landslide ;

                                    TASK 004 : ABOUT ME

Elise Sullivan ( Elizabeth Olsen ) spent most of her life as the odd one out. She went from an unloving family to an unloving marriage, never quite feeling like she belonged anywhere. Upon finding her husband in bed with another woman, she packed her bags and left. Now, she’s arrived in Mystic looking for a fresh start, hoping to leave all the unhappiness of her past behind.

blind panic. that’s all he felt when he turned and realized that amelia wasn’t standing right next to him. she’d been there just a moment before, sawyer reasoned, kicking himself for taking the time to look at the fruit on display at the cart. a nice afternoon at the farmer’s market had quickly shifted into a nightmare, as he turned and scanned the crowd. 

just moments before he was thinking of shouting amelia’s name, he spotted her. she was standing with another adult, a woman in a sun hat. he sighed in relief, jogging towards the booth selling fresh honey and marching up behind his daughter, scolding, “amelia - you scared me half to death! don’t run off like that!” 

it’s then that he actually looks at the woman and recognizes her. his blood runs cold for a second - he thought he’d never see elise again. after everything that had happened, and especially after the way he abruptly ended things between them, he was expecting her to lash out at him. it would be what he deserved, at least. 

sawyer can’t help but greet her right back, his voice just a bit too soft when he says her name. “elise, i-” he pauses, his mind wandering back to the last time he’d seen her. somehow, she looked full of life, where he remembered the way she always wore her sadness like a shield. “i didn’t - we, um, we moved her about six months ago? i couldn’t - raising amelia in a shitty apartment in manhattan didn’t seem like the best choice for her. i didn’t - when did you move here?” 

there was panic mounting in her chest now. they hadn’t spoken in more than a year, and now here he was, still saying her name the way he always had. the way he had no right to, warm and soft and affectionate. he had no right, because he left, but there he was - saying it anyway. and he still looked at her the way he always had, too. with all that unreadable something in his eyes.

she considered making a run for it. she seriously, really considered it. it would be easy to melt into the crowd of the farmer’s market, to disappear and lock herself in her home and hope they never crossed paths again. but mystic was too small, and she and sawyer had too much of a habit of going back to each other.

she nodded, nervously shifted her weight, and ignored the child at sawyer’s feet. there were a thousand questions she wanted to ask, most of them concerning just one thing: who was this girl’s mother? but she couldn’t ask any of them. she didn’t have that right anymore, he’d made that abundantly clear. not to mention, there was a child right in front of sawyer, and the conversation elise wanted to have was hardly appropriate for four-year-old ears.

He’s a little startled, wasn’t really expecting anyone to answer. Talking to himself was a well rooted habit by now. He turns to look at the source of the voice before nodding and reaching over to pick up the boxes of she points out. “Well, I’ll definitely need quite a bit more than town house proportions.” He brings the box closer, squinting a bit because he so conveniently left his glasses in the car and didn’t feel like making the trip all the way out and back once he realized. “Although I’ve never had to decorate a whole house before so maybe I’ll get the townhouse lights and decorate about a quarter of the house as a test run.” He laughs at the idea. “Bet the neighbors won’t think that’s weird or anything.”

elise smiled, shrugged. “well, then i’m afraid i won’t be much more help,” she said, only half-joking. though she supposed she, too, was working with more space than she’d had in the city. “i’ve never tried to decorate a real house, either. but i am used to decorating on my own. it’s not too hard, if you’ve got the patience for it. just don’t fall off the ladder.” she’d made that mistake one year, and they’d ended up without christmas lights. she chuckled. “and also, don’t worry about what the neighbors think. unless you like your neighbors. then maybe you should care what they think.” though she’d long since given up on caring what neighbors thought of her. she turned back to the lawn decorations she was looking at before. “do you think three light-up reindeer would be over the top? i’ve never had a yard before, how much is too much?”

she’d gone out with the sole intention of having a nice day at the farmer’s market. it was late on a sunday morning, only a few weeks after her arrival in mystic, and all she’d wanted was fresh honey and an excuse to wear her new sun hat.

what she got was a four year old at her feet, rambunctious and attention-grabbing. she crouched down to address the little girl, totally enamored by her ( and also a little worried at what seemed to be a lack of parental supervision. ) she was about to ask where her parents were when a pair of legs ( presumably belonging to the girl’s father ) came jogging up behind her.

elise’s gaze followed said legs up to a torso, and said torso up to a face, and then she stopped cold, because that couldn’t possibly be right.

Holiday shopping season had begun and Jeremy didn’t really need to do it. That was something he kept in mind all year, collecting gifts slowly over time. Far less stressful than trying to do it all at once and he liked to keep as much ahead of things as he could, but this year was different with the move and the change of pace a much smaller city held. It was actually nice shopping, even at this time of year. He was all too familiar what it was like standing shoulder to shoulder with people, hurried and slamming into each other in the middle of the store. There were a fair amount of people in the department store, yes but still, far more manageable than what he’d been accustom to.

He was currently in the holiday decoration aisle. Their place was much bigger than it was in Chicago despite it almost being the same price. Another give-take situation compared to big city living. They had a house, a nice one which meant they needed a lot more decorations and furniture than fit in their condo before. He was actually excited about it, thinking about stringing lights and decorations outside their home and having a great big tree made him happy.

Jeremy was smiling as he looked at what seemed like an overwhelming amount of holiday lights before he sighs to himself and speaks to no one in particular. “I just want to know which one of these will last the longest.”

it was boredom, mostly, that drove her down the holiday aisle. boredom, and the need for a little christmas cheer. she hadn’t lived alone in over a decade, and it was strange: her new home was far warmer than her house in new york had ever been, but also far lonelier. she was hoping, perhaps foolishly, that christmas lights might make the place feel more like home, well and truly. so, she was staring at said christmas lights and trying to reconcile their price with her needs. did she need christmas lights? would the money and time and effort be worth it? maybe she should just light some candles instead.

she glanced up, then, at the sound of the man’s comment. without taking much time to think, she pointed towards one of the boxes. “these work decently, in my experience. or, if you want something cheaper -” her finger drifted over until it was aimed at yet another box. “those are okay, too. at least, in the context of a new york townhouse. i don’t really know what you’re working with in terms of real estate, but... those are the ones that i used to buy.”

STARTER: OPEN. TIME: AFTERNOON. LOCATION: HAILEY’S COMET.

            Now that Josie was looking forward, in the sense that she’d concretely decided to plant roots in Mystic, she felt it was time to get down to the important matters. Finding her new local bookstore. While she hadn’t yet decided where she was going to work and her savings was slowly dwindling to nothing, she still had to make time and room for the things that brought her the most joy. Art, photography, wine, and poetry. Right now, she was attempting to secure the lattermost item on her list of pleasures. And, as was typical of her by now, that would involve enlisting the help of a stranger. 

                                    “Well, which one?” she began, turning to the shopper nearest to her with two books in hand. “This one or this one? Or I’m open to another recommendation, if you have one.” 

elise was doing what she did best: trying to be quiet and unobtrusive. she had her nose buried in a copy of i know why the caged bird sings ( which she had already read about four times ), and she wasn’t really planning on buying it, but she’d ended up down the poetry aisle, and there was one specific quote she wanted to track down: at fifteen, life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

she was nearing the quote in the book ( or at least, she thought she was ) when a voice off to her right drew her attention. she startled, looking up towards the source of the voice and losing her place in the book in the process. “oh, um -” this was unexpected, but not unwanted. maybe there was a friend to be had here. elise was in desperate need of those, and it was clear that the stranger had good taste. “both, i think, but bluets has a special place in my heart. maggie nelson is a visionary.”