Mr. Price

Brenda was hanging out at Lake Placid, she brought a picnic to the docks and was sitting with the girls and a few of their toys. She wanted to escape the - god she couldn’t believe she even had to say it in her head - dinosaurs. She had no idea how to explain to students that dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago whilst dinosaurs were roaming the streets. But, well, she didn’t think there were any water dinosaurs. And at least she didn’t need to deal with sharks anymore. She felt the presence of someone else there and yelled, “You’re welcome to join us! Made enough to feed a small army.”

He was pushing the pram in front of him, with one hand, while moving the blanket to cover Beatrice a bit better. The reason he was out there was to get fresh air, and in hopes of getting away from the noise of the dinosaurs that were roaming closer to the centre of the town. 

“That’s something at least. I’m glad she’s not hurt. I just wish there was a way to get her away from all of this.” they took a sip of their drink, not sure if they should say that they’re not sure anywhere is safe, there was a childish part of them that felt like if their dad was here he’d know exactly what to do. “No, no, I imagine you’re much better off in here. I hope it doesn’t though.” was all they could say. “I could watch her right here if you like, so you can see her but there’s someone else to rock her.” they offered, but they weren’t sure if that would work, babies didn’t always react all that well to people unfamiliar with them all the time, after all.

“I think it was trying to eat my face, but yes, we seem to be… mostly sheltered… right now.” he looked around them, “I’m not sure if we’re completely safe in here, though.”

“This is going to sound insane but.. I think I just saw an actual shark, as in from the sea, 3 sets of sharp teeth, in that tornado.” he paused, “Am I concussed or was that real?”

“Oh my goodness! Is that a baby?” Phoenix said, possibly a bit too excited about seeing the little one. She absolutely loved other people’s kids, but having one of her own wasn’t really something she wanted. She got up from her seat and walked over. She waved at the little baby and smiled at her. “Oh my gosh, she’s adorable,” she said, looking up at the other man. “Sorry. Kind of acting a bit weird, huh? I just haven’t seen such a precious little baby in forever.” 

“Yes, she is one. This is my daughter, Beatrice.” He said with a chuckle, amazed at how excited a person could be over seeing his daughter. “It’s alright. She is precious. When she isn’t cranky. As long as she has her paci, it’s all good.” Addison said with a nod and watched Beatrice look at the woman wave. She was newly awoken, so her attention wasn’t that good, and she quickly leaned against him, making soft noises.

There were a few familiar people scattered around the Salloon including Charlie and their sister who had decided that the Salloon was a better choice than their basement — the establishment basement was stronger, had other people which undoubtedly worked in their flavor, with loads of drink and food if they were going to be cooped up for a while. 

They pushed themselves off the ground and followed Addison, gentling tapping him on the shoulder to gain his attention. Charlie offers a small smile, it’s a feeble attempt at comfort but it’s the best they can muster in such a  whacky Perfection Valley situation. “How you holding up?” They whisper, not wanting to scare the small child in his arms who already had a startled expression. Their hand slips in their bag, pulling out their set of keys on which a big, fluffy rainbow pom-pom key ring was bound . “Hey——hey, Bug.” Jiggling it in the air, it bobbles up and down. ”What’s this, huh? I know it’s not your favourite but look it’s super colourful.”

“I’m good, Charlie. Bug, not so much.” He said as he rubbed the toddler’s back, and watched her watch Charlie. Bug was still crying, but at the same time watching the other. “I’m not so sure that Bug is too happy about our current freak weather storm.” He kept rubbing her back, but it wasn’t helping, much. Not until Charlie pulled out the key chain, and jingled it in front of Beatrice. 

“Is she okay, she’s not hurt is she?” hearing the cries they were quite concerned, naturally, despite the fact they’d been waiting on their lasagne for about half an hour now. It wasn’t exactly on the forefront of their mind right now. No, that was more on the raging sharkstorm outside. They couldn’t believe that this was real, but they had seen the pictures. Loris were starting to think that maybe they needed to start believing in the utterly crazy a bit more. “Is the storm scaring her?” it was fair enough it had them pretty scared too, a baby had every right to be terrified.

Ákat smiled as he said she could stay with the two of them.  “Oh please don’t worry.  If I had the opportunity to scream and cry about the storm I would too,”  she chuckled.  “But I completely understand.  That’s one of the reasons I ended up in here.  It was either my trailer home or the garage with the possibility of cars flying around, and none of them sounded particularly inviting.”