Chapter 9

Amy called the local power company when the lights had been off for more than an hour. As she hung up, a loud crash came from the living room. She ran out, thinking that the tv had fallen, only to find that somehow they had pushed back the couch to form a stage for their game. She took in the charades papers in Roni's hands, and the thought crossed her mind that somehow she had gotten through the lock to her room.

"Hey, Amy, want to play?" Roni asked.

A chorus of "Yeah, come on!" came from the others.

"Sure, why not?" Amy said, thinking of the math problems on her desk. She joined the people on the couch, cringing at the way they were sitting on it, and played along.

"Alright, Elijah...your turn." Roni said as she sat down, pointing at the slips of paper in the bowl on the table.

Lij got up and grabbed a slip on the way to the "stage". He read it for a moment, then shook his head. He visibly sighed and threw the paper into the "done" pile. He held up two fingers, then did a video camera motion with his hands, then drew a star in the air. Movie Character, two words. First thing he did was point to himself. That was all he got to do, because Roni shouted out the answer right before he got onto both knees.

"Frodo Baggins!!!"

Elijah stood up, shaking his head, as the other players mumbled.

Roni got up and grabbed a slip of paper. Her smile faltered. How in the world was she supposed to do this one? She dropped the paper into the "done" pile and sat there, a blank look on her face, for a good five minutes.

"Movie, book, how many words?" Amy asked.

Roni held up three fingers, then held up her hands as though they were an open book.

"Book, three words." Elijah said.

Roni acted as though she were pumping gas into a car.

"Last Chance Texaco!" Amy shouted.

"Very good!" Roni shouted back as she traded places with her. Amy took a slip from the bowl, looked at it, then tossed it into the "done" pile.

Amy went up to the "stage" and motioned a video camera, then held up three fingers.

"Movie, three words." Billy interpreted.

Amy nodded, then started to hop up and down, almost like she was on a horse. Roni knew it right away, but decided to let one of the other guys get a chance.

She rode the horse for a bit, then mimed pulling out a lance and getting struck by one in turn. Dom jumped up, shouting,"A Knight's Tale!"

Amy nodded and took his place on the couch.

Dom took a slip from the bowl, glanced at it, laughed, then threw it on the "done" pile. He walked onto the stage and made the signs for movie character,three words. Then he made to look like one of his hands was a gun, his other holding it.

Orlando did the James Bond theme song in the back of his throught. Everyone laughed as he said, "Bond, James Bond. 007."

Dom gave him a high five as they passed each other, he to the couch, Orlando to the stage.

Orlando picked up his slip of paper, read it, reread it and sighed. He put it in the pile and cleared his throat a few times. Then he started to act. He had probably done this scene before, because he did it with ease. Roni was the first one to shout what the others echoed, "Romeo and Juliet!" She said it again, because, well, Roni likes echoes...Orlando blew her a kiss while she read her bit of paper. "Oh, goodie!" she thought.

She stood in the middle of the "stage" and mimed drawing a sword. She swung it around a few times, making "battle faces". She seemes to cut someone's head off, then run to the side of a fallen comrade. Billy shakes his head, and throws a cushion at Roni's head, interrupting her heart-breaking performance. "It's Aragorn...geesh, can't you guys come up with anything that doesn't have to do with Lord of the Rings?"

Roni opened her mouth to reply when the lights suddenly snapped back on, surprising all of them and forcing a few of them to clap their hands over their eyes. Adjusting to the brightness, the game of charades was ended. "Lucky me," thought Roni, "they were just about to massacre me."

Amy looked at the clock on the wall. "Guys, we got work to do tomorrow. I'm not waiting for ya'll lazy bones, bus pulls out at nine." Everyone groaned as she walked back to her room.

"Or whenever I get up," Roni said to her retreating form, "But she is right, guys...party's over." She and Elijah rounded everyone up into their cars, and as she was walking out of the door, Roni shouted to Amy's room, "Be back in an hour or so. Lij and I are bringing people home."

Amy shouted back,"Ok."

Roni, Billy and Orlando were in the Explorer.

Elijah, Dominic and a newly-awakened Viggo, fresh from the bathroom, went in Lij's car.

Billy sat in the front, and Orlando in the back, which was fine with the both of them, seems how Billy's hotel was closer, and would be dropped off first. Orlando could just claim his seat when he had gone. That is what he did when they had finished saying good-bye and hugging the Scotsman.

From the front seat, Orlando had a rough time directing Roni to his out-of-the-way hotel room. "It keeps me further away from the press and media." he said, by way of explanation.

She got lost three times and was on the way to making another wrong turn when Orlando grabbed her arm and stilled it with his fingers,"Relax," he said softly,"I know you can drive better than this. Is it me?"

After Roni left, Amy came out of her room and looked around at the messy house. Blankets had been pushed to a corner, cups and paper plates had somehow missed the garbage can, and she even found a baked beans can on the stove top where someone had forgoten that a such thing as a pan existed. When she looked into the microwave, she found a six pack of coke. "Wrong door, people." She said, as she put that in the fridge, shaking her head.

"Ummm," Roni stalled, trying very hard not to expose her true thoughts, which were,"Ohmigod, he is touching me, he is touching me, he is touching me," and so on. "No, it's just that I am not used to being this far away from town, and I don't want to get lost out here. Stuff like that makes me nervous. I don't like being nervous when I am driving, because then, I lose track of where I am and where I have come from and stuff like that, and sometimes when I get nervous, I start to ramble on about pointless stuff, kinda like I am doing now, and I end up sounding like a crazy person, or some escaped convict, who goes around talking people's ears off for no apparent..."

Orlando stuck his pointer finger in front of her yammering lips. "Hush." he said, quietly, gently silencing her with his digit. "Pull over, so you are not blocking traffic. Then, we will talk."

She didn't even notice that she was sitting at a stop sign, engine still running, like her mouth.

Amy inspected the tv and found a disk hanging behind, so she pulled it out. She had not expected someone's sock to be stuck to it with gum. The other one was found in the freezer a few days later.

As she went into the bathroom, she found Viggo's wallet in the soap dish in the bath tub. She took that out into the living room and put it on the table along with the sock.

The last things she found were a few hobbit feet just hanging around the house. One was under the sofa, one in the pile of blankets, the third and fourth were found in the washer and dryer. She sat down on the sofa, shaking her head, and turned on the local weather station.

"Now," Orlando started, turning in his seat to face her. "What is the matter?"

"Umm, nothing...?" Roni said, hoping he would buy it and leave her alone.

No such luck. He shook his head and raised his eyebrows at her.

"Oh, alright," she sighed. "I have had a crush on you since 'Black Hawk Down', and never in my life would I have believed that I would be sitting in my car, lost in New Zealand, with you."

As Amy was sitting on the sofa, she felt something hard beneath her. She got up to find the item, and came up with a Shard of Narsil. She heard the phone ring, and she picked up on the fourth ring due to the fact that the phone was missing. It was Viggo.

"Is this Amy or Roni?"

"Amy."

"Hey, did you find my..."

"Yes."

"What about the, ah..."

"Yes. Come on over and get them."

"'Cay, I'll be over in a bit."

She hung up with him, counted to three before the phone rang again.

"So, that is it, then...?"

"Yeah, honest to god truth."

"Whew...that is a relief. Last time something like this happened, some guy told me that he thought he was my long-lost brother."

"Wow. Scary..."

"Alright, then. Ready?"

Roni nodded and smiled. "Yeah."

Orlando directed her, correctly, to his hotel room, and she parked to say goodbye, til next time.

Orlando wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her into a crushing hug. All was right in the world, until he kissed her on the forehead. Yeah, she melted. The works. Toe-curling, knee-mushing, breath-stopping, everything. He let her go and started to walk for the elevator door. She went to get back into the car, but his voice stopped her.

"Roni?" he cried.

She turned around to see him holding the doors to the elevator open.

He smiled before saying,"Happy Birthday, sweetheart."