Delia and Dr. Brown where off working out the play situation leaving Ephram alone. The two were working it out calmly and maturely, and Ephram hadn't gotten into trouble. Who in Hell saw that coming? Anyway, Ephram had discovered that, somewhere along the way, Jig had left a hat at his house. Knowing it was unlikely she would live without it, he left his own home with the hat in hand, and made his way to the Harper's house. It was dark outside, but the few lampposts reflected their light off of the slight snowfall that had occurred that afternoon increasing the ability to see. Ephram wrapped his coat a little tighter around him and turned onto Jig's block. It was a one-block street and consisted of four, maybe five good sized houses on each side. Jig's was right in the middle. The house had actually been in Irv's family for some time, Edna moved in when they got married. Ephram walked down the street until he was close enough to see and hear the two people standing on her porch. It was Jig and Orrie. Ephram, not really knowing why, hid behind a thick tree close to him so he could eavesdrop. His best friend and his cousin were an idea of interest to him.
He couldn't make out any actual words, but he could see and hear Jig and Orrie laugh every now and them. Ephram ducked down close to the snow level, not an easy thing to do at 5'11", and crept behind a closer tree. He got himself situated in this new position just in time to see Orrie lean over and kiss Jig. She moved her gloved had up around Orrie's neck and kissed him back. Ephram leaned out a bit farther, at this point not afraid of being seen. She could have waited for her hat. He had no reason to bring it over tonight. He shouldn't be here. He shouldn't be seeing this. He didn't want to be seeing this.
At this point something flew down from the tree and landed on Ephram's back. He yelled out in surprise and jumped fully out of the tree's hiding powers. He regained himself just in time to see the damned raccoon scamper off. He scoffed, straightened his jacket, and turned back to the porch. Jig and Orrie were both looking at him. Panicked he held her forgotten hat into the air.
"You left your hat at my house!" he called out to her. He then bent over and placed her hat in the snow, forty feet from the porch. He then nodded to them both, turned around, and retaining whatever dignity he had left, made his way back home.
Delia was asleep by the time the car pulled up in front of the house. Dr. Brown ran to the house first and opened the door. He then came back and carried his daughter through the door. When he carried her upstairs, he saw his son peeking out of his room, his music barely short of blaring. Dr. Brown and Ephram shared a nod and Ephram enclosed himself back in his room. Dr. Brown laid his daughter in her bed, removed her shoes, and closed the door behind him as he left. He knew about the play. He did. In Everwood it was impossible to not know something as big as a play. He hadn't asked why no one told him, or asked him to come. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know. But, this movie night, just him and Delia, that was good. Things were right now. Things were going too well for Dr. Brown to worry about this. Ephram was happy with his friends, Delia had friends, and Star… Oh yea… Well, things were going sort of well. Things could be worse. Things were bad. Things were very, very, bad.
Ephram was walking down the hallway, bobbing his head from side to side in tune with the music he was listening to. He passed Desi in the hallway and nodded to her. She responded by ducking into the girl's bathroom. He would have given some thought to the action but he found himself being clobbered from behind. He removed his headphones and found Jig walking next to him, her arm hung around his neck and shoulders. She waved a sheet from a newspaper in front of him excitedly.
"Ephram look!" she yelled to him. He looked at the newspaper. It was the movie listings.
"What?" he asked her. She removed her arm from his neck and pointed to the illustration of a small girl looking over her right shoulder.
"Spirited Away! It's playing in Denver! Orrie and I are going to go this Friday, you're coming with us, right!" Jig told him. Ephram's excited smile faded at the invitation.
"You're inviting me out on your date?" he asked her in surprise. She laughed.
"It's not a date, it's anime, Ephram. Now come on, you're coming right? I mean, it's Spirited Away!" Jig told him excitedly. Ephram nodded and Jig started jumping up and down in delight.
"Good. We'll leave right after school on Friday, get home around nine or so. Oh I can't wait! This is going to be so incredibly cool!" Jig said. Ephram laughed slightly. Then, out of seemingly no where, Desi walked up from behind Ephram, kissed his cheek, and ran past Jig and down an adjacent hallway. Ephram raised his hand slowly to his cheek and he and Jig stood still a few moments in shocked silence.
"What exactly happened between you two in the woods?" Jig asked him.
"Nothing worthy of that," he replied, taking his hand down from his cheek, realizing he had placed it there.
"I'll talk to her about it later."
"So what, you two are friends now?"
"I guess so."
"She doesn't take any of your time away from Orrie does she?" Ephram asked beginning to walk down the hall again. Jig followed him.
"Oh that's right, you saw the little kiss thing."
" 'Little kiss thing?' "
"Okay, okay. Big kiss thing. I was so sure my knees were going to buckle under me. It was weird. I've been kissed before, but nothing like that! Of course all of the other times were Isaac…"
"Isaac! Again with Isaac! Who the Hell is this guy?" Ephram demanded from her. Jig bit her lower lip, which was appearing to be a family trait.
"A friend…" she said quickening her pace.
"A 'friend' huh? He travels all over the world, buys you nice things, pays for your mother's funeral, and kisses you? How do you have a friend who can…?" Ephram started but decided it better to leave unfinished. Jig turned to him.
"Who can what? Afford all of that? How can I possibly have wealthy friends, right? I'm just some poor little girl from the ruined side of town! Some people aren't lucky enough to be born with money like you Ephram, some people actually earn it!" she yelled and stormed away from him. Ephram sighed and rubbed the space between his eyes.
"I guess I hit a nerve then!" he yelled after her. Actually, he knew as well as she did that little "upset" thing was a dodge. She acted like that just to get out of answering his question. She knew he didn't think of her like that, money didn't matter between them. Isaac was probably dead, wasn't he?
She couldn't dump them! The very idea was ridiculous! Coming from Ephram's aunt too. What a wing nut. "There's no love here." What did she know anything about? Of course Amy loved them. At least one of them. She couldn't dump them! Especially Colin… Ephram was fit and surrounded by friends, he might be able to take it, and Jig would help. But Colin was sick. It'd be horrible if he should suddenly remember who she was, and then "oh yea, by the way, let's break up!" That would be wrong. Star was right about that. Amy can't let Colin go. Not until he's himself again. Can't let Ephram go. There's too much. Then the idea of Star being completely right crept into Amy's mind. Maybe she didn't love either of them, and should let them go. Let them find the one who will truly love them. Them… Love isn't supposed to be in terms of "them." Maybe Star was right. A frightening thought, but, maybe…
That kiss didn't exactly have the alluring effect Star probably intended it to have. "Alluring" was not really a good word for Desi. "Awkward" worked better for her. What a miserable little thing she did. Kissed him on the cheek and ran off. With Jig there too. They were probably laughing at her now. It probably would have made the school newspaper if she weren't the head of it. Desi was walking down one of the hallways now, clutching herself and looking at everyone as if they knew what she had done. How she had embarrassed herself. "The mayor's daughter was involved in a kiss and run incident this afternoon. There were no survivors." What a miserable thing. Desi would need a shrink to help her get over all of the things her shrink did to her. When was Dr. Trott coming back to town? She certainly wasn't going to be out of work. She'd be out of work like a fireman after a tornado. Or a plowman after a blizzard. Or anything else along the lines of cleaning up after a disaster. And Desi was going to be first in line. Dr. Star Cather was just not good for her general well being. Speaking of which, Desi noticed Cory walking down the hall in her direction. Watching this guy walk down the hall was like watching the parting of the Red Sea. No one wanted anything to do with this guy, and the feeling seemed to be mutual. He did, however, give Desi a nice long intimidating stare as he passed her. Desi shivered down to her toes. Ephram's cousin and Orrie's brother? In what universe?
Dr. Abbott stood in the kitchen slicing a carrot twice the size of any carrot he had ever seen before, and Rose stood next to him, doing the same to some celery. He was preparing to make the only recipe his father had ever taught him, and he did so with delight. His wife let out a troubled sigh and Dr. Abbott knew the joy of cooking was not now mutual. He let out a small sigh as well and started the conversation.
"Tough day at work?" he asked her, figuring that was the origin of the depleted sigh.
"No worse than usual," she replied. He nodded. So it wasn't work.
"How's you father doing?"
"No worse than usual," she repeated. So it wasn't her parents.
"Amy and Bright are doing well, wouldn't you say?"
"No worse than usual," she repeated, again. Dr. Abbott frowned. So it wasn't the children. That left one thing left.
"What have I done?" he asked her. She sighed and turned to him. He prepared himself for the attack.
"I think we should make an appointment to see Dr. Cather!" Rose confessed. Dr. Abbott missed cutting his thumb off by an inch.
"What?" he asked her completely confused.
"I think there are some things we need to discuss."
"With a shrink!"
"With a licensed professional who can help us, Harold."
"Rose, honey, please, is there anyway we can not do this?" Dr. Abbott pleaded. Rose shrugged.
"We never did take those salsa lessons…" Rose said. Dr. Abbott paused and swallowed.
"Can I have some time to think about this?" he asked her.
"You have twenty four hours."
