Beauty in morning
Who: Molly open to all
When: Early morning
Where: Anywhere (a wandering,possibly area of Nighthawks Diner)
The world was bright and the gray was light. Molly spun around once more as she walked down the street, her heels click-clicking on the sidewalk. Dirt where the sidewalks met with buildings, mating, dirt could grow things, if seeded properly. Flowers in the almost sunshine.
This morning Sarah had caught her after she was dressed to see things. Sarah liked red. She didn’t care about the maps of raised flesh but was careful of them. She brushed things lustrous then took bands and pins and bunched and poked until neatness married style into her own art. Molly looked at her reflection in a window and stroked a finger over the pinned and tamed masses of Sarah’s hands. There was a flash in Molly’s mind of dirty wildness and matting due to a missing comb. But a man had brushed off the dust and made a butterfly from a moth. A man with red hair, but not like the arrangement she saw in the window. No. A man with eyes of smoke and dreams.
Something sparkled to Molly’s left and she took dancing steps , a skip and a spin to take a look. Jewels. Ornaments for necks and ears, shackles for wrists. Ways to bind with cut glass and paint. Paste. Paste shouldn’t be eaten. It was for sticking. Sticking glass to metal, shine it up, false facade, known to be false but just as pretty, sparkly. Molly began to hum to herself as she moved away. She had money in inside pocket, but it was for something else. What? What was it? Oh! Kitty! She crouched and held out her hand, letting it sniff. Should she sniff back? What was proper protocol?
She had nothing to give but a scratch behind the ears, so that had to do. Kitties had no need for money. They needed fish and milk. Fish and milk… was that what her money was for? Molly danced in the early morning light. She needed people, full of grace and clumsiness, lines and curves and movement. She needed a muse. She was amused. Were muses happy or did they just laugh at people? Oh, yes, that’s what she’d wanted.
The streets were just waking up, the city yawning as canopies were rolled out to dress storefronts, exhaust and rot was cut with the sweet bitterness of coffee. No. No coffee for Molly. Climb the walls, she or them? Was that a diner ahead?
..
The almost-brightness had woken Louise up early and she was immediately excited. Sure it was cold, but there was no rain, and... was that... blue skies attempting to peek through? Throwing on some clothes (stupid societal mores and weather requiring covering up!), she practically ran outside, determined to get out and enjoy the weather before it inevitably went all sideways and wet again.
She practically ran down the streets. After the darkness of the past few days, the lightness felt safe, a feeling that was in short supply these days, especially after reading the paper she'd cribbed from her neighbor. Too many names she knew on there. She'd put the paper back once she was done- she was very careful about that when she borrowed it, and no one had ever said anything. But the relative sunniness of the day was quickly washing away the bad feelings, and she enjoyed the rare injection of sunlight into the city.
She smelled it first. The coffee, smelling like a happy player piano, beckoning her towards it. Folowing the smell-sound, she practically danced down the sidewalk, not even bothering to keep her hand in her pocket. The only thing that would make it better would be if it was warm enough to be shoeless, or better still, naked, but for now, it was quite nice. She stopped for a moment to scritch a little kitten behind the ears and contemplated taking it back home with her. Maybe if it was there later, she would. She was so wrapped up in her euphoria that she was barely able to stop short of the redheaded woman in front of her. "Whoops, sorry about that-that," she said with a chirp and a snap. "Guess-guess I got a little wrapped up in myself!"
"As long as yourself was
"As long as yourself was warm and snuggly the surrounding yourself is appropriate." Molly offered a huge grin to the person with impressive internal breaks. "Besides, a collision would do no damage to the rosy glow. It may color the back blue but the only affliction would fall to the ego. People bounce back like balls. Unless they have no balls, then they are colored yellow."
The woman before her was dark of hair but her eyes shone an inner light. And most amazing of all was that Molly need only stare straight ahead to look, not crink her neck. "I believe we'll see eye to eye on the matter. I was not looking at my feet, as they were too happy at the dance to go the proper way. Is there a proper way? But I was following my nose not my eyes, although feet tend to lead and the rest follow. I may have been as much in error as anyone. I smelled the morning and it leads to consumables. Usually." Molly's hazel eyes widened as a memory bubble burst behind them. "Oh! Proper form is an exchange of monikers. Mine is Molly. Mad Molly goes on dirty toes to save her shoes from gravel," She spoke the last with a sort of grave solemnity. "But I don't, shoes save the toes from gravel. My lower digits are bereft of grime."
..
"Um, yeah, I-I guess it was," Louise said with a half-grin, realizing that she had finally managed to find the one person in town who was harder for people to listen to than herself. The girl sure certainly had a way with words, in a roundabout sort of way. Her voice came off like an abstract painting: colors melding together that didn't normally belong together, yet managing to join in something that was still very pleasing to the ears.
She'd been so wrapped up with trying to decipher what the girl was saying that she almost missed the girl introducing herself. She twitched and barked at her shoulder as she extended her left hand to shake. "I'm Louise." She smiled and chirped before continuing. "Nice to meet-met you, Mad Molly." She looked down at their shoes when Molly mentioned them. "I don't know about you, but I'd- chirp! -much rather my toes be covered in grime. I love being barefoot." And naked, but that wasn't something you brought up with a stranger. "So, um, where ya headed this-this fine morning?" She added one more chirp at the end.
This girl sang her own song.
This girl sang her own song. See eye to eye and sing in disharmony. Maybe they could understand one another. Her twitches and chirps made her all the more wonderful. Molly shook Louise's hand and noticed her skin was painted on the back of it. Painted like a canvas, dyed like fabric, the skin a suit to the soul. Molly laughed in the joy of it. A sister soul. She impulsively hugged this sister-stranger, quickly so there was no entrapment. "Our spirits are twined. Are we both haunted? Oh, my deep gratitude for being you. This day is almost blinding."
"I bare my soles on the inside, where sticks and stones and glass can not hurt me. Heels heal, bringing me up, and tapping music for the dance." Molly made a quick spin, as if to illustrate, her two inch heels clicking to the pavement on completion. "I was headed nowhere and everyplace to see what could be seen. I needed amusement, but also to be lost in the circus, just another acrobat. But the smell of morning called me. So I changed direction to drift with the flow of scent." She pointed to the diner a little ways off.
..
Louise suppressed a giggle, but didn't mind the unexpected hug. She wasn't quite getting the gist of everything Molly said, but she definitely said it well. But she definitely did seem like a kindred spirit in some ways. Something told her that Molly got a lot of the same looks that she got. "I don't know about haunted- chirp! -but there's definitely something rattling around in there unhinged!" she said with a grin. She watched Molly spinning around in her heels, still failing to understand how anyone walked around in shoes like that. But she was at least graceful enough on them.
"-scent. Oh, the diner!" Louise said as Mad Molly pointed. "Wanna join me for breakfast?" She said, offering her left hand with a chirp and a couple of twitches. "The eggs-eggs are to die for. Coffee? I don't know about that, I never touch-touch-touch- COCK! -the stuff myself."
Molly looked wildly about.
Molly looked wildly about. Had some man left their pants at home? Nope. Perhaps there was bird that roosts? No, it was Louise, chirping, snapping, twitching Louise. She was perhaps the most wonderful person in the world at this moment because Molly found the sad center of alone in her loosing some space. She wasn't the only unique spirit, although Louise was likely not a broken watch but a stained glass window, purposely made for its beauty. Therefore Molly shrugged the outburst off, and it was literally forgotten.
"I'm not supposed to imbibe. Something about scaling walls or scales on the paint. But I like tea. And bread browned, or suns in shells... Fasts must be broken or the butterflies grumble. I'd be very joyful to join you in communal dining." Molly wanted to do a cartwheel, but the constriction of her skirt prevented any such effort. Instead she faced the diner and began walking, assuming Louise would be beside her. "Do you abide close by?" By and by abide, Molly liked the feel of that in her head. "I can't recall the way back to where I came from. It's a twisting road, chronologic and physical. But my feet usually bring me home. Or my family without blood espy me and bundle me off like a babe. I think I passed a flower girl, not the wedding type."
..
Part of Louise wondered if Molly was on drugs or just crazy, but either way she was cheerful and seemed harmless enough. And seemed to want tea and toast. But it was the second part of her comment that worried her a little. "Yeah, I'm- chirp! -just a few blocks away, actually." She looked at her, walking just behind her as she tried to keep up. "You don't know-know where you're from? Do you need a place to stay or something?" She smiled as she finally came shoulder to shoulder with Mad Molly. "I mean, I don't have much room, but you're more than- Cock! Cock in my ass! -welcome to stay with me if-if-if-if you need to." She chirped again and snapped her fingers as they got to the door and Louise opened it for her. It might mean she'd need to change a few habits, but considering what was going around these days, neither of them needed to be alone.
Molly shook her head. She
Molly shook her head. She offered a sad kind of smile. "I was gifted a place in a domicile. A man with red hair and art in his eyes collected me. Many thanks for the offer." She gave a little shrug and her steps became a little less light. "My recollections suffer a disturbing difficulty at grasping. I don't always know where the road was meant to take me once I've left the house. Sometimes I quite lack the recall to return. But those who care for their little sister in name follow the breadcrumbs to me if I am not ahead of the curtain of stars and blackness. I also have numbers pinned inside my coat so I can talk in a box and be gotten." She fluttered a small hand. "I was once a real girl. I had memories all strung together and thoughts in a linear fashion as any real girl does. But BAM!" She clapped her hands loudly, "the blade cut through the real girl and left me behind. I'm a patchwork doll not even a marionette. I flop." Molly nodded. "So you see, I have a house under the Calix, and I dream in words that flow silky and proper from my mouth. I make things say my right words for me, and am compensated with coin I get to keep and buy pretties... like shoes with clicky heels."
"I think I need chicken embryos to let my crisped bread swim in. Oh! That's what the money was for. I knew there was a purpose for it's being with me. It just ran out my ear."
..
Louise was starting to get the picture. It was kind of like watching a painting come together, in an odd way- the broad strokes of color, then details slowly becoming clear, even if you had to sometimes turn the painting upside down or sideways to understand it all. "Well, I'm glad-glad you've got someplace to go," she said with a smile and a few more blinks than were really necessary. "So toast and eggs it is then! chirp! chirp! You should definitely try..." She stopped suddenly as something Molly had said clicked in her own mis-wired head. "Wait, did-did-did-did you say Calix- Cock!?" Talk about things working out in mysterious ways.
Molly nodded. "Calix is the
Molly nodded. "Calix is the daddy, and I have no interest in where his cock has been, will be or is at this moment. There are subjects inappropriate for anyone to imaginate about a pseudo parent." She shuddered and made a disgusted face. "Now I must wash already damaged gray matter with a wire brush."
Molly relied on Louise's sense of direction. She could follow her nose to the smell, but Louise knew the way by sight. Of course, Molly's nose being where it was, left the girl with no choice but to follow it. She looked down, crosseyed and found she could only spy the barest hint of it in the middle. Refocusing her eyes brought a momentary wave of disorientation. "Whoa, Nellie. The world tipped and I feared falling off."
..
Louise blushed. Molly seemed to be a sweet girl and she hadn't meant to offend. "Sorry about that, Molly. I-I-I- chirp! - just do that sometimes." She chirped and snapped a couple of times before continuing. "My brain's kinda wired-wired wrong. Same wonderful gene pool that messed this up." She pulled her right hand out of her pocket and showed Molly how it didn't really want to do more than just be there. She looked up at her just in time to catch her... whatever had just happened. It took her a couple of chirps before she could respond. "Um, um, are you okay-kay?" she said, reaching out in case Molly needed catching.
Molly's hazel eyes went big
Molly's hazel eyes went big and round. "Ooooh. It's a good thing I'll forget what shouldn't be remembered. I think. My apologies for my misinterpretation. Who invented that word? Misinterpretation... misinformed, Mississippi... miss sounds of a kiss and the rest follows its course." She snapped out of her wandering reverie. "Oh, I'm well. It's very difficult to see your own olfactory device, even when following it. I tried and as I gave down the world got blurry and made a tilty motion"
Molly reached out and patted the pocket where Louise's bad hand was concealed once more. "Accident of birth or deliberate infliction, I think you may have the better circumstance. Never knowing anything else there isn't a sense of loss. I know I forget. I have knowledge that things disappear in the gray matter. The words are locked in the prison, and substitutes fall from frustrated lips. My marks and maps lie below the fibers and hounds teeth." She tugged on her smart and fashionable patterned jacket.
Molly frowned. "I was looking for something, wasn't I? Oh well, if I find it I'll know it. But if I don't I can hardly miss it. Breaking the fast was the order. Or we can give an order to break something. No... that would be rude and unaccepted. Just edibles."
With a cheerful smile she looked at Louise once more. "I love the painted canvas you wear." She gestured to the bit of tattoo showing. "You keep the gallery with you and are never alone."
..
Louise was really beginning to like Molly. The way she talked and thought, in a lot of ways, they were alike. Sure, the symptoms were different, but they both had a very unique way of interacting with the world around them. "-alone," she started, repeating the last words Molly had said. "Thanks. Trust me, they're-they're all over." She gave a mischevious smile and looked around, then opened her blouse to reveal some of the artwork on her chest, quickly covering it back up so she wouldn't be picked up for indecency. "It's too- chirp! -bad I have to keep them covered so much, really. And they're mostly my own-my own work, too." She grinned proudly. "Of course, to see the real gallery,- chirp! you'd have to come back to my little hole in the wall. That's where I keep my real art."
Stopping short, she found that they had made it to the diner. "A-ha!" she said, adding a chirp and a bark at her shoulder for emphasis. "Milady Molly, we have arrived at the predetermined location for the breaking of fasts. Shall we?"
"Really?" Molly felt
"Really?" Molly felt excitement course through her. "I would love to see your canvas. I would love to make your limbs turn to clay. Maybe you could remake your art on another canvas and show all without disturbing mores and rules. Glimpses that tease at the whole... If others like the story you would find compensation." Molly could already see it in her mind. Sculpture did not fade. It never was swallowed by the void. White limbs away from the whole, in some form of grace, the ink painted to show the outside of the sweetness that was Louise. To have her art in a gallery as much as always with her. If she'd agree. Molly knew people were afraid of her at times. Too little sense, madness they thought might rub off.
She was glad to see the diner, however, and her tummy made a noise to signal feeding time. "We shall," She responded and linked her arm in Louise's. "Eat, drink and get married, for tomorrow we change out hair color."