Lily woke up the next morning with a great pain in her neck and even more so where last night's food should have been. She'd slept right through dinner and through the night, and now it was already about sunrise. As magical as many say sunrises are, Lily did not find it even slightly magical to wake up so early, but figured since she was obviously not going back to sleep she would go down and make her dad a "magical" breakfast. She took the stairs slowly and carefully, dreading last night's wave of grief to slap her backwards again, but in the daylight she could see that quite a bit had changed. As she turned the corner towards the kitchen, she was surprisingly relieved to find a mix of the familiar with just the right amount of change. She couldn't imagine how her dad had done it, but his fatherly wisdom had given him some sound advice on just the recipe for moving forward with life. Well, so she thought until she paused by the door to the den and saw him passed out on the couch.
She tiptoed past the door to the den and opened the refrigerator door to find almost nothing to work with. She was almost grateful for the excuse to go out on a Saturday morning. Amish food was attainable in the midwest, but there was nothing like the community close to the house she grew up in. She grabbed some of her own money and set out to dive into freshly grown veggies, eggs and milk straight from their animal sources, and the pre-made wonderful cuisine found almost exclusively in south-central Pennsylvania. She was ordering red beet eggs and some fresh meat when a pair of hands crept over her eyes. She reached her hands back, catching her stalker in the side where she knew he was very very ticklish.
"How do you always know it's me?" he faked a pout.
"Chase!" Lily exclaimed, jumping at him to give him a warm hug. "You're hands are always warm, even when there are meat coolers everywhere, and even if that weren't the case, you've got unique hands."
"You were made to be a CIA agent or something," Chase said with a teasing smile.
"I'm observant," she smiled back. The teasing eased into a comfortable conversation, which was a relief to Lily. It seemed everywhere she looked, she dreaded running into someone familiar who would just want to make her dive into the painful memories of her last vacation. Lily could see the question lurking behind Chase's kind chatter and smile, but was glad he seemed to know just what not to go into. After almost 30 minutes of talking, however, Lily remembered that she'd left her dad not only in an empty house, but perhaps even a bit worried after last night's disappearance. She shared the concern with Chase and he agreed.
"Can we maybe go out with some of the old gang later on?" he mentioned before heading out.
"Let's give it another day," Lily replied. "I need to spend at least this first full day home with my dad.
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