2019-08-19 - Moving In

A couple days ago, Hailey obliviously dumped way too much info on poor Abby, then got sucked into work and has barely managed to get her head above water since then. Somehow, between the two of them, they found some space of time to meet at the house, walk around, talk terms, introduce Hailey to the cat, and come to an agreement. Maybe papers were signed? If Abby's that kinda person? Hailey will sign whatever, she's just so tired of living in that terrible motel down by the beach.

Now she's carted in the majority of her (admittedly not impressive) belongings, stacking boxes and suitcases in the bedroom. "Well, it's not exactly how I wanted to spend my one day off for the next century but! It beats listening to the fan in the motel room squeak all night long," she decides cheerfully, hauling the last box in from her terrible little car and knocking the front door closed with her heel. "This humidity, though!" Yes, she's talking about the weather. That's how fascinating a person she is.

Abby made sure to show Hailey everything that's wrong with the house. Look, there's this bit of the porch railing that's a little loose. The grass in the back yard is looking a bit dead in places. There's this crack on the basement wall but the house isn't likely to sink and swallow them into the depths of the earth any time soon, she asked a specialist and everything. The door to the bedroom is a bit noisy but that's probably just a matter of oiling the hinges.

It's not a very large house. It's mint green, but the paint isn't Abby's fault. She wants to have it repainted, but she'd have to pick a color and pay for it, so mint green the siding remains. There's a tiny attic. There's a tiny basement. There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and a wide open space in between, with a barely there archway separating it from the kitchen. The furniture is a mix between cheap modern minimalism and antique furniture acquired at yard sales, some of it amateurishly repainted. The art was probably also bought at yard sales. It's just strange and kitschy enough for it. There are a number of cat paintings. Also, cat scratches. It's a little bit cluttered, in a cozy way. She probably doesn't need anywhere near as many sideboards and tables and chairs, but they were bargains!

Abby helps move Hailey's things into the room, puffs. "There used to be a ceiling fan in the living room but it looked so wobbly I was afraid it was going to fall down and behead me in front of the TV! It probably would've just given me a concussion, it wasn't that fast, but still..." she cheerfully gestures out into the living room. "It's a little bad today. The house doesn't have a huge humidity problem. You should've seen my last place! It was like living inside a giant mushroom. That would've been really neat, though, I guess." She smiles. "So here you are..."

Hailey did not go around repairing all the broken things in the house. Okay, she might have fixed the hinges on the bedroom door (hence the roll), but that was just a few minutes ago, not before she even actually lived here. But she seems to find the house more charming than terrible; again, the motel room was just the worst, so it's thin praise.

Wiping her face with the bottom of her t-shirt, she follows that gesture on out into the living room, necessarily glancing up to the bare space where the ceiling fan should be. "I bet we could get a replacement at a yard sale. Not that I know how to install a ceiling fan, but I'm sure someone somewhere has a YouTube channel for it." Lips purse contemplatively. "If not, we should make one. Million dollar idea," with a tap-tap to her temple. "Probably more lucrative than mushroom-housing, but I guess that's worth looking into?" Head-tilt? Also, "Thank you for your help. Moving boxes plus humidity equals pllllleehhh," with the tongue hanging out.

Abby looks up, hands on her hips. "I could just put a nicer lamp there," she suggests wit a smile, brow knitting as she considers the location. "I'm sure there is. It can't be that hard, I'm just not sure it's worth it, unless you're really into ceiling fans?" She flashes a quick smile over in Hailey's direction. "I figure mushroom housing is patented by the Smurfs. Or whoever owns the smurfs, anyway, I've no idea." She exhales and smiles, starting to walk around tidying things. Cushions, mostly. There's a wide assortment of cushions. "You're welcome, but it wasn't any trouble at all! I've gotten pretty good at moving things around." There's a pause. "People. Mostly people."

Probably, Hailey should have bothered to find this out before she moved in, but beggars can't be choosers, so she waits till now to ask, "Do you own the house? Because I think ceiling fans are supposed to be good for property value?" Not the most confidence-inspiring tone, though. In that awkward 'not really comfortable yet' state, she watches Abby straightening up for a second, casting around the room for something helpful to do. Oh, look! Here's a wee bit of packing tape; she will just pick that up and play with it now, sticking and unsticking it while she talks. "Why would someone own a Smurf? Not for manual labor. Oh, but they can do magic, so I guess there's that." As incredible as that segue would have been... "Moving people around?" Buh?

"Are they?" Abby thinks about this with a mild frown, glancing up at the space where the ceiling fan used to be, then pushes her shoulders up in a shrug. "Right, it's all mine!" She answers the question, and there's a note of pride in her voice, though that's tempered by an immediate self-deprecating follow-up. "At least while I can still pay the bank! Then it's definitely theirs." Her smile widens and she pats a nearby wall, then reaches up to adjust the painting on the wall. It looks like some kind of naive, dreamy fantasy forest. "Hmm? Oh. I mean, on the job. Patients. I don't do that as much as a RN, but still, lots of moving people around."

They had this conversation, didn't they? In fact, "We had this conversation, didn't we? About the house and the bank? Sigh." Hailey suits actions to words, sighing while she plays with tape that she's making less and less sticky as the seconds pass. "Oh! Right. With the pushing people around on the gurneys. In my head, you were throwing people over your shoulder and carting them off." She looks off into the middle distance for a second, staring blankly at a space just over Abby's left shoulder, then fixes her attention back on the woman instead of the imaginary version of her. "Epic but not so practical. Soooo, do you have any family or, ahm, random people that might come over that I should know about so I don't just slam the door in their faces or anything?"

"Something like it!" Abby answers with a bright smile, looking amused. "Well, pushing people on the gurneys isn't so bad as moving them on and off the gurneys, that's a bit more like lugging them over your shoulder... but it's good exercise as long as you don't strain your back." She glances over her shoulder in case there's something she missed on the nearest wall. When her attention returns to Hailey, she's quiet for just a fraction of a second, the briefest of hesitations before answering, "No, you're good to slam the door in everyone's faces. No visiting family and no... well, if they're random I can't tell you about them, but I can't think of anyone likely to just drop in unannounced."

"Okay, good. Me, either." With the people coming to the door. "Though, if we're being totally honest, I probably won't slam the door in anyone's face so much as just stay very quiet and hope they go away. Like when the Jehovah's Witnesses come around." There's a pause when Hailey reattaches her focus to Abby keenly, stops fucking with the piece of tape she picked up, clears her throat. "Unless this is where you tell me that you're a Jehovah's Witness, in which case - I've never done that. Ever." She smiles, chagrined.

Not that she's eager to leave that potential social faux pas behind buuuuut... "Can I ask you a personal question?" (After possibly insulting her religion. GG Hailey.)

"Alright! Well, I haven't had a lot of random visitors besides the neighborhood welcoming committee when I first moved in," Abby says with a small good-humored grimace. Then, tucking some hair behind her ear, she leans in to add in a joking tone. " Actually, if someone comes by saying they're my family, you probably should slam the door in their face! Just to be on the safe side." That was probably a joke. Look, she's grinning and everything. "No, I'm not... Well, I'm not a Jehova's Witness, don't worry about it," she waves it off and looks around.

"Would you like some coffee or tea or something? I think I'm having something," she points towards the kitchen and starts walking that way, but pauses to look back at Hailey with arched eyebrows. "Sure."

Even though Hailey nods about slamming the door in someone's face, it's pretty obvious that she's still not going to do it. Like, the reticence to be that level of rude is written all over her still-hedging smile and the lip-chew that follows. "Yes!" comes out a lot more energetically than it should have. "Tea, please." And falls into step, so as not to miss the chance to ask this personal question, making herself stop fiddling with the tape while she walks. Treading lightly, "Why don't you know anything? About, ahm, the strange things going on around this town?"

"What strange things?" Abby asks as she walks into the kitchen area, which isn't very large, and probably a little short on equipment. But there's a kettle and there's a tea pot. "Black? Green? Red? Herbal? I have a few," she offers, pointing to a cupboard as she fills the kettle. "I haven't lived in town that long. Everyone hears about strange things, but I guess I'm not really up on my local lore. I'm not sure what you mean, though. Besides mutated mutant mountain lions and..." she trails off and almost lets the kettle overflow, pouring out some water before resuming, "...things like that!"

"Whatever you're having will be great." Honeymoon-phase~

Hailey trails on in, getting the lay of the land with a look around, and finds something useful to do. Like throwing away the piece of tape. And then opening cabinets in search of cups; nope, nope, "Ahhhhhm, well. If you don't know what I mean, then maybe that answers my question." But she looks at Abby with a confused squint for a second, like maybe that doesn't answer her question. Then she smiles cheerfully, because she found the cups and puts them down on the counter with a little, "Ta-dah. So other than the mutant cat, nothing really weird has happened to you?"

Abby gets a small box with an assortment of teas and sets it down, while the kettle heats up. "I was probably going to have plain black tea today, and have some lemon in it. I was going to make a big jar and stick it in the refrigerator, but I'll get to it." She looks back in Hailey's direction after busying herself with a tea strainer. It's a red ball, with a red chain, and it's attached to a cat. Like the cat is trying to fish it out of the pot, maybe.

"I'm really not sure what you mean," she confirms with a small hint of a frown, leaning back onto her hands. "Sure, strange things happen, but don't they happen everywhere? There's a lot of people here, there's bound to be more weird things happening, right?" Her smile tightens slightly as she draws her lips into a thin line and shrugs. "No? Not... I don't know. Okay, maybe? Yes. Besides, the whole thing with the cat was weird and not just because of the cat, but... why?"

"Okay." Hailey seems to totally approve of this plan to put tea in the refrigerator, folding her fingers into her palms and flashing a pair of thumbs-up at Abby for that particular stroke of brilliance. "Did you ever put mint in it? When it's cold, I mean. Iced tea with lemon and mint is one of the best things. It's probably nice with black tea, too, but I don't know. Mint just seems like a cold thing to me." Fascinating stuff, this herbal rambling of hers. In its aftermath, she looks at Abby with very large eyes that blink a half-dozen time rapidly before, "Just because I think sometimes weird things happen to people." The lie is very bad, and it puts her teeth on edge, but she gets it out from behind a nervous, apologetic-looking smile. "And if weird things happened to you ever. Just. Ahm. They happen to me, too. So it's okay, I won't think there's anything wrong with you."

"I think I have mint tea in there somewhere, but I don't have any fresh mint to put in it," Abby says, picking up her small box of teas, fingers running through the selection in search of some kind of mintiness. She listens to the herbal rambling with a nod of interest. "It sounds nice. I just put lemon in black tea, but I can try mint too!" The cheerfulness remains, but that small crease reforms on her brow as Hailey clarifies her question. "Sure," she says, which is about as noncommittal as possible, head leaning slightly to the left as if a different angle will help her figure this out. "Thank you." She smiles. That's the polite response to Hailey's offer, even if it's obvious Abby's not entirely clear on the nature of it. "Are you... is everything okay?"

Hailey should work on sounding more confident sometimes; "Yeeeees?" She looks ceilingward, thinking about it, then commits a slow nod. "Yes. I'm okay. Everything?" She teeters a palm on that one. "I'm not sure I'm qualified to speak for everything. But I'm sure I'm just hot and tired and dehydrated and talking crazy." Crossing her eyes on that makes the smile she flashes look appropriately manic. "I'm sorry. Just never mind all that. Tell me the saga of Abby and Chickpea instead? How'd you two meet, when did you know she was The One, all the details. Please."

There's something strange about this entire conversation, but it's clear Abby's not particularly eager to press for details. She hesitates, and even though it seems she has something to say or questions to ask, the nurse just flashes a friendly smile for now and doesn't. "No, no, that wasn't crazy at all. Confusing, maybe, but..." Abby shrugs it off with a light-hearted wink.

Then she looks back towards her room, where Chickpea is for now. "Ohh. Well, I adopted her when she was little. There was a cat living in my uncle's shed, and she had a litter. Three were alive. My aunt kept one, they weren't sure what to do with the other two that lived, so I took them in. Her brother Peanut didn't make it, though. He was really really tiny and I think his lungs weren't formed right, so he had trouble breathing, and he just didn't last very long... I have pictures of her when she was little and growing up, I can send you a link! And have you /seen/ her face?" What else could you possibly need before falling in love with Chickpea, really?

The water's boiling, so she starts fixing the tea. "Like plants moving in weird ways, or... maybe grabbing things?" She asks out of nowhere.

There's an appropriate, "Awwwww," for the story about the kitten that died. Hailey's heart melts for the poor dead kitten she never even met. "I have seen her face," she's eager to confirm, leaving the tale of the dead kitty behind. She continues hovering uselessly a few steps from the counter where Abby's doing the tea-thing, twisting her laced fingers together and looking around the kitchen at all the Abby-things.

Whatever she might have intended to say to further the subject about cats gets derailed when she ends up blinking at Abby. Slowly, choosing her words with care, she asks, "Whhhhy? Have you seen any plants moving in weird ways or maybe grabbing things?" It's not easy to ask a question like that without making it sound like you think the other person is crazy, but Hailey nails that shit; must not be her first rodeo.

"Mmhmm," Abby answers, but she needs to concentrate on what she's doing. Freshly boiled water is a dangerous liquid, after all, which she patiently pours into the pot in silence. Once that's done, she settles the kettle back down and looks back to Hailey. "I don't know," she says, rolling her eyes partly at herself, with a small smile suggesting none of this is to be taken too seriously. "It happened when I was - when I saw the mountain cat, or whatever it was. There were some other people there, and I was mostly focused on keeping this little girl from running up and hugging the fudge out of that cat thing. But, maybe. I thought I did, anyway, but it could've been stress or... I don't know, something about those woods, maybe?"

Tea-watching isn't all that fascinating, but - man! - Hailey sure keeps her focus on what Abby's doing like this is just the best show ever. "My friend who told me about Gray Harbor - anyway, that's a whole story, but he always said this town was strange. So maybe that's all it is? This town is strange?" But she's really just not a good liar, not even all that good at dissembling, and she winds up twisting her fingers together so much that it has to hurt. "The other people there. Did they seem... different? To you? I mean, did they look different or act different?"

Weak laugh.

"Excepting how different they'd be because of the mountain cat and the attacking plants."

"The plants weren't attacking," Abby says, eyes back to the tea pot while it steeps. As if her interest might help speed the whole process along. "I wasn't really looking, but - well, this is going to sound a little strange. But it was like the plants were bringing the cat a..." She trails off there and touches a hand to her face, the heel of her palm along her jaw. "A sandwich. I'd put down a sandwich for the cat, and next thing I know it's like the plants are just - like they're carrying the sandwich over." She holds up a hand, like a tray, and moves it, fingers wiggling. Then her hand drops. "When I say cat, it was - the girl called it kitty, but it wasn't really. Well, it looked part cat, at least."

"Everyone was acting strange, I suppose, but I can't blame them." She smiles, nose wrinkling up, then throws her hands out in a shrug. "Maybe there was something in the air, you know? Polen? Spores? Maybe I was seeing things."

There's nothing Hailey can roll to make the tea steep faster. They will just have to wait. She at least finds a use for her hands for now, curling them around the edge of the countertop. "Oh." Because the plants weren't attacking. She starts to say something more to that end, then stops and closes her mouth, attending the whole story about the sandwich and the kitty, head tilting confusedly. "Why did you have a sandwich?" Like THAT'S the big question here. There's honest-to-goodness sympathy in the half-frown she gives Abby and her rationale, followed by the quiet comment, "Maybe, but also maybe you should sort of start to... just accept the strange things that happen? As best as you can."

"I was going to eat it." Abby calmly explains, because sometimes sandwiches require an explanation. "It was in my backpack, I was out for a walk. And then the cat was - well, it was probably hungry, so I thought if it's eating a sandwich it's not eating anyone else. The girl used to feed it." She anchors her hands over her hips and shrugs, turning her gaze from the tea pot to Hailey with a concerned frown on her face. "Well, I work in a hospital. Of course strange things happen. At least one quarter of patients coming in are strange somehow," she comments with a brighter, playful smile. But that wanes. "Some patients recover when medicine says they shouldn't. And I've been around places where lots of people have died and, well, sometimes strange things happen. But that doesn't mean I can just go around..." Abby reaches for the cups, carefully aligning them. "Sometimes people come in saying they saw things, and it's just the meth talking. Or dementia. And that's all it is."

Hailey moves in. Ten minutes later, disrupts Abby's whole universe? No, that is not good roommate practice. So she spends a while gnawing on the corner of her lip and nodding at all the things Abby says about patients, and the struggle plays out in her expression the whole time. "Okay," she finally figures out to say, pronouncing it slowly. "Maybe just brace yourself for more meth and dementia here than other places? Or. You know what? Just don't worry about it and carry plenty of sandwiches." Her smile lacks credibility, never touches her eyes. "In case you run across any more escaped cougars in the forest. Throw them a PB-and-J and make a run for it!"

Abby finally starts pouring the tea into the two cups. "I don't really have a lot of places to compare it to," she notes with a small smile and a raised eyebrow, looking over. "Gray Harbor is the biggest place I've ever lived. Or worked. So I was kind of expecting that. Everyone always said things got a bit strange around these parts, I just figured that's what happens in a big town." She puts the pot down and turns back to study her cabinets. "Would you like some sugar? Lemon?" Apparently, Abby does want lemon and sugar, though the latter makes her hesitate. Guilt is a terrible thing.

"And I'll be sure to do that. Apparently cat monsters like ham and cheese. Maybe I should ask Davida about PB-and-J." She draws a deep breath and spoons some sugar into her cup, then sets the lemon on a cutting board. "Thanks."

There's more of that lip-gnawing struggle, but Hailey soldiers on without blurting out everything she knows about everything. She gets through it with a quick series of nods, like Abby's mundane explanations are spot-on, sure, and then chimes hurriedly, "Yes and yes," to lemons and sugar. "But let me help somehow? I'll do the sugar and you can do the lemon, and then - if anyone asks - you can just say the only reason you had the sugar is because your roommate put it in your tea, and it won't even be a lie." Enabling 101.

"Sure!" Abby says with a cheerful smile, holding back a laugh as she starts to cut into the lemon, focusing on the slice. She's no surgeon, but she can at least cut straight slices of lemon. "Sounds good to me. But it's fine, honestly. I haven't had any sugar in day... s. Days. So it balances out, right? It's like having a tiny bit of sugar every day if you average it out, which is fine?" Her tone is more hopeful than assertive. After all, she's not even the doctor here, Hailey is!

"Okay. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I know, I'll give you a tour of the kitchen in a minute, and - oh, show you how the washer works, maybe? You have to do a little magic ritual to change the water temperature. I think the TV remote just needs batteries, but..." There are all kinds of small practical things and information to pass on, it sounds like, which is entertainment enough for a whole afternoon. After tea.