☺: my muse finding yours on the side of the road, hours away from home
Henry was driving along the road towards a far out building site, blueprints in the passenger seat, when he noticed a stopped car not far up the road. Smoke was clouding out from the hood and as he came nearer, he spied the dark-haired man standing next to the car, on his phone. Henry pulled over, soon stepping out of the car and asking, “You okay?”
“Does it look like it?” the stranger replied, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Henry didn’t take the irritation personally; it took a lot to get him angry anyway. Plus he figured, smoke coming out of your car and being stranded on the side of the road might make anyone a little pissy. He decided he ought to try helping anyway, and went over to the hood. The familiar smell of pancakes reached his nose, and he looked back over at the man.
“It’s your coolant,” he remarked, stepping over to him. “It’s not dangerous, although it seems like your engine overheated too. You could always drive back to a shop with the heater on to circulate it out of the engine- but we’re pretty far out. Do you want a lift?”
The stranger gave Henry an odd look for a moment, finally asking, “You a mechanic or something?”
“No, I just read and retain a lot,” Henry admitted, smiling somewhat awkwardly.
“Well, I’ll take the lift,” the striking looking man said, clearly less vexed than he had been. “I’d rather not drive all the way back in that thing to a shop, especially with the heat on while in the middle of Satan’s backyard.” He sighed before adding, “I’m Fallon Grant, by the way- I run the Bellagio.”
“Henry Dierdan- architect. Hop on in.”
☣ : Worst influence on you as a kid?
The city can corrupt even the purest- while Chicago is exciting and busy, the city can sometimes be a bad influence on people. I was never a bad kid, and I didn’t have many friends to go out and do stuff with- but sometimes a smart kid can retain the wrong kind of information when they’re out on the city streets.
✉ : Did you have a lot of friends?
I didn’t become quite as likable and a little more sociable until college. I spent the earlier years more invested in learning for my mother’s sake to get that full ride and for my own enjoyment- books were more of my friends for a long time.
