15 December 1988

[noteful]

[Correspondance, November to December, 1988]

Meg steps into Marie-Laure and Sylvie's cafe a full half hour before she's scheduled to meet Dave there. She only has to wait five minutes for a table, and then settles into the chair that faces the door, so she can see, and be seen by, anyone arriving.

And because she has twenty-some odd minutes to kill, Meg pulls a notebook out of her bag and begins working on her packing list for her Christmas trip to see Kim in England.

It passes the time.

(And it needs to be done.)

Comments

[noteful]

Meg glances automatically at the briefcase and then nods.

"Um, sure. Thank you, that would be nice.

"Just hot chocolate, please?"

[oftheaxe]

"Got it," says Dave, and heads over to the counter.

He returns a few minutes later with two hot chocolates in mugs, balancing them carefully to make sure they don't spill. One has white piled high on the top.

"Sorry - forgot to ask if you wanted whipped cream, so I got one of each."

[noteful]

Meg has cleared her notebooks off the table and into her bag while he was gone.

"Without, thank you.

"So, um, did your meeting go okay?"

[oftheaxe]

Dave likes whipped cream, so that works out well. (Though he's going to have to remember to do his best to avoid a whipped cream moustache.)

He passes the other mug of whipped-cream-less cocoa over to Meg's side of the table, and sits down.

"Yeah - well, I think so, at least. Thanks for asking. How's Hell Week going? - is it Hell Week for you yet, or is that next week?"

[noteful]

Meg kind of figured. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been a whipped cream issue.

"It's kind of all over but the shouting at this point," Meg says. "Though there has been a fair amount of shouting."

Not by Meg. But in general.

[oftheaxe]

". . . does your school do one of those, what do you call 'em, you know, the shouting out the window at midnight during finals week - primal screams?"

University of Toronto didn't; thinking back, Dave thinks ruefully that he probably could have used it.

[noteful]

"I don't remember anything like that.

"I live in an apartment off campus now, and not all of our neighbors are students, so I'm not sure it would be appreciated."

Schoolwork doesn't tend to stress Meg out -- it's something she's good at and she knows that -- though everyone else's stressing out about it can get to her.

Besides, midnight in December in Montreal is a little cold for open windows.

[oftheaxe]

Dave grins a little at that.

"Yeah, I guess the last thing you need during finals is a lynch mob of angry neighbors at your door."

[noteful]

"That and having your pen run out of ink.

"They run about even."

[oftheaxe]

Dave laughs - though he's willing to bet, privately, that it's a rare exam when Meg doesn't have a spare pen or ten lined up neatly next to her. She seems that kind of person.

Then he takes a sip of his drink, and carefully wipes his mouth before saying, "- you're right, this is pretty good chocolate."

[noteful]

Dave would win that bet, could he find anyone to take it.

"I'm glad you like it.

"This where I come to . . . hide from being a student, I guess, is a fair phrase."

[oftheaxe]

"It's good to have a place like that," Dave says. "I kind of wish I'd had one, when I was still in school.

". . . god, sorry, I don't mean to come off all ancient on you."

[noteful]

Meg laughs.

"Don't worry about that on my account," she says.

"Anyway, ancient is probably a stretch.

"That's reserved for Kim."

[oftheaxe]

Dave is cautious - of course - but his tone stays light.

"Heh. Don't I know it. I'm a younger, too."

[noteful]

"By how much?

"And brother or sister?"

Meg will assume there's only one, in that Dave identified himself as a younger, not a youngest.

[oftheaxe]

"Brother. Vincent. Just a year older - Kim knew him before she did me, actually."

(Everyone knew Vincent.)

[noteful]

"So I'm guessing you got called Vincent a lot, in school and things like that.

"I mean, I got called Kim half the time, and there are nine years between us."

It was actually almost strange to get to McGill and have no one around who knew her sister.

[oftheaxe]

"That, yeah - about half the time," Dave says, rueful, "and the other half, 'why can't you be more like Vincent?'"

He can joke about now, which is maybe the most significant difference between now-Dave and pre-Fionavar Dave.

[noteful]

"I didn't . . . mostly, people just assumed that I was going to be like Kim."

[oftheaxe]

"I don't know you very well, obviously," Dave says, after a moment, "but you don't come off as all that alike to me."

[noteful]

"Well, not anymore," Meg says, easily.

Though they certainly have their similarities.

She turns her mug so that the handle is parallel to the edge of the table.

"When I was younger, though . . . she was my amazing big sister, and I wanted to be just like her."

[oftheaxe]

"It's not that unusual, I guess."

Though Dave didn't want to be just like his big brother, not really.

(He wanted to be better than his big brother.)

"I've gotta say, though - I mean, I think Kim's pretty amazing. But I'm kind of glad there's only one of her."

[noteful]

Meg might have felt that way if she'd only been a year younger than Kim, too.

"Well, that's how it's supposed to work.

"One person per . . . person--I'm not sure there's a good way to say that."

[oftheaxe]

Dave gives her a quick half-smile.

"Yeah, along those lines.

"I guess your life goal isn't as much to be Kim Jr., these days?"

[noteful]

"Nope," Meg says.

Though as far as Meg can tell, even Kim's life goal isn't to be that person any more.

A lot of things have changed.

"I haven't completely figured out what it is, but it's not that."