§ § § - July 29, 2008

Christian had gone to work the next morning, presumably to be present when Jimmy brought in his ailing laptop, and Maureen had taken Susanna and Karina with her to be companions for April for a trip to the amusement park with Myeko and her children. So Leslie and Ingrid were cleaning house, and Tobias was constantly getting in their way, when Lauren arrived with Kevin. Leslie laughed when she saw them at the door. "Fancy meeting you here. I thought you'd be on the boat."

Lauren grinned. "I took a little time off. It has to do with that plan for Michiko. Is Tobias around?"

"I sent him out back," said Leslie and grinned at Kevin. "Go into the backyard and you can help Tobias build his fort." Kevin lit up at that and ran out, and Leslie finished dusting a tabletop. "Maureen took the girls to the amusement park so April could have somebody to hang out with. So what's this grand plan?"

"I guess your nanny still doesn't understand English?" asked Lauren, sounding hopeful, glancing toward the stairs where the vacuum cleaner could be heard whining from one of the bedrooms.

Leslie paused on her way to the kitchen to put away the dusting equipment. "Is this plan of yours that big a secret?"

Lauren chuckled and shrugged. "Well, no, I guess not, but I just don't feel like broadcasting it around the island. I was having this brainstorm on the way home with you guys last evening. We all know Michiko's grieving and at loose ends. And we also know, thanks to your telling the rest of us, that nothing you came up with to get her out of the dumps met with her approval. What we don't know is what you suggested."

"Oh." Leslie headed for the kitchen, with Lauren behind her, to tuck away the spray polish and the rag she'd been using. "Well, as I recall it now, she claimed to have no qualification to do anything. She said she can't travel since she's no longer acting in the capacity of the ruling monarch's consort. I said she could sing, and she didn't like that, so I offered the idea of her teaching music, or at least singing, to schoolchildren. That didn't go over well either." She turned her back to the counter and leaned against it, meeting Lauren's gaze. "Unfortunately, that's when I started losing my patience, and she walked out."

Lauren nodded. "Singing. I think you were on the right track there. Didn't she have a music studio in that cavern of a palace they have in Arcolos?"

Leslie had to think about that for a long moment before something hit her. "Hey…" she murmured, as an old memory swam to the surface of her brain and she replayed it in her mind. "We granted this fantasy a long time ago. It was shortly after I'd met Christian and he'd discovered Arnulf had married him off, and before I realized it was Arnulf's fault and not Christian's. You've heard of the Foster Sisters, haven't you?"

"Sure," said Lauren, then lit up. "Hey, I remember now! They were here looking to get famous, and one of them had an addiction problem. Michiko and her family were here on the island, and she offered to help launch them into the music business."

"Right-using the studio she said Errico had had built for her. Is that what you were thinking? I mean, I should've thought of it, but, well, you know…"

"I kind of had something like that in mind, yeah. My first thought actually was that maybe she should have a recording studio built right onto her house, so she could play around in there and maybe resume her recording career, but you just mentioned she nixed the idea of becoming the 'Singing Queen'. So I was about to call it quits and go on home, but then you remembered that fantasy. If Michiko doesn't want to sing, if she doesn't care about reviving her own career, then maybe she could help other aspiring musicians. There's still a recording studio in town, isn't there? No reason she couldn't use her influence to help get some young hopeful's career off the ground. She could be a sort of talent scout."

Leslie nodded, liking the idea the more she thought it over, but looked at Lauren with a trace of skepticism. "What if she decides that idea's trash, too?"

"I tell you what," Lauren said a little stridently, "if she does, then she's on her own and she better not expect any more help out of us. I mean, sure, we're sympathetic, but she can't lean on us for every stupid little thing. We have our own lives to live, and she has to live her own instead of waiting for somebody to give her a push."

"True," said Leslie. "Okay, so we give her this last collective kick in the butt, and then it's up to her to run with it."

"Exactly." Lauren nodded firmly once and snapped her fingers at the same time. "The question now is, when do you want to do this?"

"Me?" Leslie repeated. "Wait a minute -"

"I meant both of us," Lauren clarified, grinning when Leslie pretended to faint with relief. "You said she wasn't exactly sweetness and light around you the other night, and believe me, I never intended to shove this off on you. I just thought it'd work better if we both did this, so that we outnumber her."

Leslie laughed. "I like your thinking. Okay, let's have something to drink and go out back to keep an eye on our sons, and figure this thing out." They got outside, put a stop to a burping contest between Kevin and Tobias, and began hashing out ideas.

By the time Christian returned, the boys had initiated another burping contest; and their mothers, intent on their plan, hadn't even noticed. "All right, you two," Christian said, giving the boys a look. "Tobias Lukas Roarke, you know that's not polite, so enough is enough, do you understand?"

"How come it's not polite, Daddy?" Tobias wanted to know. "Don't you have to make a baby burp? How come it's okay for a baby to burp but nobody else?"

Their conversation had finally caught Lauren and Leslie's attention, and they listened in while Christian tried to answer his son's question. "A baby has to burp, because if that gas stays in a baby's stomach, it'll hurt."

Tobias tilted his head so far to the side that his ear nearly met his shoulder. "But Daddy, gas hurts my stomach too. So I gotta burp. But it's not fair if it's okay for a baby but not for me."

"A baby doesn't know any better," Christian said. "You do. When you burp, you should at least say 'excuse me'. I know we've taught you that."

"Yeah, but we still gotta burp," Tobias insisted, while Lauren and Leslie grinned at each other. "And people always go 'hooray!' when a baby burps, but when I burp, you and Mommy get mad at me. That's not fair."

Leslie snickered, and Christian overheard and did a little double take over his shoulder at her. "So you think it's funny?" he inquired with a grin. "You try explaining it."

"But you're doing such a stellar job of it, my love," Leslie riposted, grinning back.

"I bet your stomach hurts too, Dad, if you don't burp," Tobias put in then, breaking up Lauren and Leslie completely. Kevin burst into giggles as well; Tobias giggled too, but he continued to eye Christian, clearly expecting an answer.

Christian let out a sigh and said patiently, "It's one thing if you have to burp, Tobias. And yes, sometimes too much gas does hurt, even an adult, and we have to burp too. But we say 'excuse me'; and you and Kevin were doing it on purpose, which definitely isn't polite. So I want you both to stop immediately."

"Okay, okay," Tobias grumbled, shrugging. "C'mon, Kevin, let's build some more of my fort. I gotta make it really good so my sisters can't get in it."

"Yes, you two build your fort," Christian murmured, watching them head off for the far boundary of the Enstad backyard to reach through the fence and scoop up loose brush for their construction project. He turned to Leslie and inquired, "How long were those two sitting there burping without you and Lauren hearing it?"

"How should we know?" Leslie asked with a grin. "We stopped one burping contest when we came out here, and we thought they got the message. I take it you're home for the day. Did Jimmy's laptop come out okay?"

Christian chuckled and settled his stance, pushing his hands into his pockets. "I think it's terminal. I cleaned out quite a bit of malware that he'd unwittingly downloaded, but it still ran more slowly than he liked, so I told him it's likely just old age and he'll have to either put up with it or replace it. Now what are you two plotting?"

"Something to get Michiko off her brooding little behind once and for all," Lauren said. "We're down to crazy stuff that'd never work."

"Ah," Christian said, nodding. "Have you talked to Mr. Roarke yet?"

Leslie and Lauren looked at each other, and Lauren lit up. "Hey, maybe there's some upcoming fantasy that Michiko could take part in," she suggested.

"Maybe," Leslie mused. "I hadn't thought of that. Let's see if Father's available." She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket while Christian retreated into the house to change clothes, and called the main house.

"Fancy hearing from you on your day off," Roarke said without preamble when she connected, making her roll her eyes. Tobias was right when he said "Grandfather knows everything", she thought. "What can I do for you?"

"Do you happen to know if there's a fantasy request somewhere, either scheduled or not, where someone wants to become a music star?" Leslie asked. Having phrased the question that way, she made a face at herself, but Roarke replied before she could think any more about it.

"Well," he said, "I had nothing scheduled for the next few weeks, but I do know there are several such fantasy requests waiting for responses. Why do you ask?"

She explained quickly about the dinner-party disaster and Michiko's ongoing downcast attitude, and the idea she and Lauren had come up with between them and Christian's suggestion. "I see," Roarke mused. "Perhaps you'd be willing to come here to the house and perform a little search; I'm afraid I must leave within another ten minutes for the monthly inspection at the amusement park, and that will take the entire afternoon."

"I think we can do that," Leslie said. "Thanks, Father, that'll be a big help." She hung up and told Lauren what Roarke had said. "If you feel like a ride…"

"Hey, if it means getting to see an actual letter from a future guest, count me in," said Lauren with enthusiasm, and Leslie laughed. They waited a few minutes till Christian came out with a glass in one hand, then asked him to watch the boys while Leslie and Lauren made a trip to the main house.

"So there's something available?" he asked with interest. "Well, good luck then. I'll just keep an eye on the two burp champions here." Lauren and Leslie laughed, bid him goodbye and headed for the car.

At the main house, Lauren flattened her palms on the desk and looked on while Leslie filed through letters, the latest batch of which Roarke had left on the desk for her to sort. She glanced up at her eager friend, then grinned. "Might as well sit down, this could take a while."

"Don't you have any that're already opened?" Lauren asked.

Leslie thought about it. "Father said he had several requests, so they must be here somewhere. Tell you what, you sort these out. Just split them into two piles - bills in one, letters in the other. You can usually tell them apart. I'll refine the separations later on. While you're doing that, I'll see if I can find the ones Father said he's seen already." Lauren dropped into a chair and started to separate mail, her expression that of a child who's seen a well-laden tree on Christmas morning; Leslie grinned and headed for the credenza to go through files.

"What if the phone rings while we're doing this?" Lauren asked eventually.

"I'll handle it, don't worry. Just have fun with this behind-the-scenes peek," Leslie suggested, snickering and turning back to the credenza. "Oh, here's one. Good - I wasn't sure we'd find any."

"Oh, c'mon, seriously? Who doesn't want to be a rock star at some point in their life?" Lauren snorted cheerfully. "I bet we end up with a good dozen at least."

She was right; by the time the two friends had gone through whatever mail was there, they had culled out sixteen letters requesting a fantasy to be a rock or country music star for a weekend. Then Leslie found one that stilled her for a moment. "Oh boy."

Instantly Lauren looked up. "What?"

"Wait'll you see this one. This woman says she always wanted to be a singer - not rock or country, but show tunes, just like Michiko used to sing. She doesn't think it's possible to make a career out of it, but she wants to present herself that way for a weekend, since her tenth high-school reunion is being held on the island the last weekend of August, and she wants to impress her old classmates with what she's doing."

"Oooh," Lauren said, wincing. "And if they find out it's only a fantasy and she's really just a stay-at-home mom from Twin Falls, Minnesota, or something…."

"That's my thought too," said Leslie, perusing the letter. "Although she's actually from Arcadia, California." She tossed Lauren a grin, and Lauren stuck out her tongue. They both laughed, then returned to the letter. "She doesn't say what she really does for a living, but she mentions being an avid shower singer and in-the-car singer too. You know - driving somewhere by yourself…throw a CD in the player, and sing your heart out."

Lauren laughed. "Yeah, I can just picture it. Well, I think we ought to choose that one for Michiko too. Even if it means she has to evaluate three different people - well, hey, it'll keep her busy, right?"

Someone knocked, and they both called for the guest to come in; a second later, Myeko emerged into the room. "Oh, there's two of you."

"Hi, Myeko," Leslie and Lauren greeted her, and Leslie added, "What made you drop in here? Father's over at the amusement park for the inspection, so he'll be out the rest of the day, if you were looking for him."

"No, I was walking past here, taking the usual shortcut to get from town over to the hospital - my dad's in for a gallbladder removal - and I saw your car parked out here, so I decided to stop by and see what you're up to. Is that mail? As in fantasy requests?" Myeko jumped the steps into the study and filled the remaining chair, leaning over the desk with an eager look and then hesitating before peering at Lauren. "And how come you get to help?"

"It's for Michiko," Lauren explained, and filled Myeko in on the plan while Leslie slit open another envelope, skimmed over the contents, and put it into another pile for Roarke to look at later. "We figured, if this doesn't work, nothing will. We've already found a really good one, too."

"Yeah? Is it okay if I look at it?" Myeko inquired.

Leslie handed her the letter from California. "Sure, go ahead. We're still trying to find a rock-star request and a country-star one. But that one hit us because the writer mentions the same kind of music Michiko used to record."

"Oh wow, yeah, it sure does," Myeko marveled, looking over the page. "I bet she's one of those people who can sing circles around most of today's pop stars, only nobody knows it because she's too shy even to sing karaoke."

"Even drunk," Lauren added, setting them all off into a round of laughter. "Yeah, I bet Michiko could really work with that one. Well, if Leslie's willing to split the work, we might find a couple more a little quicker, and then we could all go visit your dad."

"Actually," Myeko said, "that letter reminds me. Our own high-school reunion is the 20th of August - that's a Wednesday, in case you have to clear your schedules."

"Oh, man," muttered Lauren. "I forgot, this year's the twenty-fifth." She looked up. "Do you think we can get Michiko to go?"

"She's going if we have to tie her up and throw her in the backseat of our car," Leslie said with determination, making Lauren and Myeko grin. "Come on, let's get to work on these things. Then I can see whether we can shoehorn them in on some near-future weekend so Michiko can get to work sooner."

They managed to find a rock-star and a country-star wannabe, and Leslie paged through Roarke's desk calendar, looking for the earliest possible date to shoehorn them in. To her surprise, she came across a date in August - the final weekend of the month, as it happened - when no fantasies had been scheduled at all, and she scowled at it. "How'd that happen? I thought we were booked till the end of the year. I can see where I penciled in a couple of fantasies, too, and someone erased it."

Lauren and Myeko squinted at the page, then each other, and finally Leslie. "What an interesting coincidence," Myeko drawled.

"I doubt it," Leslie returned dryly, and both her friends snickered in appreciation. "I'll just write it down as a triple weekend and get the confirmation letters sent out for these, so these folks can make their travel plans."

"So how're you planning to tell Michiko about this?" Myeko inquired, glancing back and forth between Leslie and Lauren. "If she's not talking to you, Leslie, she might not be too thrilled about this."

"There's safety in numbers," Lauren said. "I was planning to have Leslie come with me to Michiko's mom's place and we'd tell her about this, but she might be more inclined to listen if there're three of us than just two. And if she tries to blow us off, I vote we give her a piece of our minds."

Leslie grinned a little ruefully. "I think so too. She asked for help, yet she dismisses every suggestion she's given. Even her mother's patience has to run out sometime, and I've never seen a more patient woman than Miyoshi Tokita."

"Yeah, even when I all but trashed her house when I was six," Myeko agreed, rolling her eyes in self-mockery. "Yeah, okay, I'm up for it. I think we should go now, though, so in case she does blow us off, I can cry on my dad's shoulder when we get to the hospital."

Leslie slipped the letters into her purse and ushered her friends out and to the car, and in a few minutes they were at the apartment complex on the outskirts of town. It was Miyoshi who answered; her wizened little doll's face brightened at sight of the visitors. "Is good you come," she said, almost in a whisper. "Michiko needs her friends."

"Is she all right?" Lauren asked.

"Very sad, all time." The diminutive elderly lady stepped aside to let the girls in and closed the door behind them. "Is not good for her. I hear her cry in night, every night. I try tell her some things she should do - build her house, yes? But she won't listen. You come and talk sense to her. Is sad my son-in-law is dead, yes…but is time for Michiko to come out of his grave and live her life."

They promised to try their best, and she beamed at them and whisked away to the kitchen to mix up something to drink. The threesome ventured down the hallway toward the bedroom, and Myeko mumbled, "Come out of his grave, huh? I gotta remember that so I can find some future column to use it in. Maybe I'll write about Michiko herself and try to embarrass her out of her funk."

"You're hopeless," Lauren teased her, just as they came abreast of the doorway and saw Michiko sitting at the window, motionless, staring through. "Hi, Michiko."

Michiko didn't move, so Myeko grunted, moved into the room and waved a hand in front of Michiko's face. "Hey - wake up down there. It's us, your friends. You do still have some, although at the rate you're going, not for much longer."

Michiko stared at her, then shook her head. "You don't understand. None of you can possibly understand how I'm feeling."

"Maybe Lauren and I can't," Myeko shot back, "but Leslie can, and you know it. You totally forgot about Teppo, didn't you?"

"I'm not sure she remembers," Lauren said, sounding acerbic. "She wasn't here when Leslie got widowed and came back from Finland; she was too busy with that music career that she thinks now she's too good for."

Michiko got to her feet and whipped around to glare at them. "I didn't ask the three of you to come over here. I don't know why you're wasting your time. It's my problem and I'll get over it just fine, thank you."

"Not from where I'm standing," Leslie said. "Okay, listen, Michiko, and listen good. This is it. Myeko reminded us that our twenty-fifth high-school reunion is on August 20, and you're going, whether you want to or not. If we have to, we'll all gang up on you and bodily carry you there. And when we do, you'll have a good time, or else you can land yourself in every gossip rag in the world telling everybody to flake off because you're too busy trying to climb into Errico's grave with him. It's one thing to mourn, Michiko, but you've been carrying this way too far. You still have your life to live, and your daughter's coming out from Arcolos in about a month. And where the heck are you going to put her, since you haven't even started getting your house built yet?"

"Leslie, you're being cruel," Michiko protested, looking shocked.

"I'm just exasperated," Leslie retorted. "You came to me one night and specifically asked me for ideas as to what to do with yourself, and then shot down everything I came up with. And now you won't listen to any of us and you've decided I'm number one on your you-know-what list. You were the one who wanted to come back here to live after Errico's death. And you knew from the time you married that man that you'd have to live in his country, and that the only way you could come back here was if he passed on. Well, that's what he did. I refuse to believe he'd actually want you to waste the rest of your life moping around wishing he were still alive."

"Michiko, we know you're grieving for Errico," Lauren put in, "and we understand that, even if we can only imagine how you're feeling right now. But you didn't die with him. And now that you're back here, we want to pull you back into our circle and do things as a gang again. Get out of your funk, please, and stop treating us like pariahs. We just want to help, but you won't let us."

Michiko stared at them, one by one, for long moments apiece, before swallowing and turning away. "Don't bother. I just want you to leave me alone. Go away."

They tried to protest, but Michiko acted as if they weren't there, resuming her seat and staring out the window. Her three friends looked at each other, shook their heads, and filed dejectedly out of the room and the apartment, unaware that Miyoshi watched with a worried frown and a set jaw.