"What I asked before. What do you do? Go to school at all? Clubs, dates, skinny dipping in that one stream hidden about thirty minutes southeast of here?"

"I went to high school, it was an atypical experience. I do go out but my schedule can get complicated. Back home there is a stream that is closer, warmer and full of nymphs."

"Of course, how silly of me to expect mundane things to hold you. Why was it atypical?"

"To put it in context, I said I went to high school. I didn't say I went to middle school or anything before. I almost got held back in freshman year but Dear Kind Sweetness did something that gave me a more consistent education."

"—what did she do?"

"Well, after I came back home with the bad news she asked me to collect dew from the school's yard, along with a leaf. Then she asked if I liked the Peter Darling pseudonym and I said 'yes'. Then she wrote the name on the leaf and told me to use it and the dew to make some tea. Which I did. Next day I woke up knowing everything you'd know if you had a regular education and everyone recognized me as Peter Darling, their dear old friend." Pause. "I didn't know that would happen, but I was at a point where I would just go with the flow."

"...that last part is kinda creepy. Did they have extra memories and everything to go with it or just a vague sense that they knew you?"

"Vague memories? Like, if I asked them for the specifics they would get... this moment of clarity, but overall they just had the sense that I was there for anything where I could be somehow added without disrupting their memory too much."

"Yyyeah, creepy. Did you keep in touch?"

"Kinda? I couldn't exactly bring anyone home."

"Well, no, but I suppose you could visit them or just hang out together or something."

Shrug. "Sometimes I do that, just not very frequently. Plenty of people have lives that take them elsewhere one way or another. I am the one that is very stuck."

"For now."

"Hopefully. Do you have a plan?"

"A plan seedling, but I do need to understand the situation better and visit your court before having anything more solid than that."

"Good, you're not too cocky."

"I'm exactly the right amount of cocky, I feel."

Peter is about to reply, but a squirrel climbs up the table and deposits a single acorn in his left hand before leaving.

Sigh. "I have to leave." He pulls out some money from his wallet and puts it on the table, "For the food."

Blink. "Okay—how do we get in touch—?"

"I have an email address. I can usually check it every day if I have reason to."

He writes it down.

"Okay, I'll email you."

"Nice meeting you," he says while leaving at a hurried pace.

Well then.

After she gets home she emails him:

So, when do I get to see you again?

Well, are you in the mood for ice cream later?

Ice cream sounds lovely, the weather notwithstanding.