2020-10-24 - Memories Like Broken Glass

The fall sun filters through the magnolia tree that stands in one corner of the yard. It's last flowers fell a month ago, but it is still green. Similarly there are only a few flowers blooming now. Kailey is on the grass with a blanket spread out. Morganna is having tummy time in the sun. Before her are a few colorful toys which is is grabbing at with wide-eyed enthusiasm. Many sounds and squeels are coming from the infant who has just discovered her voice. And that is can do all sorts of sounds. Also? Teeth. Drool coats her chin as she shoves a teething toy into her mouth finally. Kailey is mostly distracted however. She sits with a photo album on her laps and a small floral box with more photos next to her. The expression on her face is distant as she ponders the past the images contain.

Images from a youth that doesn't look that bad from the pictures represented. A blond and chipper pig-tailed child rides a 25 cent ride outside a super market with a big grin. That same girl is eating ice cream while smiling big, two bottom front teeth missing, and she has chocolate all over her chin. A picture from Disneyland's splash mountain of the same screaming girl and her thrilled and yelling mother clinging to her as they careen down. But the photos in the box are not nearly as pretty. Pictures of long and lonely roads. A child taking pictures with a disposable of her mother passed out in front of a motel door with a gun in her lap. Her mother staring worriedly out the window of a different motel. A picture of a child's feet in another motel bed with the tv on Sailor Moon. Kailey gives a soft sigh and turns the page and there is a flicker of a smile. "We should take a trip to Oregon. We can visit Klamath Falls," She says idly to her daughter who simply coos around her toy.

In a way, it's very Norman Rockwell; mother and child on a picnic blanket in the backyard. Everett, announced by the older Dalmatian teen, following his every movement while licking her chops as she follows him to the propane grill. Last chance to use it before having to put the cover back on. Putting the plate down, Everett gives the deaf dog a push with his shin, "Git outta here," he murmurs under his breath, and the dog does move but only to the other side of him where she sits and wags her thin tail with a lick of her chops.

Nothing wrong with her nose. Everett cleans his fingers with his jeans, then drops the three streaks on the grill, each answered with a hearty sizzle and light smoke. "Whatcha got there," Everett asks, picking up tongs and looking up from the meat for a second. Returning his attention back down, he arranges the meat, and then closes the hood to turn around and find Cinderella hadn't gone far. "No," he tells her. She whines, in that way deaf dogs do and licks her drool back. "No!" he says more sternly, this time making the sign language for it with the thongs, snapping them at the puppy, while he smirks with soft humor at the moocher.

Kailey glances up as Everett comes out with the steaks. Her eyes light up as does her smile as she watches him with the dog. "I don't think she has any-OH! Me? It's...the photo album scrap book thing my mom and I made as I was growing up. I don't have a lot of context for some of it, cause I don't remember. But, uhm," She nibbles on her lower lip as her gaze returns to the photos. "Just thinking. About my mom." As the tongs clank her head snaps up. "You gotta use your hands, Ev. Tongs don't count." Morganna lets out a shriek as she turns her head and sees Cinder. Waving her teething toy wildly about in her attempt to gain the dalmation's attention.

Unmoved, Everett tries a few more times with the tongs, snapping them at the young dog, much to her increased attention, while he adds a firm 'No.' each time, the young dog trying to sniff the tool that touched meat. It takes a few tries, but the Gorilla proves smarter, barely, finally realizing what it is that the dog's doing and what's likely to happen next. "Oh, you stupid dog," he murmurs under his breath, "here."
He turns his torso, picking the plate the steaks bleed into, and puts it on the patio floor. Before he's standing again, a snout is in it, sniffling then giving way for the pink tongue that noisily laps the blood.

And while Cinderella cleans the plate, Everett turns his attention back to the humans, hanging the tongs back on the grill, offering Kiki and Momo a smile from the right side of his face while he departs from the grill. His walk across the lawn interrupted by drawing out his phone and asking for a five minute timer before he falls on the blanket. First on his knees before the baby, and then down on his hands. He makes hungry, loud eating sounds as he pretends to chew at Morganna's belly for a few seconds, then lifts his head up, pulling his hair over her, to kiss her little nose and looks up to Kailey. "You going to do the same thing with her? Photo albums, teach her to paint, that kind of thing? I figure," he says dismissively, not noticing his hair's been latched on to, "that she'll take your creativity."

Kailey watches Everett's duel of wits with the dog. A smirk tugging at the corners of her lips as he gives in and crosses to the blanket. "Don't be rude, she has feelings too you know," Kailey scolds lightly. The photo album is tipped so Everett can get a glimpse of the page. Looks to be about a six year old Kailey when her hair was still blond. "Photo albums probably. My mom didn't really teach me to paint. She wasn't all that artistic, but she got me plenty of supplies. I didn't really get into art until-" There is a brief pause as her lips thin slightly. "Well, art therapy." It was both a good and a bad thing that time when art was her only outlet. Things were way better now. "This album isn't full...I keep wondering if I should finish it. But it isn't the same. I mean...all the pictures from my teens are of a sullen goth girl. It wouldn't flatter this album that's for sure."

Morganna coos and flails her teether at Everett. More delighted sounds comes from the baby as she kicks and grabs at new things to play with. Yank Yank. Daddy's hair is the best toy and soon it's going to be soggy as she brings her fist to her mouth.

"She has a bottomless stomach is what she has," retorts the brute. Plate of steaks, his running shoes, socks. Whatever she can get her mouth on. All the same, he sticks the tip of his tongue out at Kailey before you-know-who arrives, plate cleaned, looking for more. Scooping out the blanket and the toys on it, then baby and lapping up delicious baby drool, shoving her muzzle into Morganna and Everett's space like there's room for a third. Nectar of the puppy Gods, the deaf puppy wanders around the blanket looking for something else to eat.

"Ugh, gross," Everett replies, using the back of his right hand to wipe at his square chin while trying to lift up, only to fall short when he finds the fish he's caught. A playful slip of a growl escapes his lips, and he bites the offered teething toy. A slow shake, then two of his head before he lets it out of his mouth for something better, showering his baby with kisses to her freshly washed cheeks.
Picking up Morganna, Everett rises to his knees and then rolls over on his back, to rest the baby on his stomach, headless of the time he has left on the timer. His head cranes back so he can look upside down at Kailey while he asks her, "Well. It's part of your life, right? I guess it depends on what you want the album for, yeah? Is it an album for your mother, like it was, right? Or is it one for your life? Maybe you need to start a new one, now that you're a mother. Heck," he starts to add, his focus turning back to the arm flailing, "maybe she had one with pictures of you in it."

Morganna lets out full-blown baby belly laughs as Cinder and Daddy get silly. His kisses earning happy coos and more tugging on his long locks. Kailey can't help the grin at the babe's laughter. Reaching out to scratch Cinder on the chest as she inspects her for food. << Dinner later, Cinder. Lay down or bring me a ball. >> Kailey's mind washes over the canine. She tilts her head and then goes running for her toy basket. Bringing back said ball for her to throw. Which she does, sending the dog careening happily after it.

"I dunno. I think mom did it so that our always running wasn't so weird," Kailey says as she eyes a picture of her mother with a sombrero at a restaurant with a piece of cake with candle before her. Coleen had dark, almost black, hair and green eyes too. But her face always was strained, even while smiling. That can be seen in the pictures that show her. "Making it normal. I think I do want to make one. For Mew when she grows older. I do cherish these photos. I bet she will too." She looks up at Ev with a smile. Then pulls out her phone and takes a picture of the two of them.

Watching the interaction between his love and the dog, Everett rolls his green eyes in an exaggerated manner while he smirks with good humor. "You see?" he asks, "she likes you and Bean better. She just gives me grief, but you tell her to get a ball and she's behaving right away. She's like that with Bean too, but for me?" He scoffs and turns his attentions back to his baby after another pull on his hair. "That's ok, we don't need them, do we, Momo? I got you and you got a fistful of hair. What are we going to dress you up as for Halloween? What do you think maybe a kitty? Mm? Baby wanna be a kitty?" Big hands wiggle the child on his chest lightly while he asks his question; just in time for his timer to start going off in his front pocket.

Oblivious of the picture-taking, Everett gives the little baby another kiss on her little forehead before rolling over to his knee to gently returning the infant in the position, more or less, the way he found her. Then putting back, letting the slack in his hair grow taut while he fishes his phone from his pocket and turns it off. Dropping the phone on the blanket, Everett's eyes go to Cinder approaching with the ball in her mouth, and picks up his phone again, "Uhhh. Help." His empty hand grabs his hair and tries sliding the saliva slick mess from the baby's grip.

Kailey takes another picture instead of immediately helping. A sly smile on her face as her phones makes clicks like a shutter. Morganna is just happy and yanks her handful with glee. Only when her mother offers the toy does her grip loosen of her father. "She listens to me because she knows I can make her," Kailey says with a bit of guilt. The dog has not touched her shoes since she was found with Kailey's Ugg slipper. There were forceful mental commands instead of suggestions that time. Cinder looks away from Kailey's shoes now.

Hopping to her feet while Everett untangles himself, she pads over to the grill. Taking up the tongs to turn the steaks. Cinder follows with her ball and patiently waits for Kailey to throw it. "Where's the A1?" And without waiting for an answer, she heads back inside to find it. Assuming the giant forgot how she likes her steak smeared and cooked with it. The thing is...she doesn't come back out. Seconds becoming minutes...

"Ow," says the brute with half-hearted interest, closing his left eye when the yank comes. Then through gritted teeth, he murmurs, "Oh, just wait until you get long hair. You won't know when, you won't know how, but some day when you're 12 or 13, I'mma get you back and you'll be like, 'But why?'," he says down to the baby, "and I'll be like, 'you remember that time you pulled my hair in October?' and you'll be like, 'no, I was a baby.' And I'll be, all, 'Well... got you."
He 'HA!'s from his one knee kneeling position, right at the baby, bending down when she gets distracted with a toy to nibble her nose. "That'll serve you right," he adds when he stands.

And when he does, affixing Kailey with a smile at the grill, he picks his phone back from his pocket and asks for a few more minutes before the meat has to be turned again. "Well. Since Mom left us alone, let's talk about her. You go first," he says, laying down next to the baby, this time careful to keep his hair from her fingers. Even taking the ball from Cinderella when she comes by to be played with, and giving it a throw. He's pleasantly distracted.
Until the timer goes off. And he's still the only adult.

Baby.
Meat.
Dog.

How many fires can a man deal with at once? Natural predatorily reflexes kick in, seeing a critter make off with meat. HIS MEAT! Everett perks and then adds a challenging, "Hey!" to the deaf dog. For all the good in the world that would do him. A glance towards the house, as though that might summon answers. He rolls to his stomach, ignoring the pain of sharp edged baby toys under his body before pushing himself to his feet and taking a step. Arm raised, mouth open, about to challenge the hungry mutt again when he pauses and glances over his shoulder to the wriggling pink baby.

A frustrated sound escapes his throat as he returns and scoops up Morganna and clings her to his chest, then it's back to the dog. No grill. "God damn it."
"You didn't hear that," he adds under his breath, casting a dark glance at the shaking bush, while he's alreadying making steps to the grill. Turning off the heat and picking up the canine spit washed plate. Not that he'd use that to put the meat back on. Normally. His lips move, mouthing obscenities while the tongs move three steaks back to the plate they arrived on.

And now.
Now that dog is going to get it. Footsteps thumping, both arms holding the baby, muttering under his breath like some sort of primitive man. Cave man. Flintstone.

Glaring down at the dog enjoying her ill-gotten gains, Everett's right lip curls and quivers. He rumbles a short, throaty sound and through gritted teeth, mutters, "Bad dog," still holding an oblivious baby with both hands. Or he would have some choice sign language for the canine that would likely come out wrong, and be something she wouldn't understand anyway. He tsks when his mouth closes and opens again just partly before glancing back towards the house now with open worry.

"Kailey? Bean?" the second word spoken louder before he leaves the mutt to her trophy and stops two steps into the kitchen. Spying the cat, there's not a word to her; just stepping to the door to reach out and close the door before he looks around, bewildered, then upstairs. Then back outside. No; not two free meals. "Guys?!" he raises his voice, not quite a shout, but it's getting there, just as he's getting closer to panic. First, back outside to grab the steaks before the dog discovers those as well, and put into the refrigerator to arrest their cooking before he goes on the hunt for what happened.
Again.