#brightwindsbarony

Speaking of piskies, a certain young girl is with her mom at the gas station when a guy walks in to pay his gas too. Looks like the credit card reader is down.

And from this tough looking son of a bitch's pocket dangles a bottle opener, with turquoise skull

Irene's fingers twitch.

The guy has tattoos, and looks like an extra in a prison movie!

and the bottle opener is on a small chain that is correctly disconnected. If he were near cats, he'd be asking for it

"You want some bubble gum while we're here?" Irene's mom asks

"Watermelon?" The piskey's deft little hands drift near - she just wants to touch it.

"Watermelon it is" Her mom gets it

even as Irene touches lightly along the turquoise skull, oooh Grete would love it

Oh! Her witchel friend would certainly want to see this, yes!

She pockets the stone!

"Hey" The man looks down "The heck?"

Then his eyes focus on the girl "Hey, I'll need that back"

And Irene's mom looks over having paid "What's going on?"

"Did you make this?" Curiosity and perhaps admiration? "It's pretty!"

"Oh my god" Irene's mother has that look of pain on her face "I am so sorry... she's a very curious girl"

"Hey little lady," He bends down, apparently he only LOOKS like a serial killer released on a technicality "I did indeed. But you need to be careful... you don't want the man ruining your life because of one mistake"

"Mom, look, I think it's turquoise!"

"You DID? Wow, you did a good job."

"Itr's a lovely.. skull" She blinks

"Thank you, may I have it back now please?" The man holds out a palm

She hands it back. "Uh-huh. Thank you for letting me see it."

"You're welcome, little lady" He takes it, seems to decide if he wants to be annoyed or not, but softens, and looks to Irene's mother "Cute kid"

"Good thing for her she is" Irene's mother admits

The man laughs at that, then says "Hold on a sec." And reaches into his pocket "I'm not going to give up my turqoise.. but how about this?" And he hands out .. a turtle? The stone is cheaper, less fancy, but there it is, a quarter sized turtle ..rougher "I practiced on this... would you like it instead, you know, for teaching me a lesson about making sure shi... stuff aint' coming out of my pockets?"

Her hazel eyes sparkle. "Ohhh. What kind of rock is this? My friend Grete loves rocks, so I could then be able to tell her."

"Limestone, Soapstone is softer, but breaks too easy, but this is pretty soft too, for a rock" he grins "Learned it while I was in jail"

"How.. niiice" Irene's mother says, ready to yank her daughter away "Thank the nice man, honey"

"Thank you! I like your tattoos! Have a nice day!"

"You too, little lady. Maybe I'll see you two around, I'm Atticus by the way" he nods

"Oh I doubt we move in the same... Atticus?" Irene's mother stops

"What can I say, my old man loved that book, to Kill a Mockingbird"

"Why would somebody kill a bird? They're so pretty..."

"Kind of the point of the story" Atticus says "It's pretty heavy, you should read it when you're older though" Atticus nods "Have a nice day"

"Yes, we will, thank you Atticus" Irene's mother hurries Irene out of there

"Bye!" She waves as they go.

Her mom gets them into the car, then says "Irene, why did you take that man's bottle opener? He looked really dangerous and we're lucky he wasn't"

"I wanted to look at it."

"Looking is done with EYES" her mom's voice is a bit sharp, sharp with worry "YOu've gotten in troouble with this before, one day it's going to get you hurt"

A sigh.

"Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if you need a therapist for Kleptomania"

THAT doesn't sound good

She makes a face. "Mo-om! I don't need a therapist!"

"Good, because I can't afford one. Just.. promise me you'll think before you touch something that's not yours, okay?"

"Yes'm."

Her mom seems stressed and cranky, and ..well just doesn't understand. But, at least Irene has a limestone turtle

"Mom, can we have mac and cheese tonight?"

Changing the subject is good, isn't it?

"Mac and cheese ? Again ? You had it two nights ago. I had plans for chicken fingers"

"Oooo."