Posts Tagged Turia

[scrap] Shine.

Another old scrap from an old notebook—


Thunder woke me up in the middle of the night, and Jan had already gone.  I rolled up my pack, figuring I’d get moving before the rain hit.  The donut shop at the edge of the park was open all night and usually quiet.

In fact there was nobody there but Jeff behind the counter.  He shaded his eyes as I came in—even though I was half asleep, my light was the brightest in the place.

“Hey Shine,” he said, reaching under the counter.  “The usual?”

“Yeah,” I said, taking my seat facing the wall.  He brought me a tray with a dozen jelly donuts.

It started raining.

“You know, tiger,” he said, sitting across from me.  “I’m sure you’d have a place of your own by now if you eased up on the food a bit.”

“Man,” I said, “I’ve told ya, you have no idea what it’s like when this light burns down.”

I tore into the donuts.

[partim] Shine.

Previous | First


I sat kind of awkwardly in the chair, and he scooted into the kitchen.  My light flickered a bit uncertainly as people started to stare.  Why would a place like this be so full of people this late at night?

I covered my face.  Nobody’d said anything, nobody’d gotten up—they were just watching.

After about a minute, the guy came back, carrying three plates of food on a tray—chicken, pork, tofu, rice…

“I don’t have any money,” I said.  When I’d spoken he looked at me like he just realized I hadn’t understood anything he’d said yet.  (Sure, as a tiger I’m technically Asian, but it just doesn’t work that way.)

He gestured for me to wait and went back into the kitchen, returning a moment later with a bored-looking teenage girl in dark makeup and a black dress.

He talked on for a bit, in Chinese.

“I can’t afford this,” I said to her.

“He says it’s on the house,” she said, after translating it back to him.  “I think he wants you to be a mascot.”

The day Ralph and I changed places.


June 8, 2000 — The day Ralph and I changed places
“I stood in the rain on White Oak Hill. In the heat I was
getting soaked, clothes and fur, but I didn’t move…”

Finished the first part of Ralph’s story and posted it to the library and FA.

[partim] Shine.

Previous | First


Luckily he didn’t seem to have anything sinister in mind and just led me back to this place.

It was dimly lit, in the way Chinese restaurants tend to be, and I tried to point out my light, worried my belly’d cause a disturbance—the dining room looked pretty full.

He shook his head and chattered at me a bit more as he led me to a seat in the corner overlooking the whole room.

Shine.

Previous | First


I’d only found out about it by accident—I’d been wandering across town again, when a muscular Chinese man with a scruffy beard came up to me and started chattering away in his language.

I’d looked around a bit worriedly to see if I was about to be swarmed or something—I really didn’t feel like being ganged up on again.

The day Ralph and I switched places.

Previous | First(ish)
Almost done with this story’s first draft, then I’ll get the full first draft posted. Also, I’ve decided I’ll be calling Ralph and Shine’s world Turia.


We worked out for a good half hour, till I was good and sweaty, even with the big fan going full blast.

I felt better. Endorphins’ll do that, Ralph thought.

And that’s why you’re always on the weights, eh?

He didn’t have to answer.

I got up, wiped down the equipment and took a good long shower in the guest bathroom, thinking of Ralph while the sweat rinsed from my fur.