So Sweet a Changeling: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 6)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Rachel, Saturday

It was a beautiful evening. The sky was blue and clear, and it wasn't too hot for a late July day. The weather would be perfect for the fireworks later tonight but, for now, they had a play to see. 

Bard on the Beach took place every summer in Vancouver, in the Kitsilano neighbourhood, down at Vanier Park, which looked out onto English Bay, over which the fireworks would explode. Every season they put on three or four plays, with one of them the headlining performance in the main theatre, the others in smaller theatres adjacent to it, all of the theatres under white, dome-like tents that blocked the heat and glare of the sun and kept the audience comfortable. 

The Vancouver Museum and the Planetarium were also at Vanier Park, and with the traffic heading there as well as to Bard on the Beach, and with the rest of the public, who didn't have front row seats in the gated-off lawn adjacent to the theatres, also coming down to watch the fireworks, it was going to be a packed venue, and Rachel dreaded the long lines of cars winding their way through the maze of side streets when they left at the end of the night, their own at the very back of the line.

A Midsummer Night's Dream was the main show this season, and Emma was already bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation, oohing and aahing over the posters of actors in ephemeral costume and make-up, smiling mischievously, as if they knew something the theatre-goer didn't. Rachel imagined they were the fairies in the play, and those fairies caused a lot of mischief, if she remembered correctly.

She put an arm around Al's waist and drew him to her. "I'm glad we have this time together, you and me."

He kissed her cheek and said, "Me too. I'm sorry we haven't been alone much, you know, without the others."

She nodded. "As much as I love my friends, our enthusiasm lately for being with them has kind of thinned our marriage out." 

"I know. You've been so patient with me. Too patient. I've lost my sense of priorities."

"I'm only patient with you because I know that if I need you, you'll come to me, even if you're with Agnes or Lauren at the time."

"I would. And they'd understand. About that: do you get enough opportunities to even the score? Was your time with Sunny and Tej fulfilling?"

"Oh, yeah. Poor Sunny might be walking funny for a while after I had him in that Amazon position."

"Yikes. When Lauren had me in that, I felt pretty dominated, and you're bigger than she is. Sunny's a good sport."

"I felt like dominating that night. As for you, If I ever felt hard done by, I'd pull on your leash, don't worry."

"Okay, good." He sighed in contentment and looked around. "I'm looking forward to this play, it should be fun. It's actually a bit of a raunchy comedy, young lovers and misunderstandings. Does that sound like anyone we know?"

Rachel chuckled. "Naomi and Harpreet are playing with powers they don't fully understand, and they're putting Logan in an impossible position."

Al nodded. "At least he's out with his male friends tonight. No temptations while he's out of our sight."

"Mum!" Emma said as she ran up to them, tripping over her feet a little. Al caught her and steadied her as she panted and pointed to the little gift shop. "They have fairy wings in there! Can I get them?"

Rachel smiled warmly at her. Emma hardly ever asked for anything for herself. "Let's go check them out."

In the end, they not only bought the fairy wings, which Emma put on right away (if anyone wondered what a teenage girl was doing wearing something meant for toddlers, they didn't comment on it), but also a t-shirt for Al that had a bear on it and the quote, "Exit, pursued by a bear," from The Winter's Tale, and a tote bag with a quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream that Rachel thought was perfect for Lauren: "Though she be but little, she is fierce."