"No, it's alright - you told me to watch where I was going, and I didn't. Kind of brought this on myself."
He grimaced a little, trying not to flinch too much as JW checked the injury. It shouldn't surprise him that it hurt so much, or that it was feeling worse as time went by, but he guessed it had been longer than he thought since the last time this happened.
He huffed out a sigh. He wasn't sure he was strong enough to move it back to where it was supposed to be. Or even if that was the case. He wanted to call on Shirley...but that would also mean suffering Shirley. Maybe Vidia was the best choice after all...she was so far away though, they'd have to drive.
"Wait here. Si'down if you want. I'll get you some aspirin."
Ginko had no idea what aspirin was, but he nodded and sat down against the wall, clutching his shoulder and gritting his teeth a little.
He felt bad, honestly - he had hoped that he could just hide it until there was a good chance to head back without seeming like he was cutting the visit too short, and then he could talk to the doctor in the village. He didn't want JW to have to deal with this, but he doubted that protesting would do much good.
The world walker returned with a glass of water and two small white pills in-hand, both of which he passed to Ginko. They were low dose, surely they would be alright.
"I don't think I can fix this myself...I've got some friends around. One is into more, ah, natural medicine. Andmaybemagic. The other has traveled to some pretty remote places and helped folks out. She can also benchpress me. S' up to you."
He stared uncertainly at the pills for a few seconds. "Should I... bite down on these, or...?"
He glanced up again, his brow furrowing slightly. He felt like he didn't catch part of that. "...I'm not sure. I don't really know them, so... I guess I'll leave it up to which you think would be a better idea."
"Oh--uh. You just swallow 'em down with the water. If you chew them up they'll taste awful." "After some hesitation he leaned against the stair railing and folded his arms. It wasn't fair to make Ginko choose with so little go go on. "One is the lady I told you about earlier. You don't have to dye your hair, but she's a witch and magic might hurt less than Shirley ramming your shoulder back into place with her bare hands--assumin' Vidia can fix something like that. She's only really done magic on me once and that was to change me back into a man after I got stuck as a bird."
"Okay. Vidia it is. We'll have Shirley on backup if she doesn't have a potion or spell or...weird bee dance to help you. Follow me. You can just leave that up here," he gestured to the glass.
JW led his guest back down the stairs, not bothering to close the attic and save on their heating bill. There was yet another door Ginko had not been through--the front one. The front yard was just as overgrown as the back yard but here it was obvious just how much of a 'house on the hill' JW lived in. The whole of Hawksaw sprawled below them with its squat buildings and patchy asphalt. At least a dozen steeples stood above the rooftops. Powerlines hung like a spider's web across the little city.
But the most pressing matter was the thing that sat in the front hard: a big, black van--the kind with no backseat windows and double doors in the back. JW walked toward it.
Ginko set down the glass and pushed himself to his feet to follow JW, watching his step carefully on the way down the stairs. The last thing he needed right now was to fall again.
He paused outside the door, looking over the town in front of them. It wasn't like any town he had seen - the architecture, the streets, they were all unlike anything he was used to. Unfortunately, he didn't really have time to appreciate it at the moment. He followed JW to the van, eyeing the vehicle uncertainly.
JW found himself constantly teetering along a line--to explain things to Ginko to make his journey through the unknown easier, or to assume he could figure things out by himself. He stepped up to the van, yanked the door open, and climbed in.
"You can ride shotgun."
He reached across and unlocked the passenger side door.
"You're not walking all the way to Vidia's." Also he was still bushed from the walk from JAPAN.
After watching JW get into the car, Ginko went ahead and pulled the door open to climb in next to him, still looking slightly doubtful - but not enough to argue.
"Right... is this another truck, then?" And if so, how fast is it going to move.
"Yup. It's old but it works, I got an inspection sticker and everything."
Two years ago.
"You'll wanna do that belt looking thing to your right like this." He demonstrated putting on his seatbelt before cranking the engine. The van wheezed and puttered and came to life. So did the radio. Static filled the cabin and JW cringed. He turned the nob until most of a rock and roll station could be heard. "Sorry about that."
He managed to get his seatbelt buckled - and then immediately jolted a little as the radio started up, hissing sharply and grabbing his shoulder again. "--What was that?"
"That was static. I guess I'm outta range for that other station to pick up." He backed the van up and turned, taking them down his incredibly steep gravel drive. Once they hit the road with actual paving, the ride smoothed out.
"Vidia lives out even further in the sticks than I do, but we gotta hit the highway and circle back around. The other road got washed out this year. S' a big pain in the ass."
And to get to the highway, they had to drive through town. Hawksaw was primarily dirt and blacktop with some towering oaks that the people who settled the town didn't have the heart to chop down. They threw thin shadows over the street with their leafless limbs. A car lot, two funeral homes, six flower shops, a King's Reel movie rental place, and the co-op passed them by before they came to the town's only real stoplight. To their right was the Micky's gas station with its tall, rotating sign. A black and blue car was parked outside it and JW frowned, pressing further back in his seat.
"You see a car marked up like that? You get the hell outta sigh, okay?"
Ginko stayed mostly quiet as JW talked, keeping a hand on his shoulder and cringing a little at the initially bumpy ride down to the street, and gradually realized that he was starting to understand more of what was actually being said. He guessed that was kind of inevitable, given how much he had already learned about the future, but it still felt strange now that he really noticed it.
He watched in silence as the buildings passed by, quietly taking in the closer view of the strange structures that he had noticed from so far off. He glanced toward JW curiously as they moved up alongside the gas station. "Why?"
"Weeell..." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as they waited for the light to change. "You don't have any ID on you...and he miiight be able to tell you aren't from around here."
That just got a vaguely confused stare. "And... what would happen?"
As someone who's used to wandering around and clearly not being from anywhere he goes, the idea that that might be a problem struck Ginko as a little strange.
"In America, you have to go through a whole bunch of--" Red tape wouldn't mean anything to Ginko. "Gates and...approvals in order to visit, let alone live here if you're from another country. You need something called a passport and to get that you've got to have a birth certificate and a bunch of other shit."
It was one of the less glamorous parts of the future.
"Now, Bugle--that particular cop, I don't think he'd give you trouble if you were with me. But if somebody else caught you alone, they might, I dunno, try to deport you."
"...That sounds... complicated." That was about the best word he had for it. It seemed kind of needlessly complicated, frankly, but for all he knew there was some reason for it he just didn't have the context for.
(Though, to be fair, it wasn't as if Ginko knew a lot about how immigration or identification worked in his own time and country to begin with.)
He sat back again with a lopsided shrug. "But, alright. I'll try to keep from... being deported."
"Yeah, it's complicated..." His worried frown finally turned back into a sneaky grin. "Luckily, we got inter-dimensional tree gates on our side. I could show you all sorts a' great stuff so long as we don't get caught."
The buildings thinned on either side of them and the van passed between vast pastures of cattle before taking a wide turn into a forest.
"Right. That makes things a little easier." He offered a small smile in reply, adjusting his hold to keep his shoulder steady as the van started moving again.
As they kept moving, the land shifted again to what he was a little more used to. Ginko kept looking around, though, apparently no less interested in the woods and farmlands than in the futuristic town.
"The whole magic thing is kinda secret...just like I tried to keep time travel a secret from you."
JW, you could become a wonderful history professor but no you use this rare gift to pick up guys.
The trees rushed along either side of them and were gone again. Soon they came to a highway packed with roaring cars, trucks, semis, and more. Nothing but soybeans stretched either way. JW pulled out onto the road and started to head west.
"She's not too far now. I wish they'd fix the roads...oh hey!"
He turned the radio up slightly as The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" began to play.
"Makes sense. Could cause trouble otherwise." One person talking about strange things that those around them don't understand always seems to make things complicated.
And then they hit the freeway. Ginko jumped a little as the first semi roared past, pressing back against his seat and staring wide-eyed out the window. He barely seemed to notice as JW turned up the radio.
JW grinned at the radio, almost humming along with the song.
And then he saw poor Ginko's face. He casually turned the music up a little louder.
"Yeah it's--busy this time of day! Don't worry, they all stay on their side of the road. There's laws and markings and all that good stuff."
Somewhere a car honked.
Soon enough they came to a long gravel road that turned off the high way and ducked back into the forest they left behind a ways back. The bustle of the four-lane faded behind them and soon more and more roads began to appear. Houses too--little houses, big houses, some were trailers backed by sprawling, muddy horse pastures. Dogs barked and cow ponds reflected the sky.
"Right. Good." Ginko nodded, but kept staring suspiciously out the window.
He relaxed a little as they left the highway, watching the houses and pastures go by instead. The gravel road meant he needed to try a little harder to keep his shoulder still - the pills JW gave him certainly helped, but it was definitely getting worse as time went by, and he couldn't avoid wincing occasionally whenever the van hit a particularly notable bump.
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theattic2015-08-13 03:59 pm
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He grimaced a little, trying not to flinch too much as JW checked the injury. It shouldn't surprise him that it hurt so much, or that it was feeling worse as time went by, but he guessed it had been longer than he thought since the last time this happened.
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"Wait here. Si'down if you want. I'll get you some aspirin."
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He felt bad, honestly - he had hoped that he could just hide it until there was a good chance to head back without seeming like he was cutting the visit too short, and then he could talk to the doctor in the village. He didn't want JW to have to deal with this, but he doubted that protesting would do much good.
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"I don't think I can fix this myself...I've got some friends around. One is into more, ah, natural medicine. Andmaybemagic. The other has traveled to some pretty remote places and helped folks out. She can also benchpress me. S' up to you."
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He glanced up again, his brow furrowing slightly. He felt like he didn't catch part of that. "...I'm not sure. I don't really know them, so... I guess I'll leave it up to which you think would be a better idea."
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Ginko gave an uncertain hum. "Well, hurting less is certainly good... if it works. I guess it's worth a shot, anyway."
He assumed that, if JW was suggesting this woman, she must know what she was doing well enough not to make it worse.
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JW led his guest back down the stairs, not bothering to close the attic and save on their heating bill. There was yet another door Ginko had not been through--the front one. The front yard was just as overgrown as the back yard but here it was obvious just how much of a 'house on the hill' JW lived in. The whole of Hawksaw sprawled below them with its squat buildings and patchy asphalt. At least a dozen steeples stood above the rooftops. Powerlines hung like a spider's web across the little city.
But the most pressing matter was the thing that sat in the front hard: a big, black van--the kind with no backseat windows and double doors in the back. JW walked toward it.
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He paused outside the door, looking over the town in front of them. It wasn't like any town he had seen - the architecture, the streets, they were all unlike anything he was used to. Unfortunately, he didn't really have time to appreciate it at the moment. He followed JW to the van, eyeing the vehicle uncertainly.
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"You can ride shotgun."
He reached across and unlocked the passenger side door.
"You're not walking all the way to Vidia's." Also he was still bushed from the walk from JAPAN.
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"Right... is this another truck, then?" And if so, how fast is it going to move.
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Two years ago.
"You'll wanna do that belt looking thing to your right like this." He demonstrated putting on his seatbelt before cranking the engine. The van wheezed and puttered and came to life. So did the radio. Static filled the cabin and JW cringed. He turned the nob until most of a rock and roll station could be heard. "Sorry about that."
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"Vidia lives out even further in the sticks than I do, but we gotta hit the highway and circle back around. The other road got washed out this year. S' a big pain in the ass."
And to get to the highway, they had to drive through town. Hawksaw was primarily dirt and blacktop with some towering oaks that the people who settled the town didn't have the heart to chop down. They threw thin shadows over the street with their leafless limbs. A car lot, two funeral homes, six flower shops, a King's Reel movie rental place, and the co-op passed them by before they came to the town's only real stoplight. To their right was the Micky's gas station with its tall, rotating sign. A black and blue car was parked outside it and JW frowned, pressing further back in his seat.
"You see a car marked up like that? You get the hell outta sigh, okay?"
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He watched in silence as the buildings passed by, quietly taking in the closer view of the strange structures that he had noticed from so far off. He glanced toward JW curiously as they moved up alongside the gas station. "Why?"
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As someone who's used to wandering around and clearly not being from anywhere he goes, the idea that that might be a problem struck Ginko as a little strange.
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"In America, you have to go through a whole bunch of--" Red tape wouldn't mean anything to Ginko. "Gates and...approvals in order to visit, let alone live here if you're from another country. You need something called a passport and to get that you've got to have a birth certificate and a bunch of other shit."
It was one of the less glamorous parts of the future.
"Now, Bugle--that particular cop, I don't think he'd give you trouble if you were with me. But if somebody else caught you alone, they might, I dunno, try to deport you."
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(Though, to be fair, it wasn't as if Ginko knew a lot about how immigration or identification worked in his own time and country to begin with.)
He sat back again with a lopsided shrug. "But, alright. I'll try to keep from... being deported."
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"Yeah, it's complicated..." His worried frown finally turned back into a sneaky grin. "Luckily, we got inter-dimensional tree gates on our side. I could show you all sorts a' great stuff so long as we don't get caught."
The buildings thinned on either side of them and the van passed between vast pastures of cattle before taking a wide turn into a forest.
no subject
As they kept moving, the land shifted again to what he was a little more used to. Ginko kept looking around, though, apparently no less interested in the woods and farmlands than in the futuristic town.
no subject
JW, you could become a wonderful history professor but no you use this rare gift to pick up guys.
The trees rushed along either side of them and were gone again. Soon they came to a highway packed with roaring cars, trucks, semis, and more. Nothing but soybeans stretched either way. JW pulled out onto the road and started to head west.
"She's not too far now. I wish they'd fix the roads...oh hey!"
He turned the radio up slightly as The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" began to play.
no subject
And then they hit the freeway. Ginko jumped a little as the first semi roared past, pressing back against his seat and staring wide-eyed out the window. He barely seemed to notice as JW turned up the radio.
no subject
And then he saw poor Ginko's face. He casually turned the music up a little louder.
"Yeah it's--busy this time of day! Don't worry, they all stay on their side of the road. There's laws and markings and all that good stuff."
Somewhere a car honked.
Soon enough they came to a long gravel road that turned off the high way and ducked back into the forest they left behind a ways back. The bustle of the four-lane faded behind them and soon more and more roads began to appear. Houses too--little houses, big houses, some were trailers backed by sprawling, muddy horse pastures. Dogs barked and cow ponds reflected the sky.
no subject
He relaxed a little as they left the highway, watching the houses and pastures go by instead. The gravel road meant he needed to try a little harder to keep his shoulder still - the pills JW gave him certainly helped, but it was definitely getting worse as time went by, and he couldn't avoid wincing occasionally whenever the van hit a particularly notable bump.
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