{"id":1074,"date":"2012-09-18T06:00:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/?p=1074"},"modified":"2012-09-18T09:43:12","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T16:43:12","slug":"season-7-episode-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/?p=1074","title":{"rendered":"Season 7, episode 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWake up! Wake up!\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnny stirred, opening his eyes. Someone was knocking on the door to their bedroom. \u201cYeah?\u201d<\/p>\n

Willow poked her head in. \u201cIt\u2019s almost ten,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a picnic in Dolores Park, so you guys have to get up!\u201d She stopped and looked around. \u201cWhere\u2019s Mia?\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnny rubbed the sleep from his eyes. \u201cBathroom?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the running tap down the hall stopped and Mia stepped out of the bathroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou OK?\u201d Willow asked. \u201cYou look a bit pale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t sleep well,\u201d Mia said. \u201cStill tired I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell perk up! We\u2019re going to have a picnic!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, cool,\u201d Mia said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. \u201cLet me just have a shower and throw some clothes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHurry,\u201d Willow said. \u201cIt\u2019s such a gorgeous day at the moment, but who knows how long it\u2019ll stay like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Thirty minutes later, the four friends were loaded up with blankets, suncream, an esky (although, over here it was called a cooler) and a picnic basket, which Willow had heaped full with delicious goodies. They walked to Dolores Park, enjoying the sights and sounds of San Francisco on a sunny weekend.<\/p>\n

They found a perfect spot towards the top of the park, the slope of the lush green grass giving them a spectacular view across the city and out towards the bay. Mia and Johnny set up blankets as Ana and Willow started unloading everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrap!\u201d Willow exclaimed, having searched through all their bags. \u201cI made a chocolate cake, but I\u2019ve left it at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh well, we can have it for afternoon tea,\u201d Ana said, pulling the lid of one of the containers and looking inside. Kale salad. Yum!<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now we have no dessert!\u201d For Willow, a meal was not a meal without at least one type of dessert.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s OK,\u201d Ana consoled her. \u201cIt\u2019s not the end of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no. You guys unload this stuff and I\u2019ll run over the Bi-Rite and grab something.\u201d Willow leaped up and, throwing her handbag over her shoulder, headed down the hill towards the compact gourmet store on 18th. The others shrugged, knowing that you could not reason with Willow when she had a strategically planned meal in her head.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Willow was so focused on the task at hand that she didn\u2019t see the young man walking slowly in front of her until it was too late. She collided with him and they both fell to the ground, the man dropping the basket he was carrying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so sorry,\u201d Willow said, scrambling up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, not to worry,\u201d he said, smiling affably at her. He picked up the basket, examining the contents, smiling when they were obviously undamaged. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to buy some brownies, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBrownies?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, chocolate brownies. I make them myself. They\u2019re special brownies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willow raised an eyebrow. She doubted this young – albeit very cute – man could make brownies that were anywhere near as special as her own, with their gooey centre, crispy shell and surprise explosions of dark chocolate and hazelnut. But she had<\/em> just run into him, and she did<\/em> need dessert.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat kind of brownies?\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked at her puzzled. \u201cLike I said, they\u2019re special brownies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI meant what flavour are they,\u201d Willow explained. Seriously, American vernacular was sometimes really weird.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh right, I dig it. Chocolate.\u201d<\/p>\n

She looked into the basket at the individually wrapped brownies. They did look pretty good, she had to admit. Moist and rich.<\/p>\n

\u201cOk then,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll take\u2026 eight.\u201d They weren\u2019t huge, but two each should be enough, <\/em>she reasoned.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right!\u201d The guy smiled goofily again as he piled eight of the brownies into her handbag. \u201cThat\u2019ll be twenty-four dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willow was a little shocked at the price, but she justified it by telling herself she was supporting a local sole trader and, to be fair, ingredients were dearer here than in Australia.<\/p>\n

She smiled again at the young man before heading back up the hill to her friends.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

After a feast of salads, bread, cheese and homemade dips, Willow unwrapped the brownies and laid them on a plate, handing them around to the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re good,\u201d Ana said. \u201cBut\u2026 they taste a bit weird, don\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re probably just American,\u201d Willow said, munching happily on hers. \u201cDifferent ingredients and stuff.\u201d She popped the last bite into her mouth.<\/p>\n

Johnny – who had polished his off in one mouthful – picked up a spare one from the plate and sniffed it. He burst out laughing. \u201cWillow, where did you get these from?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA guy was selling them,\u201d she said. \u201cHe said they were special\u2026\u201d Her voice trailed off. \u201cOh my god!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat? What is it?\u201d Mia said, looking from Johnny who was in hysterics to Willow who was shaking her head in disbelief.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial brownies. They\u2019re hash brownies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ana looked at the partially eaten brownie in her hand and then back at her friends, grinning. \u201cOh well,\u201d she said, popping the rest of it in her mouth and chewing. \u201cWhen in Rome\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Not long after, the friends had been joined – or maybe they had joined? – a much larger and extremely eclectic group of people. Johnny had borrowed a guitar from someone and was playing anything by Pink Floyd that he could remember, a couple of others raucously singing along, banging tambourines and clapping sort-of in time to the music. Ana discovered that she could remember how to braid hair and so had taken it upon herself to make sure every member of the group – male, female or other – had a carefully orchestrated plait running the length of their heads. Some people – those whom she deemed worthy – even had small flowers woven through, which she had gone and picked from neighbouring front gardens. Mia was spouting the virtues of Pilates training to anyone who would listen, and had started her own little floorwork class just to the left.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine that you are peeling you\u2019re spine off the ground like each vertebrae is stuck down with toffee and you have to get it off before the next one will move!\u201d<\/p>\n

This had incited peels of laughter and then a sudden need for toffee, so half the \u2018class\u2019 had gone on a mission to see if anyone in the park had homemade toffee they were selling.<\/p>\n

Willow had cornered the young man who had sold her the brownies and they were exchanging recipes. He was, it turned out, quite the avid chef, and not all his recipes required the addition of marijuana, although all of them could be adapted to suit this purpose if needs be. Willow was fascinated by his \u2018special\u2019 roast lamb recipe.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat if the in-laws or your boss are coming over for dinner,\u201d he said with a wink.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

They stayed in the park until well after dark, managing a few more brownies each – \u201con the house\u201d – and sure enough, when they got home, a huge, delicious chocolate cake was waiting for them, which they devoured in minutes, before piling themselves into their respective beds and falling into deep sleeps, filled with multi-coloured dreams.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Mia woke with a start. A faint, watery light was just peeking through the curtains. The rest of the house was still quiet. She felt slightly disoriented for a second, forgetting where she was and what she was doing there. Next to her, Johnny was breathing heavily.<\/p>\n

She climbed out of bed as quietly as she could and walked quickly to the bathroom, throwing herself onto the floor and only just managing to lift the toilet seat before the contents of her stomach ungraciously upended themselves. With a shaking hand, she flushed the toilet, sitting on the ground with her back against the wall, her head in her hands. She brushed away the hot tears that were running down her cheeks.<\/p>\n

Must have been from yesterday. From the brownies<\/em>, she reasoned with herself. Standing up, she looked at herself in the mirror. The colour was starting to come back to her cheeks, but the sinking feeling that she\u2019d had for almost a week now was stronger than ever. So what was the explanation for throwing up the five mornings before that?<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWake up! Wake up!\u201d Johnny stirred, opening his eyes. Someone was knocking on the door to their bedroom. \u201cYeah?\u201d Willow poked her head in. \u201cIt\u2019s almost ten,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a picnic in Dolores Park, so you guys have to get up!\u201d She stopped and looked around. \u201cWhere\u2019s Mia?\u201d Johnny rubbed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[224],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1076,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074\/revisions\/1076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}