milliways_bar | (no subject)

After a while, young Rae comes in through the bar door, looking like she's just come home from school.

Bar brings her Bonnie's note with her mug of hot cocoa, and sends her off looking. She's isn't in the bar room, and the kitchen is the next logical place to look before heading out towards the Scout Hut.

"Hello, Bonnie!" Rae calls as she peeks around the door frame and spots the scout leader. "I got your note."

"Hey there honey." Bonnie gives her a warm smile. Rae certainly looks all right, which is a good start.

"Come have a toffee apple? This one's just cooled enough."

"Oooh! I love toffee apples," she beams, coming in with her hot cocoa. If she looks a little tired, well, it's been a long day at school, right? "How have you been?"

"Been good, thanks. Billie's growin' like a weed." Bonnie says, handing Rae an apple and licking toffee off her fingers. "How are you doin'?"

"I'm doing all right," she says, smiling and accepting the toffee apple. Eating a toffee apple is great fun, even if they're a bit awkward to get started on. "Enjoying getting to be a big sister, finally. Mom's been letting me help with Kenny this past week."

"Oh, well ain't you gettin' grown up!" Bonnie grins.

"How are things at home? You seemed awful upset a few weeks back when I saw you, everythin' okay now?"

"Oh... yeah," she says, her smile fading. "That was... that was when Jennie and her family..."

Her words trail off. Yeah. Now she feels a trace guilty about being so cheerful about the offer of a toffee apple. She's 'doing all right' and happy about getting to help take care of Kenny, while Jennie won't ever be all right again, nor will her siblings.

"Stuff at home's okay. Mostly okay." Relative to other homes, she supposes. "There was an attack on the street next to ours, one night a week or so ago. No one died, though there was some damage to the house and their wards had all gone rogue."

Which is generally more than anyone can ask for.

Bonnie listens and nods.

"That must have been real frightenin'." she says gently. "I'm sorry ter bring it up. I just wanted ter make sure you and Kenny and yer Mom were all right. Is there anythin' I can do to help?"

"We're all right," some of her smile comes back, for the care and offer. "Mom and Charlie went down to make sure the coffeehouse wasn't damaged, but the sirens and noise and stuff scared Kenny. I brought him here for a little while that night, to distract him and help calm him down."

"It turned out that something went wrong with the translation magic of this place around the time we came in, and we could hardly understand anyone. Autor taught me some German and helped me look after Kenny. Autor's really good with babies."

And it was probably the most calm and relaxed she's seen Autor in a whiiiiiile.

Bonnie is suitably relieved. She hadn't liked the idea that little Rae might be raising Kenny on her own.

"Yer a good sister." she says. "But you know if you need help, you can leave a note fer me any time, all right? Always room fer one more at the Murdock house if needs be too."

She smiles warmly. "It was good to see Autor downstairs. I'm hopin' we can get him to come to the Scouts party. I want us to set up a little gatherin' fer the smaller kids, somethin' that isn't too scary fer the tiny ones like Billie and Gil and Egil - and you can bring Kenny if you like. It might be a little young fer you, but I'd appreciate any ideas if you got any."

"I really appreciate that, Bonnie," Rae smiles. "I'm hoping things'll keep being okay, back home. There hasn't been any attacks in our neighborhood since last week."

Of course, one can only hope that continues.

"It was really good to see Autor again. And he seemed... calmer, when he was holding Kenny. A little more like his old self." Which, while great to see, was something of a stark reminder of how much he has changed.

"A party would be perfect. Maybe we could have Halloween-themed games and things at the party. Nothing too scary for the little ones, but with all the right Halloween-y colors and prizes for playing," she says, thinking. "I saw a game at a school carnival last fall, they made different-sized spider webs out of masking tape, hula hoops and embroidery hoops, and the kids could toss little spiders made of pompoms onto them, and the smaller the spider-web the spiders landed on, the better the prize the kid got."

"Oh, those sound darling!" Bonnie grins. "And not too scary fer the tiny ones."

Rae is enjoying her toffee apple, munching on it carefully so she doesn't get too much stickiness on her face (though stickiness is part of the fun).

"And the webs and little spiders seemed pretty easy to make, too," she smiles. "We could... maybe have little pumpkins, like the kind small enough to hold in one hand, that the kids could decorate with googly eyes and pipe-cleaners and such, or draw on? Or would that be too messy?"

She's remembering all the glitter that was still lingering around the bar a few weeks ago.

"I don't mind a bit of mess." Bonnie says. "We can always do it on a cloth or somethin'. And that way they won't have knives."

"That's why I had thought decorating them might be the answer, rather than have to deal with carving the pumpkins and using knives. Even I have trouble carving pumpkins, depending on how tough they are."

And she's practically an adult, right?

"I don't want all the games to be tossing-related, but there're lots of bottles around Milliways. We could decorate some of 'em like mummies or ghosts, and let the kids use them for a sort of ring-toss game with glow-bracelets or something like that?"

"One time at the carnival a couple of years ago... I don't know what they're called, but it's like a big board stood up on one side, with holes cut in it, and little plastic buckets or big plastic cups are fitted in the holes, and small prizes or candy is hidden in the cups and the tops of them are covered over with colorful tissue-paper, and the kids can pick which tissue-paper hole to poke their hands through to get the prize hidden on the other side? We could do one like a big pumpkin, with orange tissue paper, maybe?" Fun and surprising without being scary.

Edited 2017-10-26 20:27 (UTC)

"Like a lucky dip?" Bonnie says.

"I thought maybe I could dangle marshmallows too, since I think bobbin' fer apples might be too hard."

"Yeah, something like that," Rae nods.

"Ooh, I like the sound of the dangling marshmallows - that'd be a lot more fun than bobbing for apples - that's always hard and everyone gets their faces wet."

"Although maybe I should make some of the prizes not candy, otherwise they'll all be sick." Bonnie muses.

"Like little toys or something," Rae nods, after swallowing another bite of apple. "They'd have to be something safe for the littler kids, though."

"Oh, oh, they could be little werebears or something!" Bonnie says.

"Oooh!" Rae laughs. "Those'd be really cute. Good idea."

Very unlike real werebears, which are quite frightening.

"Maybe some of the prizes could be little masks, or jack-o-lantern beanbags."

"Those are both good ideas. I knew you'd be the one to ask." Bonnie beams again.

"Oh, what about a Piñata?"

"Oh yes!" Rae beams. "They'd love that. What would it be shaped like? A ghost, maybe?"

They can make OooooooOOOOOOOooooooh noises as they move it around.

"Yes, I can make that out of paper mache!" Bonnie says.

"It's a shame I cain't bring Terry, but she ain't got the door."

"Does Terry know about the bar?"

"Kinda." Bonnie says. "She knows folks like Autor and Jay come from it."

"If she's around when your door to here shows up, it might be okay, then. I've not... told anyone back home about Milliways - Mom'd probably not want me coming here if she knew - but I was able to bring Kenny along just fine."

"I tried before, I think she's too big to bring along." Bonnie says. "It seems to work fer babies okay, but not fer older kids. Guppy said all his lot got their own doors when they were five. He's a bit worried about Brooke's birthday comin' up."

"Brooke'll be five already?" Rae is boggled. "Time passes so much more quickly here than at home."

You think that's scary? Gil's three, and the Sandhus age in real time.

"I know, I think Billie and I are goin' about the same time as they are." Bonnie says.

Daaang

"It's weird, coming back the next day to find weeks have gone by here," Rae says, giving a slight smile. "I always worry I'll miss something."

"Yes, that's the trouble of livin' two lives. You cain't be fully there fer both." Bonnie says.

"I don't want to miss out on either," she says, the eternal conundrum of having a life outside of Milliways. "Milliways is so different from home."

"We're lucky, though, I think." Bonnie says.

"Well that's the apples all set, I'll see you at the party!"