Driven to Distraction
By Shaye
DISCLAIMER: Farscape is the owned by the genius of O’Bannon, Henson, Hallmark, Sci-Fi &etc. I do, however, own Leroy and Velma.
**Second Story in “The Fluff Series: A Man, a Woman and the Car He Loves” **NOTES: A second piece of J/A Fluff, in which I get ambitious and explain some things. If there is one rather strange pattern...one could say flaw...to my fic, it’s an obsession with which name Aeryn chooses to call John. I hope it doesn’t get excessive....well, more excessive.
John Crichton stood out in his front yard, absorbing the sun, his eyes closed and his head tilted up toward the sky. For so many years, he’d never really expected to get home, despite the hope the prospect gave him. Finally he’d given up the hope, or rather, the hope had become less important as he’d placed his hope for the future in Aeryn Sun.
His wife. His love, his heart, his life. And naturally, as everything in his life seemed to go, once he stopped looking, he had found Home.
It had been a difficult decision. Earth and everything it stood for, or a continued life on the run in the Uncharted Territories? On Earth, the possibility of danger and alienation to both of them was very real, as was the chance of prosperity. But in the Territories, despite the danger, they were both more or less accepted as the kind of displaced persons who found their home in the UT. Finally their decision had been made for them as a nasty encounter with Scorpius had made it clear that Moya and her crew were much safer without them.
Aeryn had found that life on Earth was not what she had expected. It had been a struggle to learn English, but she found that with John’s...help...she was a quick study. Once the period of adjustment was over, she’d found that her life contained unexpected joys. Humans are a complex species, but to Aeryn’s relief, life on Earth was much more simple than either of her previous lives.
And now, as she left the house she shared with John to find him standing in the lawn like a fool, she prepared herself to embark on yet another new endeavor.
It was time for Aeryn to learn to drive.
~*~
She’d laughed when John first tentatively suggested the idea. “John,” she said, “do you honestly think that I’ll have any trouble with your technology? I’m a Prowler pilot, for frell’s sake!” Though she tried to speak English even at home, she still couldn’t break her habit of using her old expletives. John was sometimes relieved, especially in public...it had become increasingly apparent to him that if she used Human swear words, his wife would have a mouth like a sailor.
John only smirked. “Aeryn, it’s harder than it looks.”
“Harder? How can it possibly be hard? I’ve watched you do it a thousand times. The entire process is intuitive. You turn the wheel in the direction you need to move. The degree of the turn directly relates to how far the wheel is turned. How hard can it be?”
His grin became wider. “Well, Sunshine, driving a car is completely different from flying a Prowler. There’s gravity to worry about, friction, other traffic... I’m really not worried about whether you can steer...but I am pretty interested to know how you’ll handle a stick.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “This isn’t some strange kind of sexual innuendo is it?”
He laughed. “Innuendo aside, I don’t think you’ll find dealing with the manual transmission is as easy as you think.”
~*~
Aeryn smiled at the memory. She’d show him. John had been agonizingly slow just learning to fly Moya’s transport pod. If there was one thing she liked doing better than anything else, it was showing him up at his own game.
She jangled the keys to get John’s attention. He turned around, squinting at his wife before pulling out his sunglasses. ‘Like oculars, only they’re stylish,’ he’d told her. What nonsense. She did find that they helped reduce the glare, however, so she put her sunglasses on, too. “Are you ready?” she asked.
“The question is, are you ready?” John responded cockily.
She let an amused smile play about her lips. “Why don’t we find out?”
He nodded, moving to his classic red Thunderbird in the driveway and getting in the driver’s seat.
“Hey,” Aeryn protested, “I thought I was driving.”
“You are,” he informed her, “but not until we get out of town. I don’t want you having a collision with the Peterson’s mailbox.”
“I’m not going to collide with anything,” she informed him haughtily.
John smiled back at her. “You’d better not.” Smoothing his hand along the flawless paint job, it occurred to Aeryn that in some ways he took more pride in this car than he had in his module. She sighed and hopped into the passenger seat without opening the door, shaking her head.
“Whoa, hold on there Daisy Duke. That’s why we have doors!” Aeryn decided John’s face had the cutest expression when he was dismayed.
“I know,” she smiled back at him. “I’ll use them when we get out of town.”
~*~
When they first returned to Earth, they had settled in Florida where John’s family and friends were. However, the summer soon became unbearable for Aeryn. She spent most of their first summer huddled in the air-conditioned house. As soon as it became safe for Aeryn to go outside again, John had packed her up and gone house hunting in the Northeast. John briefly considered buying property near his childhood retreat in Maine, but as it turned out, there wasn’t much work there. Finally they settled on a coastal home in Massachusetts, where the weather remained mild most of the year.
The official story on John’s return was that the module had crash landed in the South Pacific rather than burned up on reentry. He’d drifted for several weeks before hitting a small island. Since Aeryn’s Sebacean accent came out sounding vaguely Australian, her role was that of an Australian scientist who had run across John’s island while she was on an independent field study. Just glad to have Commander Crichton and the Farscape One returned safely, no one asked too many questions.
A few people had been told the real story behind John, Aeryn, and the Farscape module. Jack, DK, and DK’s wife were the only three people who knew that Aeryn was not who she seemed. John had felt that they, at least, deserved to know the truth and Aeryn had agreed, once she came to trust them. Once the Crichtons moved, it didn’t take long for Jack to join them, and DK and his family soon followed. The Space Program didn’t hold the same luster when the truth about alien life and technology came out.
~*~
Aeryn smiled gleefully as she buckled the driver’s side seat belt. Time to put her plan into action. She listened impatiently as John explained the logistics behind manual transmission and gave her a few basic instructions. She nodded peremptorily and started the car, pushed down on the clutch and shifted into first gear.
And promptly killed it.
She looked to John in consternation. “What’s wrong with it?”
When John finished cringing at the sound the car had made, he shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong with it. You just did it wrong. You’ve got to be smoother with it. Try again. And don’t act like you’re going into battle with it this time.”
She pursed her lips and looked forward. “I was not going into battle,” she muttered, “I was driving. Frelling thing’s broken.” This time, however, she managed to force the car into first gear. She gunned the engine and the car lurched forward much too fast before coming to a dead stop as it died once again.
Aeryn grunted as she was thrown into her seatbelt. John tried in vain to restrain his uproarious laughter at the positively indignant look on his wife’s face. Her eyebrows shot up. “Don’t laugh,” she commanded. “It’s not funny! This is hard!”
“I told you!” he cackled, finding that he was having trouble breathing. He had to lean his head against the dash to regain his composure before Aeryn killed him.
Aeryn looked away, willing herself not to betray her mixture of contrition, amusement and annoyance. A strange kind of smile worked its way onto her face as she nodded her defeat. “Okay. Point taken. Now will you please tell me what I’m doing wrong?”
***
After almost an hour Aeryn finally got the car out onto the country road. “I think I may have figured this out,” she stated hopefully.
“Yeah, you’re doing good, but you hear that whine from the engine? That sound means you have to shift. Put your foot on the clutch again, and move the stick to the next gear.”
Aeryn nodded, and then smoothly began to shift--directly from first to third. This time they were going faster and ended up getting thrown around a little. John thought he heard Aeryn scream, though he knew enough not to bring it up if he valued his life. The car skidded as it died and the steering locked up, and they ended up sideways in the middle of the road.
The force of being spun flung the pair side to side, and then they knocked heads as the car came to an abrupt halt.
John clutched at his head. “Ow!” As Aeryn gasped, he added, “You okay?” One hand still to his own forehead, he reached up to caress the slightly purple spot forming on hers.
She smiled contritely, resting her head against his. “I’m fine. What did I do this time?”
He smiled back at her. Taking her hand, he guided it back to the gearshift and showed her the order of motions for shifting. “You just went from first to third, that’s all.”
“I missed one? I thought it went around in a circle.”
He shook his head. “I guess it’s just cultural differences, that’s all. To tell you the truth, I’m not a real good teacher.” He was whispering into her ear by then, and she laughed softly at the sensation of his breath on her skin.
“You know,” she said just as softly, “I think I liked teaching you maneuvers in your module much better.”
“Yeah,” he laughed, “because you were the expert.”
She raised her brows. “You think that’s the only reason?” She glanced suggestively at their seats. “For another, I think there’s too much space here between us.”
He smiled at her logic, kissing her softly. “Yeah, I guess you could say it was more fun in that respect. Come on,” he said, “we’ve got to get the car out of the middle of the road before someone else comes along.”
Back to business, she nodded. “Right.” She glanced around at the current position of the car. “And how would I go about doing that?” she asked, sounding adorably helpless.
“Well now, darlin’, that could be a problem. We have yet to see how you handle reverse. Okay, so what you have to do is push down on the clutch, then shift into reverse, which is here. Turn the wheel to the left, hard. And you’ll have to go slowly, otherwise we’ll end up in the ditch behind us. Once you get on the right side of the road, you’ll have to straighten the wheel out before shifting back into first gear. Got it?”
As John droned on, the operation getting more and more complicated, her knitted brows reached for her hairline, proceeding higher and higher until John finally finished. He glanced at her, chuckling at the expression of utter bewilderment on her face.
“You have got to be frelling insane,” Aeryn deadpanned.
John smiled gently at her. He could tell she was frustrated. “It’s really not that difficult, Aeryn, though it is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do in a car.” He grinned at her. “Not the hardest, but close. Just take things slowly, step by step, one at a time...and it will all come out fine in the end.”
During his mini-speech her expression, and her mood, had changed from one of tension and irritation to one of bemusement. John never failed to make, out of the most inane topic, some vague analogy with their relationship. She found, to her surprise, that the driving analogy wasn’t half bad. One of her eyebrows dropped back to its proper position while the other held its ground, silently expressing her sardonic approval.
Without a word to protest his assurance, Aeryn began to attempt the maneuver. The car jerked backwards, a little too far for John’s taste, as he let out a yell and grabbed hold of the dash.
“Hey!” Aeryn exclaimed. “Is it supposed to go that fast?”
He breathed deeply, restoring his composure. It looked like he was going to need it. “It’s okay. First time’s always the worst. Right?”
She was about to respond when a very large SUV came barreling around the corner and slammed on its brakes when the driver caught sight of the T-Bird in the middle of the road. John gritted his teeth and steeled himself for a devastating impact. Aeryn, too frightened to comprehend what the collision would entail, gasped deeply and clutched the steering wheel, her knuckles turning white in an instant.
By some twist of fate, some strange combination of cold scientific facts that aligned in a way that could only be called lucky, the SUV skidded to an impossible halt only a couple yards from their car. Aeryn let out the large breath she’d held in a giant huff, her heart still pounding in her head. John buried his head in his hands, relieved not only that his precious car had been spared, but mostly that his beautiful wife was unharmed in any way. He had few thoughts for himself.
The driver of the other vehicle was also in a daze, which soon dissolved into a tirade of curses and insults. Aeryn was confused. Road rage was a foreign concept in her part of the universe. So she sat in the driver’s seat, slowly working herself into silent hyperventilation. As soon as John recovered from his shock, he sent a withering glare to the driver of the SUV, muttering, “Well, say what you want but you were going way too fast.” He turned to Aeryn, placing a calming hand on her shoulder.
“It’s okay, Aeryn. Stuff like this happens sometimes, especially if the other driver is being an idiot. We just need to get out of this guy’s way before he jumps out of his car, okay?” She nodded, still trying to regain her control. He pursed his lips. “I think,” he gently suggested, “that under the circumstances it would be best if we switched places, and I turned the car around.”
He was mildly surprised when Aeryn silently undid her seatbelt and moved quite willingly to slide over him into the passenger seat. She murmured, “Driving is certainly harder than it looks.”
***
“Come on, Aeryn. Don’t tell me the radiant Aeryn Sun is giving up after just one try.”
Aeryn shook her head resolutely. “I’m not giving up, Crichton, I simply don’t think I can handle any more for today. And that is final.”
John glanced at her curiously. “It’s been a long time since you’ve called me that.”
“What?”
“Crichton.”
She smiled at him indulgently from where she sat in the passenger side of the T-Bird, which John had pulled to the side of the road. “I didn’t think that American women probably called their husbands by their last names very often, especially when they take the name themselves.” She paused, musing. “Do you know how odd it is for me to think in terms of ‘American,’ ‘Canadian,’ ‘Asian,’ and all these other human sub-groups? At one time, I would have simply considered it all the same. But,” she lowered her voice out of old habit, “one of the most valuable things you and the others taught me while on Moya was that all people must be evaluated individually.”
John returned her smile. “You know,” he teased, “I didn’t think I’d ever get you to go off on tangents, Miss Reticence. But it looks like I’m rubbing off on you a little.”
She frowned slightly, then gave him an exasperated look when she realized what he was referring to. Shaking her head, Aeryn chided, “Getting more grossly to the point, if I’m to go around calling myself Aeryn Crichton to keep from drawing attention to myself, it’s ridiculous for me to refer to you by a name that I’d answer to myself.”
He sighed. He’d hoped the answer would be more sentimental. But if nothing else, John had learned from his time in the UT that he had to take what he could get. “You know, Aeryn,” he informed her soberly, “I don’t think you need to do that any more if you’re not comfortable with it. In Florida, or I should say in the Space Program, it was kind of an old boy’s club. Tradition followed to the hilt even while trying to continually expand our technology. No one would have taken it well if my wife had chosen to remain ‘Dr. Aeryn Sun.’”
Aeryn interrupted him. “I know all this, John; that’s why I did it.”
He placed a hand to her face, covering her lips with his thumb. “Ssh. Let me finish. We did it because we didn’t want to make anyone suspicious of you or your story. The point being, up here it doesn’t matter. Seems like our neighbors are all a little bohemian anyway; I doubt anyone would even notice. And since I work in the private sector now...there’s nobody left to divert.”
Aeryn gave him a soft, reassuring smile and placed her hand on his face in a position that mirrored his. “I know all this too, John. I may have been ignorant of Earth--American--customs when I came here, but I learn quickly. I said your colleagues were the reason I agreed to take your name. I didn’t say they’re the reason I kept it.”
John’s voice was low in his throat when he found the breath to ask, “So what is the reason you kept it?”
She smiled wider, her face moving imperceptibly toward his. “I found that I like it. It also keeps me thinking of you as John. We’re mates. Much too close for calling each other by our surnames.”
There was a trace of the sentimentality he’d been hoping for. John gave her an answering smile and moved quickly to close the remaining distance between them. He kissed her with an ardor that never failed to amaze her, and she returned it with a passion that always made him feel like dying. It was magical between them; singular and extraordinary each time they kissed.
“Um...Aeryn?” John pulled away briefly, gasping for breath.
“Yes, John?”
“Unless you want to go for it here in the front seat of the car, in front of God and everyone, we should go home.”
“Go for it?” she reiterated archly.
“Um...yeah. Y’know...go for it?” He had no idea why he felt the urge to use vague euphemisms. But sometimes she caused his brain to be slightly nonfunctional.
“I told you, I’m not driving anymore today. So we can go home if you’re ready to give in.” She gave his collar a tug and pulled his mouth to hers once more.
He again broke away, laughing. “I still think you need to drive some more. But I’m not above heading home...for now.”
Aeryn shrugged and moved once more to kiss her husband. In that instant, it all became clear to John. “Hey!” He put his hands on her shoulders, keeping her at bay. “You know exactly what I meant, didn’t you? About going for it?” A sly smile crossed Aeryn’s face, and the glint in her eye was unmistakable. “Well, well, well. Aeryn Sun taking the subtle approach.”
She let out a short laugh. “Aeryn Sun didn’t take the subtle approach. Aeryn Crichton does...sometimes. Let’s go home.” She kissed him again and found, he decided, more interesting uses for her tongue.
The car was started before he even broke their kiss. “Aeryn, you’ve driven me to distraction.”
“Is that what you call this place?” she joked.
He shook his head. He’d created a monster.
“Darlin’,” he laughed, “you can distract me anytime.”
***
It was an entire week before John could get Aeryn behind the wheel again. The second time, however, she was fully informed. John had kicked himself repeatedly for his slight omission of information; an omission that could have gotten them killed. There would be no more accidents, he decided firmly. Still, he had to suppress his slightly malicious desire to wear a bicycle helmet. As a joke, of course...
“Are you going to let me drive through town this time? I think I can manage to avoid any mailboxes, as long as I remember the pattern to shifting. As long as I know the pattern to shifting, and there aren’t any more surprises.” Aeryn looked at John over the rim of her sunglasses, highly amused at his discomfort.
“Look, Aeryn. Give it a rest. I said I was sorry. So, yes...we’re going for a lesson. And you’re driving the whole time. I don’t care what happens.” John kicked the dust at his feet.
Aeryn removed her sunglasses and used them to hold her hair back instead. Moving close to John, she spoke softly into his ear. “Don’t pout, John. It just makes me want to bite that lip of yours.”
His eyes snapped open. “No. You’re not getting out of this today. Just...no. Get in the car, Sundance.”
“Don’t call me Sundance.” She swiped the keys from his hand and slid into the driver’s seat, not bothering to hide her glee.
***
Aeryn sighed blissfully. “Sometimes, John, just sometimes, I think I understand why you were so intent on getting back to this place.” She held the steering wheel lightly, like she’d been doing it for years. The wind streamed through her hair. It was like she could feel the road with every fiber of her body. Driving was an altogether viscerally pleasurable experience.
He smiled softly. The rhythm of the road was putting him to sleep. They once again found themselves winding along back country roads, the trees overhead creating complex patterns of sunlight. “Just sometimes?” he inquired sleepily.
“John, wake up,” Aeryn commanded him. “This is no time for you to get groggy. I’m no expert--yet.”
His eyes, hazy with the desire for sleep, distracted her from the road. She could smile into those eyes all day.
Distraction is never an ideal state when actually driving. Especially in the country.
A deer appeared out of nowhere. By the time Aeryn saw it, there was nothing to do but slam on the brakes and swerve. That, of course, got John’s attention. He sat bolt upright, murmuring meaningless words, advice on how to handle the situation.
All was not lost. The stretch of road was wide and straight. The animal quickly moved back into the forest at the sound of the screeching brakes, and the couple ended up on the other side of the road. One corner of the car was in the ditch, and the other front tire had gone flat. Otherwise, they were once again unscathed.
John, fully awake, jumped out of the car. Aeryn still clutched at the steering wheel, visibly shaken. “Frell!” she finally spat out. “Does something like this have to happen every time I drive?”
“Hey, Sunshine, it’s okay. We’ve just got a flat tire, that’s all. Unfortunately, I got a flat last week coming home from work and used the spare. I’ll have to call for help.” He produced his cell phone from the glove compartment and dialed a number. “Hey, DK! Feel like bailing your buddy out yet again?”
***
History manages to repeat itself in the strangest of ways. DK jogged out to his truck, checking to make sure the car dolly was securely hooked to the back. The drive out to Milepost 78 proved to be longer than he remembered. “Geez,” he muttered, “It’s not like John’s got to impress her. Can’t figure why he’d want to drag her all the way out there just to show Aeryn the countryside.”
John’s reasons all became clear, or so he thought, as the Thunderbird came into sight. At first glance, it didn’t look like there was anybody around. But as the truck pulled into a turnout on the other side of the road, DK was able to catch a glimpse into the backseat from his high vantage point. He chuckled to himself. “John, you old dog.”
Leaving the truck door open as he hopped out, DK ambled across the road, letting out a long, low whistle. “Papa Bear! Turning lemons into lemonade, I see.”
While John and Aeryn had managed to tune out the rest of the world, so caught up were they in their own...activities...it was impossible to ignore the roar of DK’s truck engine. They stilled immediately at the sound of it cutting out. John managed to tear his mouth away from his wife’s neck, looking frantically into her eyes as if to say, “Not again!” She quickly pushed him off of her, sitting up and adjusting her clothing, smoothing her hair. John scrambled to a sitting position as well, his hair impossibly messed.
Aeryn hissed, “Why is it that your friends always manage to interrupt us just as it’s getting good?”
John ignored the obvious joke, instead hopping out of the car. “DK!” he greeted his old friend, trying to appear nonchalant. “Got here just in time!”
“I’ll bet,” DK laughed.
Aeryn scrambled out of the car as well, sending DK a smile just as wide as the one she’d given D’Argo some cycles before, only this time it concealed no hint of embarrassment. “Yes, you were just in time,” she added smoothly. “We were just about to...mm, take the plunge. And believe me, you wouldn’t want to interrupt then.”
The human, rather inexperienced yet in the ways of alien women, turned to John in wide-eyed shock. ‘Papa Bear’ just grinned while Aeryn, delighted at turning the tables, went on, “It’s a very bad idea to disrupt a Sebacean woman in the middle of sexual relations. Sometimes the wounds take monens to heal.”
DK turned several shades of green; John literally had to bite his tongue to keep from ruining Aeryn’s triumph by laughing too hard. Soon, she let his best friend off the hook by dissolving into a silent laugh, shaking her head at DK’s reaction. John left off any pretenses and roared with laughter. After several seconds of dismay, DK got the joke and joined in the merriment, somewhat more feebly than John or Aeryn. “All right,” he acquiesced, “I get the message. Now let’s get the ‘Bird hooked up to the truck and get you two home. So you can, uh, continue your undertaking.”
The three of them pushed the car out of the ditch and secured the front wheels onto the palette. DK eyed the arrangement critically. “That’ll do,” he said approvingly. They all piled into the truck’s cab, Aeryn choosing to seat herself on John’s lap rather than squash into the middle near the gearshift. When they finally set out on the road, DK eyed his friends with amusement. “So,” he began conversationally, “did John drag you all the way out there and give the car a flat on purpose?”
Aeryn smiled. “Actually, I was driving.”
DK whistled again, favorably. “Miss Universe finally takes to the road. How’d it go?”
She cocked an eyebrow at him. Glancing at the alien, DK caught her expression and almost blushed. “Right. Flat tire.”
“Actually,” John put in, “that was sort of my fault. And the deer’s. Aeryn’s a great driver.”
She grinned down at him in silent thanks. John sighed. “When it comes time for our children to learn, you’ll have to teach them. Just don’t tell them they’re inept and slow,” he laughed.
The driver looked at them curiously. “You two can have children?”
“Yes,” Aeryn replied simply. “We took a compatibility test.”
DK considered this, awe-struck, for several moments. “Wow,” he finally said, “that’s gonna take some quick talking.”
“We know,” John answered, “that’s why we haven’t done it yet. Still trying to find a doctor we can trust.”
DK nodded. Obviously they’d thought this out quite thoroughly. Looking to change the subject, he chuckled. “Aeryn’s a good driver, huh? Sounds like she’s ready for her own car,” he suggested, a mischievous grin on his face.
Aeryn appeared to consider it for a moment. “Now that’s not a bad idea...”
“Hold on there, Sunshine. You still have to take the test and get your license.” John sent a glare to DK’s side of the car.
“Test?” she asked uncertainly.
John squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry about it Aeryn. You’ll do fine.”
She allowed herself to be mollified. “Then we’ll talk about this when we get home.”
John groaned, knowing that her particular charms would win out in the end. DK smiled again. “You, friend, are what we Earth-men call ‘whipped.’”
“Look in a mirror, DK,” John shot back. DK really had no room to talk regarding his own wife, but the man merely smiled.
***
Later that evening, as the Crichtons were winding down for the night, Aeryn sat down next to John on the sofa, sliding her arms around his neck. “Now,” she began, “let’s talk about that car.”
He sighed. “I’m gonna find a way to get back at DK, I swear.” Smiling, he winked at Aeryn. “I guess we could go looking for a little car for you. An automatic, I think. It’s easier.”
“Automatic?” she queried.
“Yeah,” John grinned, “it’s a car that does the shifting for you. Available on newer cars, but not ones like my Thunderbird.”
Aeryn’s eyes widened, and she sat up indignantly. “You mean you made me learn all that dren and I don’t even have to use it?”
He laughed. “Come on, Aeryn. You need to know how to drive a stick in case of an emergency. And now you do. Unless you want a manual transmission.”
She mulled over her choices a moment, then a spark of mischief entered her eye. “Well, I suppose I could drive one of these automatics. After all, you did say that they have superior technology. It would be just like the old days, with my Prowler and your module.”
She grinned at his playful expression and scrambled off his lap. She’d seen that expression before; it usually meant he was about to chase her. She laughed.
“My module,” he began, pretending to be hurt, though his voice was full of mirth. “My module was not technologically inferior.”
“Oh, come on John. You know it was. You had to modify it to make it more like my Prowler.”
He shook his head, searching for a good comeback. When none came, he sprang into action.
Aeryn was prepared. She bolted for the back door, running into the backyard, laughing all the while.
***
Across the street, the elderly neighbor woman was looking, as usual, out her front window. She clucked, calling to her husband, “Leroy, come take a look at this.”
Leroy wheezed, pulling himself out of his recliner. “What is it, Velma?”
Velma pointed out the window, just as Aeryn disappeared around the corner of the house with John not far behind. “The Crichtons are chasing each other around the house again.”
Leroy shook his head. “I’ll bet he’s one of the luckiest men on Earth.”
Velma sent her husband of 42 years a patented crotchety-old-woman glare. Looking back out the window as Aeryn barreled around to the front of the house again, playing cat-and-mouse with her husband, Velma commented, “They certainly are an unusual pair.”
All the while, the Crichtons’ laughter rang out into the night.
F I N I S