The couple looks up. Rose looks almost startled, like she really wasn't expecting anyone in this city would be calling their names. Hal looks more concerned with the idea that there's another guy out here hollering his wife's name. Even more so that the guy looks familiar, in a way that feels more like deja vu than running into an old friend.
Rose notices the similarities too. She looks between her husband and Howard, eyebrows wrinkled as she tries to piece it together. There's a shrewdness to her face that Hal lacks, an expression Barbara must have seen countless times in Howard's own features.
"I'm sorry, do we know you?"
Howard, for his part, only just seems to realize that Barbara's come with him now, and glances to her as if she'll solve the riddle of how he's actually supposed to do anything in this situation. He's breathing hard, presumably from the sprint over here.
What's he supposed to say? You don't know me, but I know you? Not yet you don't? Hi?
He turns back to his grandmother, feeling as if his throat's closing up. She's barely recognizable from the brittle old woman he remembers, but there's something still there in the bridge of her nose, in the sharp angles of her cheekbones. Something in the muscles around his grandfathers mouth, the arch of his eyebrows.
"I'm sorry, you were talking to us, weren't you?" Rose continues.
Howard makes a bit of a choking noise as he tries to get a word out, and that's the point when he realizes he's not really breathing hard because of the run. The breathlessness isn't getting better with standing still, it's getting worse.
He brings a hand to his chest, wheezing, and curls his body forward, and Rose rushes forward. "Oh, oh, are you alright?" Hal stands aside, looking between the affair and at Barbara, as if she's any better to decipher for him what's happening.
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Rose notices the similarities too. She looks between her husband and Howard, eyebrows wrinkled as she tries to piece it together. There's a shrewdness to her face that Hal lacks, an expression Barbara must have seen countless times in Howard's own features.
"I'm sorry, do we know you?"
Howard, for his part, only just seems to realize that Barbara's come with him now, and glances to her as if she'll solve the riddle of how he's actually supposed to do anything in this situation. He's breathing hard, presumably from the sprint over here.
What's he supposed to say? You don't know me, but I know you? Not yet you don't? Hi?
He turns back to his grandmother, feeling as if his throat's closing up. She's barely recognizable from the brittle old woman he remembers, but there's something still there in the bridge of her nose, in the sharp angles of her cheekbones. Something in the muscles around his grandfathers mouth, the arch of his eyebrows.
"I'm sorry, you were talking to us, weren't you?" Rose continues.
Howard makes a bit of a choking noise as he tries to get a word out, and that's the point when he realizes he's not really breathing hard because of the run. The breathlessness isn't getting better with standing still, it's getting worse.
He brings a hand to his chest, wheezing, and curls his body forward, and Rose rushes forward. "Oh, oh, are you alright?" Hal stands aside, looking between the affair and at Barbara, as if she's any better to decipher for him what's happening.