#love the way the gold accents on his suit match Georgia's gold dress

[ecotone99]

[MF] Peaches

“What’s a fine woman like that doing here?” One of the uniformed officers loudly whispered as he pointed through the receptionist’s window.

“Lemme see!” Others pushed past for a glance at the woman, ogling at her. She wore a decorated dress and a large hat, a handkerchief in one hand and a large pocketbook in the other.

“I reckon she’s in need of our assistance,” boomed a detective in the back. A large hat covered his face. It always was; ever since he started working there, for however long, that may have been. No one questioned him for they’ve heard wicked stories of his work on the force. He scared them all.

The main door to the waiting room flung open. The detective said nothing but held the door open, gesturing her in. She stood up, tear marks imprinted on her face. She looked terrified and confused. The detective made her a cup and sat her down across from his desk in a private office in the back, away from the chatter. He wasn’t sure if she’d be able to speak… until it all flowed out at once.

She took in a deep breath before starting. “Oh, sir! I’ve had such a night! One that I can’t even wrap my mind around at this point! Oh, dear, oh gosh, my poor friend....” Tears began to fall gently down her face.

“My friend -- her name is Rosalie -- now, she has these elaborate parties in her lovely Southern home, the latest was the most intricate and beautiful of them all! The two of us have lived down here in Georgia for a long time now -- separately, of course.” She stirred, pausing for a moment before continuing. “She even had one -- a party, that is-- just yesterday and for the first time, I just wasn’t at ease. Instead, I felt dreadfully confused and troubled; I still do! Well, this probably doesn’t make any sense to you, and I’m not sure if my explanation will make it any better, but I’ll try. I’ll start at the beginning.

So, I was invited to a party at my friend’s lavish mansion right here in this marvelous American state of ours. Her cards are always so intricate with each decoration well placed, but I’m sure you don’t care much for that tidbit of information. Anyway, her husband had perished the previous year -- the poor man-- and for his anniversary, she wanted to have a lavish party. I know it sounds strange, but I feel it was her way of celebrating his life. Either way, I helped her plan the entire thing. It’s always so much fun to be with such a good friend.

While there, I met the most intriguing people from all over the world. None of us knew how she could know so many different types of people. I once talked to a gentleman who swore he met her the same Easter that I did, but I was in Georgia, and...and that poor fellow was in London and still to this day believes she was with him—the audacity! This happened so often that none of us try to understand how she met everyone, we speak of her beauty, her homes and ability to speak so many different languages—I mean, no one could ever count them all.” The woman started to blush as she spoke words of adoration for her friend while the detective sat, staring intently.

I saw her with her child who, I’m most certain, is almost two years old, or was… I’m not sure… Well now, my friend walked in glamorously with that adorable child on her side. Her dress was a beautiful gold color almost as if it were pieced together by gold flakes pulled from the rivers of California, I couldn’t believe the intricate nature of it! The sweet toddler matched in every way, almost like an accessory.

As she walked past me, a tall thin man with a heavy accent took her arm. His dark features contrasted elegantly against her lighter ones. His suit was crisp, and all black brought together with a black top hat lined with a purple sash. He asked her if they could speak for a moment, and the two headed immediately towards a couch.

I couldn’t help but eavesdrop, so I took over a beautiful but rather dull fellow to a nearby wall where his bore of a voice was the perfect backdrop for my guilty pleasure. If I thought Rosalie was a mystery, this man was an enigma! What I heard to this day sends shivers down my spine! I mean, it was only yesterday that this had all happened, but I fear it will never leave me.

In a deep mumbling voice, so heavily masked by his accent that I nearly missed a few words, he uttered, “I brought some of my famous peach pie, may I?” Rosalie nodded, and the man placed it before the baby. The baby sniffed it and stared at it for a while. The man chuckled, “You don’t remember me, do you?” he inquired.

“No, I’m sorry, I’m terrible with names,” Rosalie lied.

“Well, let me tell you,” the cryptic man said, “I met you on a sunny day. You wore a large hat, one from the 60s. It was a beautiful, clean black with a bottom lining of white. You brushed past me, a poor old man at the time. No second look, but I recognized you, and as much as you wanted to hide it, you recognized me too. I’ve been following you ever since.” The woman paused, exhausted from the mere idea of the man she spoke of.

“Now you see, at this point, I was already confused. The man was no older than 25! He could not possibly have been an old man, nor was it even the 60s! I mean, if you just look at your calendar, we’re barely out of the 40s! But then, everything got even more peculiar!

Rosalie looked down at her daughter, so my eyes followed, and you know what I saw? There lay the slice of pie, so delicious and sparkling. Within seconds, the child took a large bite of the pie and with one blink of an eye, completely disappeared! I stood there, astonished at the sight of it all.

Just then, my dear friend jumped up and swiftly moved to the pie where her daughter sat only seconds before. The man taunted her, “You better catch her now,” he laughed, “you never know where she might end up.” Rosalie looked at him angrily and without another word, bit into the peach pie, immediately being whirled through to some other place. I mean, it must’ve been some other place, she vanished before my very eyes!” She looked at the man across from her, still stirring the scolding hot cup of tea. Frustrated, she said, “You may think I’m crazy but oh if I am, take me away!”

Continuing with the implausible story, she said, “He then leisurely stood up and straightened both his tie and top hat before walking towards the door! I could not believe my eyes! Nothing seemed real after that, not for the last 24 hours. I can even still hear his voice echo in my ears because as he passed right by me, he stopped, picked up some champagne from a waiter and whispered, “I guess you better hope that Ms. Rosalie doesn’t find that baby… I want to take away someone she loves, and you’re next.”

And that’s why I’m here, I’m here for help because I fear for not only my life but the life of my dearest friend and mainly, the life of her child, whom I’ve grown so fond of. Oh, how I already miss them, dearly.” The tea was cool enough, the woman took a sip, “Wow, and thank you so kindly for this delicious tea officer, what kind is it?”

“Peach,” he said with a grin. His voice was deep and threatening, “You should not have come to a place like this, but at least you will see your friend soon.” His face changed abruptly and with that—

submitted by /u/witty_writings [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/32ftCiq

#Blogger #Story

[theleftoverurl]

Hahaha this is so post-event and so late, but I have actually been so busy with med I haven’t had time to type this up because I have always crawled into bed and had to get up early the next morning for the next day – what hell. Luckily tomorrow I can roll out of bed at like 11:30 because I don’t have class till midday.

On Saturday was the Skin Conference and I hardcore struggled to get out of bed because I was so exhausted. I was already running late but I allowed myself to be 5 minutes later because I wanted to play with Lolie. She loves me now she’s used to me, she put her little paws on my legs and I gave her and Charlie a pat before leaving.

When I got to Colombo Theatres, I was a little bit freaked out because I didn’t recognize a single person that I knew, but I saw Nicole had already checked in with a couple of her Malaysian friends and I had come all this way, so I joined the line for registration. The girl at the registration, Joanne (Joanna?) was like “OMG are you Georgia?! Daniel talks about you, he’s all like, I have to go make lunch for Georgia,” referencing the lunch bet we made ages ago, but the way she was saying it made me uncomfortable. Also, the fact that I’d never met her before and so am still unsure about who she is and the connection to Daniel? She must live in Terraces too or something. She chirpily assigned me to rotation A, because that was her rotation, and luckily, Nicole’s too.

I said hi to Nicole and she sent me to collect all the skincare freebies the sponsors had set up. There was a tote bag with a couple of facial masks, two tubes of some sort of moisturizing cream I haven’t looked at properly and a copy of the program. You could also go in to win some beauty hampers in 3 draws which were drawn throughout the day, but as usual, I didn’t win anything.

The first lecture was on Deadly Dermatological Diseases and it was actually very interesting. I’ve decided that dermatology is not for me, because all the most visually disgusting cases are all dermatology, and to be honest, they make me feel uncomfortable in my own skin (which is selfish to say, but true). Think about it: rashes, boils, blisters, infectious diseases… The whole lot. It did can the stigma of dermatology being a soft specialty, however, which I thought was an excellent start to the conference. Kuheli came halfway through – she attended the whole conference just for the half-hour suturing workshop included and for some free samples (only if they were sensitive). Crazy stuff.

The second talk was by a medical researcher who was growing mice that she’d inserted a YAP gene into which she discovered could replicate at a rapid rate into eczema or skin cancer. I am very vague on this talk because it was too technical and went completely over my head, and I am not particularly interested in research, or purposely growing mice with genetic deficits.

Morning tea was a salami wrap, juice because there was no hot water for the tea, and Arnott’s biscuits. Kuheli left to get pads because she got a surprise visit from Aunt Flo, and so I sat with Nicole and her friend. Nicole introduced her friend to me, but I honestly can’t remember her name, because we didn’t talk much and I got the impression that she wasn’t too interested in getting to know me at all (to be fair, I hardly made an effort either, honestly) and she ditched Nicole and I halfway through the breakout sessions. Nicole doesn’t eat any vegetables (except lettuce and broccoli, like a child) so she was unimpressed with her wrap, picking out tomato, rocket and mayo and just eating ham and wrap-bread, then deeming it “too salty.” What a silly-billy.

After that were 3 more talks which I didn’t really pay that much attention to when I should’ve. One was by this French lecturer who had a nice accent, but she was talking about diagnosing melanoma and she got way too specific with the diagnoses – I really couldn’t differentiate between all the spots she was showing on the screen and I tried out of interest because Kate had just gotten her mole cut out to see if it was suspicious. I thought I nailed it when she showed a mole that looked like Kate’s (which was non-cancerous) and said it was clearly benign but then her next slide showed what looked to me like an identical mole which was malignant so clearly, I just had no clue. I busied myself playing Trivia Crack and getting Kuheli into it. Nicole was playing the Egg Inc game she’s currently obsessed with, so nobody was really getting much learning done.

Lunch was tiny bite-sized sushi and Domino’s pizza (and yet more juice). It was uneventful but there was plenty to eat which was nice.

After lunch was the breakout sessions. I learned how to perform excision and punch biopsies and then I had a half-hour introduction to suturing where I learned how to do the most basic stitch. I was surprisingly quite good at it. I am horrific at sewing, so my expectations were very low, but I picked it up quite quickly. Maybe it’s because there’s pretty much no creativity in it and there’s actually very little sewing, because each stitch is pretty much just its own individual knot.

Kuheli was in rotation B, so I didn’t see her, but she did suturing and then biopsies and she left straight after to do her oncology-pall assignment. I arranged to meet her later because she wanted to do my makeup for REXTAB later, and I wanted her to do my makeup too because she’s quite good and I’m pretty darn average (probably below average, to be honest). I literally fell asleep in ultrasound training because I was so tired, and Nicole was surreptitiously fixing her bra strap which had come undone and then amidst that every time the lecturer paced around to stand in front of where I was slumped, she would nudge me awake, so I spent the whole thing dozing blearily in 30second intervals. I got to see some cool instruments, though, apart from the ultrasound he had a Doppler which magnifies your pulse rate, so you can differentiate arteries from veins, and this infrared sensor which inverts infrared light so that all your veins show up on your skin darkened on a background of red light. So useful for cannulation, but probably too expensive to regularly be used for that. He invited all the attendees to attend his skin clinic if we wanted further experience. Personally, I think I’m not interested in dermatology enough to take him up on the offer, but it was very nice, and there were a lot of older students at the conference who seemed seriously considering dermatology, so they will probably benefit a lot from that. He was a phlebologist (person who studies veins), so he was really pushing phlebology as a “super-specialty” but my anatomy is terrible enough without accounting for networks of cords throughout the body which are all slightly unique in each person. Not for me.

We ended an hour later than we were supposed to, at 4, so I legged it to Kuheli’s and jumped into her shower with little preamble. All her soaps and shampoo had tea tree (she says coincidentally) which was interesting. Her mint body wash was way too strong, and it felt like you were lathering up with toothpaste, but her shampoo smelled nice and kept my hair clean pretty long. She did my makeup in rose-gold to match my black dress and I wore red lipstick for the first time – some Korean product she bought (online I think) and the first red lipstick to suit me in my life. She honestly did a fantastic job, and I know she enjoyed doing it, but I owe her and I need to keep remembering this for all the times she annoys me because honestly she is a good friend in the end (we just spend too much time together I think between hospital, class and then out of both, even though the extra time is always better than the compulsory bits).

I made it home a good 10min before Kate said we were set to leave, but typically, she wasn’t very ready. I had time to define my jawline more (because I’m afraid of that double chin) and experiment with tying my hair (it didn’t want to be up, bits were sticking out everywhere). I slipped (struggled) into Kate’s dress and put on the heels and Veronica dropped Kate, Josh and I off at pres down the road. Kate and I brought a bottle of champagne (which we left in Alistair’s fridge), but Alistair and Lugg provided punch, so we didn’t need it.

There wasn’t a lot of people at pres (to be honest, there weren’t a lot of people at REXTAB, which was poor turnout on the non-ex-ressie’s parts, honestly) but there was no one particularly annoying there. Claudia pulled out of REXTAB last minute because she hurt her ankle or something, which was disappointing. I sat with Immi and Kate at first, and Immi pretty much ignored me because she’s too good for me and then Karla and Katie Lynch came which was nice because I got to catch up with Kate (given that I didn’t get to ever do brekky with her because of bad timing). Alistair had made chips and Karla and Kate brought Cobb loaf and I was sitting near the food, so I stuffed myself (chips and Cobb loaf are a fantastic combination) and I ate more than my fair share, but also, I am damn glad, because there was not enough food at REXTAB.

Alistair tried to order Kate, Pidge, Josh, Richie Ryan, himself and I a maxi-Uber but the Uber driver lied to him and said he was 8min away and then took 20min and was still 8min away, and then wouldn’t pick up his phone when Alistair called him to try and cancel (presumably because he knew what the call would be about) so Ali wouldn’t have to pay the cancellation fee. In the end, Kate and I ended up Ubering with Pidge and the other half went separately. Pidge and I split the Uber because Kate’s app was updating the whole night which was annoying.

The venue itself, Crane Bar, was quite nice, but they’d organized the event strangely, because we were right next to another private event and sharing a bar, so REXTAB was a weird mix of ex-ressies and 30-year-olds there for a 30th birthday party. There was also the absence of a lot of customary Baxterian faces, like Amanda and Tash and those groups, and there were no freshies except Kate Lynch’s little sister and only a couple of second years, so that was a bit of a shame. It was still a lot of fun though. Gus lead us to the bar and ordered himself 6 beers, making good use of that bar tab. Kate and I started on the champers but it was incredibly bubbly and a bit disgusting, so we switched to white wine for the rest of the night.

Halfway through the bartender limited everyone to one drink at a time because I think the College kids were starting to freak Crane Bar out, but he also took forever to serve me and told me off for ordering Kate a drink for Kate when she was standing next to me (because she couldn’t reach the bar). I understand the rules, and I get the reasoning behind them and his reaction was fair, I just was irritated because I felt like there was so much other dodgy behaviour going on that really, I was clearly not a danger and small pickings but whatever. Pedantic bartenders can be good to hire, I guess. I was also drunk, so I probably felt more annoyed than was fair at the time.

I hung out a lot with Nicky G, who was super friendly and chatty (like more so towards me than normal, probably because he was completely smashed) and I had a good chat with Cachelin about how she was going and what she was going to do next sem. Hamish arrived and Nicky G and Hamish had a weird argument about whose life sucked more (yes, like in Avenue Q), except it was so stupid because it was just Nicky G doing what he always does and trying to one-up people all the time, and like also why would you want your life to suck more? Just tell it like it is, guys. So Kate and I spectated and laughed and also laughed (a bit nervously) at the conversation next to us where Harry was stirring up trouble by triggering Linley over some issue (probably women’s rights to get her fired up and gesturing like she was – as long as it’s not Max, I’m happy) and then Karla joined in on the argument which was funny and then Alice arrived to kick Harry out because he was expelled from College so probably shouldn’t even be there, let alone misbehaving (I saw him sneak up to the toilets instead, though – bad luck, Alice).

Then Linley, Nicky G and Kate went off to the toilets, as they do, to have a group debrief, and that was fine, except it meant I was stuck with Hamish making semi-awkward conversation. The conversation itself wasn’t awkward, I just didn’t really want to be in it, which made it awkward just for me. Then Karla came up (completely ignoring me as usual, there is a theme with stupid arrogant College kids) and struck up a super friendly chat with Hamish so I took the opportunity to escape and see what Kate L was up to. I met her sister, Em, who is 100x more bubbly and outgoing than Kate which is funny and an interesting dynamic because Em just turned 18, so is a bit younger. They were talking to Jim Nash, who is unpleasant to be around on the best of days, and drunk Jim Nash is never the best of days, so eventually I escaped up the stairs to see what my friends in the toilet were up to.

We all headed back to the small area we had, and Nicky G and I went and had a drunk little boogie in the 30-year-old private section because we thought we were clever and why not? While Kate watched on in horror (she doesn’t like rules being broken). Then Nicky G went home with Hols (they live together) which is probably a good thing because he was very smashed by this point.

Overall throughout the night there was limited food, some delicious karaage chicken that came out at the start (Crane Bar, so Jap-themed) and these boxes of weirdly kind of sweet, not very pleasant noodles. We were also trying to get Kate and Elliot together towards the end of the night (because Kate wanted him) but Lara had her eye on him too, so (as I’ve heard) like last year’s REXTAB, it was a bit of a bun-fight. She kept pulling Elliot away to have what looked like a serious conversation, and then when Kate finally got to talk to Elliot, Richie was just standing there like a super awkward 3rd wheel and we were watching feeling vaguely amused and annoyed/sorry for Kate. Eventually Karla and Linley, like the good friends they are, pulled Richie aside and had a hilariously fake conversation about how he was doing and how med was for him, with various inane commentary like “oh, what year are you in?” which they would know and “oh my god, that’s so funny” when I don’t think Richie has been that kind of funny ever.

They cut us off (alcohol-wise) at 11, and Hamish decided to leave, so Kate and I decided to try to hype people for World Bar, which was just 2 doors down. Unfortunately, people went only to discover that there was a ridiculous cover charge of $20, so that option was out, and we lost some people to that frustration, and the nearby kebab shop, and just generally going home. The next invitation was by Alena to go to her house in Maroubra for afters. We were keen, so we agreed and we all left Crane Bar.

Outside there was an altercation where Riley (who had really fucked-up unfocused drunk eyes) tried to get back into Crane Bar and the bouncer forcibly threw him out, into Gus, who developed a blood nose. Mitch, our resident righteous smooth-talker, went to intervene on his behalf and complain to the bouncer, and they had a full-on lengthy argument which involved the manager and was fun to watch from aside. When that was over, we almost got Elliot into an Uber with us, which would’ve been a win for Kate, but Lara pulled him aside one last time and he ended up going home with her instead (yuck). Linley, Kate, Josh and I split the Uber to Alena’s house.

We arrived first, but thankfully, Josh knew where they hid the spare keys, so we didn’t have to hang around in the cold. He let us in and we did a group pee (minus Josh) and by the time that was over, Alena’s group had arrived, so she did a tour of her house. It’s super nice, big and spacious and cheap, and Hamish and Bri’s master bedroom is amazing. Linley and I had a play on their wooden playground (!!) and Kate L had a go on the swing, but Kate A wasn’t into it. Then when we followed everyone’s voices upstairs, we found ourselves in Bri’s room. Lauren was trying unsuccessfully to set up the keyboard in the room, (not that we would play it anyway, with Thurgs asleep next door) and everyone was just lolling around watching her. It didn’t work out, so eventually she gave up and then a bunch of people left.

Then everyone walked by into the bathroom and were joking about having a spa bath because Alena’s place also has a spa (!!). Alistair made a joke about going in, and Alena must still like him or something, because suddenly she turned the tap on and then he was emptying all the soap into the tub and Linley was adding a Lush snowman bath bomb. We were unsure as to how we were going to fit 9 people in the tub, and at some point, everyone just left with the water still running, leaving Linley, Kate, Lyndsay and I just standing there. So, what the hell? We closed the door, got nakey (I got real nakey because I wasn’t wearing any underwear underneath that dress) and got into the spa. We were using the bubbles to protect ourselves, but it wasn’t bubble bath, so they were dissolving rapidly, and we were just having a good time and giggling, and Lyndsay took a Snapchat to commemorate the moment and it was fun because we’ve never hung out with her before and it was so liberating to all have our boobs out and be in the warm water. Then Alena came in and was obviously shook about seeing us all naked in the tub she kind of went “O” and then went “fair, fair,” and hurriedly closed the door. We laughed a lot, especially about the “fair, fair” bit, but then worried a lot about if she was mad at us, because she did look low-key mad and Alena is annoying and super passive-aggressive.

Now that we’d had our fun, we dried ourselves off (using 4 of their towels, but it was a lucky dip, because we didn’t know if we got Gus, Horse, Thurgs, Alena, Bri’s or Hame’s towel) and headed back downstairs. It was awkward once we got there, Alena was obviously fuming (although we were not sure why, exactly) and that had clearly made everyone very uncomfortable. Even Josh wouldn’t speak to us properly, and he ditched our Uber home to go with Alistair, even though that was inconvenient to everyone, more expensive and just made no sense at all which pissed me off, as I was paying for all the Ubers that night. Anyway, vibes were awkward, so we decided to take our cue and leave. Linley and Tristy went back to college and Lyndsay gave us an I-saw-your-boobs-so-now-we’re-friends hug and then tried to work out where to go, because she was supposed to go stay with Lara, but Lara had taken Elliot home, so she didn’t want to disturb them, and it was funny she was telling us all of this casually because she had no idea that Kate had wanted to take him home instead.

As we got into the Uber, Josh messaged me saying he was waiting at the top of the stairs because he’d forgotten his key which vindicated me slightly (why am I so petty?). I let him in and then we had a quick debrief about how mad Alena was (ludicrously) and then Josh found his keys, which had been residing in the coat pocket he hadn’t checked all along. He went to bed and Kate and I had a second debrief about Lara and Elliot, and I basically told her to just let it go, but now leading up to Cach’s birthday I’m starting to get the inkling it’s more than a silly drunk whim. Anyway, I wanted to be supportive, and cheer her up, but I was drunk and tired (and so was she) and there had been no hint of attraction this year before REXTAB and he was at touch and everything, and she’s a much nicer and better person but objectively she has no claim to him over Lara, so there wasn’t truthfully much I could say. Will was messaging me because he had Wilson and Eric over because his parents are away, and they were fucked up and he needed company while looking after them, but I was too tired to deal with it, so I collapsed into bed instead and let the drunk exhaustion take me over. I did put on my usual podcast (MuggleCast this time, I think) so I didn’t think, but I barely heard a word of it before I was passed out.

So that’s the summary of my stupidly long Saturday, almost a week after it happened, and I’m going to recap the Sunday too, but later, because I really want to take the opportunity of this late start tomorrow to get some decent sleep.

The only thing to add is to add to the Alena-anger part of the story. Since, Linley messaged Kate and I saying she had a chat with Rhi (Alena’s little sister, who is horrible and definitely not actually little) and Rhi said Alena was mad because we stole the bath from Alistair and Tristy and should’ve just turned off the water and left it for them which a) was 100% not what was happening b) Tristy and Ali left the room, so that’s their fault c) we aren’t your bath-maids, why would we turn off the water and leave it for you, so that you can come back to a bath full of cold water at some later time if and when you decide to make a reappearance given it was Alena who found us a good while after we hopped in and not Alistair or Tristy d) none of your business, Rhi, you didn’t even go to REXTAB, nor do you live in Alena’s house and on a related note (but irrelevant to Rhi and her stupidity), e) it’s a fucking bath, Alena, calm your shit and f) Alena is passive-aggressive and low-key hates the 3 of us anyway (she probably doesn’t give a fuck about Lyndsay) so she’s just looking for an excuse to be angry. Boy, oh boy were Kate and I lucky that we had legitimate excuses for not going to touch the Monday after.

Anyway, that’s all I to add and it’s 12:40, so I must get to sleep. Typing this up was fun, because I haven’t for a while and reflecting that far is sort of cathartic. Until next time, folks 😊.

#personal