(Untitled)

[whats_insideyou]

The box sat in the middle of the basement rec room, her name scrawled across the side in black ink. She stood, warily hovering in the doorway, while her son toddled forward, walking a slow circle around the box and patting at it tentatively with his tiny fists.

"Get away from there," she murmured, holding out her hand and offering a faint smile

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[so_heavy]

Max lives in a tropical paradise, is surrounded by a bounty of fun and presumably enriching activities he could be doing, but the truth is that some days he just wants to sit in front of the TV. This is usually better accomplished at the rec center, where he can catch Green Acres and Bewitched (in color, if you can believe it), but the set on the second level of the Compound isn't bad, even if all the Canadian references go well over his head.

For the time being, though, the big box in the middle of the room is more interesting than whatever might be on the TV. He stops a few feet away, drink in hand, and gives it a once over. "Is that your January present?" he asks with a look to the woman. "I bet whatever's in there is better than mine."

[whats_insideyou]

"Well, since I don't know what yours was, I can't say," she said dryly, her voice tinged with exasperation, as it often was. She was getting better, really, but every conversation, be it a few words or something more, was a struggle. Especially with a stranger.

An American stranger, no less.

[so_heavy]

"An alpaca," Max blithely informs her, splaying both hands in front of him for emphasis. "Unless yours regularly spits on people and tries to eat whatever you're wearing, you're definitely the winner here."

He stoops before the box and lifts one of the flaps to peer inside. "That accent, it's French, right?" he absently asks, and then peers wide blue eyes up at her. "I'd offer to speak French for you, but those two years in Madame Coleman's class are long gone by now."

[whats_insideyou]

"You must have been very naughty this year," she said, in all seriousness, but someone that knew what to look for might have been able to pick out the amusement behind her eyes.

"It is all right. I will spare you the humiliation. And assume you are always this nosy."

[ooh_lily]

More and more, recently, it feels like a wonder that she's still mobile. She's winded after walking down the stairs and she leans her shoulder against the doorframe, both hands on her bump, just trying to catch her breath. She watches her friend, eyebrows drawn together.

"Sarah?"

[whats_insideyou]

"You should use the elevator," she suggested, her lips curled into a faint smirk, successfully ignoring the other woman's concern.

Matthieu hurried forward, looping his arms around one of Lily's legs without a word.

[ooh_lily]

"I should, but, somehow, I never do," says Lily, smiling wanly and reading down to ruffle Mathieu's fine, dark hair. "Hey there, kidlet. You being good for your Mum?"

[whats_insideyou]

He nodded, looking up at her with a smile so like his mother's.

"Because you like proving to yourself that you can still use the stairs," she said, and she might have even been teasing. Just a little.

[emilyiris]

Emmy's Mom is so slow these days and Emmy goes on ahead of her, speeding up when she sees her Auntie Sarah and Matty. She makes a beeline for them, only pausing when she realised that Auntie Sarah looks very sad. She hovers for a moment, watching her, one hand almost up to her mouth.

"What's the matter, Auntie Sarah?"

[whats_insideyou]

Auntie Sarah.

It still didn't sit well with her. She had a hard enough time being someone's mother without the added expectations of being someone's Auntie. Still, she let it go on, because it seemed to make Emmy and her mother happy.

"I am looking for a good place for this. It is big, isn't it?" she said, her hand on the box.

[emilyiris]

She studies the box for a moment and then she reaches out and touches it with one hand.

"Whatsit?"

[whats_insideyou]

"It is a camera, and everything I need to make pictures," she said, lifting the camera out of the box and dropping into a crouch so that Emmy could see.

"A present, I suppose."

[butcivilization]

"What have you got there?" Henri asked, pausing in the doorway and peering in with curiosity. Sarah looked particularly sad to his eyes, but he was not sure if that was due to whatever was scattered about her, or if it was only an extension of her usual melancholy. After a beat he went into the room and knelt beside her. "Here, let me give you a hand there."

[whats_insideyou]

"The makings of my very own darkroom," she said, offering him what might have passed for a smile. Then, thinking of their last conversation, she said, "I suppose I have no more excuses."

[butcivilization]

"Ah! What luck." Now Henri smiled. "No, you don't," he agreed, a twinkle coming into his eye. "Do you have any plans for it yet, or have you only just found it?"

[whats_insideyou]

"Just found the thing. Right here in the middle of the fucking room," she muttered dryly, her lips twisted into a wry smirk, "I don't even know where I'm going to put it yet."