River Town
current mood: sleepy
current song: Meltphace 6 by Aphex Twin
There is a place where buildings were built beside rivers. Summers were lovely with the trees and plants blooming with rich lively color, and the people would sit on their balconies and gaze at the lively town below. Boats and gondolas would make their way back and forth on the rivers making it seem as if it were a second street! Winters were brisk but never cold. It was windier in the winter than it was any other season. A jacket could cure even the coldest of winter days. The city was busting with a warm, friendly, inviting feeling and it erupted everywhere you went. The dwellers of this city never bore a frown. They would greet any person in eye contact with a lovely smile. Children were everywhere giggling running, and playing. Couples held hands as they floated down the street, gazing occasionally into each other’s eyes. The town was as pleasant as a town could be. Though the town was growing, especially with the wealthy, it was still small enough so that everyone knew everybody.
Mrs. McGregor ran the local bakery. She is a sweet and kind woman. If the pub was the confessional of the night, then Mrs. McGregor’s bakery was the confessional of the day. Everyone shopped there because Mrs. McGregor’s homemade freshly baked bread compared to no ones within the next hundred miles. Everyone ate bread with every meal so Mrs. McGregor’s bread was a must have for everyone. Mrs. McGregor, the lovely woman of 60, was so pleased with her success, she decided to go all out and expand her bakery into a café. You could spot anyone there drinking their daily tea and gossiping with neighbors over such trivial things such as Mrs. McGregor’s secret ingredient in her filled croissant, or the newest socialite to move into town to “get away from it all.” The portly woman, Mrs. McGregor, loved the daily gossipers who chatted away that she often participated herself! She considered those moments in the morning the best part of the day.
Miss Milliken frequently joined in these gossiping discussions just before she makes her way to her class a block away where she teaches the gossiper’s children history lessons. The frail Miss Milliken hardly ever does anything out of her weekly routine. She wakes up alone, makes a pot of coffee, showers, dresses in clothing that would better suit a woman three times her young age of 25, make her way down to the bakery to hear the latest news going around the town. She’d then teach young children a lesson in history or geography. Later she walks back home which is only 10 blocks away, and settles down on the lonely couch to watch old films until she goes to bed at 8:00pm.
The children like her but often contemplate awkward scenarios about her. They assume that her life is not nearly as dull as she portrays it to be. They dream up wild stories that she might do when she is not teaching them. Often times they are dreadfully wrong.
It is no secret between the faculty or the students that Mr. Bee, the math teacher, is absolutely smitten with Miss Milliken, though neither party are aware of this. Mr. Bee, who is a tall, lanky, thin man, fell head over heels for her when he first met her three years ago.
Mr. Bee, a lonely man by nature, spends his evenings at The Queen of Spades, which, despite it’s name, is a highly respectful pub. Many honorable but deeply saddened men go there to be in the company of other men who pine after the loves of their lives but have no idea how to get them.
The pub is built right on the river and has an entrance both at the ground and river level. Mr. Beasley always enters the pub via the river entrance because he works directly across the river at the jewelry store. He feels safer leaving through the river access when he closes up his shop. Mr. Beasley is a regular at The Queen of Spades like Mr. Bee. The two of them know each other quite well, and have made a habit of drinking together every evening.
While Mr. Bee pines for the plain ordinary Miss Milliken, Mr. Beasley longs for Miss Connolly, the daughter of Mr. Connelly, the owner of The Queen of Spades. Miss Connolly, light and beautiful, likes to work in her father’s pub because she feels like helping her father is the best way to pay him back for the wonderful childhood he’s given her. She feels proud to help her father out. Mr. Connelly, blissfully unaware of Mr. Beasley’s feelings for his daughter, enjoys spending more time with his daughter while they work together.
Miss Connelly, young and full of pleasant calmness, is fully aware of Mr. Beasley’s feelings for her, and the two of them lock eyes more times in one night than people come into the pub. Secretly and very discreetly, the pair of them will find a way to slip away from the public and hide away in the storage room where they sweetly and romantically embrace and give each other sweet kisses. They have to hide their love because Mr. Connelly could never accept their love affair. Mr. Connelly has always envisioned his daughter to marry one of those wealthy men who live on the west end of the city.
Miss Connelly’s cousin, Ms. Shannon, is a pleasant woman who has bright red hair and two young boys who are students in Miss Milliken’s and Mr. Bee’s classes. She always wears her gorgeous hair in a bun, and dresses down in old fashioned Victorian dresses which make her appear older, wiser, and strong hearted. Her boys, Victor and Anthony, are her life. She is rarely seen without them. They latch onto her as if they were magnets. She spends her free moments away from them working in a home full of the elderly. They adore her there and treat her as a saint. Ms. Shannon is a loving woman who does all she can to help them in anyway she can.
Her youngest son, Victor, spends most of his recess with a girl named Clara. Clara is a sweet charming girl who is quite charismatic. Clara loves to pretend like she is in a beauty pageant, much to Victor’s dismay. Clara and Victor’s favorite game is a fantasy adventure, where Victor is an adventurer who manages to befriend the pixie Clara, and together they go through various mishaps such as quicksand for poor Victor, and being captured by pirates!
Clara, who has poor eyesight, requires glasses to which she absolutely detests. They were partially the reason for Victor’s friendship. Victor found them quite charming.
Clara happens to be the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Garner, a lovely couple who love to dote on their three daughters, Clara, Audrey, and Evangeline. Audrey is the middle child of the Garners. She is around the age of 10 (she keeps reminding them that her birthday is in three more months and then she’ll officially be 10), much like the elder son of Miss Shannon, Anthony. She enjoys walking over to Mr. Parlein’s toy shop with her parents to look at all the new toys he just got in. She also finds gondola rides to be the coolest thing to do in town. Audrey is an excitable child who usually finds joy and excitement in most things she does. Except baths. She finds bath time to be quite violating.
Evangeline is a young woman of 16. She is wispy and lovely. Her mother couldn’t be any prouder of her lovely daughter, except that she has an overactive imagination. Evangeline does daydream more often than most anyone she has ever met but half of the time, she can’t help it. As much as she wants to learn about Astrology, she’d rather dream that she was Cassiopeia and her dear Orion was coming to rescue her from a frightful beast. Evangeline floated instead of walked. She glided. She wore her long hair down so that the perfectly curled tips fell just above the small of her back. She always wore light dresses that flittered about as she glided. Evie, as her parents call her, enjoys telling her younger sister stories she dreamt up during the day. The girls love every story she tells them and beg for more right afterward. Evie loved also loved taking them for walks in the park. The park, which was in a little nook where the river curled, served Evie as a perfect muse for her stories. Her sisters would play and she would write as she watched them and ideas flooded her mind.
The park, also served as a wonderful muse for young Thaddeus Oro. He would come by himself to admire the beautiful streams that constantly flowed. He loved how shallow it was at this part of the town. He also liked that there was a park on each side of the river and not a building. He’d often sit on one of the large rocks on the edge of the park and dip his bare feet into the chilly water. He loved watching the people who passed on through the park. On the other side of the park was this young girl. She appeared to be 16, close to his age, and she’d sit at the base of a tree and continuously write while keeping an eye on her siblings. She came often and he had wanted to meet her but never had enough courage. That and she was always on the other side of the park and there wasn’t a bridge close by to cross over.
Thaddeus liked to live life his way. He liked doing as he pleased. Do not take this as if he was rebellious in any way, for Thaddeus is a peaceful young man. He enjoyed not having any rules to follow, therefore he took this wonderful new responsibility and decided to be responsible with it. He knew it upset his parents if he didn’t tell them where he was going so he always told them. He always came home before 7:30pm unless he told them otherwise. He did not do anything that got him in immediate trouble nor did he stray too far from home.
Thaddeus was always looking for the bigger picture. He may have been 18, but he was much more mature than many boys his age. Where other boys wondered about death, Thaddeus wondered what his purpose in life was. Where other boys wondered if the random girl was interested in them, Thaddeus only cared about “the one” and wouldn’t accept anyone less. Thaddeus was very philosophical and often pondered about things no normal person gave a second thought to. Over all, Thaddeus enjoyed doing as he pleased and living life the way he wanted to.
Thaddeus’s parents, Mr. & Mrs. Oro, were very loving parents. They simply adore their little boy and cherish everything he does. Mr. Oro believes that Thad got his smarts; however, Mrs. Oro would certainly disagree. While Mr. Oro is the breadwinner of the family, working as the chief of police, Mrs. Oro is a housewife who is thoroughly active in the community. Thaddeus was given a wonderful childhood because of his mother being able to be around him through community service, and his father’s privileges being the chief of police.
Mrs. Oro being active in the community, has spent her fair share of time in Mrs. McGregor’s bakery, listening and contributing to the neighborhood gossip.
And this sets up our scene.




