Down to Earth

This weekend wasn’t turning out like it was cracked up to be. Dante was running the Toad in Hat B&B alone. Tucker and Annie had nervous looks on their faces.

“Are you sure this is okay?” William asked.

“Uh… Sure,” Tucker said. The other man gave him a strange look. Dante appeared to be struggling. On the first day, everything seemed fine. He smiled and tried to get the guests happy.

“Welcome, welcome!” the owner said. “Thank you for coming to Toad in Hat! I hope you enjoy your stay here!” Everyone awkwardly smiled and tried to act like everything was fine. Dante helped everyone inside with their luggage.

“Keys are at the front desk,” he said. “I will sort everything out shortly.”

“What are we doing for lunch?” Greg asked. Dante turned around with a puzzled look on his face.

“What?” he asked.

“What’s for lunch?” the young man asked. The host nervously laughed. The old biddies had strange looks on their faces.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Lewis said under her breath.

“Oh come on,” Aisha said. “It can’t be that bad, right?” Dante tripped and fell over trying to get the suitcase into the B&B. Oh buddy…

-Day One-

“Do you even have a menu set up for the weekend?” Annie asked. Dante chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Sharon usually does all of that,” he admitted.

“So you have nothing planned out?” Tucker asked.

“I’m sorry,” their friend said. Annie groaned and smacked her forehead.

“I did not want to be working on my vacation!” she complained.

“Don’t worry,” Dante insisted. “You won’t have to do anything. I’ve got everything under control.” Annie narrowed her eyes.

“Who usually does the cooking?” she asked.

“Sharon,” Dante answered sheepishly.

“Who keeps this place clean?”

“Sharon.”

“Who manages the paperwork?”

“Sharon.”

“Who manages the guests?”

“Sharon.”

Annie put her hands on her hips. “Exactly.” She turned to the rest of the guests. “Who’s good at cooking?” The rest of the guests looked confused.

Lunch managed to get served on time. But first, they had to go out and shop for ingredients.

“Does dis bloke’s wife do everything fo’ ‘im?” Clyde asked as the old biddies walked down to the seaside market.

“Apparently so,” Muriel said.

“‘Hat’s just sad,” the dirty old biddy said.

“What do we need to get again?” Liz asked. Clover looked at the list again.

“Uh… fish, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, basil, wheat, apples, bananas, strawberries…” she read off.  Her sister read over with her.

“All of this?” she asked.

“Yeah, Ms. Annie said that the kitchen was almost empty,” she said. The rest of the shopping party had uneasy looks on their faces.

“Yes,” Clover said as her face dropped. Once the shopping was done, Annie, Clover, and Aisha got to cooking in the kitchen.

“I was very good at cooking on the base, you know?” Aisha asked. “I’m always cooking at the church when it’s my day to do kitchen duty.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Annie said. “Just get to peeling the carrots!”

“Right,” Aisha said. As the three women got to work in the kitchen, Annie got to plotting how to keep this B&B in order and enjoy her vacation at the same time. She groaned aloud and looked up at the ceiling.

“I didn’t want to be working on my vacation!” she complained.

-Day Two-

The youth headed out to the beach while the older people worked around the house. Greg blushed as he found himself alone with Clover. Today was going to be the day that he finally confessed his feelings to her and was serious about it. Annie put him through weeks of “gentleman boot camp” just to get right. There was no way that he could screw this up, right? Clover looked so pretty standing near the waves, looking out at the ocean. Why wouldn’t the words just come out like he wanted it to?

Greg closed his eyes. To hell with it, he was just going to come out and say.

“Clover, I…” he said as he turned around. Sadly, he was alone once again. The young man looked around.

“Clover? Where did you go?” he asked. “Clover? Clover?” In the distance, Liz and Chris frowned and shook their heads.

-Day Three-

Clyde collapsed on the golden couch in the parlor and groaned aloud.

“I’m tired!” she complained. “Why we got ta do all dis ‘ard work?” Aisha’s eye twitched as she sneered.

“You’ve barely done anything this weekend!” she snapped.

“When’s his wife coming back?” Liz asked.

“The last time Sharon left it was for eight weeks,” Tucker said. More groans filled the room. Annie walked into the doorway of the parlor with her arms folded across her chest.

“What are you all doing lying around here?” she asked. “There’s still work that needs to be done! Get up and get to it!” The rest of the guests groaned as she turned and walked back to the kitchen. Good thing they were leaving tomorrow, but still…

Why did it have to be so hard?

Working for Vacation