Jig sat in her room, or, more exactly, on her bed in her room. She held her banjo in her lap and played the strings just loud enough for her to hear, but not loud enough to be heard in the hallway outside of her room. It might be hard to imagine, but the banjo is a very soothing and relaxing instrument, at least for Jig anyway. She had to concentrate on hitting the right string and having her fingers in the right places that she really didn't have time to worry about anything else. Concentration works wonders on releasing stress. Plus, most of her favorite songs had such a tune to them it was almost violent. She had to hit the strings so hard, so quickly, she had to lose sight of everything else in the room and depend so much on not just knowing the notes but playing from her spirit, her pain, from her vengeance. She'd lose herself, burn her fingers; move her arms and wrists until they hurt. Soon she forget every worry, every pain, every tear, her mind was filed down to one thing, the sound.
Ephram had sent a still star struck Desi home, reassuring her of any worries about him that might still be floating around in her mind somewhere. Ephram loved how Desi could go from one thought to another thought without ever really letting go of the first one. He hoped that reassuring her that he was okay, even though she didn't show any signs of worry, would prevent the thought resurfacing and bringing the worry back with it. He also loved when he did something very "boyfriendy" and considerate. He should probably do it more often…
He walked back into the living room when the alarm on his watch went off. He pressed a button and the beeping stopped. He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment, trying to remember for what reason the alarm had been set. He didn't have to feed anything… He wasn't supposed to pick up anything… And then it hit him.
"Crap!" he yelled and ran over to Jig's door. He began pounding on it and called her name. Inside she sighed angrily and placed her banjo carefully on the bed next to her.
"Go away!" she yelled. Ephram sighed; they really didn't have time for her to suddenly turn into a girl on him.
"Rehearsal!" he yelled through the door. There was a pause from Jig, probably as the word clicked in her mind and her eyes went toward whatever she had in her room that told time.
"Crap!" she echoed Ephram's previous exclamation and clamored to the door, placing her banjo in the stand by it. She opened the door so quickly it made a gust of wind that both moved his hair and hers. For half a second the two stared at each other before Jig brushed past him and over to her shoes in one of the corners of the flower ridden living room. He walked over to the front door and Jig tried to follow suit, but kept falling over as she tried to walk and get her shoes and coat on at the same time.
Their hurried state was in honor of the fact that Ephram did have a reason to set the alarm on his watch. He played the piano and she played the cello. And both instruments were needed in the Peak County High "senior" play. Rehearsals were usually after school but since neither instrumentalist had gone to school that day, both were late and forgetful. Actually, considering all of the facts, it was a reasonless and yet lucky thing that Ephram set the alarm on his watch…
Meredith was taking a nap and Sam was with friends, so Nina, finding herself with renewed mothering instincts, was clearing the house. She did the kitchen first, sanitizing everything, even the floor. Then she moved onto the living room and found herself mysteriously stopped by the mantel over the fireplace. Okay, so it wasn't the mantel per se, but what the mantel held. First she found a picture of her and Carl at their wedding. They were smiling and, young… Nina didn't remember ever being so young. The next was her pregnant with Sam, a smile on her face. She laughed a little to herself, thinking about how naïve she had been. The her in the picture, that girl, she had no idea what was coming. Then there was the picture of her, Carl, and baby Sam in the hospital. At the memory that brought she didn't bother concealing laughter. Sam was four hours old in that picture. They would have taken it sooner, but Nina had wanted to comb her hair, but on some make up, and gain enough strength to hold Sam herself. Whenever Carl talked to Sam about the picture he would say, 'See how strong your mother was? She didn't even break a sweat brining you into our family. See how beautiful you made her look?' Nina then sighed deeply and looked toward the stairs, but in her mind felt like she was looking at Meredith upstairs in her room. Nina then looked over at the picture far at the end, the most recent one. It was of Meredith, wrapped tightly and securely in Niki's arms. Nina sighed again and continued with her cleaning.
Amy was walking home after a dancing rehearsal for the school play. There was a reason ballroom and ballet had different names. As far as Amy could see, with the exception that music was involved, she found no other likenesses between the two forms of dance. And how ballroom dancing could be an Olympic sport, well, that was just wrong. Suddenly Amy found herself almost knocked off of the sidewalk. She looked over and saw Jig walking next to her, laughing after bumping into her. Jig liked to make an entrance as surprising as it can be. Amy smiled at her second cousin and Jig smiled back before looking at her feet as they walked and frowning. She sniffled slightly at her feet and looked up at the sky.
"Do you remember when you asked me if I had ever been in love?" Jig asked. Amy looked at Jig staring at the sky contemplatively. Amy smiled slightly. There was something about Jig being solemn that was just oddly, endearing. She was usually the joking happy one of the bunch, but sometimes Jig proved to have, dimensions. Amy nodded.
"Yeah, Isaac something. It was like, the untypical, uniquely Jig kind of love or something…" Amy said. Jig nodded and chuckled slightly.
"Yeah well… he came to town this morning… That's why I wasn't in school today, Ephram too; he was at my house…" Jig said and looked even further away from Amy, whose mouth dropped open. Amy shoved Jig in the arm.
"And you didn't call me!" Amy accused her. Jig laughed slightly.
"I was a little busy! He showed up early in the morning out of no where and filled the living room with poppies!" Jig told her and Amy smiled at the sweet, yet unsweetly said, tale.
"Aren't poppies supposed to put you to sleep?" Amy asked her, a little puzzled. Jig chuckled slightly, taking more after Edna every day.
"Baum had an odd way of looking at things…" she said. Amy nodded, smiling.
"So are things, weird?" she asked. Jig sighed and turned to her.
"Having two guys know by what system you shave under your arms? Things are beyond weird…" Jig said and Amy laughed slightly.
"Maybe you're just too open with things," Amy suggested. Jig made a sound of displeasure, a sound which could almost be defined as a snort.
"Maybe they're just too damn nosy…" she suggested. Amy smiled again.
"They're your friends, you made them…" Amy said. Jig looked at her, completely and or utterly confused.
"I did what?"
"You made them. You 'make' friends, don't know? It's a silly expression isn't it? You use it in any other way than the standardized formula and no one knows what on earth you're saying!" Amy complained. This time Jig smiled and shook her head at her second cousin.
"That sounds like something Ephram would say…" Jig teased. Amy looked at her surprised, but not very pleased.
Nina dropped Delia off at her house before taking Sam and Meredith to go pick up some groceries for when Nina's husband Carl would be coming home. Ironically, as Delia walked up to her front door with a key in her hand, Irv and the elementary bus pulled up in front of the house next door to theirs, the house that wasn't Nina's. The bus stopped and a slightly familiar looking Hispanic boy with wavy black hair and oddly brilliant blue eyes stepped off. Delia was somewhat hidden and watched as the boy walked over to the house, jogged up the steps, revealed a key, and entered, closing the door behind him. Delia's mouth was creating a considerably large entrance to her esophagus. She had never given thought to the people who lived on that side of the house. It had never occurred to her that someone must live there, that they have TWO neighbors. But what on earth are the odds that Torres Villa, the new, kind of cute, guy at school would be the one to occupy the house, even if it was just for half the year? His mother must live in it year round, how had she never seen her? Maybe Delia had… Maybe Delia had seen Torres's mother around town and never knew. But how would she know? Seeing a person on the street didn't mean you had privilege to their entire life's history. There was no way Delia could have known. She was surprised however that Nina had mentioned nothing. Nina was usually the Brown's tour guide of local lore and all of the recent gossip they had never heard. Why had Nina never disclosed the facts of the Brown's other neighbor? You'd think a story about a nine year old boy who spends half the year on one continent and the other half of the year on another, would be of some gossip importance. But, despite all of these thoughts, Delia entered her house, closing the door behind her, and wondered what Torres Villa was doing in his house.
