Postcard by Rocky41_7

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Postcard

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He didn’t make a habit of waiting for the mailman, as there was usually nothing exciting in there for him, but that day he was waiting on a new set of paints he had ordered for his miniatures, so when he saw the familiar truck trundling down the quiet street, there was no reason not to hang around a few extra minutes. The shade of the tree in the front yard made it a decent place to sit and wait, listening to the occasional ambient dog bark or opening of a garage door.

            “Hey,” said the mailman—the same mailman who had been servicing their house as long as he could remember—when he stopped outside the red front gate. “Are you Elrond? I’ve got something for you.” He waved around a square of paper.

            “I’m Elrond,” said Elros, his eyes gleaming as he reached for the postcard. Who was writing his brother? A bit of lying could certainly be excused to figure that out, he thought as he scanned over the message, a grin spreading slowly across his face, particularly if the postman was too silly to tell them apart. Celebrian Celeborniel!

            “Elrond’s got a love letter!” he hollered, turning back towards the little adobe house with a triumphant wave of the postcard. “Hey, come and get Celebrian’s love note!” That got the front door swinging open right quick, and sensing his comeuppance rapidly approaching, Elros leaped up onto one of the low walls that bricked in the garden on either side of the pathway to the front door. “I so enjoyed your last letter I must confess to re-reading it on occasion!” he read aloud with delight.

            “Elros!”

            “What was that you said, Elros?” Adar was sticking his head out one of the front windows.

            “I said Elrond’s got a love letter!” Elros repeated. “And she misses you!” he said to Elrond with the sappiest expression he could muster, while Elrond climbed onto the wall and tried to grab the postcard back.

            “Elros! Give me that! It’s not yours! You are so immature!”

            “Aren’t you a bit old for this, son?” Adar asked, to which Elros only grinned and danced back out of Elrond’s reach. The problem with his twin was that they were precisely the same height, which meant he had no advantage, despite having been born first (a fact which he seldom failed to bring to Elrond’s attention when he saw fit).

            “Celebrian is—a friend!” Elrond argued. “Stop making it sound salacious!” Shaking his head, Eärendil retreated inside and left his grown sons to their infantile game, which ended when Elrond quickly jabbed his elbow into Elros’ sternum and snatched the postcard out of his hand. “What are you, twelve?” he sniffed. Elros, between his wheezing and his laughter, did not get out a repost before Elrond flounced inside with Celebrian’s card.

            The miniature paints were not among the deliveries for the day.

“Bills, Adar,” said Elros, tossing the rest of the mail on the table as he entered, padding barefoot across a floor striped in dusty light filtering through the drawn shades. Naneth was down for a nap with a migraine, which meant the house was quiet.

            Eärendil waved his hand in acknowledgement from where he was in front of the TV, not looking over. Elros leaned until he could see the screen.

            “Is that Moby Dick?”

            It was, again. The Fifties version this time, looked like. Elros threw himself on the couch with his father to watch a while.

            Later, as afternoon bled into an warm, orange evening, he found Elrond lounging on the wooden boat Adar had constructed for them as children to play on, which featured a steering wheel at which they had spent many hours pretending to man groundbreaking voyages into seas unknown, often coaxing Adar into playing their sea monsters as needed. Naneth preferred playing the kind of sea monster that didn’t have to run around or get hit with things (she made a better navigator, Elros had told her then, and been delighted when she brought out a book of real maps on which to plot their adventures). Elrond was sitting along the railing at the prow, one leg hanging over the deck.

            Elros approached and leaned against the railing on the opposite side.

            “Drink?” he asked, offering Elrond one of the open beer bottles in his hand. With the hand not holding Celebrian’s card, Elrond took the bottle and knocked back a sip. “So…” said Elros. “Still talking to Celebrian then.”

            “Do not start,” Elrond said in a tone that made a grin break out across Elros’ face.

            “Come on,” Elros chided, swinging his bottle with two fingers. “It’s not like it’s a secret that you’re into her. You haven’t even seen her since her family was out here.” Elrond glared impotently, but opted to have another drink rather than argue. “So are you going tell her, or what?”

            Elrond shrugged noncommittally.

            “This isn’t a good time,” he said. “Her grandmother died.”

            “That was last year, dude,” said Elros. “It’s time for a new excuse.”

            “She’s having health problems,” said Elrond. Elros sobered at once.

            “Oh shit, really? Is she okay?”

            “You know she has the…” Fumbling for the name, Elrond gestured with the beer.

            “The autoimmune thing?” Elros supplied.

            “Yes. It’s been flaring up lately,” said Elrond.

            “How is she?”

            “She’s alright,” said Elrond. “It’s stressful, but she’s…” He flushed faintly. “The eternal optimist. She’ll be okay. But I don’t want to bother her.”

            “See, now I was thinking a love confession might cheer her up,” said Elros.

            “Yes, nothing like turning down a friend to cheer you up,” said Elrond. Elros rolled his eyes.

            “Don’t be such a downer. She’s going to say yes.” There was silence for a moment. “You want me to tell her?” Elros offered. “I’ll even do it over video call.”

            “Absolutely not!” Elrond exclaimed, looking at Elros in alarm. Elros grinned again, but stayed relaxed, lest Elrond think he had any real intention of carrying that out against his wishes. Elrond placed his bottle on the deck and began turning the postcard over between his hands, looking out distantly into the neighbor’s yard. An early-bird cricket was sounding off in a nearby bush as the sky’s blue deepened with the descent into evening. Elros swung his beer bottle between his fingers and breathed the mellow summer air and listened to the neighbors scraping their grill clean. The world was quiet and he felt inside like a glassy pool of water, placid, undisturbed.

“Hey,” said Elros. “You want to go to the beach? I saw Naneth waxing the boards earlier.”

            “Yeah?” Pulling himself from his considerations, Elrond looked at his twin.

            “Yeah,” Elros said, lifting his bottle to take another drink and then lowering it immediately. “I’ll drive.” Elrond grinned and took another drink himself.

            “Sure, let’s go,” he said, swinging himself off the railing. Inside, they made straight for the small room they had once shared and began to strip down.

            “Are you two going to the beach?” Adar asked, poking his head in. “Naneth waxed the boards earlier.”

            “Yeah, we’re going for a bit,” said Elros.

            “Great!” Adar beamed. “Sweetheart!” he called down the hall. “We’re going to the beach!”

            “Now wait a second—!” Elros gave up, as Adar was already out of earshot. “Damn, helping themselves right to an invitation,” he groused good-naturedly. Elrond just smiled and pulled on a rash guard.

            “Oh!” They heard Naneth distantly from the front room. “I just waxed the boards!” Elros made a face of exaggerated shock to Elrond, who snickered.

            With the speed of a family long on the coast, they shed their land skins for something more water appropriate and piled into the car, with only a brief disagreement about who was driving, which ended with Elros in the driver’s seat as planned, and Eärendil beside him, monopolizing the radio.

            Elwing, in the back with Elrond, said, “I heard you got a postcard from Celebrian today.” Elrond groaned and looked out the window, making Naneth laugh quietly. “You don’t have to talk about it,” she said. She placed one cool hand over his. “I’m glad you’re keeping in touch,” she said. “There’s something more personal about physical notes. Isn’t that so, darling?”

            “Absolutely!” said Adar enthusiastically. “I loved those letters with your handwriting, especially where it was smudged because you were writing too fast to let the ink dry!”

            “Naneth, haven’t you heard? They’re just friends,” said Elros.

            “And what were you doing skulking around the mailbox anyway?” Naneth asked.

            “…waiting for the paints I ordered,” Elros admitted.

            “And Elrond is the one being mocked?” Adar joked.

            “Says the man with a ship-in-a-bottle collection!” Elros exclaimed with jaw-dropped indignation.

            “Those are art,” said Adar, at which Naneth made a slightly pained expression.

            “So are my figurines!” Elros insisted.  

            “Let’s not distract the driver, hm?” Naneth suggested before the debate on the artistry of Warhammer miniatures could get too involved.

            They piled out of the car in a sandy parking lot as the sinking sun blew the sky into a riot of color, turning the ocean into a glittering expanse of fallen stars.

            “Last one to the water drives home!” Adar announced when he was already halfway to the sand and Elros still getting his board off the roof.

            “Cheating!” Elros shouted, taking off with a serious lack of care for where that board was swinging, in the opinions of Elrond and Elwing, who both jumped back out of the way. Adar’s head start proved insurmountable and Elros splashed into the water moments after him.

            “Are you having a nice break, Elrond?” Naneth asked as she and Elrond beat a more sedate route to the water. Elrond watched Adar and Elros paddling out. Adar paused and turned to look back, as if to make sure Naneth was coming, and waved when he saw them. Naneth waved back and while Elros continued out into the deeper water, Adar waited for the other two to catch up.

            “Yes,” Elrond said decisively. “It’s good to be home.”

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Chapter End Notes

Celebrian visited the beach down of the Havens at Sirion with her family a few years back and although Elrond's gone away to college since then, he still hasn't forgotten it ;D

Earendil is obsessed with seafaring media and owns every version of fantasy Moby Dick. Probably in the version in Tolkien's universe Moby Dick is a sea monster.

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