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Alec just stared at him for a minute.

"Ain't nothin' like that in Chicago," he said eventually. "Even the parks closest to the home just got blacktop an' some grass."

[vdistinctive]

"It's pretty much all like that in Oklahoma," Eliot said. "Even in the city, you at least got people's yards'n stuff."

The city. There was only one, as far as Eliot was concerned. He'd certainly only ever seen one. That's why it was just called "Oklahoma City".

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Nah, not in Chicago," Alec said. "You gotta be real rich to have a real lawn. Most folks ain't got nothin' like that. Just some chain fence an' maybe a driveway if they lucky."

You were from different worlds, kids.