Muriel loved to wear her long sleeved deep v neck tops and shorts, preferably denim, as she with bare feet rode any random horse from the stables some evenings along the fields, cause it was the time most people were probably home after a long busy day in their farms or at the beach, she usually came across a handful who gave her total attention, it was either her long dark hair bouncing against her back, or her fair long legs or anything about her but she always made riding a horse look so chic. Every single minute across these fileds was a healing ride that she actually loved to close her eyes and feel the embrace of the wind, the scents of the flowers, the peace of silence and the sound of nature, it was everything she wanted, and just slowly yet strongly another sweet scent swept in, which flowers had the power to..... kids noises interrupted her and she suddenly opened her eyes, she hadn't been guiding her horse and now it couldn't stop, at first she thought of jumping off but the fear of bruising her feet didn't let her dare, Christ!, it was just storming towards the orphanage like it was going to run into something,for a moment, she couldn't think of anything.... puzzled what to do, she just began screaming at a high pitch for a few seconds till the horse reduced its pace and stopped afterwards, she could hear kids racing towards her direction, she still had goose bumps all over wondering what had just happened a while ago before she saw Bruce from her side eye coming towards her and she couldn't even get off cause there was no horse stand....
'Whooaa, who do we have here'
'I didn't expect you here either'
'Here, let me help you down'
'...no thanks I'll get down on my....'
'...on your own, yes you're an independent woman ish ish, i get it, but you'll bruise your feet if you jump down' he replied looking at her delicate feet, secretly deep in his mind he couldn't stop giving names.... royal feet, soft feet, virgin... he turned his back towards her ' hop on'
'What?, ... Bruce, no'
'Its gonna throw you, so jump' the horse was unsteady, making turns all over, so after seconds of thought and arguing, she jumped onto his back and he held her, kids were literally excited for everything, the piggyback sight and seeing her as well.
'I demand you put me down' she whispered in his hear not wanting the kids to hear
'You have no shoes, so don't embarrass yourself' he replied before he started running with her on his back as the kids cheered on, she kept arguing and struggling to get on her feet but in vain, till he reached the shed where other people were, it always amused her how Bruce had the guts to act so informal with her. She saw lance walking towards them, she couldn't remember feeling this embarrassed for years , he had been standing with 5 guys from the church choir, bruce put her down on the shed, she muttered a thanks 'anytime' he replied
'It's heaven's joy seeing you here, ms Adams, and from what i see, it seems you've had some fun already' Lance smiled at both her and Bruce
'Am here by mistake actually, my horse got crazy and ran non stop up to here' she replied before lance's eyes for a while shifted to the horse and he smiled again
'Fidelis...'
'What?...
'Her name is Fidelis and she's a sucker for blue berries, so you shouldn't ride her near the orphanage.... he continued so calmly, it usually annoyed her alittle
'It's covered by blue berry bushes, so she gets excited and runs non stop till she's here'
' you should have seen her face while screaming for her dear life, ahhhhhh' Bruce was laughing as he imitated her while lance just laughed shortly
'Silly, but i actually saw my life flash before my eyes' she laughed as well
'U lost your shoes? Lance asked looking at her feet
'No i prefer riding bare feet' she replied as she brushed her hair backwards.
Bruce, joined the kids in finishing their pottery for the art exhibition, he was like the klin master around cause he loved ceramics, Muriel found all the art pieces charming, especially the tea pots which some kids had neatly finished, if these had been in California, these kids would be rich, she couldn't help thinking, then as she almost found her way out of the place, she saw Lance, he was drawing a painting on the wall, she was meant to walk away but somehow the painting caught her attention so she walked to where he was
'ls this part of the exhibition' she asked cause his was further from where the other art pieces were, it was a wall in the backyard,
'It's mainly for the kids not exhibition' he replied as he got another colour to paint, she sat on the wooden swing chair while looking at the painting keenly
'They won't like it, its a bird?'
He laughed then looked at her
'Are you always this honest?, .... Its one of the flowers absent here, its the iris'
He was right the whole back yard was filled with different varieties of flowers and portions of small green bushes, it was a part of the orphanage she hadn't seen before 'it's beautiful' she mummered almost loud enough that he almost heard 'you said something Ms Adams?' He turned to her
'no, nothing important ....actually, yeah, i want us to drop the titles, refer to me as Muriel' she replied before he paused abit and turned towards her
'Muriel.... it sounds.... different, wait did Julie or Bruce talk you into this ? He was smiling as he looked at her with curiosity
'no, am just easing your life and i am as well sick of referring to you as Mr maybe sir or should i try.. teacher' they both laughed
'Alessandri, though most people prefer Arl, any you feel comfortable with '
'Alessandri..... who names their kids such long names, it must be hectic', they laughed again
'care to join me?' He asked her while holding up another brush, she first hesitated but afterall she wasn't going to spoil something that was already ugly
' Am only accepting because i think i can add a little flare to this mess, somehow i was born for this' she walked towards him and took the paint brush, he just laughed shortly cause he found her word expressions humorous rather, he was going to paint the petals while she painted the base and the surrounding, they painted all evening as they laughed at jokes and talked about lots of stuff like the first time they had met here, how she had savaged him and some moments when they ran out of words, they both focussed on painting and also spilled some paint on their clothes after he had unintentionally brushed her hand with paint while they were getting from the same paint tin, while he panicked to try to get it off her, she just passed the brush across his shirt.
At around half past 6 that same evening, Bruce and the other guys came to check Lance's work as they were done for the day, Julie had also passed by the orphanage that evening, they found them still painting 'wow, you guys this is am-azing, Muriel is that you?' Julie was visibly suprised 'totally' Muriel smiled before julie walked to her and hugged her, she had been busy with other girls at church before they had gone to the beach and had some fun before she came to check on them at the orphanage. 'A flower on grass?... a thoughtful one' One of the guys said while nodding at the unfinished painting 'Actually its money not grass' Muriel replied before they all looked at the wall and truly it was green dollar notes though it wasn't yet complete 'thats my girl' Julie added on
'But its for the kids and this could get them thinking money grows on trees sort of ....' Another guy said
'it does grow on trees, its paper' Muriel replied before they all laughed 'Thats a legendary move' Julie sprinkled on her more paint and at the end of the day, most left the place actually with clothes filled with paint.
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