Dab Howlter was pretty ecstatic about spending a week with Dan and Phil, but he also had no idea what he wanted to do with them.
Maybe just quality time was enough, but he noticed that neither Phil nor Dan had any ideas on what to do, either, so he decided to simply sit at the table and draw. Every so often he'd turn around and cast a gaze out of the back door to see Dan, looking like he was greatly enjoying himself in the sun.
Whatever Phil was doing, he was being very secretive about it, though. Every so often, he'd walk into the room at a brisk pace, look around him, squint at something or other, then swiftly slink back into another room.
Dab was pretty sure he'd seen Phil in two different outfits in only half an hour, but he seemed to have settled for a plain, white shirt.
He was being a bit boring today. It was very unlike him.
He seemed to have developed an odd mannerism of holding himself with his back very straight, causing him to look even taller than he actually was.
Every so often, he'd stand in the middle of the living room and absent-mindedly stare out of the window for a minute or two, tapping his foot on the floorboards, and Dab would watch him and wonder what he was contemplating.
It was only at 11:30 that Phil finally made a move to actually do something and slunk out of the back door, watching Dab as he did, closing it behind him as he went to stand on the decking beside the pool.
Dab couldn't hear what he said, but Dan got up soon enough and followed Phil back inside, disappearing into the bedroom afterwards.
"Thought we could go out for dinner," Phil said, eventually, to Dab, looking over his shoulder at the paper he was drawing on, "Fancy Chez Llama? We can go the short route along the river if you don't want to walk the long way around."
"That'd be great!" Dab grinned. The last time he'd been to Chez Llama was the one time he went with both his parents and Dan and Phil – the time Erica had sat in the booth opposite them and frowned the whole way through the meal – and he'd been too young then to really enjoy it, so another trip seemed a good idea, "Thanks, uncle Phil," he laughed, turning around to face him, making sure to show he was grateful.
Phil smirked and put his hands behind his back,
"That's alright. It was Dan's idea, really," he said before moving to the bathroom to fetch a towel to clean up the wet footprints his friend had left on the floor.
"They'd dry anyway," Dan pointed out to him, sticking his head around the doorframe.
"Hey, I'm not having damp patches on my floor," Phil retorted, but still smiled.
Dan laughed at him and shook his head,
"Your floor…" he repeated as he headed back into the bedroom.
Phil stood up straight again, tossing the towel up and down in his hand,
"Well, it's my house now…" he whispered, a bit more gravely than he probably should have.
Dab's face fell and, even though neither he nor Phil could see him, Dan frowned, too.
He was concerned that his friend was taking his responsibilities a tad too seriously.
Of course, it was good that he was dedicated, but the whole point of this trip was to relax and have a bit of fun.
Never mind; Dan was sure he'd lighten up sometime.
That's mostly why he'd suggested Chez Llama.
Taking his mind off of being concerned for his friend, Dan set about looking for a fancy outfit to wear to their meal out: nothing too formal, but something that still looked nice enough so that he wouldn't get kicked out.
He settled for a black shirt, at long last, and a thin, red tie. He tucked this top into his moderately smart jeans so it would ruffle out at the edges.
As he left the bedroom, he saw that the main part of the house was empty. Clearly, Phil had insisted on getting Dab ready, too.
Deciding to lighten the load on Phil's shoulders, Dan rolled up his sleeves and washed up the glass he'd used earlier. He made sure to stand here at the sink until Phil saw him and appreciated that he was all right with helping out.
"Oh! Thank you…" he heard a quiet laugh from the other side of the room.
He turned and smiled as he saw Phil, and Dab beside him.
"You didn't need to dress up," Dan sniggered, drying his hands and admiring his friends' outfits.
"It's Chez Llama, Dan," Phil reminded him, "Thought we should look our best. What about you?"
"It's June!" Dan laughed, "You're going to be sweltering in a jacket, pal," he muttered, "Though I do like the pastel blue-ness…"
"Thought you might," Phil nodded, "I can always take it off."
"Suppose so," Dan agreed, "And Dab, too! Looking good there, kid. Nice waistcoat."
Maybe Dab looked the most dapper of them all with his baby blue chinos and tiny, black bow tie. He and Phil were almost matching (maybe only because they were both wearing bow ties, but that's not the point).
"Ready?" Phil asked, brushing himself down and looking, fondly, at Dab's wide smile.
"Ready," Dan affirmed.
He thought that eating out was probably more of an evening thing, but everyone seemed to be a bit bored and some fresh air would probably do them all a world of good.
Phil made doubly sure that the door was locked behind them as they left the house and, when he turned back around, felt immediately too warm. Not wanting to take his jacket off and admit he was wrong, he decided to grin and bear it.
He gave his friend a pat on the back to signal that they should really get going because otherwise they'd never find a table, and felt Dab hold onto his sleeve as they all set off.
Phil did not know why Dab didn't hold his hand instead of his sleeve, but at least it gave him the chance to put his hands in his pockets and try to act like he wasn't melting.
It was proving a difficult job.
As they all crossed the first bridge and turned to their right slightly, they caught sight of the big paddle steamer that usually sailed down the river, cruising past Courtyard Lane, its massive wheels churning through the water. Of course, Dab insisted they stop on the bridge for a bit to admire the machine.
The child seemed to be transfixed by the huge boat and stared up at it with a look that could only really be described as wonderment.
Or awe – awe is a good word.
Actually, the look could be described as a lot of things, but let's just stick with wonderment.
Growing ever so slightly impatient, Dan gazed down the path ahead, shifting his line of sight to rest between two houses (one of which was Summer Holiday's house, but he didn't know that) and found himself looking straight at the restaurant.
So near.
Yet so far.
He felt a gnawing at the pit of his stomach and frowned. He could almost smell the… weird experiments that somehow Chez Llama managed to class as 'food'. Dan wasn't even sure whether it was even legal to serve whatever that stuff was, but perhaps laws about food were different here.
That thought was more than a little concerning.
"Phil? Are we going to keep on going?" He asked, softly tugging at his friend's sleeve in a desperate effort to signal that he was ravenous for 'food'.
"Oh, yeah, sure," Phil smiled, "Come on, then, Dab, let's go," and he turned to carry on walking, child close in tow.
Phil passed it off as hunger pangs, but he started to feel a bit of a stabbing in his chest and a hot shiver down his spine. Maybe it was just the heat that was making him sweat, but nevertheless, he brushed his hair up and heaved a sigh, gathering all his strength to make it to Chez Llama.
He was tempted to get Dan to carry him the rest of the way, but thinking about it, that would be both unfair and very strange-looking.
Besides, he wanted to keep an eye out for any strange occurrences: he had an odd feeling that something was a tad off.
The only thing that Phil could possibly think that he was uneasy about was the fact that whenever he went outside, he always seemed to run into somebody who he knew.
He still counted it as nothing, though, and acted pretty nonchalantly as he wandered down the pavement.
Little did he know, he had a right to be uneasy.