Lifestyles

Who: Pepper and Helena
Where: In the Ghetto
When: Just after dusk.

The residencies and store fronts that lined this city street were destitute; everything they lacked for in beauty they made up for with age. This distressed part of the city lacked hope and so it was suffocating as if it had no air to swallow. Most of the folk around these parts were immigrants and not one person could boast of the good life. If anyone was rich around here it had to do with family and friends. Judging from the dearth of smiling faces the drab funeral gray of the area seemed to suck the warmth from any flecks of color that clung to rotting wood. Helena couldn't imagine anyone being happy here. She was afraid this was where she'd end up later in life...poor and lonely.

Not surprisingly, it was known that the O'Malley's exploited the poor in this area. They recruited soldiers; Telling them that a better life was out there waiting. And, just like her Eddie, they bought it because they had nothing better to hope for and all their dreams were stuck on the bottom of better people's boots.

That was why she was here. Though, she was not sure what she could accomplish. She hadn't thought it out further than grabbing her coat and spending a cab's fare to get down this way. When she got here she felt she had made a grand mistake. She stuck out like a sore thumb. Not even her well worn gloves she had been so embarrassed about marred her effortless ability to dress well.

It was just after dusk and the rabble were just emerging from their holes and she felt like a rabbit in a den of foxes. Helena was not prone to under dressing and although affluence was something she didn't know that much about she did her best to make it appear as if she did. Her petty coat ruffled like tissue. Her purse handle felt extremely delicate hanging from the crook of her elbow like bait on a hook. From afar, the plastic string of pearls did their job and gleamed like treasure. Luckily, most everyone that was out ignored her...or gave her dirty looks.

Helena's fancy blue heels struck the pavement as she walked the streets with an urgency she couldn't conceal. She was trying her best to seem undisturbed by the creatures around her. She was a firm believer in the "don't let them see you sweat" school of getting out of a dilemma. The trouble was she wasn't sure she was doing a good enough job. And, there were no cabs anywhere.

Pepper had been watching the woman ever since she came into view, from her position in a shadowed doorway. She always watched people who stood out, and this woman seemed to stand out. The street kid gave her a few more moments, then pushed herself to her feet, hands behind her against the grimy wall surrounding the door before she jumped down into the street itself, deftly avoiding landing in the oil-slicked puddle of grimy water as she fell into step beside the object of her observation. "Hello!" she said, cheerily, as though meeting an old friend, rather than a total stranger. As usual, Pepper had little regard for her appearance. Her face was smeared with days of grime, her clothes equally dirty, though she managed to not actually smell too much. And, as per usual and habit now, her head was shaved clean of hair, though a few days of stubble gave it a darkened appearance.

The girl had given Helena a start and she had initially gasped as the bald headed teenager landed beside her. "You shouldn't do that." Came her reply, ignoring the initial hello and going straight for her opinion. Perhaps it wasn't necessary but her arm bent tighter, adding extra security to the hand bag that dangled off her arm. She didn't have much money inside but it was all she had for the cab fare home.

It took her a whole minute to realize that this street urchin wasn't a young boy but a young woman. It shouldn't have made a difference but the horror of what she was looking at came as such a shock that Helena paused in the street, turned to take in the whole effect of the stranger and frowned. It was probably all the guilt she'd been feeling, especially after her argument with Jesse but she felt herself relenting and finally she opened her bag and took out her change purse, opened it and peered inside. "How about 50 cents? Would that do you some good?" She was obviously at a loss.

Pepper's grin was bright and wide - white teeth showing through the grim of her face and making her look suddenly and unexpectedly childlike. "Sure! Thanks lady, really!" she practically gushed. "You need to go anywhere? You're looking kinda..." out of place, you sure you know where you are, lady? "-lost. Maybe I could show you the way to go<" she offered, willing to work for her reward. Actually, she would prefer that. She wouldn't turn down handouts, but she really preferred not to be in someone's debt. Not even for half a dollar.

The blonde woman did feel lost, in more ways than one but, she didn't feel this an appropriate thing to say to the young girl. "I'm not really sure where I'm going." She uncharacteristically grabbed at the bottom of her lip with her teeth and thought How am I supposed to ask for help from this penniless child? This thoughtful expression was short lived. Helena was afraid of messing her lipstick. She ran her hands over her jacket instead, smoothing out wrinkles and then smiled (only after she had run her tongue over the surface of her teeth a few times in preparation),"Do I really stick out that badly? It isn't dangerous around here is it?"

"Dangerous? Oh no," Pepper told her, cheerily. "At least, not if you're with me - I know everyone round here, and I know where everything is, so if there's any place you need to go, just say the word and I can take you there! You're not from round here, right? What part of town do you live in? Some place much nicer than this, right? I bet you have a real nice place, real swell - you look like the kind of lady that would have a real nice place, but it's okay round here, you just have to know people - like that guy over there?" she said, rattling her words off ten to the dozen as she twisted a little to point to a guy hunkered down in the shadow of a garbage bin, just down the side of a nearby alley. "That's deaf Jeff. Now, he may look like he's sleeping, but he's not - and i dunno how, what with him being deaf and all, but he always knows when there's people near. Now me, I don't think he's deaf at all - I think he's just pretending, to trick people like, make them think he's not quite all there. There's lots of people like that round here - people who aren't quite all there," she said, doing the world accepted whirly sign for madness about her right temple. "Now me, I don't think they all could be, somes of them - they just make you think they must be, but they're not. Some people they just want to make you get close. And others, well - you don't see them. but I do - you just gotta know what to look out for, lady. And I know what to look out for, see? Plus, I grew up here, so lots of people, they leave me alone. They know me, see? They say - 'see that Pepper, we know her, she's alright', and they leave me be. And whoever I'm with, see?" Finally, the street kid paused for breath and looked back at Helena as though she hadn't just rambled on for a few minutes, none stop.

"Well then. It looks like I ran into the right person." Helena complimented, her shy smile increasing as they walked together. "and no. I am not from around here but I don't live too far off actually." What a difference a few blocks make She didn't think it would do to pretend she was high and mighty, not with this girl who probably didn't have much comfort in her life. Seeing the state of things around here, she felt grateful for what little she had. At least she had bread & butter and milk in the ice box. She felt so grateful that all she did was listen to her new friend as she prattled on like a bird in a tree.

Deaf Jeff. Mental Patient. Great. "You're out here all alone?" She assumed this girl was orphaned or worse. Helena wanted to be delicate but she felt miserable that such a state of affairs had befallen the young girl, "You're very brave to be sure. But, a young girl has to be careful." As they walked, Helena caught site of the both of them in a store front window. Their reflection bounced back and was a cruel reminder of the reality of living. The two of them were as mismatched as could be. But, things hadn't always been that way. There was a time where Helena very much could have ended up like the girl walking beside her. is that why this pathetic creature has stripped herself of all femininity. The poor dear. The world is a helluva place.

"Careful?" Pepper laughed. "Oh yeah, don't you worry about me, lady - I'm plenty careful. And I'm not really alone. You get to know people see - I've got family. Well, not family-family. Not like a ma and a pa and brothers and sisters, but I have family still - friends and everything. People watch out for each other. I watch their back, they watch mine - if you're from round here, people notice you, see? So, if something's wrong - people notice. It's just people like you - no offence or anything - but it's the people that stick out," Pepper explained, apparently completely oblivious to her surroundings, but that wasn't actually the fact. She was always aware, always thinking, always with half an eye to what was going on around her. She'd just been doing it for so many years now it no longer needed any conscious effort. "See - you stick out. You don't look like you belong. Really, it's a lot of little things. Your shoes - people round here don't wear shoes like that 'less they're, y'know, working the streets. Not that - I mean, see - you don't look like that type," Pepper told her, for the first time of the evening looking embarrassed. She never felt comfortable talking about anything to do with sex. If there was one place in the world she wasn't going to end up, it was as a girl in heels on a street corner - she'd starve first. She didn't want to be a woman if that was her destiny, and in a place like this, there wasn't many other options. But, whatever the options, she was taking door number anything-but-that.

"Working the streets?" Helena thought out loud and then exclaimed, "dear me!...no. No of course not...." She looked down at her shoes as they marched forward, considering them in a different way. She'd thought they had been stylish. Maybe blue leather was something beyond modest but at least they weren't open toe. They certainly weren't as high as some shoes today. She wasn't sure what to do so she adjusted her collar nervously. Maybe if her neck wasn't showing she'd seem less glaringly foreign.

The real reason she had come all this way was twitching on her lips. She wanted to ask but she didn't know how to bring it up. This girl could be part of the mob and she could work for the O'Malley's. There was no way for her to be certain. There was only one place she could start and that was the beginning so she asked. "What's your name dear?" Then, setting an example she revealed, " I'm Helena."

Pepper caught the way the woman had twitched and hurried to keep correcting herself. "No, lady - you don't... See, that's the thing - you don't look like that. Not just your shoes, but the pearls and the coat and, well - everything, the whole thing. You just - you're too nice to be down here," she explained, trying to couch it in better terms that weren't 'your shoes make you look like a whore' - which hadn't been what she'd meant at all. "And I'm Pepper, see - I told you. And Helena's a nice name. 'Round here' you'd be 'Hell' already. They can be like that, but a nickname's proper - everyone's got a nickname, that just shows that you belong," she explained as she steered Helena away from a group of men huddled around a garbagecan fire, crossing the street to give them a wide berth without missing a step. Keeping to the darkness as they did, the men hardly gave them a second glance, and they definitely weren't going to leave the warmth of their spot to investigate the walking figures.

"I see...Nice to meet you, Pepper." Helena had missed the introduction, maybe because the girl spoke a hundred words a minute. She wondered what the girl's real name was. It couldn't be Pepper. That was not very Christian. She couldn't imagine a parent being that reckless. "Some people call me Hell, before I correct them." She admitted. Eddie called her Lena. Her parents had called her Ella. "Am I being to formal?" She allowed herself to try to loosen up and shook the formality as best she could.

Of course, as they crossed in front of the group of men, Helena put up the wall all over again. Hobo's and Tramps weren't supposed to be trusted. These were desperate times. They might do desperate things...She breathed a sigh of relief when the girl lead her away from what she was certain would be the end of her. That was when she found her opportunity though and she whispered, "I'm surprised the mob allows them on the streets...."

"The mob?" Pepper picked up, pulling a face. "Which mob? Anyway - they don't have as much control as some of them think they do. I mean, they're here and there and everything, but there's places that not even they would go, y'know? It's not for them to 'let' anything. Really, think about it - if not even the mayor of the city and all those official types cares about what goes on round here, why would the mob? Either of them? they just swan around in their fancy suits from time to time, but if you stay out of their way and keep your head down, they don't even look your way." She paused and considered that. "I had a friend once, Ben - he went and worked for them. Dunno what happened to him. Never saw him again. See now, Frank told me that Carlie had told him that her sister-in-law's cousin had seen Ben up town in a fancy suit, but I don't knows if I believes that - less he got a job as a bellhop in one of them fancy hotels or something. Ben never did have too many brains, so no call to be wearing an actual suit," she mused, considering the logistics of that.

"yeah..."She said but it was impossible to conceal her disappointment. It wasn't the sort of answer she'd been hoping for. "Yeah...I knew someone too." Now that was a slip up, but the mafia roots had deeply influenced the city so it wasn't rare for someone to know someone that ended up neck deep in mob activity. "Last I knew you didn't need a fancy degree for leg breaking." She gulped, knowing that was as far as she should take it. It only took one person to over hear and it only took the wrong person to not like what they heard. If they knew Eddie, then they could very well know her and it wouldn't take a genius (or a leg breaker) to figure out that Helena was sniffing up trees.

"It's freezing out here." Helena said, "How about we get ourselves a cocoa." She looked around, wondering if there was even a place to get cocoa around here. She allowed her head to look to and fro and gave up when the selection of cozy dining establishments seemed slim pickings. Wait. What was that neon flicker. "Is that someplace?" she asked, pointing ahead of them, down the street and to the left.

"If I was to stay clear of "the mob" where shouldn't I go?" She picked up the pace, the winter wind whipping her stocking covered legs.

Pepper's first priority was generally getting food, so she ignored Helena's other comments in favour of the mention of 'cocoa'. "Sure, that'd be great - and that's Mal's - he's not bad, though if we're going in there, then sit near the door and don't look at the guys in the back. I dunno why, but the guys in the back don't like being looked at. But he does food and stuff there - I'm been there a couple of times as well," she said, with obvious pride. It had usually been when someone else was paying, but once she'd found a quarter in the gutter outside the Kitten Club and she'd spent it there. It had been cold that night and the warmth of being in the diner had been almost as good as the small burger she'd bought.

Important matters dealt with, Pepper thought about Helena's other question, ignoring the fact that she knew someone in the mob - that didn't surprise Pepper, as far as she was concerned, mafia work was just another career path. "If you wanted to avoid them? Well, that depends. Like, I hear that the DiGio...whatever they're called - the Italian ones, I think - weird name I can't pronounce. Anyway, I hear that they run that big old hotel on the other side of town? The really fancy one? And, like, the other lot? The Syndicate? They have the Kitten Club - with all the dancers?" And Babylon. She knew about Babylon, but she didn't mention it - Pepper wouldn't, well, it was one of those places, wasn't it? One of those places she didn't want to end up. "Oh! And I hear that the O'Malleys? The Irish lot that work with the Syndicate? They've opened a bar recent - Rock something or other."

"Alright." Helena said, wondering about the "guys in the back" but taking her advice seriously. "If you keep me company and let me buy you a cocoa then you've earned your fifty cents." She was being charitable but she was also scared of this place and Pepper knew a thing or two about a thing or two.

"Right..." Helena said sullenly. The hotel she might be able to do but the Kitten Club and a Bar? She was hoping she wouldn't have to go down that road. She was trying to make headway inside the inner workings and so far her only choices were disputable at best. How was she supposed to get close to the O'Malley's? She'd have to think on it. "Thanks for the information Pepper." She said sincerely as they continued down the street to the punch of neon color.

"I can keep you company - that's not a problem," Pepper said, happily. The cocoa wasn't a problem either, but Pepper didn't really think that you could earn people buying you things - that didn't seem right to her, somehow, so she kept quiet about it. "Is there anything else you need?" she asked, this time offering without a thought to money - she liked the woman, who seemed friendly enough.

"I might need to know where I can call a cab when we're done but I can't think of anything." She wrapped her arms around herself, her pulled up collar still protected her neck (and her modesty). "I'm freezing. The sooner I get indoors the better I'll be." She shuddered, jack frost making mayhem with his cold north wind. She glanced over at Pepper who was homeless and hatless. "Where do you stay on nights like these?"

"Oh, Mal's has a phonebooth in the back, I bet you could call from there - and tonight I'll sleep down in the tunnels - it's always a lot warmer down there, and people have fires going, it's usually fun," she said, happily. That wasn't entirely true - it wasn't always 'fun'. Sometimes it was, but a lot of times it was uncomfortable, and she didn't get much sleep, watching her back. It all depended on who else was down there. Pepper had developed a good feel for impending danger as a child, and it was one of the things which had kept her alive over the years. But she wasn't going to admit that to a stranger. That would be admitting a weakness, a chink in the armor, that most people didn't even know was there.

Helena had always been better at taking care of herself than she was at taking care of others. Even still, the idea that this young girl was sleeping down in the sewers was terrible. Times were tough though and if there was one girl there had to be a hundred, maybe more. Helena had so many questions but she buttoned her lip for the time being. This girl hardly knew her and it wouldn't do to frighten her off by starting with too many personal questions.Pepper was independent and Helena appreciated that. Still, fifty cents and a cup of cocoa was the least she can do. "I don't know how you don't wear a hat with that bald head of yours. Your skull must be frozen."

Pepper put her hand to her head, then started to pat down her jacket. "Oh! I have a hat, it's, er..." She reached inside her coat and pulled out a dirty and dishevelled flatcap. It was possible that it had always been that browny-greyish colour, or it could simply have been ingrained dirt. It was hard to tell. It was definitely made of a good, hard-wearing material though. Pepper had been given it a few years back by a guy she knew who had won another hat off another guy in a poker game. Things often went round like that, passed from person to person. She'd run errands for him for a week for it, so it was hers - she'd earned it. "I just don't always wear it - kinda keep it for when it's really needed, see," she explained.

"That's a relief." She said, surveying the dirty cap suspiciously. Helena was meticulous with her cleanliness and she couldn't help but feel all and out pity for anyone that was dirty. She wanted to ask Pepper when was the last time she washed up but she figured that was a rude questions and didn't want to risk insulting the teenager. Still, it was worrisome knowing that youngsters survived out here like wild animals...alley cats.

It seemed as if Pepper wouldn't need to wear her cap anyways, because they had arrived at the Diner. The neon light was sizzling with electricity and every now and again it would pop with ozone. At least it looked warm inside. The heat had fogged the glass. The place wasn't spotless but the aroma coming from the chimney vents was scintillating. "Whatever they're cooking, it smells delicious."

Pepper shoved her cap back inside her coat and drew the coat across her, wrapping an arm across her stomach, as though she could muffle the growling of her stomach that way. She wished she could - the deal had been made, and it didn't include food, more's the pity. But she knew she hadn't really learned the art of bargaining that well yet and she didn't really think that now was the time to start. "Yeah, smells okay," she said instead.

"I wonder if they have club sandwich's." Helena hrmmed as she reached out to hold the door open for the girl and then went in behind her.

Now, Helena had forgotten and had looked around and part of looking around was looking out back. Her eyes met a gaze before she suddenly remembered she wasn't supposed to look in the back. With her memory jogged she let her gaze bounce all around the room as if she was looking at nothing in particular and spoke to Pepper, "You choose the best seat..."

Pepper looked around a little, just a fast look to take in who was there before she turned to the right and slid into the booth nearest to the window. there was a draft coming in, and the glass sucked some of the warmth away, but it was the safest place for a kid and a stranger-woman to sit. Comfort was never the highest priority in Pepper's life, she'd learned that over the years. You could have comfort, but it came at a price. "Here's fine," she said, pulling a paper napkin from the dispenser and starting to paly with it - unfolding it first and then starting to refold it in a different way, wondering if she could make something interestnig.

"Are you hungry?" Helena took a seat and watched the kid grab paper and fiddle around with it. For a moment she wondered if the half starved street kid was going to snack on the fiber. "I'm starving." She commented lightly. "Want to split something with me?" She snatched a menu from the side of the booth. "What's good here?"

She hadn't bothered taking off her jacket. The draft was harsh coming in through the window. The wind wasn't letting anything stop it. Instead, she scrunched up her jacket sleeves and unbuttoned the front so the bulk of the coat wouldn't be too much to eat around.

"Nah - I ate earlier. Full steak dinner, all the trimmings. I'm full, really, couldn't fit in another bite," Pepper said, trying to sound airy and not bothered. She'd struck the deal and she'd stick to it - anyway, she couldn't remember last time she got chocolate, so that would be fine. Really. "And I'd go for whatever's on the special's board," she added - not that she knew what was on the specials board. Pepper really didn't read so well - it wasn't like she'd ever had a formal education. She could read a little, but handwriting she wasn't so good at.

The specials....Where were they? Ah...The chalk board was stationed near the entrance. She strained a little to focus on the blurry white of the day old chalk scribbled but it wasn't impossible to read and soon enough she'd made up her mind. Not long after the waitress came over. Helena smiled at the woman, who looked about as run down as the rest of the town. The lipstick the woman was wearing had seeped into the cracks and wrinkles surrounding her mouth and resembled sun rays on an Indian symbol. She still seemed chipper. Maybe it was because she had a job. "What can I get you's?" She asked, a bit of the low river accent coming through.

This was when Helena became uncertain. She wasn't homeless but she was poor. Eddie left her some cash and Jesse helped her whenever he could but the money wouldn't last forever and she knew she shouldn't be splurging on diner food. She was hungry but she wasn't starving and she knew she had food back home. She had only said what she did in hopes that the girl might have something, even if it was just french fries. "I'll have the pot pie please and two cups of cocoa if you could."

The waitress nodded while she jotted the order and said, "Coming right up." gave Pepper a smile and went on her way.

Pot pie sounded good. pepper didn't think she'd ever had pot pie, but it sounded good. At least she'd get to know what it was, watching the lady eat it. That would be hard though, she knew - it was always harder, watching someone else eat. She concentrated on the napkin, folding it this way and that, sometimes becoming frustrated with something she'd done and backtracking a few folds, before trying something else. Pepper had no idea what she was trying to make, she just wanted to be doing something with her hands. She always felt vulnerable in places like this. She felt like she didn't belong.

Helena watched the girl, fidget with her hands and the awkward undercurrent streamed by them, threatening to undo the nice time they were sharing. Just in time, the waitress brought two cocoa over. Whisps of steam curled up over the heated liquid chocolate and the marshmallows that had been added sat like tiny rafts in their melted foam. Helena said a soft, "thank you." and then began blowing on the sweet, concoction.

The cocoa was merely a distraction. There was many thoughts wandering through Helena's mind, all of which twanged on her guilty nerve. At last she said, "You should come and visit me sometime." of course she instantly regretted saying this. Pepper was a dirty street person. She was hardly the sort of rabble Helena wanted around her place of residence. What sort of signal would that give? Still...It was hard to be lonely.

Pepper had been concentrating on not immediately reaching for the cocoa. Sure, she'd bolted food down with Dutch the other day, but he'd offered her a job - and she hadn't just told him that she wasn't hungry. The sweet scent of the warm drink before her was almost intoxicating, and as Helena spoke, Pepper sat up a little more and pulled the mug toward herself, warming her hands around the ceramic of the mug.

The girl looked up with hazel eyes which were bright in the grime of her face. "Visit you?" she asked, her tone a mix of emotions - surprise warred with wariness, though there was an undercurrent of excitement mixed in as well.

"I don't know..." Helena said, wrapping her own hands around the mug and fighting to hold on to the hot porcelain without letting go. She was embarrassed. Maybe she had misread the girl. "I just thought you might want to." At last the heat of the vessel was too much for her to take and she loosened her grip. "You don't have to."

Pepper paused, thinking. The lady seemed nice - real nice. Sure, it was odd for her to be wandering around, looking like she didn't belong, but she seemed nice. And she'd acted all bothered, when Pepper had made the comment about her shoes. Like she was mortified even to have it suggested that she could be one of those women - so, maybe it was safe to assume that she wasn't one of those ones that came round sometimes, looking for girls. Maybe it was okay to trust the nice lady who seemed friendly and interested. "Maybe I will - if I'm in that part of town, y'know," she suggested, in the end.

"Of course." Helena said, finally chancing a sip of her drink and hoping she didn't burn her tongue. Luckily the skimming surface of the cocoa had cooled enough for her to enjoy the treat.

Helena was trying to do the right thing. Maybe as repentance for Jesse. She needed an outlet to release the guilt that was always churning directly below her surface. Naturally, it was not in her nature to be kind hearted and tend to orphans but Pepper had been helpful and so perhaps she would be good company. "Well, if you are ever in my area." She reached into her purse and pulled out a pen. Helena gave it a few shakes to move the ink down and then snatched a napkin. She wrote down the address and slid it over. It hadn't dawned on her that she may not be able to read what she had jotted.

Pepper reached for the napkin and pulled it towards herself, pushing the cocoa out the way slightly to be able to do so. Reaching the edge of the table, she lifted it up and made a show of reading it. She got the numbers - she was good at numbers. And part of the address. She knew someone she could check it with another time though, so she wasn't too worried about it. "Nice part of town," she commented, lifting her eyes to Helena's as she slipped the napkin into an inside pocket and went for her cocoa again. She figured that all parts of town were nice compared to this one, so it was an easy compliment to give, even if she didn't know exactly where the lady lived.

"It's alright..."Helena replied, wondering if Pepper was being sarcastic. After all, she lived in a pretty rough section of town. Not as bad as here but there were bad elements constantly assembling outside her apartment building. "some day I'll live some place better. I want a fountain." She said in passing.

Pepper blinked at that over the rim of her mug as she took a large gulp of chocolate. It left a moustache of brown foam on her top lip as she sett he mug back down on the table and swallowed. " A fountain?" she asked, clearly in disbelief, as if such a thing was surely impossible. "In your house?"

"No." Helena smiled, probably the first time she smiled genuinely and largely, "In my topiary garden." Of course it was a fantasy. She wasn't sure she'd ever dig herself out of the gutter. She was no longer a girl and time was ticking. She wouldn't be beuatiful and vital forever.

And then? The pot pie came. The waitress, Dottie the name tage said, placed the dish carefully in front of the woman and warned, "The dish is hot. I'd let it cool for a moment." and she was right. The broth was bubbling from the inside, seeping out from the golden crust. It smelled delicious. "Can I get you anything else?"

"This is enormous..." Helena remarked, "how about another plate?" She eyes Miss Pepper and looked pleadingly, "You should really help me with this. I've never had a very large appetite. Are you sure you won't have some?"

"What's topiary?" Pepper asked, encouraged to be able to do so by the smile she received, but the question had been half distracted as she had turned at the smell of food and watched the waitress carrying the plate over. Her stomach had rumbled again and Pepper wondered if that was the reason for Helena's question and offer. Pepper looked very uncertain for a moment, but her stomach won out and she nodded. "If you're sure you aren't gonna eat it all," she said, her voice quieter than usual.

Helena was a small woman. She said the mantra 'a second at the lips, forever on the hips' daily and so it probably would have been assumed by most people that she ate like a bird. Compound that with the fact that her grieving had been deeply effecting and you had someone that probably SHOULD eat a whole pie to her head. But, as it were, it would have been impossible for Helena to finish half of the dish, never mind the whole thing. "I'm sure." She said to Pepper and then nodded at the waitress. "Please. Another plate."

The waitress nodded and reached behind her to grab one from the nearest table. "Here ya go." then she was off to another table.

Helena picked up her spoon and dug it into the flaky crust and started to pile chicken pot onto Pepper's plate. "A Topiary is sculpture but instead of marble or clay they use shrubs and trees."

"Why?" Pepper asked, waiting until Helena had finished passing over food before she started in. She asked the question through a mouthful of pie, and them remembered her manners and quickly swallowed. "Why - isn't it real hard to sculpt trees? they don't much look like things you see, statues and stuff," she pointed out. She didn't think she'd ever seen a statue made out of a tree before.

Helena thought it was charming that Pepper didn't get it. She liked the fact the girl was humble. "It's really not the sculptures I'm looking forward to. The fantasy is having a garden and someone to tend to it." She blew on her food. It was still hot and she didn't want to burn the roof of her mouth by taking an impatient bite. "I want better things for myself..." Helena wasn't sure how else to phrase it.

"I'd like a house," Pepper agreed - this time making sure that she'd swallowed her food before she spoke, but already loading up her next forkful. The pot pie was good. Pepper decided that she really liked pot pie - it was now officially her favourite food. "You know - somewhere that's mine? And I'd have a dog - I like dogs, but, like, a big dog, not one of those yappy little rat dogs? A proper dog. And i'd teach it to fetch things and bury bones and everything and it'd be like a guard dog and everything, sos that nobody who I didn't want would come into my house because they'd be scared by my big dog and everything. It'd be black - the dog, not the house - and I'd call him Lightning, because he'd run faster than any other dog ever," she said, clearly having put a lot more thought into the existence of the dog than the existence of the house.

Dogs were not Helena's thing. Eddie had wanted a dog but unfortunately (or fortunately) for her he had died before he made that wish a reality. "Lightening is a good name." She spoke, finally going in for a bite of her food and chewing it until it was mash. "but what is wrong with little dogs?"

"They're yappy and useless," Pepper said, giving her forthright opinion on them. "They never shut up and they get under your feet and they're not good for being guard dogs." And, in Pepper's world, that's why you had a dog - to help keep you safe.

"They are awfully sweet..." Helena offered her own opinion. Helena's reason for getting a pet was very different that Pepper. She'd get an animal as a companion. She'd never not had a man to look after her. The idea of having anything more than some one who could protect her hadn't ever been a quandry she'd had to work around. "I wouldn't want to clean up after either."

Pepper's first thought was sweet won't stop someone coming to hurt you, but she wasn't going to argue with the nice lady who was sharing her dinner with her. "I guess," she said, instead, though her tone was somewhat doubtful. She swallowed another mouthful of dinner - hardly chewing her food before it went down. "You got a little dog then?" she asked.

I can hardly afford to live for me. Never mind another mouth to feed. "No. I really have no use for a dog." She stated matter of fact before spooning another biteful in her mouth. She didn't want to say she couldn't afford one. She thought that would be tactless. "Well perhaps someday you'll get your dog and I'll get my garden and we'll be living large."

Pepper scraped her plate clean, having cleared it in short time, and set her fork down on the empty plate. "Yeah, maybe one day - and you can have your tree-statues, like you wanted," she agreed, thinking that that was likely for Helena - a nice lady like this deserved the things she wanted in life, and she looked like the kind who'd get it as well.

Helena was full. It never took much for her to reach that plateau and the richness of the creamy innards of her pie had forced her over a mild feeling of satisfaction. She leaned back, still prim but probably not as proper as her usual standards. Her stomach was covered by her dainty hand and she huffed, "I'm full." She glanced at he remains of her dish and a good portion was still left behind. "Can you finish the rest?" She asked hopefully. "I'd hate for it to go to waste."

"Sure!" Pepper said, reaching for her plate, actually having tasted the food overcoming her previous reticence to take anything else from the woman. "Thank you - this is really good. Really, really good," she said, quickly tucking into the rest of the food. She checked, for a moment, first though - just to make sure that the lady really did seem full. Which she did - this didn't seem to be some kind of charity thing, but that the food would really go to waste. Food should never be allowed to go to waste, in Pepper's opinion. It never tasted as good out of dumpsters.

"Well...I really should be going soon. Once you finish up could you show me to that pay phone so I can call a cab?" Helena didn't want to walk home even if it would save her the change. With that murderer out on the loose it seemd wiser to pay someone to tote her around. She hated spending the money. At least it would spare her some wear and tear on her shoes. She attempted to sip her cocoa as she waited and watched Pepper shovel the food in her mouth.

"Sure!" Pepper said again, bolting the food down as if someone were about to confiscate it, abandoning all her earlier attempts at grace and politeness. There was very little of the food left and, at one point, Pepper was going at it with such enthusiasm that she looked about to lick the plate clean. She didn't though, laying the fork back down again and only then realising and having at least the wherewithal to look slightly bashful. "Sorry," she mumbled, barely audibly, before moving on. "So - you wanted a cab?" she asked, giving Helena a wide smile.

"I really should get home soon." Helena offered, knowing that deeo evening would be coming soon and she didn't exactly have the means to fight back against a murderer of women. "It's dark out. Aren't you at all concerned about the killer?" She wondered aloud, feeling pity for the girl more than ever.

pepper was. In fact, she'd been staying much closer to 'home' than ever before. If she had to declare a home, it would be sheltered under the sixth street bridge. She knew more people there than anywhere else. It was far from a safe place, but that was where she felt safest in the city and that was where she'd been spending most of her days. "Way I see it, that guy's after pretty women - don't think I count," she said, airily, before realising that that meant (in her opinion anyhow) that Helena would be a target. "Yeah - you... You should get a cab. there's a phone in back," she advised, looking concerned.

"Are you staying here?" she asked. Maybe she could offer Pepper a ride somewhere if she was going her way. "You can have the rest of my cocoa too..." She wouldn't be able to drink the rest of it and if Pepper was staying behind then she might want the extra calories.

"Nah, I have things to do," she told the lady, though she was already eying the chocolate. Maybe, if she took her time over that, she could stay in the arm for a little longer before she got kicked out on her ear by the owner who knew better. "But, I mean - you should probably get home, right?" she suggested, not wanting her own wish to stay in the warm to stop Helena reaching safety.

"I want to make sure you are alright, Pepper." Helena didn't want to sound patronizing but she was an adult and Pepper was not. It didn't matter that Pepper had gone up against things Helena had never dreamed and was here, standing strong in front of her. The girl was still just that, a girl. Helena didn't want to have the novelty of age and wisdom (wishing her looks could last forever) but it was what was and she couldn't change the passage of time. "I don't want to talk down to you but you're young and you don't seem to have anywhere to go. I meant it when I said to visit me if you'd like. Even if it is only for an hour." Helena wiped her mouth with the napkin, made sure there were no splotches of pie residue or crumbs and slid out of the booth so she could grab her gloves from out of her pocket.

"Oh, I'll be just find - George is waiting for me, he'll be looking out for me," she assured Helena, though that was a lie. George would be under the bridge, but 'George' was a madman, completely insane. he was only good to go to if the alternatives were worse. Still, she figured it sounded good.

Her gloves securely set on her arms she took her purse from the booth, "Alright. Well, George must be a good man. Thanks for the company." Helena snapped her fingers remembering, "Oh! That reminds me. We made a deal." She unsnapped the front flap of her purse and dug out her change purse. Not only did she take out money so she could pay the waitress but fifty cents was freed and handed over to the orphan.

Pepper eyed the empty plates for a moment, but it was true - a deal was a deal. She reached up and took the money, quickly pocketing it. "You stay safe, lady," she advised, before glancing at the waitress and making a show of pulling the remains of her hot chocolate towards herself. She wasn't done yet and it had been paid for. They couldn't throw her out til she was done. They just couldn't.

"You stay safe Pepper. I'll see you again sometime." She buttoned her jacket, gave the girl a smile and went to pay the bill. When the account was settled she gave a nod to her new friend and went out of the diner.