“We sure do love Elena and her friends,” Gigi joyfully informs the proud father.
“Well, good! I’d hate to hear you don’t love her,” is Ken’s response.
As this lovely chat goes on, something about this section of Juniper catches Ent’s attention, and Faye notices this. Raising her hand while looking at her watch, Faye asks Jo Meyers, “Lady Jo, did AB say what time that party would be? Mr. Doug, don’t you think we should head home so we’ll be back in time for the fun later? You could have the next guest just meet us there like usually happens at the end of our field trips.”
As Doug insists on meeting this next person now, Faye looks back at Ent who is showing more interest in what he notices. Finally, he puts this sensation into words. “Do you smell that? I think that is such a sweet scent. What is it?”
“It’s Lily of the Valley,” Ken answers, taking in a good whiff of it himself. “It’s coming from the house over—” he begins to point but realizes what he’s doing and stops. “The house this scent is coming from belongs to some of the most precious people I have ever met. They’re very private individuals though, so I wouldn’t want to disturb them unannounced. However, I have a feeling that when they meet you, they won’t ever be able to stop talking to you.” Ken looks right at Double-Edge as he says this.
Processing this oddity, Ent mumbles to himself, “I know that scent. Where do I remember it from?”
As he thinks, he hears a soft voice whisper in his ear, “Does it really matter right now?”
Turning to see Faye looking at him with sad yet hopeful eyes, Elf pushes the corner of her mouth up with his thumb to make her smile and responds, “No, it doesn’t matter right now.”
“Well then,” Ken says, starting to push his broom again, “I’m going to get back to work before I get myself in trouble not doing my job. See you guys later!” This friend moves along, leaving us back where we started with Abbie about to, maybe, tell her story.
“So, do you want me to tell you now?” she says, in a mix of hope and annoyance.
“YES!!” Doug says in a loud, happy voice. “That is exactly the thing we need right now!”
“Oh,” Abbie giggles at this zealous reaction to her finally being able to tell her tale. “I never thought we’d have such a difficult time simply talking about my—”
“We were coming to see you, and now you’re the one who found us. Perfect!!”
Abbie turns in a rage to see who’s interrupting this time, since Doug was obviously not talking to her. The person he is talking to is the woman named Ti Chi, walking her little puppy, Edward. With her is Katherine Elisabeth Turner, the great-grandchild of the Keb from Muse MV’s storyboard. The presence of these two women let Abbie know that she’s not telling her story anytime soon, if at all today.
The two girls start a round of excited greetings, even cheering the dejected Abigail up, as they pass around the puppy and exchange several witty jokes. This time of fun leads into Doug asking the ladies if they would tell their stories, starting with the one nicknamed Ket.
“Um, okay,” she says nervously, brushing her hair back. “Well, you guys seem familiar with Great-great-aunt Muse from my storyboard. Well, in between the time that she met the System Guards and the time when they returned to include us in the new universe, Muse and her AB had kids and grandkids and such, as did Keb and her husband. Well, in our generation, Muse’s great-grandkids ran the show, completely ostracizing my two siblings and me, because they felt like their heritage made them better than everyone else. We three were practically their slaves, at best, or all but disowned because we were so ‘common.’ I hated life, letting everyone walk all over me while the oldest of us went to great humiliating lengths to appease our cousins, only to be their lacky. The middle child was the only one of us to embrace her ‘commonness’ and move on with life, while still having a slight bit of understandable resentment.
Inner Man Theatre 