"A fancy evening out," said Ray. "For all three of us. And this is really the best you have managed to come up with. Please put my mind at rest and tell me at least that we're not going to the theatre."
Thursday evening found them alone in the house again. Lizzie was out for drinks after work. This was actually an event she wasn't only attending but which she had organised as well. She was intent on following Angela's advice and was taking her first tentative steps toward becoming a leader of her colleagues. Laying the foundations of her kingdom to come.
Sarah was barefoot and dressed in her thin cotton gi. She was stepping through a set of tai chi forms in the space she had cleared to one side of the room. Flowing forward, turning and rising, bending space into shape with her hands.
Meanwhile Ray was leaning back on the sofa, controller in hand, working her way methodically through the broken columns and dripping lichen-covered walls of a ruined city and laying waste to it's hapless skeletal citizens as she went. Her latest victim collapsed into shards and dust under the final blow of her axe, dropping the ladle and saucepan it had been desperately using to try to defend itself and its home as it fell.
Sarah glared over in exasperation, "As you're well aware darling my experience of the mysterious arts of seduction is only marginally greater than yours. So yes, unless you happen to have a yurt handy, that's my big idea. Got a better one? Then I'd love to hear about it. And anyway I like the theatre, it's got the drama and the special occasion atmosphere, so what's wrong with that."
Ray paused her game, throwing the controller carefully aside she looked back over at Sarah smiling with one side of her mouth and raising the corresponding eyebrow.
"No yurt, and no better idea as yet. And we'll all enjoy getting out whatever happens so ok why not, let's give it a shot. It's a shame we can't ask Lizzie for some advice really, she'd definitely know what to do."
This effectively broke the tension between them and forced a laugh from Sarah. She stopped what she was doing and went to sit down next to Ray, tesselating close in against her body.
"There is absolutely no way we're getting her drunk and jumping on her in a nightclub. And that, if I understand correctly, has been the classic Lizzie modus operandi up to now. Really Ray let's face it, neither of us would be any good at that at all, it would go amazingly badly. No, let's stick with what we understand. So we'll take her out and try to show how much we like her by treating her as well as we can. Even if it ends up going nowhere it'll be a lovely thing to do."
"Ok but, don't take this the wrong way - maybe something a little less stuffy than the theatre Sarah. What about that fairground thing they're having on Hyde Park. The adverts have been up absolutely everywhere and it looks really good. We can go during the day, stay until it's dark and sparkly and pretty, and it'll be more casual. I just think she'll feel more comfortable somewhere like that. We all will probably."
Sarah wriggled and squashed herself into Ray's side even harder, "Of course that's true, your idea is much better than mine. But Ray do you think Angela is really right, Do you think Lizzie does like both of us the same way we like her."
"Put your faith in Angela, Sarah," said Ray, a hundred percent confident in her closest friend. "She's nearly as good at getting inside people's heads as you usually are. And sadly you're out of action on this one on account of being blinded by your own emotions. Which is very attractive by the way but apparently not that useful."
She duly received the light punch on her arm which she'd been begging for. Then used it as her excuse to turn on Sarah, tickling her shrieking into submission before holding her down with one hand while she unknotted the tie of her gi with the other.
*****
The Hyde Park Autumn Fair turned out to be far more than it had sounded. It was practically a city in miniature, spanning the huge expanse of open parkland bordered by the Serpentine to the south and west, and stretching all the way up to Marble Arch at the opposite corner. Within these bounds the funfair itself, although gigantic in its own right, took up less than a quarter of the real estate. Dotted across the rest of the reserved area were a circus top, an open air cinema, an elaborately decorated Belle Epoque spiegeltent, and countless other smaller stages, pavilions, and bandstands.
Each one of these hubs was cunningly situated at its own intersection of carefully mapped out meandering paths, and each hosted its own individually curated itinerary of musicians, performers, and comedians. Turning any corner the three women might encounter just to give some examples, a stage magician, a duo beatboxing and taking requests from the crowd, or an acrobatic display team somersaulting over an artfully constructed scaffold sculpture. All of these and a myriad other spectacles were in their turn new delights to stop and enjoy for a while before moving on.
They even came across a yurt at one point with a chalkboard sign outside advertising Reiki, Hot Stone, and Shiatsu. Ray nudged Sarah as they were passing, "Shortcut?"
All the answer Sarah gave her was a pointy elbow to the ribs and a tolerant, if slightly withering look.
"Shortcut to where," said Lizzie brightly.
And Ray was left scrambling for a plausible reply while Sarah collapsed into peals of silent laughter out of Lizzie's view.
Lining the crowded makeshift streets between the foci of entertainment as they wandered around, were craft stalls and food sellers, artisanal producers and stockists of treats of all kinds from close at hand and from far away. At one tented table, advertising produce from the west country, Ray spotted a selection of the aged and infused apple brandies made on their family farm back home. Even better than that there were samples in tiny plastic cups for passers by to taste.
"You've got to try these Lizzie," she shouted excitedly as she ran over. "Our life's work this is."
Sarah and Lizzie strode after her more slowly, arm in arm. Darkness had fallen by now and the air was cooling fast, their breath already puffing mist into the air, so they were glad to have bundled up well.
"She'll have picked that line up from one of her cousins," Sarah said. "You can hear it in her voice when you learn how to listen and both of them are proper evangelists for the cause. It's so important to her the farm you know. They gave her a childhood there and I'd love them just for that even if I didn't love them for themselves. I think it will always be a very important part of her life, though it's been years since she moved up here. You'll be shown around the whole place when you come down to Somerset with us of course. The boys are bound to insist on giving you the grand tour. And you're going to adore Jennie and Lynne, they're the sweetest couple in the world."
"So I'm to come down to meet the family am I," said Lizzie. She found herself a little amused but very touched by Sarah's casual assumption.
"Oh absolutely." said Sarah. "That's definitely part of the plan."
"There's a plan?"
Sarah looked at her, she seemed very earnest all of a sudden. For a moment Lizzie thought she was going to say something else, but then Ray called impatiently back to them again.
"Lizzie, there isn't time for this right now, I'll tell you all about it soon though OK, I promise." Sarah said. "Right now let's not keep her waiting any longer or the poor thing's head will explode."
The moment passed and Lizzie shrugged her confusion off for the time being as it was eclipsed by the intense activity which quickly developed around the stall. It turned out Ray and Sarah had a passing acquaintanceship with the girls (Josie and Gemma) who were running the place so there were greetings, introductions, and polite conversational exchanges to be attended to. At Ray's insistence she tried sips of several different varieties of the fiery aromatic spirit but while they were juggling the tiny tumblers in the semi-darkness she completely lost track of which was which. She assured Ray she had enjoyed them all though and that seemed to suffice as a verdict for the present.
Then the roller coaster loomed ahead and the seats were in pairs so Sarah tactfully assured the other two that she needed to nip off to the toilets anyway, and that they should enjoy the ride on their own. Truth be told (though she never would have done so) the sensation of the world dropping away beneath her feet was not something she needed to experience again in this life. She would leave them to their fun and meet them again at the end.
And sure enough, when they stepped off and looked around to find her, there she was. Juggling hot sweet drinks and a waxed paper wrap of roasted chestnuts in her hands. Telling them excitedly that she had seen them at the zenith, seen them shining like a binary star, looking out onto the world from the top of the ride before tipping over the peak and going down the long slide together to join her again on the ground.
*****
When they made their way by taxi home it was late, but according to Sarah, today's self-proclaimed authority on the subject, not quite yet late enough for bed. She insisted they all get changed and that she would make them some hot chocolate to enjoy in the living room as they relaxed for a while before sleep. Nobody felt inclined to object to his so they reconvened there only a little later, with steaming mugs and looser clothing. Sarah, although she'd prepared the drinks, had somehow contrived to settle in first and had already curled herself deep into her favourite spot in the armchair before the other two made their way in and sat down on the sofa.
"Come on, snuggle up close then Lizzie," said Ray. "Your loss Sarah."
