Marmalade Sunset

Chapter 12

While they waited for the owner of the lodge to show his pretty face again, Glenn convinced Robby to take Al under his wing for the time being. Sleeping in a cramped tent together was something he didn't want to end up as the cause of their relationship collapsing.

In exchange, he agreed to help Robby with his pottery work and Al took it upon herself to do as much as she could elsewhere.

She was given a spare room that was originally a storage place for Robby's unfinished work. They relocated everything, set up a bed, and fixed together a table and a dresser.

Al struggled at first to get used to living every day in the house (she mentioned feeling homesick at times) but it was in that month of transition when she gradually accustomed herself to the neighbours and the people working the market.

She slowly worked her way into Luco's Coast and once she found her footing, she quickly sped off into the distance in a way that Glenn never could achieve.

He was happy that she found a community that accepted her but as she took more time to enjoy the town on her own, Glenn began to feel an incomparable loneliness without her company. Before he knew it, the world around him was bleached of its vibrant colours.

The undeniable thought that he was losing something that frankly never belonged to him made him question what the hell was wrong with his brain. He couldn't help feeling like that.

Glenn carried that thought when helping Robby turn his dried clay back into something malleable. He would muscle a bin of failed projects and crack them down with the end of a hammer in a supersized mortar until it became a fine dust. He scooped the powder into little containers and filled them up with tap water. Within a day, Robby would have a surplus of clay to get his hands dirty with.

The physical aspect of doing something with his hands kept his head in check. On the plus side, Glenn progressively grew tougher as he broke down more and more.

When he wasn't pounding old clay, Glenn waited by the lodge every afternoon for an hour or two. He would greet the slouching man wearing the high visibility jacket and wait in the dining hall for the doors to unexpectedly open again to reveal the owner. He found that a road in the back of the lodge led to the gravel path that the bus took on the way to the town. There was a small parking lot that would be filled intermittently.

A few visitors would come and go, mainly wealthy looking people that wore expensive clothes and an emotionless smile. They didn't bother passing him a glance even if he was in their way.

He tried to talk with the workers but they had no idea when the owner would come back or how to get in touch with him. It looked like Glenn just had to sit tight and wait for another window of time.

He was doing a lot of waiting these days.

When Al was free, they would adventure down the path and inspect the boulder wall. It remained unchanged since the day they stepped over with the fallen branches and the bushes seemingly sprouted on the path staying in their familiar ominous ways.

Glenn stopped counting the days and let time pass without any restrictions. Hours would feel like minutes and the days went by quickly. Before he knew it, another month would roll by.

He didn't have a time limit anymore, no reason to be agitated from staying in the town as if he was being watched.

Al would grow out her hair and Glenn could've sworn she also grew an inch taller as another month rolled past. If she was just below his eyes when they first came to the town, she was now the same height as him. She kept her hair just below her shoulder blades and would have Robby's wife help cut the ends whenever it grew too long.