milliways_bar | (no subject)

Amy turns.

"Parker? Goodness, it's been ages," says Amy.

"And, yes, this is Merry."

Merry looks over at Parker.

"Say hello, darling," Amy says.

"'lo."

"A year," Parker agrees. "It's so good to see you."

Parker smiles at the little boy (who seems a very far cry from the tiny baby she remembers).

"Hi, Merry."

She directs the smile up at Amy. "He's growing up handsome, isn't he? I can't believe how big he's gotten."

"He's going to look like Perry," Amy says, trying (unsuccessfully) to smooth her son's hair down.

So, yes, he's growing up very handsome, in Amy's opinion.

"How have you been, Parker?"

Oh, they're going to need tea.

"I've been great."

"I've been studying abroad in Spain for the past year. I just got back to Hearst."

Tea, or at the very least comfortable chairs, are going to be a necessity.

"How have you been?"

Amy looks around and spots a likely looking couple of chairs, and heads over to plop down.

"Busy," says Amy. "Very, very busy, but also very, very happy.

"I want to hear all about Spain."

Her exposure to Spain has largely been limited to a strict dancing master who was not happy about the Ordinary thing.

"Spain is wonderful," Parker says, sinking into a chair. "I did my sophomore year at the University of Barcelona."

"I'm already daydreaming about when I can go back for a visit."

"How are things in the Bar? In Ambergeldar? How's Susan? God, she must be so big by now."

Oh yes. There is catching up to do.

"As far as I know, things in the bar are well," says Amy. "I haven't been here all that frequently, of late. Things in Ambergeldar are . . . well, last year was a little difficult, but this year has been much better.

"And Susan is wonderful. Into everything it seems. Giving her nursemaids fits."

Not the way her mother did, though.

"Susaaa," Merry puts in.

"Nothing really bad, I hope," Parker says.

In her head, Parker has always thought of Ambergeldar as a perfect, fairy tale-ish place where bad things don't really happen.

"Bad harvest," says Amy simply. "But, no, nothing too bad, I shouldn't say."

It was far from perfect, but it was also far from a catastrophe.

"This year's has been much better, though."

"Good. I'm glad to hear it."

Parker settles back in her chair. She grins.

"You know, I thought of you a lot over in Europe. All those castles."

Amy smiles. She's always happiest when she's out of a castle, but she can see the logic.

"Do tell me about your trip."

How many hours does Amy have?

"I went on an exchange program," Parker says. "I did my entire sophomore year in Barcelona."

"And then this summer before I came back, I traveled around the continent on my own. It was incredible."

Just wait until she has pictures to show.

Amy has tons of time. It's the advantage of a very slow Milliways-to-own-world time ration.

"You traveled all over Europe? In one summer?"

Heavens but that's moving fast.

"Most of it."

"I hit most of the high points of Spain and Portugal during the school year during vacations. Oh, and Ibiza, of course. Parts of France too, since we were near the border."

"And yeah, over the summer, I make it to Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, up into Sweden, Belgium, and parts of the UK."

Amy blinks.

"I think that would take me years," she says. "Just to get from place to place."

Merry nods. And then sneezes.

"Bless you," Parker says, leaning forward to smile at Merry.

He really is...adorable. There is not other worthy adjective.

"In my world there's a great train system," Parker explains. "You can get virtually anywhere on it. You just get a train pass, a hostel pass, a good sturdy backpack, and you're good to go."

Merry leans forward, too, reaching out to Parker.

"It sounds just wonderful," says Amy, a little wistfully.

"Train system?"

She's never heard about trains. Aside from the ones that sweep around behind dresses, of course.

"It's..." How to explain trains? "It's a mass transit system. Connected enclosed cars, pulled by an engine, that travels along a track?"

Parker's not sure she's explaining it well. If needs be, she bets Bar could whip up a model version or a picture.

She waves her fingers at Merry.

"Can I hold him?" she asks.

She promises she won't literally eat him up.

Amy tries to work that out, gets to her usual close enough for Milliways, and nods.

(She's envisioning a string of yellows SUVs, because thanks to Logan, that's the meaning she has for the word car, but she's getting the general idea.)

"Of course," says Amy, handing her son carefully over to Parker.

"Bisssssha," Parker says.

"That's right. Bisssha," Parker says, giving him a cuddle and settling him into her lap.

"When I get my pictures printed, I'll have to show you. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say I took hundreds."

And she may have tucked away a souvenir or two with a certain small prince and princess in mind.

Merry settles in comfortably, and reaches for Parker's earring.

"I'll look forward to it," Amy says.

And she will. Pictures in and of themselves are still fascinating, even before you factor in the subject matter.

"So you're back in California now?"

Edited 2008-09-21 03:19 (UTC)

"No, no, sweetie. Don't pull on that," Parker says, mildly.

She attempts to distract him with her bracelet.

"Yes, I'm back at Hearst. Junior year."

Parker smiles.

"It's amazing how small it seems now."

The bracelet is pretty! Shiny!

"Spasa!" Merry declares, happily distracted.

"He says it's sparkly," Amy translates.

"Small? Howso?"

"It is sparkly, isn't it?" Parker grins down at Merry.

"Small, like.....we'll it's small compared to the University of Barcelona. Just in area and number of people."

"And..." Parker considers. "It's small in the way that going back home to live with your parents would feel small." Parker laughs, shaking her head.

"Does that make any sense at all?"

Amy nods. She's gone back to live with her parents.

"Oh, yes. It's small in the way that going back to being a princess in your parents' castle for a winter is, after you've been a kitchen maid and been to the end of the universe and met Perry."

"Exactly."

Parker gives her bracelet a shake for Merry's benefit.

"And it's not that I'm unhappy to be back," Parker hastens to explain. "It's just a little strange. Like being hemmed it."

"Even though it shouldn't, since my parents are still a couple of states away."

Parker shrugs.

"I'm sure it'll wear off."

Amy nods again.

"It sounds like an amazing experience, and you'd learn ever so much, so I can quite see why it would take some time to get used to its being over."

Amy spent a lot of time staring out the window, the winter she was engaged.

"The weirdest thing is getting used to hearing English everywhere again."

"Sometimes I have to stop and think about what language to speak in. It's like having a split brain."

"That's something I've never had to do," says Amy, thoughtfully.

Merry burbles.

"Well, unless you count knowing what my children are trying to say."

"The ever challenging Toddler Speak." Parker nods. "Don't even get me started on those irregular verbs."

Toddlers are very bad about linguistic rules.

But they do match the irregular nouns.

"Eeeeeen agasha," says Merry.

Amy frowns a little. "I think that means he's hungry."

Parker looks suitably impressed at Amy's maternal translation skills. She never would have gotten that.

"Is he up to eating real food?"

"Well, it also might mean that he wants his blanket."

Which is in Ambergeldar.

"It usually means that he wants something but it doesn't always mean the same something.

"He's very fond of grapes right now."

"You like grapes, Merry?" Parker asks, tickling him gently.

"According to my dad, I went through a phase where I ate nothing but apples and cheese for almost a month. Gave my mom a fit."

Merry laughs. "Gigeega," he says.

"Apples and cheese are lovely together, at least," Amy says.

She catches a waitrat and asks for grapes and tea.

Apples and cheese, too, because why not?

The three do go well together.

"I think Mom thought I was going to die of malnutrition or something."

Parker hefts Merry up a bit in her lap.

"Not a problem Merry seems to be having."

"We're not having any trouble getting Merry to eat, no.

"His sister went through a short phase of eating flowers whenever we were in the garden . . ."

Amy takes the tray from the returning rat and places it on the closest table.

"Eeeeeeen agasha," says Merry again, reaching for it.

"Grapes," says Amy, decidedly.

Parker laughs.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me."

Flowers are pretty, therefore they must taste good. Right?

"Definitely hungry," Parker agrees.

"Logan was terrible about giving them to her, too," says Amy, cutting grapes into small pieces for Merry, and passing them to him.

"Tea, Parker?"

"Please."

Parker shakes her head. "Sounds like him. All Susan would have to do would be point." She smiles a bit.

She wonders a how Logan is doing these days. She hasn't run across him yet, and they've been in only sporadic contact over the last year.

Amy pours.

"Point and open her eyes very wide," says Amy. "Though to be fair, it seems to work on a lot of people other than Logan, too."

They're in trouble, when Susan gets a little older.

"Big eyes can be a deadly weapon," Parker agrees.

She would know. She's used them a time or two (or twenty) herself to very good effect.

"Logan could be a real softie though."

Amy smiles. "Yes, he certainly can.

"He took Susan out of Merry's christening when she went tearing down the cathredral aisle screaming, so she could chase ladybugs instead of having to behave."

"How's he doing these days?"

Yeah, they broke up. And Parker certainly isn't pining to rekindle the relationship. But that doesn't mean she isn't interested in his well-being.

Amy frowns slightly. "The last time I saw him, he was doing well," she says. "But it's been a while; I've not been able to slip away to visit as much as I used to, of late."

"Yeah. Same here," Parker says.

"We exchanged a few emails while I was gone, but..."

She trails off with a shrug.

Amy nods.

"It's one of the things you just get used to, especially here. Not being able to keep up with people as well as you'd like."