At what moment in your life did you feel the most proud?

[mute_clay]

challenge response

I don’t know. Maybe –

I can still remember the first carving I ever did. I can’t have been more than a handful of years, seven at the most, and I had worked at it for days. It was not the first thing I had ever carved, mind, just the first proper one.

It was a mouse. A tiny little mouse. Fit in the palm of my hand as if it belonged there. I would go sit in the spot I liked, away from the house but close enough that I could hear it if Ma called for me to come home. I’d hurry up, gathering kindling, so I’d have time. Time that wasn’t for work or sleep or prayer. Time that was for me.

And I made a mouse.

I knew I couldn’t take it with me. The good book says you shouldn’t make things that look like things and Ma was very strict with that. Besides, it was just a wooden mouse. It wasn’t useful. It couldn’t do anything. Not even feed the barn cat.

I put it down next to the log I’d been sitting on and told it to be a good mouse. Even if it wasn’t a proper mouse. It couldn’t squeak for one.

When I got back there, a while later, it was gone. Maybe the Forest took it. I don’t know. For a while I thought that maybe – it’d become alive and run off, like a real mouse would. Squeaking. But that don’t happen. Not when it couldn’t to begin with.

I was proud of the house too. The things I didn’t know how to do I figured out and when it was storming outside and you sat indoors you knew it was a good house.

I was proud whenever I made Callie smile. Especially the first time. She was so pretty. And I felt proud every time I looked at her. Because she lived with me. And I could make her smile.

But see – there’s the catch. There’s always one in these questions. Maybe they think I don’t catch on to them, because I never went to school. But I do.

They say it has to be one moment. And that isn’t right with these, cause there isn’t one moment when a carving just is. You make it and all the while you work with the wood is part of that carving in the end.

And the storm isn’t any particular storm. It’s more the idea of one. Like when you remember bad winters and they’re all bad winters you’ve ever seen and then some. In your head.

And even if I say I remember the first time I made Callie smile – you can’t just go and make years with someone into a moment.

So I think I have to say that I don’t know.

Comments

[wild-callie.livejournal.com]

*pups runs to Clay and hugs him tight tight*

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

Clay: *hugs her back, tighter*

[wild-callie.livejournal.com]

Caly, Clay, where have you been? *hugs him and kisses him and jumps up, her legs around his waist* How are you? I'm in Russia. Missed you. Am I heavier? *hugs him and kisses him more*

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

*puts his arms around her properly, holding her weight* Is that a trick question? *grinning a little, mainly to hide the glint of moisture in his eyes* I have missed you so Callie.

[wild-callie.livejournal.com]

I missed you too..and of course it's a trick question...I am heavier, ain't I?

*hooks her arms around his neck, peppering his cheeks with kisses, his eyelids, the tip of his nose*

[orlandomuse.livejournal.com]

Your carvings have always looked like they could wake up and run away. You're amazing with that. How are you?

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

I don't know about that. It's just to pass the time really. And I'm okay. I guess. How have you been Orlando?

[orlandomuse.livejournal.com]

I've been better.

I'm single again. Still living in the same place, but I'm redecorating. Just got back from Hawaii.

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

Hawaii? They've got palm trees and volcanoes there, right?

*pauses*

Orlando? Is something wrong?

[jon-r-meyers.livejournal.com]

Clay!

God, how have you been? I haven't seen you in forever.

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

Hi Jon.

I'm okay. Mostly. Working. How are you?

I went away for a while. I had to. Sometimes you have to.

[jon-r-meyers.livejournal.com]

Mostly?

*hugs*

I'm good, really. I can't complain. *smiles*

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

You know, the evenings can be a bit - quiet. But I bought a radio last month. Makes the apartment feel less empty.

*hugs back*

ANd that's good. *smiling.*

[ranuccio.livejournal.com]

*looks at Clay and hugs him, strongly but quickly*

Haven't seen you around for a while. You alright?

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

*answers the hug in kind*

I'm okay. Had to - leave for a little while. Are you all right?

[ranuccio.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I am now. I left the tavern. I live in a mansion now *grins* Like a bloody rich bloke, you know?

's a long story. Well, not that long. I was bought, by a guy. Name's Trevelyan. He's..something. Important. To me, I mean.

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

*cants his head a little*

If he's important - then that is good. Very good.

*nods a little*

[caraghdelaluna.livejournal.com]

Pride is strange, si? I don't know. They say that it's a sin, even, and I can see that, but I don't think it is, always.

It's hard to choose one thing. Everything sort of runs together.

*smiles tentatively* How have you been? I know I've been -- distant.

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

*smiles back, reassuringly*
Don't think about that. I've not really - been around myself. And I'm okay. Now.

*looks at her*

How are you Caragh?

[caraghdelaluna.livejournal.com]

*shrugs, smiling self-consciously, ducking her head and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear* Okay. Better, lately. For awhile I was -- well, it's probably best that we've not seen each other. Nothing serious, just -- crazy, a little, I guess. Sad and angry.

I'm glad you're okay, too. *smiles at him, genuinely*

It's warm now. Isn't it funny, how that just happens?

ooc: Hee! Freaky coincidence; I watched Titanic last night, and suddenly (probably something to do with the pretty pretty Kate) Caragh started talking to me for the first time in weeks. And then she saw Clay's entry and of course she wouldn't just let it slip by. *hugs you and your pup*

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

Sometimes you need to be on your own. *nods*
I used to run. In the Forest. That helped.

*smiles at her* You don't have Spring and Summer where you lived before? This is nothing. If we were in the Forest everything would be warm and green and fragrant now.

ooc - Clay's been quiet too, but he could relate to this one. And he is happy to see Caragh again *huggles you and the pup back*

[nazarene-josh.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Very good. Very, very good.

There should not be one moment, and one ought not to have pride, either. Joy, certainly, but not pride. It seems to me that's what you have. To take joy in moments, and let them be as they are, rather than clinging to them out of pride -- that's hard for many people to learn.

Oh. I'm Josh, by the way. *grins and offers his hand* My mother's husband was a carpenter.

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

*shakes his hand whilst rummaging through his own pockets with the other, then hands him a crumpled note. It reads*

My name is Clay. I'm a mute.

Hello Josh *smiling*

[nazarene-josh.livejournal.com]

*smiles easily, glancing briefly at the card -- he'd realized through the touch that something was different about this man, but doesn't say much of it*

You work with wood a lot? I haven't done it in a long time... and then it was mostly bowls and things, helping my father with his work. Sometimes I'd carve things for my little brothers and my sister, though.

[mute-clay.livejournal.com]

*nods* I used to work as a carpenter. I made houses and various repairs. And coffins. I still make those. *smiles because he has never meet other people who carved*
City People don't really appreciate word. It seems a shame.

*curiously* Are you from around here?</i<