Beauty of the Snow: Part Two

      Inga shook her head at each occurrence of this routine, and resolved to not attempt to catch the Aisha the next time she tripped. Each time, she broke her resolve and darted over, only to back away, humiliated, as the Aisha regained her balance and her composure--which, Inga reflected, had never really been lost.

      Shaking her head, the Techo led the way down the next block, steadfastly ignoring the bumbling progress of the Aisha behind her. She glanced up at her two-story apartment building, shook her head, and turned to step into the doorway. Glancing back, she watched the Aisha nearly trip once more; but, with a quick step and a flick of the bootlaces to the other side of the shoe, the fall was avoided.

      Inga glanced back at the door and drew a keychain out of the pocket of her coat. Sorting through the keys, she straightened with a triumphant, "Ah!" and inserted one into the keyhole. Twisting it, she pulled the door towards her and stepped backwards to let it swing open. With a glance backwards to make sure the Aisha was still there--she was; she was crowding up against the Techo, in fact, and watching the process of unlocking the door as if it were great magic--Inga stepped into the front hall. Stepping quickly away from the doormat to let the Aisha in, the Techo pulled her cap off with a sigh and then unwound her scarf from around her neck. The Aisha stepped inside, glancing around the entrance hall with a faint look of puzzlement.

      Striding over to the door, Inga pulled it closed quickly to keep the cold air out. She glanced back over at the Aisha. "Welcome to my place," she said with an attempt at lightheartedness. As the Aisha tentatively poked at the doorknob to the broom closet, she added hastily, "It's just up the stairs."

      Glancing back at Inga, the Aisha nodded solemnly and followed the Techo through another door and up a flight of carpeted steps. The floral pattern of the stairs was evidently of great interest to the Aisha; as Inga stepped up onto the landing, she glanced back to see the other still halfway up and staring down at the carpet with a look of great concentration.

      "Come on," the Techo said, impatient merely from a desire to be in her own apartment and to be able to relax. She tapped her keyring against the railing.

      Jerking her head up, the Aisha quickly ascended the rest of the steps with lithe grace. Inga noted sourly that somehow the other avoided tripping once even on the stairs. Turning quickly back to her apartment door, which was just off the landing, the Techo flicked busily through her keychain again and selected the key to that door. She unlocked the door and pushed it open, standing aside to let the Aisha step inside first.

      She did so tentatively, sliding her paw along the grain of the wooden door as if it was liable to bite her; her boots left tracks of mud and half-melted snow on the off-white carpet of Inga's apartment.

      Grimacing, the Techo stepped in after the Aisha, shedding her own boots just inside the door. She followed the tracks to her living room, where the Aisha stood, her pale blue eyes wide with wonder as she stared out across the room and through the clear windows that walled it on one side.

      Inga made a disgusted noise, starting to get fed up with her visitor. "Sit down," she said, "and take off your shoes." The apartment was warm, after all, she thought as she turned away to go into the kitchen. Surely an Aisha who stood in the freezing snow could bear to take off her boots in the warmth of Inga's apartment.

      In the kitchen, Inga rattled the dishes and pots more than was truly necessary as she took out a saucepan and filled it with Kau milk. She set it on the stove and turned on the burner to heat it up, then fetched a container of hot chocolate mix down from a cupboard.

      Stepping out of the kitchen as she waited for the milk to warm, Inga glanced across the living room. The Aisha stood precisely where she had been before, and the boots remained on her feet.

      Inga clenched her fists in frustration. "Look," she said, striding over to where the Aisha stood, "you can't--eep!" The Techo, distracted, had stepped precisely into one of the puddles left by the Aisha's boots. Too annoyed with the water to realize that the Aisha had never stepped there, she irritably shook her foot, withdrawing it from the puddle, and set it on a dry spot of carpet.

      The Aisha turned to look at her, perfectly calmly.

      Inga, wiping her foot on the carpet, gave out a frustrated groan and stamped back into the kitchen.

      The Aisha turned back to the windows; the snow whirled past them in a silent charade of how it fell in the park. She bowed her head silently, clasping her paws together and dropping her gaze to the carpeted floor.

      Inga, in the kitchen, just rescued the milk from boiling over. Snatching the saucepan from the heat, she twisted off the stove and set the pan down momentarily on the cooling burner as she reached up to a high cabinet for two mugs. They were battered and had faint stains of tea on the insides, and one had a chip taken out of the rim, but they were sturdy: the Techo poured the Kau Kau milk carefully into them and measured out the powdered chocolate necessary for each mug.

     To her faint annoyance, when she carefully trod out of the kitchen with a mug clasped in each paw, the Aisha still stared out the window. Large puddles of snowmelt had begun to form underneath the soles of her boots; Inga grimaced and maneuvered carefully around the other to reach the coffee table. She set down the mugs and turned back to face the Aisha, who had moved so as to always keep the window--and the snow--in sight.

      "Look," Inga said, and grimaced, trying to think of a way to put it. She glanced fruitlessly around her apartment, and then sighed. Striding back into the kitchen, she snatched a dish towel from its holder and stepped back out to toss it at the Aisha.

      The other turned in time to catch it neatly, and glanced down at it, then up at Inga with a puzzled look in her eyes.

      "Use it," said the Techo, "to dry off your boots." She made a vague scrubbing motion at the soles of her feet.

      The Aisha gave her another moment's confused look, and then knelt easily on the carpet to rub at the bottoms of her boots with the towel.

      Inga sighed, brushed her paw pointlessly over her forehead, and stepped over to the coffee table. She picked up one of the mugs of hot chocolate, sat down on the sofa to sip it, and gave out a happy sigh. Glancing up at the Aisha, who held the dirtied towel in one paw, she nodded to the other sofa. "Sit," she invited the other, and motioned to the steaming mug of hot cocoa.

      The Aisha didn't move for a moment. The Techo sighed, looked back down at her own mug of cocoa, and took a sip. A few moments later she heard the soft pad of paws on carpeted floor, and then a slight alteration of the slope of the couch told Inga that the Aisha had, in fact, sat on the same couch the Techo was on.

      She glanced up from her mug, into the politely confused and yet perfectly solemn pale blue eyes of the Aisha. She opened her mouth to direct the other over to the extra couch, and then closed it again. Shaking her head, she returned to her cocoa.

      The Aisha watched Inga for a moment, and then turned her head back to the window, her expression relaxing into serenity as she watched the snow fall.

      The Techo looked up a few sips later and followed the other's gaze to the window. "So, I... take it you like snow?"

      She knew it was a lame question before it even left her mouth, and winced.

      Without turning, the Aisha spoke. "First snowfall."

      Inga jumped a little; she hadn't been expecting an answer, after the Aisha's proclivity towards silence. The other's voice was medium-range for a female's, and pleasant--though at the moment, she sounded distracted. Well, that was obvious enough, the Techo thought, slightly amused.

      "I, um... yeah. It's pretty, isn't it?" she said after a moment, and took a sip of cocoa.

      The Aisha's white head dipped in a slight nod, though not deep enough to force her to take her eyes off the snow. "Yes."

      Inga nodded, glanced uneasily around the room. "So, ah... why didn't you talk before?"

      The Aisha didn't answer for a moment, and Inga glanced over, puzzled. The other's eyes were trained on the window and the snow, looking pensive.

      After about a minute had passed in silence, a small clock on Inga's mantelpiece counting away the seconds, the Techo nodded. She drank the rest of her hot chocolate quickly, draining the mug, and stood. She could take a hint, she decided, and took her mug into the kitchen to rinse.

To be continued...