A Place Where the Children Played {Open}
Mar 27, 2012 23:52:43 GMT -5
Post by Ptero on Mar 27, 2012 23:52:43 GMT -5
I am done with my graceless heart
So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart
Cause I like to keep my issues drawn
It's always darkest before the dawn
So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart
Cause I like to keep my issues drawn
It's always darkest before the dawn
As the sun rose above the factories pouring smog over the horizon, Elkie turned her thoughts from her work and to the pink trees of her day dreams...
There was a place where small trees rose from the ground with dancer-like grace, a place that had not green leaves on the branches, but pink flowers that flew off in the breeze, flowers that smelled brilliant but subdued at the same time. It was a place that had rolling hills that turned into climbing mountains, painting the landscape a blue that was a few shades darker than the cloudless sky. At the top of the green hills, families would go on picnics with children who wouldn't go hungry tonight. Before they left to return to their homes, the children would play among the trees, soaking in the warmth of the sun and the sweet smell of cherries. They would hear the chirping of crickets as the day chilled into night and know it was time to go home. Elkie had to imagine places like this existed sometimes.
Elkie continued to stare idly at her best friend's chest, more precisely the painted bone necklace the hung down to her collar bone. It was a thing of absolute beauty. Painted on the surface, which was a rounded piece of an animal's pelvis about the size of Elkie's hand, was one of the pink trees depicted in her fantasies. The blossoms were painted delicately and precisely, the colors blending pleasantly. The trees themselves reminded her of the garishly bright dancers the Capital had for entertainment, but despite their color, they were softer somehow. Elkie coveted many of Crista's belongings, this necklace among them. Staring at it helped begin the day dreams that made work, hunger, and her life much easier.
Elkie stood at the back of the butcher shop her family owned. Her knife was still, having forgotten its job of cutting the deer placed before her when Crista had come in to the back room. She sat in the corner, on the floor with her grey skirt sprawled out around her, sewing something that would likely be for sale in the tailor shop within a day. Sighing, she returned to her work. Her muscles ached from the repetitive activity, the slicing of her large knife through the animal's flesh. The smell of the deer that still hung in the air made work difficult, as it always did, but it was not enough to make her quit. The risk of starving prohibited it.
After roughly an hour the same activity, as the sun was nearing the center of the sky, Elkie finished. With her arms numb and wobbly, she walked to the front room. It was a small room, about ten feet by ten, with a tall table on the right with a cash register so ancient she imagined it was more rust than metal. There was a window in the front that took up the majority of the wall, that revealed a second, longer table with varieties of meat that Elkie's mother and brother had hunted and she and her father had chopped. Crista had disappeared to her own shop, and she had dismissed her father from work to go barter for food to feed themselves. Elkie was alone to ponder her own thoughts and listen to the structure of the butchery settle into the earth. When she was alone like this, she could afford to listen to the ticks in her head. Check the back room... Check the back room... Check the back room. She listened to the thought, running her hand along the wooden walls of the shop, counting the wooden boards as they drifted past her finger tips.
Elkie walked into the room, checking to make sure... well, she wasn't sure why she was checking. It just felt like something she needed. It was still in perfect order, a table to the left with blood stains and a small collection of knives and the meat hanging to cure in the back of the room. The smell of wet wood and the aforementioned blood hit her nose, a putrid scent that she wanted to get away from. She turned and walked back to the front. She put one foot in front of the other, counting the steps back to the table where she would barter with customers.
... Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. Elkie frowned. She didn't know why, but the steps had to be divisible by the number five. Unhappy with the seventeen steps she'd taken, she walked back briskly to the back room, turned around, and faced the front. She walked forward again, making her steps just a fraction larger. ... Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Perfect.
Elkie smiled, pleased by the number and the compulsion fulfilled. She sat down on the stool placed before the table, waiting for someone to come. Someone had to want to bring home something to eat, and something from the butcher shop was as good as any other place. She glanced toward the window, lined with food that was going to turn if it wasn't sold within a few days. The scent carried towards her, and she scrunched her nose in disgust. She hoped someone would come to relieve her of the carcass that she had chopped herself and made pretty. Waiting for that someone to come, she closed her eyes and imagined the place with the beautiful pink trees; Elkie imagined a place where the children played.
