Chapter 63-1

63. Search & Rescue It took Chase a total of five hours – more than that if he counted the snack breaks in between – but he was finally done and he couldn’t have felt prouder about himself. In the backyard, facing the swimming pool, the guest bed erected proudly on top of the grass. It was all there: bedframes, the canopy, the sheets, the mattress. He had draped sheer white drapes over the canopy, and in the evening breeze, the long sheets fluttered gently in the wind. Fairy lights twirled around and up the bedposts and dangled down from the canopy. It took him forever to figure out how to do the wiring to get electricity that far out on his lawn, but that was nothing compared to the work he put in so Krislynn could roast marshmallows in his backyard. In order to have a campfire, he pulled out a gigantic patch of grass with his bare hands, and had to dig a deep hole in the middle so he could put the firewood inside. He wasn’t even sure if he did it right; he looked it up on the Internet at the last minute, but regardless of all that, he was done! His hardships were over! “See!” He boasted, standing back to admire his handiwork against the sunset. “Wasn’t that hard. Told you I could do it. Piece of cake.” Krislynn waltzed passed him holding a box of candles in her arms and made him raise an eyebrow just watching her. Excitement had completely possessed her the moment he came home with the shopping list she demanded of him. Now she skipped and danced around him like a Disney princess – that treacherous way Disney animations made their characters skip about as if their bodies defied gravity. “Come quick,” she sang. “We still have to scatter candles everywhere. Oh! It’s going to be so pretty once it gets dark and we light them all up.” “Yeah… we’re not doing that.” Stopping in her tracks, Krislynn turned around and stared at him in horror. “Look, you said you wanted lights so I went out and bought you lights and decorated the crap out of it. We are not doing candles too.” “Why?” She cried. “Because it’s a fire hazard,” he shouted. “What if the wind knocks it over while we’re asleep and burn down my house?! Do you realize why I had to dig the fire pit all the way on the opposite side of the yard? Don’t you ever think?” “Don’t you have insurance?” She retorted. “Is that your back-up plan?” Deciding that her method of persuasion obviously wasn’t working out, Krislynn promptly changed tactics. “I’ll be careful,” she begged. “Besides, if your house burns down, you’ll be mad – yes – but we’ll be laughing about it two weeks from now.” “No, if my house burns down, I’d probably still be pissed off at you five years from now.” She pouted. “Please Chase?” “No.” “Please!!” “I said no.” She let her lower lip sink to an impossible length and furrowed her brows to give him the best puppy look of her life. “Please.” “No. Why do you even want candles anyways? I can turn the pool lights on. It’ll look like it’s glowing. Isn’t that good enough?” “But it’s not candles.” She pouted. “I don’t know. I guess I just like them. Plus when a lot of them are lit up outside like those tumblr pictures… it reminds me of Disneyland.” “That’s just bizarre. There is no way those two things are related.” “Why not? Just shut your eyes and imagine. Dark forest… or backyard, you know, whatever. Then the flicking lights of the candles. It’s a full moon. The night breeze. It smells like lilacs and white roses in the air. You’re wearing a white nightgown that flutters at your ankles and you’re barefoot. You can hear tiny laughter. Are those pixies that you hear?” Chase popped his eyes open in anger. “I a guy Krislynn,” he shouted. “Why would I wear a nightgown that flutters in the wind? And if I did hear tiny voices at night laughing, I wouldn’t be here with you. I’d be checked into a mental institution.” “Okay that was my bad,” she admitted. “How about this? You know how on TV, sometimes they have witches? Well every time they do magic, they need a lot of big, white candles to make it happen.” She held up a candle as an example. “And Disneyland– ” “…Is where the magic happens.” Chase finished her sentence with a loud groan. It was crazy, and he still couldn't see it, but he could see why she saw it. “Exactly!” Krislynn shouted. “Besides I’ve never been to Disneyland! My family was too poor to go. And it’s just… they all have that mysterious, magical allure that promises romance and happiness! You know?” “I know,” he sighed. “But what I don’t know is why you have to set up candles in the middle of my backyard.” He walked to her and yanked the box of candles out of her hands. “Why don’t we just go? To Disneyland.” Krislynn was too baffled to answer him properly. She stood with her eyes wide and her fingers on her parted lips in complete astonishment. “G-go… W-w-where?” “To Disneyland,” he repeated. “You are in California. It’s not that far. It’s a small drive. We could just go.” He waited for her to give him some sort of approval, but Krislynn was stuck in a confused trance, and after sighing, he turned around and walked back inside the house carrying the candles. At least he managed to pry the candles away from her. Once he placed the box down inside the house, he heard the ear-bleeding shriek Krislynn released in the backyard, which almost startled him to death. “What the hell?!” He cried when she came trampling in after him. “I thought you found a dead body in the pool! The neighbours probably called the police!” He hardly managed to finish his sentence when she burst into laughter and jumped into his arms. “Oh my God, you’re not lying right?” She shouted. “We’re going to Disneyland? Can we really?! Can we?!” Laughing, he wrapped his arms around her. “Yeah. Yeah.” He muttered. “Jesus.” Why was it that the most childish things always excited Krislynn to no end? For example, there was McDonald’s and Happy Meals, and now there was Disneyland. Even more insane than Krislynn’s antics was himself: how come he was enjoying this so much? “You’re not lying right?” She repeated. She broke free from his embrace and gave him a dark glare. “Right?”