Azaleas
Scarborough Fair
花はそれらを贈与する手に芳香を残す。
Salutations, everyone. :D Lost all of my work for a co-op story *Hides head in a sack*, but I promise to be more careful! As of right now, I think I need a break from that particular story,
'Scarborough Fair' is an old, slightly haunting English ballad that I enjoy listening to, and very much recommend. It's about a lover asking the listener, should they be going to Scarborough Fair, to remember them to the 'one who lives there,' for they were once a 'true love of mine.' Then, the loer starts to ask the listener to tell the lover to do a series of impossible tasks (Such as washing a shirt in a dry well, or finding a small acre of land to have a nice garden in the middle of the sea) to earn the pretense of becoming a true love of theirs. The ballad wraps up with the lover asking the listener to tell the one at Scarborough Fair that while these tasks seem impossible, should they still be passionate enough for the other to try what seems hopeless, should they still try regardless for someone else's behalf, their love hasn't been lost. ^^
Please, take care, everyone.
Quote:
"Are you goin' to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme-
Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine.
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt (On the side of a hill in the deep forest green).
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground).
Without no seams nor needlework (Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain).
Then she'll be a true love of mine (Sleeps unaware of the clarion call).
Tell her to find me an acre of land (On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves).
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Washes the grave with silvery tears).
Between salt water and the sea strands (A soldier cleans and polishes a gun).
Then she'll be a true love of mine."
"That's an odd song, Lauren."
"Mmmm?"
Anxiously shifting to one foot to the other, Harmony's emerald eyes fixed on Lauren's brown, her expression slightly confused.
"The one you're singing. Why does he keep asking someone to do these things?"
Lauren simply shrugged, and more tightly wound her scarf around her neck as the wind continued to flutter at the girls' cloaks. Even though Lauren in no way minded the cold, at this elevation, so high up...
Swallowing lightly, she backtracked away from the edge of the building, closer to where Harmony was bent over a small flowerpot, struggling to tie a ribbon quite correctly around a small pot as the arctic-like winds, so biting at such a proximity, continued to cause the ribbon ends to flap and flutter about wildly as the girl at last tied the ribbons into a neat, pristine butterfly bow before bending over the small pot of blue blooms, carefully draping an edge of her white cloak over it to protect the blue flowers from being blown away completely.
As Lauren made her way back towards Harmony, shivering slightly, she too held a small parcel in her hands, only the small buds were white, not blue. Sneezing lightly, she winced as she bent to her knees onto the building's frigid metallic roofing tiles, and placed her own pot down, though the ribbon securing the fluttering card was much less elegant and a great deal more lopsided then Harmony's.
Harmony stood, body still slightly doubled over from the cold, as if she felt ill. She swallowed as she stared down the firestorm of lights bursting about the city below them, cars looking like little more then Nascar toys vrooming about the road as matchstick-sized people bustled about to complete business so that they could scurry out of the cold.
"Um...Lauren?" she asked at last, breaking the girls' mutual silence. "I can see my house from here."
"Really? That's nice."
Harmony felt her stomach flutter just a little bit as she realized that the only difference between the two plummeting into empty space and staying...well...preferably breathing, was a few inches of cement and several feet of foundation. The ground beneath her feeling rather hollow, she inched backwards, swallowing.
"...the only problem is," she noted, large green eyes flickering back to Earth once again, in spite of herself, "Is that I can also see my imminent death from right here, too." She shuddered as another gust of wind made her white cloak flutter alarmingly about her, and she shuffled backwards, feeling a little alarmed. Harmony was not one who suffered from severe vertigo, but she was unused at being so many stories up to say the least, and it was getting a little disconcerting. How did the boys stand this as much as they did?
Lauren glanced at Harmony, who was now gripping at a pipe with gloved hands, before covering the two pots with a green cloth, the inscriptions laid out neatly, in plain sight.
"Just keep your distance from the edge. I get all fluttery there, too," she commented, before slowly inching away from the two pots. "So, what time is it?"
Harmony glanced at her watch, her face, slightly pink from the cold, paling suddenly.
"Half past. It's almost..."
Swallowing, and trying to hide a smile, Lauren frantically beckoned to Harmony, who scurried to the girl's hiding spot beneath the old ventilation shaft. Shame it wasn't working.
For a moment, none of them spoke from where they sat, the distant sounds of the city below fluttering over them. Their breath came out in slight puffs, and Harmony shuddered, still rubbing her hands together.
"I hope they come soon."
Lauren murmured an affirmative before reaching for a silver thermos she had left behind the machinery just as the two slightly breathless girls had arrived, wincing lightly as she grasped the hot metal, savoring the warmth sinking into her fingers.
"Cider? I brought cups."
"T-t-that sounds g-good."
As Lauren poured the two of them a generous quantity of the near-boiling liquid, Harmony glanced beside the two at a neighboring building across the street, decked out in several elaborate flags and with Valentine hearts plastered in some of the windows.
"That hotel over there...it's the Plaza, right?"
Lauren nodded, smiling lightly as she passed Harmony a mug.
"Careful, now...it's hot...there. Oui," she said cheerfully, twisting her head around to further observe the elegant building to their left, each crystalline-clear window sparkling, with many of them pooling over with light.
"It's a five-star hotel that's been around since the early...fifties, I think." Lauren's brow furrowed as she attempted to remember.
"Fifties, I think that's about right. I read about it in Eloise." Lauren smiled, looking slightly abashed as the girl took a cautious sip of the hot cider, accidentally burning her lip slightly.
"It has over 102 suites, and it's designed to have Victorian elegance and modern...well...everything, I guess. I've never been inside, but one of my teachers went there for a one-night stay. She claimed it was heaven on Earth...though it cost her a good grand."
Harmony started.
"One grand for one night?"
Lauren nodded, frowning slightly.
"Aye. They just finished a $450 million series of innovations, so...it costs a pretty penny." Lauren sighed as the hot cider slipped down her throat. Wriggling with a small smile at the warmth that began to tingle at her toes and fingertips, she sank down into a lying position, eyes on the dark cobalt skyline. Well, it wasn't snowing tonight-that was something.
Harmony cast a curious look at The Plaza before turning back to her cup, and helping herself to another sip. "Gosh. Was Eloise taking a trip to the Plaza?"
Lauren shook her head, smiling incredulously.
"No. Eloise lived there with her turtle Skipperdee, her dog Weenie, and her nanny, Nanny."
"Nanny Nanny?"
"Nanny was never given a name in the series. Just 'Nanny.'"
"What about her Mom and Dad?"
"They never mention her Father. But her Mother is always away in Paris or in Germany or something. Eloise just lives by herself in The Plaza, and pretty much spends her days making chaos for the hotel staff." In spite of herself, Lauren laughed.
"Eloise gets away with murder, and, well, whatever her mother's job is, it must offer a fair amount, seeing as how they go off to places like Moscow or Paris on a regular basis, and Eloise has a private tutor named Phillip. She's always driving him insane, though. Still," Lauren noted, hugging her knees together as the wind continued to roar about the city rooftops.
"I don't think it's possible to dislike her character. She's just a feisty little princess who likes to make life fun for herself, and everyone around her."
Harmony smiled.
"Doesn't every girl dream of being a princess, once?"
Lauren just laughed.
"You probably could get away with it. Me, well...I'm not an elegant person. I'd crack and kick off my heels to run about the halls, singing 'Tantantara.' But yes. I think it's what little girls primarily do. Imagine a situation where everything's picture perfect-with pretty dresses and pink rooms you never have to clean. Candy for dinner. Any toy you could want." Lauren's face shifted to an unhappy one. "I don't think I'd really wa..."
"It sounds terrible."
Lauren turned to face Harmony. It was in times like these that she was reminded just how insightful her friend was.
Harmony frowned as she considered growing up a pampered, single child. Eloise's life sounded like a great deal of fun, considering the fact that the six year old had endless access to the world, but it serrated somewhat hollowly.
Lauren had spoken about Eloise before. The girl only spoke to her mother on the phone when she was sick, on Tuesdays, or on holidays. In the books, she never came to visit her own child. And while Nanny was at Eloise's mercy, while the girl had two loyal pets-
...it sounded like an awfully lonely existence, the same way Peter Pan's life with the Lost Boys looked like such fun at first. They never had to grow up, they could fly with Tink's aid, and they spent their days antagonizing Hook's crew or the Natives of Neverland.
...but what good was having it all when that was all you knew about in life? It was in loss that one knew what gain actually was. Maybe that was why the turtles knew how to live as they did. Considering how any-
...
...
Her mind drew a solid blank. And her breathing constricted sharply as she numbly realized, through the veil surrounding her subconscious, that there was the sudden and most unwelcome feeling of cold steel pushing slightly against her neck.
For a moment, Lauren simply sat there on the edge, noting the deathly silence. Slowly, she turned around, heart hammering.
But the position where her friend had been sitting just seconds ago was now empty.
~(*)~
Wow. This may prove tricky...*Exhales.* Whew.
No, Harmony has not fallen off the roof! Good heavens, I could never do that to the poor dear...hope to see you next chapter!