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Post by Jordanna on Jun 14, 2006 21:11:57 GMT -5
Alex winced. "Oh."
He collected his thoughts for a moment, spooning out a helping of potato salad for himself. Then he sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"Well, it wasn't really my first swimming lesson," he finally admitted. "It was more like the reason I had swimming lessons. I was about, oh, five years old. My parents took me to this big park somewhere--I forget where. But they had this big Japanese koi pond with a pretty little bridge across it. So there we were, going across this bridge, and I was leaning over to look at the fish as we walked. Only I didn't see where some other kid had spilled some ice cream. So I stepped in it, and I slipped... and yeah, I fell in the fish pond."
The children laughed, and the adults politely chuckled. Alex rolled his eyes.
"Actually, I kept my head above water pretty well, until my dad jumped in and pulled me out. He was more embarrassed than I was. He decided he never wanted to go through that again--so he spent the next few weeks teaching me how to swim."
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Post by skybright on Jun 14, 2006 21:21:24 GMT -5
Daws chuckled wryly. "Jeeze, maybe they oughtta just give every kid under twelve a flotation device -- just in case." She pulled one of the shrimp off her kebab and shrugged one shoulder.
"I was tellin' the Doc earlier -- that's why I never learned before now. My sister pushed me into the Hudson when we were kids, and it sorta left its mark." She smiled somewhat wistfully. "She felt bad about it afterwards -- even used to offer to teach me, but . . ."
Daws popped the shrimp in her mouth and concluded "I guess I just wasn't willin' to take the plunge."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 14, 2006 21:30:15 GMT -5
"I'm glad you changed your mind!" Tara put in.
"Ya haven't talked much about your family," Sid observed to Daws. "I'm sorry if ya got a reason for that."
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Post by skybright on Jun 14, 2006 21:41:50 GMT -5
Daws shrugged and examined her potato salad. "My dad died when I was Holly's age," she admitted after a moment. "My stepmother, well," she chuckled humorlessly. "I'll be better off if I never haveta see her again. And my stepsister . . ."
She flexed the claws of her left hand. "When I turned . . . Laura got hurt. I haven't talked to her in fifteen years."
Then, with a somewhat amazed look on her face, she admitted "And I haven't told anyone except my priest about it since -- until now."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 14, 2006 21:53:59 GMT -5
There was a thoughtful silence around the table for a moment. Alex's mutation was about as harmless as one could get, and Miriam's hurt no one but herself--and on some level, both of them felt suddenly glad for that.
"I'm sorry, kid," Sid murmured again. The use of the word kid unconsciously betrayed that his paternal instincts had been roused.
Tara evidently took it upon herself to lighten the mood again, looking brightly at Daws. "So... what's your detective work like, and the people who hire you?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 14, 2006 22:07:08 GMT -5
Daws smiled at Tara and gratefully switched the subject to lighter things. "I love it -- detecting was the only thing I ever wanted to do, even when I was a kid.
"The job itself, well," she chuckled, "It's never boring, 'cause it's never the same job twice. Any one day y'might have to do phone work, tail a guy, ask questions undercover -- anythin', really. About the only thing I've never done is divorce work."
She popped a chunk of roasted tomato in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "I mostly work for mutants, or for humans who need to find mutants. Some of 'em can get pretty . . . well, unusual, to say the least.
"My late partner was a mutant -- although he didn't show -- and he sort of founded the business because he knew that the mutants in the City didn't always have someone they could go to for the kind of help we could offer. So Jack started Grimalkin -- to be by mutants, for mutants."
The detective grinned wryly and added "Of course, the fur an' the fangs don't do anything at all to help foster the mutant-detective-agency image."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 14, 2006 22:13:58 GMT -5
"You look like the characters in a cartoon I saw," offered Caleb--who, by this point, had proven that he was completely immune to the concept of tact. Tara kicked his ankle under the table.
"Actually, you make it look pretty cool," she said to Daws with a grin.
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Post by skybright on Jun 14, 2006 22:24:04 GMT -5
Daws made a mock bow over her potato salad. "Why, thank you very much. I happen to agree with ya."
She grinned at Caleb as she reached for another kebab. "I think I know the show you're talkin' about -- the one with the jets, right?"
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 14, 2006 22:30:53 GMT -5
Caleb nodded. "Yup."
Alex spoke up. "Here's an idea, Daws. Who's the most ridiculous person you've ever met on the job?" He grinned. "If you tell us, maybe I can do you one better. We get all kinds of nuts at the Paragon."
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Post by skybright on Jun 14, 2006 22:50:39 GMT -5
"Oh, gosh -- lemme think." Daws polished off half of a kebab, chuckling quietly to herself, before she finally said "Okay, here's one for ya.
"I was once hired by a guy to try an' find his brother -- Chris somethin'-or-other, his name was. Seems he'd wandered off from a family get-together, and hadn't been seen since.
"When I finally tracked him down, Chris was living in an apartment lined with tinfoil sheets, wearin' a colander on his head, and using a flashlight to 'signal for the landing force'."
She shrugged and gestured broadly with the half-eaten kebab. "So I figure the guy's just nuts, right? Well, then I looked out on the street -- and there's a flyin' saucer sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. I kid you not."
She grinned at the children's wide-eyed looks. "Which had me pretty well freaked out, lemme tell ya -- until a Buick drove through the middle of it."
Daws chuckled and pulled a chunk of potato off the kebab, "That's how I discovered that Chris had the gift of image-projection. Unfortunately, some little cousin at that family get-together had hypnotic powers -- and a questionable sense of humor."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 14, 2006 23:02:36 GMT -5
A ripple of giggles passed around the table, and Alex shook his head.
"You know what? I can't top that. The best I had was a guy who tells everyone it's his birthday when he's drunk." He shrugged. "We don't really get any mutants at the Paragon."
"Oh, we have a coupla times," Sid remarked with a grin. "Remember that telekinetic gal who got playful after a few too many?"
Alex winced. "Sid, maybe I didn't wanna remember how I had to pretend singing upside down in midair was just part of the show."
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Post by skybright on Jun 14, 2006 23:16:08 GMT -5
Daws laughed brightly. "Man, that's a sight I'm really sorry I missed." She grinned teasingly, "Maybe you oughtta've hired her as a permanent part of the act."
Then she raised an eyebrow. "Y'know, that birthday guy sounds sorta familiar."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 14, 2006 23:24:19 GMT -5
"Yeah?" Alex mused, raising an eyebrow. "His name's Ed Fearney. He was a cop, until he got kicked off the force for his idea of fun. Now he does security at some motel. You know him?"
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Post by skybright on Jun 14, 2006 23:31:47 GMT -5
Daws scowled briefly. "Yeah, that's the one. Ran into him on a missing person case of mine once. Him and me had a pretty . . . vocal conversation about the exact definition of a 'person'." Then she shook her head quickly. "Not a story for mixed company."
She raised an eyebrow at Sid. "Sounds like maybe you're the one to ask about nutty stories from the Paragon, Sid."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 14, 2006 23:37:01 GMT -5
Sid scratched his head. "Well, like Foxy says, we don't get a lot of mutants. Most of our goofballs are just dumb drunks."
He chuckled abruptly. "You'd like this one, though. Tony weaseled his way into having a little meeting with a coupla other creeps backstage. Afterward, he hung around a while an' harrassed the chorus girls. Well, they're pretty plucky gals, ya know, so..." He laughed. "When he went into the men's room, they locked him in."
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Post by skybright on Jun 14, 2006 23:42:59 GMT -5
Daws grinned. "I do like that. I would've liked to have seen the look on that guy's face." She shivered slightly -- her one meeting with Sid's cousin-in-law had been mercifully brief, but had still managed to be unpleasant.
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 14, 2006 23:50:25 GMT -5
Sid grinned deviously. "He was roarin' like a bull elephant when I let him out--which, 'tween you an' me an' the fencepost, I wasn't exactly in any hurry to do. He demanded to know who'd done it. I think just about everybody in the whole place knew, but nobody ever did tell him."
He shrugged. "He rumbled a little about doin' some not-so-nice things, but he never did. He wouldn't have... then. You know." The words when Caroline was alive hung unspoken at the end of the sentence.
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Post by skybright on Jun 14, 2006 23:58:03 GMT -5
Daws reached out and briefly patted the older man's arm. "Yeah. I know."
She waved an inquisitive mosquito away from her ear and glanced at Alex. "So," she said, changing the subject to lighter things, "What's this I hear about roasting marshmallows? 'Cause I've got to admit," She grinned crookedly, "That falls inta the category of things I've never had a chance to do."
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Post by Jordanna on Jun 15, 2006 18:20:46 GMT -5
Alex grinned and glanced at the kids. "Whataya think? Are you guys ready for that?"
"Yeah!" three young voices chorused.
"Okay then, let's teach Daws how to roast a marshmallow. Everybody gather 'round the barbecue pit!"
The group moved over to the still-glowing coals. Alex handed out a cluster of long, slim green sticks he had already cut and stripped of bark, explaining to Daws and Miriam, "It's just not the same if you use a metal skewer or something."
The bag of marshmallows was then passed around, and after impaling one of the puffy white confections on a stick, Alex held it out over the coals.
"Don't put it too close, or it'll burn--you just want it browned around the edges. Keep turning it so all the sides get done. See? It's as easy as that." With a grin at Daws, Alex withdrew the hot marshmallow and gingerly picked it off the end of the stick, tossing it back and forth between his hands as it cooled.
"Careful, though, Daws. They're crispy on the outside, but on the inside they're stickier than glue. Better not get any in your fur."
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Post by skybright on Jun 15, 2006 19:15:56 GMT -5
Daws nodded. "Thanks for the warning." Then she extended her claws and added smugly "That's what these are for."
She used her claws to fish a marshmallow out of the bag and placed it on the end of her stick, holding it out to the coals as she'd seen Alex do. Things were going quite well -- until the marshmallow caught fire and went up in a blaze of flame.
She quickly withdrew the stick from the firepit, blew out the flaming confection, and examined the charred remains with a shake of her head.
"I think," she remarked wryly, "We can safely state that I'd have made a lousy Girl Scout."
Daws gingerly removed the burned marshmallow with her claws, chucked it into the firepit, and reached for a new one from the bag.
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