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laudanine · 4 years

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My great grandmother's basement was full of boxes. Not disorganized, mind you, very orderly. Labeled. She would store things, but she didn't want to hoard them: anything of value should be kept and kept safe. If you weren't willing to respect a thing enough to take care of it, than why keep it? (Waste was the only original sin in her house: Grams had buried her sister, her daughter, raised two generations of children, survived the Dust Bowl, and moved across the country. We did not waste things.

There were matched sets of glasses so thin they weighed almost nothing, that she'd gotten free-with-a-fill-up at a gas station. She had wrapped them carefully in old newspaper so that when each of "the boys" (her grandchildren) or "the kids" (assorted great grandchildren) finally moved out she was able to give them a set for their first home.

Lime green cut-glass sundae sets came with four mismatched long spoons taped together in a bundle.

A set of enameled cast iron pots in brown and orange, with wooden grips on the handles so you wouldn't burn yourself. The enamel had been scrapped off the bottom, and when we found them my uncle poked his finger into the pan, measured the worn surface with his nail against his finger, and showed me the quarter of an inch length. "That's how much enamel I've eaten in a lifetime!" Dad laughed.

At four I was given a box of costume jewelry, and black rayon clutch-stlye purses, and near-empty perfume bottles smaller than my thumb with plastic lids, and a bottle of coral nail polish. The nail polish turned my fingernails yellow for two weeks, and no matter how long I soaked them the astringent floral smell never left the perfume bottles. My aunt gave me an old hat box that was almost two feet wide and nearly perfectly round except for the hinge, and it became my costume box. A few years later Grams found a hand-sewn dress, floral, layered, a d complete with a bonnet. I wore holes in that dress playing Pioneer.

We found a box of hand sewn quilts she hadn't yet finished, each one a constellation of fabric scraps that my aunts and uncles could point to and say "That was my Sunday dress, which she sewed," and "Those were my favorite pajamas." The batting for each quilt was a pair of scratchy electric blankets sewn together, the wire cables pulled out carefully after the electronics had blown. I think she sourced blankets from the whole town: any time something broke she could take it and remake it, only better.

When I was fifteen I stopped being embarrassed that my family was poor: I was sent to teenage sleepovers with a pillow and thick handmade quilts, and it turns out that you can share a quilt better than a sleeping bag anyway.

There was a box labeled "Joy," her daughter's name. My aunt said that she and Grams had gone through it when she moved out, and my aunt had taken a painted hand towel. The box was full of craft projects, fabric paint because apparently my grandmother liked to paint little seahorses and flowers onto tablecloths and placemats. A rubber stamp kit with her name spelled out, and the words "from the library of," just above it. The stamp was glued together, the little movable rubber letter had been immobilized for decades, and the rubber was cracking with age.

When Grams died we found a careful stack of CRT monitors in the downstairs closet. This was back when those were worth a little money, not much, and they had the name of one of my uncles taped to the shelf above them. He was a chemist, she must have figured he'd know what to do with them.

Each of the grandkids went into the sciences, and each had an additional science-based hobby. My oldest uncle was a chemist and liked, well, actually chemistry. Jim is a nerd. His younger brother was a chemist as well, but one with a half dozen telescopes. My Aunt went into conservation, and when she visited would roll me out of bed before dawn to go birdwatching. My father was a geologist with a porch covered in little potted plants, crossbred apples and grapefruit trees. Grams was why.

The "big house" was honestly too big at three stories. There were four bedrooms and a bathroom on the main floor, then two more bedrooms and a bathroom above. The upstairs rooms were a little bigger, with slanted ceilings because of the roof-line. The basement had a spare "guest" bedroom, bathroom, a shop with a wooden board that marked the heights of more than my father and his siblings. There was a screened in porch off the basement, where the kids would sleep in the summer when it was too hot.

My dad said the first time he had seen the Wizard of Oz when he was 13 it had been a rerun on the TV and they'd all laughed at the "big reveal" moment in Oz because the TV was, of course, black and white. Dad said when he was 14 and Gramps died he heard the EMTs trying to restart his heart, and it sounded like someone cutting up celery.

A few months after I moved out from my parents house, went to a new city to Community College with no car or money and a live-in boyfriend, my Aunt found a box she'd kept for me. Inside were cups and placemats with hand-painted flowers, a four-piece matched set. A tablecloth with a floral fabric sewn on the hem, unfitted sheets pieced together from bolts of fabric which had been not-quite-large-enough to cover a bed on their own. On each was a tag written in shakey cursive was written my full name, middle and all.

#i was thinking about flea markets and this came out #i don't know man #apparently i stress-write bullshit to stay sane #I used to wonder if Grams would have been ashamed of my stubborn refusal to be a housewife #Thats was what women did and was why I was given tablecloths and hand towels I thought #but now i wonder if after all the child raising and sacrifices and bullshit maybe she'd be proud?#to see one of her kids get to choose notnto do all the things she was forced into doing

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royal-despair-threads · 6 years

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Izaya & Liz [Prologue]

Liz wasn't normally the type to approach people, she would wait for someone to approach her and go from there, but this situation want exactly... Normal. Although she dreaded the thought of starting a social interaction, to her it appeared that there was no choice, I mean, she was going to be stuck on this boat with these people for who knows how long... So she looked across the room, found someone that was alone, walked over to them and did her best to seem friendly and strike up a conversation, "H-hi there... Um... I'm Liz, the ultimate surgeon, I don't believe we've met."

Of all things Izaya expected, being approached by someone who seemed almost as nervous as themselves wasn't one of them. Not that they weren't grateful that someone made the effort though. "I-I'm Izaya Fanrong. Ultimate Fireworks Ma-Maker. It's really nice to meet you, Liz-san." They extended a hand for Liz to shake; they were so nervous and shakey, but Liz to them seemed like they were the formal type.

Liz breathed a sigh of relief, she was always afraid that somehow starting a conversation would end horribly, but this time it seemed to work out. She smiled and shook their hand, she didn't think that they would be the type to go for the hand shake, but she just did her best to not turn it awkward and went with it, "it's nice to meet you too! So how are you handling this, ah... Weird.... Situation?"

"How am I...." Izaya trailed off, mulling over their answer, "W-Well. If I'm honest, I'm h-handling it....pretty badly." They went with the honest answer it seems. They internally thanked their stars that their hand wasn't as sweat as it was shakey, they'd never live it down if they got poor Liz's hand all soggy.

Concern shows on Liz' face, "I suppose it is difficult to be okay in a situation like this, I consider myself a generally levelheaded person, but even this has me a little unsettled... But I saw Leon and Runa talk to you a bit, hopefully it helped to have a couple people there for you almost as soon as you woke up?"

"Oh, yeah! They're so nice, it's like having my parents here, haha..." Despite clearly trying to joke with Liz, Izaya looked to nervous, it probbaly came as no shock when they apologised, "S-Sorry....that was weird,huh?..."

Thinking back to every moment, and there are quite a few of them, in the past year that she said something somewhat awkward she was easily able to empathise with Izaya in this situation, "no, no it's fine! They definitely are the dependable type."

"Ah, they really are!" Izaya looked visibly relieved that she hadn't thought they were weird. "I feel like, no matter what, we can um, depend on them." They managed to hold a conversation, dang. Izaya decided to be a bit bolder, "S-So um, what's it like being a surgeon?.."

"well..." She thinks for a bit, "a lot of the time it's rewarding, sometimes it's very sad, but it's always a little stressful too." She stops before she says too much wanting to spare Izaya the gory details that she felt might scare the person. "What's it like being a fieworks maker? It sounds dangerous..."

"yeah, I guess you guys see some.....really horrible stuff." they shook their head to clear their mind. be happy, don't upset Liz by being a downer. "Ah, it's.....very dangerous, yeah, but um, I've been doing it for so long, I almost never make a mistake. I....No, I- I wouldn't want to be anything else I don't think, ehe...."

Intrigued Liz looks over at Izaya, "do you make fireworks for festivals? Or are they the type to just be used at home? I don't think I've ever seen a fireworks show, but it sounds beautiful!"

"Primarily it's the festival type, but I do um, I know how to make stuff like sparklers and fire crackers..." They rubbed the back of their neck in thought, "It's basic chemistry once you, um, when you know what to do..."

"ohh, that's very cool! How did you get into making fireworks anyway, sorry if this is blunt, but did your parents just allow you to play with explosives when you were a kid?" Liz tilts her head, curious

"ah, no! My father is a painter and my mother's a scientist, she helped me study while father would sit and paint," They played with their sweatband as they spoke, "She introduced me to combustion experiments and um, I got into fireworks on my own. I didn't make my first one until she- until she tested me on my skills and said I was ready so..." They seemed to speak pretty fondly of their parents, "Sorry, I got so carried away... how about you? What got you into medical practices?"

A smile appears on Liz' face as she talks, it warms her to know that they had such supportive parents, "your parents sound really nice."

That question causes Liz to go a bit silent as, with a flustered look, she tries to think of what to say, "U-uh well, I mean, I just... Um..." She freezes a bit completely at a blank for how to continue, and decided to just try to change the subject instead, with almost too much enthusiasm and an awkward laugh she says "Y-your eyes are really interesting! I've met only one other person with heterochromia! In fact you have a really cool sense of style, haHAha." She hopes the topic change wasnt too obvious, who was she kidding she knew it was painfully obvious, and awkward, and probably off-putting.

Oh no, they made things awkward didn;t they?! Izaya gave Liz a concerned look, "Ah sorry! Um, yeah, my um, my grandma has the same condition, but her eyes are way nicer than mine!" They looked a little more jittery. Gosh, they shouldn've have been so personal so soon! heck!

Liz takes a deep breath in. Then a breath out. She doesn't want to ruin her conversation with Izaya, so she does her best to calm herself down, then creates a calm smile on her face, "It's... Okay. But your eyes really are beautiful. I hope I can see one of your fireworks shows one day! Is there anything else you like to do, I guess do you have any hobbies?"

They blushed at the compliment, "Oh gosh, you're so nice! I'll definitely um, if I can I'll make a firework just for you!" Their stance relaxed a little, "I guess um, I really, really like space. Stars, the moon, the planets. Of which I um, am firmly in the belief that Pluto should still uh, be one." IZAYA.

Liz giggled at Izaya's last comment, "that's cool, the night sky is definitely beautiful, so you like looking through telescopes and going to planetariums and that kind of stuff then? Also if you did make me a firework that'd be so nice! And cool!" LIz smiled brightly

"Wow, then I definitely will!" Izaya smiled, "It really is beautiful, when I was little, I used to want to be an astronaut, but um....I'm scared of well....all the danger in space." They admitted sheepishly, "But I guess that's why I cling to my fireworks. Maybe it's like my way of sending space something from me?....Sorry, that was weird.."

"awesome, I look forward to it!" She looks at Izaya with excitement, "no! That's not weird at all, I kinda liked that in a cheesy sort of way! Being an astronaut would be cool though, but space really is scary when you think about it..."

"Yeah, one time I saw this insane space movie and I couldn't sleep for a month." Izaya groaned, "I can still see the aliens...." They shuddered, their hair somehow standing more on end, "A-Anyway, what about your hobbies, Liz-san? What does a surgeon do um, outside the operating theatre?"

"Well I like to read quite a bit, normally if I watch a movie or anything I try to avoid scary ones and, I know this is probably boring of me, but I really like documentaries," Liz rests her head on her hands, "Oh! and I love bird watching!"

"Documentaries are pretty good." Izaya agreed. The bird watching mention did have them surprised, "Wow, really? I think birbs are adorable, but I'm, I'm not quiet enough to watch them, they just fly away..."

She mutters under her breath, stifling a giggle "b-birbs." Liz smirks, really the things Izaya says sometimes are so cute, "Yep! It's really relaxing, i think, and the... birbs... are indeed really cute! It is difficult sometimes to be quite and not be seen by them, but the binoculars you can use allow you to observe from a distance."

Izaya caught that and did give a tiny giggle too. Birbs are good. "Oooh, okay, I've been doing it reeeeally wrong then. I thought you just...well...find a birb. And watch it."

"Ah, well, it can be, but it's also like listening for the bird song and trying to identify what type of bird it might be and where it is, I get really excited when I hear and see a really rare birb. Which probably sounds kinda nerdy... and boring. But seriously if I find a rare species I get so excited that I start to, like, shake... sometimes I get so excited that I just kind of scare the bird away on accident..." Liz looks wistfully off into the distance remembering all of her bird-seeking adventures of the past.

"Wow, so you can kind of speak birb? Awesome..." Of all the things to comment on...

Liz nods with another smirk on her face, "yes. I speak so much birb." She then looks over at Izaya excitedly, "Hey, if you make me that firework, I can take you bird watching sometime, ah, that is if that's something you'd actually want to do.."

"Seriously!? I-I'd love to!!" They excitedly bounced on their feet a little. Making plans with a friend!! It's like a dream come true!

#izaya #liz #prologue

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