The trails of a dozen fireworks sparkled across the sky in a shower of silver and blue, then another set shot off in dazzling gold and red, their fantastical designs reflected bright upon the river's surface.
Dovesbrook Downs didn't often hold such spectacular displays, but today was a special occasion: the centenary of the town's founding. A hundred years of the hogwash and bullquackery that had helped create the town was now being celebrated with fireworks, dirty dancing, drunken revelry... and cakes. Honestly, it was probably how the town had been founded too, perhaps without the fireworks.
Jenny smirked at the amusing image that manifested, of dapper gentlemen and victorian-era womenfolk shimmying in their undergarments, afflicted by the finest booze their lacklustre potatoes could provide.
Her eyes zeroed back to the cakes and she salivated. Delicious, delectable morsels of crumb and cream. Overpriced, too. Who on earth would purchase a fifty dollar cupcake? Apart from imbeciles like Joey, of course. She had to physically stop him from buying an entire table. Instead, she had suggested, he could cause a distraction and she would nick a couple. After all, what the vendors wanted for the cakes was robbery, plain and simple. She would return the favour with an actual robbery. She winced. Christ, she had been spending too much time with Joey, hadn't she?
Where was Joey, anyway? It had been at least half an hour since they had discussed Grand Theft Bakery and her stomach was growling with impatience.
BOOM!
The ground shuddered beneath her feet and shrieks and screams and gasps of horror rose up into the air.
"The hell was that!?"
"Did a firework explode the wrong way?"
"The forest is on fire!"
Jenny looked across the waterfront, her eyes widening as the distinct glow of flames licked at the treetops. A head of curly hair peered out from behind a tree, the flyaway strands clearly smoking even from this distance, then vanished. She groaned. What had Joey done?
"Call the firies," a woman screeched, catapulting herself away from one of the cake stalls. "The whole town's gonna burn!"
"The firies are already here — we've got fireworks, you clown!"
"Where are they, then?"
Sirens rang out across the distance, gaining in intensity as they got closer. A stampede of feet raced towards the river, taking their bodies to stare at the spectacle.
The cake stall was empty. All of the cake stalls were empty. The forest was on fire, Joey was in there somewhere with his ginger curls blackened by smoke and soot, but she had access to the cakes. Now she had to liberate them before anyone turned back around and saw what she was up to.
A wheelbarrow was parked by the gardens just a few steps away. That would do. She had asked for a distraction and by God, she had gotten a distraction.
Helloooo! It's been a while since I joined in with the five-minute #freewrite challenge, but today I felt the sudden urge to write something.
As usual Joey and Jenny are in the back of my mind and I'm still trying to flesh out a novel with them, and while I have the basics down I want to add more padding! This odd couple were borne by the freewrite and will continue to act by the freewrite until finally their story concludes by the freewrite! 😅
If you'd like to see the unrefined version of this five minutes of writing before I edited it for this post, you can in the following image:
The prompt used for today's writing is — water front — and is thanks to day 1895 of 
Thank you for reading! ❤️