53 Ganymede

Episode 6: Picnic by the Lake

"Just half?" Violet teases.

"It's a big cake," Lucy shrugs then bends over to pet Beans, now panting by her feet. "You look tired out little guy. You stay away from my cake or I'll have to feed you to Ginger."

"Wesley," Jamie says, carrying a solemn Rory in his arms as Wesley trots along beside him, "Can you keep Beans away from the food?"

Wesley smiles, grateful for being assigned such an entertaining duty.

"Oh I almost forgot," Lucy says, standing suddenly, "I have to go get Mrs. Park. I'll be back in a bit."

She runs off back down the black concrete path and up the sloping side street toward Ganymede.

"Have you met Hyun-Sook yet, Claire?" Frank asks, easing his stiff body down onto the blanket. His knee pops audibly and Claire reaches out an arm to help him down. He waves it off.

"Hyun-Sook?"

"Mrs. Park," Frank clarifies.

"Oh, no — I haven't seen her around the house yet." Claire makes a mental checklist; as far as she knows she has met everyone except Mr. Alvez on the third floor and Mrs. Park on the second. Well, at least she hasn't met Mr. Alvez formally. She recalls a slender figure, drenched in the midnight rain. "Is Mr. Alvez coming too?"

"Marcus? Doubt it," Violet interjects, trying to hold back Rory's hands from the large pink box on the blanket, "He's almost never home. I'd be surprised if anyone even saw him long enough to invite him."

"Oh." Claire says, debating whether she should mention her chance meeting. It feels somehow taboo and so she decides against it. Instead she lifts the corner of the cake box, just enough to peek inside. She deciphers the message scrawled across the top of the cake in almost-neat purple icing.

"Oh," she says again. She turns to Frank, her brow furrowed as she puts the pieces together. "You didn't tell me what the picnic was for."

His generous stomach shakes as he laughs, and he pokes at her with the wooden cane resting beside him. "I didn't want to ruin the surprise."

Claire smiles, shaking her head. "I should have brought a gift or a card or something."

"No, no. Best present is you being here," he says, then surveying the pile of containers before him, "And food. What did you bring?"

Claire shows him her large container full of fruits as well as the little wraps she'd spent all morning preparing, carefully including a variety for every possible taste. Jamie and Violet show off their assorted salads and tiny mini muffins that Rory and Wesley have helped bake. Thankfully they have also remembered to bring plates and cutlery which everyone else has managed to forget.

"Ah, here comes our lovely lady now," Frank announces.

Claire turns to see Lucy almost spill a pitcher of amber liquid while crossing the uneven lawn alongside an unfamiliar woman. The woman's hair is jet black with only a peppering of grey here and there. She holds herself perfectly straight and is perhaps an inch taller than Lucy, though it's hard to tell by the way Lucy keeps adjusting for the pitcher. In one hand she holds the strap to an orange canvas bag, and in the other a long white cane that she glides over the ground in long strokes.

"Hyun-Sook, what do you bring me to eat today?" Frank shouts as they approach.

"Sometimes I think you like my food better than you like me, Frank Gartner," the woman, presumably Mrs. Park, answers back. She doesn't shout like Frank, but her husky voice carries far nonetheless.

"Don't worry, sometimes I feel that way too," Lucy jokes, poking her grandfather with the toe of her black suede boot. He shuffles over so that there is enough room between him and Claire for Mrs. Park and Lucy to sit. Mrs. Park sits directly beside Claire while Lucy makes introductions, "Hyun-Sook this is Claire Brown. Claire, this is Park Hyun-Sook."