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witticasterTitle: A Journal of the Plague Summer
Rating: G (seriously, why do I even bother with this, it's always G)
Summary: A summer in the Leandros brothers' childhood, complete with unnecessary Old Testament references.
Author's Note: I'm at a point where I don't feel like trying to format this into something akin to proper chapters or parts or whatever. Let it just be known what it is: I'm putting it up for me at this point, less for you all. Since the main computer's internet is broken all to hell, I need to be able to get to it wherever I've got an internet and all that. So you can feel free to ignore it, or you can feel free to read, but just--just know that it's not really in a good format and it's all filler and doesn't end at an end-point and in short, I'm not really trying too hard to impress anyone, so if it's not very impressive, that's why.
The junker of a car moved less and less smoothly as it slowed, jerking Cal out of a dreamless sleep as it sputtered around a corner. He opened his eyes hazily, taking in a row of birch trees lining a quiet street and the pastel houses behind them. For a groggy moment, he thought that maybe they would turn into one of the wide black driveways and one of the two-story houses with their bright green yards would be their new home--the first place he'd ever lived that deserved the term. By the time he'd wiggled up into a sitting position from where he'd been slumped over, the idea had left him. Wherever they were, it was going to be home about the time Sophia started really seeing the future. This was like looking into another world, an exhibit in a museum. It wasn't theirs.
Just as he suspected, they reached the end of the road without any kind of pause and kept going. The houses began to go by, further apart, until they were back on a tiny country highway, crawling along well below the speeds Cal was used to going on roads like these.
He glanced over at Niko, who was watching him solemnly. Niko never missed anything--he'd probably realized Cal was awake before Cal had--and now the look on his face seemed like he knew something that Cal didn't. Cal made a face at him and turned his attention back toward the window; the beginnings of corn or something else green were growing in the field next to the road, and he still couldn't tell why they weren't whipping past it like they usually did.
For that--for something, at least--he got a slight shove from Niko. Nothing hard--just an affectionate hand to the shoulder. When Cal cast another glance his way, he was for all appearances absorbed in that fat book he'd been reading the whole time, with one of those little Niko-smiles on his face, the kind that were only there if you knew what to look for.
They turned onto one road, and then another, each smaller and bumpier than the last. Sophia was entirely silent, not even cursing under her breath at whatever it was she couldn't find. Finally, they ended up on an unpaved road, crunching over dusty gravel while the sun burned blood red, low in the sky. The farmlands had given way to meadows soon after they'd passed through the town, and Cal contented himself with looking for deer and rabbits amid the long grasses.
Sophia jerked the car left, hard and without warning, and sent them soaring off the road and into the scenery Cal had just been diverting himself with. He yelped in surprise and pain as his forehead hit the glass of the window, and then they were rolling through the tall plants, over uneven ground. It was so sudden that, for a few moments, even Niko looked surprised. His grey eyes widened, gaze flicking up from his page and over to Cal, who shrugged as though this happened all the time, and their mother called back a belated instruction to shut up.
The car shuddered to a stop on a bed of crushed plants. Sophia opened her door, a silent instruction for Cal and Niko to follow suit.
“Leave your shit in there,” she told them, fishing around in her purse for the bottle of whiskey that had gone mercifully untouched all day. “This is only for the night.”
Having found her cheap liquor, she made off in one direction—entirely at random, as far as Cal, who wasn't quite tall enough to see over the prairie grasses surrounding him, could tell. He attempted to follow, but after she disappeared from sight, he felt like he was walking in a mirror maze at a carnival. Plants, wispy but plentiful, rose up around him on all sides, and his mother hadn't left any kind of a dent in them as she walked.
Just as he was moving in exactly the wrong direction, Cal felt the familiar weight of his brother's hand on his shoulder. Niko looked down at him, raised an eyebrow, and indicated the correct direction with his free hand. Cal led the way, steered by Niko's guiding grip, until they finally caught up with Sophia.
She was a dark spot against the final dying rainbow of sunset, one of several, standing where the grasses cleared slightly.
Rating: G (seriously, why do I even bother with this, it's always G)
Summary: A summer in the Leandros brothers' childhood, complete with unnecessary Old Testament references.
Author's Note: I'm at a point where I don't feel like trying to format this into something akin to proper chapters or parts or whatever. Let it just be known what it is: I'm putting it up for me at this point, less for you all. Since the main computer's internet is broken all to hell, I need to be able to get to it wherever I've got an internet and all that. So you can feel free to ignore it, or you can feel free to read, but just--just know that it's not really in a good format and it's all filler and doesn't end at an end-point and in short, I'm not really trying too hard to impress anyone, so if it's not very impressive, that's why.
The junker of a car moved less and less smoothly as it slowed, jerking Cal out of a dreamless sleep as it sputtered around a corner. He opened his eyes hazily, taking in a row of birch trees lining a quiet street and the pastel houses behind them. For a groggy moment, he thought that maybe they would turn into one of the wide black driveways and one of the two-story houses with their bright green yards would be their new home--the first place he'd ever lived that deserved the term. By the time he'd wiggled up into a sitting position from where he'd been slumped over, the idea had left him. Wherever they were, it was going to be home about the time Sophia started really seeing the future. This was like looking into another world, an exhibit in a museum. It wasn't theirs.
Just as he suspected, they reached the end of the road without any kind of pause and kept going. The houses began to go by, further apart, until they were back on a tiny country highway, crawling along well below the speeds Cal was used to going on roads like these.
He glanced over at Niko, who was watching him solemnly. Niko never missed anything--he'd probably realized Cal was awake before Cal had--and now the look on his face seemed like he knew something that Cal didn't. Cal made a face at him and turned his attention back toward the window; the beginnings of corn or something else green were growing in the field next to the road, and he still couldn't tell why they weren't whipping past it like they usually did.
For that--for something, at least--he got a slight shove from Niko. Nothing hard--just an affectionate hand to the shoulder. When Cal cast another glance his way, he was for all appearances absorbed in that fat book he'd been reading the whole time, with one of those little Niko-smiles on his face, the kind that were only there if you knew what to look for.
They turned onto one road, and then another, each smaller and bumpier than the last. Sophia was entirely silent, not even cursing under her breath at whatever it was she couldn't find. Finally, they ended up on an unpaved road, crunching over dusty gravel while the sun burned blood red, low in the sky. The farmlands had given way to meadows soon after they'd passed through the town, and Cal contented himself with looking for deer and rabbits amid the long grasses.
Sophia jerked the car left, hard and without warning, and sent them soaring off the road and into the scenery Cal had just been diverting himself with. He yelped in surprise and pain as his forehead hit the glass of the window, and then they were rolling through the tall plants, over uneven ground. It was so sudden that, for a few moments, even Niko looked surprised. His grey eyes widened, gaze flicking up from his page and over to Cal, who shrugged as though this happened all the time, and their mother called back a belated instruction to shut up.
The car shuddered to a stop on a bed of crushed plants. Sophia opened her door, a silent instruction for Cal and Niko to follow suit.
“Leave your shit in there,” she told them, fishing around in her purse for the bottle of whiskey that had gone mercifully untouched all day. “This is only for the night.”
Having found her cheap liquor, she made off in one direction—entirely at random, as far as Cal, who wasn't quite tall enough to see over the prairie grasses surrounding him, could tell. He attempted to follow, but after she disappeared from sight, he felt like he was walking in a mirror maze at a carnival. Plants, wispy but plentiful, rose up around him on all sides, and his mother hadn't left any kind of a dent in them as she walked.
Just as he was moving in exactly the wrong direction, Cal felt the familiar weight of his brother's hand on his shoulder. Niko looked down at him, raised an eyebrow, and indicated the correct direction with his free hand. Cal led the way, steered by Niko's guiding grip, until they finally caught up with Sophia.
She was a dark spot against the final dying rainbow of sunset, one of several, standing where the grasses cleared slightly.
no subject
on 2008-06-24 01:03 pm (UTC)And this is beautiful ;_; I mean... I've always loved your writing style, but this is really amazing, the lines give it real life and detail, and anyone who's ever been on long car rides (like me) I think will really get the feel of the moment you're conveying to the reader. Yet it isn't pulled down or stagnated by all the description, either, it just feels... slow, but not oppressively slow, just slow because that's what the days are like, or the moment you're writing.
I-I love it.
no subject
on 2008-06-24 02:14 pm (UTC)Slow's gonna be the tone for pretty much the whole story, so if it's slow in a decent way, I guess that's good. ^^;;; But--augh, thank you, and I'm glad you like it. ♥ I haven't the faintest idea where the fuck this ability to actually write shit has suddenly come from, but I hope it sticks around.
no subject
on 2008-06-24 03:13 pm (UTC)