Malibu - Gen 3 Ch 4

My job at the stadium was going well, and I had been tapped for a minor league position. The only drawback was the late nights - I had to work until nine o'clock every night. One night when I arrived home, I found that Benji had decided to throw a party, hoping it would help his celebrity status. I about jumped out of my skin when I opened my bedroom door to find some guy I'd never seen before setting down a bowl of mac and cheese on my desk!

After shooing him out, and changing out of my practice uniform, I headed down to the back yard. Rain was making drinks for the guests, who included this scary looking creature. Who was he, and what was he doing here?

Maybe Marina would know.

"Hey, Mari," I whispered, nodding my slightly toward the freaky dude. "Who is that guy?"

" Oh, he's Peri's new boss, an elementary teacher at the school."

"What in the ....????"

The rest of the guests had long since left, but Dorkie McDorkerson, or whatever his name is, didn't seem to realize that the party was long since over. I grabbed a book, while Benji tried to be nice. I guess Benji thought it would help his celebrity status.

I didn't have the heart to tell Benji that he could be BFF's with this guy, and it still wouldn't help his celebrity status. After a while even Benji got tired of him, and finally had to kick him out.

Other than the occasional party, out lives settled out in a dull routine. Benji rose early every morning and headed down to the police station. He seemed to have a talent for police work, and was soon promoted to uniformed officer.

I liked to sleep in, and then would spend my mornings puttering around the house, usually ending up fixing one thing or another that had broken.

After lunch, I'd jog on down the road to the stadium. It was nice, living just down the street from work. I was improving rapidly, and my coach said I'd soon be ready to play on the starting team.

Benji would arrive home from work shortly after I left for the stadium. He usually spent his afternoons following up on leads, which normally meant questioning a variety of people. He was starting to be recognised around town, and many times ended up signing  autographs, instead of writing reports. One day he was all excited when I returned home from work. He had discovered a rustic lodge half way up the mountain, and could hardly wait to show it to me. Unfortunately, due to our busy schedules, that day would have to wait.

By the time I'd arrive home from the stadium at night, Benji was usually yawning, and would head to bed soon after. I was always way too wound up from work to go to sleep so early, so I'd grab a book, and stay up way too late reading. It seemed like we never saw each other any more, we didn't even have the same days off!

Finally the day came that I had been working so hard toward - my coach called me aside after practice, and informed me there was slot opening up on the starting team, and she thought I could fill it!  Racing into the house, I quickly found Benji and grabbed his hands in excitement.

"I made the team! And even better, I get tomorrow off! It's Sunday, we should do something!"

Benji gave me a flirty grin.

"Just you and me, Mali?"

"Just us. And I know the perfect place to go!"

 

The next morning we hopped into the car, and I drove until we were far out into the mountains.

"Hmm, 'Turn right at the big rock'. I think this is the right way," I muttered half to myself, turning up a bumpy dirt road. One of my teammates had given me directions; I hoped I was reading her hand drawn map correctly.

We drove as far as we could, then parked and walked down a hiking trail that seemed to be carved right into the side of the mountain. Benji ventured right to the edge and looked down, but I wasn't that daring.

"I think this is it!" I called out after a while, darting on ahead.

"Hey, wait up!" I could here Benji huffing behind me. I just laughed.

"Catch me if you can! I called back to him.

I did let him catch me, when the trail opened up into a magical little forest glen. He caught me up in his arms, and kissed me playfully.  

Listen! do you hear that?" I whispered. A beautiful trilling bird song floated on the cool mountain air. I looked down.

"Look!"  I whispered again. There, hopping randomly about in the grass, was the cutest little bird I had ever seen. Benji bent down for a closer look, and to my amazement, instead of flying off, the bird hopped closer.

I could hardly believe it when Benji held out his arm, and the tiny creature fluttered right up to sit on his wrist.

Benji smiled up and me. "I think he likes me! Hey there, little guy!" He said softly, so as not to scare it away.

Indeed, for some reason the little nuthatch had taken a real liking to Benji. It followed him around for a few minutes, then much to our surprise, snuggled down into his shirt pocket and went to sleep.

We spent the morning fishing - something I had been wanting to try for ages.

Neither of of were any good, and we only caught a few minnows, but just being out in the woods with Benji was so relaxing, I wished it could last forever.

 

As lunchtime grew near, we began to look for a place to picnic. Near the pond, we discovered a spring, gushing cool clear water right out of the side of the mountain. Benji bent to get a drink, but I stopped him.

"You just never know, Benj. It's probably perfectly safe, but it's best not to chance it, don't you think?"

Instead, I pulled out two bottles of water, and the apples I had picked from Rain's garden that morning. They were so juicy and sweet, so much better than the ones from the store. I'd have to remember to thank Rain when we got back.

After lunch, we discovered a steep trail that led even higher into the mountains. This time Benji wasn't going to let me beat him to the top.

The view from the small lookout platform at the top was spectacular! We could see the whole town from up there.

"Look, Benj! I can see our house! See! Down there by the water!"

We had a great time feeding quarters into the viewing telescopes they had, and zeroing in on all our favorite haunts from our new vantage point.

At dusk, we hiked back down the trail, and I sprung my last surprise of the day. We drove up in front of a quaint mountain lodge, where we just happened to have a reservation for the night. Benji had told me before, how he had found this place when he was out doing some 'questioning'.

"You remembered, didn't you!" he grinned when he recognised the place.

"Uh huh," I smiled back. "You said you'd like to come back here with me someday."

We had a few drinks at the bar, then cuddled on the sofa in the lounge, just enjoying the crackling fire and each other's company.

Later, we retired to our room, where we enjoyed each other's company even more. Even tired as we were from our day of hiking, we spent a good part of that night.. well.. not sleeping.

We rose early the next morning, and spent a few minutes on our balcony, taking in the view one last time before we had to head back down the mountain. Benji had to be to work by nine, and I was starting practice for my new position in the afternoon. So, back to the grind, for both of us.

Mmmm, cookies. I yet again found myself in the kitchen, baking another batch of cookies. It had been a few days since we had returned from our mountain adventure, and we seemed to have fallen back into our rut again. Except for the cookies.

I seemed to have developed a massive craving for chocolate chip cookies. I would come home from the stadium simply starving, mix up a batch, and scarf down the whole plateful before anyone else knew they were out of the oven.

At first, I thought I was just getting fat from all those cookies. But I soon realized there was much more going on than that, and before long it was confirmed - I was pregnant.

Notes

I used my free day to explore the mountainside in Hidden Springs, and get Malibu pregnant :)

She had been wanting to learn to fish for a while, so it worked out well. I'd been wanting to take some pictures from the top of the mountain, too, but there was no reason I could think of to make them go up there on their own. I didn't have them drink from the fountain, they don't really need days added to their lives. Malibu never got sick, she just got lots of wishes for cookies.