Can you believe it? I made it within seven days! Huzzah!
So, I realized this week that I totally forgot to do a disclaimer, which is, I imagine, pretty important. Especially considering my weird phobia of lawyers. So: DISCLAIMER: I do not own Edward Scissorhands, Kim, Kevin or Jim. I do however own Lorelei and any other characters mentioned so far. Not to sound like a smart-aleck, but if I *did* own Edward...well, you know the rest.
This really really should be two chapters, it's WAY long and has too much stuff that I wanted opinions on for anyone to cover in a short review. I wanted to split it, but I couldn't find any plausible place without messing up the draft I have for the fourth chapter. My apologies folks.
And now, a word to my reviewers. I can't tell you how pathetic my need for reviews really is. You guys are the lifeblood of my story, the only motivation that's able to push me to get me off my lazy bum and back to working. Long story short, thank you all so incredibly much for sparing your time to my story. Anything you can give me as far as character portrayal (especially Edward's) would be supremely appreciated.
Starxx: Thank you once again. I'm glad to hear Lorelei's character development isn't just in my head, as so many things are. ;-) I really can't tell you how I appreciate your constructive reviewing.
madgirlsrock723: Ok, so I read your review, and was all warm and happy and making little squeaky noises that my family was trying to figure out the cause of (in the livingroom, watching a movie), and then I clicked on your profile. I seriously did a spit take. After which, my family had to try and figure out why I kept squealing "It's the girl that writes Timeless Kalypso! She likes my story! OMYGOSHOMYGOSHOMYGOSH!" And hopping up and down uncontrollably. Bottom line: you are an amazing writer who's make me go all teary-eyed more than once, and I'm very honored that you're reading this. Thank you!
Hope Diamond: Glad to see you're still on board! Thank you so much! I'll try and update within a week. (Those who know me and my procrastinating ways may guffaw, but I think I can do it so long as the Summer lasts. No promises, but your reviews are great motivation!)
miss. twighlightprincess: So great to see another reviewer! Doing my best over here!
Chapter Three: Grown Up Orphans
"God knows what is hiding,
In those weak and sunken eyes;
Fiery throngs of muted angels,
Giving love but getting nothing back...
People, help the people.
And if you're homesick,
Give me your hand and I'll hold it." -People Help the People, Birdy.
That evening Lorelei finished her extra school in her room, blasting music under the untruthful explanation that it would drown out other distracting noises. Finally finished, she shoved the remaining papers out of her way and stomped downstairs just in time to see her father pull into the drive.
"I'm here early!" He acknowledged as he hugged her.
"It's all the rage today." She returned dryly. "Aunt Jane was too."
He chuckled. "Oh? You don't sound too happy about that. She make you work?"
"Only on the things she didn't finish." Replied her aunt caustically, her hands in there permanent place on her hips. "I got here and panicked when she was gone. Found out none of her work had been done either."
Lorelei cast a dark look her way, as her father held her out at arms length concernedly. "Where did you go?"
"For a walk." She shrugged.
"Took her half an hour to get back here." Interjected her aunt.
"I went up to the civic center." She replied, smiling disarmingly. "It was nice out today."
Her father's eyes widened. "Really? Mrs. 'It's always too hot or too cold.'?"
She chuckled halfheartedly, brushing his arm off her. "Actually I was about to take another one. It's a little cooler now. And there'll be less people around."
He seemed to be trying to study her for a moment, and then smiled. "OK. Why don't I get the tennis rackets and we can all go up there? Wasn't much of a game this morning."
She opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it again. Sucking her lip and searching the room as though it could bequeath her some excuse.
Suddenly the phone rang.
"It's Bailey, for you. She called twice while you were upstairs." Said her aunt instantaneously. Half annoyed, half gratefully Lorelei took the handset offered her.
"Hey, what's up?" She asked sheepishly, walking out on the front porch away from the noise of the television her brother was turning on.
"Hi! Sorry I couldn't call you earlier today. Me and James went yard-sailing. It was completely boring."
"Good for you, I was home all day. That actually sounds awesome."
"Stuff it. This is way more awesome. Guess what we're gonna do Friday?"
"Enlighten me."
"OK, so Sarah has that new boyfriend remember? Well we've been thinking about getting together, you know the four of us? And yesterday we were talking about what single friends we have that might want to come, so it'd be like a group date...well anyway, we realized that we have dates for both Jenny and you!"
On the other end of the phone, Lorelei ran a palm over her face. "Bailey..."
"No, don't 'Bailey' me yet. This guy's really awesome. He's a football player, and he's got a wicked car, and he's dated like, all the popular girls we know."
"Yeah? So why'd they break up with him?"
"Uh...I don't know! You better just be glad they did! Maybe he broke up with them. Who cares! Seriously Lori this could be the perfect thing to keep you busy over the Summer. I'm kind of getting worried about you. You never show up for homeschool day anymore, you never seem excited when I get these things together or anything. Is something going on?...Do you wanna talk about it?"
Again, Lorelei's tired palm ran through her long dark bangs. "Know what? I've just decided I'll come on Friday."
"You will? Great!"
"But I have to go right now."
"All right. Awesome! I'll tell Jim to pick you up at your house then. Bye bye!"
She hung up the phone on the way inside, tossing it over her brother's head. Her father was occupied by the computer for the time being, she quickly scavenged the cupboards and grabbed a bag of Doritos and a couple apples.
"I'm going out for a walk!" She called on her way out the front door.
"What are you doing with the chips?" Asked her aunt.
"I'm hungry."
"But you just ate!"
Her aunt was talking to a slammed door.
The evening was, after all, cooler, and with less people around Lorelei jogged comfortably to the tennis court. It was breezy out, and the sky was turning a light shade of gold and purplish-baby blue as she slid around the back of the court and towards Edward's dwelling. The undergrowth of woods was a patchwork of light and dark, and cicadas and nightbirds were forming a deafening melody that made her skin crawl just a little.
She was startled then when his shape suddenly materialized out of the shadows behind her.
"Geez Edward! Don't do that." She laughed nervously.
"I'm sorry." He expressed sincerely.
She smiled, shaking her head. "Just startled me is all. Here, I brought you dinner. I can't stay tonight though so hope you can..." She trailed off as she caught sight of the rec-room behind her.
In the window, something white was hanging, catching the fading yellow light. She moved closer, ignoring the nervous snipping sound of Edward's scissors behind her. It was the take-out box, or what was left of it. The edges had been trimmed off, and the styrofoam delicately carved into elaborate designs. Swirls and patterns of shapes curved around one another, carefully decorating the whole box without making it weak enough to collapse. It was hung on a rusty nail, catching the sun so that it shone through the designs, making odd and beautiful shadows on the far walls. Lorelei was mesmerized for a moment.
"Wow. Edward. This is...fantastic." She said breathlessly, tracing a finger over a swirl gently. "You did this didn't you? With your hands?"
She turned back in time to see him nod. Deep, sad brown eyes lit up with the praise. He seemed so clueless and yet...only a genius could have made that out of a simple box.
"You can have it...if you like it." He said tentatively.
Lorelei broke out in a grin. "Thank you Edward." She said with conviction, gently removing it from the peg. "I love it." She stared at him for a moment more before setting the apples and bag of chips down on the window-sill in silence.
"Edward I really have to go tonight, but I'll be back first thing in the morning. My aunt has to work tomorrow, so we won't have to worry about her." She took a few steps back from the building, and stood once again studying the dark figure before her in silent fascinated perplexity.
Finally she took a breath. "Well. Goodnight Edward."
"Goodnight...Lorelei." He returned gently. Her name came out hesitantly, soft voice tripping over the unfamiliar word.
"You can call me Lori if it's easier. A few people do." She noted, smiling. She didn't mention that the only people allowed to call her that were her family members and very, very close friends.
He smiled gratefully. "Goodnight Lori."
That night nearing eleven she sat on the carpet on her floor, disinterestedly playing scales on her guitar. Her mind was elsewhere. Guitar was something her mother had excelled at, and playing in the evenings had been one of her favorite pastimes, something the family had all looked forward to. She had been teaching Lorelei, slowly but surely, and now armed with a few internet sites and a "For Dummy's" book the teen had set out to finish herself. It was less than easy. Her fingernail nicked the bottom string for the fifth time that night, bending it at an absurd angle, and she dropped the Yamaha with a yelp of pain.
Sighing in frustration, she pushed the whole mess to one side, and collapsed backwards onto her floor. The TV downstairs droned through it, blending with the sounds of her air conditioner. She wondered absently whether it were hot or cold where Edward was sleeping that night.
Hoisting herself to her feet, she walked downstairs carefully in the darkness, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. Tiptoeing past her sleeping brother on the way back through the livingroom, the television, airing a story about the castle remodeling, caught her attention.
"Local historians agree that these are precisely the kind of sculptures the legendary folklore figure, Edward Scissorhands, used to make, and there are newspaper photos to prove it." The spokeswoman was saying. "Switching back to you now Bob."
The camera changed from a dingy newsroom to the outside of the castle earlier that day, where a meatfaced reporter stood blocking a full view of the most gorgeous garden Lorelei had ever laid eyes upon. Sculptures of all shapes and sizes grew up, perfectly trimmed, surrounded by butterflies and birds and planted flowers. Animals, people, monsters and still life, some like 3-D portraits trimmed to surgical precision, others artisticly abstract living depictions that could be any number of things, surrounded the film crew like a still, slumbering army. In the background, workers moved in and out of the castle with various absurd looking machines.
"Local rumor has long said that a secretive gardener had been caring for this estate, and this serves as irrepressible proof." The reporter continued. "It's simply amazing. And quite a tribute to the creative genius to whom this museum is to be dedicated..." They went on talking about the inventor to whom the castle had belonged. There were a few pictures of a kind-looking old man, and some scientific dabble about his discoveries in chemistry and neurosurgery and about a dozen other fields. Lorelei was still paused with her foot on the first step, when photos of the various worm-eaten pages of an old book began to appear on the screen.
"...One of the most amazing discoveries made in this mansion: the professor's journal, which contains diagrams, blueprints, and plans for his vast body of work. Unfortunately not all can be read, as the book has sustained a lot of water damage..." Another page was flipped through to illustrate, and Lorelei felt her breath catch in her throat. On the faded, yellowing page was the unmistakable dark figure she recognized as Edward. His black buckle-studded suit was unmistakable, and although the top part of his head was faded out, she found his long scissor-fingers on the sides of the page. Suddenly the book flipped to the next page, and Lorelei got one second to observe the faded outline of what Edward was supposed to be. From what she could see, it was a perfectly normal man with dark hair and suit. And hands—real human hands of flesh and bone.
It was only on-screen for a fraction of a second, before the camera switched back to to the newsroom and another, more fathomable local story was discussed. Lorelei walked dizzily up the stairs, before dropping into bed and pulling the covers around her tightly. The room suddenly seemed cold.
It made so much more sense now, and at the same time, it didn't. Edward was an artificial human being-the first ever. The inventor had done the impossible...created a man from robot, or at least, almost had. That explained the scissors, Edward's naivety about the world. Maybe even how he could exist in legends from sixty years ago and still look like an adolescent, but...how human was he? One page away from the finished product was all she had to go on, and obviously he had basic human needs, like hunger. And emotion, she thought starkly, he was lonely and frightened when I found him. And he looks happy every time I tell him I'll see him again. She banged a frustrated fist down on her mattress. A robot can't feel emotion! Science can't have come that far and no one know about it.
She rolled over in bed uncomfortably, dragging a pillow over the top of her head as she stared out her window at the stars over the tops of the trees. She didn't want to think about it. The Edward in her old tennis court—awkward, shy and completely lost—surely he wasn't some experimental half-human android?
Lorelei turned over once again, and her eyes surveying the wall covered in vintage movie posters as if it could offer some solution. Tiredly, her sight drifted down to her dresser, and locked on the take-out box he had given her. It doesn't really matter what he is. She quieted herself with conviction. I'm all he has right now.
And with that strangely comforting thought in her troubled mind, she finally fell asleep.
The morning came mercifully for her after a long night of dreams that woke her continuously. The house was abandoned of any signs of life when she awoke, and by the time she had showered the sleep away it was already ten O'clock. Dressing quickly and grabbing a box of pop-tarts and an orange for Edward, she stuffed them into a bag, and then proceeded to pull something else out of the back of her father's closet.
They were rolls of giant craft paper. She couldn't remember exactly what her mother had bought them for a week or so before her death, but they had never been used. And since homeschooling no longer even took place at home, Lorelei figured they wouldn't be missed.
The day was perfect, brilliantly blue, and a cool breeze stirred up the warm early-Summer air. The world smelled of freshly mowed grass and, nearing Edward's hide-away, the far-off smoke of a campfire. Lorelei hummed quietly as she approached the rec-center, and tapped on the shattered window with one of the rolls of paper.
"Edward?"
"Lori." He acknowledged her almost instantly from within the shadows, appearing at the window with the small smile that she couldn't help but read as being happy to see her.
"G'morning. Meet me at the court?" She smiled at him before stomping back through the weeds.
Cross-legged on the shale once again, and he attempted to eat the pop-tarts as she peeled the orange for him while talking absently about menial subjects. The euphoria of the sunshine and the breeze and fresh air nearly made her giddy. She had holed herself away in her room for months on end after her mother's death, only coming out when she had too in the daytime, and eventually it had become a habitual part of her living. She had long forgotten how beautiful a fresh clear Summer day was.
Edward, if he was anything, was a first-class listener. Fascinated brown orbs followed her facial expressions with true inquisitiveness about anything and everything she could talk about.
"So...Edward...can I ask you a question?" She advanced after a while.
He nodded laconically.
"What did you eat up there in that castle all alone?"
"...Cookies." He said gingerly, after a paused. Lorelei halted her preparation of his breakfast.
"Cookies?"
He nodded slowly. "Father had...a machine. Sometimes vegetables would grow in the garden too. But the cookie machine always worked."
She blinked at him a few times, trying to imagine living on a diet of sugar and water and flour for God knew how many years. Finally she shook her head. "Maybe it's a good thing you had to move. That can't be healthy." She chuckled.
No reply from Edward, but the curious brown eyes seemed to be mulling over this revelation.
"Well, I saw the castle on television last night, as a matter of fact." Continued Lorelei after a while. She met his eyes again. "And I saw your sculptures, the ones you made in the garden. They were yours, weren't they?"
He nodded, ebony hair moving to surround his pale face.
She smiled. "They were amazing. You have a real talent Edward." There was silence for a few moments. In her mind, Lorelei waged the battle of whether or not to mention what else she had learned from the television show that night. "Also I saw...they were talking about the man that the castle is going to be a tribute too." She broke off, meeting his eyes again. "He was an inventor. An elderly man...was that your father Edward?"
He nodded again, eyes keeping hers and then dropping in thought several times.
"Was he all of your family?" She asked quietly. Again, a nod.
"Can I ask...what happened?"
Edward stared at the ground close to her shoes. "He didn't wake up." He said it speculatively, voice taking an almost childish tone. Lorelei sensed the familiar bitter disbelief on the edge of his voice.
"I'm sorry." She said gently, and his eyes came back up to meet hers. She turned back to finish the procrastinated orange peeling. "I lost my mother...last October." She said with some effort after a long silence. "I know...it's not the same, because I have the rest of my family but..." She took a breath, and looked him in the eyes again. "I know what it's like to feel that sense of...lostness. Like there's no purpose left to anything." She finished gently. It was as if her mouth were separate entity, working apart from her will. She had met Edward two days ago, and so far she'd been able to open up more to him than she could to her own father.
Dealing with it wasn't so hard anymore, the crushing reality of it all. But somehow, when her mind had take all those horrifyingly abstract ideas and make them real through speech, her voice would crack and her mouth became numb with the pain. Even a sentence worth of honesty made her stomach reel.
Edward was looking straight through her with those fathomless eyes. There was an entire unspoken language to learn in them, she realized, and right now they were saying that they absolutely understood.
Finally tossing the last bit of peel away Lorelei offered him the orange with a wry smile. For a fraction of a second he looked confused as to how to go about taking it, and in that time she grabbed the shortest of his fingers between two of hers, laughing lightly, and stuck the orange on the end. For a minute, Edward simply stared at his hand holding the foreign weight of the orange upright, and the sweet sticky juice dripping down the bottom of it, wondering how she was so unafraid of his blades.
"That's the way I always ate them when I was a kid." Said Lorelei, mistaking the source of his confusion. "My little sisters still do it."
"Your sisters?" Asked Edward innocently.
She nodded. "I have four. And a brother, but you've seen him. That was him and my father here playing tennis yesterday morning."
Had it really been only yesterday? Lorelei thought distantly. It seemed like she'd know him for weeks. For some strange reason, she was talking to him as if she had.
He was still staring at the orange, so she used demonstration to show him how to take a bite shish-kabob style, bemusedly pretending to hold a fruit on her own finger. Awkwardly, he managed to take a small bite of the juice-filled citrus, making a face to assure her it was enjoyable while trying hard not to look too pathetic in his inability to feed himself properly.
She pulled out the rolls of paper while he was still occupied with breakfast.
"I brought these for you. You don't have to do anything with them if you don't want, but, no one was using them." In a sudden movement she used to end of her sweater sleeve to dab some of the juice off of his chin. He flinched at the contact, jolting back slightly.
"Sorry." Said Lorelei slowly. "Force of habit. When you live in a house with little kids..."
"Thank you." Said Edward apologetically, embarrassment burned through his pale face.
She gave him a lopsided smile in return. "Anyway, I thought you might get bored so I took them along. Plus I'd like to see how you do...what you do. If you don't mind being watched?"
It took Edward a minute to realize she had been asking a question.
"I don't mind." He said gently. To him, the idea that anyone's company would be unwanted was absurd. But then, he'd been without any for a long time.
Finally finished with breakfast, Lorelei spread a few rolls of the paper on the ground. They were enormous, in a few different colors and textures. Edward stared at them in masked awe, imagination quickly filling with ideas, and images of what he would create. He'd experimented with paper before in the past, when Kevin Boggs had asked him to make dolls for his seventh grade class, back when suburbia had taught him all the other mediums besides bushes he could apply his talents towards, but he didn't want to think of that now.
Edward creating art, Lorelei realized during the course of that morning, was like Harpo Marx playing his name-sake instrument. His gentle face set in concentration, eyes probing and planning as he went, scissorhands working at a graceful but feverish pace. Sitting in awe on her knees below where he was creating, bits of the flying paper showered her, falling like quiet confetti. She stayed still that way for what could have been hours, an off-kilter brand of strange bliss enveloping her as she closed her eyes and let the sun warm her shoulders, the rhythmic metallic snipping noise of Edward's hands in the background. It had been such a long time since she'd felt this peaceful.
"Lorelei?" He asked gently after what seemed like an eternity in a different world.
"I said to call me Lori." She opened her eyes slowly, and turned to see Edward with an earnest expression on his face. Behind him, on the ground, the mutilated paper was strewn out in various ways, layers of clippings covering a mess of patterns. Using Edward's arm to pull herself up, Lorelei rose and advanced over.
Reluctantly letting her arm slide out of his-he was very aware of the warm sensation on the sleeve of his suit- Edward took a finger and gently inserted it into one of the holes. Up from the mess he hoisted a chain of the most beautifully intricate paper pattern she had ever seen. They were snowflakes and stars, with tiny holes in shapes and diamonds, duplicates of each one littering the row, labyrinthine decoration making the sun shine through in brilliant impressions on the pavement. Literally out of words Lorelei simply stared in wonder, tracing the delicate lines with a finger, turning it around to catch the light at different angles. It was amazing.
"Edward." She said with what felt like inelegant, finality. "This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen."
"For you. If you want it." He replied meekly.
She smiled, genuinely out of words again. The expression had been used more today than it had been in weeks.
Out from the pile Edward pulled more chains- some of them people, hand in hand, of different sizes and ages and it seemed, personalities. Some were true snowflakes, delicate portraits of falling ice. Some were perfectly made spirals that hung, springy and huge and full of life.
And they were all, of course, for her.
She swept the clippings up with a broom retrieved from the house along with lunch, and, with Edward beside her venturing from his safe-hold, deposited them in the dumpster near the corner of the park.
It was already afternoon, and Lorelei had done none of the school she was commissioned for that day, so she had to bid him goodbye in the yellowing light.
"I'll see you tomorrow." She claimed, brushing off the paper shavings that littered his suit and wild black hair.
He nodded, blue lips and dark eyes and face filled with scars so humanly hopeful. She turned and left quickly, to keep herself from staring, trudging into the growing evening with her mounds of paper art over her shoulder.
Edward had meant to do more than just nod. He'd wanted to say, "Goodnight." Or something longer. He had meant to tell her about the last time he came here, and why he couldn't let anyone know he was back. He had meant to ask her why her hair was the color it was. But...he would ask her when she came again. He recalled the smile that she had worn during most of the day, and mirrored it with one of his own in the lonely evening. She would come again.
Not to sound like every fanfic writer ever, but I was very nervous about this chapter, so please be honest and tell me what you thought. I'm not looking for flames, but good constructive criticism would be wonderful. Just to know whether you're enjoying or not, is of course, always brilliant. On a more random note, I think I just figured out the cure for depression. One simply has to google 'Edward Scissorhands Chibi" and viola! Utter and complete adorableness ensues. Sorry, lost my train of thought there. One more thing: anyone have any song suggestions? Meaning, of course, songs that pertain, apply, and/or remind you of Edward? Not that I don't have a million, but I'm always on the lookout for more. But enough of my rambling. If you've made it this far, please review!