nile + jacket
Five Sentence Prompts
Four times Nile got someone else’s jacket-and one time it was her own.
5: Joe
“You’ll freeze.” He tells her, even though it’s not that cold out, it’s wet. Everything is wet and the rain is one of those ‘probably won’t stop for the next thousand years’ types that seems to create a curtain of water before their vision. She tries to protest, even as he’s holding the long black trench-coat style jacket out, “What about you?” Only getting a headshake in return, “Don’t worry about me, I’ve got another one.” She has doubts, but takes it anyway. it’s warmer than she expected, and wraps around her like a blanket, slightly too large. “I bought it a size bigger.” He explains.
(She found out later he did that deliberately, so he and Nicky could share if it was necessary)
4: Nicky
She woke up suddenly, overly warm and confused, blinking consciousness back when she could see properly in the dark, quelling her breathing and taking note of her surroundings. She hadn’t fallen asleep with a blanket on, but now she’s covered by a heavy parka, something yellow and fleece lined. The mountain region is chilly, and she can see the jacket is overtop of her own sleeping bag and blanket.
“Nile?”
Nicky, of course, a pin dropping four miles away would wake that man on a mission. “Sorry..I didn’t..isn’t this yours?” Indicating the jacket overtop her, “Won’t you be cold too?”
Andy’s nearest Nile, curled up in her own sleeping bag and furs. Nicky only chuckles, ‘You were shivering in your sleep, and besides-” He motions to the arm around him in the dark, something Nile can barely see between darkness and blankets ‘I’ve a space heater”
Well, that much was true.
3: Andy
“Put it on.”
“It looks ridiculous.”
Andy chucks the thing at her head. It is hideous. Something patched up and half-fur half-polyester. Nile legitimately does not know what it is supposed to be.
‘I..what is it?”
“A jacket.’ Andy says, because sure, she can believe that all she desires, it just looks like a mess of fabric to Nile.
Still, Nile puts the thing on. She has no idea why she’s meant to be wearing this table-cloth monstrosity, but it does feel nice enough, makes the walk a bit more comfortable. Even though it isn’t cold really, and there’s still no reason for Nile to be wearing it.
Later, she’s surprised by Nicky’s expression when she comes to dinner after her watch. “I know, it’s weird looking” She grumbles, sitting. “Don’t know why Andy was so insistent on my having it.”
Nicky just grins, and Nile is further confused, “What?”
“She made that.”
Nile blinks, picking up a plate, brow knitting as she thinks it through. Andy is nowhere in sight now.
“..Oh.”
The jacket becomes one of Nile’s most precious possessions, after that.
2: Mother
When Nile was growing up, Chicago’s weather was either ‘fine’ or ‘actually weather is a concept unbeknownst to this area, I’m going to do whatever I please’
Nile got a new coat every year. Something that could suffice in multiple elements, her mother watching fondly as she unpacked the newest version every Christmas morning, and when her brother was born, he was incorporated into this sensible tradition.
She’d had so many over the years. One was pink, one was white, one year she begged for a bright blue one with a celestial print that she was sad to grow out of. One had been long and purple, another was elegant and black.
She missed that, sometimes. Did her brother still get the yearly jacket? Did her mother sometimes browse the malls, the online catalogues and feel that ache in her chest?
Maybe she’d send her mother one. A token. “I’m still here, I just can’t tell you.”
Maybe.
1: Nile
It was a gorgeous jacket.
She saw it in a store by accident. Bright red, nearly the darkness of blood, sharp and radiant. It had a sharp push down collar and a large belt with a bright gold and black buckle, and stopped just short of the knee. Thick, but not bulky.
It was terrifyingly expensive, but the others talked her into it. She loved how it felt, loved how it hugged and clenched. It also had pockets. Not just the outer pockets, but hidden inner pockets.
The weather was turning, the leaves going from soft to crunchy, and standing there, the jacket billows around the sides.
She has no idea how long she stands out there, hands in her pockets, shrouded in her new purchase, when she’s approached.
“I want to send her something. I cannot carry on this way. Times are different. I can make it work.”
Andy makes a noise, one Nile can’t discern, surprised but not startled by the hand on her shoulder.
“Let’s see what we can do, to make that happen.”
