Where Did the Time Go? : Part XXXV

The early spring warm-snap was holding, at least for a couple more days. A chill wind was due to blow in from the north on Sunday, but for Friday night, at least, it was pleasantly warm, even a touch humid. Were the spring just a tad further along, Kim would have been worried about storms kicking up. Instead the night sky over downtown Middleton was crystal clear with only an occasional wisp of cloud to give the beautiful sky visual interest.

Despite the early crowd, mainly made up of parents and children enjoying the assorted entertainments that preceded the night's parade and fireworks display, Kim was walking alone. If her father had know she would be out, by herself at night he would have almost certainly vetoed such a plan. It didn't matter how much martial arts training or how much combat experience she had, she was still a one hundred and five pound young woman. In that day and age it just wasn't a wise thing to do, especially dressed the way she was.

Kim would have never imagined actually feeling uncomfortable in her short black dress. Physically it fit her perfectly and the only mechanical discomfort involved was having to remember to move in a 'ladylike' fashion so she wouldn't give anyone a peek she didn't want them to have. No, her discomfort didn't come from the way the dress fit or from the pleasantly warm night air or even from the dark red platform sandals she had on. It was all inside her head.

She had worn it only on relatively few occasions, the first time on this very Friday a year earlier. Under the influence of Cyrus Bortel's Moodulators she had put it on to impress Ron, though she knew all along he would have been impressed if she had shown up in rags. She hadn't told him this, but until the device on her neck failed, she had every intention of having her way with him that night. She didn't know how that would have played out when he tried to let her down easy if the thing hadn't changed setting unexpectedly. Somehow she felt she would have gotten her way. Ron may be the greatest guy on the planet but the operative word there was guy.

No, that wasn't quite right either. She smiled to herself as she slowly made her way through the crowd. Ron was putting his love for her and their friendship before the chance of having that kind of a relationship. Much as she wished it could have been different, that both their eyes were opened earlier, it wasn't yet time for them to realize just how much in love with each other they were. The intensity of their love for each other was so great, if they had begun that night at such a point, they very well may have burned so brightly the would be consumed.

Part of her discomfort was the memory of that night. The city looked exactly the same as it had then. People lining the streets, preparing for a big party, reveling in the supreme fortune of having it on such a fine night. That brought all the emotions, the real ones hidden just under the surface of the artificially heightened ones, right back to her. The terror she felt about what she was doing but was powerless to stop. The shame that rocked her even as she lifted Ron's body into the air.

There was also the bitter feeling of disappointment she felt when she collapsed onto her bed, soaking her Pandaroo with tears. It wasn't until a couple months later that she realized just what had caused that emotional outburst. The morning after she simply put it to an aftereffect of the Moodulator. It wasn't until she was kissing Ron at the Prom for real that she realized she was disappointed something real hadn't come of that night.

The other reason she was uncomfortable was the fresh memory of the last time she had the dress on. That was just pure embarrassment, being out dressed like that in the dead of winter with a blizzard raging all around them. She laughed slightly to herself, glad that wasn't what she had her picture taken in for the yearbook.

Her smile got a little wider. It took the twelfth time to actually get it right. The picture came back beautiful. Nothing untoward showing on her face, nothing stuck to her teeth, no 'bats in the cave' to embarrass her. Her dress looked perfect too. Something must have finally gone click in Nana's head since the outfit she sent this year was pretty, stylish and actually fit her. It didn't make guy's eyeball pop out of their head like the one she had on right then, but it was still going to be seen plenty as Spring finally took hold. Ron's eyes almost glazed over when he saw her in it.

She stopped and opened her purse, the smile slowly fading. She was wearing her big red bangles, so there wasn't any place for a watch. That meant she had to rely on her Kimmunicator to know what time it actually was. In fact, her little blue omni-communications device was just about the only thing different about her that night, save for her wearing the emerald earrings instead of the bakelite red ones she wore last year.

It was a quarter past seven. That worried her just a bit. Ron said he was going to meet her there at seven sharp. That in itself was strange. They almost always began their dates at home, sometimes never even managing to leave, choosing instead just some private time in front of the television or the fire place. Kim wanted to make the most of their off-time and so did Ron. Meeting downtown for the festival was…weird. Ferociously weird.

Ron's up to something weird.

Her finger hovered over her Kimmunicator for just a moment. All she had to do was touch two keys and it would call Ron (if he actually remembered to have the blame thing with him.) Slowly her hand drifted away from it. If something was wrong, she would have felt it in her bones already. If he was up to something else, well, then she would just have to trust him.

Still, his being late made her a touch grumpy.

Kim sat down on the window ledge of a storefront (carefully crossing her legs as she did so.) In a few minutes she was going to call Ron anyway, just to make sure he was okay. It so wasn't like him to be missing out on any potential date time.

She was on the outer edge of the area set aside for the food vendors which, incidentally, was right next to where all the portable 'spinny' rides were running. An awful thought crossed her mind that Ron might have already hit the food concourse and been tempted to ride something, resulting in a prodigious mess.

All the usual suspects were there: Elephant ears, funnel cakes, roasted corn, various and sundry forms of fried or grilled meat on pita bread, cotton candy, popcorn. It was all there. Even Bueno Nacho had a tent set up, though instead of simply recreating the fare served in the restaurant, which was only a short walk away, they were handing out samples of their new frozen Chimiritos. At least she was glad Ron hadn't been roped into doing that since that meant he would have tried to get her to help out as well and even though she would never admit it directly to him, he had a couple weapons equally as powerful as her puppy-dog-pout. In fact, he was getting to where he could do that as well, its effect only heightened by his puppy-like brown eyes.

Her tongue stuck out at the thought of standing there, handing little cut up bits of greasy Chimirito to everyone who came by, all the while having a big fake smile plastered on her face until it hurt from the strain.

A little rumble started in her belly. It had technically been Ron's turn to bring their mid-day meal but he begged off because of a project he was working on for school. That was fine with Kim, since she had learned somebody was bringing a 'Fruits of the Sea" platter for the Senior Table. Ron launched into a short monologue about what on that tray would be considered okay within a Kosher diet, which wasn't much, right before diving in and getting a little of everything there. He may have been becoming slightly more devout, but he most def didn't keep Kosher.

The problem when somebody brought those platters to share, everybody managed to get a little but nobody got a lot so she was almost famished. The frozen Tex-Mex was looking better and better to her all the time. Her eyes went from booth to booth, weighing the deliciosity against the nutriciocity of the fare at each one, none of them really doing to well in her mind with the possible exception of simple stuff like hot dogs or corn dogs.

The lines didn't bode well either. This would be most people's dinner time, so there were lots of hungry folks lined up for some grub. By the time she actually waited through one Ron would likely be there and he'd want some too, making her either share what she got or stand in line once more.

One booth in particular caught her attention. It was a simple yellow and white rental tent, without the complicated, colorful banners of all the rest. There was a sign but it was obscured by the line and what a line it was. There were easily four times as many people in that line as any other vendor in the place.

Something started tickling the back of her mind.

Ron said meet her there at the food vendors at seven, then he disappeared after arranging a ride home for her with Hope. He didn't even stick around for cheer practice, something to do with the big project he was working on.

Kim started walking toward the booth, her feet moving of their own volition. The people in line were craning their heads, trying their best to see what was going on inside the tent. She tried looking inside as well, but the crowd was pressed in too tightly and she once again regretted being a little on the short side at five foot five inches.

More out of curiosity than anything else, she went and stood at the back of the line. That's when she finally saw the small, elegantly printed sign proclaiming who that particular vendor was.

Ron wasn't late, he was already there!

Two nights earlier Ron had been enjoying watching Kim eat. She was tearing into what was actually a quite large steak with obvious gusto. Considering the amount of energy she constantly burned she deserved such a treat every once and a while.

Even though she was devouring the medium rare Porterhouse as fast as she seemingly could, she would never match Ron for speed when it came to downing food. He could simply open his mouth and shovel it in. Kim could do anything, but her mouth was only so big. At least in a Texas Roadhouse style place, with peanut shells all over the floor, she didn't have to make any pretense of eating in a 'ladylike' fashion. In fact, she was coming to enjoy places like this where she could let her guard down a little. It beat eating the same food and paying three times as much while having to worry about which fork to eat what with or whether she was going to get something on her dress.

"Ron…" chew, chew, pick, swallow, "you really need to try your hand at grilling like this."

"I dabble." He grinned, remembering how he managed to rescue everyone from James Possible's unfortunate grilling skills at the Possible Labor Day Picnic (with the help of Kim's little brothers who managed to almost put their father's home-made propane grill into orbit.)

"I don't just mean burgers, Honey. I mean meat. Huge hunks of meat grilled over an open flame, some of it with spices like this, some where it's just the meat. I bet you'd have folks lined up for miles if you opened a place like this doing that." She shoved another huge bite of meat in her mouth, chewing heartily.

A light bulb went off in his head.

Begging off continuing their impromptu Wednesday night date after dinner, he headed straight home after dropping her off. He found both his parents in the kitchen, simply enjoying each other's company after a nice quiet dinner together at home.

"Dad, I need your help with something. You too, Mom."

"Sure, Ronald. What is it?"

"I found out today we've got to come up with a lot of money so we can even have out Prom this year."

Gene shook his head. "I thought we talked about this."

"No, Dad. I don't mean pulling money out of my trust fund to do it. I'm thinking of a way I can help earn some of that money for the school."

That had both his parent's full attention, especially his father's. They both looked at each other, then back to him after he finished explaining what he wanted to try doing.

"You're cutting it awfully close, considering you have only one full day to get ready." His father said finally.

"I know. I only found out we needed the money today and I only got the idea while KP and I were having dinner."

"Okay, let's go for it. We haven't got a moment to lose." His father folded up his paper and headed for his office.

Ron headed for his room and pulled out his cell-phone. Kim wasn't the only one who was capable of calling in favors.

Kim stepped out of the line, grinning from ear to ear. It only took a heartbeat for her place to be filled in, but she had no intention of waiting in that line. It was slow going, but she made her way back up to the head of it, apologizing as she squeezed her way past the onlookers who had either already been through the line or simply wanted to gawk at the spectacle.

It took her a moment, but she recognized the three young women working the tightly packed round tables inside the tent. They were all her age or very slightly older and all three were quite attractive. That didn't bother her in the least, knowing why they were there. In fact, one of them had waited on them at their double date the previous Friday.

They were the three waitresses who had been working at Muddrakker's the night of the blizzard.

That only held her attention for a split second. Her eyes immediately went to a small podium set up at the entrance of the large tent. Sitting on it was Rufus, wearing a trim black dinner jacket. As one couple came to the head of the line he squeaked "How many?"

Kim's smile got even brighter as she looked at the cooking area.

Ron was there, busy with a two other assistants. He was wearing black slacks and a tie but that wasn't what had her grinning so broadly. It was the white chef's hat and double breasted jacket that held her gaze.

He broke out into a huge grin himself when he spotted her standing there. He was in his element, doing what he was seemingly born to do. In the space of two days he had re-created Chez Ronald at the Middleton Days Festival.

"Now, if you good folks will excuse me for just a little bit, I have something special prepared for the most beautiful woman in Middleton." He pulled out a large pair of grilling tongs and took two small steaks from the large food service grill he had set up. "Now for the final ingredient, a special mix of spices I've mixed myself, and we know what that means!" He took a shaker and lightly seasoned the two filets.

"Booyah!" The crowd chanted a few times as he plated the food, adding several asparagus stalks to the side. Setting one of the plates down for a moment, he motioned for Kim.

She laughed heartily as he led her to a small table set up behind the tent. They were in the middle of a small courtyard between two downtown buildings. A white tablecloth was spread on it and a single candle burned in the middle.

"Ron, what in the world are you doing?" She said as he held her chair for her.

"Just doing my part so we can have the most bon-diggity Prom in the history of Middleton High School." He took his hat off and set it aside.

"You did all this? Was this the big project you've been working on?"

"Yup. Better eat that before it gets cold."

Kim spread a napkin in her lap and cut into the filet. Even though they were using plastic tableware she could have cut it with a spork, let alone the more proper knife and fork that had been laid out for them. Taking a bite, her eyes just about rolled back in her head. "Oh, man, Ron, that's spankin!"

"I'm glad you finally showed up. I was about to run out of filet mignons and you'd have to settle for a strip or some Chicken Kimberly."

"Oh, I want that too. How on earth did you do all this?"

"I had a lot of help from Mom and Dad. Mom's running the 'kitchen' right now while we eat. I do think I used up all the favors though."

She took another bite, causing the same response as the first. "Ronnie, I'm about to do my impression of Meg Ryan over this. I've never tasted steak like this."

"Shhhhh. We don't want people thinking there's more going on back here than a private candlelight dinner." He took a huge bite of his own food. "Good news, Dad tells me we're just about to clear enough to pay for everything, so everything else tonight is gravy. With what we're charging, we're not going to clear a lot, but at least we'll take a big bite out of what we need."

Kim put a hand on his, smiling warmly at him. "I love you, Ronnie."

"Love you too. Just hope you feel that way in about ten minutes."

"Oh?" Her eyebrow went up.

"Yeah. There's one thing missing from Chez Ronald." He reached into his pocket and pulled a small dark bundle out, putting it on the table.

It was a hair net.

"You have so got to be kidding me." Kim glared at him, though it didn't last as she broke out into another smile.

"The apron is back there in the tent. Don't want you getting any of the dishwater on that badical dress of yours, now do we?" He leaned on the table, smiling his best goofy smile.

She polished off the last of her food, slightly sad it was all gone. "Ron, I'll do anything to help, but there is no way in this world I'm wearing that stupid stuff in this dress." She laughed, drinking deeply of her tea.

"Well, let's see. Mom absolutely forbid letting you anywhere near the cooking area…"

Kim kicked him lightly in the shin.

"Ow. Okay, we're already pushing it with the health department having Rufus as the Maitre'd. How about being hostess for the rest of the evening?"

She stood up and held out her hand to him. "I will on one condition."

"What's that." He took her hand, standing up in front of her.

"You convince me properly first." She wrapped her arms around his waist and closed her eyes.

The kiss he gave her was very convincing.

Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney