Chapter 55: Lovely Surprises
Derek sat beside Olive’s bed, “Olive, it’s 11:30. You need to get up. I brought you breakfast.”
She opened her eyes to see Derek sitting on the floor next to her. “Good morning.” she said as she gazed into
his eyes. “Wait, what are they and who made them?” she asked referring to the breakfast he had brought up for
her.
“Oh, Modnar made blueberry muffins . . .from scratch,” Derek replied.
“From scratch?” Olive asked nervously.
“Yeah, isn’t that a good thing?”
“Not usually,” Olive replied. “I’ll skip it.” Then Modnar came upstairs. “So what were
you and Michael talking about last night?” Olive asked.
“Oh we were making a plan. It’s a great plan, but we need to stall Flower until after dark,” Modnar answered.
“Hey don’t you have to call Rain?” She asked Olive.
“Oh yeah, Derek hand me that walkie-talkie please.” He did and then he went downstairs with Modnar. Olive pressed
the button, “Rain, hey Rain!!! It’s Olive!”
“Hey Olive, what’s up?” Rain asked.
“Is Mom around?” Olive asked.
“No, she just got in the shower. Why?” Rain responded.
“Well cause you need to do something,” Olive answered. “See, when we got home, Michael was standing outside
the door. He had gotten on a plane and flew here to propose!”
“What? No way!!!” Rain replied in a hushed whisper. “What do you want me to do?”
“Well, you need to stall her until well, sometime after dark. Let’s say about 8. We’ll probably be ready
before that, but in order to get the full romantic affect it needs to be after dark. I don’t know what you can tell
her . . .Umm; say that you have to go furniture shopping. When she asks why, say that Derek needs some. Roy actually took
all of his furniture with him, and Derek ended up sleeping on the floor next to my bed last night. It was so romantic, but
it must have hurt. But we both fell asleep holding hands. It was so romantic . . .Anyways, can you do it?” Olive asked.
“Umm . . .yeah . . .I mean it probably won’t take that long to shop, but we can go to a few more places. Not
to mention we’ll have about a 3 hour drive home with all of the traffic and stuff.” Rain answered. “Now,
why is his new name Derek?”
“Well Rain, I thought that he should have a new nickname too,” Olive explained, “This might sound weird,
but I think the name Derek is well . . .HOT!”
“I shouldn’t have asked.” Rain replied.
“No, Rain, last night I asked him if he liked me, and he said yes. That’s when I fell asleep. It was so romantic.”
Olive said.
“Hey I gotta go. Mom’s ready to go!” Rain said.
“All right, have fun,” Olive said. “Good luck!”
Rain got off just as Flower was coming out of the bathroom, “Mom, Olive called. She said that things are going well,
but there’s a slight problem. We need to go furniture shopping.”
“Why?” she asked.
“ Well, I guess that Roy took all of his furniture and that left Josh, I mean Derek, to sleep on the floor. I guess
it was a little uncomfortable.” Rain replied.
“OK, as long as you are feeling up to it,” Flower answered.
“Yeah, and maybe after that we can do something else.” Rain added.
“OK, I guess. Just let me pack and we can leave. What time is it?” Flower asked.
“It’s about 12:30,” Rain answered.
“Wow, we aren’t gonna get back until after dark. Oh well, I guess it has to be done.” Flower added. They
both got ready to go and then they left.
***
Back at home; everyone was getting ready for the night. They, well Derek, Olive, and Modnar, couldn’t believe that
Flower was going to be proposed to in 8 hours. Olive and Derek were in charge of the scenery. They set to work on the trail
that Flower would walk down later that night. Well, lets just say that they did more than just work on the trail. They were
alone, and they took advantage of it.
While they were walking down the trail, Derek made his first move toward Olive. He took Olive’s hand in his and they
continued to walk towards the end of the path. At first Olive had hesitated to take his hand, but then she just got used to
it.
At the end of the path, there was a small log just big enough for the two of them to sit on, so they sat down. “Olive
can I ask you something?” Derek asked as he looked into her eyes.
“Umm . . .yeah . . .of course. What’s on your mind?” Olive replied.
“Well Olive, I know that we’ve only known each other for a day, but I was wondering . . .Do you think that
we might be able to hang out . . .Like on a date?” Derek asked.
Olive was completely speechless. She thought about it for a minute. “Well, I would love to, but I have to think about
it for a little bit. I mean, I didn’t expect this so soon. Is that ok, with you?” Olive asked. The only reason
why she didn’t say yes, was so that she didn’t end up getting disowned by Rain.
“Oh yeah . . .sure,” Derek replied disappointedly. “I don’t want to rush you.”
“Yeah, besides . . .I think we should finish this path right now. I’ll think about it, I promise.” Olive
assured him.
“I know you will,” Derek replied.
Then the two got back to work on the path. It was pretty long too. So it took them a while. They started at different ends,
so they could meet in the middle. It was hard for both of them to concentrate. Olive was thinking about the decision and Rain’s
reaction when she told her. Derek, well he couldn’t stop wondering. He was so anxious to know her decision, but he didn’t
want to get his hopes up.
Eventually they did meet up, but Olive still didn’t have an answer for Derek. They went back to the house, but it
was a very silent walk back to the house.
When they reached the house, they went inside to see what Modnar had been doing. Michael had been practicing his proposal
speech to Modnar, so that he would be somewhat prepared. It was just about 4 o’clock, and they still had 4 hours to
go. Olive decided to go back upstairs. Derek didn’t offer his help this time. It was almost like they were fighting.
Olive picked up the walkie-talkie, “Rain, are you there? I gotta talk to you.”
“Olive, what’s up? Is something wrong?” Rain asked.
“Well Rain . . .wait where are you?” Olive asked.
“I’m eating. We finished shopping for furniture so we decided to stop at the Food Co-op to get some food. Mom
is shopping for other stuff though.” Rain replied.
“Ok, well . . .so Derek and I were put in charge of making the pathway look really good, and it really does, but
well . . .something else happened. We walked down there and we were alone . . .” Olive started.
“Olive what did you do? If you did anything stupid . . .” Rain interrupted.
“NO, it wasn’t stupid or dangerous, but he made his first move. He took my hand and we walked/crutched to the
end of the path. Then and there he did something else. No, he didn’t kiss me, but he did ask me out on a date.”
Olive explained.
“And what did you say?” Rain asked.
“Well, I haven’t given him an answer yet,” Olive responded. “Rain, I really want to say yes, but
I promised you that I wouldn’t make you uncomfortable. What do you think?”
“Well Olive, I personally didn’t think this was going to happen this quickly either. I have to think about
it. When you do have to tell him?” she asked.
“I never gave him a time, but until I give him an answer it’s going to be awkwardly silent around him and the
house.” Olive answered.
“OK, well I’ll think about it, and I’ll give you the response when we get home, ok?” Rain said.
“OK Rain. I love you sis.” Olive replied.
“Oh I gotta go! Mom is coming to check up on me. See you in 4 hours,” Rain said. Then the room went silent
again.
***
Around 8:15 that night, Flower and Rain pulled into the driveway. They no longer had the little red sports car, but a blue
Land Cruiser. They got out and went into the house.
Michael snuck out the back and went through the trail to his spot. Rain and Flower came through the doorway. Modnar ran
up to Flower, “You have to come with us. We have a surprise for you!”
“Yeah, we’ve been working on it all day.” Derek urged.
“Ok, well let’s go then.” Flower replied. Then Modnar and Derek lead Flower down the candle lit path.
There was also a little trail of rose petals on the ground.
On the way down, Rain and Olive had a talk about Derek. “Well Olive, I’ve been thinking about what to say to
you all day. I basically think that you are old enough to make the decision yourself. I trust you, but promise me that you’ll
keep it slow and that you’ll back down if he starts moving too fast.” Rain said.
“I promise Rain.” Olive said. Then she crutched over to where Derek was standing.
Flower looked down at the end of the trail where she saw her beloved, Michael, sitting on a small log. He looked up and
gazed into her eyes. She walked breathlessly to him and sat next to him. “What are you doing here?”
Just then Michael got up and then knelt down on one knee. “Flower, when you left I realized that something. I realized
that I wanted to be with you for the rest of my life.” Tears started to form in Flower’s eyes. “I had to
be with you, because I love you. So I came here to ask you something.” Michael took a deep breath. “Will you marry
me?”
With tears streaming down her face, she answered, “Yes Michael, I’ll marry you.”
While they celebrated, Olive took Derek’s hand. Their eyes met and Olive said, “Yes, I’ll go out with
you.”
“What?” Derek asked. “I thought for sure that it was a ‘no’.”
“Derek, I’ve wanted to go out with you for a while now. I’m sure.” Olive responded. “Ever
since I first heard about you, I wanted to go out with you, and now it is finally happening.”
By the end of the night Michael had surprised Flower, and Olive had surprised Derek. Everyone was happy as love moved throughout
the evening air. It was a truly romantic evening.
