Gravel crunching under her brown Mary Janes with each step and the occasional soft ruffle of dewy grass. She strolls around the mellow pond, nose in her book, trying to find a decent place to settle for all the benches are either coated in fowl feces or another pedestrian wanting to enjoy this lovely afternoon at Grantchester Meadows. She finds a grassy patch by the narrow end of the pond and takes a seat on the moist grass, leaving wet marks on her navy bell bottoms. She takes note of her trousers getting wet and takes off her cardigan and lays it out to sit on like a picnic blanket. Opening her satchel, she pulls out her little black journal and pencil and lays back into the grass, making her hair spread throughout the grass. She looks over what she previously wrote when she notices little quacks coming from the left of her. She looks over to see a duck and about five little ducklings following her.
"You're in luck today..." she says digging into her bag, "I brought you guys a little something this time." She triumphantly pulls out a little rolled brown bag. She opens it and pulls out some seeds and tosses it to the ducks.
Across the pond, already have taken notice of the girl he met a few days ago at the gig, Syd walks over to the girl feeding seeds to the ducks. He smiles and chuckles a little at her excitement and enthusiasm. He approaches her and leans over as she is still unaware of his presence.
"That looks awful fun." He says behind her, startling her as the seeds in her hand fly up, making the ducks flock away, "oh goodness I'm so sorry"
"Syd?" She turns around noticing the young man, blushing a little.
"I'm sorry I really didn't mean to startle you, I just saw you across the pond and wanted to say hi." He says softly looking down. He notices a book with foreign text on it and becomes intrigued.
"If you don't mind me asking, I'd like to know what you're reading." He says pointing at her book.
"Oh! This?" She says picking up the book, he nods. "This is I Ching, or the Book of Changes. It's my mother's. It's a bunch of old classic Chinese literature. It's really great, it's translated of course, but it really helps me to write."
"You're a writer?" He says, looking curiously into her dark brown eyes.
"Yes, well not professionally. I just enjoy writing short stories." She says holding up her journal.
"Do you mind if I take a look?" He asks, laying down on his side next to her, his whole side getting wet in the process. He groans and try's to wipe it off.
"Sure. Of course" she says giggling. He enjoys the light chirp of her laugh, it reminds him of a little robin's chirp. He picks up the journal and starts to read it.
"Your writing is honestly amazing!" He says looking up at her.
"Oh, you're just saying that." She says looking down, fiddling with blades of grass.
"No. Really, this is truly an work of art! Have you ever thought of publishing it?" He asks.
"Not really, well I have, but much of my writing quite childish. Too much of a fantasy for people to enjoy." She says.
"This one is my favorite," He says showing her an entry she wrote.
"Oh, this one was inspired by The Book of Changes here!" She says referring to the book she slowed earlier.
"That's quite interesting. Do you mind if I borrow your book? I would return it when I see you again." He says looking up.
"See me again? You suppose we'd meet again one day?" She says raising her brow and giving a small smile.
"You are a good friend of Roger, yes? I could have him return it to you."
"Oh yeah..." she says slightly disappointed. The hopeless romantic in her thought he'd want to see her again, but it turns out it's not to be. Syd takes note of the subtle sadness and realizes what he's said.
