Choose Your Own Story: Part Two

[girlyswot]

He hadn’t admitted it but the shifty look that came into his eyes was unmistakeable. Without another word, Prudence had turned on her heel and sharply called Caleb to come with her. She was shivering by the time she reached her cottage and it took her three goes to get her key to turn properly. And then, as soon as she began to open the door open, Caleb pushed past, leaving muddy footprints on every available surface. Bloody dog. Bloody men, bloody mud, bloody dog. At least if she was angry, she wasn’t crying.

And with that thought, the tears came. Prudence clung to the doorframe and wept.

That was what she hated most about being alone. No one came to comfort you when you were crying. You had to decide for yourself when to stop. It didn’t feel any better afterwards, so that you wouldn’t bother if only you knew how to help it.

Eventually the tears ceased to fall and her breathing became more regular. Prudence wiped her hand across her face and knelt to cuddle Caleb.

‘Come on, then,’ she told him. ‘We’re going to get you clean, you know?’ Before he could protest, Prudence picked him up and carried him into the bathroom. He squirmed and wriggled and did everything he could to get away but Prudence had done this before and she knew exactly how to hold him in place with one hand while she grabbed the shower head with the other. Less than ten minutes later, Caleb was lathered and rinsed and rubbed down and looked pathetically grateful to be allowed to make his escape.

Prudence wiped down the bathroom and started the taps running for her own bath. The fabric of her jeans was hard and cold as her fingers struggled to undo button and zip. She peeled away the clammy garments, chucking them into an untidy heap somewhere near the door. It was glorious, stepping into the hot scented water. Prudence could feel the warmth creeping into every nook and cranny of her body. She reached up and released her hair from its clip, then leaned back and sank deep into the soothing water.

For a moment, everything was right with the world. Here, safe under the surface, no one could find her. No one could track her down and meddle with the new life she was building. No one could force her to remember the person she once was.

Jake Gillespie, he’d called himself. And the accent was new. American, she’d presumed. Prudence wondered whether he’d bothered to visit, or just learned it from films, like she had. Probably the former, she decided. They were always meticulous in their research. She should know.

Before she’d come to Sheppett, Prudence had undergone two months of integration training. She had learned how to bake a Victoria sponge, when to plant runner beans, what sort of small talk to make in the queue at the post office, and, most importantly, how to look after a dog. She had had to get used to wearing trousers and clumpy shoes. The underwear was the strangest of all, and to be honest, there were still days when it made her feel uncomfortable. But there were wonderful things she’d found out about as well. She loved the freedom of walking across the fields unaccompanied and she’d found that there could even be pleasure in keeping house for oneself. And the baths were the most magnificent invention of all. Prudence took one every day, just because she could.

Of course she had known they would come eventually. She hadn’t been sent here just to learn about village life in the early twenty-first century. They hadn’t told her what her task was, and at first it hadn’t bothered her. After the way the last assigment had ended, Prudence had been happy just to be left alone for a bit. Licking her wounds, they’d call it here.

Peter wouldn’t have liked being thought of as a wound. He was bright and charming with a natural gift of pleasing others. Prudence had loved working with him, being with him, loving him, being loved by him. Yet, apparently, he had known it was a game throughout. She had not. She had given him her true heart and then been forced to watch it being smashed into tiny pieces.

When they’d told her she could come here, alone, she’d jumped at the chance. She hadn’t wanted another partner, not so soon after. Of course she’d known that eventually they would send someone else. As soon as operatives entered into active service they were required to have a lifeline. Now that hers had come, Prudence knew that her quiet life in the country was at an end.

Slowly and carefully, she dried herself and then wrapped her large, soft towel around her, tucking it in at the top to hold it in place. She wondered if she had time for a sandwich first, then decided she’d kept the man waiting long enough. She’d dress first, though it didn’t much matter, she knew. He’d know everything about her already, from her natural hair colour to her date of birth.

White cotton knickers from Marks and Spencers that no one could be embarrassed by in an emergency. Matching bra with not even a hint of lace or embellishment. Black opaque tights. Long soft sage green corduroy skirt. Cream stretchy top. Dark blue cardigan which she had knitted herself. Black knee high boots with a zip up the side. Prudence brushed out her hair and refastened the clip. Telling herself that it wasn’t procrastination, it was important for her to do herself justice after that disastrous first encounter, she sat down and put on her make up. Foundation. Mascara. Hint of eyeliner. Colour on her lips and cheeks, just to heighten what was naturally there. Gold earrings. Too much, she decided, and removed them.

Finally she checked the full-length mirror and nodded. It was important that he see she’d adapted thoroughly. He needed to know that he could trust her.

He was waiting out in the garden. Prudence opened the door.

‘Jake Gillespie?’

‘Yes.’ The easy smile had gone.

‘Prudence Waring. You’d better come in.’

[Poll #1290738]


P.S. Nobody tell rhetoretician but it seems that I am writing fantasy. Again.

Comments

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

Despite her finding the underwear difficult to get used to, I think she'd have found the jeans chafe if she wasn't wearing any!

[amamama.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

*g*

[amamama.livejournal.com]

Why don't you make Prudence come from some place that's really far away, shrouded in the mists of myth and tine. Like Atlantis? Or the more recent myth of Lemuria? A place, supposedly highly evolved, which nobody really knows where was. Or make up another name for it...

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oh, you should have voted for Australia...

[amamama.livejournal.com]

Well, change it then? I just didn't think Australia is shrouded in the mists of myth and time. Maybe it is? I never thought you'd take our votes that seriously. Btw - didn't you describe the eyes of Jake in the first chapter? I imagined they were bright blue, but maybe I'm all confused and are mixing things up a bit.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oh, pants! I thought I'd taken out that bit about his eyes. Oh, well. People seem to like the blue anyway. Unless he has special mood-reflecting contact lenses....

[helenprev.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying this!

All the way through this part I assumed that Prudence was a)from the distant future and b)from another planet. So I've ticked 22nd Century, but that doesn't seem as far ahead as I was imagining!

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Well, I figure that once you're in the future we don't know what any of it will be like. So the 22nd/25th/47th centuries are all much of a muchness in my mind.

[moonette1.livejournal.com]

Just don't make them robots!

LOL, need....more....Jake

I have to laugh because there's a real estate agent in our town whose pic is always in our paper and his name is VERY similar to Jake's - only 1 letter difference in the entire name (first and last names combined), and he's old and overweight and bald, so my mental image of Jake needs some support from you in terms of description. So get to it, woman!

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

No robots. Check.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating! I could have sworn you described what Jake looked like in the first part, but then I realised that you didn't, we just see him through Prudence's reactions to him. :)

Also, what's wrong with brown eyes?

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

No similes. Once you've said brown like chocolate, then you're stuffed.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I now want to change my vote to hazel just to see what the synonyms are. :)

Are you feeling any better?

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, completely better. I think I just needed sleep on Sunday night. Thanks for asking.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Also, I am very intrigued by when Prudence comes from. I was thinking that she was probably C17 Puritan at first, but then I got to 'She loved the freedom of walking across the fields unaccompanied and she’d found that there could even be pleasure in keeping house for oneself' which I think has to mean she's either very aristocratic indeed (is she a bastard daughter of the Prince Regent?) or comes from the post-about-1850 urban poor.

Or is from the future, of course. Or Atlantis, as one of your other commenters suggested. Maybe they have strict 'one to annoy the cows, one to watch, and one to inform the Telepathic Lamas, except that they already know, what with being telepathic and all' rules about country walking in Atlantis. :)

(I know you're not going to tell me)

[tdu000.livejournal.com]

No, that's not true! I distinctly remember at least one other simile for brown eyes. It might not have been particularly poetic but it was used.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[megan29.livejournal.com]

I voted for Prudence to be from the distant past based on this idea: She is part of a band of time travelers, which was formed in the far future, but went back and 'lifted' people from various centuries (dunno why). Being from the far past, she has had problems understanding technology (the last mission she mentions was in the 19th C, to get her feet wet). She has an inferiority complex. Peter was from the 22nd C, and she thinks he left her b/c she's not nerdy enough. :-) :-)

Now she's afraid that Jake is from the even more advanced 23rd C, b/c she heard a rumor at the office before she left. However, she will find out that either:

1. Jake is from Scotland circa 12th C OR
2. Jake is from Mars circa 30th C (Earth century)

Either way, he'll teach her how to adapt.