2019-07-19 - Sud-U-Gud

Lark Poplar-Jones sits on one of those mass-produced chairs that appear in every laundromat all over the country. She's about five years old with a dark curls and serious blue eyes; her freckled features suggest one of her parents is ginger or part ginger. She's wearing a Miles Morales Spider-Man t-shirt, flower-embroidered jeans, and what looks like the most beaten up pair of rain boots with duct tape patching one toe. She's doodling on a cheap drawing pad with crayons, swinging her feet while she stands watch of the swirling front-loading washer that spins with brightly colored clothes. It might be odd to just see a kid here, sitting, all by herself, but she seriously does not look like she would take shit from anyone.

It's laundry day, which means Bennie is down to her last pair of everything and is hauling about a month's worth of clothes in two heavy laundry bags over her shoulder. Even though she wears a man's over-sized t-shirt as a dress shrugged off one shoulder, she's paired it with a chunky belt and a pair of ankle boots and with the right necklace and pair of hoop earrings, it could pass as fashionable.

"Hello there!" Bennie chirps to the little girl as she passes, un-shouldering each of her bags with a big WHOOMP as it hits linoleum. She had to walk here from the Trailer Park, and the warm night means she worked up a bit of a sweat getting here. Her forehead is patted at with the back of her hand and an exaggerated, "Woooo." But at least the laundromat is air conditioned, which is a step up from the current state of her trailer. "Whatcha got going on, Spider Gwen? Load of whites?"

"Hello," Lark says without looking up. She continues to doodle for several more strokes of her light blue crayon only to look up at the Spider Gwen comment, though it's really the 'load of whites' bit that has the dark-haired and wizzen looking kindergartener staring up at Bennie. She glances at the washer, and then back to the blonde. "No. We're washing warm colors-- reds, oranges, but not yellows because if you wash yellow with red you get orange and no one fucking wants that." Oh yes, that girl just dropped the F-bomb.

Which must have been a summoning spell, because here comes a tiny blonde from where the shitty coffee is dispensed. "Hey! Lark! We don't use that language in public. You say things like 'fudge' or 'fargle' or something else, but not 'fuck.'" She thrusts a styrofoam cup of what looks like hot chocolate at the kid, and Lark takes the cup before telling her mother in a patronizing voice that, "Styrofoam is bad for the environment." Then she sets her cup down on the tiny table beside her chair and resumes coloring while Magnolia is forced to sigh and smile apologetically to Bennie. "Sorry. She's, um... well. She's five and I'm bad at watching my language."

Bennie tries her hardest not to just laugh out loud, but her eyes are sparkling with amusement and it tints her voice as she covers her grinning lips with a fan of her fingers. "I prefer fiddlesticks or farfegnugen." She says with mock seriousness. "And this is why I always wash my reds with my blacks." Not that she has a lot of either, judging by the colors she shakes out which are mostly cheery and vibrant and light. Her overly large purse gets set aside, and detergent and softener are removed from the bags before she overtakes three washers, claiming them as her own as she sorts her laundry into them.

All the while she sort of steals glances at Magnolia, quick little things that are almost sheepish until she just can't stand it anymore. "Look at us. Stuck in the same place after successfully avoiding each other for the last five years or so...six?" Maybe six, if Magnolia says Lark is five now. "She grew up so fast, didn't she? She has your eyes. And mouth." Bennie can't help but add with another slice of a smile.

"Fiddlesticks?" Lark looks up seriously at Bennie. "Huh." The thoughtful syllable of a wise-minded child that may or may not be considering how 'fiddlesticks' works within her plan for world domination.

For Magnolia's part, she just sighs deeply, and then she smiles over to Bennie as she nods slightly. "Yeah." The PI is just too tired to let the sheepish thing settle between them too much, so she moves up to a seat and drops into it while sipping at her coffee. "We're really suck at avoiding each other, obviously. We could have gone at this for at least another four or five, make it a solid decade." Then a bit of something slips into her expression, and she glances slightly toward Lark. "Meant to reach out, but when we left... we had to lay low until-- you know." Then she smiles a bit as she regards Bennie. "I never was good at filtering my words."

"I know." Bennie ducks her head slightly as she pours cheap powdered detergent into the basin of the washer. As she cranks the dial and lets it start filling with water, she finally turns back to Magnolia and just blurts out, "I'm SO sorry." She looks almost on the verge of tears, but they remain unshed and only glossing her eyes, making them look that much more vibrant.

"If I'd had known, I never would have said those things I did. I never should have said them, period. I should have been there for you, and I totally wasn't and it's been six years too many, and will you ever forgive me, Magpie?" Even if there was affront on both of their sides, depending on who you ask, Bennie is completely ready to take all the blame on the matter if only it will end this stand off between them.

There's a long moment of silence from the investigator before she sighs out a hard breath, and with that breath, her shoulders fall a bare inch. It's enough. Magnolia glares off to the side of her, thinking about all the events that lead up to the ultimate hiatus of the Magnolia-Bennie band. Then she looks back up at Bennie and she shakes her head. "Ben, there's nothing to apologize for. Look, you tried to tell me something that may have saved me a lot of pain and heartache, and..." Trauma. "But I don't blame you. I cut ties as much as you did, right?"

Bennie crosses an arm over her chest, grabbing her opposing elbow and curling into herself as she leans a hip against the humming machine. "I got my EMT's license, started dating this really great guy, and ever time I'll be damned if I didn't reach for my phone to call you...I miss being the wonder twins. This town used to close the shutters and bring in their children when we tore hell through town..." Of course they're both very different from those trouble making girls they were in high school. Well, at least Bennie was a trouble maker. She may or may not have roped Magnolia in by proxy.

"Yeah. Easton, right?" Magnolia has been poking around Easton's personals, and there were other snitches along the way. Then she gives Lark's hair a little ruffle as she gets up, and the girl doesn't even look up from her drawing as her mother crosses to lean against the machine with Bennie. She slumps down against it, crossing her arms. "I miss being the wonder twins, too," Mags offers quietly. "And look, I was seriously just along to make sure you didn't burn the whole town down." Then she smiles up at Bennie and she bumps against her lightly. "I'm sorry, Bens. I should have reached out. I should have been a better friend, but... it was Hell getting out of there. Literal, burning Hell. Lark and I spent two months out of town entirely while I waited for the lawyers to get their shit together, and Edgar... he's not supposed to come anywhere near us, but I spend most of my time tracking him, making sure he's still down in Vancouver." Washington. "Then it was just Lark and me, and it felt like we had become our own little world. I lost lots of ties. I'm still trying to get them back." She looks down at her tattered, marker-decorated Converse sneakers. "But, if you'll have me back, I really will try."

"Sometimes you can almost forget how small of a town this is, until you go to share important life moments with someone and they already know." Bennie's smile blooms slightly, "Yeah, Easton Marshall. He's about a million shades of amazing, and not only have I finally been able to date a guy that won't treat me like porcelain, but also is completely on the up and up. Just a simple, honest bartender with flaws that seem to compliment my own." But here she is gushing, when Magnolia just got done talking about the hardest thing she's ever had to go through, and Bennie reaches out to stroke her arm. "The important thing is, you got out. And if he ever comes near you again, I promise to run him over with my ambulance." And to that, she offers out her pinky, so Wonder Twin powers can activate.

"Almost." Mags smiles a tight little smile, and she looks at Lark who has her head down and focused on her picture. She gives her head a little toss before she glances aside to Bennie. "Yeah. He seems like a good guy." The gushing inspires a warmer smile, but there's a hint of something else there-- maybe a bit of envy. It doesn't overshadow Magnolia's own experiences, so the PI doesn't seem vexed. In fact, she accepts the comfort easily enough. "Hey, that's if I don't finish him on my own--" Then when the pinky is offered out, Mags takes it with a hook of her own and she gives a little shake of promise.

Bennie takes the threat of ending Magnolia's ex the only way she can: light heartedly. So it's with a slice of a smile that she joins in the pinky promise whole heartedly. "You'd think after all this time we'd learn our lesson about boys and just straight up start batting for the other team."

Something seems to occur to her right then, and with a bubble of excitement that leaves her bouncing on her toes, she exuberantly asks. "Does this mean I get to babysit? Oooh, can I be Aunt Bennie? I always said I'd be the coolest aunt!" And given her brother's demise, the only chance of that happening now is to be an honorary one. "I'll do her hair, and teach her about fashion and we can have tea parties..." A glance is given to Lark. "Or we can climb trees and throw rocks in the pond..."

"Yeah, but really-- I'd just attract the crazies no matter the gender." Magnolia sighs out a hard breath as she leans back against the washer.

Bennie's overall excitement does melt away the bemusement from her expression and she smiles a bit warmer. "Yeah. You can be Auntie Bennie."

Then she glances back to Lark who has decidedly ignored the two, though she does say in a light, almost under-her-breath note that, "Princesses can have tea parties and climb trees." Then she looks at Bennie with those serious pale eyes. "Though you should teach Mama how to braid. She gets frustrated after like three passes."

"I do not," Magnolia starts to argue, but it's really no use.

"Oh yes! Braiding! Girl's night! We should totally make that a thing." Bennie chirps excitedly. "I can come over, and we can eat ice cream and watch movies like Ella Enchanted and Ever After and I can totally teach your mom how to braid. And we can make a blanket fort, and talk about how boys are stinky..." She asides to Magnolia, "Boys are still stinky at this age right? So totally a no boys allowed kind of night. We'll paint each other's nails, and Lark can do our make up and we'll all take a bunch of selfies."

Magnolia feels a warm grin settle into place. "You can have her. She's such a pain in the butt."

"Am not," Lark says, now engaged in this conversation. "You say that I'm a helper, and that you would be lost without me, and that you cannot imagine your life without me."

"You wouldn't have a life without me, kiddo." But then Magnolia looks to Bennie, and she nudges her shoulder against hers. "It really is good to see you again, Bens. Really."

Then her phone gives a buzz.

At the nudge from Magnolia's shoulder, Bennie rings her arm around shorter blonde's neck and curls it in so she can give quick kiss to Magnolia's temple. "Ditto, Magpie. Ditto." She releases her friend when her phone buzzes, turning to paw through a pile of laundry and pulling out a top that needs a little love before it goes into one of the basins. She pulls out a stick of stain treater, working it into what looks to be a ketchup stain - or is that blood? Working in a diner and being an EMT, it's a gamble as to which is right as neither would seem out of place.

"Everything okay?" She asks after giving Magnolia ample time to read the notification.

The quick kiss is met with a little smile of relief. Finding friends again has been important to Magnolia. They are blossoming out of the muck like forgotten seeds. It's kind of nice, to see them bloom again. But, alas. She sighs at the phone. "One of my contacts thinks he's got a lead on this case I'm working on." She glances slightly toward Lark who has resumed her coloring. Then she loosk to Bennie. Something braided with sheepishness, guilt, and a little bit hope crosses her features-- "Bens, I know that you just offered, but... um. Could you watch Lark and drop her off at my Mom's place? I got to get down to the bus station."

Bennie glances over her shoulder to likewise look at the little girl, "So long as she doesn't mind being stuck here with me for another hour or so while I finish my fluff and fold. There may or may not be the loud singing of Disney sounds included." Her smile turns softer and more sympathetic, "Seriously, we'll be fine. I got this, provided you don't mind if I load her up with sugar on the walk home. Just be safe, okay?"

"She'll be fine. She was going to be stuck with me regardless." Then Mags stops, and she takes a breath before she breaks into a little smile. "Thanks, Bennie. Really. Um, you remember my old house, right? Over on Maple?" Then she's grabbing up her stuff. She reaches over to press a kiss onto the top of Lark's head. "Be good for Bennie," she informs her. Then she laughs to Bennie. "Go for it. Mom can handle a sugared up kid." She is looking like she's about to leave, but not before she steps up close and gives Bennie a big hug. "Thanks," she repeats, quietly.

"Always." Bennie imparts quietly along with the return of the heartfelt hug.