I am a heart[Odin]

Spring is a good month I guess. It is hopeful. We’ve made it through the winter and I have nine months to work and save up enough money to get us through next one. Yesterday was my first day building again, so as far as I am concerned, the dark, cold, hungry nights of last winter are behind me. Many people do not know this about us, but the District Six construction crew doesn't just build things. Sometimes, we take them down too. That is what I did yesterday. I was helping a woman get her stuff out of her condemned house so that we could tear it down and construct something that might actually last a little. I could tell that it had once been a nice home. It had several rooms that people don’t actually need like a dining room and an office. I got to talk to the woman some as I carried out her stuff. She was an elderly woman who was moving in with her daughter. Her husband was a scientist who took care of the house, but after his death, she could not keep up with maintenance. Four years after he died, the house fell into complete disrepair and was condemned.

I like to do demolition work because I get to see all the things that people keep in their homes. When I was cleaning out the office, I noticed the woman’s impressive collection of letter openers lying out on her desk. She had all kinds of the things—some were carved out of wood or inlaid with jewels, or made with what looked like valuable metals. I may have been looking at the letter openers for a minute or so when I heard her voice behind me. The woman startled me at first, but she wasn’t angry. She just chuckled to herself and even told me I could have one. She muttered something about me being a

I weirded her out. In response to my ridiculous lack of intrapersonal skills, Ashes actually made an awkward turtle with her hands. I was feeling really bad about being such a dismal conversationalist when miraculously, Ashes matched my abruptness by pretty much thrusting a strudel in my face. YESsssssss! I take it out of the package and take a bite, letting the sweet oozy apple filling coat my tongue. Then I think about my brothers and sisters and wrap up the rest of the strudel to share with them. They haven’t had anything sweet in God knows how long. I swallowed so that I could thank my friend and I guess new confidant for her generosity. “Thank you so much. This is delicious.”

I was done being distracted though. The letter opener was still safe in my pocket, but I was dying to show someone. For some reason, the word “Cobalt” popped into my head when I curled my fingers around my azure treasure. I motioned toward a quiet looking pub not far away and said “follow me. There probably are not a lot of prying eyes there in the middle of the afternoon.” The waitress put us in a little booth in the back of the establishment and I started telling the story of the old lady in the condemned house in a hushed tone. When I finally got to the part about the letter opener, I slipped it out of my jacket and placed it on the table. It kind of sparkled a little in the dim light above the table. I tried to read Ashes’s face to see if she was impressed with the small object as I was, but I couldn’t really figure out what look she was giving me. True to awkward turtle form, I paused for several seconds before rapidly shooting off questions. ‘So what do you think? Could this little thing be worth any money? Should I pawn it off or just keep it because it looks cool?

Ashes didn’t know if the letter opener was worth anything which I admit was just a little disappointing, so I put the metallic trinket back into my pocket. Maybe I should see what I can get for it at a pawn shop. My was still thinking about the letter opener and fantasizing about it being worth enough to get my brother some new shoes. His are getting almost as bad as mine with a little hole where you can see his big toe. He would really like a new pair of sneakers. Red ones because that’s his favorite color.

I guess I kind of spaced out there. I should really pay more attention to the here and now. After all, that letter opener may not be worth anything at all. I noticed that since Ashes said the letter opener was pretty, the table was kind of quiet. I looked at Ashes and she blushed and looked down at the table. She seems to blush quite a bit. I wonder why Ashes is always so nervous.

Finally, the girl shattered the silence with another comment about the letter opener and an abrupt “So, what shall we do this afternoon?” I hadn’t really thought about that much because I was so excited to share my secret that I never even considered what we would do next. I wracked my brain for an idea of something to do with my new confidant, but came up with nothing. It was somewhat strange how intently she looked at me in the pub. It was almost as if she thought we were on a date. BOOM! It hit me like a ton of bricks. We are on a date. All of a sudden my palms started to sweat and I tried to think a little faster of something to do. Blank. This date had been pretty much a gag reel of me being socially inept so far, so I decided to defer back to Ashes to dodge the conversational screwball she had just thrown. “I was thinking I would let you pick what we do. I am cool with whatever you want.” Not exactly the smoothest response, but it beat saying nothing.

I got a good look at Ashes. She was pretty. She had neat little curls in her hair that she played with a lot and her glasses made her emerald eyes look just a little bigger than they should be. It was a rather cute effect. Suddenly, I felt even more pressure to make this date a good one. I flashed a smile at Ashes as I waited for her proposed afternoon agenda.