Tuesday 24 February 2015

Sage's surprise!

Rosemary Bouquet was busy making the beds, like she did every morning before she leaves the house, and like every other morning, all her family members were up and ready to begin the day except for her son, Sage. 


Rosemary: Sage! SAGE! Get up, you are going to be late!

Rosemary tried all the tricks in the book to get Sage to move, but unlike other morning he didn't even utter a groan.


Finally Sage turned around and looked at his mom, with teary eyes.

Sage: Mommy, I'm not feeling well, I'm so nauseous and my tummy hurts an awful lot.
Rosemary: Oh nonsense my boy, get up! Come on you are going to be very late today.

But Sage didn't even made an attempt to get up.

Rosemary: Sage Bouquet if I have to ask you one more time to get up, you will not be allowed to have a birthday party next week and I will surely uninvite all your friends. GET UP! NOW!

And just like that Sage was up and sprinting to the bathroom... but unfortunately not to wash his face and brush his teeth, but straight to the toilet.
It was then that Rosemary realised that Sage was really sick.

After serving a hearty breakfast to her family and ensuring that Sage was comfortable, Rosemary and the rest of the Bouquets left their house to begin their day. Rosemary promised Sage that she will be home around lunch to see if he is ok. They had a busy day ahead at the restaurant, as they have to prepare for the Mayor's Luncheon Party, but she was sure she will find a way to quickly slip away.

After she dropped little Lavender at the Forest Nursery she accompanied Jasmine to her school. Rosemary preferred walking her kids to school, even though Sage was always protesting. At school Rosemary greeted everyone and walked over to Sage's best friend Lester Thistlethorn to tell him that Sage is not feeling well. Lester seemed very surprised about this news and promised that he will visit his friend after school.

At home Sage Bouquet was, however, feeling as healthy and energetic as any other day. He was feeling very guilty of having to lie to his mother, but he is sure she will forgive if him, if she find out the reason for his deception. Sage quickly got dressed and brushed his teeth, three times. The concoction he had to swallow to make his nausea believable had a terrible taste and he is certain he will never get rid of the awful taste.

Rosemary Bouquet was oblivious to her son's dishonesty, which was for the best as she had no time to deal with the mischief of a an eleven year old. All her thoughts were focused on the preparations she had to do for the Mayor's Luncheon. Her thoughts were briefly interrupted by Felicity Redwood, better known as Fliss.


Fliss: Good morning Rosemary. I am just on my way to your restaurant, with your weekly order from the Supermarket. 
Rosemary (laughing): That is really kind of you Fliss, I was just on my way to the Supermarket to collect it. This will really safe me some precious time. I'm all stressed out about this Mayor's Luncheon.
Fliss: But why, you have been doing it for so many years now, your should be used to it.
Rosemary: I know, I know, but still it is stressful. 


After thanking Fliss once more Rosemary made her way to the Harvester Restaurant. Every year around the end of the financial year, Mayor Hugo entertains his city council with a Luncheon at the Bouquet's Restaurant. It gives Rosemary and her husband, Stilton, great pleasure to prepare for this, but as they want it to be perfect, they are always worried that something will not work out as planned.

The couple spend the whole morning working close together on preparing the five course meal and ensuring that everything was perfect. Rosemary loved working with her husband, she just sometimes wished that they can for once sit down at a fancy restaurant and be served, themselves.

After a busy morning and after making sure that everything was perfect for her guests she decided to quickly visit Sage. She was worried that he might dehydrate and wanted to make sure that he ate and drink something.

When she entered the house Rosemary was surprised to see that Sage was not laying on the couch surrounded with food. Even the kitchen was just as shiny as she left it that morning, to Rosemary this was really worrisome. If Sage spent the whole morning in his bed, not even coming down for a bite to eat, he surely must feel very sick. She hurried upstairs, just to find his bed empty.

She rushed into the bathroom, almost certain that he was passed out on the floor, but also that was empty. Then it dawned on Rosemary that maybe Sage tricked her and just wanted an off day from school. She was unsure if she felt furious or disappointed.

Her thoughts immediately moved on to Lester, and that the two friends must have planned this. She decided to immediately go over to the Commune to inform Willow, Lester's mother of what the two boys have been up to.


To Rosemary's surprise she found Lester, doing his homework in his room. Rosemary had no words, something didn't make sense.


Willow: Rosemary, hi, is something the matter.
Rosemary: I'm not sure. It seems as if Sage is missing and I thought that Lester might know something about it.
Willow: Oh no! Lester? Do you know something?
Lester: No, mommy, I don't.
Rosemary instinctively knew that Lester was not part of this trickery, or whatever Sage was doing.
Willow: Rosemary, let me and Lester help you to look for him. You look so stressed.

Rosemary thanked Willow for the offer and Lester indicated that he might know just the place where Sage might me. While Rosemary went in the opposite direction, Willow and Lester made their way to the newly opened Toyshop.

Again Sage surprised someone, by not being  where everyone thought he might be.
Lester: He is not here! I wonder where he can be.
Willow: That is strange, lets go to the village square, maybe he is enjoying an ice cream.

In the meantime Rosemary went to Sage's second favorite shop, Pippa's Patisserie, but again there was no sign of him and Pippa even confirmed that she hasn't seen Sage in days.

Willow and Lester soon learned from the Darwins that Sage definitely hasn't been in the square all day too. Rosemary was now really getting worried. This is so unlike Sage, though he is a typical boy, he has never done something like this. 

WHERE CAN SAGE BE?

At Nr2 Meadowcroft, Sage was unaware of the worry he was causing his mother and his best friend. He has had this plan for so long and it really took some time to organise everything to perfection. The hardest part was to convince Mr Corntop to sell him a bottle of wine, without mentioning it to his parents. The food was easy to make, Sage loved cooking, again it was the cleaning up that was hard.

Just as he had done the final preparations, he heard chattering. He surely hope it wasn't his parents. He wasn't ready for them yet! "And where is Jasmine, she was supposed to help me", he thought out loud.
Jasmine: Here I am, Sage! Wow! It looks amazing, mom and dad will love it.
Sage: Finally, there you are. Oh and 'hi' Lester and Prissy.
Lester: Sage, I really hope this works out for you. Your mother is so worried, Im not even sure if she is angry anymore.
Prissy: Yes, she and my mother are still looking all over for you. We managed to slip away.

Sage suddenly became worried, what if he took this surprise too far. Maybe he should have waited for a weekend, then it wouldn't be necessary to lie to his mother to skip school.Then again, it is their wedding anniversary today, so 'NO', he thought to himself he did the right thing. Everything will be ok. He showed Lester the table he set, and he could see that Lester was impressed.

After Prissy and Lester left, the two siblings sat on the front steps waiting for their parents. They were unsure at what time they would be home. They knew that the Restaurant will be closed tonight, but the cleaning up after the Luncheon usually takes a while.

Moments later they heard their parents voices, and then they appeared from around the corner. The surprised looks on their faces were indescribable.

Mother Rosemary was the first one that could utter a word
Rosemary: SAGE! There are you! You had me worried sick! Where were you!
Sage: I'm sorry mommy, I was naughty, I know that, but I had to find a way to make the surprise work.
Stilton: Surprise? What surprise? 

Jasmine: Sage planned a romantic evening for you. He did everything himself, cooked the food, set the table.
Rosemary: What? Why?
Sage: It is your anniversary! Congratulations.
Both Stilton and Rosemary were lost for words, and Rosemary pecked away a stray tear. It was indeed their anniversary, and with the stress of the Luncheon they forgot about it.

Jasmine steered little Lavender into the house and left her Sage to serve their parents. He started off by reciting the menu to them and then poured them a glass of wine.

When they were finally alone. Rosemary couldn't hold back the tears. It was tears of joy and happiness. She was so proud of all her children, but at that moment mostly of Sage. 
Stilton: Happy anniversary Honey, and thank you for giving me so many happy years and three lovely children.
Rosemary: To you too, and thank you for being such a wonderful husband and caring for us.

The rest of the evening were spent enjoying the lovely food Sage prepared for them and just relaxing, not worrying about the Restaurant.










13 comments:

  1. I LOVE your new story! It was so heartbreaking! What a great idea of Sage to surprise his parents with dinner :)

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    1. Aaah thank you. I think Sage surprised everyone around him!

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  2. Thank you for a fantastic story! I absolutely enjoyed it! Loved the way Sage set the table in the front yard!
    Great work Eaton!

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  3. Oh so cute and Sage is wonderful, every parent dream and will surely steal a heart or two:)

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    1. Well he has his mother's hart for always, now! And thank you so much for your contribution!!!!

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  4. Such a sweet story! It almost made me cry.

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    1. Oh no, you shouldn't cry. That is not what this is all about.

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  5. I loved this story! It was so sweet, Sage seems like such a nice son :)
    Also loved seeing Felicity (Fliss) ;)

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    1. Felicity prefers to be Felicity, but someone long ago called her Fliss and that stuck, to her dismay.

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    2. Oh how annoying! Perhaps it was her parents? Or children (when they were babies)?

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  6. What a surprising story! I wouldn't have guessed what Sage was up to. Very clever!

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