Chapter 4.35

Sunday morning was a quiet one. David woke very early and had already had a submarine adventure in his bathtub before his parents had gotten up. He attempted to stay in his room and play with his toys, but that got boring fast. David got dressed up as a prince instead, and paraded around the house waving to the imaginary populous, of his invisible kingdom. In addition to chess, this was also one of his favorite games to play. It possibly even topped chess. He loved acting in every way, whether it be dinosaur stomping, posing as a prince or king, or space jumping in an astronaut suit. Every once in a while, his family would join in and pretend right along with him. Their imaginations weren't quite as vivid as his though, and they couldn't hold up the show quite as long. Very often Adelaide was the one playing, the two of them loved making funny faces at each other, and joking about anything.

Logan was up early as well, though he hadn't gotten showered and dressed, he had gone straight down to the basement to workout. Unfortunately Emma had followed him, so he didn't get that done. Emma demanded too much of his attention. She wanted her brushing, and petting time. Logan also decided to teach her to play dead. Emma nearly had a doggy heart attack when he fell to the floor and stopped breathing. She sniffed him carefully while he lay there. Then he surprised her a bit when he popped his head up and said "Play dead!". This trick looked like it would be a little difficult for her to learn, or take the most amount of time so far. They did practice for about an hour before Logan finally did have to shower and get ready for work.

Brian and Adelaide had seen in the paper that there would be a SimFest held at the small park today, and decided to go. They hadn't been to one before and thought it would be a fun thing to do, since both kids were busy. The two of them got ready and were walking out the door when Logan said goodbye on the porch, then ran across the street.

Luckily for Logan, his coworker Lauren didn't work that day, so he wouldn't have to be confronted with the issues of telling her that he was unavailable. He wasn't really looking forward to that conversation, but wasn't sure why. It shouldn't be too hard.

At the SimFest, there was only about three performers, and none of them were very good. Brian and Adelaide stayed to watch anyway. Close to when the show was over, Brian was approached by a guy to get his autograph. He happily signed the little piece of paper, glad to see that some people still knew him by name. It felt like it had been a while since he gave his signature out. Right after he handed the paper back, the girl that had come by to see Logan the day before came up to him too.

"Hi. Mr. Fuller, I wanted to apologize for leaving so abruptly yesterday afternoon. I had to get here to audition some performers." She glanced toward the stage, "The show tonight wasn't that great unfortunately. Sorry about that. I'm Velina, the proprietor of most shows here."

"Well, nice to meet you Velina. I have to admit, I was not too impressed with the show here tonight, and it was my first one." Brian smiled at her attempting lighten his statement. 'She seems like a nice girl, she's got a nice voice too.'

"Next time will be better for you, I promise." Velina told him, "Will you please pass my apologies to Logan for not staying around to wait for him? I feel badly, but I had to get to work. Sorry I can't stay, I have to get back to business. It was lovely to meet you."

Brian assured her that he would take her message to his son and watched her walk away. 'I can see why Logan likes her.'

He and Adelaide had to go to the school that afternoon, as did Logan if he could make it, to attend a graduation of sorts for David. Brian called Logan at the fire house to find out if he could get someone to cover a few hours of his shift.

Agnes let Logan go for an hour or two so he could attend the ceremony. Brian and Adelaide met him there, along with David.

David was going through his badging ceremony. He was graduating from his after school activity of Scouting. He had breezed through it with flying colors, learning how to tie knots and starting fires with no problems. He was a perfect scout. The ceremony wasn't long and Brian, Adelaide and David went back home together. Logan had to get back to work.

At home, the family went into the backyard to hang out. David played in the sandbox and on the swing while his parents cuddled on the outdoor sofa and watched him.

Logan studied mostly, there were no fires to tend or emergencies to respond to. Out of the third story window, he saw people at the park behind the building and he knew that Velina was there. As soon as the shift bell rang he was out the door to see her.

As he had assumed, she was there. She had just been coming off of the stage after sweeping it when he stepped in front of her.

"OH! Logan, you scared me."

"I'm sorry, that wasn't my intent." He smiled at her. "I'm also sorry I haven't called. I've been a bit busy."

"It's quite alright, on both counts. I've been busy too." Velina admitted. "Great to see you though. You're in uniform, I guess you came from work?"

Logan got slightly distracted by her voice again, it was so alluring and she wasn't even trying. "Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't think of changing." He glanced at himself, wishing he had. "Well, I guess that'll probably hurt my chances when I ask you out tonight won't it?"

Velina felt color rising to her cheeks which made her glad it was night, maybe he didn't see. "No. Not at all. I'd be happy to anywhere with you, no matter what you're wearing."

Logan smiled, "Want to sit down?"

Velina nodded at him and they sat on the grass leaning back on their hands, to watch the clouds roll by and the stars shine.

After a minute of pointing out constellations, or seeing shooting stars, Velina leaned over and whispered softly in Logan's ear. "I could do this every night Mr. Fuller. Especially if it's with you." She put her head to the side and blushed again.

If Logan thought he had been distracted before, it was nothing like now. Her soft voice in his ear sent chills down his spine. Warm breath on his neck made his body temperature rise a degree or two instantly. He barely heard exactly what she said. He put his hand on her chin and gently pulled it toward him so he could see her eyes. "I'm glad the feeling is mutual Velina."

The two of them smiled at each other. Logan got to his feet and offered his hand to help her up. She accepted. "Why don't we go over to Mick's Master Karaoke and have a little fun, huh?"

They walked into the bar and Logan was shocked to find his Uncle Dylan singing at the microphone. He was quite horrible, but he sang a few songs anyway.

"That's my uncle up there, he's nuts for singing. He may be the best guitar player that I've ever heard, but he needs a lot more practice with this new found talent of his." Logan told Velina.

Both of them laughed, then Velina pulled him out to he dance floor. "C'mon, we can ignore the voice and just feel the beat."

They danced well into the night hearing a multitude of singers, most slightly drunk and totally tone deaf. Occasionally they got a good singer up there though. When Velina looked like she was ready to go home, Logan called her a limo to take her back to her place.

"I hope to see you again soon." He told her as his fingers lightly brushed her cheek. She told him that it was very likely, then got into the waiting car. He watched until the car was out of sight, realizing then that he didn't even know where she lived.

The following morning, Logan woke at the same time as David. After their morning routines were finished the two brothers talked for a long while. It seemed to Logan that he hadn't really seen his little brother much in the last few weeks, and he rather enjoyed his company. He was lighthearted and easy to laugh with. They played a game of chess together and Logan was surprised to find that David beat him, quite easily.

"You've been holding out on my 'Chess Master David'!" He joked.

David laughed alongside Logan. "I've had some practice while you've been away at work. You're there a lot you know."

Logan thought he heard a bit of hostility inside the words his brother spoke. He tried explain himself as best he could, "I'm sorry I haven't been able to hang out as much. I'm an adult now, and trying to build a life for myself before I move out and get a place of my own."

"Yeah. I know. I'll miss you when you go you know." David admitted.

Logan got up and pulled his younger brother into a hug. "I have to go to work now. I know, bad timing, but I have to. I'll see you later, kay?"

Logan walked to work, arriving five minutes before his shift began. He saw Dave there, and was just walking past him when Lauren came around the corner, nearly running into him.

"Logan. Can I talk to you for a minute?" Lauren requested. She glanced at Dave, who walked away. Her expression changed in an instant, it went from dead serious to lightly lit by a barely showing smile. "Logan, I'd be very interested to know on a more personal level. Will you go out with me?"

"I'd love to get to know you more personally too Lauren, but not in that way. I'm already seeing someone. I hope this won't put a damper on our friendship." Logan said, nearly tripping over the sentences that he spat out so quickly.  Even though he hadn't, it was like he had recited those words about a thousand times before he spoke them to her.

Lauren looked down, internally crushed, she took a deep breath and looked back at him still holding her little smile. "Well good for you, she's a lucky woman. Of course it won't, I'll always be your friend Logan, no matter. Just a fleeting thought of mine."

"Good," Logan smiled. "I'm glad we're still cool. I've got to work on my extinguisher, it's been acting up."

Lauren watched him step away and sit at the table next to them and pull out his extinguisher. He immediately started to work on it. Her smile faltered, then vanished completely, replaced by a frown. 'Well that was embarrassing and painful. He wants to stay friends though. At least I can still see him. As painful as that might be.' Her hands started to get back to her job, but her mind was elsewhere.

Logan started messing around trying to figure out what was wrong with his extinguisher. He concentrated on it a little harder than really necessary yet he was only halfway paying attention to his work while his mind wandered. 'Well, according to appearances that went well. I know that shes not completely okay with this though. Every time we talk there will that proverbial 'elephant in the room'. He sighed. He had already fixed the problem, but didn't he kept working on his extinguisher anyway, trying to upgrade it. His work was interrupted with a fire alarm. Happy for a reason to leave the firehouse, Logan got up quickly and got in the truck.

There was another very large house fire to respond to. Logan didn't see any trapped people from the outside, so he kicked in the front door and ran through the house looking for anyone. He did find a few upstairs, unfortunately they were behind a wall of flame, and a jammed door.

Apparently the fire started in the kitchen, the cook in the house had forgotten about the roast they had put in and it caught fire while they were upstairs fooling around. Same as the last fire that he fought, Logan took a few hours to get the flames extinguished. It was days like these that made him wonder why only one fire fighter responded to an emergency at a time. He secured the house and instructed the family on fire safety, as was protocol. He would be going home and getting to bed when he was finished cleaning himself up at the firehouse.

At home Brian and David had just gotten finished playing some video games together. Brian had was just about to send his son up to bed when David stopped.

"Dad, can I ask something?"

"Sure, anything. What's on your mind?"

"It's my birthday in a few days you know. Can we have a pool party?" David was very excited about his birthday coming up and it showed.

"Are you sure it's your birthday? I thought we just had a cake for you a couple months ago!" Brian joked, "Okay, I'll think about it. We'll see what I can do."

David clapped his hands and jumped up and down. "Yay! Alright."

Laughing, Brian told him that it was time for sleep and watched him run up the stairs, skipping every other step. "Night son!" he yelled after the boy.

To be continued...