An Outdoorsman's Guide To The Calls Of Common Thieves

Patched up

26/05/2024-28/05/2024

Something About You - Eyedress, Dent May

"It should be somewhere around here somewhere ...ah! Here." I retrieve my first aid kit from under the sink cabinet of my apartment.

Sitting on the couch, I start to unpack the items inside looking for the stuff I need and Ryan sits beside me.
"Need any help?"
"I'm good, I should be able to do it. I am a doctor after all."
"Well yeah, but even doctors deserve the patient treatment."
I pause, and he sits a little closer to me and gently takes my arm.
"I've done this before, don't worry. Do you trust me?" I nod.
He begins to dress my wound, and my unsure expression turns into a smile. He's locked in, trying his best to be gentle. I wince and retract my hand slightly when he applies the disinfectant to the open wound, but I let him continue as he repeatedly says sorry and I repeatedly say that it's ok. In the end we start to laugh a little.
"There. All better."
"Thank you."
As we pack away the rest of the items back into the kit together, I place my hand on the bandages to grab them and Ryan places his fingers between mine trying to grab the bandages as well, accidentally. My eyes widen slightly at the realisation, and I can feel my face heating up. Sure enough his do too. A lot more than mine. He looks away and I chuckle at his embarrassment. Reluctantly retracting my hand, I pack away the rest of the stuff and he helps.

After the first aid kid is put back in it's place, we go back down the stairs and meet Steph and Alex on their way up.
S: "Hey, Harry took over for his evening shift. How's your arm Z?"
Z: "All patched up thanks to Ryan."
A: "We got as much as we could. I brought my notebook."
R: "Nice, let's take a look."

Alex sits on the couch and keeps her notebook on the coffee table. Ryan and I sit next to each other opposite Alex and the table and Steph sits beside her.
R: "So they're a miner. Both of them. Right?"
S: "Technically, Ben is not a miner."
R: "But he hangs out with them.
Z: "I don't think they were all there. Are there more old, creepy miners?"
R: "Creepy?"
Z: "It's... a whole thing."
S: "I think it was just those 5."
Z: "Oh, so that's really got the list down."
A: "The 3 miners were thinking about...well they were drunk and pretty much useless to our investigation."
Z: "Aww."
A: "Ben was scared. He had that purple aura. He thought something about being scared to go back to jail. I saw those jail bars."
S: "So he's one of them!"
A: "Nick was thinking about his son."
R: "He has a son?"
A: "Apparently. He was thinking about his son, but I couldn't hear his thoughts, I couldn't concentrate enough over the other guys' thoughts. Ben's fear was so strong, I almost fell back, that's why it was distinct."
S: "I think we've done enough investigation for today, and I'm worried about you. We can practise tomorrow, right?"
Z: "Yeah, of course."
A: "I can handle it."
I think it would be better for her to rest, even if she doesn't need it. Those miners' thoughts had to have been troubling.
Z: "To be honest, I think we all need a bit of a break. We did a lot today."
A: "Oh...alright."
S: "See you guys tomorrow."
Z: "See you."
Steph, Alex and Ryan leave, and I decide to go up to the rooftop.

Wannabe - Spice Girls

While I'm up here, enjoying the beautiful flowers, I get a facetime call from my sister. I pick up.
"Hey, nanga!"
"Hiii akka! How are you?"
"I'm good, I'm good. How is everything?"
"It's good, yeah."
"Oh my gosh you have to update me on that guy you were talking about. What was his name..."
"Ryan?"
"Yeah, yeah Ryan."
"Well, there's this thing coming up called the Spring Festival, and we were joking about calling it Mountain prom, and then he asked me to be his date!"
"No! No wayyyy! Awwwww I wish I was there so I could see the guy. You didn't actually send me a pic."
"Here, let me send you one."

My sister is like my best friend. She's one year older than me, so we're super close. I've been regularly updating her on stuff that goes on here, and she regularly updates me on stuff that goes on back in England. This is the second time we've called because of the time difference and such, but we're working on calling more frequently.

"...and then she threatened to kick him out again. As usual."
"Never changes with those two, does it?"
"Never will. They're flying out to see you, right?"
"I'm honestly terrified. I think they might drag me back."
"How come? You business is successful, you have tons of friends, I mean you even have a boyfriend."
"He isn't my boyfriend yet."
"Yet?"
"I mean- you know what I mean."
"So why are you scared?"
"I don't know, maybe they'll find something bad about this place. You know how they are. I wish you were coming too."
"We could totally go on a double date."
"He isn't my boyfriend yet!"
"I don't know, there's still time."
"I hope there is."
"Aww, you really like him huh? Well I wish I could meet him before they do."
"You should fly over here! I wanna show you around, it's some real fairy tale stuff over here."
"Ugh I wanna go so bad. I'll bring Fred with me. We'll visit soon, I promise."
"You better."
"What's Ryan's number?"
"...why?"
"Hey! Relax, Zoe, you can keep him. Besides, I've got Fred. I just wanna ask some...questions."
"Questions? What, you're gonna interrogate him?"
"...maybe."
"Ok, I'll give you his number, but don't creep him out, ok?"
"Fine."
I text her Ryan's number.
"You should sleep, isn't it late?"
"Yeah, it is."
"We'll try to talk tomorrow. Good nighttt love youuu!!"
"Love you tooo!"
She hangs up, and I go back downstairs to bed.