July Arrivals

[sixthiteration]

WHO: Arrivals
WHERE: The fountain park
WHEN: July 1, 12:00 PM
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: N/A
STATUS: CLOSED

---

In the snug circle of an old park, a fountain sits burbling beneath a broad, midday sky.

Once-neat paving stones have buckled and cracked from the slow nudge of wayward roots. Benches stand covered in lichen and rust. Three paths push into the underbrush like the spokes on a wheel, the encroaching forest creating lush tunnels through the dark.

But the fountain stands singular and pristine, brightly splashing in open rebellion of the deep, muffled sounds of a place long ago gone to seed. A vibration hums through the ground, there and quickly gone, and the water in the fountain trembles, lapping against the high walls of its cool, pale reservoir.

It is the first of July.

It is precisely twelve o'clock in the afternoon.

Comments

[womanofvalue]

She softens a little at the very name. For all that Peggy has been able to keep a stoic exterior on any number of subjects, Steve isn't one of them. "1947," she says first, because it's better than having to talk about the latter question, which she knows is going to be a point of discussion. "How did you know Steve?" she asks, allowing that to be her answer without an actual confirmation that she did know him, once.

"I'm afraid he's been gone for some time, now," she explains, the more time that passes, the longer she's able to regain control of her emotions. She keeps her voice steady, her face impassive. If they're going to talk about the death of her second love, then she will not let it reduce her to tears.

[notabirdcostume]

Sam falls silent for a moment. Right, the scrubs prevent them from even putting a time period on each other. She probably thinks he served with Steve's unit in the war or maybe knew him from Brooklyn. Oh boy, how to explain this. The woman's already been through a lot and she thinks Steve is dead at this point. He's not going to be found, from her perspective, for another 70 years or so. How much should he tell her?

Too much has happened for him to be able to put this together in a nice way, so she's just going to have to be able to handle the blunt version. This day is already crazy enough.

"Okay. So I'm just going to keep being frank with you because I've got no other idea on how to put this. I met Steve about a year ago in 2015. You say he's been gone, and that's true but not in the way you think. It takes some time, but they find him in the ice a few decades from your perspective."

He's a former soldier and worked at the VA for awhile. He knows that news is going to be like a punch to the gut and he knows he should have found a better way to put it. But he'd nearly drowned, woke up in an unknown place, and was talking to a woman who's funeral he'd attended a few days ago. Actually, after saying it, he realizes he probably sounds crazy on top of everything. But he'll cross that bridge based on her reaction.

[womanofvalue]

There's a buzz in her head. It starts small, but the more that Sam speaks, the worse it gets. It turns everything around her tinny and impossible to focus on because she's so stunned with what he's saying. Howard couldn't find him, she hadn't looked because he had gone down in the plane and he was lost. Wasn't he? And yet, Sam doesn't appear to have any ulterior motive in lying to her.

"He's still alive?" she asks, gritting her jaw when her eyes fill with moisture, trying to push that away. "Oh god, Steve," she exhales, when she thinks of him alone in the future. "How is he? Is he okay?" she demands. She may have said goodbye to him, but she will never, not ever stop loving that man.

[notabirdcostume]

Sam knew there was a possibility she wouldn't believe him. Either thinking him crazy or a liar. He had no evidence to back it up -- he could say some things about Steve, but given how famous he would have been she could easily chalk that up to other means.

Sam doesn't say anything more until she asks her question. He doesn't want to get too much into this, they're both under enough emotional duress without adding the resurrection of dead friends on top of it. He considers his answer carefully.

"Yes. He's well enough. He has people he can call friend and he's save the world enough times." He knows she probably wants to know more, but he really doesn't think it's the best time to be opening up those wounds. He can only imagine it, honestly, and he regrets bringing it up -- but at the same time he really didn't see another way.

[womanofvalue]

The whole thing is almost too much. The idea that somehow Steve has survived enough to make friends and save the world isn't quite adding up in her mind. He's not supposed to be in the future. If he's going to be anywhere, the selfish voice in her head that sounds like a tantruming child insists that he ought to be with her, in the past.

He's supposed to be saving the world at her side, with her and Howard. And yet, how can she insist on that when she's already moved on herself? And still, it makes her unsure of what to think about everything. "I'm sorry," she says. "I'm going to need to take a moment..." To process everything, she doesn't say as she steps aside, drifting away with a furrow in her brow.

[notabirdcostume]

Sam almost moves forward. He almost says something. He stops himself though. He'd already said enough. This situation was messed up enough without dropping the bomb he'd just dropped on her. Sure, in a way, it was good news. But it was the kind of good news that was double edged. Would there have been a better way to do this? He wasn't sure. His time as a counselor had prepared him for handling a lot of bad news and difficult cases, but you didn't typically have to tell someone that a person important to them was alive but now separated from them by several decades.

So, instead he nods his head, "I understand." He'll let her go, he isn't sure what else he'd be able to say to her anyway.