Raven's Wordzzle Challenge #61

For the rules of the game, go to Raven's Nest

This week my contribution is one chapter based on the mini challenge, and one based on the ten word challenge. If you wish to read the previous chapters, you will find the links in the margin further down on the page.

Mini Challenge: pancakes and syrup, flat tire, mongoose, this place looks like a bordello, first dance

The Slumber Party Mystery
Chapter 7 - Adam's first wife

Driving back to the Brigadier General's house, doctor Adam Challenge's thoughts went back in time to the very short honeymoon he had had with his first wife, Eve. They had gone to Italy and had spent a few days at a little hotel owned by a friend of Eve's who was from Canada. When they first entered the bedroom with the dark red velvet wallpaper and the golden-framed mirrors, Eve had said: "This place looks like a bordello!" But they had had a good time. They had danced their first dance together as newly-weds in that room. In the morning, they had been able to sit outside in the sun, eating Canadian pancakes and syrup for breakfast, and Eve had thrown little pieces of pancake to a small furry animal which she claimed was a mongoose. But then, driving down those narrow mountain roads… Adam didn't really want to think about the rest: the flat tire, the accident, the fire… He himself had miraculously survived, but Eve had not.

Ten Word Challenge: translation, crunchy, cat’s paw, trunk, I love raspberry tarts, global warming, star struck, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, fragile, Spring fever

Chapter 8 - William arrives

Diana turned off her computer. It was too hot an afternoon to concentrate on her translation job. She wondered vaguely if the heat this summer was somehow connected to global warming. Anyway, it was time for the usual afternoon drink with her grandfather. He had insisted on being left alone to sunbathe for a while, dressed in nothing but his swimming trunks, but he would need to be wheeled into the shadow now, if Bumblebee or Adam hadn't already taken care of that. She was wondering why Adam had driven off again so soon after his early arrival. But he was a doctor after all, maybe he had got an emergency call. Well, she had to go down now anyway, for her grandfather's sake, and to check on her other little experiment. It was so difficult to get the timing right… She saw through the window that the delivery van from the grocery store had just arrived outside. Making up her scheme, she had forgotten to take that into account. She wondered if old Bumblebee had brought the drinks out yet, or if he was still in the kitchen. Oh well. There would be other opportunities for jokes and pranks and cat's paw tricks. If Adam did come back, she would just apologize for the odd invitation and try to make him stay for the evening. Perhaps she could ask Bumblebee to serve that raspberry tart with the crunchy crust for dessert. She had once heard Adam say "I love raspberry tarts".

William, the delivery boy from the grocery store, got out of the van, leaving the radio on. It was playing the big hit "Spring fever". He looked up towards Diana's window. He couldn't see her, but the mere thought of her always made him feel star struck, he had had a hopeless crush on her ever since they were in school together. He sighed, and started to unload the van. While he carefully put down a big box marked "fragile", someone on the radio started talking about the midnight ride of Paul Revere.