The End of Wythwood Boulevard

Part II - The Greeting Of A Potential Friend

1st January, 1830.

Elsie had been sitting outside for quite some time now, staring out into the street and observing the passersby. It was still raining, and had been since the earlier hours of the day, which definitely wasn't uncommon. She was watching the street corners, tentatively waiting for her brother, William, to return from work. He hadn't taken an umbrella with him when he'd hurriedly left that morning, she remembered, so how was he possibly going to survive the journey home without getting soaked?

Eventually William arrived, though not in his usual and more expected fashion. He was accompanied by another man, one with a much more intimidating presence than that of her brother, at first glance. Elsie couldn't help but wonder if something terrible had happened. Perhaps William had gotten into some sort of trouble while returning home and had required assistance with his travels? This could be quite terrible, she thought as she found herself beginning to stand. Could something really be wrong?

Slowly she moved towards the center of the front porch, the floorboards creaking a bit underneath her weight as she went. There honestly didn't seem to be any real trouble, obviously her assumptions had been much too overthought. The pair had wandered halfway up the street by now, seeming to hasten in their pace as they got ever closer to the property. It almost looked rather silly, the way the men moved alongside one another.

The man with her brother was in a constant state of leaning downward to fit the top of their umbrella over both of their heads, Elsie noticed. The young man was tall and thin, wearing simple and well-worn clothing befit of a person of the working class. With the duo drawing closer, Elsie could see the shoulder of his rough brown coat had rain spilling onto it from where it jut out beneath the umbrella, but the way he was grinning spoke that he hardly noticed - let alone seemed to care.

They stopped at the edge of the front gate, pausing to speak for a moment before William exited the cover of the umbrella, only for the man to step back into his space and push the curved handle into his grasp. He clapped William on the shoulder with a wide grin, speaking something to him that made the shorter man scoff and turn his head.

The man ducked out from the umbrella, then lifted his hand to the top of his blonde head in a flippant salute to William, whose face only screwed into itself further. With that, the man shoved his hands into his front pockets and sauntered away, back in the direction he and William had come from.

William stared blankly in the direction that the man left in for a few short moments, then turned on his heel and paced inside the gate and towards the porch.

God, that man was tall. Almost disturbingly so, though at the same time it was somehow impressive. Elsie stepped into the rain to greet her brother as he reached the front walk.

"It's about time you came back," She sighed, already somehow completely drenched by the horrendous amount of water that had befallen the group, "I really thought you were just trying to neglect your household duties for a few hours." A few hours had suddenly turned into an entire work day, something that should've been expected the second he'd left, that almost ever present determined look in his eye. She felt foolish now; assuming that her dearest brother would take any sort of break from his job would indeed have been a mad thought to have.

Will was facing her completely now, shrugging as he shifted the umbrella to now cover his sister as well. "I lost track of time," he stated, clearly trying to avoid this entire conversation for whatever reason he might try to convince her of later on. "I'm sure you did," Elsie began walking back towards the house, not feeling the need for shelter from the rain as she'd already been soaked. She'd most likely catch a cold after this, and that would be rather dreadful, more the excessive worrying of her mother than the sickness itself.

William turned to the street once more, catching a final glimpse of the blonde man before he turned the street corner, probably heading back to his own place of business. His expression had settled again. Still, what he'd said had confounded William so thoroughly that he was almost afraid that his face would be stuck forever. Left eternally contorted after that strange remark the man had made to him just before he left.

Back inside the house, El had removed her shoes and was now wandering towards the kitchen, spotting her mother inside as she usually was. "Baking again?" she inquired, her head tilting to the side while she stopped to observe. "Well, not exactly, no," Mrs. Clarke replied while wiping her hands off on a small towel of sorts, "I was just testing a few new recipes I've received from the mail." Mail order recipes? Elsie couldn't hold in her laughter for very long. "What are you on about?" Elsie asked, letting out the sudden burst of laughter. There was no way that her mother, the great Carolyn Clarke, was now relying on other peoples family recipes to cook for her own.

Looking less than amused, the older woman rolled her eyes at her daughter's remarks before returning to the dough she'd been kneading only moments before. "I only thought it'd be nice to try something new." She was practically beating the mass of dough, poorly attempting to lessen the size of it. "Surely you don't think we can eat all of that," Elsie then spoke again, finally walking into the room, "We'll have.. what is this? Bread? Bread for days, weeks even." And this didn't seem to be the only batch, either. The amount of glutinous dough in this kitchen could be enough to keep the entire town satisfied for a whole month.

Maybe that's what the locals needed, to be satisfied with something.

Then, perhaps, they'd all stay out of each other's business.