Chapter 13.1 - December 2023: part II - The Curious Family

 Time moves on, and after the leap in time back to autumn and the Bushweeds first tour in support of their album, we are now back in December, the Christmas month...

Last update in December ended with a pretty bad date between the couple Bhavan and Beate, though their relationship is pretty solid, so it didn't suffer to much. Now, as a preparation for the next update there will be a switch to the household of Beates parents, Martin and Cornelia Curious.. as well as Beate and her younger brother Noah*. She still hasn't moved out of her parents house up on the hillside right next to the military base..

 Winter in Bewickton can sometimes look really dreary, and of course the near ever present fog and the permanently leafless trees that surrounds their house is not helping much..

It's an early rainy morning as usual this time of year, and Tay Bayless, who for some reason or other rents a room in their house is up early to go to work..  

 

Everyone else is asleep except for him.... and the lady of the house, Cornelia, who sends him off with a flirtatious remark to which he responds positively.. I haven't even spent an hour in this household, and the plot thickens already.. what is she up to? A married elderly women flirting with a much younger man, who just so happens to work at the military base...

I mean, he's not excactly handsome, let's be honest... and what does he get out of it? Does he fancy older, married women? Or is it cheap rent and close proximity to his work? Something else? Well, I don't know, but I guess maybe we'll find out...

As the sound of the car that takes him to work fades away, the main character of this chapter, who is still occupying her childhood girls room, is found asleep upstairs dreaming sweet dreams of big cakes with figurines on top...

A little later the teenager of the house wakes up to prepare breakfast and get ready for school, but of course he takes to long to make it so when the school bus honks outside he just puts it down right where he was standing to head out the door... no food until lunch time for him then..

Just in time for his sister to have woken up to catch him for a brief good morning as he heads out the door..

Cornelia, who has been sitting downstairs in the basement, decides to get up from her hiding place down below to join her daughter eating breakfast and discussing the latest game of that strange sport called football using a ball that doesn't really look anything like a football at all..

Beate, not being particularly interested in sports, would much rather discuss a recent concert that she went to. For some people music is the essence of life, or atleast one of them, and Beate is one of those people.

Being a fan in the music career down at the theatre is the ideal job for her at this stage, though one day she dreams of being up there herself, to be the one entertaining people with her charisma and virtuosic skills.. if only one could be a one-woman band...

..and speaking of those dreams, her boyfriend is down at the fire station working hard to fulfill his by working out and building the muscle necessary to rescue kittens from trees, and trees from cats and other such things.. and as usual his colleagues are queuing up around him, either because they want to use the gym machine themselves, or maybe because they just want a piece of him instead..

Beate has her day off today, so she calls up her best friend that isn't one of her coworkers, Smaragd Grønnskog to hang out at the Red Rendezvous for girl time.

Noah decides to head over to the Bayless family with his friend Aslak Bayless to hang out after school. So it seems that the Curious family is close to the Bayless family.

Beate meets up with Smaragd outside the Rendezvous to discuss art. There is something about the nature of this island that has worked as an attractor to many creative people in both music and art, as well as being very inspiring to some of the locals too, which is evident in this towns active scenes for both, compared to its size.

As they are talking the drummer of one of the local bands, The Bushweeds, is seen running out the door, with her drink still in her hand. She must have great hearing for a drummer, because somehow she must have heard their conversation, and being the most avant-garde member of her band, she had to get a word in regarding Smaragds taste in art.. of course..

This didn't create a good mood and insults were hurled back and forth, catching the attention of another one of the pubs guests...

Rudi Grønnskog-Jones, Smaragds brother-in-law, also heard the commotion from inside and decided to check out what was going on, again with the drink still in his hand.. Of course, he ended up taking sides with Smaragd which only drove the wedge further down between Kajsa and the others..

That didn't stop Beate, being the fan that she is, from going after Kajsa though when she ran away to ask to take her picture...

..but she wasn't gonna get one as Kajsa appeared to be pretty frightened of these people by now..

"Get away from me and leave me alone you horrible, horrible people!" Anyone that couldn't understand the genius in the paintings of Giuseppe Arsimboldo had to be a monster or insane! His way of reinventing the portrait using fruit, vegetables and animals the way he did was just so incredibly unique and ahead of his time! She could not have someone failing to understand the brilliance of his painting do a portrait of her! No way!

Oh well.. nothing to do then but give up on getting Kajsas photo (maybe some other time..) and head inside to dry up. However, the argument outside had really taken a toll on Smaragds mood, and she said this was the worst night out she had in.. probably since forever. Words just could not describe how so not pleased she was to be in the same room as Beate right now.. as if it was Beates fault that Kajsa wanted to start a fight...

    "She doesn't really mean it personally.." Beate said, referring to Kajsa. "She is always like that, belittling almost everyone if they don't like whatever she thinks is the coolest thing ever... totally not getting that taste, especially in art, is incredibly subjective..."

    "Let's forget about her for a while and play some foosball instead" Beate said hoping Smaragd would cheer up. It stung a little as she said it, though. Beate really admired Kajsa for her drumming, her staunchness to her own ideals and who she were, and just.. this aura of "you don't mess with me" that she would nearly always exude. Beate wasn't going to forget about Kajsa anytime soon, but she also didn't want her friend to feel like she had a lousy night out, so...

    "This place could have done with some music.. " Smaragd thought, wondering if the stereo was broken or something.. ".. that would probably explain why everyone ran out to take part in our conversation outside... they must've heard everything we said.. of course, since there's no music inside..."

Neither of them wanted the place to be as quiet as it was, and to fill the silence with something, Beate began talking about what was on her mind.. She was going to marry Bhavan, she was sure of it, and if he didn't get off his.. *ahem* to propose soon, then she would have to get it done.. They had been a couple for two years now, and she was about time they atleast got engaged...

They had been a couple for five years now, since she was in high school and that was a really, really long time! She was sure now that this was the man she wanted to start a family with - but Smaragd had to promise to keep this a secret for now. If he wasn't going to propose to her soon, then she was going to do it.. definately, she was going to do it... she just had to find the right moment...

..and it would be such a lovely, excellent, fun wedding! It would be the party of the century, with all the best music! And well, speaking of music.. the lack of music in the room gave Beate an idea that she thought was really brilliant..

Of course! Why hadn't she thought of that sooner! No doubt this idea would save the evening for everyone! And most important of all, it would cheer up and impress Kajsa! How could it not!?

Since Kajsa was also a drummer - just like Beate - she just had to appreciate it if she could fill the room with a solid beat or a real swinging groove! Right? Right....?

..and while Beate was inside trying to impress Kajsa with her drumming, the first snow of the winter season was gently falling down outside...

..and Noah was still hanging out at his friend Aslaks house, though it was getting late and the curfew was now in effect for all the kids in town.. Noah better head home soon, or...

 ..woop woop... the sound of a police siren starting and stopping was heard outside...

..to late! He was gonna get busted now... this is what you get for not going home to mommy and daddy in time!

This was so embarrassing! To be picked up by a police officer outside his friends home! He had completely forgotten about time - he didn't mean to be out late! And it didn't get any better with the police woman insisting to keep the sirens blaring at full volume as she drove him all the way home.. if only police car seats could have a hole in them to sink into...

He did his best to plead the police woman to atleast turn off the sirens as they approached the drive way of his parents house, but it was all to no avail.. It was as if she was determined to wake up everyone in the house to let them know...

He treaded as carefully and silently as he could through the snow and up the stairs of their front porch, hoping that somehow his parents had managed to sleep through the sirens..

He carefully extended his arm towards the door knob, and slowly... gently... twisted it around without making a sound until he felt it was unlocked, before giving the door a faint push, just enough to peak inside to check if anyone was waiting inside..

Not seeing anyone, he gave the door another gentle push.. no reacion.. then another one.. and another, until it was completely open.. and he could walk inside, still as quietly as he could...

He just thought he had made it, and was about to head into the kitchen when he heard the sound of his fathers boots stomping their way down the staircase with solid thumps everytime the heels crashed down on the parts where the carpet was worn out just enough to barely cover the wood panel underneath..

"Noah!"

His fathers voice was stern, and the scowl on his face.. He immediately turned around and froze, and for a split second he thought he could still just feel the last gush of ice cold air from outside blow down his neck, across his back on the inside of his shirt and all the way right through his body to the innermost part of his bone marrow..

"Noah! How many times have we told..? What hour is this to show up!? With sirens blaring and everything!?"

"I was only over at..."

Martin didn't even let him finish the sentence before interrupting. "You were only over at..!? You have a phone! USE IT!"

"I DON'T want to SEE or HEAR you come home in this way at this hour EVER AGAIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!? Next time.. no, there won't be a next time! YOU ARE GROUNDED! Until you learn how to USE YOUR PHONE! To let us know WHERE YOU ARE and WHEN you will come HOME!"

"..but dad, I was only at...."

"No buts... no questions! Go to bed! NOW! GET MOVING!"

"Fine..."

"That's my boy.." Martin said, his voice no longer as stern.. "..all this shouting has made me hungry. I wonder if there is still some left of mamas delicious lemon pound cake in the fridge..."

Well, now that this dust has settled..

..back at the Red Rendezvous things still weren't going so great for Beate. Kajsa was in the spotlight, being interviewed and taken pictures of by the paparazzi, and noone, not even her friend right now, was paying any attention to her drumming...

..well, atleast not until after a while when Kajsa had gone upstairs to try to get some peace to enjoy her drinks alone for a change...

"Hey, this is not bad..." Smaragd tried to cheer her up, and sure enough Beate wasn't really all that bad, she held a steady rhythm with the occasional jazz fill on the toms.. "This would do great on the next cover of Battery Magazine!" she said, pretending to frame her for a picture with her fingers..

A true friend cheers their friend on, even if they still secretly wish for the stereo to be working... ;)

..and that was excactly what Beate needed. She wasn't half bad.. now the rest of the world just needed to notice the excact same thing!

Feeling good about herself she went over to the bar to enjoy a drink before closing time, without noticing that both Kajsa and Smaragd left to go home, leaving her as the only guest in the bar.. she had overheard how Kajsa got a discount at the bar simply for being Kajsa, and now that she had played the drums for them, she had hoped to get one too, but nope... that just wasn't how it worked... she had to pay the full price..

..and then she only got a small taste of it, before it was closing time and she had to leave..

Having spent the entire evening inside, Beate hadn't noticed that it had been snowing.. and as she set foot on the sidewalk waiting for the taxi to show up, the snow was already showing signs of melting...

The landscape was still pretty, somewhat, and she did her best to soak it in through the window from her position in the backseat of the taxi, knowing that this might be just be all the snow they got this christmas.. Maybe, maybe not...

The snow was melting really quickly, and by the time she had made home to their house on top of the hill, the lawn was already mostly green...

When she made it inside, she was puzzled that her father was sleeping on the couch. That was.. unusual of him, but at the same time...

..this also meant that the side of the bed that he would usually occupy by her moms side was available...

...why not seize the opportunity?

Well, to each their own... Sweet dreams... and good night.. ;)

Previous (Beate and Bhavan) | Previous (The Bushweeds)

* This is Notzo Curious, but I renamed him to Noah, because Notzo is not a name.. and I think it just sounds to ridiculous.. and yes, I do understand the intended pun, but still..