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scissorkitty
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 Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 7:51 am Post subject: EF: Chapter Six |
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Chapter Six
Bernice nibbled a fingernail in thought, and twirled a strand of hair around her finger in a passable Shirley Temple impersonation. Not normally one to be impressed by my sister’s cuteness, I had to admit that she cut a striking figure. The plaid jumper she had chosen, atop a pair of dark green tights and black Mary-Janes seemed to transform before my eyes into a posh school uniform, whilst at the same time my loveable sister transformed into a screaming brat from hell.
“I WANT it ” Bernice stamped a foot in ire, and swung her arms wide in an all-encompassing gesture. Her voice rose to ear-shattering volume, and a spoilt twinge that I had never heard before danced across her normally pixie gaze.
“I WANT IT NOW Just go with it, Euro ” Only the last comment stopped me from slapping her across the face. Ah ha... the genius had a plan
I carefully schooled my features into a mask of snobbish indifference, noticing Davis doing the same. Raising our noses slightly, and putting on our best private school accents, we slouched with the moneyed grace of spoilt children the world over.
“This? Oh, Bernice. It’s so.. Old.” I waved languidly around the room, nearly cold clocking our waiter friend as he rushed towards us. Davis busied himself posing against the wall, his face a study in boredom. “Can we leave? There is an awesome guitar store down the way, and I need another Les Paul.”
I thought perhaps the guitar reference might be a little obscure, but the tone of easy spending was more than Waiter McFlair could handle.
“Pardon me, misses and..um.. sir. Was there something I could help you with?” Waffling his hands uselessly at Bernice and her faux-tantrum, the formerly taciturn waiter was now our willing minion.
* * * * *
I sighed in pleasure, and snuggled deeper into the leather booth, my dirty sneakers planted on a suede chair with utter indifference to the spoilt upholstery. The owner, a Mr. Earl Dowd, had been rushed to our side after much fluster and bluster by our silk shirted waiter friend, and was now deep in conversation with a nameless telephone voice. As we waited for him to verify Bernice’s credit limit- a ridiculously high limit for a supposed nine-year-old, but not at all untoward for a century-old landlady- my siblings and I used our time to unwind a little and bask in the kind of service only the very wealthy can under-appreciate. I savored another sip of my lychee vanilla milkshake.
Earl turned back to us with a wide, fake smile plastered across his hairy cheeks, and fluttered his eyelashes In what I’m sure he thought was a disarming manner.
“So, kids. What’s all this about you wanting to buy my little restaurant here?”
“We just like it.” I dropped my feet to the floor, and looked Earl in the beady eye, keeping my dulcet tones those of a bored debutante.“So what’s the deal with this place, anyway? Like, how old is it?”
“Well... It’s pretty old, little lady. I believe you read our historical plaque over there. What more do you need to know?”
“Who owned it originally? Has it always been a tavern type place? What happened to the original owners? Do you have any way of getting in contact with the founding family? And any interesting stories about this place?” Davis plowed into the conversation full force, causing Earl to flutter his eyelashes again, this time in surprise. He pulled on his straggly mustaches.
“Well... ah.. alrighty then. I don’t know why you care, but you’d be needing to ask the county office about that sort of thing. I don’t keep records of all that. But, never mind, kids. You can see this is a great little place. Thriving, in fact The best of the best No lies, my friends. This is a great little business. Why, you could have all your little friends over here for parties and things.. You’d get the VIP treatment, whatever you need. All it takes is a little investment on your part.” Earl leaned back in his seat, and planted his hands over his belly in contentment.
If Earl had planned to smooth talk us into handing over our imaginary inheritance for his little roadside hot spot, he was much mistaken. Like everyone else, he had fallen into the easy trap of paying little attention to Bernice. While he had been hard at work trying to discover our monetary worth over the phone, and then to trick us out of it, Bernice had been hard at work listening in on Earl’s conversation. At the earliest lull, she pounced.
“Mr Earl, I don’t feel like we should be talking about any kind of price before we know more about the building. It’s old, and it’s renovated, but was it renovated well? And what about business receipts? What about customer records? Are you selling us the building, or the business, or both? We’ll need to talk about rental contracts and call in our lawyers. In fact, I think we need them present to even continue with this conversation. Has it occurred to you that it’s only semi-legal at best to sell a business to, or procure investment from a trio that is mainly underage?” Bouncing to her feet, Bernice leant over the table, the better to shake her finger in Earl’s face. Earl could only blink away, amazed at the sudden turn of events.
Davis and I also lept to our feet. We let Bernice take the last of the wind out of poor Earl’s sails, and then breezed out the door. Once back in the car and safely pelting down the road, I grinned at my siblings.
Bernice seemed to be practically glowing with energy and glee. “That was so much fun I hate pompous jerks like that Earl.”
“Looks like we got what we need, though.” Davis beamed back. “To the county office .. Uh.. where is the county office, Euro?”
I looked at the map, and groaned. It looked like the office was part of ....
((dp.. WHAT? ))
Last edited by scissorkitty on Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:06 am; edited 1 time in total
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Smee
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| Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 8:09 am Post subject: |
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Haven't forgotten you, Kitty. Will get to this soon.
Just a tad busy at the moment.
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The path of my life is strewn with cowpats from the Devil's own Satanic Herd!
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Chinaren
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| Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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Let's mot make it easy. The police station? The local nutter, who's totally mad and has a stutter that makes you want to kill him?
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scissorkitty
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| Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 5:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Nutter with a stutter? C-Ren, you been hogging all the hooch at the Inn Bar, again? That's bad poetry.
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Traveller
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| Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 1:59 am Post subject: |
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My first thought was Cop Shop as well...Let me try to think of something else then...just to give you some options...hmmm
part of the backwater, hillbilly Mayor's office...
there...at least you have 2 options now...T.
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Tipico
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| Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 2:14 am Post subject: |
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just caught up grate story
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mystic jungle chapter 2 out now!
would you like a little lemon and lime with that mister??
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scissorkitty
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| Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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Okay... so the city records are part of...
we have
1/Mayor's Office
2/Police Station
i need a few other choices here, guys! Our Trio aren't exactly on the run at the moment, so I might need feedback on why those two destinations (and other possible suggestions to come) would pose a problem.
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Smee
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:47 am Post subject: |
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*chuckles* Bernice was amusing in that chapter.
Hmmm... let me think. Part of the local library? Woefully under funded in recent years, with pretty much just an old caretaker/librarian. A fine chaos of dust, disorganised chaos, and backrooms even less maintained.
Or, perhaps in the basement of the local crematorium? Perhaps unlikely. I'm not altogether sure what a country office is, just trying to think of things that would make her groan 
Happy Writing
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The path of my life is strewn with cowpats from the Devil's own Satanic Herd!
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scissorkitty
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:59 am Post subject: |
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ah ha! More good ideas! Thanks, Smee.
(and no, i don't know why the crematorium option in there twice in the poll. I'll have to add those votes together, i guess. i hate poll creation!!)
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Smee
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:03 am Post subject: |
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As I thought - just a slight poll glitch - don't worry about adding them together, they are the same option as far as the poll is concerned. Note 1 vote in each of them for me voting for that option.
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The path of my life is strewn with cowpats from the Devil's own Satanic Herd!
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scissorkitty
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| Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:48 am Post subject: |
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okey dokey, guys. it's been a while, and the votes were scarce, but due to a two-way tie...
looks like we're headed to the Creamatorium AND the ill-maintained library! Could it be they are... connected... somehow?
bwaa haa haaaa!
stay tuned!
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