iii. dictated

[heloise]

Would you leave the Castle now, if you could?

Friday was unfortunate. But for most of the year, surely it has given us a comfortable home and the most singular of friends.

And so, as for myself, I would not. I should like to tarry here a little longer, if only to relish the taste of liberty and the fruits of invention. Refrigerators are so magnificent!

[ With that, she will be in the kitchen with the fridge door open, sticking her hands into it with glee. ]

Comments

[blue_sniper]

Lucrezia, what are you doing with the refrigerator? [He is suspicious.]

[heloise]

I checked to see that it is indeed colder inside. Stephanie has made me promise I would not step inside myself.

[blue_sniper]

Yes, it is colder. If you leave it open, you'll make things spoil. And no, before you ask, I don't know how it works. I was too poor to even have one back in Brooklyn.

[heloise]

Refrigerators and cars are only for the rich then? So invention has yet to make poverty obsolete.

[blue_sniper]

Pretty much. They are really expensive. And when it comes to either keeping your apartment or keeping the heat on during winter, you do without one. It only keeps food if you're not going to eat it right then.

[heloise]

And I thought none would need to feel the winter chill anymore in the future.

Can you keep strawberries for Fall then?

[blue_sniper]

Even with a refrigerator, they'd probably start to rot after a few weeks. It's not foolproof, as far as I can tell. [He's got no real idea.]

[heloise]

Ah, a pity. I thought we could have fresh fruits for Christmas, wouldn't that be lovely?

[blue_sniper]

Well, I suppose if you froze them... Maybe they would keep. I wouldn't try it, though.

[heloise]

I shall try it for this Christmas, if I am still here. We can have our pan d'oro with strawberries.

[blue_sniper]

...What's pan d'oro? [He has no idea what she is talking about half the time. It's either the century gap, or the money gap between them.]

Oh, and your question. Even if I did leave the Castle, it wouldn't do me any good.

[heloise]

[ Geographic as well. ] It is a special golden cake for Christmas.

Why wouldn't it, Bucky, if you could meet your best friend again?

[blue_sniper]

Well, my best friend is here. He got here a few weeks before I did. [She might have even met him.] And well... I'm dead.

[heloise]

Oh.

[ And follows the palpable silence. She has never learned how to comfort the dearly beloved. And all her games about reading his fortune must have seemed so cruel. ]

I hope, then, that you will stay here with him. For a long, long time.

[blue_sniper]

Don't worry about it, Lucrezia. I'm not technically dead yet. I'm still here.

[heloise]

I would be terribly sad for you if you leave, so I hope you never do.