Time: October 20, morning. Location: On the edge of the jungle Status: Closed with @phoebedarlings
This is becoming an unfortunate pattern. With Frank off to try his hand at helping with the wreckage on the beach and Rose in no state to do any heavy lifting, they’d split up. Just for now, Rose has already assured herself by the time Jo begins to dart too far ahead. Despite her warnings to her daughter, the little girl keeps up the pace of her exploration. Rose had only paused momentarily to pick up something that had glinted and caught her eye... and then Jo was gone. Her discovery quickly forgotten, Rose straightens up, moving forward quickly. “Jo?” But her daughter rarely moves in a linear path and so, even as she spins in a slow circle, Rose has no idea where to begin. “Josephine!” She tries again, louder this time, calling over the sound of her own quickening pulse in her ears. “Jo, get back here!”
Committing on a direction at random, Rose treks further into the trees despite the warnings she’d been given only a few days beforehand. What does it matter? Very little when her daughter is out of sight. Swatting back reaching leaves and dodging overhanging branches, Rose continues her calls. She’s only just stopped for breath when she hears a familiar voice and the weight on her chest lightens. Clearly, her daughter is too busy giving someone a full interrogation to pay any mind to the desperation of her mother. “These are cool, you know my daddy wears a pair like these? Or he did in some pictures. Are you two friends? His name is Frank, I used to only see him in pictures, but now – ooh!” And there she is, the girl of the hour, sporting a pair of reading glasses that look far too big and scurrying toward something of interest. “These look cool! Can you eat these? There are so many colors! My favorite’s green, so I think – oh, my mommy says I should ask first. Can I have one?”
“Your mommy,” Rose interrupts, having hurried into earshot and now somewhat out of breath. All the same, she delivers a typical maternal look of disapproval. “Has told you many times not to grab things that aren’t yours. Or to wander off.” Chastened, Jo frowns and takes off the glasses, tossing them aside and shuffling over to her mother. Still, Rose can see Jo in her periphery reaching for one trinket or another as she contemplates how to apologize, her gaze finally landing on this unfamiliar woman. “I’m sorry. This is all very new to her and she’s ... well, excited.”
