Alma

=><= <img src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/7d706cdddab21c77cc6ad7328f32ed56/f8af661bc4164fd3-9f/s640x960/f035ca8b57badb4e044c8cc18c108299c9e46d4d.png"> =><= [[START->1]]

(alert:"Nothing is ever new.") (set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[daddy said that he'd be home for dinner, tonight.] $a[grownups get pretty caught up in work. (click:"work")[being a diplomat seems really hard.](click:"hard")[ you have to wear crisply pressed suits, and tiny silver tie pins, and polished-squeaky oxfords that you can see your face in.]] $a[he tries his best to show up for dinners, even if lunches and breakfasts are sometimes too busy. (click:"busy")[daddy says that family time is important, and he likes to tuck you in to bed before he shambles off with [[father graham->2]] to theirs.]]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[father graham is nice. (click: "nice")[he tries his best to keep you busy through the day. sometimes you sit in the sunday school sessions with the other children. he lets you draw pictures from the sermons and sessions he holds. [[there's a whole stack of tape recordings piled up in the back.->3]]]] $a[his voice is different from daddy's. (click:"daddy's")[he says it's the sort of voice from fairytales, and far away places-] (click:"places")[where a brogue, whatever those are, is common, and there's moss as far away as your eyes can see.] (click:"see")[you think that that must be a lot of moss. you wonder if anyone's ever taken a nap, curled up on the ground. you think that [[it would be soft.->9]]]]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[in the tapes, father graham talks a lot about [[everything and nothing.->4]] he sighs, a lot. he doesn't sound tired, though- not like you do, when you're tuning in with your little ham radio.(click:"ham radio")[ you think that you like the idea of another little girl having it someday. it'd be like sharing, and treasure hunting. for now though, it's yours.]] $a[you use it to listen to the truckers who drive big rumbling trucks down the highways leading outside of your tiny town, or the police officers chattering away on the force.] $a[you think maybe he's trying to just focus, like when daddy pinches the bridge of his nose as he's flipping through [[taxes and paperwork.->6]] it does sound important. he does teach people a lot of things.]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[he especially likes talking about recipes.(click:"recipes")[ he's very picky about how he arranges them. they're on brown paper- daddy says that it's proper name is kraft paper. they have little pictures on them, too.] (click:"pictures")[ daddy says that they're smaller versions of paintings. apparently they're modern art. maybe that means that they're new?] (click:"new?")[ he uses lots of colours to keep things organized: like blue for titles, yellow for numbers, pinks for how much, and orange for the names of things. green's special, because it tells you [[what to do.->5]]]]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[it makes sense to you that green is father graham's favourite colour. he does a lot of that. he's friends with the drydenne historical society.(click:"drydenne historical society")[ they've been around since forever, from even before daddy was little. you can't imagine that!]] $a[a lot of the time, his work involves going around and talking to people who live near the church. they have a lot of problems.(click:"problems")[ mostly it's with having guests over that they don't want inside of their homes, and he shows them how to tell them to go away. you don't think that that sounds so hard.] near the church is mostly empty, but there is a long strip of road named tilrose lane.(click:"tilrose lane")[ you remembered that, because daddy said it's important to know the names of things, and keep yours secret.]] $a[it's why you're not allowed to play around with father graham when he asks you what yours is. you think that it's pretty silly, since he already knows it, and your christian name too! but he's kind of a silly man. and anyways, if daddy tells you something, then it's probably important to listen. grown ups make [[the rules,->7]] right? right.]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[you know that father graham is really proud of your daddy for his work.(click:"work")[ part of being a diplomat means that you have to 'wear many hats,' or at least, that's what daddy says. math's important for 'currency exchange' when he's overseas. you know that math is hard, there's lots of numbers to keep track of- too many to count on your fingers, and your toes even, and sometimes there's even letters! even grownups have trouble with it!]] $a[he says that he's not very good at it himself, so it's [[extra special.->8]]]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[and there are a lot of rules. there's special ones for different places in the town.(click:"town")[ for example, at the icecream shop, where daddy takes you on tuesdays as a daddy-daughter date, you aren't allowed to touch miss cecily in the backgroom, or else it's really bad luck. and before you step into father graham's church, you have to flip the horseshoe nailed outside on top of the big wooden doors.] (click:"big wooden doors")[ otherwise, he can't come in. it's not that he doesn't want to, he says, it's that he can't. so daddy always opens the door for the both of you, because he has really good manners, and he loves you two the most out of everyone in the whole wide world.] (click:"whole wide world")[you think that maybe they're going to get married, someday. father graham already takes care of you most of the time anyways. [[he's really good at making pancakes.->11]]]]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[lots of things are extra special about daddy to father graham. he has pretty green eyes,(click:"green eyes")[ just like the moss from where father graham is from] and fluffy white-blonde hair that is just a little bit lighter than when the hay for the horses is finished baking underneath the sun for the winter time, and he's just tall enough to give him a kiss if he stands up on his tippy toes.(click:"tippy toes")[ father graham's pretty tall. he's like, two of you [[and then some.->10]]]]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[you asked daddy once, how come he was so tall. even against some of the other townspeople, he still towers over them.(click:"towers over them")[ some of the other children say that he looks a little like how death does, in the folk tales and stories that the adults murmur about when they think that they're being unwatched.]]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[there's lots of soft things, in drydenne. you especially like the little yellow flowers down at the lake's edge. daddy says that they belong to a saint, and that's why you have to mind your 'pease and thank yous' when you cut some of the flowers.] $a[he keeps a lot (cycling-link: "of things", "salt", "iron", "red thread", "st. john's flowers", "dried rice", "canning salt", "true holy water", "sandalwood slivers", "silver and gold rings", "sewing scissors", "pocket knives", "horse shoes, turned the right side up", "crosses and rosaries","",) inside of little metal tins around the house, like the ones for candies or holding sewing needles and bobbins of thread.]

(set: $a to (text-colour: (rgb: 242, 156, 150))) $a[he's really good at making lots of things. one of his favourites to make on saturdays is [[fresh bread. ->12]] it makes the house smell warm, and cozy- like a big hug.]