T42 - Friday

[hernando_fuentes]

I totally know what day of the week it is, hush

The shop today was decorated with pictures and posters from the heyday of women's liberation. Suffragettes stood proudly in their sashes, women in trousers lounged on the steps of universities. The first female medical doctor and surgeon had a portrait front and center. A Rosie the Riveter poster hung on one side of the wall. Harriet Tubman's portrait bookended the doctor's. A print of Michelle Obama's official White House portrait was near the counter.

The color theme for the day seemed to be green, white and purple. Hernando smiled a little and patted the counter. "Happy Women's Day to you, too."

The pastries today ranged from delicate little sweets to Rosalie's giant decadent cupcakes. Savories in the form of hearty sandwiches and dainty little puff pastry cups filled with all manner of delights were in a cooled case.

He fed the quokka and took up station behind the counter.

[T42 is Open!]

Comments

[always_someone]

"I think I would hate to know what it takes to be unwelcome here," Norman replied, blinking. "Most people on the island are pretty great, at least."

[hernando_fuentes]

"Being unhinged, insulting art that I personally curated and making me feel as though there is a threat to my boyfriend," Hernando said easily with a small and tight little smile, "In essence, to be as unpleasant as possible and as you say, most people on the island are pretty great. There has only been the one."

Sorry, Norman, did you say you'd hate to know that? Well now you know.

[always_someone]

Norman's mouth hung open for a few seconds. He kind of came back around to the moment when the younger quokka gave his finger a light nip.

Right, okay, back to scratching.

"If... they don't like the art... can't they just... I mean. Not look?" He glanced around. "None of it seems very aggressively placed, I mean."

It wasn't hanging on chains from the ceiling so you had to walk around it, or on easels in the middle of the floor or anything.

[hernando_fuentes]

"This was the argument I made," Hernando agreed readily, "That was not sufficient. She seemed to think it was personally done to offend her sensibilities." His tone turned mockingly grave. "There were," he said seriously, "un-gloved hands."

He had since, somewhat spitefully, made sure there was always at least one picture or painting that showed someone's hands - or even just one hand - bare of gloves.

Hernando could be petty.

[always_someone]

There was a long pause.

"Oh," Norman replied, rolling his eyes expressively. "The bully."

He'd never even bothered to learn her name. He just didn't like her.

[hernando_fuentes]

"That is an accurate word for her, yes," Hernando agreed, "This is why she is unwelcome here. Thankfully most of the people on the island, even those with almost no social graces whatsoever," looking right at you, Jack. Right. At. You, "are still able to be polite and civil."

[always_someone]

"She was being completely awful at the people at the Perk when I met her," Norman sighed. "And when I pointed out that she was being rude, she went on this rant about how people should try to be more understanding of others."

He shook his head.

"And, I mean, that's normally a point I'd agree with, but not when it's used as an excuse to be mean to people."

[hernando_fuentes]

"The pictures were part of a plot against her personally, so she declared, that they had been taken and placed in this shop specifically to make her uncomfortable because they are akin to pornography where she is from," Hernando said with a sigh, "Nevermind that I, who chose the pictures specifically and begged the photographer to hang them here, did not know that. Nor had she minded any other of the pictures on the wall, many of which also contained ungloved hands. It was specific to those and she insisted it was all about her and that I should cater to her sensibilities. Demanded to know the artist and pinned it on someone without my telling her. It was.. quite unhinged."

A beat.

"Quite," Hernando said calmly, "uncivilized."

[always_someone]

Norman absolutely made a soft amused noise at that last comment. Yeah. He listened to radio enough to know that word was one of her favorites.

"Sounds like she made about as much sense to you as she did to me, then," he sighed. "I'm kind of surprised she hasn't been banned from the Perk yet, considering how much she abuses the staff there. But... that's up to them, I guess."

[hernando_fuentes]

"She has not been banned from here," Hernando clarified, "She is just unwelcome unless she learns to behave."

Which wasn't likely, no.

"Though I do suppose I should thank her. Without her insanity, I should not have had quite so meaningful a conversation with the photographer." He smiled fondly, "Who became my boyfriend."

[always_someone]

Norman tilted his head a little at that, smiling.

"That," he admitted, "is pretty great. Good things with the bad, huh?"

[hernando_fuentes]

Hernando smiled back, "Yes. I generally prefer things thus."

Instead of bad things for no reason. That was.. upsetting.

[always_someone]

Yeah, not every cloud had a silver lining.

Norman settled in for more quokka scratching, looking thoughtful.

"I'm Norman," he offered, because they seemed to be doing the friendly chatting thing, and if he was going to become a regular for the sake of quokka, he might as well at least introduce himself. "Hi."

[hernando_fuentes]

Hernando inclined his head politely, "And I am Hernando. It is nice to meet you, Norman. You are one of the students from the school?"

[always_someone]

"I am, yeah," Norman agreed. "I have a job in town, too. But, I mean, I guess most people do."

[hernando_fuentes]

"It does seem to be popular," Hernando agreed, "I have not been around the island so much but it seems to lack other activities a little bit."

[always_someone]

"Yeah, unless you're into bodybuilding or you like arcades, it's kind of quiet," Norman agreed. "I mostly just do a lot of reading."

Comic books.

[hernando_fuentes]

"I go dancing on the mainland," Hernando offered, "Or watch telenovelas or musicals. Sometimes I read. What genre do you enjoy most?"

[always_someone]

See Norman. See Norman's big sticky-outy ears go a shade of pink.

"Supernatural horror," he offered. "I'm really big on supernatural horror."

[hernando_fuentes]

"A well filled out genre," Hernando nodded, "I do not mind it though I do not ever read it near bedtime."

[always_someone]

"I don't really scare easily," Norman replied. "I mostly just kind of find it fascinating. A lot of it is commentary on people in general, so it's interesting to see how those metaphors stand up."

A pause.

"I mean, since this place gives people actual zombies and things to compare to..."

Norman.

[hernando_fuentes]

"I do," Hernando said simply, "Less so now that I have met a real vampire." Who was a nice, pleasant person. "I've seen the zombies at Caritas, they are not scary. I feel sorry for them that their parts fall off so much. Ghosts, I have not seen but the dead coming back.. well, the island did that not so long ago also. It is the ..regular people.. in the books that are sometimes the most awful thing about the book."

[always_someone]

Norman nodded a tiny bit.

"Most ghosts are just here because they're confused," he murmured. "They died suddenly and they haven't really accepted that it's time to go, yet. Or else they have something that needs to get done. Unfinished business, you know? Or they just, like, left the oven on."

So many times, he had to take care of stuff like that. So many.

[hernando_fuentes]

"This is similar to how I was taught, in Mexico. We revere our dead and should they choose to stay by us awhile, it is up to us to find out why or to be thankful." Hernando considered quietly for a moment, "I think sometimes it is not the dead who have not accepted that it is time to go but the living who cannot yet bring themselves to let them go."

He shrugged with both palms, "Who could say?"

[always_someone]

Norman could say. He smiled, just the tiniest bit.

"Maybe sometimes it's a little of both?"

His grandma, for example, was still haunting his family's home because she'd promised she would always be there for him. And Norman was perfectly happy with that arrangement. He just wished she had been able to come to the island with him, too. He breathed out a soft laugh as he looked back down at Dave.

"Grandma likes to tell me that it's because there's no canasta in Heaven."