Her first impression of him goes like this:
Red cap, red coat, white shirt, black pants—no. Pantaloons. Bare calves and downy blonde hairs leading to worn shoes. Smile, both smooth to the touch and rough around the edges; crinkle by green eyes, like a Granny Smith apple buried in fresh snow.
"Yo!"
He says "yo." Who says that? It falls out of his mouth, slips between chapped lips, and does a jig in the air. She hasn't heard the word in a quarter of a year, and she has to shake her head, smile in place.
She introduces herself as "Lillian. So nice to meet you." Courtesies, all of them, use them for the strangers and turn-of-the-century friends, bought with sweet words and gifts, loads of gifts. Gifts aplenty, gifts galore. She wonders what Dirk likes best. Judging from that feather in his cap…chocolate dipped bananas?
He invites her to hang out sometimes (or always). She agrees because it's polite. She agrees because she could always use another friend her age. Howard hardly counts as "her age" or "friend," but she'd be lying if she said his cooking wasn't top notch. Grade A. Delicious.
Pauses…too many pauses! She stares at his sleeves, rolled up to his elbows, then catches his eye. He raises a pair of thick eyebrows. The moment gets awkward, and Dirk says he's gotta go deliver isolated villagers' small orders and big dreams. "See you around."
Lillian watches him trot off, looking more than a little like Prince on good days. Except Dirk doesn't neigh, doesn't eat McIntoshes like a maniac, and doesn't require a constant stream of affection in high pitched baby words.
"Enough already," she says after his fifth warm-breathed nudge. She turns both her hands skyward. They are empty save for the dirt lining the creases of her palms, and Prince snorts in dignified disgust.
"Can't please everyone, darling." Lillian brushes the hint of dust off her shoulders and clambers atop her steed, valiant and hungry. "Let's go fishing!"
a/n: I wanted to get back into the swing o' writing, and I honestly have no idea in what direction I'm going with this. Let the games begin. Yeeehawwww!