章 30: Red Raspberry Season (July - August) Part 2
The doorways in this home were not squared, they were arches which intrigued Fabian. Annie shut the door and Mrs. Wright came in, drying her hands on a teatowel. Annie introduced Fabian to her parents and then led Fabian and Lisa through another arched doorway into the hall. The hall was more of a hub. Straight ahead, a small desk and chair sat in one corner next to the door to the bathroom. To the left was the door to the master bedroom; to the right was Leslie's room. Annie turned back to face the living room again and Fabian noticed that there was a door next to Leslie's room that led into a dining room. Annie opened a door next to the living room door that had a full length mirror on the back of it.
"I have always envied you this room," Lisa said.
"Right. That's why you live in a garage attic. You were jealous of the Wright twins."
"My place isn't the same," Lisa said as they started up the stairs. "In the beginning, yes, that was the case. But what I envied was more complicated than that. You two always lived up here together so well."
"It's lonely without Amy," Annie complained, nodding.
The roof had obviously been raised for the twins' bedroom. Fabian had no problem standing. The "room" was the entire length of the house. Each end had a window, closets, a desk and a bed. Each twin had an end of the house. It was easy to tell whose side was whose -- Amy's side was still arty and bohemian although it was also obvious that she no longer lived there. Annie's side was more homey. In the space between the two sitting areas were comfortable-looking chairs and four music stands set up. Fabian tried not to laugh at Keith, who was tuning his cello from his seat in a papa-san chair.
"Hi." Keith looked up. "Recently put on a new D string, and it's being a bugger."
"Been there," Fabian smiled. "Take your time."
Annie led them over to her bed to put their instrument cases on.
"When I wanted to learn violin," Annie said as Fabian and Lisa unpacked their instruments, "Amy started screaming. She thought they had legs like a cello and you had to stick them in your neck."
"Eww." Lisa wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes. Fabian laughed.
"Mine does," he said.
"Oh it does not," Lisa laughed.
"Annie, I'll take second violin," Fabian told her. "I don't want to just barge in here and take over your group."
"I don't want first violin," Annie assured him. Fabian tucked his violin under his chin, drew the bow across it to check the tuning, and then burst into Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5. He played a few measures, then stopped, noticing that Lisa, Annie and Keith were all staring at him open-mouthed.
"What?" he asked.
"You are first violin," Annie said. "No ifs, ands, buts or arguments." Fabian laughed.
"Yes ma'am," he said.
"I agree," Keith said. "You've passed the audition." Lisa and Annie took seats, but Fabian remained standing.
"All right. If I'm first violin ...." He played a long, sustained A.
As the music began to drift down from the attic, Abe Wright got restless. He stood, and started to pace. He looked suspiciously at the ceiling.
"What's the matter?" Ella asked, looking in from the kitchen.
"They've practiced here before and they have never sounded like that!" he said.
"Annie said that Lisa told her Fabian was a very talented violinist. Annie was looking forward to hearing him play."
"This is too good." Abe started for the hallway.
"Abe! Where are you going? Don't you dare bother them!" Ella was shocked.
"I've seen The Ladykillers, Ella. They probably put a record on and it's a den of iniquity up there."
"Oh, stop! It never bothered you when Keith and Lisa came over to practice before! I suppose you think they robbed First Mills Bank and Keith has the money in his cello case."
"Before Mr. America showed up with a violin case, I never needed to worry about what was going on upstairs."
"Lisa deserves a little romance in her life, Abe."
"Yes, I agree. But not in my house."
"Abe! Don't you dare!" He ignored her and quietly started up the steps to the attic. He was back in a few minutes, pale with shock.
"Well? Are you proud of yourself?" Ella demanded.
"I've got to call Hal. See if there's any way we can keep Mr. America around for a while."
Our police, fire and ambulance people are some of the best. Even if they fortunately don't get a lot of practice. -- Overheard at the barber shop
Fabian smiled and waved once more before heading backstage. Rick moved through the crowd and met him there.
"Hi, Chief," Fabian said, toweling perspiration from his face.
"Hey. I wanted to let you know we found your truck."
"You're kidding? Where?"
"About ten miles on the other side of the bridge." Rick gestured toward the east mill and the game lands. "Past the Frog Pond on the way to Oxbow. It had been hot-wired. Does anyone from the carnival know how to hotwire a car?"
"A lot of people," Fabian admitted. "I can do it. We had a carnie once when I was a kid -- the guy's in jail now -- who taught most of us how to hotwire a car. Mom and Dad eventually caught him stealing from them and prosecuted him. But none of us could unlearn."
"So Mrs. Carrillo or your brother could have hotwired your truck.
Fabian nodded.
"Or Robbin Jensen."
"Somebody else is missing now?" The Chief stared at him.
"I don't know if it's official -- right now she's just been out of touch for a while. Her husband might contact you eventually. She supposedly left for a family emergency of some sort, so she might just be preoccupied. But she could have taken the truck too. She has a truck of her own, but you never know."
"Great." Rick rolled his eyes.
"Sorry," Fabian said. "So now what do I do?"
"I'll go over it and see what evidence I can get from it. Rodney should be bringing it in any time. I'll let you know when I get done with it."
Have you tried that new restaurant? The food is unbelievably good! Fortunately, she delivers and does take-out -- it's always packed in there. Finally! Pizza in town!
"Dad, I need to talk to you," Fabian said as his father passed the carousel.
"Want to buy me lunch at the diner? I need to talk to you, too.
"I'd rather go there." He pointed at Adrianna's.
"An even better idea," Larry smiled. "By all means lets' keep the family businesses thriving!" They walked over to Adrianna's restaurant. Adrianna waved to them and motioned that they should just find a seat and sit. That wasn't easy -- the place was packed as usual. It was still early, so there was no waiting for once. They finally found a small table for two over near the restrooms.
"So what's going on?" Larry wanted to know.
"Well, first of all, they found my truck. I have an appointment with Rodney Weaver to look at it this afternoon."
"Good luck," Larry said "Let me know how that goes."
"Absolutely. Hey -- even if it's a total, they found it. Also I wanted to talk to you about this." He slid an envelope across the table to Larry, who pulled out the letter to read. Then he beamed brightly.
"Congratulations!" he said. "This will actually tie in well with what I wanted to discuss with you."
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