Janis Rosemary Silver
September 26, 2021 12:08 PM
Getting My Hands Dirty by Janis Rosemary Silver
Taking a deep breath she dug her hands into the dirt. It felt good. It felt like it always felt. Slightly warm at the top and cooler and damper as it went down. This was all normal. Things were normal still.Nothing really felt normal anymore. Since daddy’s business had taken off due to it becoming legal Janis had constantly felt like a fish out of water. No, more accurately, like a freshwater fish in brackish water. She could still live here, she might even thrive, but it still felt odd. Like something wasn’t right and she might not survive. Still, the ground was there. The dirt still smelled like dirt. The grass still grew, hedges, flowers, sunflowers and herbs all still were where they should be.
The fact that she got to walk in the gardens everyday was probably one of the things keeping her sane in this school. She had to wear the robes which itched and were not good for running and climbing. She had to study things she didn’t think she’d ever want to use, like how often do you actually run into a Bogart? I mean really.
Though it was now her fourth year here, she still missed her home. Not the monstrosity that mom and dad had bought, no, the old double wide they’d lived in in the forests.
Janis pulled her hands out of the ground and let some of the dirt fall back before plunging her hands back into them.
Maybe that was why the forests were burning now. Her family wasn’t there to protect them, they were losing touch with their roots and the actual roots and that was giving way to the fires. It would also explain what was happening between ma and daddy. Not so much fire as emptiness. Like leaving the forest had separated them from each other.
Janis brought her hands out of the dirt. Looking down at her hands she sighed. This had been the only way she seemed to get her hands dirty any more. She didn’t come clean to any of the Fitzgeralds, nor had she told ma or daddy what she thought of their new home, because it most assuredly wasn’t hers.
Looking around absently at her surroundings she felt very small and very alone, and not for the first time, she wanted to punch something. Closing her right hand into a fist she slammed it down into the ground.
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Janis Rosemary Silver
Getting My Hands Dirty
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Rosalynn Tellerman
September 26, 2021 2:45 PM
Professor Xavier encourages that by Rosalynn Tellerman
Rosalynn walked through the Gardens, glad for the nice day. Arizona was not yet threatening winter, but she knew it would be getting colder again all too soon, and she was determined not to waste the few weeks of perfect weather they had now. She interspersed her steps with sashays and cartwheels and box steps and spins, whatever struck her fancy by the moment, occasionally inspired by a gust of wind or a root in her path, and sometimes just because she felt like it. She hummed lightly under her breath, providing musical accompaniment to her improvised choreography.She had just completed a spin turn with an imaginary waltz partner into an open clearing when she realized abruptly that she wasn't alone in it. It took another moment to realize her companion was Janis. "Um, hi!" she said with a bit too much forced cheer for the second cousin she barely knew. "I'm Rosalynn, Simon's daughter," she added, in case the other girl hadn't recognized her, "From Las Vegas." Not that she thought any of the California Pierces wouldn't recognize her father's name, even as independent from the main family group as he had been the last twenty years or so, but maybe her own needed the city attached to it to place her. Especially for someone who was from just as much a splinter family of the tribe as she was. Honestly, Rosalynn wasn't sure exactly where Janis lived either, just that she wasn't part of the main caravan.
This just about exhausted the amount of common family interests they could talk about, so Rosalynn wondered curiously, "Are you planting something?" Janis's hands were covered in dirt, and there was something of a hole in front of her, so this was the most logical conclusion Rosalynn could think of, though she didn't see any seed packets or uprooted saplings nearby.
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Rosalynn Tellerman
Professor Xavier encourages that
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Janis Rosemary Silver
October 17, 2021 10:30 PM
Not sure he encourages this... exactly by Janis Rosemary Silver
Something was whirling in the back of her head, similar to the way the girl had been whirling moments before. Rosalynn… the girl had said it like she should know. Simon in Las Vegas. Something was there. It tickled her mind. The fact this girl seemed to know her and assumed that Janis should know her led her to the only obvious conclusion. This girl was family. Had she tuned out her father telling her someone from their family was here?She didn’t look familiar, and Janis didn’t remember any girls her age in the caravan when she was younger. Merlin how she’d wished that there had been, but she’d remember that. Still. Las Vegas…
Janis raised her left eyebrow at the question then looked down at the hole. It did look like she was about to plant something. Instead she held up her fists and turned them to the family member. Some blood trickled down her left hand. It made Janis feel, oddly powerful.
“Just trying to bury my anger. I find it’s more helpful than taking it out in classes. I’m sorry, have we met? I feel like I would have remembered you, though caravan gatherings can become…,” Janis trailed off. It’d been so long since she’d been to a gathering. Maybe that was part of her problem. Maybe. Maybe that was part of her parents problem too.
Janis sat back on her honches.
“Well, you know. They can become a bit much. I’m Janis by the way. My dad is…” then it hit her, “Wait, is your dad the one with the act in Las Vegas that performs magic and,” she held up her hands to do air quotes “magic?”
41
Janis Rosemary Silver
Not sure he encourages this... exactly
1493
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5