Sartre Castle

Make an Entrance

Chapter One

Make an entrance

Younger children ran past their part time baby-sitter laughing and giggling. That sound of happiness was music to her ears, a sort of music that she knew she would never be able to obtain for herself. Sitting there on the curb edge with her arms crossed she watched the kids play in the middle of the small, discrete neighborhood street. It was a simple neighborhood consisting of seven houses. As she sat there and watched over them like a doe to her faun, the loud chirping of cicadas surrounded them all and the dry heat of the day was starting to break through into the air. Its morning right now, probably a little after ten or ten thirty and schools have been out for nearly a week. Not only that, but it was Friday and tomorrow was going to be special for her.

"Alice, I got you a birfday present!"

         Alice, as such was the name presented to her, looked at the little blonde girl in a blue summer dress that stood before her with shimmering turquoise summer eyes. "What is it Lucy?" Lucy, she was just turning seven, an age that Alice scarcely remembered as being the happiest year of her life. The little girl had also just lost a tooth, making that pesky 'th' sound hard for her to pronounce and all the other kids teased her for it. "I picked dem from mommies garden dis morning. Mommy helped me find the best ones because you're the best Auntie I have ever had!" Auntie, that's what the kids who have known her the longest called her because they didn't believe in 'baby-sitter' or 'care-taker'. Alice smiled, the lightly freckled cheeks rising to show that smile. Lucy bobbed back and forth on her heels as she pulled out from her back a handful of flowers of all sorts ranging mostly in yellows and blues, purple and orange colors with all sorts of variants in species. Alice pushed aside a few stray brunette bangs and smiled up at Lucy as she took the flowers from her. "Thank-you, they're just as beautiful as you!" coos Alice as she pulls Lucy into a tight hug that makes the little girl smile wide.

          It was days like these that Alice wished could have lasted forever because these were the only happy moments in her self-acclaimed long miserable life. Lucy left her to go back to playing with the other kids and after a few minutes Alice stood up from the curb, her bare feet walking across the heated black top and she brushed the dirt and dust off of her clothing. This was a cow town, some people called it, named Prineville, Oregon. If there's one thing Alice is an expert on in this town of ten thousand people it was that she knew when it was going to rain. Most of the people who retired to live in Prineville would say that you could smell the dust being washed off of the native sage and that's how you would know it was going to rain, but they were only half right. If anything, it was when the wind stopped blowing and the air became thick and muggy like the tropical humid air of Florida. Because of this, she learned when to shepherd the children inside to do something else and keep them from receiving a cruel desert cold.

         Walking up to the door and opening it she looked back over at the kids and started to call out to them, "Lucy! Mitch! Nate!" The kids perked up as they were addressed and with a reluctant whine from Mitch, put down their outside toys and wandered inside the house at the beck and call of their sitter. They whined and complained, asking why they couldn't play in the rain just this once. Alice only replied with a simple, "You know why." And ushered them into the living room. She turns to shut the door and lock it only for her heart to jump and her whole body to physically bounced a couple inches backwards from sheer surprise. Putting a hand to her chest just over her heart, the sitter puffed her cheeks and jabbed the boy before her in the chest. "That's not funny Simon! Where'd you even come from?"

         Simon shrugs uselessly and continues to grin widely at his girl friend. No. Just his friend. They weren't together but it was obvious she was of the female gender. A curvaceous young adult of sixteen. Her hips wide and waist a bit large but she wasn't over weight, probably a healthy high hundred. The teens face was fairly round, still a bit of "baby-face" to its appearance but definitely maturing. The boy poked the bridge of her scholar-like red-rimmed rectangular glasses and pushed them up her nose. Deep brown eyes lidded halfway with minor bemusement.

         "Come off it," Starts Simon, tucking his hands into the pockets of his black skinny jeans as he casually invited himself in. Feathered ravens black bangs shadowed his eyes a fair bit and covered his pointed ears. His skin was pale and smooth like porcelain. The teen boys eyes were an ice blue almost crystal like color. He gives a short sniff and rubs at his own nose, " 'Sides, what's it matter? I'm here ta say heyo. So, what's new in the life of m'little Alice eh~" With a roll of her eyes she shuts the door and locks it, turning to peak over at the kids as they scuttled about with paper and crayons. "Not much," Smirks Alice, approaching the kitchen to pull out a pot from the lower cupboards, "Just making mac 'n cheese. What's up in the life of my creepy suddenly-appearing guy friend?"

         A chuckle rises from him and he waves it off, moving over to sit with the kids at the blue legged wooden dining table. Alice's deep brown eyes watch Simon as he muses the kids, drawing them cute little flowers and things while Alice set the water in the pot to boil on the stove. But her attention was drawn back over to Simon and the kids while her hands fished out butter and milk from the fridge and from behind her glasses the freckled girl with redwood hair eyed Simon's paper. A simple circle with scribble lines pointing outwards from it like a poorly attempted sun. The green mass was added on with a ring of more scribble lines consisting of a teal. These two colors followed by other shades until she realized what he was doing. The crayon wax melded the colors together with an overlay of white crayon to make fireworks. Odd.. She didn't recall Simon being an artist. "Where'd you learn that trick Sim?" Blue eyes turn to meet her, a mischievous grin pulling at his lips.

"Learned it from your dreams."