05-11-2022, 01:42 AM
While the girl had to tilt her head to look up, the priest had the opposite problem of having to look down.
He had known that she was small, and she’d only looked smaller in her brother’s arms, but it hadn’t occurred to him that she could look even shorter up close. Most people he met could be considered vertically challenged next to him, sure. But shit, he felt like some kind of big shadowy monster in the doorway when she looked up at him like that.
Uh- maybe he should have waited. Should have found time to come by when it was still light out, so that everything didn’t feel quite so drastic, or at least he could still leave and come back when the girl’s brother returned.
“Oh,” he mirrored, taking one step back. Partly to save her the strain of having to look up so far, and partly so that she didn’t feel caged in by his presence at the door.
Mr. Brennan, she called him, and he’d just said the proper way of addressing him seconds before, so it had to be intentional. Or was she simply unaware? God, he didn’t know, but ‘mister’ had always left a bitter taste in his mouth when it preceded his father’s last name.
“Hello Mable,” he adjusted. “No, nothing I need. I just wanted to make sure that you and your brother were settling in alright – is the room nice enough?”
Malachi cast a critical eye over the room behind her, but didn’t find anything immediately offensive about the quality of the room. It had looked nice from the outside, after all, and he doubted they cared, but he did. A lot.
He had known that she was small, and she’d only looked smaller in her brother’s arms, but it hadn’t occurred to him that she could look even shorter up close. Most people he met could be considered vertically challenged next to him, sure. But shit, he felt like some kind of big shadowy monster in the doorway when she looked up at him like that.
Uh- maybe he should have waited. Should have found time to come by when it was still light out, so that everything didn’t feel quite so drastic, or at least he could still leave and come back when the girl’s brother returned.
“Oh,” he mirrored, taking one step back. Partly to save her the strain of having to look up so far, and partly so that she didn’t feel caged in by his presence at the door.
Mr. Brennan, she called him, and he’d just said the proper way of addressing him seconds before, so it had to be intentional. Or was she simply unaware? God, he didn’t know, but ‘mister’ had always left a bitter taste in his mouth when it preceded his father’s last name.
“Hello Mable,” he adjusted. “No, nothing I need. I just wanted to make sure that you and your brother were settling in alright – is the room nice enough?”
Malachi cast a critical eye over the room behind her, but didn’t find anything immediately offensive about the quality of the room. It had looked nice from the outside, after all, and he doubted they cared, but he did. A lot.
