Completing The List

9. Make A Fancy Meal For The Boys

     Lizzy arrived home with Anna and Gale from North Carolina three days later and it was good to be back. The girls felt a little relieved when she put the urn back to where it was supposed to go, and the girls fought over the guest room, but compromised between using the spare room one week and then couch the next week. Gale had protested to Anna winning the first week in the spare room, but that all faded when she realized how comfy Lizzy's very expensive pull out couch was. Four days passed and people started to settle in and get comfortable with each other before Lizzy came at them with the next task on the list.

     "The next task," Lizzy started, "Requires us to do something nice for the boys down at Hayden's firehouse."

     "I know this sounds easy," Gale said as she was folding up her bed sheets, "But what do these fireman consider 'fancy' will determine what we need to do to cast this job from the group."

     "I agree." Lizzy said, "I'm going to call Jared later today and ask him what Hayden meant when he said 'fancy' on the list." After the entire cake cooking debacle, Lizzy had decided not to underestimate any task on the list ever again and approach each one as if they were tougher than the previous. She wasn't going to fall into that trap again which resulted in the task lasting over two months. This time she would make the call and make sure the answer was right and easier to take care of. She picked up the phone and dialed the number for the phone in the firehouse.

     After a few rings someone picked up, "House 75, can I help you?"

     "Yes, I'd like to speak with Jared. Tell him it's Liz calling."

     "Alright, Liz. No prob."

     She waited a few seconds before Jared's familiar voice came up. "You know Liz, we keep talking this much Beth's going to think we got a thing on the go." he said with a hearty chuckle.

     "Ha ha." Lizzy replied sarcastically. "Seriously, I need to ask you a question."

     "Fire away." Jared said as he waited for his grilling.

     "Well, I was talking to Hayden before he passed and he talked about giving the boys what he called a fancy meal to show everyone how much he appreciates them and their hard work. He specifically said about doing something 'fancy', so what I'd like to know is what the guys at the house consider fancy."

     "I see." Jared replied, "We'll I'm glad you called this time out, because the term fancy like little lady has a completely different meaning here in the house."

     "I assumed as much, do tell." Lizzy said.

     "Well, it's kind of like a bad means good thing. To us, the term fancy dinner means a barbecue. To use, a fancy mean is red meat on a grill. Beer and steak is usually our fancy meal of preference. So if you fired up a grill and cooked a lot of meat, that would do us just fine."

     "Okay, so what day would be good to come over and fire up a barbeque for you?"

     "I would recommend a Wednesday, for some reason we don't get as many calls in the middle of the week. I guess not as many people with time on their hands would explain that." Jared paused for a moment, "Why did you want to hold a barbeque for the boys?"

     Liz felt uneasy talking about the list, so she fibbed. "It was something Hayden and I always wanted to do for you guys. I'm going to rent a grill and be there Wednesday of next week. Okay?"

     "Hey, sounds great to me Liz." Jared replied, "We'll see you next week!"

     Once Lizzy got off the phone she told the girls what the boys at the house considered a fancy meal. They laughed and were perfectly all right with the idea of just steaks and hamburgs being the meal rather than something that might actually be fancy. Leading up to that day they made a huge plan to serve the best barbecue they firehouse will ever see. There were going to be a variety of salads, drinks and even a variety of meats. There would be steaks, chicken, fish and even something veggie just in case someone was to ask for it. She had everything set up but to make sure everything was perfect, she needed to call in a ringer for the grill.