Tuscany Trip

Khaat flashed a glance at Steven. "And what inanimate object would you like to be, Steven? Speak now, or forever hold your peace. And I do mean forever. Ronata, you might find yourself living with a teacup. There will be NO spanking, hitting, striking--of any kind. You got that?"

She paid for her fruit and watched the clerk package it up for her. She had a large cardboard box that she picked up and carried herself. She decided she was more than able to carry a box of fruit. As she was walking back towards the car, she passed a stand that had several beautiful large printed shawls and other fabric goods. She stopped, totally falling in love with a fushia colored shawl. She put the box on the ground and looked through the fabric wares. She bought several shawls, fabric sashes, scarves, and wrap around skirts. In fact, it took a second cardboard box the size of her fruit box to handle it. She simply stacked one large box on top of the other, and picked them up and carried them to the car. "We do have to come back--without them," she told Ronata about Steven and Brian. "I want to look some more."

'Not today," Brian said. "I feel the storm coming. It's..making...well, my senses a bit nuts." He couldn't say in a muggle community that his magic was being alerted like a bit of an electrical surge. He felt the storm coming swiftly now. He guessed they had about an hour to get back to the villa before all hell was going to break loose.

"We need to head for home," Brian called to Steven. "You know the way now, or do you need to follow me?" He put all the packages he and Khaat had in the car, having to shrink them to make that work out in that small car trunk. He closed the trunk and got in. "This is not going to be a good storm, Khaat," He told her quietly. "I can feel it. This could be really, really bad. I want to get the cars home and in the garage. We need to get anything on the terraces and balconies indoors. It could well be taken out to sea if we don't. Steven and I will do that. You and Ronata unload the cars. I don't want you in the garage when this hits, and I don't want you around the windows when this hits. "

He started the car and pulled out of the parking space, giving time for Steven to follow if he needed to. Brian was heading straight for home.

"Brian wants us to unload the car right away," Khaat said. "He wants us out of the garage and back in the house before this hits. We have some time, but he's protective that way. He doesn't want anybody hurt. He's always had an uncanny ability to know when storms are coming and how bad they will or won't be. He's always had that gift. Not me," Khaat said, stacking several large boxes on top of each other. She found they were very heavy but it did empty out the trunk quite a bit. She carried them upstairs and into the kitchen and put the boxes on the floor. She massaged her shoulder. It was really painful after carrying those boxes. She decided to ignore it and go back to the garage. She returned and picked up another large stack of boxes. At this rate, it would not take long to unpack the cars.

"That will pass when the storm passes. Some flyers get that when they're near sea storms. They're sensitive to the electricity that is carried in the seawater. I've seen it before because my parents' farm is near a fishing village. We have a fair share of flyers there. A lot of flyers like flying over the open ocean, but the downsside is that they get some electrical shocks when seastorms roll in. They usually pass the time by reading. Most of them are avid readers because they need to do something that doesn't cause them electrical shocks. Books don't generally do that. If I were you, I'd grab a really good book and find a quiet place to wait out the storm. I'll put some tea on and some coffee. Oh, and Brian wants us to stay away from the windows--just in case the wind is strong because we're surrounded by water on three sides here. I'll start the tea and coffee and then go unpack the things that go in Brian's room and in mine. I think you might need to postpone your cooking lesson for another day--unless you want to read some cookbooks to learn some things from those."

Khaat made a pot of orange cinnamon tea from a blend of her father's she's brought. She made a pot of french roast, and then went upstairs and quickly unpacked the things they'd bought. She put Brian's things away in his room first, and then put things away in her own. She gathered up everyones dirty laundry and took it down to the laundry room in the basement and sorted it out and started a load of dark clothing in the washer. She started any stains presoaking to get things extra clean, and left the rest of the laundry sorted into their proper piles on the basement floor temporarily.

With that started, she went back upstairs and made up the custard for the tiramisu. She quickly then assembled the delicate dessert into an unsual large stemmed bowl that looked like a wide shallow trifle bowl. Once it was assembled, she grated the chocolate on the top and put the dessert in the fridge. She poured herself a cup of the flavorful tea for a change and put some thin slices of fresh, sweet orange into the cup and into the teapot for extra flavor.

Brian came in and said, "Boy, something smells great!" He came over and kissed her cheek. "What did you make?"

"Tiramisu--for tonight. Try the tea. Tell me what you think." He poured a cup and smelled it.

"Oranges and cinnamon. Nice. And the fresh orange is a nice touch." He sipped it. "Delicious. The sky is getting black as night. The wind is kicking up. Has Steven come back in yet?"

"No. Suppose he's alright?"

"I'm sure, but if he doens't come in, in a moment, I'll go find him. Don't you girls go outside. Where's Ronata?"

"Well, she went to her room awhile ago to unpack. She was having some of that flyer's sting business from the storm. I suggested she read. So maybe she's in one of the sitting rooms if she's not in her room."

"Ok. I'll find Steven first, and then make sure she's okay. " He took another sip of the tea, deciding to wait a moment to see if Steven turned up.