It felt good to talk about ourselves. Like the tiniest part of someone's life was being given to me, like the firmly shut door between us had finally opened, even just a crack.
"What's your favourite colour, then?" I asked. I figured you could tell a lot about someone by their favourite colour.
"Green," said Ellie. "The colour of life, the colour of the forest. Like...dark, a little turquoise-ish, but still green. I don't really know how to describe it. You?"
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ᵒᵘʳ ᶠᵒʳᵉˢᵗ, '³⁸
I thought about it for a moment. I liked green too, for similar reasons, and I liked blue, because it was the colour of the ocean, which was my favourite place. But I decided on,
"Purple."
"What kind of purple?" she asked. I thought some more.
"There's a butterfly that is indigenous to England called a purple emperor. I used to have a book of English butterflies and that one was always the most amazing. It was a very vivid, electric purple, and more on the blue side than red side of purple. I always wondered how nature invented such an amazing colour...I'd love to see one, if I ever somehow find a way to England."
I suddenly felt a morose wave curdle my heart; my mum always spoke so fondly of where she grew up, and it occurred to me in that moment that I'd probably die without ever even stepping onto the land she was born and raised in.
"I didn't know you were into bugs," said Ellie.
"I'm not really."
Ellie was shocked when I explained to her what zodiac signs were; I told her about the Western one and the Chinese zodiac. I drew two circles in the dirt with a stick, separating them into twelve sections each, respectively. She was very uninterested at first, describing it as 'outdated witchy woo nonsense', but like most people, felt very interested when I started to explain the characteristics that aligned with her zodiacs.
"So...I'm a Gemini, born in the year of the Dog? What the hell does that say about me?"
I smiled, thinking about what I had read about the Zodiacs in the books my mum gave to me as a kid.
"Cheeky. Cunning. A little guarded...but genuine."
She seemed to think for a moment, before scrunching her nose up and shaking her head.
"You're just trying to get me to like you," she concluded. I huffed,
"I'd probably rather spend my time any other way, thanks."
She stared at the dirt circles a little longer, before asking,
