"To finish my set I'd like to perform a song by a favourite band of mine...Jefferson Airplane. This one's called 'High Flying Bird'...thank you" and with that the singer started to strum and sing the song. Neil and Suzy looked on, impressed with this young woman's musical ability.
"She's very good...but we need to go, we've got a lot to do today" said Neil.
"Oh a few minutes more watching her won't dent our schedule. I want to stay until the end of the song" replied Suzy.
Neil said nothing and continued to watch the young lady perform the song...although he did check his wristwatch a few times during the remainder of the performance.
Eventually, the woman finished. "Thank you, my name's Lisa Richardson and I'll see you cats real soon." and with that she bowed and then went to put her guitar back in its case.
"Now we really should get going" said Neil. "We've got to get all the way back to Willow Creek"
"I know, darling, but we don't have to see the first place until 10 and it's only 9:15 now...Willow Creek isn't that far away..." she pleaded.
"I'm worried about finding a suitable parking spot when we're there...I don't know that part of town" he replied.
"Oh there's plenty of parking! If it's where you say it is you have lots of quiet, residential roads with parking lots and lots of side streets. It's such a beautiful morning in San Myshuno, let's just take a wander for a bit...please?"
She fixed Neil with her bright blue eyes...he couldn't resist that wide eyed, keen and eager look of hers. Suzy really was the most beautiful woman he had ever met and she was now his wife! She was even wearing his favourite outfit on her...a vision in purple, right down to her eye make up. He couldn't say no to her.
"OK...five more minutes then" he said.
"The flowers are in full bloom I see..." said Suzy, noticing the elaborate planters in the square.
"Maybe we'll find a place with a garden to grow some of our own?" mused Neil.
"Hey, is that Suzy Kent...I mean, Suzy Humphries?" came a voice from across the square. Both Neil and Suzy looked in the direction it had come from and saw a familiar figure walking towards them. It was Burr DeBenning; crazy name, crazy guy. He was an old friend of Suzy's...someone who had been of great help to her when she was investigating the suspicious activities of the Landgraabs. But since she'd been with Neil, she'd seen less of him.
Neil stiffened at the sight of Burr. He thought the guy was pleasant and decent enough, but he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that Burr fancied Suzy and that didn't sit well with him.
Burr's heart skipped a beat when he saw her. He still rued the missed opportunity of getting together with her. Neil was a decent guy...that was the problem; he couldn't hate the man who stole the woman he longed for.
"Wow, I haven't seen you since the wedding!" exclaimed an excited Burr. How's married life treating you, Suz...oh, and Neil?"
"It's wonderful" replied Suzy. "And how are you doing, Burr? Still working at the council? Still keeping an eye on Geoffrey and Nancy?"
"Yes to both. Man, you look so vibrant, Suz. Are you still pursuing the mysteries of Sim City?" asked Burr.
"I am...research is coming along slowly, I'm afraid but today I'm taking a day off" she said.
"We're going house hunting, Burr" Neil interjected.
"Oh, moving up in the world?" asked Burr.
"Something like that...but as my husband..." she said, emphasising the word "keeps saying to me we have to get to see our first place very soon. We must catch up soon properly..."
"All of us" interjected Neil, again.
"Yes, all of us...lovely to see you again, Burr!" said Suzy, all bouncy and positive.
"OK..." Neil continued. "Last place on our list...Rindle Rose. A 2 bedroom, single storey house which is about 1/3 larger than our current home"
"Hmmm, I like it from the outside...very sweet. I like the porch and the garden is very pretty. Let's look around" Suzy replied.
Suzy's impression of the house grew after they'd looked around inside. Neil was warming to it as well.
"OK, the place is a bit messy, a lot of the furniture is very old fashioned and not with it" said Suzy.
"From what I understand the current owner is clearing out the inside and furniture so we'd be furnishing virtually from scratch" replied Neil.
"The outdoors I wouldn't want to touch" Suzy continued.
"Well, I was thinking I could put my easel up there, overlooking the river" said Neil.
"I think that would be acceptable. Oh Neil, I really like this place: It's a bit like our existing house but that much bigger and we don't get views of that horrible industrial cargo warehouse either....and I'm not taking my life into my hands every time I cross that busy road at the end of our street if we lived here."
"I'll confess...when I was looking at properties this came out as my favourite. OK, if you like this and you can see us living here then I'll get the paperwork going" said Neil, happy that Suzy liked Rindle Rose as well.
"One thing though; I'm going to miss living next to the gang and seeing them everyday..." said Suzy "I wonder what our neighbours would be like here?"
"Coo-eeee! Suzy and Neil! Over here!"
The Humphries both looked over to the house next to them, where the voice was coming from. It was none other than Eliza Pancakes; a friend of theirs who'd they'd known for some time and invited to the wedding but they'd never been to her house before.
"Hello Eliza, keeping well?" asked Suzy
"Well, as well as I can be...so rushed off my feet these days with the baby" replied Eliza. "Oh you must come and see the little one! Have you time?"
Suzy looked to Neil, who nodded and they accepted Eliza's invitation.
"I must say your house looks lovely, Eliza" said Neil.
"Is Bob around?" asked Suzy.
"Thank you, Neil, well we try to make it lovely but it's a bit of a handful right now...Bob's around here somewhere; I sent him to check on the baby."
"Oh yes, congratulations again...is it a boy or a girl?" asked Suzy.
"It's a boy...his name is Armand and, well, yes, he's a typical baby you know! Needs feeding, cries a lot, and a lot and...a...lot..." replied Eliza, her voice trailing off.
"Are you two thinking of starting a family yet?" continued Eliza/
"NO!" exclaimed Suzy.
"Well, it's too early for that..." added Neil. "I mean, we'd have to move to a bigger place if we did...I mean, we have to move to a bigger place anyway what with my work and Suzy's."
"We're in no rush to start a family. Get married life sorted first" said Suzy.
"Well, good luck with that! I don't think any of us married types ever get it sorted" said Eliza, looking crestfallen at the ceiling.
Suzy and Neil gave a polite, but nervous laugh.
Just then they heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. A heavyset black man with a tight afro and a bored expression on his face entered the room. Although Suzy and Neil had never met him in person, they knew that was the often absent husband, Bob Pancakes. He barely acknowledged the presence of visitors as he walked in.
"Look who's come to visit us, Bobby?" said Eliza. "You've heard of my friends Neil and Suzy, haven't you?"
"Erm...I think so. Don't they live with a Chinese girl who's a rocket scientist?" said Bob.
"No! That's Travis and Summer. This is Suzy and Neil...I was at their wedding last month...you couldn't come due to that stomach bug you caught the morning of it."
"Ooooohhhhh yes. Stomach bug. Erm, yeah, that was it." said Bob, defensively. "It's stuffy in here, let me open a window." he said, turning to one of them. "By the way, we're out of fresh coffee, this is the last cup" he said, gesturing to the mug he was holding. The atmosphere was pretty tense right now and Eliza was quietly seething as Bob still hadn't said hello to their visitors.
Neil tried to break the ice a little. "I was saying to Eliza that you've got a nice place here, Bob. Did you do much of the decor yourselves?"
Bob lightened up a little at this question. "Oh yeah, sure. You know I did the floors, the walls, knocked a doorway through there so these rooms could interconnect, expanded upstairs and added a room, a second bathroom, changed the electrical wiring and all that. Are you a home improvement kind of guy, Nigel?"
"Neil. Well...erm..." he said, trying to recall his one moment of handyman success. "I replaced the toilet in our current home. The whole home improvement thing is something I'm looking into if we buy the place next door."
"Yeah, next door man. That place could do with a new owner now that Advik has been declared legally dead." said Bob with a rueful shake of his head.
"Advik?" asked Suzy, apprehensively.
"Oh my gosh, when did you hear about that?" exclaimed Eliza. "I thought they were still looking for him."
"Not any more they're not." said Bob, sitting down and taking another sip of coffee. "They found his shoes at the top of Granite Falls...and nothing else" he said, mysteriously. "No trace of him has been found...tracks leading up to the falls, then nothing coming back."
"That sure sounds like a mystery" said Suzy with a tinge of keen interest in her voice. Neil immediately picked up on that and knew his wife's mind would be occupied at the thought of investigating it.
"This Advik had no family then?" asked Neil.
"No. So the land agents want a quick sell and are prepared to drop the price" said Bob. "Mind you, the guy was a bit of a slob...looks good outside but it's a mess inside."
"Wow, this looks like our luck's in with this one, Eliza! We should put an offer in!" said an enthusiastic Suzy.
Their conversation was then interrupted by cries from upstairs.
"Oh it's Armand, again. Didn't you feed him when you went upstairs?" asked Eliza, with frustration in her voice.
"You said to go check on him...you never said anything about feeding the little guy" replied Bob, defensively.
"Tsch, I'll have to do it...Suzy, would you like to meet Armand...leave the menfolk to talk about smashing walls and varnishing floors." said Eliza.
"That would be lovely...give you and Bob a chance to get to know each other" said Suzy to Neil. The women left the room and Neil and Bob were left alone in the living room. Bob took one last swig of his coffee.
"Shame that was the last of that. Damn fine coffee" he said, matter of factly.
Meanwhile the girls headed upstairs in the direction of the crying. In one daintily decorated bedroom there was a traditional basinet all in white and in the middle was a squirming, writing and crying baby.
"Awww, did naughty daddy forget to feed you?" said Eliza, picking up Armand. She carried him over to a side table where there was a bottle of baby formula waiting. She picked it up, put the teat in his mouth and started to feed him as she cradled him in her arms. The crying stopped, to be replaced by a succession of "a-goo...a-goo...a-goo" noises.
"Aww, that's such a cute sound, and what a lovely little boy you have there" said Suzy, smiling at the little infant.
"He is when he's feeding and he does love a feed!" replied Eliza. "He's also sweet when he's sleeping. Takes after his father that way."
Armand came off the bottle and let out a tiny burp. Then Eliza put the formula back on the table and cradled him some more. "I'm hoping having a baby will bring some joy into our home...I mean, some extra joy..." she said. "Say, do you want to hold him? Get some good practice in for the future?" she continued with a wink.
"Oh...well...I've never had much experience with babies. I wouldn't want to drop him or anything...OK, here goes....my, he's quite light. Awwww, I think he smiled at me!" said Suzy, holding him gently.
As she sauntered back home, taking in the sights and musing about how this news would impact on her friends, she saw Summer approaching the house. Yes, Summer, her best friend. What adventures they had had together. Trying to track down Malcolm Landgraab, setting up stake outs, those quests to find boyfriends when, in Summer's case, he was living under the same roof as her all along. All those girly chats, the giggles, the bottles of wine consumed along the way...
