Flashback Alive -- Two-fold

[Philomena]

Minnie took the webbing, and swung it up over the girl's head, appraisingly, holding it behind her waist. The girl's question, though, startled her, and she stopped, lying it down on the ground behind her.

"My... little boy?" she blushed, "Well... not really... mine, I suppose. My friend, she had a little boy, and he comes and lives with me in the Springtime. He is my little Spring baby, do you see?" she managed a thin, shy little smile at this, less like a comforting motherly look, and more like one child asking another for approval and love.

"Little Gypa, that is his name. He is... not far from your age. He's gone now, for the year," her voice shook only slightly at this, a little pain wavering subtly through the threads of it, "Travelling with his papa." She smiled, pulling the voice up into a false brightness, less trying to fool the child as giving her the opportunity to escape an uncomfortable situation, "Wouldn't that be an adventure? They travel all over the place. One year they went to Nyka. Sometimes to Syliras. He's seen... the Suvan Sea! And even the far-off mountains, not our little mountains, but the ones that lead to the Northlands! Can you imagine, my Shearsy?"

[Shiress]

Shiress' eyes widened at the mention of mountains. She dreamed of one day going to see them with her own young eyes. "Can I play with him when he visits next time, Auntie?" She leaned forward on her tip toes and smiled. "He can tell me about the mountains and me and him can play like we are on the tippy top looking down. Oh, please Auntie Lefting...can I come play next time he is here?" She placed her small hand on her aunties shoulder. "You can play too auntie, you can be on the bottom of the mountain and we can waive to you and you can make us a picnic and we can eat fwidders' cause your books abe at home." She flashed a nod and reassuring smile toward her auntie as she mentioned her books would be safe and sound at home. "Oh auntie, I want to meet him, please say yes, auntie please? She tilted her head slightly, placing her folded hands beneath a broad smile. "Pleeeeeease..."

[Philomena]

Minnie smiles, and laughs gently, and brings up the belt, "Well, my Shearsy, we shall see, hmm? When he comes back. Do you know how to tell?"

As she speaks she brings up the webbing to the girl's waist, and begins to wrap - once, twice - and then a quick knot in front, "Do you know the Wright Manor? It is a very old, empty house, with beautiful, beautiful garden, and just up in the front , just near enough that even little ones like you and I can see them, the gardeners, they plant sea-tulip bulbs. And just when you see them come up, and into bloom? That is when Gypa will come, just when the snow is nearly melted, and Spring is coming thick. See?"

She stands and smiles, "Now you will be able to watch with me for him! Now... for now, I cannot take you to a mountain, but I can take you nearly so high. Are you quite ready? I'll have to help you in!"

[Shiress]

Shiress nodded excitedly "I can watch the tulips, too auntie." She said in her best grown up tone.

As her auntie stood her arms flung upward. "Im ready Auntie, yes." She gave a giggle as her feet excitedly danced in place "Yes..yes...YAY! I cant wait." She said as she glanced toward the opened window.

[Philomena]

Minnie laughed, and smiled, and turned to the window, double-checking the latch to make sure it was caught, then she scooped the girl up in her arms - luckily the window is low, for Minnie is hardler bigger than a child herself, and has to lean back to slide the girl's legs through the holes she's left on the bottom of the shutter.

"Now, you grab, right up here with your hands, hmm?" she smiles, and pats the holes about the midline, then takes the two ends of the webbing and ties them in two stout bends on the two sides of the shutters, belting the girl to the shutter stoutly enough.

"Alright, all ready?"

And when the girl responds in the affirmative, Minnie takes the long tail of the webbing in her hand, unlatches the shutter, and pushes the girl with a giggle, sending her soaring over the high street below...

[Shiress]

Shiress' hands grasped firmly where she was told. She bit her bottom lip with uncertainty as her auntie tied her to the shutter. As she passed through the window her golden girls flew gently off her shoulders and a wide, toothy smile spread across her face. She gave a quick glance back through the window where Auntie Lefting stood with the same childish grin adorning her face.

Shiress leaned slightly back glancing behind her shoulder to the ground. "Look auntie, your feather." She called as one hand left the shutter to point over her shoulder followed by a wobble that quickly sent Shiress' hand back in place. "We'll just get it later, K Auntie." She said with a giggle.

Her legs and arms straightened out and barely keeping her grip she leaned her body as far back as it would go. Her long soft curls soared gently behind her in the wind as her eyes closed. At this very moment Shiress was on the highest, tippiest top of a mountain standing hand in hand with her Auntie lefting.

[Philomena]

Minnie waited for the shutter to reach far out over the street, then tugged the strap gently back, sending it swinging again towards her. She put a warm, small hand then to the child's back and pushed her out again with a laugh and a smile. Back and forth, back and forth. She tensed slightly as the girl let go with one hand, and wobbled, but laughed again - it felt so strange to laugh so much! The summer was a dark season usually for Minnie, particularly now, particularly at the beginning, with the memory of Gypa's leaving still fresh in her mind. She felt as much a child as the girl she pushed. She started, in her nasal sing song, to half-sing, half-recite, an old rhyme, from her own childhood, as she pulled and pushed, pulled and pushed...

"Over the tops of the mountaintop,
Over the tippy-top highest,
There in a bed, on sheets of red,
My bunting baby lieth.

Over the tops of the mountaintops,
Down by the curve of the sea,
The lies my baby, watching the road,
To watch for the sight of me.

Over the tops of the mountaintops,
At the end of a winding way,
I'llI tie a red ribbon in her bonny hair,
And we'll play, and play, and play..."

[Shiress]

A young Shiress was lost in imagination. Her long curls flying out behind her then gently wrapping around her face as she glided back and forth through the warm Spring air. She could spend the rest of her life right here in this moment. Right here with her Auntie.

Shiress held her Auntie Lefting in a very special place in her heart. She loved seeing her, being with her, hearing her voice. Everything about her was cherished by Shiress for many seasons to come. She was her Auntie and as far as Shiress was concerned always would be.

The simple, true love of a 5 year old little girl was held by Philomena Lefting.

Her eyes closed tightly as she lost herself in her aunties words

"Over the tops of the mountaintop,
Over the tippy-top highest,
There in a bed, on sheets of red,
My bunting baby lieth.

Over the tops of the mountaintops,
Down by the curve of the sea,
The lies my baby, watching the road,
To watch for the sight of me.

Over the tops of the mountaintops,
At the end of a winding way,
I'llI tie a red ribbon in her bonny hair,
And we'll play, and play, and play..."

"The mountains. The sea. Waterfalls." Shiress wrapped her imagination around each wonder the world held. "Mountains. High mountains. Tall waterfalls. Water. Waterfalls." With that thought her eyes flung open as she began to wiggle. "Oh Auntie...AUNTIE I HAVE TO GO...NOW"

[Philomena]

"Go? Oh..." her face looked confused, and perhaps a little hurt, "You want to go? Did I frighten you darling? Mama said not until seventeen bells... oh!"

Her eyes leapt high, and she bustled the shutter shut and latched it with quick, clever little hands, and started tugging - less cleverly - at her complex knot in the belt. Her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth in concentration. She glanced sidelong at the girl, and went into a fit of the giggles that decreased her dexterity even further.

"I should have asked before I... tied you in... sorry, Shearsy-dearsy... think of the desert, think of broad, dry deserts."

She giggled again, and said, "Well, at least, lets make sure you don't ruin your dress, hmm?"

She pulled the other shutter shut, and pulled the girls skirts up around her waist - it would look odd from outside, a pair of chubby, wiggling toddler legs sticking out a latched window, but at least nothing indecent. She set back at the knot now with a certain giggling ferocity.

[Shiress]

Wiggles and squirms fought desperately with Auntie Lefting's hands to free Shiress from the window shutter. "Deserts..deserts." Shiress repeated to herself. "But Auntie, Im thirsty now...HHHuuurrryyyy."