Daily Dialogue: Blinders Off
Emmeline
No, like “Emily.” With an N at the end.
Jada
Oh, sorry. I’ve only seen your name written down and thought it sounded like it looked.
Emmeline
Mara never said my name?
Jada
She only mentioned you in texts when she said that we should go out on a date.
Emmeline
Heh, same here. Jada isn’t a well-known name, so I figured that I should look up how to pronounce it so I didn’t butcher it when I met you. Like “jade.” Ending in “uh.”
Jada
You come prepared.
Emmeline
Or mannerly, yes. You look nice.
Jada
Thanks, you too. That dress really brings out your eyes.
Emmeline
Why thank you. I’m not much of a dress gal, but I figured I better dig this one out of the closet. First impressions and all that.
Jada
Thanks for the effort. I love dresses.
Emmeline
I can see. No one finds a dress that pretty unless they know what to look for.
Jada
Thanks. Why don’t you like dresses?
Emmeline
Wind, snags, trips, stumbles, that sort of thing. And I feel weird that only my underwear is separating me from the world. Why do you like dresses?
Jada
They’re nice to spin in, and they make bathroom visits easier.
Emmeline
Maybe that’s the real reason Scotsmen wear kilts. I hear they’re nude under them.
Jada
Maybe.
Emmeline
Do you make a habit of spinning in dresses?
Jada
When I’m on the dance floor.
Emmeline
You dance?
Jada
Ballroom and rave. You?
Emmeline
No, music and I get along best when it’s white noise while I read a book.
Jada
You’re a bibliophile?
Emmeline
Two points for knowing that word. And I live up to it with reckless abandon. Even get papercuts routinely.
Jada
I was gonna ask about those bandages.
Emmeline
Yeah, I’m not a cutter, just a gal who reads a pageturner too quickly sometimes. What do you read?
Jada
I don’t. I can’t sit still long enough to finish one.
Emmeline
How do you stay cultured?
Jada
Dancing. And museums. They’re perfect because they’re the one place my mind and feet can agree to work together.
Emmeline
How so?
Jada
It’d be weird to go to a museum and stay in one spot, wouldn’t it? You’re encouraged, nay, begged to do a little roaming.
Emmeline
Yeah, you’re right. But what about the people?
Jada
What about them?
Emmeline
Don’t they… get in the way? And aren’t kids there sometimes?
Jada
It’s all part of the experience.
Emmeline
Oh. I have artbooks and they’re enough for me.
Jada
Don’t you wanna see the paintings and sculptures up close? The detailing on some of the marble sculptures I’ve seen are amazing up close. To know that people did them millennia ago with only hammers and chisels are awe-inspiring.
Emmeline
The pictures in my books are pretty detailed, and massive. Some are as big as my torso. You can practically see each chisel stroke.
Jada
How many artbooks do you have?
Emmeline
So many that I had to buy a new bookcase because the shelves snapped under their weight.
Jada
Fuck, really? Wow.
Emmeline
But that’s what I get for shopping at Wal-Mart.
Jada
Is your new case sturdy?
Emmeline
Oak.
Jada
That must’ve cost a lot.
Emmeline
Ten bucks.
Jada
What? Where?
Emmeline
Craigslist. I had to pick it up and move it myself, but that’s what friends are for.
Jada
Oh, YOU’RE the one who Mara talked about that day.
Emmeline
“That day?”
Jada
Her back was aching one day and she made me rub out the kinks. While I was doing that, she was complaining about a friend who made her move a bookcase.
Emmeline
I didn’t make her, I just asked her.
Jada
You know how she is about friends and favors. She’ll do them but she’ll complain about them later.
Emmeline
Oh. What else did she say?
Jada
Nothing. Just typical I-gotta-let-off-some-steam-about-life-and-you’re-unlucky-enough-to-be-here-listening Mara bullshit.
Emmeline
Oh. She never does that with me.
Jada
Then you’re one of the lucky ones. What does she do with you?
Emmeline
We usually talk about geeky things. Like the merits of Ryuhei Kitamura’s Versus.
Jada
What’s that?
Emmeline
Only the best zombies-with-guns film in the world.
Jada
Oh. She only complains about things with me.
Emmeline
You should watch Versus.
Jada
No, it sounds like a horror movie and I hate horror movies.
Emmeline
It’s more of an action movie, though.
Jada
I hate action movies, too.
Emmeline
What kind of movies do you like?
Jada
Anything with Gwyneth Paltrow or Katherine Heigl.
Emmeline
Gwyneth was in a great horror movie, Seven, and Katherine was in the awesome Bride of Chucky.
Jada
Yeah… No.
