February 15th, 1974
The Resembool auxiliary building main room was crammed full with ladies eager to begin planning activities and decorations for the Spring Sheep Festival. It always amused Cassie that as involved as the men were in running the town, festival planning outside of the livestock related activities themselves fell almost exclusively to the women. She suspected the reality was that the women enjoyed fine-picking the details to death, and then men usually didn't. They just wanted to show up and have a good time.
Whatever the reasons, Cassie sat in the circle with the nineteen other women on the committee this year, including new member Rilla Causwith. Cassie was actually pleased to see the other woman taking an active interest in the local activity. If her husband won the election, she would be expected to know everything that was going on and be involved. It was also a chance to get to know her a little better.
Though Cassie felt a little sorry for no thinking to let her know that most people dressed informally for these things. Most of the older ladies were in simple, winter farm dresses with stockings, though there was a wide range of ages and styles. Cassie was in jeans, a simple blue top, and had tossed one of Aldon's flannel shirts over it all for warmth in the slightly chilly building, though it hung open in front and she had to roll the sleeves slightly to make it fit. Her braided hair was pinned up on the back of her head.
Rilla, however, was in a designer dress suit; a Milani, if Cassie wasn't mistaken. It looked fabulous, but very out of place, and had earned several glances already.
"All right." Cassie looked down at the check list. "We've discussed some elements of the cooking contests, and the herding, animal barn, and layout. But we still don't have a final theme to design around for decorations, contests, or the opening night festivities. Any suggestions?"
"You think the boys will even notice a theme outside of eating?" Mandy Shriver asked, which was met with a chorus of chuckles.
"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy it," commented old widow Frye.
"Maybe the big eating contest should involve something with hot peppers," Katlyn Krynt, one of the high school girls on the committee, grinned wickedly.
A nearly unanimous vote comprised mostly of laughter put that down on the suggestion list. Cassie could just imagine what her boys and Edward would have to say about that! Though hot pepper pies might make for some very sore bellies afterwards.
Other ideas were tossed out, discussed, and rejected. Butterflies had been done four years ago. "Sheep-boys" would elicit far too many inappropriate jokes. "Splash of Fun" would invite too much drinking. Or so claimed Old Widow Frye, who regaled them with the hysterical story of the festival of forty-seven, when the chosen theme of "Splash of Color" had inspired dozens of strong fruit cordials and revivals of fall hard ciders which had come out in force, and the town had suffered an almost universal four day hangover. "Of course," she admitted afterwards, "times were different then, and Resembool was much smaller."
"Well there's an idea," Rilla spoke up with a smile, and all eyes turned to look at her. "Changing with the times! Resembool has grown into quite the town; why not celebrate that progress in the presentation of the festival? We already have invention contests. What about displays? A fashion show? We could do something more modern with the decorations too, silver metallic or new industrial."
For several seconds, there was dead silence. All eyes were on Rilla, many politely, but others were incredulous or skeptical. One or two looked interested, but said nothing.
Clearly Rilla had expected resounding enthusiasm. Instead, Cassie watched as her smile twitched and then her eyes focused straight across the circle at Cassie, who happened to be posed at the top of the circle at the front of the room.
"Well?" Rilla asked her directly. "What do you think?"
Cassie did not appreciate being put on the spot, but she wasn't about to get flustered. She nodded. "Well, a fashion display might be fun. A lot of our girls design and sew their own clothes, and make accessories for themselves. Local designs being shown off would be fun, and it could be part of the sewing and quilting competitions we have every year."
"I like that idea," one of the younger women beamed. Cassie knew it would probably be popular with many of the younger folks. She hoped that at least one of Rilla's ideas would be acceptable.
"Maybe we can talk the boys into modeling," Deanna suggested from further down the circle, smiling playfully. There were several giggles and nods.
"We could make it fit the theme with the peppers," Cassie continued her suggestion as she mulled things together in her head. "Something about the Warmth of Spring." Or the heat…the passion… but she didn't have to go there out loud. The other ladies got there on their own.
"We could decorate in red and yellow! My garden is full of daffodils and bleeding hearts right around then."
"The fiddle band that plays on Fridays knows some sizzling dance tunes."
"My Leonard actually makes a spicy brew with cloves and cinnamon and a touch of pepper that'll keep a person hot all winter."
"And the artisans could get extra points for matching the theme!"
And the ideas were coming from every which way at once. Cassie could hardly note it all down fast enough, but in another half hour they had ironed out, and agreed by majority, to a plan for "Warmth of Spring."
"Well I think that may have been one of our most productive meetings yet," Deanna grinned at her as they broke up into sub-committees to discuss further details or headed home. "I'm really looking forward to it this year. Of course, I do every year. Since we don't have a lot of sheep, we mostly got to take the Festival easy." She chuckled and buttoned her coat up.
Cassie smiled at her daughter-in-law. "You'd better be taking this one easy," she teased gently.
"Art said the same thing," Deanna chuckled. "I'm sure by then I'll be too big to argue, but right now I feel pretty good. Of course, it helps that Art really enjoys helping take care of Rhiana."
"It does make it easier when you have another pair of willing arms to pass a toddler off to," Cassie agreed. Aldon had been a very attentive parent and husband, something she appreciated to this day. "He was telling me the other day he already has ideas for her second birthday party." An event which was still roughly four months away.
"Oh he has a lot of those," Deanna assured her with a nod. "I should get home and help get her bathed for bed. She really prefers story time with both of us."
"Of course. I'll be right out in a minute," Cassie replied as she sorted out papers and reached for her own coat.
"I'll wait for you then," Deanna smiled, and then turned and fell into conversation with one of the other ladies as she headed for the door.
"Very smooth."
Not expecting anyone else to be there, Cassie turned and found herself looking at an irritated Rilla. "Is there a problem?" she asked.
"No, no problem at all," Rilla replied cooly. "You handled that rather skillfully."
"Thank you," Cassie replied, though she was getting heavy hints that this wasn't meant to be a compliment. Rilla, she realized, thought Cassie had somehow manipulated the conversation and the crowd towards her own ideas. Which was ridiculous, but she knew she wasn't going to be able to convince Rilla otherwise. "I've been on the committee since we moved to Resembool. It's not a fast changing place. They tend to move in slow steps, not leaps and bounds."
"Yes… I'd noticed." Rilla waited a moment, then seemed to realize she was going to get a fight out of Cassie. "Well, good evening then." She turned and strode out.
Cassie shook her head, finished bundling up, tucked her notes into her binder, and headed outside.
"Something wrong?" Deanna asked as they started down the chilly, dark road towards their houses.
"Not wrong, per say," Cassie replied. "I just wish Rilla Causwith would figure out that there's no enemy here."
February 19th, 1974
Aldon didn't get up immediately as the town Building and Maintenance Planning Committee broke up after another of their usual long and involved meetings. There were still plans and papers scattered everywhere across the table, and he wanted to gather his thoughts as much as his things before leaving.
As he started to gather things up, the plan for re-leveling and grading some of the county dirt roads –many of which would likely never be paved, though many more were now, or were scheduled to be- his mind took hold of a thought regarding the argument over the county road that lead out towards the old mines. Some folks wanted to pave it over to encourage more housing development out that direction. Others feared it would lead to new mining or encourage trouble out that far if it was easier to get a lot of people out there. Though Aldon didn't think anyone was more likely to do that now than they had in the past. But maybe he could come up with a more constructive way of pitching the project.
"You never quit do you?"
Startled, Aldon looked up and found Ron Causwith hadn't left the room yet. Given Ron owned the electrical company, he was very involved in the committee, and had been since his arrival two years ago. Aldon shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Sometimes my brain won't let an idea go until I've worked it out. It's quiet here, so I have the luxury of figuring it out without interruption."
"House isn't quiet, hrm?" Ron asked.
"Never is," Aldon chuckled. "Not even with two of the boys grown and Ian in Central with my sister." That still left three kids at home, though Urey would be going off to college in the fall, just leaving Ted and Callie, and Aldon suspected the only thing that kept Ted from running off and trying to bead his grandfather's age record for State Alchemist was that staying in Resembool meant he learned from the "great" Fullmetal Alchemist himself. "They're always in and out, and there's always something going on. It's great; it's just not all that quiet. And my workshop's too cluttered to spread out city work like this." He gestured across the table. "Not that I'd change any of it for anything."
"Of course not," Ron nodded, and smiled a little wistfully. "I have to admit, sometimes I'm a little jealous."
"Of my clutter?" Aldon asked wryly.
"More the swarm of kids," Ron chuckled. "I love my son, but I've always wanted more kids."
"So why haven't you had any more?" Aldon asked, though he kept it sociable, and made it clear that Ron didn't have to answer if it was personal, though since Ron had brought it up, he suspected he might get an informative response.
"Rilla's never wanted them," Ron admitted. "Being pregnant didn't really agree with her, and she's kind of particular. I don't think she'd be happy going through that again."
"Nothing wrong with a small family either," Aldon assured him. "My Mom was an only child, and my Dad's only got the one brother."
"I'd say you made up for the rest of the family on your own," Ron teased, as if testing the waters.
Aldon grinned. "More than," he agreed without any embarrassment. "My sister still teases me to no end about it. Though I'll be surprised if Art and Deanna don't give us a run for their money. They've made it pretty clear they want a big family."
"Didn't you?" Ron asked curiously.
Aldon shrugged as he continued straightening up maps. "Well I can't say we always gave it that much thought," he chuckled. "We certainly weren't trying not to at the time, and Cassie really wanted a girl. That's why we eventually ended up adopting Callie when her mother passed during her birth. After five boys well… the odds weren't too good on producing a girl."
"There aren't many girls in my family either," Ron admitted. He glanced down at the maps on the table, which were marked for different projects, including the expansion of the electrical systems, and where new wires were being added, or replacing old ones that were long worn out to improve signal quality. "I was actually wondering, if you had a few minutes, if you could look over some ideas I've been working on to improve power output and efficiency at the electrical plant. You've got electrical experience don't you?"
"I do," Aldon nodded surprised, and a little flattered, that Causwith wanted his opinions. He wished everyone else could get along during this election period. While he and Ron had never been close buddies, they had never been at odds either, and it seemed that they weren't now. Which was good, because that was definitely how Aldon preferred things. "Sure, I'd be happy to take a look."
Despite his comments to the contrary, the house was relatively quiet when Aldon got home, a little later than planned. He could hear folks moving around upstairs getting ready for bed. The boys' shower was running, but lightly thumping feet clued him in that Ted was darting around looking for tomorrow's clothing –a common occurrence- and that meant it was Urey in the shower. Muffled voices said Cassie and Ted were talking.
Callie was in her pajamas, but curled up on the couch with a big glossy magazine in her hands; a magazine with a familiar face on the front. Grinning broadly off the cover was none other than "Mr. Star" Ian himself, at what looked like some sort of gala party, with a gorgeous girl on his arm done up like a movie star. She probably was one, Aldon thought, though he frowned as he came over. He didn't recognize the girl at all. She hadn't been in any of the previous photos he had seen. "Who's that?"
"Sherry Tamlin," Callie replied, looking up from the article.
"I thought he was seeing that… that Monica girl." He thought that was the name he remembered from the papers.
"Oh no, that was just publicity," Callie shook her head.
"Then what's this?" Aldon wasn't sure he understood the difference under these circumstances.
"Oh, I think they actually went out," Callie said, pointing to the article.
"Went?"
"Well the article is over a week old," his daughter explained patiently. "When I talked to cousin Lily on the phone, she said Ian has a girlfriend at school who goes over to Aunt Sara's house for study dates. She heard Uncle Ethan and Aunt Sara talking about it."
Aldon had the urge to call both of his siblings and find out why he hadn't been clued in on this particular conversation. "Do they actually study?"
Callie looked up at him. "How should I know?"
"Because you seem to know an awful lot for an eight year old." Aldon reached down and took the magazine. "I'm not sure you should be reading this stuff."
"It's about my brother," Callie pointed out, but she didn't fight or argue. She just shrugged. "It's not like Ian calls and tells me all about his amazing life on the phone regularly."
This was true. Lately, Ian didn't seem to call home nearly as much. Aldon could see why, if he really was seeing this Sherry girl. What teenage boy wouldn't be distracted by her… assets? "Well maybe he should. Now why don't you hurry on up to bed. I'll be up in a minute to tuck you in."
"Okay, Daddy." Callie smiled and scampered upstairs, red curls bouncing.
The chaos upstairs lasted only a little bit longer as Ted found his missing socks and pajama top, Callie was tucked into bed after a last glass of water, and Urey got out of the shower and retreated to his room to work on a paper that wasn't due for another three days, but he was on a roll and really wanted to get it finished early.
It was nice to have at least one academic he didn't have to worry about in the family.
Aldon tucked Callie in, and said good night to Ted before retreating to the bedroom with the magazine still in hand. Cassie was pulling out a night gown from the dresser, and smiled at him, before glancing at his reading material. "Since when do you read magazines?"
"I don't usually," Aldon replied. "It's Callie's."
"She must have gotten it from a friend at school," Cassie commented. "They're always borrowing stuff. Anything interesting?"
"Apparently our son swapped girlfriends again, or wasn't really going out with one -I'm not sure at this point- without calling to say anything." Aldon held out the publication.
Cassie put down her nightie and picked up the magazine, taking a long look at the cover before flipping to the article and reading. Aldon waited for her response, wondering if she would find it as disturbing as he did. "I think Lia mentioned this Sherry girl the other day on the phone," she commented.
"Does no one talk to me anymore?" Aldon asked with a feeling of exasperation. First Ethan and Sara, now Cassie and Lia?
"I'm sorry, Don. It slipped my mind with everything else going on lately." Cassie shrugged apologetically and reached out and squeezed his hand. "I'm sure Ian's fine. Boys go through this stuff. Do you remember the other guys in our class in high school? Some of them went through a girl a week. Others kept going back and forth. Don't you remember how Sam Waters went back and forth with Lacy and Kelly for four months before he decided he didn't want to date either of them anymore and went to the senior dance with Doris Luckerman?"
"I wasn't like that," Aldon grumbled. He didn't need the reminder, and he really would have been happier not to have a son like that.
"And who did I marry?" Cassie smiled knowingly. "Calm down. I'm sure it's not a huge deal. If it was, Sara would be on the phone growling about how she had to nail Ian to his bedroom floor."
Now that was an image. Aldon preferred that one, but all he could see at the moment was a parade of pictures in his mind, of his son in various magazines, and almost never with the same girl in the picture. Of course, some of them were costars, but the publicity rags were horrible about blowing everything out of proportion, and Ian wasn't talking about it. "I doubt it," Aldon sighed. "She'd have used alchemy."
February 24th, 1974
:Maybe I should wear the purple gown… or perhaps the sapphire blue?: Angelique whispered to Minxia as they sat down in their seats a few minutes before class. It didn't start for another ten minutes really, but Minxia never liked to be late on test days. So they had left lunch early. Not that it had stemmed Angelique's rapid flow of relatively one-sided conversation about the big dance coming up in three days. It was all she had talked about for the last two weeks when they weren't actually discussing possible test questions.
Meanwhile Minxia's mind had been almost entirely focused on the major testing they were in the middle of studying for, and taking. Outside of having tests in almost every subject, there were tests by people from outside the school that not only tracked the student's progress, but determined the quality of instruction in the school. No one wanted the school to do badly!
Not when there was always fun to be had. In Grandpa Al's class, they had done three more one-day field trips already since their fateful Malathos trip, though all of those had been one-day weekend trips to much closer, if nearly as notable, locations. They had also proven to be much less dramatic, or dangerous. Though the one that had required repelling equipment and spelunking into a huge old cave to look at ruins that had collapsed underground centuries ago had brought back not-so-pleasant memories for half the class.
:The blue,: Minxia replied to Angelique's comments, if only to quiet her down. It wasn't like they weren't both very stylish and would make her look amazing.
:You're right," Angelique agreed and, just like that, she pulled out her book and started cram-studying for the test they were about to take, even though they had been up until lights out the night before going over the material. "Now, what boy should I go with?:
:On that I have no idea,: Minxia replied flatly. That was a subject she was getting tired of hearing about. Well that, and when she got teasing questions about her and Thrakos. Outwardly, and publically, little to nothing had changed between them. They were still comfortable, friendly, and relaxed with each other. It wasn't some badly written steamy romance novel or teen drama.
Though he hadn't asked her to the dance yet and, given he insisted that he wanted to date her, that was beginning to get a little worrisome. But Minxia hadn't admitted either fact to Angelique, because she didn't want her roommate to read too much into it before Minxia could figure out exactly what it meant.
:Do you own a tux?:
Minxia looked up from her notes to find that the subject of her thoughts had dropped into the seat next to her and Angelique was asking him questions about his clothes.
:Of course I do,: Thrakos replied. :I've always had at least one since I was a toddler. Mom liked to make us wear them for formal occasions.:
:Oh, I bet it looks fabulous!: Angelique gushed. :Is that what you're wearing?:
:Not sure actually,: Thrakos shrugged. :They're not all that comfortable. What about you?: he turned to Minxia with a smile. :Whatever I wear ought to match you and show you off right?:
Well wasn't that presumptive? Feeling mildly irritated, Minxia shrugged. :I don't know. No one's askedme.:
Thrakos' face went appropriately blank, and then he had the good grace to look embarrassed. :I'm sorry, Minxia, I just thought…:
:That I could read your mind?: Minxia asked, perhaps a little sharper than necessary. But she didn't take it back.
Thrakos ran one hand nervously through his hair. :I just figured it was a sure thing. You do want to go with me, right?:
She could have been mad at him longer, but Minxia didn't see much point in dragging it out. All that would do was torture him, and that wasn't fair. All he had done was forget to ask and assumed she would go with him… since they were going out. :Of course I do,: she replied. :But it's still nice to be asked.:
Thrakos smiled sheepishly. :I'll remember that.: