2019-06-03 - An Impromptu Picnic

Pushing a cart with one wobbly wheel down the deli aisle, Harper tosses some ziplock-style-packaged deli meat into it. This joins a bag of hard rolls, several honeycrisp apples, and a jug of 'Simply' strawberry lemonade. She peruses the cheeses and splurges on three of them. One. Two. Three. Into the cart. There is a small jar of rustic mustard there too. Absently, she murmurs, "... because I'm hungry, that's why." Then returns to humming quietly off tune with whichever muzak is playing over the store's tinny sound system. She makes her way toward the cashier, pausing at the magazines to peruse titles like 'Spring Cleaning - In Ten Minutes a Day!' and 'How Good Will He Be in Bed - Take Our Quiz' and 'A Ghost Got Me Pregnant'; and don't forget 'President Accidently Tweets Launch Codes, Throws Nuclear Football at Fox News Reporter'.

Another day of wandering, though Isolde was sad to leave Luigi home alone - but the bird likely wasn't sad. Since he had been twittering when she left. But understanding the layout of town was important! And she was trying hard to distract herself from the fact that she only had one day of her pills left with no supplier lined up yet. Coffee was good. Maybe some coffee would take her mind off it. And food. A muffin perhaps. Isolde entered the Safeway quickly and quietly. Not wanting to draw any undue attention. She had money now! They coudn't call the cops on her this time.

Isolde's long brown hair was a mess, though it seemed like she attempted to brush it. A pair of dark jeans and a black t-shirt, both with no holes! The only thing that looked a little raggedly was the men's flannel she wore over it all. She dug a fistful of bills out of the pocket of one of the flannels and carefully started counting the money. Seeing how much she had left of what Alex had given her.

As careful as Isolde tried to be, the cashier that was helping Harper was definitely giving Isolde a cautious side-eye.

Outside in the parking lot, Nicholas was sitting in his beat-up truck (hey, it's paid off), watching the Safeway. It was just a feeling that led him here, but when Harper pulls up and parks, gets out and walks into the store, he feels a sigh rush from his mouth. Confirmation that intuition can be a very mysterious thing, and the paramedic opens the door and starts to head into the grocery a minute behind.

In the midst of being checked out by the ... checker, Harper turns her brown-eyed gaze to the woman behind her in line, alert attention scanning the coffee and muffin. She smiles, and it's a genuine-looking warm expression that warms her entire face and demeanor. "Hi, I'm Harper. I haven't seen you around town before." She pauses, waves a hand up into the air and down again. "I mean, that sounds odd, but those of us who have lived here awhile recognize most of the others. Are you vacationing? Visiting a friend? Moving here?" She holds out a hand as if in offer of a shake. (She didn't see Nicholas or his truck when she arrived, strangely enough.)

Isolde blinked a bit, it took a moment for her to realize Harper is speaking to her. "Oh. Hello." Head tilting a little. "My name is Izzy." A little look towards the cashier with a light frown and then back to the woman. "...Not new no. I mean, not old. I mean. I haven't been here long." She finally seems to find the words she's looking for. "Few days. Staying with my friend and his birdie." She sets the coffee and muffin down on a free space at the check out, rubbing the back of her neck. "Just exploring." She stares at Harper's hand like it's a foreign object. The woman, the hand, back to the woman, and then hesitantly extended a hand to give a brief handshake.

Walking in the sliding automatic front door, Nicholas heads down the first aisle, disappearing for a few minutes. Coming up toward the registers shortly after, he steps into line behind the two ladies, his pale blue eyes on Harper. While the two talk, he is silent, chewing the inside of his cheek as he thinks and ponders.

Sympatico? Intuition? Telepathy? Or just plain Gray Harbor? A look of awareness flashes behind Harper's friendly gaze and she flickers it around the visible space of the store. Her Glimmer is strong, but it's -- tipped in away. Like it's about to fall on its proverbial side, or tilts the gravity of the room itself in strange ways. But only if one tries to look at it head-on. Her gaze slides back to Izzy, distraction ended. "Izzy," she repeats. "It's nice to meet you. I was just headed out to the harbor for an impromptu picnic and late lunch. Would you like to join me?" In some places, from most people, that sort of invitation could be taken as a little creepy. First she gets all up in Izzy's business about what she's doing in town, who she is and such - though she could just be a town gossip, who knows? - then the abrupt invitation. "Have you been down to the beach yet?" Harper isn't oblivious. She sees the hesitation, only clasps Isolde's hand with her warm fingers for a fleeting moment before releasing her. "I have plenty of food," she gestures to the bag the checker-outer is packing for her and digs in her own back to pull out a credit card that she sticks into the chip reader and pulls back out again. Finally she turns back and sees Nicholas with a faint widening of her warm, brown eyes. "Granholm! Don't tell me you're here to mooch off of my picnic supplies..." She then says with generous politeness. "Izzy, that's Nicholas, one of our great EMTs here in Gray Harbor. Nicholas, this is Izzy. She's visiting a friend in town for a few days and I just asked her to join me for a picnic on the beach. You coming along, too?"

Isolde studied Harper closely for a moment. To her, it seemed like Harper glittered. Like she had a special sort of body glitter on...and lots of it. Isolde's own Glimmer was on the stronger side too. But it also seemed a little empty. If either of them had a sense of the Aspects, it'd be easy to tell she had absolutely no sense of them as of the current moment. "The beach. Yes. It was rainy and cold." Looking up at the ceiling briefly and then back to Harper. "A picnic? It could be fun. I haven't done that before." Or had she? Maybe. A long time ago. Chewing on her bottom lip a moment. Then turned to look at Nicholas. Her own blue eyes staring at his. "Hello Nicholas."

As introduced, Nicholas flashes a warm, polite smile to Isolde, giving her a nod, his hands and arms full of a few cans of soup, a quart of milk, and a few others things. "Hi," he offers with that same genteel tone that seems to perfectly match his smile, his brow quirking at her intense gaze. As for the invitation, he turns that blue gaze back onto Harper and studies her face for a moment. "Sure," he clears his throat, "Should I bring something? You don't happen to have any of that spiked hot cocoa, do you? I could get the stuff to make that."

As for the beach being rainy and cold, Harper shrugs. "I waited for lunch for three hours, hoping that the weather reporter was right and we'd have a couple of hours of sun. Guess I was lucky." She moves down, the checker taking care of her cart, and stands at the end of the checkout with her bag. "But please don't feel obligated. You seem nice and new and I like meeting new people." To Nicholas. "There might happen to be a full thermos of it in my car." The spooky Prius. Izzy's affirmative on the invitation invokes a bright smile that lights up Harper's features in too charming a manner to be ill-intentioned. "Nicholas, pay for the lady's coffee and muffin, will you?" With that, Harper hefts the grocery bag and heads out of the store, apparently just expecting the other two to follow once their transactions are complete.

Isolde says, "Nice to meet you." Isolde echoed and then turned back around, giving a little tug to one of her locks of hair. Nice. Not a compliment she got often, if at all. The cashier eyed her again, ringing up the muffin and coffee. "I have money so don't look at me like that!" Izzy insisted. The cashier looked like they wanted to say something so very badly, but really needed this job. Blinking a little, she shook her head when Harper said for Nicholas to pay for her things. "No no no. Don't do that. I can do it." She insisted again and handed over a few of her crumpled bills before Nicholas could do anything. In fact, Izzy seemed rather proud that she could pay for her things. Her change was put back in her pocket and her coffee and muffin picked up. Then she would follow Harper!"

Startled a bit, Nicholas blinks and frowns at Harper's demand. Even if he IS the type of guy to be chivalrous and step up, offer to pay for things, being /told/ to makes him stare at Harper before shaking his head. Dumping his own shopping onto the conveyor, he says to the checkout clerk, "...and her stuff." Taking up the crumpled bills, he lays them atop the covered lid of Isolde's coffee as he squeezes past her to run his card at the reader for the purchases, "So, we don't need anything else?"

Harper is out in the parking lot already, loading the grocery bag into the trunk of her blue Prius.

Poor Nicholas gets a very narrow-eyed look from Isolde before mumbling out a thank you and gathering everything. A long sip of coffee is taken before shaking her head. "Don't think so." Looking to where Harper had already left and then turned to follow suit. Wandering over to where Harper was loading her car up, "I walked. I can ride with you?"

Harper closes her trunk with a quiet thunk and smiles at Izzy. "You can ride with Nicholas, in his truck. Tease him about the inside of his house," she suggest-confides. "It's only a few minutes from here." As Nick also comes out of the store she waves. "Izzy is riding with you. My front seat is full of books." As it might often be for the town's head librarian.

A quick glance from either of the other parties will show that there are actually no books in her front side passenger seat. But it's too quick to mention as she's already getting into her car and turning on the quiet engine.

Nicholas sighs at Harper just disappearing so rudely while he pays for stuff, shrugging, "I guess.. she kinda does that." As he exits the Safeway and Isolde naturally wanders toward Harper, the exchange between the two actually makes him stop and stare at Harper, shocked. "....okay," his eyes slide to Isolde, "Come on. I'm parked over here," as he turns exaggeratedly toward his truck. The non-expected outcome certainly caught him off-guard, but he at least knows enough to look back at Isolde to see if she is following.

Isolde did in fact see that the seat was empty. "Books you can read but not see." Murmured to herself. A mental note made to ask Alexander about that. Invisible books. What a novel idea. Hah. Novel. Isolde followed Nicholas over to his truck and climbed inside, taking another drink of her coffee. "She's nice." Peering at Nicholas again briefly, "Are you? Maybe. To be determined. Thank you again for the coffee and muffin. " Such a whirlwind of speculations all at once. She, at least, seems totally oblivious to what Harper was trying to do.

Harper starts her car up and pulls around toward the parking lot exit. Blinker on and everything, she waits for Nick's truck to pull up behind, almost, before she pulls out onto the main street and heads for the beach part of the Harbor's edge.

"Yeah, no problem," Nicholas says as he keyed the truck's engine to life, once Isolde joined him in the cab. She would find the passenger floorboard covered in wadded-up McDonald's wrappers, plastic Coke bottles, and more than a few Twinkies wrappers. Just a few. "So, Izzy," he says, clearing his throat awkwardly, trying to scramble for unexpected need of conversation, "Not from around here, then?" Go for the obvious, Nicholas, great one. Inward kick, "I grew up here, lived here my whole life. It's not as bad... no, no, it /is/ as bad as it looks."

"I'm from all over." Is Isolde's answer to Nicholas. She doesn't seem to really notice his awkwardness. Her attention on the view outside the windshield. "Here, there. Everywhere. Not here though. First time here." Her gaze drifted back to him, a bit of a wild look in her eyes. "This is a place of bad things. The good things are drowning in the bad things. It's a Gray place." Then she is looking away again. When they pull up to the beach parking, she smiles again. "It looks better without the rain and cold."

Old buildings slide past. Dirty streets. Dark alleys. Landmark buildings.

Nodding as he pulls out onto the street, following Harper's car, he does seem to notice an inordinate amount of rearview-mirror-adjustments and -glances as she drives. Looking sharply at Isolde, however, makes him almost careen into a line of parked cars along the side of the street, "What?" It just shocks him that someone from /outside/ knows that Something Is Going On Here.

Isolde grips the seat some as Nicholas very briefly goes a little wild on the driving. Once he's back on track, raking a hand through her hair. Shifting in her seat to stare at him again. But it's really more like she's staring through him. She talks a little slower...like maybe he just didn't hear her the first time. "The bad things. They're suffocating the good things. But we have to keep trying. Because. Because. Because." Like she's wracking her brain, trying to find the words. "Because being defeated is temporary. Giving up is permanent." It sounds like she's quoting somebody. She probably is. But it's suitable for the moment.

And so the Prius and the truck pull into the public parking area for the rocky-sandy beach portion of the harbor. By the time Nick puts the gear into park, Harper's already at the back of her car organizing things: grocery bag, thermos and paper towels and plates tucked in, plaid wool blanket, extra large beach towel. Her /trunk/ is so full of books that the other items are packed in. "... like you said." She's talking under her breath. "But we still will be fine. Stop hovering." She directs him to take the bag, again all bossy, pulls the blanket and towel into her arms and shuts her trunk, leaving the car otherwise unlocked. Bad habits of a small town girl. "Let's find a good spot." Where it's not too windy and it's not so far from the water that they might as well be eating in the parking lot. She heads for the sand after smiling at the pair, her gaze flickering between them.

Nicholas is shocked into either stupidity or thoughtfulness, determination of which is left to the onlooker. "Huh," he says, dubmfounded by the insight as he drives, trying to keep the truck on the road. Getting out once the vehicle is parked by the bay, he does a round of introductions, "Izzy, Gray Harbor. Gray Harbor, Izzy, be nice." Getting a few things out of his own shopping bag before closing the door, waiting for Isolde to follow Harper so that he can bring up the rear of the trio 'finding a spot' on the rock-strewn beach.

Harper settles upon a spot somewhat near a rock outcropping that is nearly as tall as Nick and twice as long as his truck. They'll have a slight wind break that way. Without preamble, she drops the giant beach towel and unfolds the wool blanket, whipping it out to rest atop the dry - for now - sand. Next she picks up the beach towel that is nearly as long but not as wide as the blanket, and overlaps its edge with the blanket to give them a larger picnic area. Whether or not she's thought to do this because of Izzy's hesitance with the handshake, trying to provide her ample personal space, or whether she's just into big spreads isn't apparent. When the pair approach, she takes the bag from Nick, murmuring, "Thanks, Granholm." as she does. In order to keep her feet and sand mostly off the blanket, she kneels while holding the bag and begins pulling out items to spread out. Two kinds of meat: salami and turkey; three kinds of cheese: an aged gouda, a sharp cheddar, and some havarti; the bag of hard rolls; the small jar of coarsely ground mustard; the jug of strawberry lemonade and the large, insulated thermos containing something Nick alluded to earlier; six honey crisp apples. A spreading knife for the mustard, no knife is needed for the pre-sliced cheese and meat. Next come thick paper plates, each with a paper towell pulled off the roll and tucked under them. There. Whew. Harper smiles with satisfaction and settles from her knees to her hip, looking up at the pair with an intrigued little expression. "If you told Nicholas anything interesting about yourself on the way here, now's the time to share." Then she gives Izzy time to think by adding, "i'm the local librarian, the library's downtown. Both Nick and I grew up in town though he was four years behind me, so the majority of our interactions were when we were both at the library." The majority. "Granholm is recovering from a head injury, so I'm glad to see him out and about. How are you feeling today, Nicholas?" The query looks genuine as she gazes up and up at the tall EMT until he sits down.

"Places are hardly ever nice to me." Places, not people. A thoughtful noise made and she took a moment to close her eyes and enjoy the brief bit of sunshine before going over to Harper. "Hello again." Offering up a smile. Once a spot is found, Isolde will settle down and take off her shoes - which have most definitely seen better days- so she could bury her feet in the sand. Her seat more towards the edge of the blanket/towel spread for this reason. She begins to open up her muffin, but does snag a piece of the american cheese. Thinking on Harpers question. "I don't think so." A bite of the cheese, "I'm from all over. Been lots of places."

Forgetting something back at the truck, Nicholas had to go back. This gives the girls a few minutes to catch up.

Izzy's smile begats another open and friendly smile curving Harper's lips and sparkling in her brown eyee. "Tell me about an interesting one. Crazy, strange, funny, horrid. I'm all ears." The librarian loves stories, which should not be surprising.

Harper flickers a glance at Nick's receding frame, then looks back to Izzy, companionable as she reaches for a roll, tears it in half and sets it on her plat. Then she helps herself to some of the gouda and a couple slices of salami. Next she spreads a bit of mustard on the bread. All the while, she's all ears.

Isolde thinks for a moment, peering at Harper curiously before taking a bite of muffin. "Little town in Iowa." She said, a little mumbled as works on swallowing the muffin. Washing it down with her coffee. "Don't remember the name. Maybe it didn't have one. It was a no where town. No map, one road. The people didn't like outsiders. Because the town didn't like outsiders." Wiggling her toes in the sand. "The shadows almost got me there. The town was going to swallow me whole. Des Moines was better. Bigger. Too busy to let the bad things engulf it."

Harper is in the midst of lifting the bread-meat-cheese to her mouth when Izzy gets to the 'shadows'. Her food simply pauses in the air as she regards the lovely outsider and new, quite charming acquaintance with devout attention. "You ... have a lot of experiences with the 'Shadows'?" Harper asks, adding directly after, "I'm glad you made it out safely."

Isolde nods emphatically, taking another bite of muffin. Swallowing properly this time before continuing. "The Shadows follow me. I don't know why." Being a Mentalist, Harper will probably be able to pick up just on the surface that Isolde has a very weary and worn down soul. She's sleep deprived and some kind of troubled. The perfect sort of combination that tends to attract said 'Shadows'. "But I leave so they have to find me again. Alex says I'll be stronger here." Her head tilted a bit in thought. "He's going to try and help me focus..."

Harper finally lifts the makeshift sandwich to her mouth and takes a bite as she listens. She chews slowly, then swallows before she replies, leaving a bit of a gap of what to some would feel is an awkward silence between. She doesn't look as though she feels awkward however. "They haunt me, too," she confides. "They killed my mom." Car crash, so /really/? "My childhood best friend." Impaled by a glass shard in a freak accident in 3rd grade. "And my dad." Ruled an aneurism in the shower. "And they always get away. I'm trying to figure out how to hurt them back, but I don't know if it's possible. You know -- shadows are taunting." She glances toward her right shoulder and shakes her head minutely. "... not gonna make that happen." Back to Isolde. She tips her head at the name Alex, but he /never/ lets her call him anything but Alexander, so she determines silently that it's not the same person. "You're not ... going through drug withdrawal, are you?" Because Alexander was researching that at the library after mentioning a guest. Harper looks half apologetic at the intrusiveness of her question.

Isolde frowns as Harper talks about her family. "I'm sorry. " And she sounds sincere. "They are means but...I don't know if they can help it." She admits. "They got me once but...I got away. Prey doesn't get away twice." She looked a little defensive for a moment when Harper asked about drug withdrawl. "...Not yet." Is murmured and she looks a little distressed. "Soon. Too soon. If I can't...I need..." She starts, then suddenly stops and takes another bite of muffin instead.

"You're not staying with Alexander /Clayton/, are you?" Harper asks, certain she's wrong. But the words Izzy speaks draw gentle concern on the librarian's features.

Isolde blinks and nods. "Mhm. And Luigi." A touch of a smile before her expression goes back to neutral. "I thought he was dead. But he thought I was dead too. So it's okay I guess." A shake of her head. "Haven't seen him in a long time. You know him?"

Harper's smile is perhaps even more gentle now. "He is worried about you. But I'm sure he'll take good care of you while you go through -- this. And, if you'd like it, I'll give you my number." Harper reaches into the grocery bag and pulls out her cell phone, just in case. "It's sometimes nice to have a friend."

Isolde studies Harper for a moment. "Is he? I don't want to worry him. "A brief furrow of her brows and then a look to the phone. "I don't...have a phone..." She digs in her flannel pocket and hands over a square of paper and a pen for Harper to write her phone number down. A deer in the head lights look coming over her for a moment. "I have to go." It's spoke so suddenly. "There's a thing that needs doing." It doesn't appear that she's making some kind of odd excuse, she legitmately believes there's something she's supposed to be doing. "Thank you for the picnic!" Smiling to Harper and would take the paper with her number on it.

Finally coming back from Harper's car, he trudges, head down, over the rocky beach to get back to the small sheltered picnic area. Lifting his head as he steps into the sandbar, he slows to find only Harper there. A glance see the retreating form of Izzy, causing a questioning look back at the librarian, "Did... what happened?" Of course, he believes that Harper either said something or Izzy flaked out, "Did you know that she Knows?"

Harper is eating the rest of her small roll-sandwhich and gazing thoughtfully at the surf. She begins relaying what Izzy said with a faraway gaze and tone to her voice until she gets to the ehd and looks up and to Nicholas. "And so I gave her my number." An almost smile touches at the corners of her lips. "Way to miss the girl, Granholm."

That stops him in the sand and he looks at her strangely, "That... you were setting me up with her?" It is less incredulous than it is completely misunderstanding, given that he just shakes his head, looking after Isolde who is halfway up the beach by now. "Like that'd work," he mutters.