or
Of Knights and Fair Maidens
The first two people are a brother-sister pair. I like them very, very much and I really enjoy being around them. They make me happy. When around them, I tend to think of Peter Pan, Robin Hood, and King Arthur and similar legends and children's tales.
Anna wears ribbons in her hair and likes to twirl around the field reciting Shakespeare. She's got an excellent memory for recitation. Sometimes she'll come up and start speaking to me in poems. Or, she'll take my face in her hands, look into my eyes and tell me what they look like (I think it was green leaves in a puddle, or something like that). She's a good story teller, too, with a flair for the cutely funny and the romantic fairy tale.
She has solid opinions on right and wrong and likes to put such concepts in her own words. She thinks things like that through thoroughly and comes to her own conclusions (which I find quite compatible with my own).
She is not competitive and does not play any sports.
Andrew likes to laugh and be silly. He's slightly louder and likes being in front of people more. He's perfectly comfortable in the center of attention. Anna isn't as much like that, though she doesn't mind it too much.
I think he's making himself into a good leader. He takes initiative and encourages the people around him to better themselves and take action toward doing good. He also likes to think and talk about deeper stuff, like Anna does.
He's retained a child’s imagination. He has great fun playing with younger kids. The other day I was sitting where I work, doing normal work-type stuff. Suddenly one of the doors opens and he quickly crouches into the room, a cowboy hat on his head and a broken BB gun in his hand. "Shhh," he loudly whispers at me as he takes a sniper's position behind a chair. "They're after me!" Then he leaves as he came. A minute later, two of the cook's kids saunter into the room, also dressed in hats and bandanas, carrying toy pistols and guns. I ask them what they're doing. "We're looking for Andrew. He's running from the law." "Are you the law?" I ask, noticing the shiny badge on one of the boy's shirts. "Yep," he somberly nods. Later, at lunch, Andrew sat down next to me with an apology. "Please 'scuse me, ma'am. My mother done told me not to bring guns to the dinner table, but this here's an emergency." He props the BB gun next to him and drawls, "Please pass the potatoes." There weren't even any kids around.
I've watched the two of them have complete arguments right in front of me. For example, during one conversation, Anna started asking a question that Andrew thought inappropriate (he felt it was too much like gossip). He poked her in the shoulder, "Shh, don't! No." "Hey, I was just -" "No, don’t ask!" They went back and forth for a little, with Anna expressing some hurt. She explained her innocence in the matter, Andrew apologized for misunderstanding her intent, and they hugged. Despite them expressing what they were thinking and how they were feeling, it never once got heated or very distressing.
Their conversations intermingle serious and silly. They even have arguments in a lighthearted manner. I've never once seen them leave a serious or semi-serious disagreement unresolved. They'll talk it out right then and there and it usually ends in a hug and an "I love you" and "I love you, too."
They're both physically affectionate, especially with each other. They'll put their arms around the other, Andrew will lean his head on Anna's shoulder, Anna will sit on his lap occasionally, etc. They like to reach out and touch. With other people, Andrew is not as affectionate, but I think that's because of cultural taboos. For example, Anna touches me frequently; Andrew only occasionally pats me on the shoulder or head. He knows he has to be careful not to send wrong messages.
When I spoke of chivalry awhile ago, Andrew was one of those I was thinking of.
Andrew has a hard time focusing on work, sometimes. He's highly distractible. When we’re working on something together, I’m usually the one pulling us back to the topic at hand. "I predict," he said to me last night, "you're about to say something on topic, or responsible, or…" He was right. Whereas I can help pull him back to work, he does a splendid job of entertaining me and pulling me out of any ruts I'm in.
I'm telling a lot of stories in this description because I can't think of any other way to accurately describe them.
The groups they inspire/form around themselves are happy-go-lucky, open and welcoming to anyone who wants to be there. The conversations go all over the place, all at once it seems sometimes. If there's a central topic, we tend to dance around it, stepping on it briefly every now and then, then skipping off to something related (or not so related), then twirling back again, but always with that central topic as our base. And it's rare for there not to be smiling and laughing.
I'll talk more about the other people who hang out with them later.