"OH MY GOSH, WHAT'S GOING ON? TRAVIS!" cried out Summer when she started to smell smoke from inside Garden Essence. The smell, and black smoke was coming from the back porch and seeping into the house. As she went to investigate things were worse than she thought: There were actual flames that she could see through the window and she flung open the back door to see what was going on.
"It's OK, babe! I've got this!" Travis was struggling to get a fire extinguisher going whilst the BBQ was aflame.
"Are you sure? Travis, we'd better call the fire department!" exclaimed Summer. By this stage the noise of the fire and shouting had woken up Liberty and she stepped outside to see what was going on as well.
"Oh my gosh! How did that start?" said a shocked Liberty.
"I don't know but I'm worried about how close those flames are to the house! Travis! Get that fire extinguisher working...NOW!" yelled Summer.
Eventually Travis got the extinguisher working and he sprayed the BBQ until the fire was out and what was left was a charred hulk with soot everywhere. No one said anything for what seemed to be an age. Summer looked at Liberty, who looked at her back and then they both looked at the blackened floor and walls as the last whisps of smoke rose into the air and the clouds of CO2 swirled around the ground. Travis had stepped back, still tightly grasping the extinguisher just in case there were any dangerous embers that could start blazing again.
"I told you I'd sort it" he said, breaking the silence.
"How...did it start?" asked Liberty, with trepidation in her voice.
"How do you think?" said Summer. "We agreed we'd have a ban on breakfast BBQs, Travis!"
"Did I agree to that? My memory's a bit hazy on that point." he replied, trying to deflect away any culpability.
"Travis! Look what you've done! I'm going to call the fire department!" said an angry and frightened Summer.
"Wait! Summer! No need!" said Travis but to no avail, she ran back inside whilst Liberty checked the fence outside to see if there'd been any fire damage to it.
Summer was clearly panicked. She went to make the call to the fire department but her hand was shaking so much she couldn't pick up the receiver and dial the number. Liberty tried to calm her down by offering her some breakfast and a coffee but even then Summer couldn't stop going over the incident with the BBQ over and over again.
"We had a deal, an arrangement!" she said, loudly and fiercely.
"I thought it was just a suggestion" he said, calm as you like.
"No! We agreed to have a ban on breakfast BBQs. For one thing, the expense, and another it's anti-social to pump smoke out all over the neighbourhood at 7 in the morning and now it turns out it presents a fire risk...especially in the hands of someone who doesn't know what he's doing!"
"I just added a bit more fuel and accelerant...I blame a faulty brand." he continued, trying to calm things down.
"Travis you barely know how to cook...I think from now on I handle all the cooking duties in this house and...."
"here it comes..." he said, with a sinking feeling.
"...let's not replace the BBQ" she added with finality.
"What? No way! It's a Scott family tradition to grill!" he protested.
"Your family, in their home, are perfectly entitled to grill and maybe you should get some hints and tips in future from them. But here, that tradition isn't observed."
Travis got up from the table and muttered some curses beneath his breath. He had to get ready to go to work and was seething at Summer's high handed attitude. Once he had left, Liberty re-emerged from her bedroom.
"How did he take the news that we're not going to replace his grill?" Liberty asked.
"Badly. He'll be fine...he'll get back to work and that'll distract him plus he won't be tempted to BBQ everything in this house that isn't nailed down anymore. Say, weren't you wearing that outfit last night when you went out with Gary?"
"Maybe" answered a sheepish Liberty. "I may have stayed out all night..." she added.
"Why you sly little minx!" said Summer, smiling. "That's the sound I heard early this morning; you sneaking back in to the house."
"Guilty as charged!" said Liberty. "We had a great night at the Blue Velvet but you'll never guess who I saw down there"
"Who?" asked an excited Summer, who loved a bit of a gossip.
"Julia...and she looked really different: Mod clothes, more make up and she wore her hair down and brushed straight. I'm so used to seeing her in pigtails."
"Was there a guy involved?" asked Summer.
"More than one...I saw her talking to three different men!" said Liberty.
"Three!" Summer was shocked that her friend, who was normally so rigidly conservative, would talk with three different men and wear fashionable clothes.
"I wonder what's changed her outlook...anyway, I must have a shower and get changed otherwise everyone will start gossiping about me as well!" said Liberty, getting up and heading to the bathroom.
Summer was still too worked up to relax at all. There was something about fire; all consuming, destructive, taking on a life of its own that it was almost a living being...it needed oxygen and fuel to exist...that frightened her. She'd never liked it ever since she was a little girl; a 4th July incident that went wrong where a firework exploded prematurely and showered her with hot sparks and debris and she got burned. That memory came back so strongly that when Liberty emerged, fresh and with a new set of clothes, she found Summer having a panic attack.
"Summer! Calm down! It's OK, there's no fire anymore!" said Liberty, grabbing Summer's shoulders and trying to shake her into normality.
"I...I...know...it's just...we came so close" gasped Summer.
"It was bad but we had it under control. OK? Travis put the fire out before it caught on to the house. Listen, how about we go out somewhere? Take your mind off what happened?"
"Alright...must...get...away" said Summer, in between taking deep breaths.
"Let's go somewhere we've never been before? I mean, make a day of it: Anywhere within the city, how about that?"
"I can't think of where..." said Summer, still frantic and worked up.
"OK, here's a map of the city...I close my eyes...eeny-meany-miny-mo....and....here!" Liberty shut her eyes and waved her index finger over the map before stabbing it down in a random location.
"Windenburg..." said Summer. What's in Windenburg?"
"My finger landed just near the Von Haunt estate. I've never been there, have you?" Liberty replied.
"No. OK, let's go...I just want to get away right now"
"It's more impressive than I imagined" said Liberty, once they'd arrived at the estate.
"I suppose so" said Summer. "It's a large place...I mean, how big are these gardens?"
"Immense. I did a bit of reading on the way over here. There's a maze, a herbal garden, fountains and a croquet lawn"
"I still can't get over how Travis nearly burned the house down!"
"Summer, give it a rest..."
"OK, sorry, let's go inside" said Summer, with a sigh.
The friends walked up the marble stairs and in to the mansion where they were both awestruck by the opulence and grandeur of the place. The plush red velvet carpets, the intricate woodwork in the columns and staircases and, above all, the grand paintings that evoked a bygone age. Such a place might be normal in the old, established landscape of Europe but here, in America, places such as the Von Haunt estate were rare.
Summer walked over to a plaque and read a bit about the history of the house.
"Welcome to the historic Von Haunt Estate! From the hedge maze to the lovingly restored mansion, there’s something for all the family to explore. Please note, Management accepts no responsibility for any so called ‘paranormal encounters’ you may experience on site."
There was also some mention of the property being rebuilt and restored to its pre-1898 state. "Very interesting" Summer said to herself, although she thought the site trustees were overdoing the "supernatural" angle to attract the tourists.
"Hey, Libs, what have you found?" said Summer, walking into an elaborate dining room where Liberty was standing. "Oh, wow! Get a load of this room!" she gasped in wonderment.
Liberty was looking at the portrait of a Victorian gentleman. He was striking a strong, dominant, masculine pose. He looked mature but not old or middle aged: Maybe in his 30s, perhaps.
"Hey, he's a bit of a fox" remarked Summer. "Who is he?"
"He certainly is! There's a plaque here, I'll read it." Liberty replied.
"It says...the late Lord Shallott was a troubled artist, who would often burn his paintings...It is said he accidentally...do you know, what, Summer? The rest is pretty boring. His name is Lord Shallott and he was boring. Not worth reading about." said Liberty, suddenly becoming defensive.
"Let me read that..."
"No, Summer, it's just a waste of time"
"I'm curious now...hey...stop standing in my way"
"Let's go and look at something else!"
"Liberty, stand aside, I want to read that plaque!" Summer had to give Liberty a little push so she could read what it said.
"Remember, Sum, this all happened a long time ago!" said a desperate Liberty, trying to take the sting out of what Summer would discover when she read the plaque.
"Oh great...we've come to a place where there was a fire! 'Let's get away from it all' you said, 'let's forget about the fire' and we end up here of all places! This Shallot guy is just like Travis!"
"He isn't really..." said Liberty, meekly.
"This guy burns paintings, Travis burns meat!" said Summer. "It's literally men playing with fire!"
"OK, how about we get out of here? Go somewhere local where there's no connection with homes burning down?" said Liberty, trying once again to calm her pyrophobic friend down.
"Alright...this place is giving me the creeps anyway...say, is it me or is it much colder than outside in here?" said Summer.
"Hmm, you're right. Anyway, I spotted a little tavern nearby, on the way here. We could go there for a nice lunch and a drink. It's done in a traditional, olde worlde English style."
"English!" exclaimed Summer. "The English are always setting things on fire! What with their bonfires and coal and all that!"
"Summer...I swear no one in that tavern is going to set the place on fire. Let's just go there and if it does somehow manage to immolate then we'll skedaddle out of there...deal?"
Summer pursed her lips and looked at Liberty suspiciously before nodding in agreement.
It wasn't far from the estate to the tavern named "The Shrieking Llama". "Shrieking Llama, doesn't sound very English to me" commented Summer.
Inside, however, was a different story. It looked, for all intensive purposes, just like a traditional English pub...although neither woman had ever been to the United Kingdom.
They sat at the bar and ordered a meat and bread platter to share between the two of them, washed down with two glasses of white wine. Summer felt much better to have had something to eat and drink, be in the calming surroundings of a sedate pub where there were only a handful of customers present. Feeling relaxed, she wanted to talk about anything other than what had happened this morning...even if that involved having a convoluted talk about work.
"So, Libs, did I hear right in the news that there's going to be another space launch soon?" she said.
"Yeah...I was meaning to tell you guys about it. I'll have to head off to the Cape again early next week as the launch is on the 18th." said Liberty with a sigh. She knew that this next mission, Gemini X, was very important for NASA. Gemini VIII and IX both had problems that meant the missions had to be shortened, they didn't accomplish nearly half of what they'd set out to do and...worryingly...the lives of the astronauts had been in serious danger at critical moments.
"Wow, I didn't know it was that soon. Do you want us to look after Gary for you while you're gone?" said Summer. The last time Liberty went to Florida for Gemini IX Summer and Travis hung out a lot with Liberty's boyfriend, Gary, and ended up having a great time with him. Summer was convinced Gary was the one for Liberty...she wasn't so sure about her and Travis these days, given his reckless attitude to life sometimes.
"If you would, thanks. I shouldn't be gone that long; it's a 3 day mission and most of my work is done in pre-flight. But this is a really important mission; we have to achieve a successful docking, EVA and most of the mission objectives this time." said Liberty, taking another big gulp of her wine after considering the many aspects of her work.
"Are we going to make it to the moon before 1970?" asked Summer...it was the question most lay people asked about the space programme.
Liberty nodded confidently. "Oh yes. Barring any major problems we'll have Project Gemini all done with by the end of the year and we'll have the first manned Apollo flight in February. We're on course for a moon landing in early 1968."
"Wow, that soon! To me it seems like we're putting astronauts into space every week at this rate! Soon I'll even be opening a restaurant on Mars the way things are going." laughed Summer.
"Mars by 1980, Summer. Some engineers are already working on some designs for a spacecraft to go there."
Summer had finished her meal and was looking around the tavern when she spied something on the far side.
"Hey, Libs...there's a foosball table over there. Wanna game?" she said.
"I've never played...is it the one with all the little men on rods and you spin them around?" asked Liberty.
"Yeah, that's the one, let's have a game. I'll teach you how it works."
Summer took a small ball from one end of the table and dropped it in the middle.
"OK, Liberty, you control the handles on your side, and I control the ones on mine. You kick the ball with your players, trying to get it into my goal over here. You have to protect your goal as well. You can slide the players side to side and twirl them to 'kick' the ball."
"OK, I think I understand...so the ball is near one of my guys, I just aim it a little and.....SPIN!...Look at that, a goal to me!" said a triumphant Liberty.
"So it is..." said a deflated Summer. "Are you sure you've never played before?"
"Never" said Liberty, picking up the ball and dropping it back on to the table.
The final score was 8-2 to Liberty and Summer was thinking it was a mistake to have challenged her housemate to a game after all. Usually around the house Liberty was a klutz; always dropping things or tripping over her own feet but at foosball she was fast and accurate.
"Another game or do you want to move on?" asked Liberty.
"Can we go home now? I like this place, we must come back again some time. Although I'm going to need to practice my game a lot more" said Summer.
They caught the bus back to Willow Creek and spent some time lounging on the front porch. Recently they had bought a pair of swinging, plastic egg chairs which affixed to the roof of the porch and allowed them to swing and spin whilst sitting down...like a 360° swing chair.
"Travis will be home from work soon" Summer mused.
"I wonder how he'll be? Sad about his BBQ or will he have forgotten about it by now?" Liberty replied.
"He might be really mad at me for how I was with him this morning" said Summer, with a sad look on her face. Liberty nodded and felt she had to say something to cheer up her friend.
"You were quite right; he was reckless so don't blame yourself for being harsh to him" Liberty said, eventually.
"I know but I absolutely hate confrontation, Libs! I don't like being harsh!" said Summer, forlornly.
Liberty comforted Summer and tried to best to reassure her but it was true that Summer was always positive and bouncy and how she'd been today was unlike her. The fire did more damage, emotionally, than she had realised.
Travis arrived home and saw the girls sitting on the swing chairs. He waved at them from the road and ran enthusiastically over to them. Summer saw his big, friendly, goofy face and his excited run and her heart leaped. Getting off the swing chair, she ran to him and they met in an embrace on the lawn.
"Summer, you look great!" he said.
"Do I? I thought I must look a wreck after this morning's panic" she replied.
"You don't...look, about that. I'm really, really sorry and you were right about me and BBQs...especially first thing in the morning. I was a fool and I didn't consider your feelings when I scared you." he said, sheepishly.
"Thanks, Trav. It's just I have a hang up about fires and things burning, that's all." she replied.
"I didn't understand that until I was at work and I thought back on today's incident. I think...and this is hard for me to say...we shouldn't replace the grill. There! I've said it now!"
"That's very magnanimous of you, Trav" said Summer.
Liberty joined the couple and he repeated his declaration to her as well.
"I think we can all sleep a lot easier tonight knowing that" was Liberty's comment. With the weight of the issue of the troublesome BBQ dealt with, the friends discussed what should replace it? A craft working table, punch bag, weight lifting machine and even an easel were all mentioned even though none of them could paint and woodworking was a skill never learned.
Travis noticed that walking down the street was a familiar face he hadn't seen for a few weeks: Suzy. He pointed her out to Summer, as they were best friends, and initially Summer wanted to run over and greet her, ask how the new house was and whether she'd like to stay and hang out but Suzy was accosted by a man in the street none of them recognised.
"Excuse me...you are Suzy Kent, reporter, confirm" the man said to her.
"Actually it's Suzy Humphries now." said Suzy, defensively. She thought this guy looked familiar, somehow, but couldn't put a name to a face or work out where she'd seen him before. "Is there anything I can help you with?" she continued with caution.
"I have read a number of your articles in 'Hey, Wow' magazine. I am impressed by your writing and sense of style." he said, rather stiffly and formally.
"Thanks. It's always nice to meet a fan. Do you read my column for style tips for yourself or for a girlfriend or wife?"
"I do not have a mate..." he said, firmly.
"Don't mean to pry!" she said, taking a step back away from him.
"The intention of my conversation with you is to encourage you with your style and fashion writing as that is your strong point. Your investigative journalism, by contrast, does not interest me and is not as well written as your fashion articles." he continued.
"O.....K...." she said, still on the defensive. She wasn't like any fan she'd met before: For starters, this guy looked way older than her usual readership and also he was a lot more uptight and formal as well.
Summer noticed that Suzy was looking a bit put out by this guy and so she acted on her initiative and ran over to greet her friend, putting herself between him and her.
"Suzy! How good to see you! How's the new house?" said Summer, enthusiastically. Suzy felt so relieved 'the cavalry' had arrived to end this strange conversation she was having. The man, looking nervous, decided it was his turn to back away.
"This conversation is terminated" he mumbled before running off down the road. Suzy watched him fade into the distance and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That guy bothering you?" asked Summer.
"A bit. He didn't say anything nasty or threatening but I really didn't like his tone. But thanks for coming to my rescue." said Suzy.
"I thought a timely intervention was needed." said Summer. "So...how's the new house? How's Neil?"
"Both great. Hey, I love those swinging egg chairs!" said Suzy, noticing the new addition to the BFF house. "Very with it! I must get some for our new place!"
"Will you stay for coffee...we can catch up!" asked Summer.
"I can't today, but some time soon! You're looking great, Summer, and I love those chairs...and a big thanks for chasing that guy off."
"No worries...don't be a stranger! Call on us anytime! One of us is bound to be in, day or night!" said Summer.
As Suzy walked off Summer sighed. What a lot of ups and downs today and it had taken a lot out of her. As the afternoon sun set and evening came on she decided to go to bed early. Liberty as well; she had to start packing her suitcase for her trip to Florida. It was Travis who decided to stay up late, tidy up the remaining soot and debris from the fire and have a listen to some records. His solitary peace was disturbed by a sharp knocking on the front door.
"OK, OK, it's late, stay cool!" he said, getting up from the couch and going to see who it was at this hour. The answer was Bakko Jang, friend to everyone in the neighbourhood.
"Bakko, what's up man? You look stressed out" said Travis.
"Suzy! I have important news for her! I didn't know she moved out of her old place" replied Bakko who had a look of panic in his face.
"No, she moved out about 3 weeks ago. I'll get her new address and phone number for you...she'd like to hear from you but what's this news you have for her?"
"It's real important...I've seen some strange stuff, Travis my man, strange stuff..."
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