Out and About, >open

[Halldór Frímannsson]

The day was cool and windy, not out of the normal for February as people bustled around the town's streets. Mid-afternoon, kids were already running about, glad to be out of school for the day and everyone else was busy trying to get their errands down before the sun sneaked off again. Hal walked down the street at his ease, a brown bag of groceries in one arm, his other swinging freely by his side. The thing was nearly bursting with food and the husky dog that trotted near him knew it. Sparks was his oldest dog and he didn't go on races anymore. He was kind of a dad to the rest of the pups Hal had back home. Sparks was usually the first thing that people would see when they walked into the book shop. He went nearly every where with Hal, and Hal couldn't say he didn't like the little bit of company.

Hal had a few more stops to make before heading back home to his shop. He ran through the list of errands he still had left to do. It wasn't too many, he might even stop off in the pub after dropping off his groceries if he got done early enough. Well, maybe not the pub. Sparks seemed to have a skip in his step today. Maybe he'd head over to one of the fields and toss the boy a ball for awhile. Let him run around a bit. Even old dogs liked to stretch their legs from time to time. And Hal could use the time outdoors too. It seemed like he had been stuck inside for years. He liked to have the front door to his store open as much as possible, but when it was winter that wasn't really an option. Not that it really affected Hal, but he might as well just forget about having any customers.

At the corner, there was a small newspaper stand. It was just the little local paper that came out twice a week. Hal liked it though seeing as he knew most of the people that had made the headlines. Setting his bag on the top of the machine, Hal set about to digging the change out of his jeans pocket. No luck yet, Hal stuck his hands into his jacket's pockets. It seemed like he had about fifty pockets the money could possibly be in. Dressed in his usual attire of jeans, shirt, blue flannel shirt and leather jacket, Hal looked like about every other guy in Leyndarmal. Finally fishing out the right amount of change, he slid it into the slot and opened the door. About to reach in and grab out a paper, Sparks barked loudly at something. Startled by the sudden warning from his dog, Hal looked up and the door slipped out of his hand. It slammed shut and left Hal paperless and looking up for the person that had caused Sparks to bark.

[Brynja Palasdottir]

Brynja was in her 'headless-chicken' mode. She'd woke up at about 2 in the morning and had headed off to one of the hidden places on a whim. Armed with just a torch and her camera she had managed to take some interesting shots to work with in the dark room...but it wasn't the photos she had been after.

Lately her dreams seemed to be seeping more and more into the waking world. She knew she was getting more reckless and it was wearing her down. A part of her wanted to stop, have a rest, but the rest felt like she was betraying her mother. Brynja had to keep searching. But how much did she have left to give? It had been over 5 years now, and all she had was a portfolio of clues and half-truths.

She had trekked back reluctantly, but it was cold and wet. She had sat on the porch thinking for hours, watching the sun come up, hitting the sea front. Was she depressed? She could see how beautiful it was, but it just reminded her of things that weren't there anymore. The light was always smacking up against the darkness she could never shake off.

She must have fallen asleep because soon the postman was laughing at her, friendly-like, about her muddy boots and swept up hair. Brynja was up and about like a rocket, he had reminded her about the delivery deadline she had to meet before last post.

So now she was out pounding the pavement, with three large varying sizes of canvases, wrapped up in brown paper and string. She had to get them to the post office and packed up properly before the last overseas shipment left for the day. Brynja also thought she might do a bit of shopping, she needed a bit of cheering up, and while clothes wasn't really her thing, supplies and maybe a book or two would do her the world of good. If she could find anything decent.

Carrying the parcels awkwardly, she veered round a street corner, almost dropping one when she realised there was another damn post-it-note stuck to the bottom of one. She thought she had got them all, and reaching for it left her bending up in a strange way as she walked.

So no wonder she got shouted at by someone's dog, with her face hidden and parcels jutting about all over the place. She'd just grabbed the note when it had barked at her, scaring her half to death with a yelp of surprise. Post-it-note flung up in the air, one parcel dropped, she landed hard on her backside after tripping up over her own feet.

"What the-?"

[Halldór Frímannsson]

"Bryn!" Hal said, looking over the machine at the girl that had taken a tumble in the street. "So are you the bag lady of Leyndarmal now?" He mused with a grin as he saw all the jumble of things she had been trying to carry and rush around with. He whistled sharply and Sparks quieted down and backed away. The dog had been getting ready to playfully pounce on Bryn seeing as she was down at his level. Picking up two of the wrapped canvases in one hand, he held out his other. "Come on, before Sparks thinks he has a new pup to take care of," he chuckled with a shake of his head.

Hal had never had a little sister, only brothers. They all seemed to share the stubborn trait so trying to help them was always a battle in itself. Hal would always feel guilty if he didn't take a stab at helping them though. Bryn was as close as he had ever gotten to having a sister. Always in his shop, Hal had come to look out for her, but always from a bit of a distance. "Trying to make it to the post office?" He asked. She was really going to be cutting it close. Hal was glad he didn't ship books out of the country. He had toyed with the idea of doing something like an online store, but the idea didn't really appeal to him. Besides that, then he'd be rushing around like Bryn dashing off to the post office.

Sparks barked again, clearly he was concerned about that bag of food Hal had left on top of the machine. "What? It's not going anywhere." Hal said, looking at the dog. "He's more like Erik than I would like," Hal added. But really, what's more important to a dog than a full bowl of food? Hal checked his watch before looking back to Bryn. "I think we might just make it," he said, with a confident smile.

[Brynja Palasdottir]

"Bryn! So are you the bag lady of Leyndarmal now?"

Brynja looked up- that familiar voice could belong only to one of the guys she knew. And only he could get away with a cheeky comment like that without getting a freezing blank look in return. Despite her tiredness, she managed a smile. She wasn't one for laughing like a drain, but she was good at smiling, and she was genuinely pleased to see Hal.

"Very funny, Hal... I guess I do look a bit on the 'rugged' side..." She was, afterall, still in the muddy clothes from last night, had her usual windswept hair, and was approximately two inches from the gutter.

"Come on, before Sparks thinks he has a new pup to take care of." Hal had already picked up some of her things before holding his hand out to her. Grateful for the help, she took his hand and let him practically drag her up on to her feet, surreptitiously sliding the post-it-note into her other palm as she held on to the remaining parcel.

"Trying to make it to the post office?"

"Aren't I always?" This time she replied in English rather than the normal Icelandic. She was always slipping in and out of either language, and even thought in a mixture of the two, and wasn't even aware of the transition. She took a sneaky look at the parcels Hal was holding while he muttered a few words to Sparks, just checking that they were okay. Thankfully they were, and it was at this point that she realised what must have happened.

"Oh wait, did you put money in for the paper...?" Brynja was obviously in a muddle. Her mind was more than a little sluggish, and she suddenly noticed Sparks cocking his head at her- she hadn't even said hello to him. "Oh Sparks, sorry.... so rude." She gave him a stroke on the top of his head and around the side of one of his ears, and had to use so much concentration she nearly missed what Hal was saying to her.

"I think we might just make it."

"Huh?" He was smiling at her, and almost looked like he was about to set off. "Oh Hal, you're a lifesaver- I'll buy you your paper on the way back?" she picked up the bag of food from the top of the machine. "You've got my stuff, I've got yours. Shit, I've only got 15 more minutes... We better hurry!"

[Halldór Frímannsson]

"Oh Hal, you're a lifesaver- I'll buy you your paper on the way back?"

"Nah, don't worry about it, I'll just steal one from somewhere else," he joked as he snapped for Sparks to come on as Bryn started to dash.

"I've only got 15 more minutes... We better hurry!"

"Alright," Hal said with a nod as he tucked the packages carefully under his arm and hastily headed down the street with Bryn. That was the nice things about growing up in a town your whole life, Hal knew this place like the back of his hand. Dodging around a large family that was attempting to cross the street, Hal looked down, making sure that Sparks hadn't wandered off. He hadn't, moving easily next to him. For the most part, Hal wouldn't change a thing about the way the town was laid out, except for the Post Office. All alone by itself, near the edge of the main street, the damn thing was really built in the most inconvenient place.

"Still got everything?" Hal asked, with a check of his watch. Brotherly habits die hard. He and his brothers often made a run similar to this when they had all been in school. One particularly windy day Dagur's report fell out of his book and blew all over the street. That hadn't been too great of a day. Hal quickened his pace, the minutes shrinking away much quicker than he had thought they would. They were just nearly there, when Hal saw the lights clip out in the window. "Oh shit," he said, breaking into a run. Jumping up onto the sidewalk, Hal didn't quit his run until he reached the windowed door. It was already locked. Banging on it with the flat of his hand, Hal took a step back from it, trying to look through the window.

"Open the door, Lore!" Hal yelled, banging the door again, this time using his "cop knock". Loud and repetitious, that knock could wake the dead. Hal panted as he waited for the door to hopefully open. He wasn't out of shape, he just hadn't been planning on taking a run. He looked back at Bryn with a shrug of his shoulders just as the door opened.

"Hey Lore, what? Afraid there won't be any mail to go out tomorrow? Let us in, this stuffs got to go out tonight," Hal said.



ooC: feel free to npc Lore too

[Brynja Palasdottir]

Lore, with her surprised grey eyes, looked from breathless Brynja to slightly puffed Hal then back to breathless Brynja again.

"Hey Hal. Er, Brynja. What is this? There's no mail going out today." She gave a kind of half-nervous laugh as she leant against the door frame. Brynja immediately looked puzzled. "Remember? I rang you. This morning. I said that we got a call from across the way, the overseas shipper had to stay in the docks because of hull damage after a storm they just had."

"...What?" Brynja tried to absorb the information while trying to think back to this morning. "I don't remember taking a call this morning... Are you sure you spoke to me?"

Now Lore suspected that Brynja was playing a trick on her and coyly nudged her on the shoulder. "Yes I'm sure it was you! It was your voice, you answered: 'Palasdottir, yes?' Like you always do. Come on stop messing around!" She looked at Hal again and laughed lightly, rolling her eyes.

But although Lore was smiling, she was a little creeped out by the way Bryn was looking at her. Complete lack of expression. Sure Brynnie was one of her best customers in town, but beyond polite conversation and the odd phone call reminder they didn't really have much to do with each other. Lore found her a little unnerving at the best of times. But she usually put it down to the artistic genius thing the girl had spun for herself.

Lore coughed. "But seriously, you been keeping alright? Sure you didn't just forget that I rang? Although how you could forget a 20 minute conversation-"
"20 minutes?!" Brynja seriously doubted she'd ever spent more than 5minutes talking to the woman, discounting the situation right now anyway. She looked away, down the road, suddenly feeling very anxious but hiding it behind her statue-like face.

"Uh, forget it. Sorry. Must be an off day." Day, week, month, year. "When's the ship going to come in next?"
"They think Tuesday. If you like, I'll hold your parcels til then." Lore ventured, already taking the parcels in without waiting for a response. Just then, the sound of a baby crying in the background caught Lore's attention. "Sorry guys, I have to run. I'll put the charges on to your account okay, Brynja? Get some sleep or something! And Hal, we'll have to have a better chat next time you come in. Okay, Bye!"

With that the door was closed, but Brynja had already moved to the curb, her sight still fixed in the distance, trying her best to remember exactly what she had been doing.

"I just don't remember taking a call..." She muttered.

[Halldór Frímannsson]

"And Hal, we'll have to have a better chat next time you come in. Okay, Bye!"

Hal had been standing there with his arms crossed as Lore talked. His eyes were the only things that had moved, going from Lore to Bryn and then back as they talked. This was mad. Twenty minutes, seriously? Hal was trying to remember the last time he and Bryn had a conversation that had lasted for twenty consecutive minutes. He really couldn't. The whole thing was just bizarre, Hal would have surely heard about the shipper having to stay in. News like that had a way of getting around. He hadn't heard a whisper of anything like that all day.

"I just don't remember taking a call..."

Hal walked down to the curb where Bryn all ready was, sticking his hands into the pockets of his coat. "And I don't remember a time when you've talked to anyone on the phone for fifteen minutes, let alone twenty," Hal said as he looked down at her. "I think Lore's gone a little batty with the lack of sleep she's been getting." Hal added, taking his large bag back from Bryn. No reason to make her keep carrying his groceries. Sparks whined from in the street and paced around anxiously. Behavior that only made Hal roll his eyes.

"You want to hang out in the shop for awhile?" Hal asked, stepping off the curb. "I might have a few new books you've not browsed through and put back on the shelves yet," he joked with a laugh. Really, Hal didn't want to hang around the post office much longer, the whole place felt odd today. Like it was a beat behind everywhere else in the town. Sparks seemed to share the same thoughts. "'Sides, I think I'm working on a pretty bad lack of coffee headache," he mused with a grin.

[Brynja Palasdottir]

"And I don't remember a time when you've talked to anyone on the phone for fifteen minutes, let alone twenty. I think Lore's gone a little batty with the lack of sleep she's been getting."

Brynja glanced back at Hal as he took back his bag, he seemed to agree with the talking part at least. But Lore hadn't looked too sleepy to her... It creeped her out a bit. Lore was a bit of a gossiper, but she wasn't a fantasist as far as anyone knew. And why would she say something as innocent as that? The ships have been delayed before, it wasn't so unreasonable to be true.

"You want to hang out in the shop for awhile? I might have a few new books you've not browsed through and put back on the shelves yet. 'Sides, I think I'm working on a pretty bad lack of coffee headache."

Brynja was jolted out of her thoughts, and gave a small smile to Hal. He knew just how to distract her from her more depressing moments. Just then, she realised she still had the post-it-note in her hand. She looked at it briefly, after all, even if Hal saw what was on it he wouldn't understand it as she always wrote in her little code. But to her surprise it wasn't a note she recognised, now was it written in code. In fact you could hardly say there was actually a message on it as there was just one symbol.

At first, it just looked like a really scribbled doodly swirl but on closer inspection she could see some kind of twisted figure in it... But Hal was waiting for her response, so she shoved it into her pocket and decided to go over it later.

"Coffee? I think you read my mind." She said, joining Hal as he stepped out into the street. "But you know what, I'm not in a browsing mood today. I need something to keep me entertained at home, so I'm buying something today. Speaking of which, I wanted your opinion on something... where's the best place to buy a dog?"

[Halldór Frímannsson]

"You're really going to spend some money in my shop, Bryn? I'm so flattered," he joked as he walked along next to her. Sometimes he felt like his shop was more like a library than anything else. He didn't mind too much though, he always made enough profit to keep the ends meeting. And with Bryn, he never minded her hanging around the shop. Her odd little self made the hours go by faster. Sparks was never too great on the conversation.

"Speaking of which, I wanted your opinion on something... where's the best place to buy a dog?"

Hal bit in his lips, thinking for a moment with a look down at Sparks, who was happy to be trotting about again."Well," he said with a bit of a pause, "it depends on the type of dog you're looking for." Hal shifted the bag in his arm as he walked to get a better hold on it. "Sparks was a rescue though I think he's forgotten that," Hal said with a grin. "I got most of mine from the shelter one town over. Racers over there don't like keeping their dogs if they don't place high enough. Which really pisses me off," Hal said with an annoyed sound. Those kind of racers always made his blood boil. His dogs were fast as a sharp wind, the problem had been their handlers. "And there's not only Huskies there either. I've seen a few labs and retrievers there too," Hal said looking over to Bryn.

"Now, if you're wanting a smaller dog, I'm not sure where you should go," Hal said, his voice accented by the jingle of keys he had fished out of his coat pocket. Sparks let out a bark and ran around the side to the back of the store. A chorus of other dogs joined him. "I've always preferred bigger dogs. Easier to train and not as annoyingly hyper," Hal added as he unlocked the store and swung the door open. "After you," he said with a smile, holding the door open with one arm.

Heading in, Hal flipped the closed sign to read open and set his bag down on the counter. "You know where the new stuff is," Hal said with a nod of his head in that direction. Grabbing the pot from the maker, Hal walked to the back room, pulling his coat off and setting it on one of the hooks in the hall. Hal set the pot under the sink faucet to fill and leaned back to look out the back door window. There was still food in the large pans for the dogs so he wouldn't need to clomp out there just yet. Pushing the water off, Hal headed back out front with the pot of water.

"If you want I can make a few calls about where to find smaller dogs if you want," Hal said loud enough for Bryn to hear as he poured the water into the maker and flipped the switch on.

[Brynja Palasdottir]

"You know where the new stuff is."

That she did; Brynja immediately veered off to the side of the shop, a pale finger running over a row of spines as she read their names with quick look. Even when she was reading, she wasn't really concentrating. Always stuck in the 'in between' of thinking and actually doing something.

"If you want I can make a few calls about where to find smaller dogs if you want."

She smiled slightly, finding it quite endearing that he pictured her as the type to have a small toy dog breed. Or was he just saying it because he assumed all women -not necessarily just her- wanted small dogs, that they could love and smother and fuss over. This had nothing to do with maternal instinct, or loneliness.

"Small dogs are a no-no. And huskies and labs are... well... they don't really have the temperment i'm looking for. I think I need more of a guard dog, like an Alsation...you know, a German Shepherd." Brynja pulled out a special edition leatherbound copy of The Divine Comedy, and glanced at the inside sleeve. "I'm not exactly looking for a loving companion..."

She didn't really know how much she should say outright. Brynja wasn't one to admit she was a worrier, because then her friends got worried. She looked over at Hal, serious expression as always. "I live by myself, Hal."

Walking over towards him, she placed the book on the counter. "Besides, you used to be a cop, I know you're not deaf to gossip... I like to walk around, see things. There are times when..." She sighed, trailing off. "It's not like I can buy myself a gun, or anything. A big dog looks nicer."