Logs:Of Stones and Sleepovers (Or, Ghost Stories)

Of Stones and Sleepovers (Or, Ghost Stories)
Dramatis Personae Kavalam, Kelawini	2020-09-10 "But family's family, right? We could sprout horns and that don't change."
Location <XAV> Lake - Xs Grounds
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. "...so then aunty guys let us stay with them, all that summer long," Kelawini is saying, animated despite the heavy subject of her story, tanned arms gesticulating grandly as she walks along the lakeshore. She's dressed in a deep blue babydoll shirt with the silhouette of a sea turtle haloed in ropes of sunlight refracted by water, black denim shorts with silver stitching, and no shoes on her much-calloused feet. "All us kids piled into the living room together it was like one sleepover party every night." "Now he's fine though yeah?" Kavalam's head wobbles slightly side to side with this question. He's walking alongside Kelawini, in jeans, a yellow button-down, leather sandals, a leather satchel across his shoulder resting on his hip. "We had -- some similar summers." Then, with a laugh: "And monsoon, and winter as well. Our home it was convenient to many city-things so for job-seeking, for my aunty's own treatments, all the cousins come cramming into our house." The look he turns out towards the water is just a little wistful. "Not a bad time, if you like your cousins well." "Oh yeah, he hasn't get it again or nothing," Kelawini bobs her head. "It was scary times, but nice getting to know our cousins better." She laughs. "Had some fights, but we good now." Her lips press together thinly and she looks out at the water, too. More quietly. "I'm sorry. You miss um, eh?" Spotting something on the ground, she stoops to pluck up a flat, round rock and tosses it restlessly from one hand to the other. "Any luck getting someone help track down your family?" "Thank the gods." Kavalam nudges at another rock, lightly, with his toe, but leaves it when it shifts aside to reveal a very lumpy underside in contrast to its smooth-flat top. "Your cousins, are you close still? I mean, do they know about -- all this?" He gestures around them widely. His eyes turn back to the water. "He's working on it." Kelawini hands her rock to Kavalam with a smile. "Thank the gods." Her dark eyes are already scanning the beach for another. "Oh, we stay talking on Facebook, you know? Some of them, they're not so sure about the mutant thing." She rolls her eyes theatrically. "But family's family, right? We could sprout horns and that don't change. Ah-ha!" This triumphant exclamation as she bends to pluck another stone. "I hope he finds um, and soon. Meantime, we work on these odda kids. We just make sure they see you regular, bumbai they remember you right?" Kavalam's head wobbles side to side again. "Family is family," he agrees, hefting the rock lightly in his hand with a small smile. "Maybe-so. Maybe they'll only just think you're one pottan with an imaginary friend at your age. Though if nobody ever gets to that point I will happily help you convince anyone the school is haunted if someone needs a good scare." Kelawini snorts. "If anyone say I imagine you I'll crack um good." She lowers her stance and flings her stone hard along the surface of the lake where it skips once, twice, four times before vanishing with a satisfying little splish, ripples spreading outward. "But, it's Halloween season soon. Those who don't remember you, we can have some fun. And I mean, look at this place--" She throws her hand at the mansion up the hill. "Honestly I'd be surprised if it wasn't at least a little haunted." "I can picture that. Very clear in my mind." Kavalam takes no stance. Just a lazy underhand fling; his rock skips only three times, plunking down into the water considerably shy of the center of Kelawini's ripples. "No matter how careful there must have been some very disastrous accidents some time, here." He tosses a brief glance back in the direction of the school. "I bet a ghost here would have some very good stories to tell."