DISCLAIM
I really REALLY love this chapter. . .
Chapter 10: Icecream
When she stepped out of the car for a second time that day, She felt liberated. She left the hat inside and walked by herself. She almost smiled twice, and when the young man at the window asked her what she wanted she declared with a full voice "Mint chocolate, two scoops, chocolate cone, please." When she sat down, she ate the whole thing, though not too fast. She took her time, and she basked in the heavenly glow of the sun.
James was quiet, observing. He thought it quite the change. Never was there anyone who could walk out of their parents funeral before service began, and feel good about it. Not good great, she smiled. He watched her do it twice. She thanked him for the ice-cream and enjoyed it. Finally he decided to break the comfortable silence; "Nice day, huh?"
"Absolutely lovely." lily said romantically, facing the heavens, "Makes you glad to be alive. I love the sun."
Thinking that she must have had some revolution in her head James decided to leave it alone. They finished their ice-cream in warm silence.
James began to catch some of the happiness radiating off of her "I think we should go do something."
"Anything," she said, still facing the sky, eyes closed, "Outside, I want to be outside."
"Want to go for a walk?" He ventured.
"I would love to." She stood up and he offered her his arm.
They set off down the main street of the town, after tipping off the driver they would walk home, and they headed for the small park.
It was a very simple park. A walk, a bridge, a stream, picnic tables, swings, and trash bins. They walked the length of it twice and lay out in the grass, warming themselves in the sun, before it even began to get cloudy. But once it got cloudy it got exceedingly cloudier and cloudier, and gloomier and gloomier. And Lily simply refused to leave. They sat on the swings, moving around slowly, twisting, and revolving, but not swinging. Swinging would involve some type of physiologically gravitational swoop around their stomach that generated a euphoria that the sky did not allow. For it dictated the mood, and currently it was too busy swishing about papers along the walk and crackling with distaste at the sun to care about Lily and James' need of a good swing.
Talking about random things like the wood chips on the ground and why the grass was actually greener over there, they lost track of time.
One by one the drops began to fall.
Very slowly at first. One here. One there. Each one colder than the last. Slowly the hairs on their arms began to rise. They got up and silently agreed that they should be getting home now.
Finally the rain started to fall in sheets. Painful, stinging, cold, wet waterfalls of water. They began to run down the streets, nearly blinded. James held out his hand to Lily, who was falling behind. He pulled her up, nearly beside him, though he couldn't quite see, he was sure he could hear her laughing behind him.
They ran several whole blocks through the pouring rain. Laughing, pulling at each other, and taking shortcuts through the lawns of people they did not know, until finally they came to the shelter of James' front door. "Oh bugger-"
"What now?" Lily laughed.
"I forgot my key." He could hardly hide his amusement, laughter played amongst his voice. Lily pushed past him, opened the door and slumped against the wall beside it; A wet and cold shivering mess. A second mess joined her on the floor.
The tile beneith them was cold itself, but the air was warmer. Their shoes sloshed when they moved and everything clinged to them as a child clings to their mother in a strange and frightening place. a pool of residual rain gathered around them. Their cheeks bright and moist hair clinging to their damp features.
"I suppose I could have offered you my jacket," he said as he removed it an threw it over her head, they both laughed loudly and it made a splotching sound on her head, the ringing static of the storm outside still deafening them.
"Oh, yeah," she pulled it off and wringed it out, "That would have kept me so dry." she said with ringing sarcasm.
They were still laughing, trying to hold themselves together.
"We're so stupid." Lily said finally catching her breath. "Look at that," she pointed out the window across the hall, "we ran- I don't even know how many blocks, in that!"
Their laughter rung throughout the large room.
Sirius ran out of the kitchens, and stopped in his tracks. "What happened to you?"
Neither could answer for the laughing started again. He sauntered over slowly.
"Well, these came while you were gone." He threw several envelopes at her.
Lily stopped laughing for a moment to check if they were her O.W.L. results.
They were not.
"I should get dried off." she said, still recovering from the laughter. Sirius still stood there looking at them. "Help me up." She said, holding out her arm to Sirius. She yanked him down in her puddle of rain and mud as she stood up. "Thank you!" she managed before laughing her way up the stairs and down the hall, where her laughter did not echo, and it was not accompanied. It felt hollow, so she stopped.
She flipped through the letters addressed to her. They were from her friends, her distant, uncaring friends. She read each one once, and forget the words as she read them. When she arrived in her room, she tossed them at the bedside table and forgot about them too easily.
thank you, cosmopolitan my only reveiwer.
thank you so much. this chapter is dedicated to you. you and your nice reveiw which was high quality. It has given me strength.
REVEIW.
