Fireproof

“Hey, I’m going to go fishing tomorrow morning, you want to come with?” Dave leaned against the doorway of their bedroom where Klaus was currently tangled up in a ball of yarn. He had decided to try knitting (for some reason) and it was certainly a work in progress.

They had been in the cabin for a while now and were completely settled into a vacation lifestyle. It was now late evening and everyone had settled down for the day.

Klaus looked up and shook out a knot from his stitch. He made an involuntary face at the suggestion, “That sounds lovely, but you know—I’ve got—I’ve got something pressing in the morning.” He raised his fist, “Dang it! If only you had told me earlier…”

“Is it sleep?”

“Yeah, it’s sleep.” Klaus admitted bluntly.

He then pressed a theatrical palm over his heart “Listen, you know I’m happy for you– and all the worm shit and fish blood and-“He grimaced, “Smelling like you’ve frenched a big mouth bass. Love it. But I think I’ll sit this one out.”

Dave had his arms crossed watching him with amusement, “Fair enough- You mind if I ask the kids?”

“Knock yourself out.”

Dave tapped on Kenzie’s door, there was an animated, one sided conversation happening on the other side. Whatever it was, it sounded very serious.

“Come in!”

He cracked it open and found her on the floor with a bunch of farm animal toys and dolls all spread out around her in groups. Dave noticed pointedly that the room smelled slightly of burnt plastic.

“Looks like they’re busy tonight- “He started, nodding towards the very specific of the toys, “Are they having a town hall meeting?”

She picked up a mostly naked barbie that she had drawn little funny symbols on,

“They’re sacrificing to a dead god! For a good harvest. The queen said so.”

“Does that help?”

She shrugged, “She’s up for re-election – she doesn’t know.”

Dave snorted, “I see- just trying to expand her demographic?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And what’s all that? Is that a part of the ritual?” He asked, pointing to what he was more concerned with, which was the slightly melted plastic cow laying over a circle of burnt Legos.

She looked up at Dave sheepishly, “Cheeseburgers?”

“Ah. That makes sense. I was going to take the boat out tomorrow and do some fishing, you want to come?”

Her face lit up and she threw her arms out, “Yeah!”

“Awesome! We’re going to leave pretty early, are you going to be okay with that?”

She thought about it briefly, “Uh-huh! You’ll wake me up, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll wake you up.”

“Yay! I’m going to catch so many big fish!”

He grinned, “I’ll make sure to bring the big cooler.” Before he left, he put a finger up,
“And no starting fires in the house, you know that – If they’re going to have sacrificial bonfires, they better have it out on the patio – understand?”

She groaned and rolled back, mirroring the exact way Klaus would go boneless when he was slightly inconvenienced. “Fine!”

“Thank you!” He said, shutting the door.

He shook his head as he walked away and went off to find the rest of the family, as he passed Ben, before he could say anything the ghost glanced up from his book and should his head, “Nope.”

Dave found Sally outside in the front yard; she was sitting in the bench swing, kicking her legs and swinging back and forth, her eyes were trained straight ahead, into the small patch of woods that circled the cabin.

She was humming to herself. Sally liked her space, probably from all those years completely alone. And although she was quite the cuddler, they discovered that she would still just walk off sometimes to do her own thing without warning, much to everyone’s concern.

“Whatcha doin’, kiddo?” Dave asked, settling against the side of the cabin.

“I’m watching.” Her head moved slightly, as if she were searching for something in the darkness.

“What are you watching for?” He followed her line of sight as best he could but wasn’t picking anything up.

“Mmm, the possum.”

Dave’s eyes fell on a bowl placed strategically in the middle of the yard, right around where a ghost would start losing their corporeal nature from Klaus. It was one of those situations where, under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t let a child stay in the yard and feel wild animals, but Sally wasn’t exactly a normal child.

“What do you got out there for them?”

“They like the grapes. And they like the bananas. ”

Dave chuckled, “I bet they do. They’re going to get pretty spoiled with you here.”

“I like the possums – I always wanted to feed them at my swing, but I could never get the food.” Her voice was getting better, not so many breaks and lulls where she would cut out entirely.

“Yeah, possums are cute. What do you like about them?” He was trying to keep up a conversation. Something they all worked to achieve with the quietest baby in their house.

Sally’s eyes got really big as she seemingly thought really hard about the question, “I like when they’re fat.” She said seriously.

He smiled, “You keep feeding them the fancy stuff and I think you’ll get exactly what you want.”

She nodded.

Hey, Kenzie and I are going fishing in the morning – would you like to come with us?”

The little ghost child made a face like she had just put a lemon in her mouth. The expression was so sudden and intense that it made Dave laugh. He put his hand over his mouth as she looked up and put a finger to her lips to shush him, presumably because she didn’t want him scaring any of the wildlife away.

“Sorry, sorry – Point taken. I’ll leave you alone, Just—” He paused, still feeling a strange uncertainty while interacting with Sally, “—Be careful. And don’t go too far, promise?”

She nodded, “Promise.”

“Thank you, have a good night, Sally.”

He went back inside, still smiling faintly, and mumbled to himself, “Well, One out of two ain’t bad.”

*******************************************************************

“Are the big fish here?” Kenzie tossed her line into the serene lake and reeled in gently just like Dave had taught her earlier in their vacation.

They were seated in a gorgeous little alcove in the middle of nowhere, a sturdy rock overhanging just a few feet above the lake. It was comfortable and cool - more importantly, the fish were always biting. It was a secret place that his uncle Brian used to take him fishing and now he was taking his own kid fishing. It was a dream come true, honestly, and Dave was soaking up every second of it.

“You sound like you’re trying to win a contest.” Dave flicked his line in a little farther out.

“Maybe - mostly I want to eat it!” She made a theatrical gobbling sound and Dave chuckled.

“Well, if we get lucky today, you can definitely help me dress and cook up some fresh fish.”

Kenzie was actually a pretty good fisher, she had the drive and the patience to get what she wanted and she was aggressive when it came to reeling them in and putting them in the bucket. After their first fishing trip, she was hooked and had been coming with Dave ever since - and it looked like they may be the only outdoors people in the family.

However, learning how to just stay silent was something she still needed a lot of practice with; not that Dave minded, he enjoyed just spending time with her and he found her explanations, stories, and observations to be comforting.

They had gotten a few fish and were just recasting their lines when Kenzie looked up seriously and asked out of nowhere, “Why aren’t you and momma married?”

Dave had to compose himself as that question came out of left field - a moment ago she had been talking about all of Nora’s barn cats so where did this come from?

“Uh - I don’t know, I guess we haven’t talked about it before. Why?” He instinctively patted his pocket, “Did you - uh - find something?”

She shrugged, seemingly very casual despite the fact that Dave’s blood pressure had started to rise, “I don’t know - A lot of my friends parents are married and they wear rings and stuff.”

“Yeah, like Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson?”

“Uh-huh.”

Dave reeled on where this was coming from, a little concerned by how sharp Kenzie tended to be at the most unexpected times, “Is that-- something that you would want? For us to get married?”

“And have a big party!? WIth dresses and music - yeah!”

“Yeah, a big party would be fun but marriage is a really big deal - it’s a big step in a relationship - that’s probably why we haven’t talked about it yet.”

“Cause you might get divorced?”

“What?” Dave floundered a little even as Kenzie casually brought in her empty line, the bait now.

She frowned at the hook, “They ate it… Can you- can you put it back on? I don’t like the squishies.”

“Uh- Yeah, sure…” Dave put another worm on her hook and she waited patiently, kicking her legs gently against the rock. After he was done she cast her line out and smiled as it plopped into the water.

“Kenzie, what were you saying before?”

“About what?”

“You said that we might get divorced - where did you hear that from?”

“Oh! Rory’s dad left after they got divorce and she hasn’t seen him. And her momma and dad were married but now it’s just her mom.”

Dave, who was now suddenly trapped in the wilderness with a child asking the tough life questions, was quickly beginning to agree with Klaus that maybe they should have homeschooled longer. He cringed lightly, now having trouble focusing on his own fishing and no doubt, his line was probably empty now as well.

“That’s a tough situation but if your father and I were to get married that wouldn’t necessarily mean that we would get divorced. In the same way that if we don’t get married, we could still split up.” He cringed, now thinking that may have been the scarier explanation.

“But--” He continued quickly at the way her face fell, “IF, something like that were to happen, if we no longer got along with each other, which I hope that never happens - that would never change the fact that I care about you and that I’m always going to have your back - and i guarantee that your momma would agree with me on that.”

“So you wouldn’t leave?”

“I need you to understand that this is all VERY hypothetical - your momma and I very much love each other, in fact, I hope soon that - well, never mind that but no, your momma loves you very much and I love you very much and if things were to change between us, I would still love you, and your uncle Ben, and Sally, and even your momma.”

“Relationships and families evolve all the time but the fact that I always have your back will not change.”

She looked up and once again Dave was struck by how similar she looked to her father, “You promise?”

He held out his fist and she bumped it with her own smaller fist, “I promise.”

He shifted in his seat, sighed and began to reel in the useless line, feeling proud of himself for handling that with only minimal panic “Any other big questions before we move on?”

“Where do babies come from?”

“NOPE.”