All Aboard Andi's Dream Ch. 05

As Yi grabbed a case of bottled water, Andi stopped her. "We don't need that."

"If we're going to be drinking wine all week, we don't have enough," huffed Yi.

"Oh, mon cher ami," reassured Macy, "for water consummation we shall be drinking only the best! Natural spring water from the vallée de Zoar."

"Sore Valley?" asked Yi.

"Zoar Valley," corrected Lucy, "it's named after an ancient biblical oasis."

"Oui, from Genesis," nodded Macy. "John and Paul fill our twenty liter water bottles from a spring not far from the cabin."

"It's good water," agreed Andi. "The girls won't drink anything but 'Poppa's water' now. We had to convince them that the bottled water in Florida came from the same place that Poppa gets his water." When Lucy looked shocked at Andi's subterfuge, Andi continued, "Well... same planet."

From there they traveled to Cheap Chollies liquor store and stocked up on wine and peppermint schnapps, then on to the real reason for the trip, Johnson's Feed Mill. Yi was noticeably quiet as they entered the store. Macy led them back to a corner that Andi and Yi hadn't noticed before and found it to be filled with sports equipment, much of it geared to the Nordic forms of winter sports. Shoes and boots, cross-country skis and snowshoes decorated the walls and shelves, and in a locked glass case some of the weirdest looking rifles that Andi and Yi had ever seen.

"Oh... My... God..." gasped Lucy, "this is an Anschütz 1827F biathlon rifle. It's Olympic quality. It's got to be worth four grand."

"Four thousand, five hundred, seventy-five dollars and ninety-five cents," announced Archie Johnson as he stepped into the sporting good section, the thumping of his cane on the wooden floor announcing his arrival. "But since you're here with my favorite munchkin, let's say forty-five seventy even."

"Munchkin?" demanded Andi. She knew Archie from church, and they would speak together occasionally, but munchkin? "Where did that come from?"

"Can I hold the Anschütz?" Lucy's voice was trembling with the desire to hold the highly accurate weapon.

Archie unlocked the gun cabinet and handed the Anschütz 1827F Comfort competition rifle to Lucy with a stern "No drooling!" then turned to Andi, "The term 'Munchkin' came from our pastor's sister-in-law."

Andi's mind raced going through familial relations with everyone she knew at church until she realized that she was the pastor's sister-in-law. "Ok, how and when did this happen?"

"At your wedding," smiled Archie, "Pastor Macy introduced me to you at the reception and was trying to tell me that you and Paul had the shortest engagement of any bride they had on their altar. I don't hear so good, so I thought she said the shortest bride, sooooo..." he smiled again, "I asked you if you represented the Lollypop Guild."

Andi suddenly blushed. "Did I say yes?" she asked sheepishly. It was such a whirlwind evening that she couldn't remember what she said to anyone, mostly.

"Oui," said Macy, trying hard not to laugh. "I did not really understand until..."

"Until we watched the Wizard of Oz on the boat!" Andi swatted Macy on the arm. "No wonder why you were laughing so hard!"

"The Lollypop Guild is a funny scene," said Lucy, who was laughing now that she realized why Macy was laughing so hard at the Lollypop Guild scene in the Wizard of Oz.

"You're not helping!" said Andi with a swat at her oldest friend. Lucy just giggled and dodged out of the way of Andi's swing.

"I'm just funnin' with ya," said Archie. "When I told my buddy Larry Newsom that you were getting married in our church, he told me that you were the best damn doctor in all of Munchkin Land."

Andi's face immediately softened from mock anger and embarrassment to an expression of kind joy, as if someone gave her a puppy for her birthday. "Awwww, do you know Larry?" Larry was a long-time patient back in Denver who stands six foot eight and teases her occasionally about her height, or lack thereof.

"Larry and I go way back," said Archie, "he always talks about his sweet little doctor, so when Paul shows up one day with a sweet little doctor from Denver and asked permission to use our church, I called him up and sure enough, it were you!"

"This has such a nice feel to it!" gasped Lucy as she raised the gun to her shoulder over and over and tested, aiming it at several objects.

"Maybe I should get a gun too," pondered Andi aloud.

"NO!" Macy and Lucy were pretty forceful in their answer.

Archie turned to Lucy, who was still admiring the competition rifle. "You like?"

"I LOVE!" sighed Lucy. "I wish I had a place where I could shoot it, though."

Andi took a compound bow down off the wall, and test pulled the string. "You can shoot whenever you want on our land." She looked at the bow with a disappointed look on her face.

Lucy handed the rifle gently to Archie. "I'll take it, and about 200 SK Match 40 grains, and did you say forty-four hundred?"

"I think it was forty-four fifty... with the ammo and the carrying case."

"You're a good man, Archie."

As Archie carried the rifle to the counter, he glanced over at Andi, who was looking at the complexities of the compound bow she was holding. "Need some help over there, doc? If you're not familiar with those, I'd suggest a nice recurve. Compound bows are awful complex contraptions."

"Ohhhhh, I don't know... none of them come in pink..."

"I have that one you're holding in pink camo, if you have your heart set on pink," smiled Archie.

Just as Macy was going to step in and ask Archie to not take advantage of the new girl in town, Andi said, "Really? Oh goody! I'll take that, a Trophy Ridge React 5 sight, a Bee Stinger Xtreme stabilizer, a dozen flu-flus, and two dozen practice shafts in HSO."

"Girl!" cried Lucy as she and Andi high-fived each other. Looking at the shocked look on Macy's face, Lucy said, "What do you think we did all day long in Colorado, sit around and treat patients?"

"We used to do a lot of shooting when we were in pre-med," said Andi.

"You're a doctor too?" asked Archie.

"Yes sir, trauma surgeon at ECMC, but I'm starting with the VA in a couple of weeks," said Lucy as she ran her fingers along the carrying case of the Anschütz.

"Well, then!" smiled Archie as he placed two more boxes of .22 caliber ammo on the counter and a cushioned, adjustable shoulder strap. "No charge. I just may need your services someday."

As Lucy and Andi rang up their purchases, Macy stepped up behind them and put a hand on a shoulder of each doctor and whispered "Mes amis, regardez s'il vous plaît..." and nodded toward something going on back in sporting goods.

Yi-jin was looking for the cross-country ski boots and snowshoes and while Lucy and Andi talked with Archie, she began by looking at the boots by herself. The feed store had a few ski boots, but they were huge and clunky and incredibly heavy, and she gave up the idea of cross country skiing. Maybe snowboarding was her speed. The boots look much more comfortable. Just as she took a snowboarding boot off the shelf, she felt rather than heard someone come up behind her.

"Can I help you, ma'am?"

She turned, and it was him, that guy that was staring at her yesterday, Kenny. He stepped a little closer, and she was suddenly taken with how tall he was, and how handsome. It never occurred to her that he was expecting her to say something.

For Kenny's part, he was running on auto-pilot because his actual thought process had shut down. Here he was talking to the most beautiful woman he has ever seen in his life, and she was Korean...

Kenny's first assignment in the US Army truly sucked. It was Fort Bragg, and he was a programming wonk in the Intelligence branch. Just to get away from that mind numbing existence, he volunteered for every isolated remote assignment the Army offered and magically his next assignment was to South Korea. Private First Class Kenneth Johnson fell head over heels in love with the unit, the base, Korea, and Koreans. He loved it so much that he eventually did tours at Camp Humphres and Camp Casey. He had another set of orders to Camp Walker for an extended 3 year tour when Grandpa Archie fell and broke his hip, and two weeks later, his folks were injured in a car wreck.

Kenny did not regret getting out of the Army to come home and help his family. Dad really, truly needed help at the feed store. In fact, it was Kenny that added a lot of the sporting goods. Even though the sporting goods were tucked into a tiny back room of the store, it was a tremendous boon to the business, and it was good to see Grandpa Archie get back on his feet. He enlisted in the NY National Guard and every dime he made from that commitment went into savings for a vacation in Korea. He was planning to go to Korea next summer and see everything he never got to see in the four years he had been stationed there. Maybe Pusan, it's pretty down there.

And suddenly, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen was standing in front of him. His eyes lingered on her jet black hair, her radiant brown eyes, her flawless golden skin, and the prettiest smile he was ever blessed to see. Just by looking at her, he fell in love with Korea all over again. He asked her if he could help her, like she was just an ordinary customer or something, but she didn't respond. Oh God, did he mess it up? Did he say something stupid? Should he have asked in Korean? Or maybe he didn't say anything, maybe he just thought that he asked her. Damnit Kenneth! You're 29 years old, get your shit together and try it again!

He tried to speak, but nothing came out. She must think I'm an IDIOT! He cleared his throat and tried one more time... "Can I help you, ma'am?" Oh crap! Did my voice just squeak?

Yi continued to look up into his sparkling blue eyes and softly said in a fluttery whisper, "Tall..."

They looked at each other for another long moment, then Ken said, "Pardon?"

Yi covered her mouth with one hand and giggled. She cursed herself for acting like a silly teenager and said, "I, uhh... I need ski poles; how tall should they be?"

"That depends on how tall you are and what kind of skiing you intend to do," responded Kenny, still trying to get back on to familiar ground, but failing desperately. She looked so cute when she giggled!

"I'm five foot seven and we're going cross country skiing, I guess."

"A 140 centimeter pole should be perfect for you; we have them in stock. Is there anything else I could help you find?"

Yi look flustered and shrugged her shoulders. "Everything, I think. I just moved here from Florida and we're going to have a blizzard party and we'll be doing cross country skiing and snowshoeing. I need ski poles, ski boots, snowshoes, muck-a-lucks, and something called a Blue Polly. God, I hope that last one is a drink."

"Let's take care of your shopping list, then we'll go over to Worzil's and see if they have a Blue Polly. We have them here, but they're underwear. Maybe we can get luckier at Worzil's?"

She gave a single nod of her head and said, "Ok!"

"To start with, you're looking at the wrong ski boots..."

"How do you know?" She was worried that he may be psychic. If he were, he'd see the sexy little scenarios that were running through her head.

He reached out and took the ski boot she still held in her left hand. "This is an alpine ski boot; we want something more comfortable."

'Oh God!' she screamed in her head; she had forgotten she was holding that boot. She automatically put her hand over her mouth again and giggled and blushed, which made her mentally scream at herself again. 'Might as well get a Hello Kitty t-shirt, Yi, because you're acting like a schoolgirl'.

Kenny could hardly concentrate. She was so cute when she giggled, and when she wasn't laughing, she was simply beautiful. "Here, you'll want something like this. What size shoe do you wear?"

"Seven," she almost couldn't get the word out because she wanted to shout, "Hold me!"

He took a box down off a shelf and led her to a chair where she sat. He removed her right sneaker, it was at this point where Macy saw what was going on and whispered to Andi and Lucy, "Mes amis, regardez s'il vous plaît..." (Please look at this, my friends)

Ken slipped the sneaker off her dainty foot and rolled a warm, fluffy ski sock on, then eased a Rossignol woman's ski boot on and laced it up. The three friends watched from across the store as the scene unfolded. At first Lucy was going to say, "Nice boots. I have a pair like them." But she looked closer and gasped, then whispered, "His hands are shaking!"

"Her whole body is trembling," whispered Andi, as she smiled with the remembrance of how she trembles when Paul touches her.

"Look at her eyes!" whispered Macy. "her eyes never leave him, it is like he has mesmerized her." They watched Ken and Yi for a few moments. His hands never left her leg, even after getting the boot laced up. All the while, Andi and Lucy were taking pictures with their cell phones.

"Do you like them?" asked Ken as he slipped the boot off of her foot. He placed the boot back in the box, then massaged her foot gently before putting her sneaker back on. She bit her lower lip as he massaged her foot in an effort to keep from crying out, but all three women heard her gasp.

"They are comfortable," said Yi, her voice trembling with passion, "but I can't really afford them..."

Suddenly Andi appeared, grabbed the shoebox and another pair of socks, and said to Kenny, "She'll take 'em," and walked away. She placed the boots and socks on the counter and put her credit card on top of the box. "Whatever she wants, it's on me."

Archie glanced over at Yi and Ken, who were now looking at snowshoes. "Looks to me like she's wantin' my grandson most. Should I wrap him up and have him delivered?"

Macy soon joined them at the counter with a pair of snowshoes, a set of 140 cm ski poles, a pair of adjustable hiking poles, and two full sets of blue polypropylene thermal underwear - "blue pollys". "These are nice!" exclaimed Macy as she examined the thermal underwear. "I did not have anything like this in Quebec."

Andi examined them too and said, "I never had anything like this in Denver!"

"It's because every spare dime you had gone into dressing the babies," said Lucy as she walked up with several tags. "Parka, mittens, and pink knit ski cap with cute kitty ears." Then she laid a pair of pink camouflage mukluks on the counter. "And these." The women turned to look at Yi and Ken and saw Yi wearing the pink cap, her beaming face split by a huge smile. She was listening to Ken say something. They raised their phones to get a picture of Yi in the kitty hat when Yi's expression changed to one of surprise and delight. She raised up on her tiptoes and gave Ken a kiss, then, shaking with joy, she gave him an enormous hug.

"I don't know what you're feeding that boy Archie," said Lucy as they watched Yi drag Ken toward the exit by the hand, "but I want some to give to Gus."

"Oui! John may need some too," sighed Macy.

As Yi and Ken passed the counter, Ken grabbed his parka from the coat rack and said, "Heading to Worzil's for dinner, grandpa!" and with a jingle of the bell, the door slammed shut.

Andi looked at her phone. The photo of Yi and Ken kissing was perfect. "Sunny is going to freak," she smiled.

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"Good morning Eliza," said Andi, as she sat down on Yi's bed and gently shook Yi's shoulder.

"Hmmmm?" Yi rolled over and her face still wore the smile she wore when last seen dragging Kenny Johnson out of the feed store. "Eliza who?"

Andi handed her a cup of coffee. "Eliza Doolittle, you know, from My Fair Lady. Audrey Hepburn? She sang 'I Could Have Danced All Night' after an all-nighter with Rex Harrison?"

"We didn't go dancing; we were just talking." The look on Yi's face said that she was close to melting into a puddle of sheer joy.

"I know, we got a text from Ayato Tanaka at 2:00 AM." Andi pulled out her phone and read, "Dear Doctor Andi, please come get your hired help. I want to close and go home to my wife."

"He's so funny." Yi rolled over on to her side with her back toward Andi and pulled the sheet up, covering a satisfied smile.

"Last time I mentioned Ayato, you called him a jerk."

"He's getting better."

"Come on, it's Monday morning, you're back on the clock." When Yi didn't move, Andi gave her a smack on the butt. Then she brought up the picture of Yi kissing Ken on her phone, leaned over the supine Yi and held her phone where Yi could see it. "Your mom loved the picture."

Yi's eyes flew open, and she sat up. She grabbed Andi's phone and stared at the picture. "You didn't!" She then picked up her phone and saw that there were seven text messages from her mom. "You did," she groaned.

Andi snatched her phone back and brought up a picture of Ken and Yi gazing into each other's eyes, the one where Yi was wearing the pink hat with kitty ears. "Actually, I sent her this one." When Yi sagged in relief, Andi asked, "So what was with the kiss? Usually, one saves that for after their first date."

"He told me something meaningful, something that told me that we just might have a long and happy relationship." Yi hugged herself and leaned back against the headboard with a sigh.

"Well? Out with it!"

With a dreamy smile, she sighed, "He said that he loves to fish and that he is looking forward to teaching me fly-fishing."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Fly-fishing earned a kiss?"

Yi gave Andi a lecherous smile. "You're not going to believe what teaching me to tie a dry fly will get him."

Actually, Andi could understand Yi's feelings. Finding out that someone whom you are attracted to also shares a passion of yours can be emotionally overwhelming. Andi herself broke down in tears of joy when Paul told her how much he loved the twins. "Ok you, up and at 'em. Paul and I have the truck loaded. We're going to go warm up the cabin and stock the shelves. The girls are packed, and we have their stuff in the truck. Actually, they're re-packed. I checked their backpacks, and they were full of Pringles and Jolly Ranchers. I repacked their bags and made sure they have some clothes to wear. You just need to get them fed and then bring your stuff with you. There's some money on the table if you want to go to the Cozy corner for breakfast, Ok?"

Yi eased out of bed and walked over to the shower. "I asked Ken to come join us for a day, if you don't mind."

"Not in the least. Paul and I are heading out now."

"You just want some mommy and daddy time."

"Like I said, we're going to warm up the cabin. Taa!"

Yi started the shower and stepped into the gentle spray; her supercharged nerve endings tingled with joy at the touch of the warm water. Suddenly, her shower was filled with the sound of giggling, and she felt little hands on her. She opened her eyes and found that the twins had joined her. Off in the distance, she heard Paul call out, "I tried to stop them!"