Chapter 18. I don't really know what to say accept that: No one has reviewed that past two chapters. A little disheartening but I guess that's life. Well I hope that someone reviews this chapter because I really like input. Ah well I hope those of you who are reading this enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kate or Abby
Spoilers: It is AU
"Do you want to go see Oak Bluffs?" Kate asked Abby completely randomly as they were sitting on the porch.
"I would love to," Abby replied, "But Monica and Anna have the two cars."
"Right," Kate said slowly, "Well there's no way we want to walk to Oak Bluffs, but downtown Vineyard Haven is about a mile from here."
"Great," Abby replied, "I've been on Island for two and a half weeks and I have not seen the town I'm staying in."
"Well," Kate said staining up, "Let's go fix this." After leaving a note in the kitchen for whoever choose to read it, the two girls set off down the street. They chattered for a while as they walked, and occasionally Kate would point out places like the house her family used to rent. They reached town with in twenty minutes.
"What do you want to do first?" Kate asked, "Bookstore, window shop, or eat?"
"It is ten thirty so I am going to take eat off the table," Abby replied, "Let's go for the bookstore."
"Great." Kate told her, "It's right over here." She led the way down the street to a beautiful building with striped awnings.
"What's this?" Abby questioned Kate stopping just short of the bookstore and looking at the frame of a building being constructed.
"That is," Kate said slowly, "the Vineyard's most recent phoenix."
"Someone's in a cryptic mood," Abby commented, "repeat that in normal speak."
"Right," Kate said, "On Fourth of July two years ago Moxie, the restaurant that used to be here, caught fire and was a pretty much burned out hollow shell. The fire also took a fair chunk of the Bunch of Grapes, that's the bookstore.
"So how is that a phoenix?" Abby questioned looking at the shell of a building two years later.
"Because the entire Island came together," Kate replied, "There are usually several fire trucks from each town in the Edgartown Parade, but that year I don't think there was a single one from Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, or Edgartown because they were all trying to put out the flames." There was a pause as Kate turned around to look for something. "That coffee shop over there was providing drinks to the firefighters as they came out of the flames."
"That's really impressive," Abby comment, "you would never get that in Louisiana."
"That wasn't the end of it," Kate told her friend, "one of the stores around the corner loaned the Bunch of Grapes one of its buildings so they could set up temporary shop. One of the other restaurants employed the owner of Moxie. A collection box went out on the street for money to help rebuild the two stores."
"Something beautiful rose from the ashes," Abby agreed, "It's a phoenix."
"Do you want to go in now?" Kate asked and Abby nodded. The two girls walked in and spent many minutes looking through racks and racks of books. Neither one of them found anything that they could not live with out so the left about twenty minutes later.
"So there are a dozen stores up along here what do you want to do?" Abby asked.
"I would go with windows shop until I find a store to drag you into," Kate suggested.
"Okay," Abby nodded, "That works for me." So the two girls traipsed down one side of the street and back up the other. Suddenly Kate grabbed Abby's hand and dragged her towards a store. "What is this place?" Abby questioned.
"A fun little store that has a collection of random thing things," Kate replied happily, "It's wonderful."
"Alright," Abby told Kate removing her wrist from the latter's grasp, "I'm coming."
As they walked into the store Abby had to admit it was pretty cool. There was all kinds of vintage things in the front and off to the sides were magnets with those funny little quotes. Abby went over to look at those and found to her delight that there was a large basket of buttons with similar saying underneath.
Abby began sorting through and soon afterward Kate appeared and took interest. After several minutes each of the two girls had pick out two favorites. Abby had selected one that said 'Deeply and Creatively Weird' and one that said 'I do what ever the little voices tell me to do.' Kate had decided on 'Sarcasm is just one more free service we offer' and 'Take Me to Paris.'
The girls paid for their buttons and made their way back out onto the street. It was nearing twelve o'clock and so they decided to look in one more store and then find a place to eat. For their last store to look in they decided on Off Main, which contained large numbers of random but interesting things.
After several minutes of careful contemplation they decided that there was nothing they really need. With that decision they entered back out onto the street and began to search for lunch options. There were several options for lunch in downtown Vineyard Haven. Some were ritzier than other and those were immediately ruled out. They also ruled out the things that were designed to be tourist traps. Finally Kate remembered a little hole in the wall coffee shop that was almost always empty. Together the girls made their way along the water front towards the designated building. They were both lost in how beautiful the island was. It held a sort of magic to it because it was a tourist town but in another way it was a small down where everyone knows each other.
Suddenly Kate literally walked into someone else and both of the fell onto the sidewalk. Looking down to see who it was she turned bright red. It was Mason.
"Oh my gosh," she told him, "I'm so sorry."
"It's fine," he assured her standing up and pulling her to her feet, "No one got hurt."
"Do you and Landon want to come to our Fourth of July Barbecue?" Kate asked him out of pretty much nowhere.
"Sure we'd love to," he told her with a smile, "When is it?"
"I don't know," Kate admitted, "I'll call you with details this afternoon."
"Cool," he told her, "see you later."
"You're right," Abby told Kate as Mason walked away. "You're always running into people you know." Kate just glared at her.
I hope you liked it. The stuff about the fire was entirely true just in case you were wondering. Anyway please review. It would make my day.
