[D5 LA] Tiff's Tiff and other Miscellany

[Tiffani]

"Streetcars? You mean like ... trams? I guess you'd call them, maybe, trolleys here in the States. We didn't have anything like that in Thurleigh since it's such a small little place. You can walk from one end of town to the other in maybe 20 minutes."

After a time, the pair reaches a bus stop, complete with a sign with a little picture of a bus on it - for the sake of illiterates and non-English speakers, Tiffani supposed. She sits down on the semi-enclosed bench and gestures for Jack to join her there.

"It would be interesting to visit your time - as someone who is as interested in history as much as I am in science. But, honestly, I wouldn't want to live in that time. No offense, of course. I mean, is it true that to pull teeth, they used to tie a string around the tooth and the other end around a doorknob and then slam the door?"

[Jack Doyle]

"I never had a tooth pulled like that." he shook his head. "Or, at all. Bad things did happen, though. My parents were really worried about the flu."

[Tiffani]

"Oh, right ...." Tiffani said solemnly, "I can see why. The Spanish Flu outbreak killed more people than the Black Death, if memory serves. If something like that were to happen today ..." She let the thought hang and instead said, "Well, nature has a way of hitting the reset button if we head down the wrong path - like a dog shaking off it's fleas."

"In fact, it's the poor medical knowledge, the lack of anti-biotics, things like that which makes me not want to stay in that time. Maybe you remember, but even taking regular baths wasn't a thing quite yet. Especially in the rural areas. Hey, did you used to live in the city or the country?"

[Jack Doyle]

"In New Orleans." he answered. "Since I was little."

[Tiffani]

"Isn't that, like, near here?" She went silent for a moment before saying, "I must be really horrible at navigation. When I came out of the Hedge, I found myself 3,000 miles away from where I lived. How did you know where to go ... to get back to here?"

[Jack Doyle]

"Real close." he nodded. "But, it isn't what it was. My home was gone, so I started wandering around a bit and found myself here."

[Tiffani]

"Yeah, I suppose being gone for a century or more would, well, change a few things about where you used to live." She spreads her arms out across the back of the bench looking down the street for the bus.

I haven't been home since coming back," she admits somewhat obviously. "I had actually thought about going back to England if things didn't work out here. Though ... not necessarily back to my house. I suppose I wanted to be in a place that's familiar - at least as familiar as I was ever going to get."

She turns her head just slightly and gives Jack a subtle look. "I know this is a bit intrusive to ask but ... what are you usually thinking about when I'm talking?"

[Jack Doyle]

"I'm listening." he looked at her. "Listening and learning. There's a lot I still don't understand about the modern world, including how people talk. More importantly, I'm still learning about you."

[Tiffani]

Tiffani nods slowly at first then offers a little giggle.

"I do apologize if I'm a little annoying with all of my chatter. It's been ... so long, so very long since I talked to anyone like this. If I start to bore you, please, please, please tell me. And wow, a guy who actually wants to go clothes shopping with a girl? I mean, you don't know how rare that is - especially one that doesn't go running off to the music store or the game arcade."

Just then the bus pulls up to the stop, its folding doors opening with a loud 'thwak'. Assuming Jack is following her like he had been, she gets onto the bus and feeds a few dollar bills into the change machine at the front of the bus until a cheerful little chime sounds, alerting her that she was clear to take a seat.

"They didn't have those things back in '85," she says while finding a seat at the very back of the bus. It afforded a little privacy back there as most of the other passengers were sitting toward the front. "Those machines that take your paper money like that. Before you needed exact change for the bus fare which meant you could literally have too much money to ride. Pretty silly."

[Jack Doyle]

"I imagine that a lot has changed in even just 30 years." he nodded. "What changes have bothered you the most?"