An Adventure - Part 3

 

 

 An Adventure
Part 3

    John laughed. “I like the sound of that, Randee!” He looked up ahead. “Except they are watching us at the moment. Come on, guys, let’s get going.”
    At last we were at the top. The view was great, but Tom and I were more interested in eating than in the view. Thankfully it didn’t take long to get the food out, and soon we were all eating. I don’t know why, but I’m always twice as hungry when we eat outside. But Mom and Aunt Angie must have remembered that for there was plenty of food. We didn’t even eat it all.
    Mom and Aunt Angie, with help from Lisa, packed up the coolers, and then Aunt Angie wanted to take pictures of us.
    “It’s the perfect time of day and year!” she begged. “And Jay will want to see them, you know he will, Shannon.”
    Mom gave in. Dad would want to see pictures of us, but it would have been even better if he had been there.
    Aunt Angie took a few individual shots, then some of all us kids, and then she began taking some of us with Mom. “Hmm, let’s change spots,” she said, after looking at her camera screen. “The lighting is just perfect from this angle.” Soon she had us positioned with our backs toward the path we came up. After arranging us just right, she snapped a couple pictures, then got down on her knees with her camera at a different angle. “All of you look at each other. Come on, I thought you liked each other!”
    This made us laugh.
    “Here,” Aunt Angie said, standing up, “what do you think of this one? I think it’s the best.”
    We all leaned in to look. It did look good. We were all laughing and–
    Suddenly Mom gave a gasp, almost shoved Lisa away, and sprang up.
    That’s when I noticed. There was another person in the picture. A man in army fatigues stood behind us, a huge smile on his face.
    “Dad!”
    I was a little late, for Mom was already in Dad’s arms.
    In a moment he was surrounded by all of us kids, and hugs, tears, laughter, and talk followed. Dad gave me a bear hug, and I fought back my tears. He was home!
    “Angie, did you know about this?” Mom demanded, clinging to Dad’s arm after the commotion had died down.
    “Yeah.” Aunt Angie didn’t look the least bit sorry. “It made some great photos. I was just afraid he wouldn’t arrive before the light was gone.” She came over and hugged dad. “Welcome home, brother.”
    “Thanks for setting it up, sis.” Dad winked at me. “I won’t have any more chances to surprise them.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    Mom stared at Dad.
    “I’ve retired from the army.”
    “What?”
    “I’m home for good.”
    “Really?” Mom’s voice wasn’t quite steady.
    “Yep.” Dad kissed her.
    We gathered the coolers and blankets and headed down the path to the part of the park where the swings and climbing things were and spent half an hour running off steam. Bob, Joe, David, Tom, and I played freeze tag while Lisa sometimes joined us, and sometimes ran back to sit in Dad’s lap for a few minutes.
    “Bob, Joe, David!” Dad’s voice rang out across the park. “Tom, Randee! Load ‘em up!”
    There was a race to the car which Tom won. Bob, Joe, David, and Lisa scrambled into their seats while Tom and I helped make sure we had all the jackets, water bottles, coolers, and that Aunt Angie had her blankets back. Then we also climbed in. I didn’t ride shot gun. That’s where Mom rode, and Dad was behind the wheel.
    “Bob, Joe, David, you three buckled?” Dad asked.
    “Yes, sir.”
    The engine started, and Dad pulled out of the park onto the road. We were going home as a complete family. For good. I smiled in the darkness. It was good to have Dad home again. And I was actually looking forward to seeing the pictures Aunt Angie took of us on our best adventure.

An Adventure - Part 2

 Hey!

Glad you came back! I'm really busy with lots of filing and voting people. Not much time for anything else. Oh, and I'm grading papers and preparing to teach writing class again today. But I don't have to work on Monday, so a 3 day weekend will be wonderful! I already have a list of things I need to get done.

Anyway, enjoy this next part. 

 

An Adventure
Part 2

    Our shoes thudded on the wooden stairs. “What do you need, Mom?”
    Looking up from redoing one of Lisa’s pigtails, Mom glanced at us. It only takes Mom two seconds to know if we’ve cleaned up or not. “Those shirts look good on you boys. Carry out the two coolers to the suburban, please. Then make sure everyone has jackets. Oh, and Randee, will you check and see if the blankets got put back in?”
    “Sure, Mom.” I wanted to ask where we were going, but Mom never said until we were all in the vehicle and on our way. Maybe that was a ploy to keep anyone from trying to get out of whatever we were doing. I picked up the larger cooler and shoved the screen door open with my hip.
    Tom followed with the smaller one.
    “Hmm,” I said softly, “two coolers, jackets, and making sure the blankets are in the car. Think we’re going to be star gazing?”
    “Maybe. It might be rather fun.”
    “Well, it’s a clear night for it,” I said.
    Opening the back of the suburban, I checked for the two emergency blankets we always kept in the vehicle. Yep, they were there, rolled up and ready. Our last trip had ended with a sudden downpour, and we’d spread the blankets over the seats to ride home requiring us to hang them out to dry in the sun the next day.
    After loading the coolers, Tom and I found jackets for everyone and put them in the suburban too. Returning to the house, we waited in the kitchen with Lisa. She didn’t know where we were going either.
    Soon Mom and the boys joined us.
    “The dogs put up?” Mom asked. “Chickens taken care of?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Then let’s get going. Everyone grab your water bottles.” She pointed to the counter where they all stood neatly in a row.
    There was a rush, a clatter of boots and water bottles, and a few calls for “shot gun!”
    “Randee is riding shot gun,” Mom called over her shoulder as she pulled the kitchen door shut and made sure it was locked. “I might need him. You boys get in the back. Tom and Lisa in the middle.”
    It was where we usually rode, but now and then Mom would let someone else ride in the front with her.
    Seatbelts clicked into place and the engine started. The suburban wheels crunched on the gravel until we reached the road and turned onto the blacktop. Then it was time to ask.
    “Where are we going, Mom?” I asked.
    “Aunt Angie invited us to join her and John at a park they discovered. The directions are on the yellow paper, Randee. You’ll have to navigate for me once we get out on the highway.”
    I picked up the paper. Mom’s navigating skills weren’t the best, and after trying to use that fake person on her phone telling her where to go and getting her completely lost, she always goes to a map and plots out her route. Then Tom and I take turns being the navigator. Unless we’re just having an adventure, and then Tom and I have to figure out how to get us home again, which is kind of fun because we aren’t always sure.
    Of course, when Dad’s home no one needs a navigator of any kind. Dad just seems to know where things are. Even if he’s never been there before. He might look at a map for a couple minutes and then he’s never lost. And sometimes he doesn’t even need a map.
    The drive wasn’t short, and the younger ones played the alphabet game and the “I’m going to Argentina and I’m taking apples for my lunch” game. It got quite hilarious because of what they said they were bringing for their lunch. I gave Mom the right directions at the right time, and we found the hidden park right where Aunt Angie said it would be.
    We found Aunt Angie too. She had brought her fiancé, John, with her.
    “Hey, guys!” Aunt Angie greeted us, giving hugs freely and talking as she hugged. “We’ll have to take our food on a little hike. There’s a perfectly lovely spot up on the hill with a view of the river and the trees. And the trees are almost at their peak and look so pretty! You all did bring jackets, though, right? Good. There’s a picnic table up there. John, can you, Randee, and Tom get the food? Bob, Joe, David, get the blankets from my car. Yep, those are the ones. Shannon, we might have to help carry water bottles.”
    “Why’d you bring your camera?” Lisa asked.
    “I always bring my camera,” Aunt Angie replied. “I like taking pictures.”
    “The boys don’t like having their pictures taken,” Lisa reported.
    “Well, maybe they won’t mind if I take them.”
    Tom and I had lugged our coolers out of the suburban. I hadn’t known we’d have to carry them anywhere. Oh, well. We could manage.
    It turned out to be quite a climb to get to the picnic table Aunt Angie had in mind. Bob, Joe, and David didn’t have much trouble since all they carried were a few blankets. But Tom and I had to stop a few times. John did too.
    “We should have brought along a mule,” John said with a grin. “Or eaten supper at the cars and then hiked up here.”
    “We’ll be plenty hungry when we get there,” I replied. “Hey, maybe we should just lighten the load and eat something now.”
    John laughed. “I like the sound of that, Randee!” He looked up ahead. “Except they are watching us at the moment. Come on, guys, let’s get going.” 

Have you ever had a picnic at a new park?

Do you like knowing where you are going?

Or do you like being surprised?

An Adventure - Part 1

 Hello!

 Life is busy! I got called into work at the County Clerk's Office a week before I was scheduled to come in. Which means . . . I'm working the entire month of October! I thought I'd have this week to write, but so far I only wrote on Monday (started work Tuesday). I'm trying to get into a pattern for work, grading papers and preparing for the writing class I'm teaching, keeping up with emails, posting on Instagram, and other home things. So far I haven't gotten any pattern figured out yet. I've been doing lots and lots of filing so my shoulders, neck, and back are sore. 

Anyway, today's story is the first part of a 3 part story. I took the names, every one of them, from the ballot in August. I worked after the election helping certify the ballots which meant hand counting several hundred ballots and the boys names were all names that were in a row. We said them so many times we decided they must be a family. And that's how the story started.

 

An Adventure
Part 1

    “Bob, Joe, David!” Mom’s voice rang out from the house and across the large yard and into the trees beyond. “You boys get inside and clean up your room!”
    I looked at my younger brothers. “You seriously didn’t clean your room this morning, guys?”
    “We were going to–” Joe began.
    “Going to isn’t the same as getting it done,” I cut in. “Better go do it.”
    With groans and sighs, Bob, Joe, and David, ages ten, nine, and eight pushed out from our fort and trudged toward the house.
    “Tom, Randee!” Mom’s voice came again. “Better start on the chores and get the dogs put up.”
    “Coming, Mom!” I shouted back. “Let’s go, Tom. Come on, Lisa.” Tom was thirteen and I was fourteen. Lisa, our little tag-along sister, was almost six.
    It was Friday afternoon. We didn’t usually start chores this early, but maybe Mom thought it would take Tom and I longer since the three boys had to clean their room. Had it been some other job than our usual evening chores of taking care of the two horses, the chickens, and the dogs, I might have grumbled, but I like the animals.
    Leaving the shade of the trees, Tom and I jogged across the yard toward the barn with Lisa following like a shadow. As the only girl, and a rather cute one with brown pigtails, big brown eyes, and a few freckles over her nose, she was spoiled and teased and loved and bossed around by all of us boys. She stood it all pretty well and could give as well as she got most of the time. At least as well as someone her size and age could give. There were times when she’d pull the trump card and threaten to tell Mom if one of us wasn’t being nice, but she almost never did.
    “Lisa, I need you in the house!” Mom called again.
    I glanced over at Tom and gave a slight grin. If Lisa wasn’t around, we would get the chores done faster.
    “I’ve got the chickens,” Tom said, knowing that while I liked animals, putting the feathered fowls to bed was my least favorite job.
    “Thanks.” I jogged to the pasture and whistled for the horses. Since the weather was getting colder in the evenings, we’d started putting them in the barn for the night.
    It wasn’t until I was latching the gate of the dog’s kennel that it dawned on me just how early it was and how odd that we were doing chores already. And it wasn’t just the chores. We only put up the dogs if it was time for bed, company was coming over, or we were leaving.
    “Hey, Tom,” I called, striding over to my brother who had just finished taking care of the chickens. “Do you remember Mom saying anything about anyone coming over or us going somewhere?”
    Tom secured the door and shook his head. “Don’t remember anything. Why?”
    “It’s not even five-thirty, why did she tell us to put the dogs up?”
    He shrugged. Tom wasn’t much for talking if it wasn’t necessary.
    “Race you to the house.”
    Tom and I were even until the last few yard, then Tom pulled ahead. I can beat him in wrestling or anything to do with heavy lifting, but he always beats when it comes to speed.
    Inside the old farmhouse kitchen, we found Mom and Lisa bustling around packing a cooler.
    “Are we going somewhere, Mom?” I asked, eyeing the food already packed.
    “Yes.” She lifted her head and looked us both up and down. “Change your shirts and wash up. And check in on the boys, will you?”
    “Sure.” We left the kitchen and took the stairs to the second floor two at a time. Tom headed right to our room to change while I made a stop at the boy’s room. Funny to think that we all called Bob, Joe, and David “the boys” even though Tom and I are boys too. That’s just the way it was though.
    “Bob, Joe, David,” I scolded, finding them messing around instead of cleaning up. “Get this room cleaned up. Mom said we’re going somewhere tonight.”
    “Where, Randee?” David asked.
    “I don’t know. Mom didn’t say. Now get to work.” I waited a moment until I was sure they were actually working and then went to the room Tom and I shared. Tom was already buttoning a clean flannel shirt, and I grabbed one from the closet.
    “Where do you think we’re going?” Tom asked.
    “No telling. You know Mom.”
    Mom was always coming up with random things for us to do or places to go. Sometimes we’d take a picnic into the woods on our land, or drive to a local park. We’ve picked up trash in Grandma and Grandpa’s neighborhood before, and another time we drove two hours and went hiking at a state park and ate our supper in the parking lot. I used to think it was to take our minds off Dad being away on deployment, but we do random things when he’s home too. Maybe Mom just likes spontaneity.
    “Bob, Joe, David, your room had better be cleaned up in two minutes because I’m going to come check it,” Mom called up the stairs.
    I shared a grin with Tom. It was almost never just Bob, or Joe, or David. They were usually called together. It was almost as though they shared a joint name: Bob Joe David. Sometimes our last name of Manning was tagged onto the end if they were in trouble or about to be in trouble.
    Mom’s voice interrupted my thoughts as I tucked in my shirt. “Tom, Randee, I could use you down here.”
    Our shoes thudded on the wooden stairs. “What do you need, Mom?” 

 

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