Sunday's Solomon Grandy
By Kaji no Tenshi
Chapter Four Thursday
After Alistair had promised to seal the ring for her, they had spent the rest of the day talking to each other as well as making the doll. Lucy answered many questions of Alistair's, telling him about her childhood, her disease and less serious things such as her favourite colour, Alistair, on the other hand, could only answer questions using his instinct, unsure if half the things he had said was true or not. Nevertheless, they had spent a happy day together.
"Lucy?"
"Yes?"
"You said I could help around today." He smiled at the female.
She blinked her eyes. "Oh, I did, didn't I? Are you sure you can walk around? I don't want you collapsing on me again…" Her voice was laced with worry and concern. "I don't think…"
Alistair came up to her and placed a finger on her lips, silencing her. "You don't need to worry. I'll be fine." She frowned. "So what can I do?" He took his finger away.
Lucy bit her lip, pondering, at the same time, pushing down her protests. "I suppose you can gather some firewood. I ran out two days ago."
"And where can I get that?"
She motioned outside the window. "The forest behind here. There should be plenty of dead branches lying around. You can collect those."
"Very well. And what would you be doing?"
"I need to go to the market."
The man's eyes lit up with some sort of thought. "I found these in the pockets of my clothes." He took out a few coins from the pocket of his shirt. Pressing them into Lucy's small hand, he said, "Take them and buy some proper food."
Lucy looked up at him in surprise. "Alistair? Are you sure? It's your money…"
"I believe that it's necessary. You need more nutrients than you're getting right now. Otherwise you can consider buying for a recovering person, namely me." He grinned at her sheepishly.
She smiled. "Very well." She picked up her hat, which was lying on the table. "The market should be open by now. I'll take some time, so feel free to go outside anytime you want."
Alistair nodded. "I will. Be careful."
Lucy smiled and headed out the door with a basket in hand, the coins safely in her pocket. As she headed out to the market, she wondered what could she get. With the amount of money she had, she could definitely afford some meat, but not enough to last. She could get vegetables and herbs that weren't growing in her garden. She could buy some fresh bread as well. Fingering the coins in her pocket, she decided she should investigate what was on sale before buying anything.
Soon, she had arrived at the market. Hearing people calling her name and waving at her, she nodded her head back politely and gave a slight smile. Passing by the bakery, the female looked in and stared at the fresh bread being sold. She hasn't baked in a while and she vaguely remembered somewhere in her cupboard laid half-a-bag of flour. If she could buy the rest of the needed ingredients, she could bake her own bread. Lucy smiled at the idea. That would be nice.
After getting the ingredients for her bread, the female want to buy some meat and some vegetables as well. Her basket was full and she had some loose change left, telling her she should probably stop buying things now. Shifting the basket on her arms, she started to head home.
Upon her arrival, she found her home empty and figured Alistair had went out to get firewood. She emptied her basket on to the table and proceeded to find the hidden bag of flour. Shortly after, she was mixing the dough on the table and rolling it out. At that time, the backdoor of the house opened and in came Alistair holding a armful of dead branches.
The two shared a bright smile, seeing each other. "You're back," said Alistair.
"Yes," replied Lucy. "I'm going to bake some bread for our meals. I hope it'll turn out fine. It's been a while since I've baked."
Alistair gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Now, where should I depose of these firewood?"
"Beside the oven is fine. That way, I can have access to them easily."
"Very well." He dropped his load to their designated place before sitting down on a chair.
Lucy worked diligently as Alistair watched silently. Slowly, the female was becoming flushed. "Could you…not look at me like that?"
The male blinked. He grinned before answering, "But I like watching you. You're fascinating." That made Lucy blush even more. "Once you finish your baking, I would love to resume making the doll with you." She nodded shyly.
Sure enough, once the bread was baking, the two continued to make the doll. Lucy had taken out some better quality scraps of cloth from her bed that she had kept for special occasions. Obviously, this doll was special enough therefore she decided it need more beautiful clothes than her other doll. The cloth enough was white, but so much softer on the skin and the shine it gave off make one think it's silk.
As she worked on drawing the outline of the clothes on the scraps, Alistair was helping her with the hair of the doll. He was carefully making the curls out of the hair that was set on the doll. Lucy found herself smiling contently as a comfortable silence set between them. Soon, she was finished drawing and enlisted Alistair to help her cutting out the pieces.
Sewing the pieces together, she asked Alistair, "What do you want the doll's eyes to be?'
"Any colour would be fine."
She titled her head as she tried to fix a wrong stitch. "I wonder if I have blue glass beads like your sapphire ring. Even though I don't like the ring, it still has a beautiful colour."
Alistair smiled and patted her head lovingly. "Anything you want is fine with me. After all, I did promise to seal the ring for you."
She returned the smile. Holding up what she had sewn so far, she asked, "How do you like the dress?"
"It's stunning."
Unexpectedly, she noticed the frown on Alistair's face. "What's wrong, Alistair?"
The male rubbed his temple. "Nothing, just a small headache."
Worry quickly filled her eyes. "Oh, you must go lie down then. Have I worked you too hard with the doll-making? Is it because of your injury to the head?"
"You worry too much. I am fine."
Lucy pulled the male up. "Bed," she ordered. "I'll bring up some food later."
"Very well."
The female watched as the male trudged towards the bedroom. She took her medicine bottle that was lying around and quickly swallowed some pills. For some reason, that headache gave her a very bad feeling.
She desperately hoped that Alistair wasn't going to leave her very soon.
/ E N D C H A P T E R F O U R \ \ \
Author's Note: Kya! I did it again! I finished another chapter before July even ended! This is definitely a record. It's probably because I desperately want to finish this story soon. Okay, my next goal, finish next chapter by end of August or beginning of September! At least this chapter didn't take me very long to write…it felt like I was sort of rambling off though…nothing interesting is happening…I'm thinking the next two chapters might be shorter, depending on how much I could write. I just want to finish this. --;; Clock now read 1:39AM, gah, I never sleep, do I? deadpan Reviews would be appreciated.
