It's the morning after the night before and in Susannah's case, probably an early start too - having had to traipse back from the hotel in Southport. She's all gooey-eyed and holding a gift which is presumably for Greg. Lindsey notices and can't resist a jibe:
"Missing him already?" she asks in a voice, louder than Susannah would have wished.
Jacqui's holiday now seems a long time ago (don't they always?) and she's having another bad day. The builders, following Lindsey's ham-fisted attempt at resolving the delays, have now pulled out completely and Jacqui's running around trying to find a firm able take over. Finding builders to do the work isn't the main problem - it's the cost. So far, the cheapest firm is quoting three times the price of the original company.
Making small talk with Nikki in reception, Jacqui discovers that Katrina had been looking after Susannah's kids last night and therefore the claim to have been taking them to visit Lisa in Chester was somewhat dubious. Oh, *and* Nikki happened to mention something about Greg working late in the Club - this was *also* news to Jacqui and you could see the penny dropping as Miss Dixon started putting two and two together. Eventually, Jacqui collared Lindsey and suspicious that R'Linds knew more than she was letting on, slowly dragged the full story out of her.
Elsewhere on the parade, Mr Moore called into the chippy to deliver the promised summons to Mick. And very sorry, he was, too:
"There *is* no alternative" he rued, apologetically.
As he departed, Mr Moore took the opportunity jest with Sinbad:
"Thank you for your sterling work at the fete" he said. "You really took everything we could throw at you."
Mick's due to appear in court in four weeks' time and with this in mind, went to see Katie about hiring a solicitor. Katie had already been into the chippy earlier, buying a pie and chips for Nathan's lunch. Whilst dubious about this choice, at first, Nathan was actually quite enjoying the meal until he asked Katie what Mick had called in for.
"The chippy's being done for selling food that's unfit for consumption. Something about the pies" she told him gleefully. No, they're *still* not hitting it off!
Outside, on the grass between the parade and the petrol station, Matt and Bosko (who we learn from Mr Moore is actually called Christopher - no, don't ask me how he knows that!) have set up a "Have your Stones of Shad read here" stall. Mr Moore is keen to discover what the Stones predict for him although he'd prefer to find out later; "not on an empty stomach" he insists. Weird. He does, however, point out that the Stones look rather like builders' aggregate.
Ron's annoyed about the lad's stall being there and wants them to cease, however, he is *so* carried away talking to Mr Moore about the Millennium and Millennium bugs in particular, that his concern over the stall is soon forgotten. We learn too, that Ron and Anthea are about to go off rambling again - this time to the Peak District. This is by way of a celebration, apparently, now that Anthea has received the all-clear following the recent cancer scare.
Whilst Mr Moore is busy scaremongering over potential Y2K problems, about which he's convinced that the authorities are keeping quiet (a story which Ron is swallowing big-time), Jimmy is having his Stones read (sounds painful, eh?).
According to Matt and Bosko, Jimmy's future has something to do with flying saucers (or possibly sombreros - they're not quite sure!), which suggests to Jimmy that if he doesn't get abducted by aliens soon, he'll know that the boys were conning him and he'll want recompensing. This talk about flying saucers gains Mr Moore's attention:
"Don't get me going on UFOs" he says, "or I'll get no work done at all today", and with that, he departs. Phew!
Over at Bar Brookie, Lindsey and Jimmy are having a "father/daughter chat" during which Jimmy tells Lindsey that she was wrong to intimidate the builders in the way in which she did.
"Just glad you didn't go in there waving your gun around" he observes before deciding he'd better check that she hadn't actually done that: "You *didn't*, did you?" he asks.
Indignantly, Lindsey confirms that she didn't (but probably only because she hadn't thought about it) and attempts to get her own back by telling Jimmy that he's still not paying Jackie enough attention (she's gone to the hospital to find out more about voluntary work - Jimmy didn't know).
Jacqui Dixon's day has gone from bad to worse and she seeks out Katie for a shoulder to cry on. Predictably, she tells Katie about Susannah and Greg and berates herself for not having guessed. Katie tells Jackie that she needs to spell out to Lindsey and Susannah how she feels, although Jacqui now seems to be having serious doubts about the whole Millennium Club enterprise:
"The more time that goes on, the more I wonder what I've landed myself with" she moans. "God knows what's gonna happen next."
Well, Jacqui - as I see it, you've got two options: either get your Stones of Shad read or pay a visit to http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/neils/brookside/. But you won't like it!
Summary © 1999 Graeme Selway
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001