So I want to apologize for the lateness of this chapter. First there were fourth of July stuff going on that took up a lot of time. After that, part of the chapter got done and then BOOM, water leak in the basement. So fixing that and tearing up our basement to get the water damage out has taken up even more time. Spent a bit of my free time working on this as best I could, but got stuck in some areas. So some areas of this chapter may seem rushed. Sorry

Sorry if this chapter isn't very good, but I did try the best I could with as many frustrations that this past month has been giving me.

So onto the story.

"No! Absolutely not," Avery argued to her aunt.

Muriel frowned and said, "Now Avery it's just for one day. You know that now that he's feeling better, it'd be good to take him out and get him some fresh air. Plus I don't think it's healthy for him to be stuck inside ALL the time."

It had been a few days since the family had arrived at their lake house getaway and things had been pretty... mixed to say the least. Eustace was feeling much better and had regained many of his memories. But now he was complaining about how there was not much to do around the place, how there NEVER was anything for him to do. Sure they had TV, but only got a handful of channels and each time they turned to a new channel, Eustace would complain about whatever it was that they were watching and flip to something else and then complain again. The fact that their options were severely limited did NOT help at all.

Avery tried to shake her head, but Muriel just began to give her a stern look.

"Besides, the two haven't gotten to spend ANY time together since you were just a wee little girl. The two of you should really take some time to catch up," Muriel said before Avery could get a single word in.

Avery crossed her arms and said, "You're not going to give me a choice in this are you?"

Muriel didn't answer and merely beckoned Courage over to her.

"Please just give him some patience. Now me and Courage are going to go out to the park for the day. If you need us, you can come find us there," Muriel said and then walked out of the house with Courage in tow.

Avery huffed and sulked to the back room of the house where Eustace was sitting. Somehow, they had managed to take Eustace's arm chair with them to the lake house and he was currently sitting in it and reading the newspaper. He didn't even look up from it as Avery walked into the room.

She took a breath and said, "Hey Uncle Eustace."

Eustace merely turned a page of the paper and said, "Yeah? What do you want?"

'Well there's no standing on ceremony with him is there?' Avery said in her head.

She was going to scold him for his attitude, but knowing his temperament decided that that would probably be the worst thing right now. After all, he JUST got his memory back and was still sore with himself for having been so easily duped by some duck with a French accent.

Avery stood next to his chair and said, "So Aunt Muriel said that we should probably spend the day together. Just you and me."

Eustace turned another page of his paper and said, "And?"

Avery pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew that it wouldn't be that easy with him.

"And I thought we could you know... go for a walk or something?" she suggested.

Eustace merely blinked and said, "Sounds boring."

Avery had to admit that it kinda did, but she wasn't ready to back out just yet.

"Maybe, but you never know what we could come across along the way. We might find something that we can both laugh at," she suggested.

This time, Eustace gave her a slight glance.

"Like what?" he asked.

Avery shrugged and said, "Maybe someone getting hurt while doing something stupid. Or maybe take in a movie at the local movie theater. I heard that they play classic movies every night."

Now Eustace was a little bit intrigued.

"What kind of classics?" he asked.

Avery narrowed her eyes and with a smile she said, "They play classic monster movies tonight. Like The Blob and Bride of Frankenstein. At least it'll be better than whatever they'll be playing on TV tonight."

Eustace folded up his paper and said, "Very well. But if you're playing a trick on me.."

Avery didn't let him finish and said, "I'm not. Come walk with me and you'll see."

Eustace stood up from his chair, got on his jacket and walked with her to the door.

"At the very least we'll get a somewhat nice day out," she said.

"So long as it don't rain," said Eustace.

For the past half hour, both niece and uncle walked along the streets of this unfamiliar town on the opposite end of the state. There wasn't much, in fact there was less to do here than there was in the town of Nowhere. But still Avery insisted on walking around and looking for at least a little something to do while they waited for the movies to begin, but that was still a couple of hours away.

At least Nowhere had places where people could congregate. All that this town had was a few random office spaces, a store, a small eatery and a park. And she could see her aunt and Coruage sitting in the park nearby, so that was a no go for them.

She led her uncle away from there, not wanting to deal with him harassing Courage right now. So they ended up walking down one of the town's side streets and away from the park, all in awkward silence.

Avery decided that now would probably be a good time to break the ice, so she asked him, "So how's farming been going for ya?"

Eustace grumbled a bit and said, "About as it always goes."

Avery inhaled sharply in her mind and inside of her head she said, 'So not good like always. Uncle Horace he is not.'

Not wanting to get her uncle's ire than she already had, she merely nodded and said, "I see. Now what about you and your mom?"

Eustace stubbornly crossed his arms and said, "I don't want to talk about it."

'You never do,' Avery said inside her head again and even felt a little sweat coming to her forehead.

They walked in silence for a little bit longer.

"How about you?" Eustace asked with his demeanor changing just a little.

Avery gave him a surprised look and asked, "What?"

"How are you getting along after... you know," Eustace asked.

Avery knew what he was getting at. Ever since she had moved in she had seen nothing but his angry side. But now this? This was a little crazy.

She shrugged and said, "Doing okay I guess. I just... really miss them."

Eustace nodded and said, "Who wouldn't?"

"Do you ever miss Uncle Horace?" Avery asked.

The softer demeanor on his face hardened once again as he looked away from her and said, "Nope!"

Avery crossed her own arms now and said, "Uncle Eustace, I know you well enough to know your voice tones."

He still growled a little and Avery rolled her eyes a bit. As she got a brief look up at the sky though, she swore she saw someone float through the sky tied to a balloon. Someone that was a little dog shaped.

"Maybe on certain days," Eustace suddenly said.

That broke Avery out of her gaze and turned her attention back to Eustace.

"Sometimes I will admit... I do miss his rough housing. At least he gave me SOME attention when he did that," Eustace admitted a little.

"More than your ever parents did?" she asked.

Eustace uncrossed his arms at last and said, "I'm hungry. Let's go get some lunch."

He began walking over to a nearby diner and Avery couldn't help but shake her head. She managed to get him to open up a little bit, but his usual rough exterior continued to show through.

"Just keep at it girl. Eventually you'll get through to him," she told herself.

They walked out of the diner a few minutes later, both of them carrying a hot dog in little paper trays. Avery had nothing but mustard on hers while Eustace had his fully loaded with all sorts of toppings. Relish, ketchup, mustard, onion. Pretty much everything that the place offered was piled up on Eustace's hot dog. Avery couldn't help but laugh as she watched her uncle try very hard to take just one bite of it.

She took a bite of hers and said, "See? That's why I always go with just mustard on mine. It's easier to eat and a lot less messier."

Eusatce finally managed to take a small bite of his hot dog, letting some relish and onions fall from it.

"That's the beauty of it. Once I finish the hot dog, I can have whatever falls out of it to finish it off. Why do you think I grabbed this on the way out?" he said and pulled out a little plastic spoon.

Avery chuckled and said, "Whatever floats your boat I guess."

She finished her hot dog in no time and could hear Eustace trying to noisily scarf his down. Deciding that she didn't want to be disgusted by his sloppy eating habits, she decided to look back up at the sky. The dog with the balloon was gone, but now she saw a plane flying through the air. What was peculiar is that she swore that it looked like there were three people walking on the wings of the plane as the plane lurched from side to side.

"That looks pretty ominous," she said quietly to herself.

"What does?" asked Eusatce with his mouth full.

Avery groaned, looked at him and said, "Okay if you're going to talk, can you please swallow your food first?"

Eustace grunted and swallowed the huge bite without properly chewing, making Avery glare at him.

"What? I can't be slightly curious and eat at the same time? What's this country coming to?" Eustace said.

Avery shot him a glare and said, "You're going to choke on it if you do that and just so you know, I'm not familiar with the Heimlich Maneuver."

Eustace turned away and said, "Bah!"

Avery could feel her temper beginning to rise and said, "Just finish your hot dog please. We should really get to the theater before the movies begin. People flock here to see them."

"Yeah yeah!" Eustace said and went back to eating his hot dog.

She looked back up to where she had seen the plane, but now it was gone. All she could do was hope that whoever was in the plane would be fine and didn't crash somewhere. In due time, Eustace finished his hot dog and the two discarded their little paper trays after Eustace ate up the fallen toppings.

'At least the theater should be peaceful,' Avery said in her head.

They walked to the movie theater, which thankfully wasn't too crowded just yet. There was a small line of people waiting, due to the fact that fans of classic cinema will gladly flock to any theater showing them. Avery was honestly surprised that there weren't more people than there already were. The crowd however was not Avery's main issue right now.

"Who the heck takes their kids to see monster movies?" Avery said angrily.

Sure enough, there were quite a few kids running around the main lobby of the theater without any adults supervising them whatsoever. Kids running about screaming, messing with the concession stand and snacks within, annoying the adults waiting patiently to get tickets. But the worst part? Annoying the heck out of Avery.

A couple of giggling kids ran right past her, knocking into her a little in the process. One of them even nearly stepped on her foot. They didn't even apologize for it and ran ahead to continue terrorizing the rest of the theater lobby instead.

Avery growled and said, "And people wonder why I can't stand kids."

One of the brats even ran straight into Eustace, stomping on his foot in the process.

"YOW! Rotten kids. I'll show them what happens when they step on me," he muttered as he glared at the kids.

Despite Avery's personal aggravation with these kids, she was afraid that any attempt at retaliation could spell disaster for the both of them. Tonight's double feature was the one thing she'd been looking forward to the entire day. She did not want to be ejected over some kids.

"Leave it alone Uncle Eustace. If we escalate it, that will only spell disaster for you and m-" Avery said, but was interrupted as the manager began to yell at the kids. The kids in return all jumped on him and knocked him over... making him fall right into Avery with a scream.

The manager apologized for the mishap, but Avery didn't hear it. At this point, she was just done. She was done with these kids and only wanted to go in and relax with a classic monster movie. If the parents weren't going to control their kids, then measures had to be taken into her own hands.

She turned to her uncle and asked, "Do you have your mask with you?"

Eustace laughed, knowing exactly what she was getting at, and said, "I always do."

Avery wasted no time. While the kids were still practically crowded around her, she reached into Eustace's back pocket. It didn't take her long to find exactly what she was looking for. She slipped it out, turned away from the still acting up kids and when she looked back, all of their laughter stopped. Avery didn't even need to crouch to get in their faces. The moment she began looking back at the kids, all of the laughing stopped and was replaced by the startled gasps of the children.

Avery wasn't done yet though, oh no. She decided to go full like her uncle. She waved arms about and hollered, "Oohga booga booga! I'M GONNA EAT YOU!"

The kids scattered about screaming and most of them ran straight out of the theater. Both Avery and Eustace laughed at the scene, Avery even expecting to be kicked out for this.

'That was so worth it though', she said in her head.

To her surprise however, half the people in the room began to clap for her.

"Okay now this is unexpected," she said

The manager stood up, laughed and said, "Thanks for helping us with them. Those kids have been terrorizing the theater for most of the day. Their parents dropped them off this morning and haven't been back since."

Avery groaned internally and mentally said, 'Seriously? What is up with parents these days?'

Afterwards, the manager offered the two of them some free snacks for the movie, which the two took vantage of. Eustace and Avery got into their monster double feature without any little kids to further deal with. In the end, the both of them were just glad their painfully average day ended on a more positive note.

So that's the chapter. I'm sorry if it felt boring or rushed, but by the time i got to the last few lines, I just wanted to be done. Next chapter should be better though. Why? Because next time we meet Katz.