"Hi Lucy," Ricky said, while walking in the door about 3:30.
"Hello, Ricky," Lucy said, looking up from a magazine. "Did you enjoy your day?"
"Yep. You'll never guess who I ran into on the golf course," Ricky said, taking a seat on the couch.
"Who?"
"Mr. Jacobs."
"The new owner of the club?"
"Yeah, I invited him to dinner tonight. His daughter's coming, too. And please try to make it better than what we had for breakfast."
"Well, I'll try. Uh, Ricky, Mr. Jacobs isn't the only one who's coming for dinner. Someone stopped by today, and I invited him." Lucy said.
"Oh yeah?" Ricky asked, "Who is it?"
"Well... he's someone we haven't seen in a while," Lucy said.
"Okay, but who is it?"
"The Mertzes know him --"
"Who is it?"
"Well... it's... it's, uh..."
"Lucy..."
"Cousin Ernie?"
"Cousin Ernie?! What's he doin' here? He's gonna' make a bad impression in front of Mr. Jacobs."
"Now Ricky, you don't know that. Just be thankful he's not staying with us. He said he's got a hotel room. He's just coming over for dinner, and that's it! He said he came all the way out here, just to spend a few days with us, so what else could I do?"
Ricky nodded, and said angrily, "Okay. He can come. But if he gets out of hand, he leaves."
"Oh, Ricky!"
-----
At about 4:30, Ernie was walking around town, just looking around. He was trying to meet some people. Just passing time 'till 5. He said 'hi' to some people. Some had said 'hi' back - some had just ignored him. Then he saw a girl, and decided to try to talk to her. She had light brown eyes, and light brown hair that fell a little below her shoulder. She was carrying shopping bags and boxes from various stores. He walked up to her, "Howdy."
She looked at him, then smiled sweetly, "Well, hi there."
"Can I help ya' with some o' those?" he asked.
She shrugged, "Sure." Then she gave him a few boxes. "Do you live around here?" she asked. "'Cause I'm new in this town, and I need somebody to show me around."
He shook his head, "Nope. I'm just visitin'."
"Oh," she said, then she stopped by a parked car, "This is my car. Hold on and I'll get the trunk so you can put those things in." She set her bags down, and pulled out her key. He put everything in for her, she thanked him, then she left. He tried talking to a few more people, but finally he got bored, and decided to go to the Ricardo's.
-----
"Don't worry, Ricky. I'm not gonna' burn it. It's just about ready to take out, and when Ernie and Mr. Jacobs and his daughter get here, it will have cooled off just enough." Lucy said.
"Okay, but--"
Ricky was interrupted by someone knocking on the door.
"Now leave me alone Ricky, everything will be fine. Go get the door."
Ricky nodded and left.
Lucy cringed when she heard, "Howdy Cousin Ricky!"
Oh no, she thought.
Everything in the kitchen was all set, so she decided to go make sure the conversation between Ricky and Ernie was okay.
"Ernie!" she exclaimed. She looked up at the clock on the wall. "You're 15 minutes early."
"I know," Ernie said. "But I was out tryin' to meet people, and nobody seemed to wanna' meet me. So, I decided since it was almost 5:00, that I should just come on over!"
"Oh," said Ricky, sounding surprised. "And nobody wanted to talk to you."
"Well, this one girl did."
"Really," said Lucy happily, "What was her name?"
Ernie shrugged, "I don't know. She didn't tell me."
"Did you tell her your name?" Ricky asked.
Ernie shook his head, "No, I didn't think about it. You don't suppose that's why she didn't tell me hers, do you?"
"Could be--" Ricky started.
But Ernie interrupted him, "Cousin Lucy, are you cookin' somethin'?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fixing a roast for dinner."
"You lookin' to serve it black?" Ernie asked innocently.
"No, why-- Oh no!" Lucy said, then ran into the kitchen. When she came back she asked, "How 'bout we go out to dinner?"
"Lucy, you didn't." Ricky said.
"Ricky, I said I'd try to cook it good. I didn't say I'd be successful at it."
"Do we have anything that you can make in 15 minutes."
Lucy thought, then said, "Sure. We have some hamburgers."
"Oh, great. The guy buys a nightclub, and I'm gonna' serve him a hamburger. I'm sure he'll be impressed."
"Oh Ricky, calm down. You're getting upset for no reason at all!"
"Hey, you two. There's no need to start a fight." Ernie said.
"He's right Ricky," Lucy said. "We're just wasting time."
"Yeah, alright. But what if you burn the hamburgers. Then what?" Ricky asked.
"Well..." Lucy started. But she didn't know what to say.
"I'll cook 'em for ya'," Ernie offered.
Lucy and Ricky both stared at him. "You?" Ricky asked, surprised.
"Yeah," Ernie nodded.
"We could let him try Ricky. It wouldn't hurt anything." Lucy suggested.
Ricky nodded, "Okay. He can try. But back to my question, 'What do we do if they get burned?'"
"Let's not think about that unless we have to," Lucy said. Then she turned to Ernie, and pointed to the kitchen, "You know where everything is."
Ernie went into the kitchen, then Lucy told Ricky, "At least he couldn't do any worse than me."
"Well he better hurry, he's down to..." Ricky looked at the clock, "7 minutes."