June 2007, Three Weeks

[ellectrical]

After three weeks, everything had finally come into place. It had rained until late into the previous night, but the sky was clear by morning, and Elle had packed her bag (a large black purse) with what she'd borrowed from X, her map, her gun, even another plastic bag of Girl Scout cookies, before locking the door to her room and heading out to the street.

She gets an early start, making her way to the alley a couple hours before she thinks he'll show up. After double-checking that the employees of the club have really cleared out, Elle checks her surroundings, then moves to the double doors, and sets her purse down on the wet pavement.

About ten minutes later, with the aid of a torsion wrench and bump key, the padlock on the door has slid open. She leaves it hanging on the chain, puts her tools back into her purse, and moves away.

There's a space on the other side of the alley - it gives her cover in the form of the hair salon's dumpster and is kept dry by a short, striped awning that juts out from the wall, over the dumpster and the door on the other side. Elle positions herself, and waits.

Patience is not one of her virtues.

But sometimes, when she wants something bad enough, it doesn't really matter.

Comments

[walksthebounds]

It's Jamie's day off; he's on his way to pick up some groceries when he catches a flash of a face that looks familiar headed down an alley.

She's already past him when he realizes it's Elle's double, the girl he saw at the game a few days ago. He turns his head to watch her walk by. It's funny - she even moves like Elle.

He shrugs it off and keeps going towards the bus stop. An hour or so later, he's on his way back with a plastic bag full of bread and peanut butter and biscuits.

It's just an impulse that makes him detour back past the alley.

[walksthebounds]

The pub they end up at is more than a little overpriced - but hey, Elle's paying. And it does a lovely ploughman's lunch, with cheddar that exactly suits Jamie's idea of what cheese ought to taste like.

"All right," he says, once their food's finally arrived. "Now are you going to tell me what all that was about?" The question's fairly genial; food does a lot to mellow Jamie. All the same, he would like some expository dialogue, please!