moving mountains [john henry]

School had only been out for one day, but already Mary Lou was back in the family store. She was supposed to be working, of course, but responsibility be damned. She had fully expected to come home after a great success of a campaign, the future Student Vice President of Ilvermorny. She had planned her own surprise party, not trusting any other member of her family with such a great responsibility of applauding her hard work, only having to cancel everything (including the traveling petting zoo, complete with mini horse) after she had learned she had lost out on Veep.

So instead of doing a proper job at work, where she loved to do nothing but a proper job, Lou was hiding in one of the display tents, thumbing through a guidebook about the Appalachian Trail for the thousandth time. Her parents felt sorry for her and had given her the option of not working at the store for the entire summer, giving her the opportunity to hike whichever portion of the trail she wanted. But besides her first two years at school, she had never been away from every family member for an entire two months, and she wasn’t sure if that was really the best option for her.

She heard footsteps shuffle past the tent and she instinctively curled up, not wanting to be discovered by a customer or a parent. But after giving it a second thought, the shuffle had sounded familiar. Lou slowly unzipped the window screen of the tent and peered out, seeing the familiar figure of her oldest younger brother heading away from her.

“Jack!” She half whispered, half yelled at him. “Jack! Come back!” She said a little louder, making herself grin as she used the familiar line from that movie they weren’t supposed to watch but had found a VHS of at their grandparents’ house. “Come here,” she waved her hand in front of her, beckoning him closer once he had finally turned around.

@John Henry Bird VII

His parents thought if they gave him a little list of projects that some how he wouldn't wreak havoc on the new display of super bright wizard flashlights but boy were they wrong. He had been waddling back and forth down the aisles shining the intensely bright light at pretty much everyone he could find for about five minutes now. He was just testing the merchandise, he thought he was doing a pretty good job too. The list they'd given him was crumpled up and sticking out of the back pocket of his worn down khaki shorts and his baseball cap was sitting precariously on top of his curly hair. As he moved up and down the aisles he ran into racks of clothing, knocked over a display of water bottles, and got stuck on the peg hooks that held up the wall of climbing carabiners but none of this phased John Henry. It really was a wonder they even let him inside the store anymore.

As he ran past the tents display with his wizard light pointed at the ceiling like a beacon of hope he heard someone call his name and immeadiately a toothless smile came on to his chubby little face. "Lou!" He half whispered, half shouted back at her as he turned quickly and the flashlight was pointed right at her. She was waving her hand and he was soon running toward her. He wondered what she was doing hiding in the tent but before his lips moved to ask the question he was diving through the opening and into the tent to join her. He misjudged the distance and ended up slamming into the thin tent wall, tipping it off balance and pulling the oposite side off the ground a little as he did before caught himself.

Reclaiming the baseball hat that had fallen off during his leap he folded the bill and plopped it back on his head with a grin. "What'cha doing in here? Need a light?" He turned the light back toward her face without realizing it before shrugging and laughing. "Sorry..."

"Oh gosh," Lou cooed, watching with wide eyes as her brother nearly tipped the tent over in his excitement to get in. "These aren't exactly staked to the ground, you know." She reached out to help set him back upright before settling back into her sad heap next to him. But as he shined the light in her face, she couldn't help but smile and fight back a laugh, not because she didn't want to laugh, but only because she was supposed to be doing something that more closely resembled working. "At least we know the new flashlights work, good job." She nudged him with her elbow.

She sighed, stealing a glance out the tent's window before thinking better of it and zipping the flap closed once again. "I'm hiding," she said with a shrug, not caring to elaborate any more than that. If anything, she felt the worst about letting him down with her failed election after all the work he had put into helping her. But there were only so many times and ways she could apologize and she was running out of options.

"But," she started again, not wanting to drag him down into her mood with her, "I have snacks." of course, her snacks usually consisted of trail mix and granola, and only sometimes did she add little chocolate pieces to the mix if she was feeling especially wild. Today was not one of her wild days though. She held up a clear plastic bag of trail mix, granola, dried fruit, and peanuts, and handed it over, not waiting for him to agree or disagree to the snacks. She knew it would probably be disagreement she was met with, and while she was fully prepared to guilt him into having a healthy snack, she didn't really have the energy for it.

She sighed again and leaned back, propping herself up on her elbows momentarily before changing her mind and lying all the back, giving her a grand view of the tent's close ceiling. "I can't believe you want to go to summer school," she said wistfully, honestly not believing it to be true. "More school? It sounds horrible."

Big bright and toothless he smiled up at her when she complimented his diligent work with the flash lights. He was doing a good job wasn't he. He continued to run his fingertip back and forth over the button for the flash light as she spoke, turning it off and on over and over but at least he wasn't pointing it right at her while he did it. He began making shadow puppets on the opposite wall of the tent as she sighed but her words brought his attention back. "Hiding? Why?" He asked immediately, the concern on his chubby little face entirely genuine.

Her proposal of snacks brought a smile back to his face though as he went from one expression to the next almost as fast as he could turn the flash light in his hands on and then off again. He looked into the bag she was showing off to him and then his face slowly scrunched up until he looked like a dried out Jack-O-Lantern. He couldn't say a word before she dropped the bag into his hands and he let the flash light roll off of his lap to rest on the floor in between them. It was still on and the rolling motion of the cylindrical light cast strange bursts of light on the tent wall. "Wheres the good stuff Lou?" He eyeballed her and then looked back at the bag, turning it in his hands and holding it much closer to his face that he needed to. Sometimes she put candy in her trail mixes and Jack was acutely aware of that fact. He silently wondered if she was holding out on him.

He was still inspecting the bag thoroughly when she laid back in the tent and when he realized it he tucked the trail mix under his arm, grabbed his flashlight, and crawled over to her to lay down next to her. The bag of snacks fell in between them and his hat flopped off as he placed his head down on the floor of the tent and looked at the ceiling. As she started talking about summer school he returned to using one hand to hold the light and the other to make shadow creatures across from them. "I gotta' make up history. Mom says so." He confessed, feeling slightly ashamed that only he had to go to the summer school and none of his other siblings did. At the same time he was kind of excited about going, it sounded fun from the pamphlets. He wiggled where he was laying as the excitement grew and pivoted to look toward her before his mouth began moving a mile a minute, the lisp from his missing front teeth getting worse as his words-per-minute increased. "I heard there are pirates though! And sunken treasure. Do you think that's true?"

"Do you think I could find some?"

"Do you think they would let me keep some if I did?"

"What if it was cursed though?"

“And if Mom says so,” her voice trailed off, the rest of her sentence easily implied. “I might have to join you in August, once my CHEPI scores come back.” Lou swallowed hard, already planning out her great escape from the punishment she would surely earn with what were bound to be lousy grades. She had been so focused on being nominated for Vice President and the election and all the campaigning after to be selected for the upcoming term that she hadn’t had the chance to study. Never mind that if she had time, she still probably wouldn’t have fared very well, considering her track record the past five years.

But that wasn’t important. She was going to miss her brother. Sure, she would still have Sunny and Betsy, but she had been looking forward to the four Birds being together for so long and now they only had a few days before he left. He could come home on the weekends and there was a visitor’s day, but it wasn’t going to be the same.

Thankfully Jack hadn’t picked up on her hesitation about the entire summer, starting to go on and on about pirates and treasure. She mimicked his pivot, turning over to her side and propping herself up on her elbow and returning his grin. She got her words in when Jack took a chance to breath between thoughts. “Of course it’s true!” Pirates had been real, of course, they had even learned about some in Wizards of History, though it shouldn’t have surprised her that he didn’t know. “I bet if you find it you can keep it. But maybe not if it’s cursed. But if it’s cursed, I bet there has to be some wizard on the island that can uncurse it, right? The international school must have some of the greatest witches and wizards teaching.”

Now that she had thought about the inevitably influential people at the school, Lou was trying to figure out how she could attend. Maybe getting away from Shackamaxon would have been her best bet for getting her minds off of things. Of course, when she had been given the option of going, she had thought she would have been too busy preparing for her next term in Student Government to attend.

“This is the good stuff,” she said suddenly, reaching down to grab the bag of fallen trail mix. “You didn’t even try it.” She sat up and dipped her hand into the bag, pulling out a large clump of granola. She brought her hand to her brother’s face, just barely not touching him with the clump. “It’s good,” she said again, tapping on his lip with the granola. “So good.” She was grinning, well aware that she wouldn’t be getting anywhere with this.

"You think?" He asked quickly, not terribly good at hiding his excitement at the fact that she might be forced to join him at summer school too. To be honest John Henry was a bit nervous to go on by himself. He was scared to be away from his family for so long, it would be the very first time he'd gone anywhere alone. When he had started at Ilvermorny he already had two siblings there to protect keep him company. When he left for summer school it was going to be just him, and the idea was keeping him up at night.

Almost as soon as he thought it he began asking about pirates and of course the entire thing wiped away all of his nervousness and replaced it with an uncontainable excitement. He was like a tidal wave of energy as she turned to face him and answer his questions. "Oh! I bet they do!" He agreed with a wide toothless smile and rolled to his back to wiggle a little where he was laying, overcome with the idea. "I'm going to find so much treasure!" He stated, plopping back to his side again to face her before continuing with his questions, "Do you think there will be any famous people there?" He vaguely remembered seeing a notice at school about the American National Team giving away a scholarship for a summer school tuition, though he was way more concerned with the new model of broom the team was riding on in the moving advertisement picture.

He scrunched up his nose at her when she claimed that what he'd just been holding onto was the good stuff. He hadn't seen any chocolate, which had made his mind right up, but she was still trying to convince him. He clamped his mouth shut as she pushed a handful toward him but he couldn't help himself from smiling through it. His chunky cheeks balled up at the corners as he tried his best not to laugh. He shook his head and pulled away from her just in time to start giggling. "Fiiiiiiiiiine I'll try it.." He conceded easily but pretended like it was the hardest decision he'd ever made. Sighing heavily for added effect he grabbed a few large chunks from her hand and popped them into his mouth quickly. He took a ridiculously long amount of time to chew before finally announcing his verdict.

"I guess its not so bad." He stated, his mouth entirely full of crumbled pieces of granola as he did. Jack smiled big and bright at her as he made sure she would see it all. "Better if there was chocolate though." He laughed again before swallowing and remembering something that had been weighing on him.  He was almost ashamed to admit it but he didn't want to go to summer school by himself. "Would you be mad at me if I said I want you to come this summer?" He asked, gumming his bottom lip a little.

“I hope you’ll remember us when you’re rich,” Lou said with a laugh, hoping to keep him excited about the treasure he was sure to find, cursed or not. “Oh absolutely, loads of famous people!” She had looked over his brochures earlier in the week, and the descriptions for all the classes had seemed above and beyond, like they had gone all out to find the best people to teach. There was even a class about chocolate, which Lou assumed he hadn’t seen, or he would have been a bit more excited about the whole prospect of going.

Watching him eat the granola was probably the best thing she had seen all day and she couldn’t help but laughing as he indulged her. “See?” She said between laughs. “I told you so,” she grinned as she nodded excitedly, pleased that she knew exactly what was best for him.

“Oh gosh, no,” Mary Lou looked at her brother with wide eyes, ashamed that she hadn’t already realized that he might be as anxious about his upcoming summer as she was. “Of course not.” She didn’t think twice before pulling him to her in a hug, nearly knocking his hat off again with the force of it. “I can see if it’s too late to sign up or not,” she spoke into his hair, still not letting him go. If she told herself, and told their parents, that the reason she wanted to go was to keep an eye on Jack, they couldn’t very well say no, right?

And then she would already be there once her CHEPI scores were returned and she would be able to escape some of the harsher punishment if she was already abroad. And already taking remedial classes. That would show how proactive she was, right? Maybe that would almost make up for how much of a failure she already was.

Plus, there’d be so many students there who wouldn’t know that she had just missed out on her life’s dream.

Lou finally loosened her grip and let Jack sit back, nodding authoritatively. “I’ll see what I can do.” She shouldn’t have been shocked nor this pleased that he was asking her to go, but she couldn’t help the fact that she was his favorite sibling. “And,” she continued, “I have another bag of trail mix,” she paused for a dramatic effect: “With chocolate.” She grinned as she clapped her hands together excitedly. “We just have to go get it.”

She climbed to the tent’s opening on all fours and slowly unzipped it, poking her head out tentatively to check that the coast is clear. “It’s in the break room,” she said, whispering now to add to the secrecy of it all. “I think we take a left and duck around the kayaks, then hop through the men’s clothing racks.” She pulled her head back in to look at her brother curiously. “What do you think?”

The idea of meeting famous people excited him, but only if they were Quodpot famous, since Jack didn't really know anyone else. He could tell anyone who asked the names, birthdates, and favorite colors of every active member of the South Mass team but he wouldn't be able to tell a pop star from a potions legend even if they were standing right in front of him. He lived inside his own little bubble of what was significant, like most children do. Chomping down on the granola he kept smiling at her because really it wasn't half bad. He didn't mind healthy food, some of it he even liked, but he had to push back on principal to keep the idea of Chocolate in everything alive. It was his right, duty, and honor.

By the time she had pulled him in for a hug he had mostly finished chewing his snack and had moved on to the swallowing part. Coughing as her arms and shoulders pushed into him he swallowed hard and then squeezed her back. "I hope not..." He replied, a little raspy from the roughness of the chewed granola going down wrong but mostly just whispering so no one but her could hear. He didn't want to go alone. The hug was warm and the thought of her coming to summer school made him feel better. She was always there to take care of them, even when they were too scared to admit that they needed it.

When she pulled away he pulled down his hat and curled the beak of it out of habit before placing it back on the fluff ball that was his curly deep brown hair. His eyes widened and the his classically bright smile played at the corners of his lips when she paused. He leaned forward in anticipation, mumbling low in the space she left and crossing his fingers. "Please have chocolate, please have chocolate." And then she answered and he bounced excitedly. "Yes!" She really was the best ever and now he was certain of it. "I knew you were hiding it!" He accused before chuckling and shuffling toward the exit of the tent.

She undid the flap and then started to devise a plan and he paid attention, nodding along. "Don't go by the tackle boxes, old man Wyatt is browsing." He said with a grin, reminding her of the somewhat smelly old man with rainbow suspenders and velcro shoes that always asked too many questions and then ended up buying exactly the same jigs every time. He waited for her to agree before diving out of the tent and trying to do a covert type roll toward the Kayak display. It was pitiful, he somersaulted about half the way before falling to one side and scuttling to get back to his knees. He ended up crawling the rest of the way to the kayaks before whisper shouting back at her so she could meet him at the check point. "All clear!"

Mary Lou scrunched up her face at Jack's mention of old man Wyatt. "Good call," she commended him, not in the mood to run into anyone, but especially not in the mood to run into that guy. She didn't have the resolve to listen to his story about that one miraculous catch that got away (for the thousandth time). "Lead the way," she said seriously with a quick nod of her head. She watched her brother dive out of the tent, stifling a giggle as he attempted to roll. If he had managed to be successful in his maneuver he probably would have toppled over a few kayaks, so at least they didn't have that to worry about.

She nodded again at the 'all clear', re-cinched the sleeves of her jacket around her waist, and followed suit. Her roll was a bit more graceful, though she tried to make it look like it was a lot of work so Jack wouldn't be too put out about his. "C'mon," she whispered, moving forward on her hands and knees. She paused to take a look around the corner of kayaks, ensuring they were still alone, before continuing on.

One more somersault later and she was across the aisle in the men's clothing section, right up against a rack full of fleece long johns in a matter of patterns. Lou made a part with her hands, stick her head through the space to check one more time that the coast was clear. She stood up but stayed slightly hunched as she stepped through the rack, emerging on the other side in a display of down vests. Holding the clothes aside, she waited for her brother to make it through before continuing on to their destination, which was now just a matter of feet away.

But then she heard the familiar jingle of the decorative jigs on old man Wyatt's hat and vest. It was only a matter of time before they were intercepted. "Go, go, go," she whisper shouted, grabbing Jack's hand and breaking out into a run to the break room door, ushering him inside before shutting it behind them and successfully dodging their work obligations.

Lou leaned back against the door, grinning at their job well done. "That was awesome," she managed to say before laughing. It only took her a few seconds to remember why there were even there in the first place, and she was quickly rummaging through her cubby to pull out her secret stash of granola, lobbing the baggie across the room. "You can just pick the chocolate out," she told him, knowing that he would do that whether or not he had her permission.

If it had been anyone else doing such a perfect dive and roll maneuver in front of Jack he might of been a little bit jealous but the fact that it was his big sister just made him proud. He beamed at her as she caught up with him between the racks of clothing and then continued forward. Determined to get to the chocolate more now than ever the small wizard clenched his jaw and made his way across the aisle behind her. He peaked out from behind the rack of clothes she had held open for him and on her commanded he darted toward the break room. Jack was much shorter than his sister so he didn't really need to hunch over as he made a break for it but he did so anyway, just to keep the game going. Pushing the door shut quickly and barely having time to take a breath before she was closing it just as quickly behind them John Henry put his back against the safety of the break room walls. He sucked air in dramatically and then smiled brightly as the gap between his teeth whistled. Leaning against the wall not far from her his cheeks were red but there was accomplishment written all over his face. They had navigated more than one threat in the wilds of the sales floor and lived to tell the tale. It was an accomplishment indeed.

Remembering the task at hand just as she began to tear into her cubby Jack's eager eyes followed her. He caught the baggie at first but quickly fumbled it. His movements resembled something like the chicken dance as he attempted to catch it again and again before it fell to the ground with a bit of a crunch. "Crap." He mumbled, annoyed but still excited as he saw the pieces of chocolate in the flattened mix before him. Instead of bending to pick it up Jack slid down the wall he was leaning on a landed in a crooked sitting position. His small legs folded over one another as his shoelaces threatened to become untied and he instantly dug into bag. Reaching down heartily he scooped out a handful and began to grueling but delicious process of eating only the unhealthy bits of her organic snack. "Thanks Lou." He said behind the wall of chocolate his mouth had already amassed. "Do you always hide chocolate in your cubby?" He wondered, hoping to remember the fact.

"Oh did I tell you I found a new spider yesterday?" Bouncing on the floor and still chewing bits of broken up chocolate he continued. "I was out back washing out the minnow nets and there it was just sitting on the wall. I used the cup and paper trick dad taught me to catch it." Jack dumped the rest of his handful of snack mix back into the bag, completely oblivious to the germs on his own hands, before standing up and dusting himself off. "I'll show you!" He left the bag where it was on the tiled floor before wobbling toward her and beginning to dig through is own cubby, yammering on as he did. "He was as big as my hand I swear! And furry too, brown and furry with big ole' pincers!" Turning over some clothes he'd left there about three months ago, an uneaten pudding pack, and some baseball cards he was going to trade with a friend later on Jack began to worry. "It should be here..." He found the cup he'd used as a makeshift trap and stare broadly at it as he realized what had happened.

"Um.... he's gone...."

Lou chuckled as Jack fumbled with the bag, about to cross the room to offer to help when he figured it out. She grabbed a bottle of water from her cubby and took a large swig before joining her brother on the floor. "Of course," she acknowledged her thanks with a nod and a wide smile, happy that she could help and do something to make him happy. She reached her hand into the bag, and held out her palm in front of her so she could pick out the chocolate pieces and drop them back into the bag to share.

"I absolutely never have chocolate in my cubby." She shook her head, but she turned to look at Jack and offer a wink. "Never." She tossed back her handful of granola into her mouth and chewed for a minute, her mind fast forwarding to having to convince her parents to send her to summer school with the eldest Bird boy. It shouldn't be too hard, once she just explained the circumstances of how they had never been that far from home, surely they wouldn't want to send just one child alone?

But she was brought back to the present as Jack spoke again, and Lou's eyes widened both in excitement and in slight horror. "New spider?" She wanted to be as excited about this as he was, but of all the things he could have found outside, he had to find a spider. He was always doing this, and she was always having to pretend that they were probably her least favorite of things. She wasn't exactly afraid of them, but she always had a habit of finding every single spider web on the trail and walking through them and she was so over it.

Aaand he brought it to work with him. Because of course he did. Lou grinned and nodded, following Jack with her eyes instead of joining him across the room. "That's really big!" She added enthusiastically, already figuring out how to convince him to let it go back outside. Lou's eyes widened as she realized what had become of the spider. If it was as big as Jack said it was (somehow she doubted that it really was that large) it should be easy to find. "We can find it."

She stood up, resealing the bag of granola and tossing it into her cubby. She was about to suggest they go look for it, preferably out back behind the store, when a shrill scream came from the sales floor. There weren't any other sounds accompanying it, no falling cascade of kayaks or toppling tents. "Pretty sure we found it..." She got behind Jack and urged him forward, her hands on his shoulders. "We have to go help."

"It was!" He reiterated with a crack in his excited voice. The spider was huge! At least the size of a quarter, which wasn't actually that big compared to some of the monsters they had seen out in the woods, but it was big enough to deserve the adjective in Jack's eyes. He continued to search but soon he was ready to give up, stating that it was gone to Mary Lou and wondering what they were going to do next. Thoughts of the chocolate filled granola bag lying lonely on the floor soon came to mind but a scream cut through his thoughts quickly and John Henry jumped at the sound. "What was that?" He asked loudly, shouting even though it was entirely unnecessary. Being quiet wasn't exactly his way. Mary Lou had easily put two and two together, much quicker than Jack ever would, and soon he found himself being pushed back out onto the sales floor.

"But, the chocolate..." He said, trying to point back at the bag of snacks left on the floor. "We can't just leave it behind." But it was too late, they were out the door and staring at a scene unfolding before them.

A brightly dressed woman had jumped nearly completely into the arms of a younger man and the sheer look of terror on her face made John Henry laugh out loud. What could possibly be so frightening? "What do we do?" He asked just as one of the other employees came rushing toward them all with a broom wielded like a sword. "NO DON"T KILL HIM!" Jack shouted out and took off in a sprint, crossing the distance and barely managing not to trip over the bed roll display as he went. Launching over the rolled up blankets attached to back packs and finding himself suddenly in the middle of the group he raised his hands to the employee and pleaded. "He's innocent, he never hurt no one. Don't kill him, we will get him!" He turned his head sharply, curls following in his wake, and looked for Mary Lou with a determined setting of his jaw.

"We have to save him." Jack wasn't going to let them squish him. Killing creatures, even the creepy crawly and sometimes poisonous ones, went against every fiber of the Bird boy's nature. Coming up with a decent plan and executing it however wasn't really in his programming and that was what he desperately needed his older sister for. She was a hero in his eyes and he knew he could count on her, even if she did hide chocolate from him from time to time.

Mary Lou urged her brother forward, ignoring his pleas for chocolate. There would be plenty of time for that later. Now, however, there were customers to soothe and a spider to move. Chocolate could wait. “Hush,” she said as she nudged Jack, scolding him for laughing at the situation that was unfolding in the shop. She still hand a hand grasped on Jack’s shoulder, staying out of the way as another employee rushed forward. Seemed like everything was being handled and she was just about to offer her brother more chocolate.

But before she could get the words out of her mouth, he had leapt forward, running at a much faster pace than she honestly thought possible for him. She followed close behind him, making sure to dodge the obstacles in their way. “Yeah, we’ll take care of it,” Mary Lou added as she reassured the older employee and the woman still clinging to her husband. She had pulled up beside her brother and was nodding her head, volunteering herself more to help her brother rather than the spider. She added another nod in Jack’s direction, reiterating her help.

She twirled around, hopping quickly over to the display of camping utensils, grabbing one of the blue tin cups from the shelf. She pulled out the paper from the sign holder displaying the sales occurring and turned back quickly, her tools held out triumphantly in her hands. “Where is it?" Jack was way ahead of her in finding the spider, and she knelt down swiftly, ushering the spider into the cup with a bit of urging from her piece of paper.

It was considerably smaller than Jack had claimed, but it was still a rather large spider all the same. She held the paper firmly to the rim of the cup, making sure there was no way for it to escape again. Standing up, Lou held out her hands to Jack, offering him the trap and the spider. “You’re spider, you take care of it.” She offered a smile to the woman before motioning her head to the back room, ready to convince Jack to release the spider back outside.

He had a look on his face, worry and fear, it wasn't like him to be so serious but this was a serious situation they were in. Jack wanted, no needed, to make sure that no harm came to the spider. If it did he would blame himself after all he was the one who trapped him and brought him inside. The arachnid had been sitting pleasantly, not bothering anyone, and Jack had torn him from his home and brought him to this strange and dangerous place. He was sure the spider was more afraid of the shrieking witch than the other way around. Pleaded with his eyes for Mary Lou's help when she took off to get tools a sense of relief washed over him. It only took her a moment but soon she had returned with a trusty method in mind. The same one he'd used to catch the eight legged creature in the first place and John Henry was sure it would work.

Jack pointed out the spider to her when she asked and watched as it scurried across the floor changing direction at random. It was possible it was confused by the pattern on the floor but Jack wasn't paying that close of attention. As she approached the spider he edged in after her, whispering and tiptoeing. "Be careful you don't catch one of his legs on the rim Lou." He offered advice, having caught many a spider in his day with the paper and cup method.

She caught it swiftly and like a professional and then turned to hand it to him. Unafraid of the spider Jack reached for the cup carefully, deliberately, and most important: slowly. When he felt he had a good hold on both of the important parts he nodded to her so she could let go. "I've got it." He answered as she told him he'd have to take care of it. Moving toward the door he kept both eyes firmly on the cup in front of him and the placement of his hands. He managed to navigate the sales floor, nearly by memory, and avoid the worst of the protruding displays until they reached the service entrance in the back of the store. "Could you?" He nodded toward the door and waited to move again. The sunlight hit his face and warmed it as the cool breeze blew down the alley behind the shop. Jack walked carefully to the edge of the grassline behind the family store and then bent down to release the spider.

As it crawled away he let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding and then followed it with a deep sigh. "Phew, glad that's over." He said wiping at his brow like they had run a marathon and managed to come out on top. Sliding back down to a crouching position he held onto his knees and watched as the spider returned to nature. "This calls for a celebration don't you think?" He craned his neck to look back at up and her and gave her a knowing smirk. "A chocolate celebration."

The spider hand off was a delicate one, and Lou couldn’t help but smile at how carefully Jack was handling it. She loved to see him care about things, even if it was spiders, or maybe especially because it was spiders. But this was no time to get wrapped up in all those big sister feelings. She nodded swiftly as the cup and paper left her hands, straightening up and offering a wordless “Sorry,” one more time to the woman before following her brother to the back of the store.

“Of course,” she said, pushing open the door and exiting the building, holding it open so Jack could join her outside. She had to blink a few times to adjust to the difference in light and humidity, but she had to admit that she was thrilled to be outside. This would have been a much better hiding place than the tent from earlier.

Lou hung back as Jack released the spider, only joining him after it was safely on its way through the grass. “Lucky we saved him, I think.” She stayed standing but offered him her hand for a down low five, “We make a good team.” She grabbed the bill of his cap and pulled it off his head, clearing the way for her to ruffle his curls with her hand before placing the cap back in its proper place.

“Chocolate, yes!” She agreed with a grin, wasting no time before sprinting back to the propped open shop door and calling “Have to race me for it!” over her shoulder. Of course she would give him all the chocolate she had, but why not have some more fun first?

[birds out~]