“Prudence?” Red paused, a bit of material in her hands lifted up to examine it, blinked.
“Tough luck, I know.” The look on her face was comical. She was trying to hide her reaction and failing.
“You’re Poo…?” Red murmured after the longest pause in the history of dramatic pauses, eyeing me curiously.
“Pru, Purr-roo. Never Poo, I don’t care how Rek says it,” I muttered emphatically.
Red laughed then. Louisa gave her a look and Lolly hushed her. Tina just turned a shade of red that made my blushes feel like child’s play.
“It’s fine.” I waved it off with a shrug. “I get it.” I was used to it, I should say.
“I’m sorry.” Red grinned. “I meant no offense. It was just funny listening to the talk of the new girl. Poo this, Poo that. Poo-dense.” Shaking her head, she divulged, “I’d honestly wondered if someone had spiked the water because where the hell did Poo come from? What name turned into Poo? I couldn’t puzzle it out. Honestly, I was wondering if some beast was playing a joke on me or someone else and I’d gotten unwillingly sucked into it. Poo, you know? Bonkers. Now it makes total sense.” She snorted at that but it turned into outright guffaws.
Right. Well, I mean, it wasn’tthatfunny. Why do people announce they mean no offense right before they say something that could offend?
Wondering if I had any room to talk really, I settled on tuning out the woman as they gabbed on without me. Lolly gave me a small, commiserating smile and quickly changed the subject.
Dip the soap, scrub the most offensive spots, dip, scrub, soap up, dip, rinse, dip some more, scrub some more. I was just starting to get the hang of this crap when I spied a flash of metal.
“Hey, guys.” Dace walked up, a small bag about the size of a pillowcase in her hands, a crudely made metal scrub board with weird looking shells attached to it neatly tucked under her arm. “Mind if I join you?” the bubbly blonde chirped.
“Hey,” I greeted, but then Red cut in with, “We’re all full up here.” Gesturing off down a ways, she barely spared Dace a glance. “There’s plenty of room over there.”
Dace kept a smile firmly in place, even if her eyes got a little glassy and her voice cracked as she squeaked, “Of course. I’ll, uh, I’ll just go over there.”
Tiny, Louisa, Red, and Lolly all shared a speaking glance. It took me a minute as I frowningly glanced at Dace’s retreating back that that look could have possibly been for me.
“You know Dace?” Red asked me.
Her question took me aback. I jumped a little in place as her voice cut in on my thoughts. Of course I looked funny, I was squatting here clutching the soap hard enough it was warping as it softened, frozen in place with a half dipped hoodie in my hands.
“Yes,” I said simply. They didn’t like her for some reason. That much was obvious. It made me hesitant to provide them much more than that.
“I heard you’re staying in Bia’s hut until the singles’ huts in need of repairs are fixed,” Tiny chirped. Right, so, bit of a gossip, that one. Good to know.
I got a lot of shit throughout the years for not giving such and such a shot, yadda, yadda, but honestly I wasn’t much for gossipers, backstabbers, haterade groupies, and the like. Did they not like Dace because Red didn’t? Or had Dace done something to truly offend them all?
“Hush.” Lolly gave Tiny a look that had the smaller woman blushing anew but glancing towards me with a look that said she was dying to say more and wished I’d join in.
Was Tiny waiting for an answer from me? It wouldn’t be forthcoming.
“Where do you hang clothes so they can dry?” I muttered as I lifted up my hoodie and watched water pour out of it.
“Depends on the setup, really,” Louisa murmured as she stood. “If you have a wet room, a mud room, usually in there. For smaller places, over chairs, a drying rack if you have one. It’s too cold to leave them outside for long. They’ll freeze.”
“A chair by the fire,” Dace called out from her spot all the way down the river. “Works good for me.”
Red rolled her eyes at Dace and pretended like she hadn’t spoken.
On this went— I’d ask a question, someone would answer, and if Dace had any input she’d respond when everyone else was finished. There was nothing wrong with her answers. The chair idea was good as I had nothing to hang clothes on to dry.
“Why are you such an asshole about her?” There. I’d said it. If it didn’t pour out of me it was going to fester. I probably could have worded it better though.
Red’s jaw about dropped.
Lolly clapped a hand to her mouth to keep from outright laughing. Louisa’s good natured laugh had Red bursting out laughing, even if her face did pinken.
“I’m a total asshole sometimes, I will admit that right now,” Red murmured with a sigh. Shaking her head, she added, “She knows what she did. I hold grudges.”
