Caught in a celluloid jam

[number_unlucky]

There was something about Sunday that still felt like a day off. Maybe it was growing up in Puritan country, maybe it was how my dad had liked to go to S&S on Sundays for brunch and talk to me about the Sox, which was so out of his usual MO that every week had seemed like a special event. Even here, where every day was basically the same (except

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[callofkaren]

Though Sam probably had plenty of books of her own, Karen found it fun to skim the bookshelf with any excuse -- Halloween and scary books being perfect. She'd grown tired of thinking up a costume for the day and abandoned the clothes box, choosing something that was a little less frustrating.

She looked over at someone berating the bookshelf, a common enough occurrence that Karen simply looked over at what was bothering her, then let out a surprised laugh when she picked out one of the novels. "Oh my god, stuff like this exists?"

[number_unlucky]

I looked up and gave her a grin, taking a moment to realise that it was Karen Filippelli. I was seriously never going to entirely get over the whole 'people from TV' thing, was I, even though I'd seen her plenty of times before?

Probably not.

"Oh god, yeah," I said. "Didn't you ever do the witch thing as a teenager, anyway? Not real pagan stuff, but the whole targeted New Age market."

[callofkaren]

"Not really," she replied, turning the book over in her hands to read the blurb on the back. It wasn't much better than the cover, and she quickly lost interest. "My teen years involved a few bad dye jobs and an embarrassing rebellious streak that mostly involved dressing in flannel shirts and listening to Nirvana."

She'd never really had anything to rebel against, other than how normal her life had always been.

[number_unlucky]

"That's okay, you probably had more fun," I said. "Insomuch as being a teenager's ever exactly fun for anybody."

I gathered most of the books to the side so no one would trip on them, then got up and offered her a smile. "I'm Remy, by the way. Remy the former teenage witch, though I don't think I cast any spells that were effectual at the time, and I didn't have a talking cat."

[callofkaren]

"I'm really glad when I meet someone who introduces themselves by saying they weren't a witch or something along those lines." It was cool to get to know fictional characters and even count some of the more extraordinary as her friends, but Karen liked having more normal people around. It made her feel so much less uncomfortable about being so ordinary. "Karen Filippelli, nice to meet you. You're a doctor, right? I think I've seen you around in the clinic before."

[number_unlucky]

I snorted a brief laugh. "And here I was starting to feel impossibly normal myself," I said, and put out my hand for a shake. "Yeah, I'm one of the multitude of doctors. Remy Hadley, once in diagnostics, now pretty much limited to island triage. It's nice to meet you too."

Pushing my hair back behind my ear with my free hand, I added, "You know, I know there are ex-aliens, and ex-vampires, and ex-Harry Potter wizards, but I haven't ever met a witch, per se. I'm almost disappointed that I'm not one for you."

[callofkaren]

"I'm sure we'll get a real life witch one of these days," she said, sighing. "Until then, that box on my island bingo card will have to stay unmarked."

[number_unlucky]

"There are cards?" I asked, jestingly. "Ooh, where do I get one? Though I don't even want to know what kind of booby prize you get if you get a bingo, all things considered around here."

Probably give you wings or fill your hut with mangoes or something.

[callofkaren]

"I wish there were some kind of awesome prize." Karen put the book back, resisting the urge to pull out a few more to see what else lived in the shelves she could mock. Maybe later, she'd take some home out of sheer boredom. "It'd make things a lot more amusing, wouldn't it?"

[number_unlucky]

"Yeah, but I'd hate to see what the island's idea of a game show might be," I said, and started to tidy up some of the books before Karen got too close a look at the covers. "It probably wouldn't have Vanna White in it or anything. Probably zombies or something like that."

[callofkaren]

"Zombie Vanna White and Alex Trebek," Karen said, starting to picture something that was a cross of Jumanji, Wheel of Fortune and the Price is Right, of all things. "And if you get it wrong, you die? ...This conversation got morbid really fast."

[number_unlucky]

"Or zombie Bob Barker. Come on down for brainnnnns," I drawled, then shook my head, laughing as I put the books back on the shelf. "Sorry, conversations with doctors sort of do that, run towards morbid. You can change the subject, I promise I don't bite."