if you’re ever trying to get to know a person on a date or whatever, find out when they like to get to the airport. i guarantee it speaks volumes about them. some people know they have a flight at eleven and go, “should i go get breakfast beforehand? i have my boarding pass on my phone, right?” others are like, “i have a car coming to get me at 4:30. i don’t know how long it’ll take to check in and walk down two hallways, better give myself six hours. what? dinner the night before? i can’t. i’m in a whole other mindset right now. i have two hard copies of my boarding pass, i emailed it to myself, i have it on my phone, it’s also tattooed to my chest.”
I get to the airport a sensible 3 hours before the flight, but usually I get there a complete nervous wreck, having spent the previous 24 hours (1) trying to meet some, usually academic, deadline (printer trouble, last-minute emails, lost footnotes) (2) trying to remember where I put all the right adapters and cables (3) trying to remember where I put the clothes I was supposed to pack, the ones I was supposed to wear on the flight and the ones I was supposed to throw into the washing-machine for a last load before the housesitter arrives. Sleep, what’s sleep?? Then I get to the airport, check in, have a delightful bye-bye drink in the departure lounge, board the plane and fall asleep at takeoff. Bliss.
When Silver said he was watching Flint become McGraw again I don’t think that’s what was happening. I think Silver was just watching Flint’s heart break. I don’t think there is any possible way one could revert back to an older state of oneself after going through what Flint has been through? I mean could Silver suddenly revert back to being a cowardly cook again? No. That is the tragedy of it. These assholes loved each other so much.
Your days of approaching unannounced are behind you. I reassigned Mr. Dobbs off the Vanguard, as you asked. I told him his skill in the rig was too valuable to risk putting him in harm’s way. Thank you. Then now that that’s sorted, there is another replacement on the Vanguard that we should discuss. Who’s that? You. Is that so? I understand we faced colonial regulars out there last night. So? These raids were difficult enough when the element of surprise was in our favor. But now? Now it would seem your days of approaching unannounced may also be at an end.
Is that cannon behind your head meant to be some sort of symbol, Captain?
and it’s… fine. The prince is great! They’re in love, he’s very sweet and passionate, writing her poems and songs, giving her anything she wants. The time she spends with her husband is great.
but cinderella is not royalty, her family was noble but she never spent time in those circles. She’s used to being busy, she’s used to cooking and cleaning and mending. There are hours, days, where she has nothing to do.
time passes. cinderella learns the fancy lady type of needlework. Learns to ride horses. Reads a lot.
as is normal for royalty at the time, they travel and are hosted by nobles or stay at castles owned by the king. But even that variety begins to become routine. The prince is distracted, there’s a lot of young women living and working on their route. Daughters of nobles. Younger and prettier with soft hands that have never done a day’s work.
cinderella needs something to spend her time on, and there’s a part of her thinking a couple-only trip might get her husband’s attention again, so she suggests making an old castle that’s fallen into disrepair their “project.” It was built in the time when castles were made to be defensible, so it’s quite sturdy, but it’s overgrown and secluded. The prince doesn’t know why his family stopped living there either. A hundred years ago it was their summer home.
so they go. And they work. And for a while it’s great! But when they leave for winter cinderella’s husband forgets her once again. cinderella resolves to make the best of her life and stop worrying about a man who has gotten what he wanted from her.
summer comes again and this time cinderella goes alone to the old castle (minus staff, of course, but cinderella manages to narrow it down to only repair workers and one maid). She can cook and clean and mend again, but this time it’s her own choice. She is happy.
this summer they make more progress on repairs. The workers say that most of it can be salvaged, except one tower that’s been completely overgrown with vines and briars. It will have to come down, eventually, but for now it can be safely ignored.
cinderella has more free time now. The old castle has a surprisingly untouched library, though time and moisture have damaged many of the books. Behind a collection of greek poetry cinderella finds an old diary. Very old, in fact, at least a hundred years. It’s rude to read a diary, of course, but whoever wrote this is long dead, and cinderella is bored, so…
from the description of activities the author looks to have been nobility. Maybe even a princess. She’s sensitive and sweet and smarter than she seems to realize. If circumstances had been different cinderella wishes they could have been friends…
after the summer ends cinderella returns to her husband. He’s spending a lot of time with a young musician and cinderella can’t even work up the energy to care. She does some research about the castle and the family she’s married into, finds out the name of the princess who wrote the diary.
aurora. Cursed and forgotten. She died young, they say, in a plague that also took out the castle staff and her own parents. Luckily they avoided a succession crisis, but not so lucky for the dead.
time passes. cinderella goes to the old castle again and again, even out of season. Soon enough all that remains to be done is the old tower, and the builders say they should tear it down and fill the gaps before it gets cold.
one night cinderella is restless. The princess from the diary had been fond of that tower, and cinderella is far more attached to a dead woman than she ought to be. She gets out of bed, reads by candlelight, and finally goes to walk the empty halls.
she finds herself going to the tower. Pushing past the vines that don’t seem so troublesome really. They almost part before her. The stairs are perfectly intact, the door at the top is already cracked open. As if she should have done this years ago, cinderella steps into aurora’s bedroom.
she’s as beautiful as the stories say. And sitting under her hands, crossed across her stomach as it rises and falls, is a book of greek poetry.
years later, people will tell the story of cinderella as a cautionary one. Don’t seek above your station. Don’t marry for prestige. After all, a girl who grew up as a servant once married the crown prince, and disappeared after only three years. She ran away, they say, she couldn’t handle the lifestyle.
two old women who run a bookshop together agree with the lesson. Marrying for the wrong reasons never ends well. It’s best to wait for someone you have things in common with, shared interests.
or, failing that, the more linguistic of the two says, wait a decade or ten for someone to fall in love with you from your diary.
her partner laughs and hits her with the socks she is mending.
mici's campfire 