Coming out of Hiding [[ota]]

[aibileen]

Aibileen has decided, based on the happenings of the village since she got here, that the place is no good. She's filled up her prayer book; started writing on the inside of the back cover and in the margins. Prayers still start with Miss Mae Mobley, but now include the nice people she met the day she arrived, and herself. She ain't ever put

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[faramir_hurin]

I am just leaving work at the library and see a woman I've not noticed before. It appears that she's looking about. She seems approachable.

"Hello, my lady. I have not seen you before." She did have that air about her. "Are you new to the village?"

He does wear modern clothing, but it's neat trousers and a button-down long sleeve shirt closed to the collar. He has a knife in his right boot and a silver dagger (small) on his belt.

[aibileen]

Aibileen looks over, giving him a pleasant enough smile. Meeting people is one thing. Telling them her business is another.

"Yes, sir."

[faramir_hurin]

I need not hear the words to know when I have been rebuffed. The lady has Lord Denethor's gift of much meaning behind few words.

"Pardon me, I did not mean to pry." I bow slightly. "I still forget sometimes that my habits from home are not always appreciated."

And in Gondor, nearly everyone knew me and was, more or less, partly my responsibility.

[aibileen]

"You go to a place, ain't home, but you still act like it's home?"

She's well versed on being two different people. The Aibileen that the white people think they know, and the Aibileen who goes to church prayer meetings, cooks for her neighbors, and lost a son. She's who people expect her to be, and who she wants to be. But she always knows when to adapt.

[faramir_hurin]

"I do not act like this is home, for it is nothing like it. But I am still the same person that I was there." I am still Faramir. "For all there is to see and learn here, all the people to meet and try to understand their different customs, my own remain."

I smile, a bit embarrassed.

"Unfortunately, the manners and curiosity that served me well in Gondor do not always do so in Haurvatat."

[aibileen]

"Well, manners is usually manners," Aibileen says with a little smile.

"I guess I just ain't used to...folks bein' so nice to me on the street."

[faramir_hurin]

That surprises me and I'm sure my face shows it. She is respectable looking and dressed in a manner much nicer than most.

"I do not mean to pry, but why would people not be nice to you on the street? Or anywhere else, really."

[aibileen]

Aibileen shakes her head. "It's not somethin' you do, talk to strangers on the street. You just mind your business and go on. Where I'm from, people like you don't stop to talk to people like me, 'less you're accusin' us of somethin'."

[faramir_hurin]

That seems odd.

"I am accustomed to speaking to people in the street. Even if I do not know them, at home nearly everyone knew me and their business was my business--or that of my family, in truth."

I look at her again and still find nothing at all less than respectable in her dress, manner, or appearance.

"I do not understand why I should accuse you of something. Do you mean that men would not speak to ladies?"

[aibileen]

Aibileen ain't really sure how to have this conversation with someone. She never had to explain it before.

"No, sir. I mean people with white skin don't speak to people with dark skin."

[faramir_hurin]

That has me confused for a moment, before I recall a conversation from a long time ago on the island.

"Oh. I have heard of that." Years ago... what did Sookie say? "There was a time in history when the dark-skinned were slaves. Even when it ended some people did not like them."

I look at her.

"Is that the way of it?" I ask. "It is not so where I come from. The colour of skin does not denote a different race with us."

Our different races are truly different. Not the Race of Men with different tones of skin.

[aibileen]

"Yes sir, that's the way of it. Slavery over, but we still can't go the same places, use the same bathroom," she explains. She does a good job with not getting angry about it now. She's learned to not speak out.

[faramir_hurin]

So it is true. I am not entirely sure what to do, so I fall back on manners, bowing slightly.

"My name is Faramir, son of Denethor, and I come from the land of Gondor in Middle-earth. In my home it is as foreign to me to consider someone lesser for their skin colour as it is to know that there are machines that let people fly quickly from one place to another so a journey of days or weeks takes only hours." I shake my head with a smile. "No matter what it was like in your home, you and I are equals here."

I think back, having said this before.

"I imagine that it is hard to believe, but it is true. And regardless of your skin, I treat you with the same respect that I would any lady."

[aibileen]

No one's ever bowed to her before, so she's not sure if she's supposed to shake his hand or keep it to herself. She decides to keep it to herself.

"Thank you, sir," she says with a little smile at his formality, though she's a little confused by the middle part with machines. "People been a little bit nicer all the way around, since I got here. And I'm Aibileen."

[faramir_hurin]

I smile in return.

"It is good to meet you, Aibileen." Her name sounds almost like it could be Gondorean--or Elvish. "It has ever been my way to show respect. It continues until such time as a person shows themselves unworthy of it, which rarely happens here."

Or at home, really.

"I think we are nicer or more helpful because we have all been brought here from our homes into this strange place. When I arrived I was helped and met with kindness. To repay anyone else otherwise would be an insult to those who helped me." Even though they would never know. "And you would not deserve it."

[aibileen]

Something about the way he talks, Aibileen likes and puts her at ease.

"You're a good man, Mister Faramir." And by the looks of him, could probably put some sense into people back home. Or maybe they'd just shoot him in the back of the head, too.