30 Home, again

“So where is your apartment, Uncle Caleb?” Gillian asked. I think she loved the whole ‘Uncle  Caleb’ thing, she used it all the time.

“I don’t know myself,” Caleb said. “A friend rented it for me, and gave me directions. When we get to town we need to look for  a road called ‘Reine’.”

“That’s a funny name,” Jenny said, leaning over the seat and looking at the map I was holding. “Look, I see it on the map,” she said, “It is almost the first street.”

“Oh, look,” I said, “there it is, and it goes uphill. Oh, Caleb, are we up on the hill?”

He grinned, “Yep. Now look for the next street, it is called ‘Blanche’.”

“They do have funny names,” Gillian said, “How far up is it?”

“Quite a ways,” Caleb said, as the road wound up.

“There it is,” Gillian shouted, and we turned, right, onto the street. It was a short street, and the apartments were off to the left of it.“

“What number, what number?” Asked Jenny.

“Four oh five,” Caleb said.

“There’s one oh five,” Gillian said, “it must be on the fourth floor?” She added, looking up.

“Yep. About the best view in the building, my friend tells me.”

“Oooh,” Jenny said, as we piled out of the car,and my heart glowed. Caleb knew how I loved the view from the college, and even our treehouse. He must have done this for me! Oh, how I loved him.

“No stuff, this trip,” Caleb said, “We will be spending tonight in a hotel. We will just check it out, and then go to a furniture rental place. Last one up…” He said, racing for the stairs.

It was totally unfair. They all had on pants, and even if I hadn’t been handicapped by my skirts, I still wouldn’t have had a chance against those girls and my husband.

“Last one up, what?” I said, when I arrived, panting, at the  top.

“Has to kiss me,” he said.

“Well, if I must I must,” I said, and then,

“Can we get in now?” Jenny said, plaintively, almost a minute later. Caleb didnt’ stop, however, but fished the keys out of his pocket, and the girls went racing in. Then, still kissing me, he bent us down… and picked me up!!

“Oh!” I said, startled out of all countenance, and then laughed as he carried me over the threshold, the girls giggling wildly at the site, my skirts all askew, I felt like a fool! But a happy fool.

Then, to add injury to insult, he dropped me on the floor, and I fell with a shriek. “Get up, woman,” he said, grinning wildly, ’We need to do something about this house!“

“Yes, sir,” I said, groveling at his feet, while the girls shrieked with laughter. Then, finally, I got up and saw my first ‘house’.

I was standing in what would be the ‘dining’ room, with a small kitchen right off to my right. It was part of the same room as the ‘living’ room and I walked through it looking, into the door at the far end. The bedroom. Our bedroom. Off to the right, a sink area, then a toilet/shower room. “Oh, Caleb, I love it,” I said, hugging him.

“It’s small,” he said, “When we have been here for a while…” but I shut him up with a kiss.

“Enough of this kissing stuff,” he said, “We need to get some furniture.”

The girls raced back down to the car with as much enthusiasm as they had shown coming up, but I was reluctant to leave. “I love it, Caleb,” I said, standing at the living room window, from whence I could see all the way down the valley and the mountains opposite, “I love it, I love you. Even if we just have this time together, it will have been worth it.”

He hugged me fiercely, and we went down together.

—

“Can we do one with a pool again?” Gillian asked.

“If there is one,” Caleb said, giving me a teasing glance. We had finished the furniture thing early, and they had said they would come out first thing the next morning to deliver us the furniture, giving us the rest of the day to ‘play’. We had eaten lunch at Denny’s, and had just gotten back in the car.

“There!” Jenny yelled, before I could say anything, “that one has a pool, look, it says ’heated indoor pool and jacuuzi’!!”

Caleb pulled into the hotel, and jumped out, while I glowered. The parking lot was full, though, so maybe there wouldn’t be rooms.

“Well, good news and bad news,” he said, coming back, opening the door and poking his head in, “they had a room, but only one, so we will have to share. Is that OK with everybody?”

The girls squealed their approval, and I nodded. If I was going to have to wear a bathing suit, it was  only justice that he would have to share a room. He went off and came back in a minute or two.

“Room 312,” he said, “A suite, actually. Two queen sized beds and a living room.”

The girls squealed again and I moped. It was so unfair!

“Hurry up, Hurry up,” the girls said, dancing around me in their suits while I pulled mine on. Caleb had gone to the bathroom while they changed although, after two days on the road, they hadn’t really even noticed or cared. Gillian tended to do the whole ‘towel’ thing anyway, with her back turned to the rest of us. Her bathing suit was a very modest one piece with a skirt, and she still tended to wear a T-shirt and walk to the pool with her towel wrapped around her waist.

My suit ‘on’, I grabbed my robe and we went to the pool… which was a madhouse. Caleb pulled me aside, “I’m sorry, love. I had hoped that we would be alone. If you don’t want to swim….”

“I want to swim,” I said, putting my robe down on the chair where the girls had  piled their stuff, “And I need to get used to this. Tell me you like the way I look, and I will try to ignore everyone else.”

He pulled me close, “I love the way you look,” he said, and kissed me with everyone watching. Blushing I hurried to the pool and dove in. The water would hide my embrassement, of both sorts. I came up and stood in the shallow end, watching the bedlam. Mostly kids with their parents. Probably they had come to ski and such, and gotten cold and wanted to come swimming.

Suddenly I felt myself go under water, pulled by several hands. Fighting back I stood up and, grabbing her by the waist and bottom, hurled Jenny through the air. Gillian proved harder to catch, but I eventually tossed her a short distance as well. But by that time Jenny was back, and the battle was joined. It was weird doing this as a girl. I had loved doing this in camp, as a boy. And Jenny and I had always done this. But now, as a girl, I was so weak, it took all I could do to throw her.

Suddely, with a shreik, she sailed over my head from behind, followed in seconds by a flailing Gillian. I tried to turn around only to find myself lifted and thrown! And thrown far, too, far into the deep end. Thrown by my enourmous husband who stood, legs firmly planted, laughing at me! At me!

I came up spluttering, with Jenny and Gillian on either side of me. “Come on girls,” I said, “We need to stick together and get him!”

But, try as we might, he couldn’t be moved. In the end we roped in several kids, but my husband, my strong husband, could not be moved. Of coruse, it wasnt’ like many of us got to try at the same time; we were always being thrown around, and could never really gather.

“Listen, guys,” I said to group of kids that were, like me, in temporarily exile after being thrown, “one thing about my husband. He is ticklish!”  This caused an outbreak of grins and everyone moved forward.

“What are  you all up to?” Caleb said, noticing our grins even as he threw Jenny over my head.

“You’ll see,” I said, as we descended on him.

I must say, even being tickled he did well. But we had him down for the first time a minute after we attacked, and routinely after that.

“OK,” he said, “Game done! The girls are getting tired.” We shreiked at this perjury, but desisted, and we went off to the jacuzzi.

“Feeling better?” he asked me, and I suddenly realized that I hadn’t worried about my non-costume for the last hour.

“I still don’t like it,” I grumped, and then grinned, getting into a chat with the lady in the jacuuzi about how embrassing womens swimsuits were, including a discussion of several of the suits in the pool. I even leaned forward and told her, in a whisper, what had happened with my first suit, and she laughed.

“Boys,” she said, “don’t think about such things,” she said, and I agreed.

Eventually we went  back to our room, tired and content.

“Did you girls enjoy swimming?” Caleb asked from the bathroom.

“Oh, yes, thank you Uncle Caleb,” Gillian said, from where she was struggling with her towel. “This has been a great vacation, even so far!” She said.

“Well great,” he said, “you all decent?”

“Sure!” Said Jenny, causing Gillian to shriek and Caleb to laugh.

“I’ll wait, Gillian,” he said. “Where do you guys want to eat?”

“I want to eat at that Japanese place you showed us,” Jenny said, struggling into a long woolen dress.

“You can come in now,” Uncle Caleb, “Gillian said, pulling her dress over her head, ”I’m mostly dressed.“

Caleb came back in, and said, “OK, Japanese it is. Let’s go get in the car.”

—

“There they are!” Gillian shouted from the Balcony, “I see them.”

Jenny raced out and Caleb took the opportunity to close the door to our bedroom and kiss me.

“Caleb,” I said,  “The furiniture is here!”

’It will take them a minute to get up the stairs,“ he said. ”It isn’t every guy who has to go on his honeymoon with two kids dragged along.“

“Caleb!” I said, but then he closed my mouth with his.

“Bobbi!” Jenny said, bursting in, “They are bringing up the couch!” She looked at us, “Should I tell them to bring the bed next?” She giggled, and I grabbed at her and she ran away. then I laughed.

“Oh, well,” I said, “it is our honeymoon.”

—

“What do you think, girls?” Caleb said, surveying the living room with it’s new furniture, “Shall we sleep here tonight or back at the hotel?”

Gillian was silent, but I think Jenny must have seen my face, “Oh, here, Caleb, of course. We want to sleep in your new house!” she said, dancing around him. “We sleep in the living room, right?”

“Yes, yes,” Caleb said. “Bring up your stuff and change for dinner. I hear there is a great steakhouse in town.”

“I have practically nothing left to wear,” I said.

“It’s not a fancy place,” Caleb said, laughing, the idiot. “Ok,” he said, throwing up his hands, “I’ll get  your suitcase and we’ll see what you have. I’m sure you have something interesting.”

Men! He went down to get the suitcase, anyway, along with the girls. And I followed them, I was sure there was more that Caleb could bring up.

I struggled up the stairs, my arms full of baggage, following the girls and Caleb. I swear, I had nothing to wear.

“Shut the door, Uncle Caleb!” Gillian said, as the girls opened their suitcases.

“OK, girls,” Caleb said, laughing. “so, my love, let us look. What do you have?”

“Nothing,” I said, pulling my clothes out of the suitcase. “Nothing at all.”

“Well, that would be good,” Caleb said, pullling off his shirt. “How about that dark blue shirt with the denim jumper?”

Mom had put that jumper in. It was clean, I wouldn’t have worn it. But, he was right, it was the only thing I had, and, well, it wasn’t really a dress, was it?

I pulled off my other clothes (while he watched and leered at me) and put on the shirt then, with a deep breath, pulled on the jumper, moving over to the mirror. No.

I went back and pulled off the jumper and undid my shirt. “What’s up?” Caleb asked, pulling on his pants.

“I am going to try the white shirt,” I said, changing out my bra. The dark blue one would not work under the white shirt.

“There!” I said, examing myself in the mirror, “That…”

“Bobbi! Can I come through to the bathroom?” Jenny asked.

“Of course, Jens,”  I said, and she came in. She stopped and looked at me quizically. “What do you think?” I asked.

“I… um… I have to go…” She said, the strange look never leaving her face.

“Well, I like it,” I said, and went to get my shoes.

“So do I,” Caleb said, swatting me as I bent over and causing me to shriek. I heard a giggle from the door, and looked up to see Gillian, who also had a denim jumper on, but with a plaid shirt underneath it. She apparently had found my shriek amusing. But Caleb started toward her, and she disappeared with her own shriek.

—

“A good day?” Caleb asked me, as we lay in bed together that night.

“A very good day,” I said to him.

—

“Girls,” I said the next morning, coming out of the bedroom while Caleb showered, “Let’s get breakfast on.”

In seconds the girls and I were making eggs, bacon, and toast, and soon had it on the table, just in time for my wonderful husband to come out and sit with us.

“Well, your brother needs to go to work,” I said, “but we need to do some shopping. This is a very nice apartment, but it is hardly furnished. Luckily I married a very rich man.”

The girls were excited, and we had fun all morning. We had made three trips to the car already, when we decided to go to the food court. I had gotten my food, Chinese, and was sitting waiting for the girls, when, “Hello, Bobbi!”

I jumped, almost spilling my food. Jervis! What was he doing here.

He pulled up the chair next to me and sat down, taking a bit from a slice of Pizza and looking at me curiously. “What are you doing here?”

Just then the girl came back, chattering loudly. Jenny looked at Jervis, appalled, and Gillian stared at everyone with a confused look on her face. “Sit down, girls,” I said. “We, my husband and I, just moved here.”

“Oh,” he said, “what does he do for a living?”

“Carpentry,” I said, proudly, “He installs cabinets and things inside house. Built in bookcases. You know.”

“I see. And what brings him way out here?”

“He has some friends here and, you know, we just got married and it is a two days drive from the folks,” I said, appalled at the idea that we would have wanted to move this far away from either of our wonderful parents.“

“Well, and girls, what are you doing here? Jenny?”

“We, they just moved and we came with them,” Jenny said, “Just for fun and to be with them.”

“Well, are you having fun?”

“We were until you came,” I said, “now, if you would excuse us. Or do you plan to arrest us for eating in a public place.”

“I like you,” he said to me, sending shivers down my spine. But he did pick up his tray and move on.