e_delmar | (no subject)

(no subject)

It's nice on Shadow, quiet. Work's good, even if he ain't sleeping much.

But not sleeping's better'n what happens when he sleeps.

He don't need anything more'n what he's got there, but sometimes when he stares at the ceiling - or the night sky - he can't help but think about a thing or two left behind that maybe he don't want got rid of.

So it could be that it's late one night (on Shadow, anyway, who ever knows how times match up) Ennis sneaks into the bar, headed back towards his (their) room.

He's quick, and he's quiet, but could be you could catch him.

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Then that helps things!

"You see one, ask her."

"That is silly," Mary protests, a little indignantly.

"Only because I do not know any old ladies does not mean there many not be several."

Ennis only shrugs.

"I should like to know everything about where I was living," Mary says, a little disgruntled.

"If you do not know about it there might be ghosts or anything."

His look clearly says "So?"

Mary stares at him.

She does not comprehend this indifference.

"- well, one would like to be prepared, I should think."

"Deal with it when I come to it."

"You might not be able to," Mary points out, "if you are not prepared."

"Maybe."

Mary places her hands on her hips.

Rather incredulously: "Do you not care?"

His look says not especially.

"That is stupid," Mary announces.

"Even when I did not care about anything much I cared what happened to me - I could not do much about it because the grown-ups could make me do things, but I cared."

Mary is ignoring the vast effort she expended in pretending not to care, for the moment. She is Older and Wiser now!

Ennis could take some lessons from Mary.

. . . too bad he won't.

He nods, though, and listens.

Mary is very wise. Just ask . . . well, Mary.

"If you do not care about things," she adds, sagely, "everything is only boring and dull - and there is not much point."

. . . YEAH.

His look says so?

Mary heaves a sigh.

Grown-ups can be so stubborn.

Earnestly: "It is really not very hard to care about things. If only you try a little - there are lots of things to care about."

"Like horses."

and ... horses. Yeah, that's about all he's got there.

Fortunately, Mary considers horses an acceptable answer.

"Horses are a good thing to care about," she agrees.

"Ain't nothing."

Sounds almost defensive, he does.

"Horses?"

Mary looks startled.

"They are too something. They are creatures. Like you or me or the robin -"

Ennis looks at her skeptically.

"If they were nothing," Mary says, quite patiently, "they would not be horses."

. . . oh.

"Meant ain't much."

Mary is honestly puzzled.

"They are as much as anything else. And bigger than a good many things - though how big something is does not matter to how much you care about it; the robin was the very first thing I ever really liked."

Ennis remembers the first thing he ever really liked.

The first thing past horses, anyway.

Remembers it all too well.

"S'pose."