The People of Simbria: Bewickton: Chapter 10.1 – September 2023

Now autumn was here finally. It was early september, but the leaves on the trees had already turned to a dark tangerine mixed with a bright marmalade colour. It was a regular monday morning and Palashs brother Bhavan was on his way to work at the fire station as usual.

It looked like he had the ground floor of the fire station to himself this morning, which suited him just fine as he would rather have his solitude than be surrounded by people all the time. A marked difference to his older brother who loved to be surrounded by others, atleast as long as they were family, that is.

However he expected that his solitude wouldn't last that long as he could hear voices from down below int he basement. His coworkers were already up and about and far into their daily chatter, watching tv and killing time while waiting for the next alarm to go off. Especially Sofias voice appeared to pierce above everyone elses as she bragged about a new vase she just bought. Sofia had so much talking to do, having been away from her workplace for almost a year now..

After a quick meal Bhavan set out to walk his usual route around the fire station to check if everything was working as it should – a very important thing in case of emergency – when he was approached by his colleague Ali Gates stopping him in his tracks to talk about his latest trip to the library. Ali was the bookworm of the fire fighters and had tried in his spare time to write a few novels, but so far has never found anyone willing to publish his writing in between a pair of covers.

Bhavan did his best to encourage him to keep writing, while simultaneously wanting to get away from the conversation. Not because he didn't want to talk to his colleagues one on one, but because he knew that this was very likely to end up as it often did – with everyone literally queueing up to get their piece of him.... Bhavan had recognized that he was quite the handsome man, sure enough, but still he had never understood excactly what it was about him that would leave people always lining up like that... why was it that people never seemed to get the hint that he was perfectly fine alone, in his own solitude..

So he did the most sensible thing he thought he could do after the conversation ended, and decided to spend most of his work day upgrading one of the toilets – since everything else seemed to be work just as it should, and well, since the toilet stall atleast gave him some privacy...

While Bhavan was inside alone tinkering, Sofia had gone outside in the autumn sun to throw some ball with her friend and coworker Bjørg Krag-Baker. Finally she could throw the ball with someone other than her husband. It was the perfect thing to do for her while at work – it was fun, social, kept her in good physical shape and maintained her figure. Of course.

Bhavan was still inside working on the toilet when Bjørg wanted to go inside to get a bit of rest and Sofia wanted to go inside to continue gossiping with her coworkers about anything from local wanna-be celebrities to the actual celebrities found on the big screen...

She was pretty excited because she was going to spend the upcoming weekend on a long date in the city with her husband. She had booked the most expensive hotel room she could find, and of course, it was important that everyone knew about it. Especially the price tag, the view and all the exclusive accomodations found in the hotel room...
Since Palash didn't do anything to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, after a while she decided to take matters into her own hands... and the baby and the dog would be just fine, because just like on their honey moon, Palashs parents had agreed to babysit for a couple of days..

She had just told Ali that she had in the very last minute secured tickets – best seats in the house - to "Death of the Talisman", a musical set on the Movie Cineplex, when they got interrupted by a loud ringing sound...

Sofia was quick to react as she ran for the pole to slide down and begin organizing the crew. Finally an opportunity to show everyone how brave she was, how good of a fire fighter she could be. It had been way to long..

Secretly she hoped it was a pretty big fire, so that she could get her name in the newspaper as the local heroine of the town, get awarded by the mayor and applauded, celebrated and loved by everyone...

Bhavan loved his job too, but it was not because of the potential for fame and glory.. something which he would rather avoid. It was more about the challenge of facing a dangerous situation, whatever it was, combatting the flames or rescuing people out of car wrecks or other more or less serious emergency situations. It was the thrill of facing and overcoming danger that drove him, not hiding away repairing toilets or being lauded by the people..

Unfortunately for both Sofia and Palash (but not whoever could've found themselves in an actual emergency..) it was just another one of those false alarms and there were no opportunity to rescue anyone to receive praise or challenge oneself facing danger, and it was back again to the same old routines...

Gossiping with their coworkers or upgrading the toilet until their shift was over and it was time to go home...

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Bhavan lives on the same street as a house locally known as "The Party House", because.. well, there used to be quite a few parties there.. it's also the house where most of the band members of "The Bushweeds" have their residence...

...and just as Bhavan returns home one of the members, lead singer and guitarist Gerda is seen returning home from another band rehearsal and song writing session at the community theatre..

Things had to calm down a little in 'The Party House' ever since Gerda became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy called Øyvin, and now she has also gone to adopt a little puppy called Petunia.

Neither of which is very compatible with a true rock and roll or partying lifestyle.. If the band should ever get a chance to go on tour one can only hope that Gerda will have some nice relatives that can agree to do some babysitting for a while.. and that her baby boy will grow up just fine, of course..

Bhavan, in spite of coming from a very creative and musical family, is not very rock'n'roll. When he gets home he wants to go out in his backyard to finally experiment with his brand new chemistry table..

While waiting for it to arrive by mail order he had assembled a small shed in the backyard to keep it in. As a fire fighter he had learnt to have safety as a top priority and having a chemistry table indoors didn't seem like a good idea in case something should explode....

So this is how Bhavan wanted to spend this afternoon, geeking out by the chemistry table all alone in tranquil solitude. Absolutely perfect. ;)

And Eureka! After several hours of mixing various chemical substances he discovered how to make a stink bomb potion! This had to be celebrated, so he wanted to call up his girlfriend and take her out on a date in the park..

..and put on his fire fighting gear, always ready and on duty in case someone else should end up in an emergency...

Unfortunately she couldn't meet him there yet as she still had a couple of hours left of her shift at the theatre. He promised to keep the hot dogs warm for her though, while waiting for her.. and it would probably be alright. Nothing would end up being burnt or catching fire, he knew what he was doing. He was a fire fighter after all...

..but he got another disappointment when he called her again to ask where she was at...

She was to tired after her shift to hang out at the park and wanted to go home to sleep, but maybe they could hang out another day. He could call her anytime, except perhaps when she was at work or when she wanted to sleep...

However being stood up by his girlfriend didn't mean Bhavan would spend the night completely alone as there would always be a line of women waiting to get their piece of this handsome, young fire fighter..