Davy stood beside the door for a couple of minutes. He thought if he stayed there for a little while longer Brianna would come back. It soon grew to be ten minutes, then twenty minutes. At the half hour mark, Davy finally abandoned his post. He went into the living room where his parents were now having a lunch of bubbles and squish. He stared at them from the doorway.
"Why didn’t you tell me you were going to spring this wedding thing when I was coming over?" He asked them.
"Because if we told you, you would not have come out here." Davys father replied.
"Why did you say the wedding is tomorrow? I thought you said you had a week." Davy said.
"We did. A week from when you called us." He said. "But now because of the time it took you to get to the country and find your friend, it became shorter, and thus the wedding is tomorrow."
Davy tried to do the math in his head. It didn’t seem right.
"Answer me one more question." Davy asked. "How much money do you owe?"
"Roughly 50 pounds. It will keep the house in the Jones family name till the end of the year." Davys mom said.
"Wait, I got the impression that you owed back money." Davy said. "And yet instead you talk of paying for the mortgage for months at a time. You can't be behind if you are thinking that far ahead."
"Okay, Davy." Davys dad said. "The truth is your mum is very ill, and I'm not longer a spring chicken. What we wanted to do is preserve the place for when you decide to come back to live here."
"Come back?" Davy asked.
"We always thought you would come back here, get married, and raise a couple of pups on the land." Davys mom said. "Keeping it in the family. Marrying into Jeanne Carters family would have ensured that. We were thinking only of you."
"What about Brianna?"
"She’s gone isn’t she?"
"From this house maybe, but not from here..." He gestured to his head. "...and here." He pointed to his heart.
"You sound really in love with her." Davys dad sighed.
"I am." Davy said pausing. He realized that it was the first time that he had admitted he loved Brianna to anyone besides the guys, and with the guys he said it so many times it was almost ad naseum. "I really love her. She’s one of a kind." He said feeling a tear come to his eyes. "If I am going to marry anyone, its going to be her. I don't even remember what Jeanne looks like or whats shes like now. How can I marry someone I don't know anything about?" He asked his parents.
They looked at each other.
"Then if you really feel for Brianna like you really feel you do, then go after her." Davys mom said. Davys dad looked at her. "Its true love, pa." She said. "Do you think our Davy would have been happy with Jeanne, ever?" She asked him. His father thought on it for a moment and nodded his head.
"I'd rather see him marry someone he’s in love with and be happy, than have him marry someone with only half a heart and be miserable." Davys dad said. Davy nodded. "What about the money son?"
"What about it?" Davy asked. "You said you only need to pay a couple of months at a time, right?"
"Right." Davys mom said. "Does my boy have an idea brewing in that his head of his?"
"I do, and I'll need the love of my life to help me do it." Davy said. He grabbed the keys to the motorcycle. He hugged his mother and father. "I hope I can catch her. Brianna can really motor if she wants to."
The Gilded Lily
Karen and Chea watched Mike and Phyllis talk. They were laughing and smiling, things that Chea was sure that Karen didn’t want to see.
"How long are we gonna stay over here?" Chea asked. "I'm getting a weird cramp and they're gonna wonder where we went."
"Yeah, and Mickys gonna wonder if you ran off with a sailor or something." Karen said as they got up. They had been peeking around a corner for five minutes in a very weird crouching position.
"Let's go back over." Chea said.
"What do I say?" Karen said.
"Theres nothing to say." Chea said. "I don't think." She thought. "Since you are his fiancée, I don't think it would be too much out of line to ask him about he and Phyllis."
Karen thought that over. "You're right, if there was anything really serious, he would let me know. Its not like he has any secrets, its far too late in the game to start hiding things from the woman you want to marry, right?"
"Right." Chea said. "I'm getting hungry too."
"All right." Karen laughed.
They walked over to the table. Micky got up and pulled Cheas chair out for her. She sat down and he pushed her in. Mike moved to do the same for her, but Karen shook her head. "We need to talk Mike." She said looking at him.
"Sure, about what?"
"We need to go outside for this." She said gesturing for the door.
"Oh ok." Mike said. "Mick? Will you order for us."
"Sure." Micky said looking at a menu. Mike and Karen walked away as Micky ordered for them. They walked outside. They seemed to wander around the parking lot for a minute before finding a small path that led out of town. They began to follow it.
"What do you want to talk bout?" Mike asked.
"I well.... maybe you can pretty much guess." Karen shrugged.
"Well I cant guess if you don't give me any clues." He said joking lightly. He looked into her eyes. She was serious. "Is it Phyllis?"
"Yeah." Karen said.
"I suppose you want me to tell you about me and Phyllis."
"I do, but if you don’t want to..." Karen began.
"Its okay." Mike said. He took a big sigh. "We were close in college."
"Friends?"
"We were engaged." Mike said. "Shortly before graduation I decided I wanted to devote my life to music. She didn’t want to live with a musician although she loved music. She loved music but didn’t want to live with a musician. I guess she didn’t want to be taken as a groupie. I don't know. We split up after graduation." He said.
"So after being engaged for how long..."
"A year."
"A year, she suddenly drops you cause she didn't want to live with a musician?" Karen asked. "That seems strange."
"Not to her, I guess." Mike said. "I haven’t seen her since then." He looked at her. "Why do you ask?"
"Uh..." Karen stammered. "I guess was a little paranoid...and a little jealous." she said trailing off.
"A little what?" Mike asked his eyebrows rising.
"A little jealous." Karen muttered.
"What?" Mike asked cupping his hand around his ear.
"A little jealous! Okay? Me! I was a little jealous." She said holding her forefinger about half an inch from her thumb. Then she changed it. She moved her hands up and held them several feet apart. "Okay, this is more accurate."
"She’s jealous. That is so cute."
"Its not, its not cute, its not sweet, its not adorable." Karen said. "I've never been jealous in my life." She blustered. "But here I am jealous! Of all people, me! The one you would think would have her head screwed on right. What's wrong with me?"
"You're human." Mike said to her as she started to kick imaginary rock on the road. "Thats whats wrong with you."
He smiled. "Now we're even."
"What?" Karen asked.
"Push rewind on your mind." Mike said. "Think about it."
Karen gave him a questioning look, then made an ooooh sound. "Chandler Bing. Now I know how you felt when I met Chandler again on the scavenger hunt."
"Bingo, shotgun." Mike said making a little gun with his finger. "Do you feel better now?"
"A little bit. I'm hungry." She rubbed her stomach. "Let's go in."
"Me too. I'm almost afraid of what Mick ordered." Mike said.
They entered the pub again. The food was just barely served by Phyllis. The manager of the pub was talking with her at the table.
"Oh guys, you are finally back." Phyllis said. "I would like you to meet someone."
"The pub owner?" Mike asked. "We met last night."
"He's just not the pub owner." Chea said.
"No?" Karen asked, half expecting her to say it was her dad or something.
"No, this is Archie." Phyllis said wrapping her arm around the mans arm. "He's my husband."
Mike stared at her, while Karen tried to keep from laughing. She bit her lip.
"We've been married for a bout two years." Archie said. "We moved here, and opened this place. The rest is history."
"I am so happy for you." Karen said. "You look good together. A good match, Emma might say."
"Thanks." Phyllis said. She and Archie walked off arm and arm. Mike and Karen at in their seats. Chea looked at Karen.
"How are we?" She sked Karen with a big smile of her own.
"Great." Karen said. "Now we are." Karen thought sadly.
Dusty road halfway between here and there
"I can't believe Davy would even consider marrying that chippy broad." Brianna sputted as she sat on a log on the side of the road. "He didnt even come after me." She slipped her shoes off. She rubbed her feet. Slowly she was starting to regret her in promptu decision to walk all the way back to Liverpool. She was hungry, angry and tired. Plus it was hard to find a place to pee. She was about to go behind a stone wall when she found a whole herd of sheep staring at her. She slipped her pants back on and scaled the wall quickly.
She put her shoes on and started walking again. She was reaching a small intersection when she heard a motor in the distance. She turned and looked in back of her. She saw a dust cloud. It was hard to see what it was though, the dust completely surrounded whoever was in it. She squinted briefly. Then her eyes opened wide. The dust cloud settle briefly. It was a motorcycle, and Davy was driving it. He accelerated and pulled up along side Brianna. She looked at him and looked away.
"Why are you here?" Brianna asked.
"I think you know why."
"I don't really." Brianna said. "What’s going on?"
"I’m not marrying that girl." Davy said. "I'm not marrying any girl ever."
"Oh?" She asked looking at him.
"Except one, but she rode with me up to the house. Now she's seemed to have gone missing." Davy said. "She ran off with my heart, I think. I feel kinda weird cause I'm missing it and her."
"What do your parents think about not marrying the girl?" She asked.
"I don't care what they think. They may approve, they may disapprove." Davy shrugged. "Their opinion doesn’t matter."
"What about the money?" She asked.
"They need to pay off their mortgage." Davy said. "I think I have a way to do it too." He said clasping her hand. "I need your help to do it. Will you do it?"
She stood there at the end of the motorcycle. She thought for a long moment. She looked back at him. His eyes were pleading with her. He was very dirty, some dust was caked around his eyes. She closed her own eyes for a minute.
"What can we do?" She asked.
"Plenty." Davy said. "But there is one thing we have to do first, and we'll have to head back to Livepool to do it."
"What?" Brianna asked as she retrieved her helmet.
"Find Jeanne Carter."
