Chapter 27
One of those Days
Even on the flight to Nebraska for a relaxing break for the family, Leonard found himself still feeling very troubled, not only that Penny could even believe that he would leave her if she had a serious life changing illness, as she thought she had over her recent scare with the benign lump in her breast, but also he had been feeling quite unsettled over the possibility of the outcome being different and losing, for him the most precious person ever to come into his life .
So while Penny slept beside him, Leonard spent the whole flight meditating on how he could really convince her that she was his world, his life.
And just before they landed Leonard had thought out a possible plan.
He had been saving up for the last five years to have a ring made for her that matched the snowflake pattern on her Pendant and earrings he'd given her as a wedding present.
Now that ring was in his hand luggage, all he had to do now is find a special time to present it to her and think carefully on the special words he could use to really drive home how special she was to him, he already knew the special place he would present it to her.
As soon as they got to the farm Penny and the girls went to see their horses giving an opportune time for Leonard to ask Marcia a favour. Then He rushed into the house and booked a table at Lo Sole Mio Ristorante in Omaha , (Penny loved real Italian food, not Sheldon's spaghetti with little hot-dogs cut up in it) and also four nights at a four star Hotel (the free WiFi clinched it)
Then when Penny had returned he Kissed her then taking her hand he led her to the barn.
Penny puzzled when she saw the champagne and the bouquet of flowers decorating the spot where they exchanged their vows 8 years ago. Turned to Leonard and was about to ask what was going on when he put a finger to her lips and began to speak.
"Penny Honey, I'm sorry that I haven't been so attentive to you lately, I guess I should not have been so busy with my work lately then you would not have felt that I would have left you if you had breast cancer". Leonard continued reaching into his pocket and opening the little case displaying the ring "So I had this made to match your pendant and earrings, I give this to you as a sign of my vow that my heart will ever and always will be yours".
Although feeling annoyed at Leonard, Penny gasped at the beautiful ring, allowing him to slip it on her finger then she hugged and kissed him then explained why it wasn't necessary.
"sweetie, When I thought I had breast cancer I just panicked and many unfounded thoughts went through my head because of that. But deep down in my heart I knew you would still love me no matter what, Honey I see it in your eyes every time you look at me. I'm sorry if I hurt you by those thoughts I did not intend to doubt your love at all, and added to that was the realization that I was not ready to let go of you. And quite frankly Honey, I'm sure in my heart that I will never ever be ready to let go of you".
Leonard held her and kissed her "I'm sorry Penny, I love you so much, I guess I will never be able to let go of you either. I guess we both had quite a scare, still It showed us what we hold to be the most valuable in our lives though". Leonard reflected.
"Each other", they both said together, then laughing together, they hugged.
Leonard went on to inform her of the booking at the restaurant tomorrow evening and also the four nights in an hotel.
"Leonard", Penny said in dismay, "I'm sorry honey but you may think I'm being so silly but I couldn't leave my girls for four days".
"Please Leonard, couldn't we do just one night, please." Penny asked.
"OK Honey, if that's what you really want?", he said kissing her again,
Penny planned to go shopping the next day for a new dress, shoes and a visit to Victoria's Secret, and also to purchase a new suit, shirt,tie and shoes for Leonard, for their evening in Omaha.
(Leonard hadn't picked out a suit for years, that was Penny's task, ever since Penny had seen Leonard's brown corduroy suit)
It took Penny 25 minutes to select a suit as well as a shirt, shoes and a tie for Leonard.
But it took Penny two hours to decide on a knee length ice blue dress, an hour and a half for her shoes and another hour and a half in Victoria's Secret before she eventually came out with three bags of bras and panties. For Leonard though, he had some compensation, as the look of happiness on his Penny's face was priceless.
They stopped for a meal and a coffee . Then made their way to their hotel checked in and shared the huge bath then enjoyed some intimate loving time, made all the more special after their recent ordeal. And later, while Leonard watched T.V., and Penny, comfortably sat snuggled up against Leonard and read her magazine before they got ready for the restaurant and then dancing afterwards.
Meanwhile down on the farm, while the twins went with Marcia to get some supplies, Honey Marie helped Wyatt to do some farm chores and mend a fence on the farm.
To say helped was an exaggeration as although Honey Marie enjoyed seeing to the horses, (which so reminded Wyatt of a young Penny, as Honey Marie squealed her delight), But She quickly became bored with handing Wyatt his tools as he fixed the broken rail, and sought her own amusement by sloping off and climbing a wall on the side of a building, and walking along it before, Imagining She was a tightrope walker, and for the amusement of her vast imaginary audience, She turned and walked back along the wall towards the other end, however the roof overhang that end part of the wall and the wall was slippery as a result of the rain dripping from the roof on previous occasions.
So as Honey Marie turned to walk back along the wall she slipped and fell straight into the mire into the pig sty that was on the other side of the wall. Fortunately Sadie the sow was an amenable creature having just enjoyed her lunch and was settling down for a snooze when Honey Marie put in her appearance, and Sadie just emitted a soft grunt in surprise, as Honey Marie lay a little winded, grazed and bruised in the mire.
Then getting up and upon getting her breath back she clambered over the door of the sty, and began bawling at the top of her voice, she made her unsteady way back to Wyatt.
If it wasn't for the noise of Honey Marie's crying it would have been the stench that alerted Wyatt to Honey Marie's plight as she was absolutely covered in the stinking muck from the sty, from the top of her head to the soles of her shoes.
Wyatt Panicked, Marcia would kill him for this and as for Penny, well he knew Penny's temper and that was even worse, and those consequences did not bear thinking about.
Wyatt knew there was no way that he could bring her into the house in her present state, so he had Honey Marie stand in the yard and remove her dress so he could hose most of the muck off of her before she could go into the house and get in the bath.
While she took her bath ,Wyatt hosed off her dress as well as he could then put it in the washing machine, ( and probably using it for the first time in his life), and wishing he knew exactly how to work it, then after collecting the rest of Honey Marie's clothes together, (at arms length), he put them with her dress into the machine and pushed the button marked start after emptying half a bottle of washing liquid into the machine, what Wyatt did not know was that Marcia previously used it on a hot wash, while Honey Marie's dress and socks needed a cooler wash, so, as Wyatt did his best to clean her shoes
The soap in the washing machine bubbled up out of the dispenser and all over the floor, so that by the time Honey Marie, now dressed in her pajamas and robe and had, had her grazes attended to by Wyatt the floor was six inches deep in suds.
Wyatt was quite used to the rigours of farming but by the time he had cleaned up the foam from the floor and put Honey Marie's clothes in the drier (not noticing that her dress and socks would now fit a four year old), now exhausted, he sat for a brief rest and quickly fell fast asleep.
At the Mall Marcia led the twins to the ladies and girls clothing store and began looking through the dresses, while the twins, spotting the teen section then wandered over and began to look through the cool items on the rail.
Meanwhile Marcia spotting a cute dress just her size immediately headed for the changing booths and completely forgetting the twins. So when the twins returned they were puzzled as to where Marcia had gone to, Then April spied what She thought was her Grammy just leaving through the main entrance, so the twins ran to catch up with her but lost her somewhere in the crowds outside. The twins frantically ran this way and that to try and see which way she had gone, then they decided for expediency, it might be better if they split up in order to cover more ground quickly.
Marcia, feeling pleased with the fit of the dress, and also feeling very pleased that finally she had found a dress that was her size in a store, and then headed for the checkout before suddenly remembering the twins and quickly ascertaining the fact that they were no longer in the store, began to panic and rushed outside the store to find them, then she suddenly felt someone grab her arm and asking her if she wouldn't mind accompanying her to the managers office in the store. And at that moment Marcia realized she hadn't yet paid for the dress before leaving the store.
At the hotel, Leonard and Penny were lying in bed in the afterglow, when Penny her head on Leonard's chest, looked up at him and asked worriedly, "Do you think the girls are OK?, Or do you think I should ring?".
"I'm sure they're fine and having the time of their lives with your Mom and Dad", he assured her.
Meanwhile at the Mall , (unknown to their parents), Angela was scared not only was she lost but she was also alone, and now unable to find her Sister, let alone her Grammy, she began to cry.
Meanwhile April too was feeling the same helplessness and panic as her sister.
Marcia sat in the managers office, and animatedly tried to convince him that she was just attempting to find her twin granddaughters and had every intention of paying for the dress. A whole hour had passed before the Police Officer, a certain Officer Davies, the manager had summoned, had the bright idea of checking the CCTV to see if she was telling the truth, ( To be fair though Officer Davies, though normally conscientious in her duties, she had been distracted by a cute blouse in a beautiful shade of pink, which would go very nicely with the skirt she had purchased last week and had been somewhat distracted by asking the manager if he had any in her size), so after viewing the video footage, Marcia was seen entering the store accompanied by her two granddaughters they then ran the video until the twins could be seen exiting the store and finally, at that point Marcia was allowed to pay for the dress, while Officer Davies called an APB for every Officer in the vicinity of the mall, to look out for the twins somewhere in the mall, and then Officer Davies gave out their description.
Unfortunately everyone was looking for two identical twins together, and not two individual girls on their own. So another fretful hour had passed, before Marcia found April, (April had literally ran into Marcia in a blind panic while trying to find her sister), then the search was narrowed down to looking for only one little girl. And after another hour had passed Angela was also found safe, to the tremendous relief of Marcia.
It was about half an hour before Angela was found that Wyatt had rung and asked Marcia, without going into too many details if she could get another identical dress for Honey Marie, as her own had somehow shrunk in the drier. So if Marcia could see if she could get one in that ladies and girls clothing store, Marcia often went to?, then that would be dandy, Wyatt had said. Marcia's reply to that was lost in the general noise of the mall, Fortunately for the delicate ears of the twins.
Marcia was fortunately able to find the dress in another store, while at the same time, keeping a careful eye on the twins and making doubly sure this time that she paid for the item before leaving the store, then with April carrying the bags, and Marcia, keeping a tight hold of the twins, made for her car and back to the farm to her immense relief.
Marcia was by this time absolutely shattered, so rather than start cooking, she decided to ask everyone what pizza they wanted, and then she ordered Take out.
Later after settling the girls down for the night Marcia and Wyatt wearily climbed into bed, both desperate for a night's rest.
But the Violent thunderstorm which broke out at about 01:30 am had other ideas and three frightened little girls rushed into their grandparents room and piled into the middle of the bed leaving Marcia and Wyatt to balance on the very edge of the mattress then an hour later, April had sat up and was violently ill throwing up her meat feast pizza all over the bed, (the Pizza was fine but the bottle of Coke Cola April had guzzled down without bringing up her wind before she ate her pizza, gave extra power and coverage to April's vomit)
.
Wyatt and Marcia wearily got up and cleaned the girls up and put them into clean pajamas before Marcia dumped all the bedding and nightwear into a bath of soapy water and then all five, entered Penny's room and got into bed. (as the storm was still raging outside. And once again the girls went in the middle and Wyatt and Marcia were perched on the outside edges).
Earlier back in Omaha, Penny & Leonard sat down to eat in the restaurant but though the restaurant was very nice and the food absolutely delicious, Penny just could not seem to relax and enjoy it, and it was exactly the same when they went dancing together later And Leonard could see that Penny's heart just was not in it at all. (which for Penny was highly unusual).
Finally Leonard admitted defeat and the pair headed back to their hotel, where Leonard due to over Indulging on the delicious food, had terrible indigestion all night and what with that and Penny snoring like a steam train, got even less sleep than Wyatt or Marcia did back at the farm.
"Come on honey time to get up and go", Penny shouted, and commenced shaking him into the bargain.
Leonard barely able to open his eyes and feeling his get up and go, had long since got up and went, glanced at the clock, and puzzled at the fact that he had seemed to have slept until the evening as it read 06:15. Then at once, he suddenly came wide awake with shock at seeing Penny washed, dressed and packed, and very eager to return to the farm, at the crack of dawn.
Leonard then wearily washed and dressed with Penny's continual urges ringing in his ears to speed up his progress
Fortunately Penny insisted on driving and Leonard thankfully dozed, and with Penny's driving he would have been very glad indeed that he did not witness her driving because of his slumber, as they say ignorance is bliss.
Finally with a screech of tires, the car ground to a halt in front of the house and a very lively and eager Penny dashed inside to hug her three girls and suggested how about they all went horse riding for the rest of the day, but then Penny became quite puzzled at the complete lack of enthusiasm shown by everyone else.
