The Douglas Farm

Lisa woke up the next morning to find her husband already gone. She sat up in bed and tried to remember what day it was. It's Friday, Lisa finally remembered, which means only two more weeks until the ball. But that was still a long wait, and it seemed that time was passing by slower than usual. Oh vell, she thought, all I can do is find vays to entertain myself.

Lisa remembered that she still needed to make Oliver's breakfast, so she got out of bed and freshened up a bit before heading to the kitchen.

Oliver had already made his coffee when he saw his wife enter the room. "Good morning, dahling," he heard her say in her thick accent. "Good morning, dear," he greeted her back as he leaned up to her to give her a kiss. "How do you sleep?" he asked after receiving it.

"Fine, dahling. Let me start your breakfast. Vhat vould you like?" Lisa asked.

"Eggs would be fine."

"All right. How vould you like them?"

"Fried, please."

"Coming right up." Lisa said cheerfully. She walked over to the refrigerator, only to find that there were no more eggs. She then proceeded to walk outside to find Alice. "Alice! Alice," she called. Before she could call her a third time, Alice the chicken came walking up to Lisa.

"Good morning, Alice. I hate to be a bother, but ve are out of eggs. Ve need four, if you don't mind." Lisa said as she put the empty bowl she was carrying on the ground. As if she knew exactly what her owner wanted, Alice sat down on the bowl and proceeded to lay four perfectly identical eggs. Lisa picked up the bowl, smiled, thanked the chicken, and then turned to go back into the house. Once there, she proceeded to put four whole eggs into a pan and let them "fry".

Oliver looked up and noticed the uncracked eggs in the pan. "Uh, Lisa," he began, "I don't think that's…never mind, I have to go into Drucker's anyway."

"Vhy?" Lisa asked.

"Well, since you already took care of two of the ball committees, I have to go see how the others are coming along, and the only committee left is run by Mr. Drucker and Mr. Kiley."

"Oh," was her only response.

"I have to go. Oh, and I want to be there when Mr. Drucker makes the posters so I probably won't be home for a while, so don't hold lunch for me."

"All right, dahling."

"See you later." Oliver said as he turned to go.

"Olivah!" Lisa exclaimed. "Aren't you going to kiss me goodbye?"

Oliver turned back to her and gave her a peck on the cheek. "It figures." Lisa said sarcastically under her breath.

"What was that?" Oliver asked.

"Nothing. Be careful vhile you drive, dahling." Lisa said.

"I vill." Oliver said mockingly. "Bye."

And once again, Lisa was left alone with nothing to do but wait for the ball to finally arrive.

Druker's General Store

Oliver walked in to Mr. Druker's store to find Mr. Drucker sorting mail. "Good morning, Mr. Drucker." Oliver greeted him.

"Oh, good morning, Mr. Douglas. Anything I can do for you?"

"Actually, I came to talk to you about the ball. How's the music committee coming along?"

"Oh, fine. Newt found a great jazz band that can impersonate any artist and can sing any song you like. And for ten dollars extra, they say they'll actually wear tuxedos!"

"Uh, great." Oliver said skeptically. "Anyway, what about the advertisement committee?"

"That's coming along great, too. Here, come to the back. I want to show you something."

Mr. Drucker led Oliver to the back room where he kept a printing machine. He pulled out a copy of his newspaper and showed Oliver an ad in the corner of the first page. It read, "Opening of New Civic Center to be Celebrated with a Ball".

"See, it gives people all the information they need to know. It's going to come out everyday until the day of the ball. What do you think?"

"That's fine, Mr. Drucker. Good work."

"Thanks, Mr. Douglas. Now all that's left to do is make the flyers to put up over the valley. But the only trouble is, I don't know what you want them to look like."

"Well, you're in luck, Mr. Drucker. I cleared the whole afternoon to help you with the ads."

"Great! Then let's get started."

As Mr. Drucker searched for some paper to make plans for the flyers, Oliver couldn't help but marvel at how well everything was going. He was certain that one of the colorful characters here in Hooterville was bound to louse the ball up some how, but apparently he was wrong. This were running a long smoothly and they were ahead of schedule in their planning. Nothing can go wrong now, Oliver thought, as they began drawing up the blueprints.

He had no idea how wrong he was.

The Douglas Farm, late in the afternoon

Then sun was setting low in the horizon while Lisa was sitting on the couch reading a magazine. She was beginning to wonder what was taking her husband so long when she heard some one sneeze behind her. She turned around to see Eb standing behind, his eyes puffy and watery and his nose red.

"Bless you. My goodness, Eb, is your cold still that bad." Lisa asked concerned.

"I'm afraid so, Mrs. Douglas." Eb said in a congested voice. He blew his nose and tried to take a deep breath but ended up giving himself a coughing fit. Lisa ran into the kitchen, poured a glass of water, and ran back into the living to give it to Eb. He took it from her quickly and took a long sip. After a few more sips, his coughs finally subsided.

"Vhat are you doing out of bed anyvay?" Lisa inquired.

"It's too dark up there. Ever since a fuse blew in my electricity, all I've had as a light source is this old lantern. I can't even read comics after the sun sets anymore. I got bored."

"Eb, that's no excuse. You shouldn't be out of bed vhen you're so sick. You go back to bed straight avay, and I'll bring you your lunch."

"I appreciate the thought, Mrs. Douglas, but I couldn't eat a bite."

"I understand. But before you go, did you take the medicine the doctor gave you?"

"Well...uh…not exactly." Eb confessed sheepishly.

"Eb! You von't get better unless you take your medicine. Now come on. Let's go into the kitchen and take your medicine, then you can take a nice, long nap."

"But Mrs. Douglas, I hate the taste of medicine!"

"No excuses," Lisa said while pouring him the allotted amount. "Now drink."

With a disgusted look on his face, Eb downed the medicine as fast as he could. After making sure he indeed drank all the medicine, Lisa relit Eb's lantern and sent him to bed. "Now, the doctor said the medicine vill make you drowsy, so you don't have to vorry about reading any comics, you should fall asleep right avay."

"Yes, ma'am. Good night." Eb said as he turned to leave.

"Good night, Eb." Lisa responded, handing him his lantern.

Eb took the lantern and headed for his room in the loft in the barn. Eb could already feel the affects of the medicine as he climbed the lantern to his room. Boy, Mrs. Douglas sure was right about the drowsy part, he thought to himself as he lay down on his bed. Eb knew he still had to get undressed and turn off his lantern, but at the moment he didn't care. He put his lantern on the side of his bed close to the edge of the loft, laid his head back onto his pillow, and soon he was fast asleep. Eb never would have imagined how great of a disaster that one moment of neglection would cause, for at that moment, his arm, which hung over the edge of the bed, nudged the lantern. The lantern fell over the edge of the loft and landed next to a pile of hay. The lit lantern shattered and exposed flame set the dry hay on fire. Eleanor the cow mooed loudly as if to warn someone of the danger, but Eb was too deep in sleep to notice. In a matter of two minutes, half of the barn was on fire, with Eb and Eleanor trapped inside.