2024-11-14 - Dawn Breaks

It's brisk on an island in the middle of November just after dawn, but despite the light drizzle, some people get an early start to the day regardless.

Gaspar sits at the stoop of the Cozy Cottage, his workboots already caked in mud and his raincoat wet. At least he isn't wearing his knit cap today, because it would be soaked by now, which would inevitably make him sick. Under the stoop, he's dry, so he's got a book out --paperback, beat to hell, spine cracked and bent, corners of the cover folded and ripped-- and he reads without paying too much attention to anything. He'll know if someone comes around: he has an alarm system. A massive black mutt that looks like a Malinois and a Rottweiler and several other big jawed, big shouldered breeds had a bestial polyamorous orgy and a single massive black hound came out of it. His name is Barghest, and he could not be sweeter, nor happier at the moment rolling around in the mud. Gaspar has a towel, because he knows Barghest won't be allowed inside when they open unless he's wiped down.

He flips a page, bends it back around the book without a care, and takes a long drag of his cigarette, waiting. This isn't new. It isn't rare. In fact, it would be weird if he wasn't here. Where else is he going to get his Spanish tortilla for breakfast?

Behind Gaspar, the door to the Cottage opens, and Madelyne leans out the door. "How is the book?" She asks, her accent heavy, pulling the door open wider. She jerks her chin toward the entrance and makes soft kissy noises at the large dog with him. "Come on back to the kitchen, I've got your things ready for you. And a rather large soup bone for someone else."

She looks slightly sleepy and the rumpled of a person who has been up a few hours into the darkness. The bread needed to be baked fresh this morning and it was her turn on the rotation.

There is flour on her apron and a spot of it on her face.

She gestures to the cloth-wrapped package and takes a seat on a stool, a cup of coffee in front of her. "You're welcome to get a cup of coffee if you'd like one to go with your tortilla." She bites back a yawn and blinks a few times. "Why is it so early?"

"Hello." Gaspar tilts his head back to look up at her. "It's good." He closes it --revealing the cover: The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison-- and stuffs it in his pocket, flicking his cigarette away. At the kissy noises, Barghest leaps onto his feet and jaunts towards the door, right into Gaspar's waiting arms so he can wipe the dog down, taking extra care with the feet. Then he wipes his own workboots off, and follows Madelyne inside.

"Coffee sounds good." He has an accent, too; something Iberian or Mediterranean or, well, South European, anyway. It's hard to tell where Gaspar is from, though the name suggests something near Spain. Then again, Europe has a lot of cross-migration, so he could literally be from anywhere around there.

Once he has his coffee, sitting on a stool near her, hands wrapped around his mug, he lets out a little snort. "If I knew you were already in here I would have knocked." Barghest is already lapping up the bone broth. It's the best part of his day. "Did you stay up late again when you knew you shouldn't?" The tone is almost parental, but in a teasing, friendly way.

"Aye. I'll feel better when I go back to sleep this afternoon, knowing that everything will be perfect for the lunch crowd today." She gestures to the ovens that are making the kitchen just the right side of warm. "Two different bread bowls today, one with that ghastly everything bagel spice on it, the other a sweeter variety. Tortillas for the chicken tortilla soup. Leek and potato soup and a warm tomato basil." She leans her elbow against the table, taking a long draw from her coffee. "I'm going to take home some of the leek and potato to have in a nice mug for a late lunch."

Madelyne settles in her seat, comfortable, warm and content. "Barghest looks like he's doing good. You make sure that he takes his time with that soup bone. He's a beast, he is, but an adorable one."

She considers for a few moments before she pipes up again quietly. "What is your book about, then?"

"You can't ask him to take his time," Gaspar says of the dog. "He's a glutton. If we didn't walk around the islands all day, he'd be fat and lazy." Barghest is about five, now. Not an old dog by any stretch, but definitely an adult hound. He looks over, as if he knows they're talking about him, and then goes back to his bone, lying on his side, lapping up along its length. Yum.

Gaspar touches his pocket where the paperback is and says: "It's a science-fiction pulp story about a criminal con-man who is caught and forced to work for the government alongside other criminals and con-men. It's a classic of pulp literature, as far as I know. There's many sequels and prequels, but I'm only just starting with this one. I like to read things in publication order. I can lend it to you when I'm done if you like."

"Can't see him as fat and lazy." Madelyne muses, watching the dog grind his teeth against the bone briefly before he resumes his licking. She turns her head toward Gaspar when he speaks about what the book is about, giving him careful attention. "That would be lovely. I haven't had time to settle down and read for a while now, but I'd love to get back into it. Something about reading something while it's all quiet around you, especially if it's raining outside. It's a whole mood, it is."

She takes another drink of her coffee before she pushes to her feet to check on something in the oven. "What is on your docket for today? Anything fun, or just the usual around here?"

"It's difficult, trying to escape the alure of social media and the doom scrolling," Gaspar admits with a laugh as she gets up. "But I'm doing my best." He sips his coffee and shakes his head. "A few repairs that were reported late last night just before closing. Two stalls, the ferris wheel --which is my first stop-- and a washing machine. With any fortune I'll be done by noon." There's always something broken, but on lucky days, he only has one or two things to fix and can take the rest of the day to walk around, read, and chat with people. He does enjoy, at least, that his job isn't as repetitive as others. Yes, he's always fixing things, but it's almost never the same thing two days in a row.

"I do enjoy having the early shift. Leaves the afternoon free. Though today's weather could be nicer," he mutters, lamenting the cold and rain. "If it gets too much colder he'll have to wear his raincoat, too," he says, looking at Barghest, just in time for a crunch from the dog with the bone. Strong jaws.

Madelyne lifts her eyes to Gaspar, a light smirk on her features. "I have a phone, I don't use it for any of that. I get texts and sometimes phone calls, but.." She shakes her head slowly, rolling her eyes. "No social media." She points toward the man across from her, eyebrows lifting slightly. "It's no good for you, social media, too many people just spouting all of their thoughts and feelings. Some things are better not shared."

She listens to what work is going to have him working on, nodding along with the list. "Just watch, once I get back home and get to bed, it's going to be beautiful outside. I have a feeling." She gives the dog a brief look at the mention of a raincoat. She attempts to imagine what that might look like.

"That sounds charming, I don't think I've caught him in a raincoat yet." She shakes her head, getting distracted. "I might be calling the office later today. I'm fairly certain that the stove in my place is having a moment. One of the burners just doesn't want to heat up!"

"Mmm." Gaspar smiles a bit at her criticism of social media but doesn't say anything about it. Look, sometimes he just falls into the cat video rabbit hole and he can't help it, okay? He takes another long sip of his coffee and then scratches his beard with his other hand. "He's very handsome in his yellow raincoat. Looks like a taxi." At the word, Barghest looks up, as if he recognizes 'taxi' and associates it with something; possibly the raincoat. Gaspar chuckles. "I'll come by when I'm close," he says, about her burner. "Odds are there is some gunk obstructing the gas pipe to the burner, if the others work."

Madelyne doesn't push, because it's rude to do so, and she was raised right by her mother. She gets to her feet, moving toward the coffee pot. "Want a refresh on the coffee before you start off to get things done?" She asks, glancing at Barghest when he looks up at the taxi comment. She laughs softly and shakes her head, moving back to pour more coffee into her mug, adding cream and sugar. "Bless you, Gaspar. If you can fix my stove, I'll be quite grateful, it's hard to make dinner with only three burners. I've always got extra things cooking." A beat. "If you'd like, I'll make you a plate for lunch or dinner when you come by to fix it?"

Gaspar shakes his head, finishing his cup. "I'm okay on the coffee. I had two cups at home. I will be jittery beyond belief if I have another." He stands up and takes his cup over to the sink, rinsing it out. "That sounds good," he admits. I'll text you before swinging by, so you know I'm coming. In case you aren't home." He wipes his hands and then sweeps up his tortilla. He likes to eat it on-the-go, though who knows how he'll manage with the rain today.

"Come on, Barghest." The dog rises to his heavy feet, bone between his teeth, and starts for the door, until his master goes, "Tsch, you were raised better." So the dog stops, turns around, and pads his way over to Madelyne, pressing his cold nose to her leg and nuzzling before he turns for the door again.

"Thank you for the breakfast, Madelyne." He flashes her a smile and adjusts his cap. "I will see you later."

The earlier he starts fixing things, the ealier he can be done.

Madelyne is at home, it's bright outside and she's already ready for bed. The perils of getting up at 4 am. She has been crafting dinner, tacos, Mexican rice, and some refried beans. Today was going to be taco Tuesday, except it isn't Tuesday anymore. These things happen.

Maddie has a cat named Coal, a long-haired dark cat with a very expressive face. He has several cat trees that give him the advantage of height. When others visit with their pets, he usually ignores them and sleeps up high.

She is sitting in the kitchen, slowly nursing a cup of coffee so she doesn't fall asleep before Gaspar comes around to fix her stove.

[TXT to Madelyne] Gaspar: I am outside.

He's not exactly outside her door, but he's coming up on it. The rain having turned from drizzle to thick and cold droplets, Gaspar is wearing his raincoat, one of those vintage-styled yellow vinyl things that don't have sleeves so much as just being a sheet with a hole to put one's head through that ends up covering everything(-ish).

Perhaps much more attention grabbing is Barghest, who comes trotting alongside his master in an adorable matching yellow raincoat that has holes poked into it for all four legs and even has an added sheathe for the massive hound's thick and wagging tail. He also has a stick in his mouth, one that has a small umbrella attached to it that, while Barghest holds it in his mouth, covers his head to keep it from being rained on.

It's fucking priceless.

Madelyne takes another swig from her cup and pushes to her seat. She moves to the door, opens it up, and steps back so that Gaspar can get inside.

She seems sleepy for a moment but then she spots Barghest. Holy shit. "Oh, my sweet Jesus. Who is this man??" She might even squeak at the sight of the umbrella. "Oh goodness me, come in come in. It's warm in here, thank goodness."

"You could not have given me a better gift, than the sight of this wee man in a raincoat." She clasps her hands together and tries to hide the pure excitement on her features. "I have dinner here, I can wrap it up when you're finished if you want to take it home. Likely have had a long arsed day today."

Barghest is very excited. He pads up to Madelyne and then looks up at her, tilting the umbrella back and then letting out a soft bark. It causes the the stick with the umbrella to fall, of course, and at Gaspar's 'Tsch,' he reaches down and picks the stick again, wobbling it a bit with his teeth until the umbrella is back up above his head. He pads inside the house once Madelyne lets him in, vinyl-covered tail smacking her leg playfully as he passes by.

Gaspar gives Madelyne a rare grin and steps inside after Barghest. He lifts his own raincoat off him and hangs it at the door, so as not to drip all over her house. "I told you," he says to her, about the raincoat. But he didn't mention the umbrella. "It smells wonderful in here."

"I try to do as well as I do at the Cottage for home meals. Sometimes I take some things home and make things around what I baked earlier that morning." Madelyne gestures to the food set aside. "I used the tortillas, so I hope you're not sick of them yet."

She kneels down closer to Barghest. "You're a fine boyo, you know that don't you?" She croons, and holds her hand out, giving him a chance to sniff and verify her identity before she makes an attempt to pet him.

"The stove is acting up again, and I'm getting to thinking that something might be messing with it when I'm sleeping. Take a look and please, tell me your thoughts, hmm?" She says to Gaspar, pushing fully to her feet, gesturing to the offending object.

Barghest is loving the attention. He already identified Madelyne but he sniffs anyway, and then he drops the umbrella just under Gaspar's raincoat. Gaspar takes a moment to unzip Barghest's own raincoat and hang it with his own, then he tugs his gloves off, listening to Madelyne.

"Well, I will look at it. Like I said before, chances are it is a clot of gunk that is stopping it." He ambles over to the stove and crouches, examining the knobs first, turning each one and listening for the pass of gas. When he gets to the offending burner, he grumbles. "Bai," he mutters, and then stands up again, patting himself down until he comes up with a long wire.

"It's going to require some, uh, poking around," he says, almost apologetically. "You should sit," he adds, laughing.

Madelyne promptly takes a seat, cupping her coffee with both hands as she watches. She gives Barghest a brief look, murmuring. "It's time to get serious. He's going to fix the thing there, you see? Giving me all sorts of trouble it is." She shakes her head and lets out a sigh.

Can't make yummy things at home when I'm down a burner. I use them all, you understand because it's not often that I only use the one or two. This is why I should stick to cooking at work, though I can't really do my personal cooking there, can I?"

She lets out a dramatic sigh and leans against the table, frowning. "I have faith that your Da will make sure work of fixing it."

Gaspar takes the burner's top apart (the iron grill, the disc, etc) until he spots where the gas should be coming from. He folds the wire once and then twists it, making it thicker and sturdier, and then he inserts it into the gas pipe.

Barghest has sat down next to Madelyne. This is typically what he does when Gaspar is working, is just sit around, yawn, nap, that sort of dog stuff. But now he has something catching his attention: Coal the kitty cat.

Coal and Barghest have a special friendship in which Barghest is Coal's BESTEST BEST FRIEND and Coal, well, sometimes he acknowledges Barghest. Sometimes.

"Hah." Gaspar pulls the wire back out and shows her. It's covered in black gunk. "Definitely grease gunk or something down there. Let me check deeper to see if I can clean it or it will need rreplacing."

"Replacing." Madelyne murmurs, a frown on her features. That means getting a new part, which means it's going to take at least a day, maybe two. She watches as Coal ignores Barghest for at least a good five minutes, tail flicking around moodily.

Then the cat gets to its feet, stretches out, and daintily walks around the cat tree, showing off his tail as he gazes down at the large dog.

It's quite a subtle, sneaky way of teasing that they do anytime the dog is in the vicinity.

"How long will it take to get the parts for this?" She finally asks, finishing her cup of coffee. "That's my favorite burner, you know." Everyone has a favorite burner.

"Let me see if I can at least make it work for now so that if the replacing is necessary, it won't stay broken until then." Gaspar goes back to work, talking as he does. "Few days, like always. Got to look in inventory. If we have the part lying around, it'll be fast. If not, gotta order it from the mainland and everything takes longer ordering from the mainland." Islands are weird that way.

Then he starts moving his arm, elbow shuddering as something scrapes loudly inside the stove, and he yanks the wire out, pulling out a chunk of gunk with it. He shows it to her. "See? Gunk."

Meanwhile, Barghest has risen, padded over to where Coal is, and is sitting down, looking up at the cat, sweeping his tail across the floor.

"Bless you." Madelyne murmurs, and leans her elbows against the table, watching Gaspar work. "I can make shit work for a day or two if the part is lying around. If it isn't, I'm just going to cook some difficult stuff at the restaurant until it's fixed."

She wrinkles her nose when the gunk comes out, casting a brief look at Barghest and Coal, smirking. "You two make a point to get along, you hear me?" She teases gently, flicking her fingers at Coal.

"How does gunk get into things there? How does that happen?"

Barghest lets out a little whine at Madelyne's admonishment, but he isn't barking or trying to catch Coal. He's just staring intensely, wagging his tail.

Gaspar shrugs and cleans the wire in her sink, then he sticks it into the pipe again. He does it two or three more times, always pulling out some gunk, and then he sighs. "Grease, oil, bits of food. It doesn't matter that you keep it clean, it still gets dirty inside, sometimes too much to clean."

He checks the knob again, and this time is gratified by the welcome hiss of gas coming out briefly. He closes it immediately. "Should be good for a few days."

"Dirty inside. I get that. Now I'm going to be calling you every few months to clean out my damn stove so that it doesn't get to this point. Is that allowed?" Madelyne asks, eyebrow arched as she gazes at Gaspar. "I promise I won't make a nuisance of myself, I just want to make sure that it doesn't stop working."

She nods and she makes a kissing noise, holding a hand out. Coal stares at the hand for a moment, and at Barghest, and then he jumps down, sweeping past the dog to rub against Madelyne, his purr loud.

"I don't mind helping," Gaspar says, shaking his head as he cleans his wire out. He pauses, looking at it and then her stovetop, and then he reaches up and puts the wire on top of her fridge, turning to smile at her. "For next time."

Barghest sweeps his tail side to side as Coal slides by, but he doesn't do anything; he just stares at the cat, and then looks up between Madelyne and Gaspar. His tail goes from side to side to up and down, thumping on the floor.

He's a good boy.

Gaspar looks down at the cat and smirks. "He's a very teasy boy, isn't he."

"He really is, I don't think that he can help it. He wants to play, tease, and get into trouble all the time. He's constantly trying to get out of the house to meet new people, especially people who will feed him." Madelyne makes a soft tch-ing sound, shaking her head back and forth.

"Thank you Gaspar, I'm very grateful for you taking care of this for me. Anytime you need a meal, please stop by. I'm happy to feed you anytime for your help." She crosses her hands across her heart, her smile warm.

"And you, Barghest. You're the bestest boy. You're amazing."

"He is a cat," Gaspar says with a shake of his head. "There is nothing wrong with him being how he is, he is a cat." Gaspar grins at Coal and then he reaches down and ruffles Barghest's head a little.

"Of course," he says. "We have to help each other around here." He sticks his hands in his pockets and smiles. "Besides, anything to score more free meals." He gives her another rare grin.

Barghest opens his mouth and lets his tongue loll out and his tail wags frenetically when he gets called the bestest boy. He is, he is the bestest boy!

"Meals I can do. Absolutely." Madelyne murmurs, and she brushes her fingers over the very fluffy tail as he meanders past her. "Thank you so very much, Gaspar. I have a feeling that we're going to be amazing friends." She beams in his direction and leans down to pet Barghest. "And you too. Yes, I can tell that you know that you're the best boy. I can't wait to see what other outfits you have, you darling man."

"Oh, by the way."

Gaspar reaches into his pocket and pulls out his paperback, setting it on the table. The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison.

"I finished it earlier today. It's not very long. I hope you enjoy it," he says, smiling. Then he looks around and says, "So, what's for dinner?" He flashes her a grin.