[For Jacob]

[provincialbelle]

When the caretaker of the house had vanished, Belle had noticed that not everything went. Their bedroom emptied, but the room at the northernmost point of the house still held strange scraps, tools, and other assorted miscellany that caught her attentive eye. Belle liked to sneak up into that room in the mornings and pretend that she was back in

Comments

[quileutejacob]

Jacob had seen the room a few times but it was always closed so he was surprised to see the door ajar and hear what sounded like someone working metal. That prospect excited him; he'd gotten the bike parts back in January but hadn't really gotten them working yet and if there were other tools he could use, that might be a plus.

He poked his head in, surprised that he recognized the head bent over the work. Shiny and brunette and Belle and not what he was expecting at all.

"Didn't realize you were a handyman too. Is there anything you can't do, Belle?"

[provincialbelle]

"I'm hardly a handyman," Belle noted while she kept her attention in front of her. She was wearing overalls and a plaid shirt beneath so that she wouldn't get a dress dirty and she shifted as her hair spilled forward over her shoulder. "But...once..." she said distractedly, "I saw my Papa work with metal a little like this..."

[quileutejacob]

"Was he a welder or something in addition to inventing things?" Jacob asked, settling near her just to watch. "If he was, I could sure use him out here. I've got a bike that needs to be fixed."

[provincialbelle]

"He was an inventor," she said with great pride and a hint of longing in her voice. She managed to get the metal vaguely cylindrical and began looking for a tool that could poke holes. She was likely only going to be able to make a wind-chime, but it would be something. "He used to create the most wondrous things and take them to the city to sell them!"