29 June 2007

Settling In

 Chapter One

 Lorelai drove up to her new house. It was almost seven, Tuesday night. She knew Rory was there  because she had called Lorelai just as soon as she had gotten home from school. The phone had been installed the day before.

 Since taking over as the Independence Inn manager the day before, she discovered her days now were going to be longer than they had been when she was just the Head Maid. She used to leave at five, but now there were so many small details that needed taking care of that took time. Before she realized it, the day staff had gone home and Tobin and the night staff were there.

 But in a way, she didn't mind so much. She loved the inn.  She loved the people working there. And she loved making sure the guests were happy and taken care of.

 Lorelai knew it would get easier as she got more comfortable in her new job. But for now she wanted to make sure everything was done just as Mia expected it to be. She wanted to show her she made the right choice when she asked Lorelai to take over managing the inn for her.

 For a few seconds Lorelai just sat in the inn's van she was using, looking at the house. She still found it hard to believe it was theirs -- hers and Rory's. It was only their fourth day living there, and it still brought a lump to her throat -- not only for the joy of the two of them finally having their own house, but with a bit of sadness for leaving that small, cramped, but so-loved potting shed they had called home for over a decade.

 Lorelai got out of the van with a bag of leftovers Sookie had packed up for her and Rory. She checked the mailbox, then walked to the front steps, climbed them, crossed the porch to the front door.

 "Knock, knock! Mommy's home!" she called out as she went inside.

 "Kitchen!" Rory yelled back to her.

 "Mmmm, I smell coffee," Lorelai said as she went into the kitchen. "I brought supper."

 Rory had her books scattered over the small kitchen table they had used while living behind the inn, and had brought with them. She piled some of them on top of others to make room for the bag.

 "So, Miss General Manager, how was your very first, and very long, day with Mia no longer looking over your shoulder?" Rory asked as she peeked into the bag while Lorelai poured herself a cup of coffee.

 "Funny you should ask. Mia came by the inn for lunch."

 Lorelai  sat down at the table in the other chair. They only had room for two in the shed; they vowed to get two more later.

 "Is this chicken fried or baked?" Rory asked.

 "Umm, baked, I think. Unless it's broiled. Like I said, Mia came by today."

 "Oh! Sookie mixed the gravy with the mashed potatoes. I love it like that. It saves so much time!"

 "Rory!"

 "What?" Rory's eyes looked like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

 "I'm trying to tell you something here."

 "Yeah, I know. Mia ate lunch at the inn. And she sent apple cobbler!"

 Lorelai's hand smashed down on the top of the bag, trapping Rory's hand inside.

 "I think you'll want to hear this." Lorelai's voice had a serious tone to it.

 Rory suddenly got worried.

 "What is it?"

 "Well, as I said, Mia came by and we had lunch together, then we went into her – my, office. And she told me I was no longer the inn's General Manager."

 "What? No!"

 "Yes."

 "But why? Don't tell me she changed her mind and made Michel the manager. Does that mean we have to move back to the potting shed? But I love this house! We just got here and I was going to ask Mrs. Kim if Lane could come over tomorrow to see it."

 "No, we don't have to move. And Michel isn't the General Manager."

 "Then who is?"

 "No one is."

 Lorelai put her hand up to stop Rory from saying anything.

 "Mia told me that I was no longer the General Manager because that title sounded too plain and pedestrian to her."

 Rory got a puzzled look on her face.

 "So she decided that instead of the General Manager, I am now the EXECUTIVE Manager!"

 Lorelai finished her pronouncement with a flourish of her hand and a smirk on her face.

 For a moment Rory didn't know what to say. Then her brow furrowed comically.

 "You scared me! I thought you got fired! That's so mean! That job has gone to your head already. Maybe you do need to get fired. I'm going to talk to Mia tomorrow and tell her to make Michel the manager. Then you'll see!"

 "Sorry, Charlie, Mia's gone and I'm the Executive Monarch, I mean Manager."

 "Did you get another raise?"

 "No, just the fancy-shmancy title."

 " 'Executive Manager.' It does have a nicer ring to it, doesn't it?"

 "Yes it does. Now, if you'll put up this homework for a while, we can eat this delicious supper Sookie fixed for us."

 "I'm surprised there was only one bag."

 "Oh, there were two of them, but somehow I completely forgot to bring the one with the Brussels  sprouts and the steamed carrots."

Chapter Two

 Rory woke up slowly, not wanting to. But eventually she gave up trying to go back to sleep, there was too much light seeping past the curtains covering her windows. She looked over at her alarm clock; it was 8:15. And it was Saturday.

 She rolled over onto her back and looked around. The room was still very sparse. They moved  in last weekend and the room still only had her bed and a small night stand next to it. Her books were piled on the floor, waiting for a bookcase.

 As she lay there, she could smell the delicious aroma of coffee in the air. She would have thought that Lorelai would be sleeping in since this was her first Saturday off in two years, or longer. When she was named Head Maid, she took it upon herself to work at least a half day on Saturdays.

 Reluctantly, Rory rolled out of bed and went into the kitchen. She found her mother sitting at the kitchen table, her head down on her arms, fast asleep,  a cup half full of luke-warm coffee in front of her. Rory smiled at the sight, and after she poured herself a cup, she sat down at the table and gently shook Lorelai's arm.

 "Mom. Wake up. It's time to go to work."

 Lorelai mumbled something, then turned her head away from that annoying sound.

 Rory shook her harder.

 "Mom!" she said louder. "Mia called. There's an emergency at the inn. You have to go. Now!"

 Lorelai's head jerked up.

 "What! No! I just got to sleep!"

 She looked around, confused. Then she saw Rory grinning at her and realized where she was.

 "Why are you so mean to mama? What did I ever do to you?"

 "Why are you sleeping on the kitchen table?"

 "Because I had to get up at four o'clock to go ALL the way to the inn, and then take two of the  guests who were checking out early ALL the way to the Hartford-Brainard Airport so they could catch a flight to Boston, and I didn't get back here until seven. THAT's why!"

 "Oh. So, why didn't you have one of the night staff drive them?"

 "What would have been the use? I was already awake, we were booked up, and there was no place for me to sleep."

 "What about the empty room?"

 "Uh, excuse me! Dirty linen, dirty room, strange smells – you get my drift?"

 "I get it."

 "And I've come to the conclusion that using the inn's minivan isn't going to work. So today we -- you and I, are going car shopping!"

 "Can we get a Rolls?"

 "Sure we can, just as soon as you get a job that pays a couple thousand dollars a week."

 "It was just a thought. What kind of car do we want?"

 "I really don't know. I've been thinking about it, but nothing comes to mind. We'll just check out the car lots, see what's there, and we'll know it when we find it."

 "You know, Mom, I had a thought."

 "Sorry, we can't afford a Bentley, either."

 "No, not that. I bet Gypsy could find us a good one. She knows lots of people with cars."

 "A used car? Do we really want to ride around in seats where other people have sat, and sweated, and done who knows what?"

 "Ewww, gross! So we want a new car?"

 "If the price is right, sure. Why not?"

 "Why not, indeed?"

 Two hours later they were in Litchfield at the first used car lot they came to. After stopping by several new car showrooms and checking out the prices, they decided a used car wasn't such a bad thing after all.

 "This is cute." Rory said, looking at a bright blue, small pickup truck.

 Lorelai sneered at it.

 "What would we EVER want a truck for?"

 "Well, now that we have a house, we might want to fix up the outside, and we'd need fertilizer and some plants and maybe some lawn furniture."

 "And just who do you plan on doing all this yard work, our magical House Genie? You?"

 "Well, maybe we don't really need a truck."

 They looked a little longer, didn't see anything they liked, so moved on to the next one they came to.

 "How about this one?" Rory suggested. "It looks just like the inn's minivan, and you said it drives good."

 "Mmmm, nah. It's too soccer mom-ish. Unless you're planning on joining your school's soccer team."

 "It's probably a gas guzzler, anyway."

 They left that used car lot and stopped at two more without finding anything they liked. After lunch they started back to Stars Hollow but as they passed by the first one they had stopped at Lorelai saw something from the corner of her eye.

 "Did you see that?" Lorelai asked, as she turned around to go back.

 "See what?"

 "I don’t know what it is, but I think like it."

 They drove back onto the lot, parked, then walked to the last row of cars, the one they ignored when they didn't see anything they liked the first time. This row had cars that hadn't been cleaned and priced yet.

 "Is this it?" Rory asked. Lorelai was walking around a beige colored Jeep Wrangler.

 "I like this one," Lorelai said as she opened the driver's side door and looked in.

 "You have to unzip the windows," Rory commented.

 "I know. Isn't that cool?"

 Lorelai sat down in the seat, looking around the interior.

 "It almost smells new," she said as Rory got into the other seat. "And it's only got five thousand miles on it, right next to brand new."

 Rory bounced a little on the seat, then turned around to look into the back.

 "It's not so bad. There's room in the back for a bag of fertilizer, or groceries."

 "I wonder how much it is."

 "It's not that big, so it can't cost too much."

 "That's what I was thinking."

 Lorelai looked around one more time, then said, "If the radio works, we're definitely getting it. I like this car."

 "Me, too. But if you buy it today, how will we get it home?"

 "We'll just go back to the inn and find somebody to drive us back here to pick it up."

  Chapter Three

 "You know, Mom, I was thinking that before we go back to the house, we ought go shopping."

 "I thought we already talked about that -- no stinky, smelly, cow poop fertilizer."

 "Actually, I was thinking about buying some groceries, you know, in case one of us got hungry in the middle of the night and we wanted to eat something. Or if Mia came to visit."

 "Really? For real groceries? Like bread and milk and meat and – stuff?"

 "Sure! I mean we don't have a list or anything, but since we need just about everything, we could just load up."

 "Well, it won't be much of a load after the down payment on this Jeep. Who ever heard of such a thing? I thought we could just sign the papers and then just, you know – drive off."

 "Who knew? Anyway, we'll just get the essentials, you know, things we need right now."

 "Such as?"

 "Well, like toilet paper."

 "I can get that from the inn."

 "Napkins."

 "The inn."

 "Paper towels."

 "The inn."

 "Okay. Now, you can't steal EVERTHING from the inn!"

 "Who said I'll be stealing? We'll just use them for a while and when we're finished, I'll take them back."

 "You're going to take back used napkins?"

 "Hmmm, well maybe not. You really want to go buy groceries?"

 "Sure. It'll be fun. Our first grocery-shopping trip for our new house."

 "Okay. Doose's, here we come."

 ………………….

 "Well, Grocery-shopping-daughter-of-mine, do we want a buggy or a basket?"

 "I think we should get a buggy. We can get more in it and we won't have to carry things."

 "Lorelai! Fancy seeing you in here."

 "Hey, Taylor. Just stocking up our new house."

 "I know. Patty told me you bought the house next door to Babette. Must have set you back a pretty penny."

 "Yeah, well, more than one pretty penny, that's for sure."

 "Well, you picked the right day to buy groceries. We have a store full of two-for-one specials, and it's double coupon day."

 "We don't have any coupons, but we'll be sure to start saving them."

 "Then I'll let you and Rory get on with it. And welcome to Doose's Market."

 "Are you really going to start cutting out coupons?"

 "Right! When pigs fly. So – what are we looking for?"

 "I don't know, let’s just walk down every aisle and get whatever we see that we like."

 "Nope. Nope. Nope. Oh! Mallow Bars, that's a yep."

 "Pop tarts! A definite 'yep' if there ever was one. Can I get one of each kind?"

 "Might as well get two. Cereal?"

 "We'll have to buy some milk."

 "Maybe next time. How about ice cream?"

 "Mom, do you really have to ask?"

 "Ice cream it is."

 "Do we want ice cube trays?"

 "Do we need any?"

 "I don’t know. Maybe for iced tea?"

 "Iced what? Who's going to make that?"

 "No ice cube trays. But I do know we need light bulbs."

"So, is that it?" Rory asked, looking into the buggy.

"I guess so. I can't think of anything else."

"It doesn't look like very much – potato chips, microwave popcorn, pop tarts, ice cream, cookies, Red Vines, light bulbs, and coffee."

"Well, Hon, those are the essentials, what else is there? Oh, I know -- Tater tots."

"You do know you have to cook them, don't you?"

"Of course I do. If I can cook popcorn and pop tarts I can cook Tater tots – turn on the oven, dump 'em onto a pizza pan, and stick 'em in 'til they're done."

"Okay, just so you know."

 "So, I'll get in line if you'll run get them."

As Rory went to get the Tater tots, Lorelai yelled after her, "Get three boxes! And you might as well get us a pizza pan, too."

The End