Disclaimer: I do not own the Monkees, but I do own my own original characters. So there.
All Things Considered
Part Three
The guys packed themselves, and a pot of Davys chili and headed over to Valeries place. Actually to be more specific its Chris and Andys place. Valerie had been living with her best friend Chris and her husband since before the Vegas fiasco.
They had a fairly small house, so at times Valerie had wanted to get out of her friends way and get a place of her own. Upon hearing of her attempts to save money and get a new place, Chris's two children grabbed onto her legs and tried to keep her from leaving the house. Chris wasn't much help either, she had one of Valeries arms in a death grip.
"I can't let you go, you are the best free help for the kids I got," Chris had said. "and the kids love you."
"I think the kids will do whatever mom will say for more cake at dinner." Valerie guessed looking at the faces of the children. Chris blushed a little, her friends guess was right on.
The house in question was about a mile from the guys beach house. It was good for when Valerie didn't have a car. She could walk right over. It was a godawful green color and had sand colored shutters around the window. It was two stories tall.
As the guys piled out of the car, Mike looked around the yard.
"Val!" He called out. He walked forward a few steps. "Valerie!" He turned and scratched his head. "I could have sworn she would have waited for us. He turned again and headed toward the house. Something told him to look up, and he did. He looked up in time to see a blonde woman hurtling at him. He raised his arms and grunted as he caught the person in question.
"I don't want to look." The blonde said. "Am I dead?" She blew her hair out of her face. It was Valerie.
"If you are, I just caught an angel coming out of heaven." Mike drawled.
"Oh and thank god you did." Valerie said. "I'm with a crazy woman."
"Unless we stood on her, I don't see anyone.." Mike started to say more as they heard the door open on the other side. They saw Chris bedecked in a pair of overalls covered in paint. She looked terrified.
"Hi, uh, flying blonde woman...see her?" She said between gasps. She had run from where-ever she had been.
"Mike got her." Davy said. "Where do you want this chili?"
"In the house." Chris said as she eyed the pot. "Thats huge." She continued as she felt herself calming.
"You tell me. I thought we had enough for a week. But then again it would just be me eating it." Davy said. "Me mates don't have the stomach for the stuff."
"I think it dissolved my stomach." Micky groaned.
"Andy is in there taking a bath. You might want to put it in the kitchen." Chris pointed.
"I'll put it in the kitchen all right." Davy said. "I walked in on one of the guys girlfriends once. I think I had that black eye forever." He said as he went through the open front door. Peter laughed softly, it was his girlfriend he had walked in on.
Chris returned her attention to Valerie. "I am so sorry. I thought the rope would hold."
"Rope?" Mike said putting Valerie feet down on the ground.
"Can I tell her?" Valerie said.
"Sure." Chris said. "I was there too, so I can help with the story."
Valerie cleared her throat. "We both had the day off. We got bored. I was happy playing my solitaire game when Chris came in with this idea."
"It was pretty good at the time." Chris protested.
"Honey, I think you are in pre-natal insanity right now." Valerie rolled her eyes. "She may be pregnant again." She informed the guys with a laugh. "Rabbits, I've always told you."
"I thought it was a great time to paint the house." Chris said. "We decided to leave the green color alone for now."
"Its puke green." Valerie corrected. "Its like someone threw up and threw some sand on it."
"As I was saying..." Chris glared at Valerie. "...we thought we would start small. We wanted to paint the window shutters. We picked out a nice blue color that at one time was going to be in one of the kids rooms. But it never happened. One kid discovered posters, the other one likes make her own artwork."
"She scribbles on the wall." Valerie stepped in again.
"One day that wall will be famous. Someone will want it." Chris insisted with a dreamy smile.
"With the rest of the house if we are lucky." Valerie scoffed.
"So we thought we would do the ones at the second floor first. One problem..."
"...shes nuts." Valerie said. "You would do better to have the Three Sstooges paint the house."
Ignoring Valerie, Chris pressed on with her story. "We don't have a ladder."
"We could have brought you one." Mike said.
"Well...yeah....I know." Chris said. "I didn't think things through that far. I thought if we got up to the roof and tied one end of a rope to a chimney and the other to a person, we could paint the tops of the shutters and do the rest when we got the ladder."
"Thats when you called me." Valerie said. "Chris was bothering her poor husband in the bathroom askng what a bannister was." She shook her head. "You could have come quicker."
"We had chili to tote." Peter explained.
"Now I know its not a good idea." Chris said.
"Not a good idea?" Valerie sighed. "And this woman has kids." She looked over at chris who looked ready to cry. "But I'm alright. We can have some of Davys glop for dinner."
"Yes." Chris said. She thought for a moment and Valerie could already see a light shining over her head. "We have helpers now. They can get the ladder and we can get started!"
"Not today babe." Mike said. "I came to tell Valerie something."
"Whats that?" Valerie asked.
"My aunt is coming to town and I get the feeling she wants to meet you." Mike explained.
"Oh lord." Valerie said. "That makes sense. She would want to know who you were married to for like a day."
"Exactly." Mike said. "So what do we do?"
"What we always do." Valerie said to Mike. "What do we do?"
"I'm with you." Mike said. "We'll figure something out. She may just be here for a visit."
As they turned and went into the house, they spotted Chris's husband Andy eating the chili. He seemed to be enjoying it, but he stopped midgulp and looked at Davy. "Hey, good job. I gotta tell you though, its not hot enough."
Valerie looked at Mike. "There are times my life either feels like a soap opera or a comedy, which one is it today?"
"The comedy," Mike said giving her a pat on the back. "the comedy for sure."
