crown of thorns

It had been a relatively successful day of fishing and Eli was ready to pack it in and go home. All he had to do was collect everything he had caught and put it on the cart to deliver to the market, but of course, as soon as he moved to put the first package in the cart, he bumped it and sent it flying down the dock. Eli let out a long, defeated sigh, “Do you mind pushing that back?” He asked, to the person closest to him

There was no foreseeable reason Jordan would be at the docks. Of course, this on principle was reason enough for Jordan to go to the docks- like a cat, Jordan’s favorite places were the ones he shouldn’t or had no reason to be in. Strolling down past the various boats (older fishing boats for the locals and the few shiny, overpriced mini yachts vacationers parked out there when they invaded the island), Jordan was shocked as a package skidded towards his feet. 

“With Fourth of July being over I can now get back to my paperwork. Something I really look forward to.”

“Was that sarcastic because... I genuinely do not know a single person who has actually ever shared that sentiment,” Jordan laughed, “Why, was your fourth of July that bad?”

“Yeah, I said fans.  You heard what I said, Jordan,” Reid said with faux seriousness in his tone.  “Fine, if you don’t have fans, man, I’ll be your fan.  By default, I’m your biggest fan.”

“You’re my fan?” A genuinely excited expression crossed Jordan’s face, “Well, damn. In that case, I wish I had more fans if they all end up cooking for me. Nah, I’m kidding, but uh. Yeah... thanks, man. That means a lot.”

With a shrug, Sam gave a small nod. “You’re not far from the truth there, if we are being honest. It’s just like the pin jugglers you see on the street, throwing them up and spinning them in the air, you know? I’m still figuring a few things out.”

“... Okay, I need to see this. Like I refuse to believe that’s a real thing till I see it in person,” Jordan said incredulously. 

“Hey dude I ain’t gonna judge on you and your uh…love cannon.” She furrowed her eyebrows and then leant on the front of the car, smiling sweetly at him as he moved closer. “I never said it was someone who just popped by. Workers got needs y’know…” She teased.

“Uh, thanks? That’s reassuring. I think,” Jordan snickered. “That’s... what? Isn’t that unprofessional, or something? Oh man, is that why so many mechanics carry rags around with them?”

“You’re weird, I like that. At least I won’t feel awful if I embarrass myself in front of you or something. Oooh, I’d like that. Is there somewhere here that serves waffles other than breakfast cause that would be cool.”

“I’m glad you do,” Jordan laughed, “You probably won’t. If anything, I’m probably going to be the embarrassing one.” Jordan considered the various food options in Oakhaven. “I mean, we could probably find one. Or, worst case scenario, we can get a waffle iron and make them ourselves. It can’t be too hard, can it?”

“You’re right.  I doubt people will want to know if you’re regular or not while they drive or whatever they ‘re doing,” Reid had to agree.  Although, you never with people, honestly.  “But I think a lot of your fans just like hearing you talk about the things that happen in your life.  They like connecting to you.”

“Yeah, I guess they- wait, did you say ‘fans’?,” Jordan laughed incredulously, “I think that’s... that’s a little too strong of a statement. Listeners, maybe, bt I definitely don’t have fans.”

It’s been a few days since she arrived in Oakhaven and so far she was liking her stay. The small town feel wasn’t so different from back home, although she did live in the city rather than town but still, it wasn’t so different. It made her feel less homesick than she anticipated. For the first time in her life she was far away from her mom and family that she honestly cried during the plane ride there and almost asked the attendant if they could turn around. Luckily, she was too shy to actually speak out loud the entire trip that she didn’t actually made a fool out of herself by demanding to turn the plane around.

Drinking with someone for the first time was always such uncharted territory. You could tell a lot about a person based on their barroom preferences, anywhere from their drink of choice, to where they liked to sit in the bar, and obviously, to about the kinds of topics they decided to talk about. So in a way, going out for drinks with Rhian for the first time wasn’t just a simple hang out- Jordan was actually going to get some pretty insightful and telling information about what kind of person she was.

Reid laughed.  Though he was never one to relish someone’s misfortune, he couldn’t hold back his laughter.  Jordan had a very unique way saying things in a way that Reid thought was hilarious - this was one of the many reasons Reid always enjoyed listening to Jordan’s block on the radio.  “Aw, man,” Reid had a false sense of apology about his words.  He couldn’t hide his entertainment, “That’s …you should share that on air.  It’s pretty funny.”

Sometimes, talking to people with no real answer was an entirely different experience than having a conversation in person, so, getting immediate feedback was nice. Jordan felt himself glow with happiness as Reid laughed, laughing softly himself. “I don’t know if all of Oakhaven wants to hear about my bowel movements,” he smiled, shaking his head, “but I’m glad you though it was funny.”

“So you want me to turn into waffles?” she chuckled, “You’re a very weird skyscraper.”

“I didn’t say that,” Jordan laughed, shaking his head, “I just... okay, I guess that came out weird. And I am weird. As much as I like waffles, though, I prefer if you just ate them with me instead of becoming one.”

“Okay so get this, some guy comes wandering into Wake & Grind this morning and orders six, SIX, shots of espresso. Now I’m supposed to be like, ‘Oh sir maybe you should stop blah blah blah.” I mean, obviously I care about the customer right? But then! This asshole throws a piece of chewing gum into my tip jar….what the hell?!”

“See, I was gonna say, I relate to that guy, because six shots of espresso is something I definitely have ordered before. But I cross the line at gum in the tip jar. I mean, I at least put new sticks of gum in there,” Jordan smiled, his tone obviously joking, “But, seriously. That sucks. Did you spit in his coffee, at least?”

“Good thing I like the color green, I wouldn’t mind turning into She-Hulk. It’s better than turning orange, I might have to join the Oompa Loompas. Thank you for not wanting me to become a pancake. Glad to know someone cares.”

“Green is definitely a better color than orange,” Jordan agreed, before smiling, “Maybe I’m biased. I just don’t want you to turn into a pancake because, honestly? I like waffles better,” he said with a playful smirk.

Sam laughed. “Honest. Let’s go with honest.” She set aside her water bottle and crossed her arms. “I’ll let you off, on account of that being pretty good for my ego. Now, as for entertainment, I’ve been told I’m the world’s leading wrench juggler.”

Many things were happening at once, so it took Jordan a second to process the mechanic’s words. “Wrench... juggler. That sounds like a nice euphemism for ‘concussion enthusiast’,” Jordan observed. “How exactly does one juggle wrenches?”

“What? We are anything but.”

“That just shows how much better at it you are than I am,” Jordan laughed.

“I can see that. In fact, so pitiful that if you keep this up, soon it’ll be you that Sarah McLachlan uses in one of her videos to get people to donate to whatever cause she’s preaching about. I’ll have pictures of your sad eyes while In The Eyes of an Angel plays softly in the background.”

Jordan couldn’t help but laugh, due in part to the mental image, but also because he was vaguely aware of the time he was asked to be in one of those “Help the Children” type infomercial videos when he was twelve. He didn’t remember if the footage was still out there, but he did know he got McDonald’s and a Hershey chocolate bar out of it. “I’ve got my visine ready,” he laughed good naturedly, “I’ve been looking at videos of dogs getting reunited with their deployed owners all day. I was born ready for this.”

“It’s what I would do, you know if I ever killed someone.” Josephine leaned back in her seat, lifting her leg to rest her heel on the edge of it. “Weight the body, drop it in the ocean at night so no one sees you. The sharks will take care of it before morning. I might wrap some meat around it to make sure it’s extra appealing.” She rested her arm on her knee as she observed the couple outside, laughing as both of them wildly shook their hands while arguing. “There’s a lot of places in this town that someone could hide a body.”

It wasn’t every day that one entered a coffee shop to have a thorough conversation on how to dispose of a body, but Jordan was personally entertained by the exchange. He gave his neighbor a quick glance, debating if she had the capacity to actually kill someone, before he answered. “Do we actually have that many sharks in Oakhaven?” Jordan mused, “Plus that implies a shark could eat an entire person clean, which isn’t realistic. All you need is one little pinky toe ending up on the beach and you’re royally screwed,” Jordan observed. He turned his attention to the couple again to pause on their slightly-grisly topic. “Do you think someone’s gonna call the cops if they keep on yelling?”