I think Hal had made reservations for the two of us before deciding he wanted Max to join us. He brought us to Bistro Vendôme, and seemed slightly embarrassed about having Max there. It's kinda sweet that he wanted to do so, and I feel bad for him that it didn't work out as well as he had hoped. Still, we had a lot of shop to talk and his discomfort didn't last long.
Nephmesu, being the topic at work, was brought up immediately. Our interest in him was limited this time. The only thing odd, was that we couldn't find anything odd. Nothing happened in Portland while he was there, nothing that stood out to us at least. We're all curious now if whatever was happening will continue to happen here in Denver.
With so little to go on though, we moved onto the next topic. Max wanted to make herself feel useful, so she brought up that winter hikers in the mountains here in Colorado were recording some weird sounds. She even managed to produce a couple of the recordings. To be honest, it did sound a lot like the wind, but the people making the records were swearing that there was no wind to make such a sound. It was interesting, but not a whole lot to go on.
Which brought us to Hal. Last night, Tim had asked Hal to meet him and they talked. Tim was still spending a lot of time down at the tree trying to learn whatever he could. But with the crows having pushed everyone out of the intersection, he was having a difficult time. That said, he managed to get himself into a position to be able to see the tree without disturbing the birds. From that vantage point, he claims to have witnessed Melia Floros approach the tree unmolested. Even more interesting is that Melia was inspecting a growth on the side of the tree that Tim hadn't noticed before. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but he wanted Hal to start looking in to Melia and see what he could learn.
Hal said he spent some time last night searching for Melia online, and he found number of interviews she had given to various media outlets. Mostly blogs, local small time stuff trying to get her voice out there. And that was a lot of what was being discussed, Melia felt she was being ignored by the larger media outlets and city government. More recent interviews reveal that she was finally being allowed to speak with city government, but she didn't feel like she was getting anywhere. That said, her most recent interview was reported on a site that had rose up in support of the tree. She featured prominently there, though this was the only video she appeared in directly. In it she explains that she's finally made herself heard by the city and that it's attempts to cut down the tree will stop. She's disappointed to learn that the city still wants to remove the tree, and she worries about how the tree will survive that attempt.
Since the attempt though it seems she's gone silent. Or at least, Hal hasn't been able to find anything more. The site that he'd found featuring her made it sound like a deal had been made or something that will force the city to cease it's efforts. Hal said it was pretty vague and he wasn't sure what to make of it. But the site is certain that the tree will remain unmolested going forward, and that what they want to see the city do is to find a way to incorporate the tree into the nearby park.
As far as what else the site had to show was a lot of pictures of Melia meeting with police, firemen, even ambulance crews. She really seems to be trying to keep not only a civil attitude toward the city representatives, but even a friendly attitude. There's a lot of discussion about the riots, what was done wrong, what should have been done, and future strategies for peaceful demonstration. But there is also a lot of hard feelings about those in the other camp.
There was also a lot of pictures and support for Melia as far as her background and how it makes her qualified to speak on matters concerning the tree. Which reminded me that she had been an employee at the Botanic Gardens. And that reminded me of what I had seen there, that I had first thought of as a firefly. Given the recent events and all the "fireflies" that were involved, I related the experience to Max and Hal. I had buried the memory in fear that I was hallucinating, but now I'm thinking that I was seeing something. Max said that with all the video's she'd watched, she hadn't seen any detail that made anything look like a tiny person. I think we were all to scared to say it out loud, but Hal finally did, calling them fairies.
That seemed to kill discussion, even having spent so much time talking about how creatures out of myth would be returning to our world. Even talking about the tree being home to a dryad. The tree is still just a tree, there's something familiar about it, but we haven't seen anything that we could call a dryad. But to speak of fairies, in the present reality. It made me feel self conscious, and I'm sure the other two were uncertain.
So after a moment of awkward silence, I let the other two know that I'd confirmed the twenty seventh and twenty eighth off for our tubing party. Also that I had let Sam know, and he would be getting tickets for everyone. He was pretty sure we could use his parents SUV, but wanted to know if anyone else had something we could use just in case. Both Hal and Max shook their heads, but they were excited for plans to move forward.
We did some more chatting while finishing dessert, the food was fantastic by the by. I kinda wish it had just been Hal and I. But the night couldn't last forever and Max needed to get home to do some homework. Hal brought me home and we sat in his car talking for a while. I've often been on the receiving end of watching Max be cute with her boyfriends, and it's never fun. But being a part of it, no wonder Max does it so often. Hal's got such a nice smile, and the way his eye's sparkle when he's being mischievous. He's kind, and gentle, and smart. I really like him.
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