CHATROOM LOVE
Chapter Eighteen
Sunday, September 16, 2001
The whole group
sat around the pool at Rose’s house, enjoying the day’s bright sunlight. It was
too cold now to swim, so they lounged on the pool furniture, drinking sodas and
eating pizza and chips.
Jack and Rose
sat in the poolside swing together, feeding each other pizza and ignoring
everyone else, while Tommy and Dawn sat on the diving board and made out. Helga
and Fabrizio sat at the table, talking and laughing at Fabrizio’s mistakes as
he practiced his English.
Tommy and Dawn
jumped apart guiltily as Ruth came into the pool area, portable phone in hand.
"Jack, your Aunt Margaret is on the phone."
Jack took the
phone from her. "Hello?"
"Jack, what
time to you plan on being home?"
"I don’t
know. Why?"
"Trudy is
going to be here around four. She wants you to meet her at the airport."
"Oh, she
is? Yeah, I’ll be there." He looked up as Tommy and Dawn joined them on
the swing. "I’d better go. I’ll meet her there. Bye, Aunt Margaret."
"Bye,
Jack."
Jack hung up and
set the phone on the table.
"What’s
going on?" Rose wanted to know.
"My sister
Trudy is going to be at the airport at four o’clock. I’m going to pick her up
there. Do you want to come with me?"
"Sure. I’d
like to meet her."
"Hey, we’d
like to meet her, too," Dawn complained. "Why didn’t you invite us along?"
"My car
only holds four people, and she’ll have luggage, too."
"Why don’t
we meet you at your house after you pick her up?" Fabrizio suggested,
catching the conversation.
Jack thought for
a moment. "Sure. That would work. We’ll probably get there around
five."
"We’ll meet
you then." Dawn turned to Rose. "Hey, Rose, I wanted to ask you
something."
"What?"
"You know
how one of the cheerleaders got kicked off the squad for getting high?"
"Yeah. What
about it?"
"We’re holding
tryouts for her replacement on Thursday. You should try out."
"I don’t
know, Dawn…I don’t think I’d be very good at it."
"Oh, sure
you would."
"Besides,
wouldn’t it be unfair? You are captain of the cheerleading squad, and I am your
best friend…"
"Well, I
don’t have all the say in the matter. The coach has more say than I do. Come
on, Rose. It’ll be fun."
Rose rolled her
eyes at Dawn, but finally sighed and nodded. "Okay. I’ll try it. Just
don’t say I didn’t warn you."
"You’ll be
great. Trust me."
"Whatever
you say." Rose rolled her eyes again and turned back to Jack.
*****
Jack and Rose
arrived at the Edmonton International Airport just before four o’clock. The
flight was on time, so within a few minutes Trudy appeared to claim her
luggage.
Jack started
toward her, then stopped, stunned. Trudy had a baby in her arms, and was
followed closely by a young man who was also carrying a baby. Her stared, not
coming any closer, while the man handed Trudy the baby and collected the
luggage, piling it on a cart.
Finally, Jack
approached them. "Trudy!" he called, waving to her.
"Jack!"
Trudy took a couple of steps toward him, balancing the babies in her arms.
They stared at
each other for a moment, not sure what to say. The man accompanying Trudy came
to stand at her side.
Trudy finally
found her voice. "Jack, I…this is my husband, Kenneth Bolt, and our twin
daughters, Emma and Julie, who are four months old today."
Jack’s mouth
snapped open and closed for a moment as he stared at the babies. "You
never told me you’d gotten married, not even last summer when you came to the
funeral. I didn’t know you had kids, either."
"Well,
I…Jack, you know that I didn’t get along too well with Mom and Dad. They didn’t
want me moving to New York, and when I mentioned to them that I was getting
married, they blew a fuse. You know how you came to visit New York that one
time?"
Jack nodded.
"Well, I
introduced them to Kenneth then. You were somewhere else--I’m not sure where,
but they didn’t like him, so I didn’t introduce him to you. That’s why I never
told you about the wedding, either. The twins were born in May, but I left them
at home when I went to the funeral. I didn’t need all those questions."
Jack wasn’t sure
what to say. He’d just seen a whole new side to his sister. Instead, he stared
at the twins--his nieces, he realized. They stared back him with wide eyes,
absolutely identical except for the fact that one was drooling. He couldn’t
tell them apart.
"Uh…Trudy…uh…this
is my girlfriend, Rose DeWitt-Bukater. She came with me to meet you."
Trudy nodded.
"Hello, Rose."
"Hi."
"Uh…I hope
there’s enough room in the car for everyone. I didn’t expect anyone to come
with you."
"We can get
a taxi, if we need to."
"Well…let’s
see how this works. Maybe we can fit you in. Maybe we can tie some of your
luggage to the roof." He turned toward the terminal doors. "Come
on."
Trudy walked
beside him, while Rose helped Kenneth push the cart of luggage.
"Jack-I’m
sorry that I didn’t tell you that I had gotten married, or that I had kids. I was
afraid that you would tell Mom and Dad, and they would get upset again. You
know that we had some problems in my…younger, wilder years. I grew up, but they
still didn’t trust me. Then, after they were gone, I didn’t know what to say.
You were so upset over losing them, I didn’t think it was the right time to
tell you about Kenneth and the twins. I was going to break the news to you
slowly, and invite you to come to New York with me, but then Maggie and John
revealed that Mom and Dad had given them custody of you if something happened
to them, and you were actually going to leave the country. I needed to get
home, both because of the twins and Kenneth and because I was starting a new
job, and they wanted to get back to Canada as quickly as possible, so…I just
never found the right time. I wanted to tell you, but…I didn’t know how."
Jack nodded,
still hurt that she hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him that he had a
brother-in-law and two nieces, but trying to understand. She was right; things
had been tense between her and their parents, and he guessed that it would have
been a bad time to tell him about her marriage and children just after their
parents had died. And, too, it probably had been hard for her to tell him about
her family after all the time that had passed.
"I’ll tell
you more after we get to your house," Trudy promised.
"Well…uh…my
friends are going to be there, too. They wanted to meet you. I guess they’ll
meet more people today than they thought."
"Maybe
later, then."
"Yeah. For
sure."
*****
Jack’s friends
were waiting when they arrived at the townhouse. All of them gaped at the sight
of not only Jack’s sister, but also her husband and identical twin daughters.
Tommy recovered
his voice first. "Jack, you didn’t tell us you were an uncle."
Jack shrugged.
"I didn’t know."
"You didn’t
know?"
"It’s a
long story. Can you help us get the luggage inside?"
"Sure."
Once they were
inside, Trudy and her family settled on the living room couch, Jack beside
them. Everyone else stood around, or sat on the floor. John, Maggie, and their
kids sat in the two easy chairs in the room, staring at the Bolts
incredulously.
"Why didn’t
you tell us you were married?" Margaret asked Trudy, shocked at the sudden
appearance of three new relatives.
"Like Jack
told his friends outside, it’s a long story, and it’s been a long day already,
with all the trouble to get on the plane and everything. I’ll tell you later,
okay?"
At Margaret’s
nod, she turned to Jack. "Well, uncle, how would you like to hold
your nieces?"
Jack was a
little taken aback at the offer. "I…I guess I could." He looked at
the babies a little nervously. Would they cry when he held them? He hardly knew
anything about babies.
Trudy laid an
infant in each of his arms, showing him how to hold them securely. They fussed
for a moment at the strange arms holding them, but calmed when their mother
leaned over them and cooed reassuringly at them. Jack stared at them, not quite
believing that he was an uncle.
"They are
so cute, Jack," Rose commented, kneeling down and looking at them.
One of the
babies grabbed Jack’s ear and tugged on it. "Uh…yeah," he said,
pulling his ear free of the baby’s grasp.
"Isn’t it
cute? Jackie’s an uncle." Jack shot Tommy a baleful glare, but he was
unfazed. "I guess you’ll learn to change diapers and feed them now."
"Si,"
Fabrizio added. "Then, when you and Rosa have babies, you’ll know how to
take care of them."
"Shut
up." Jack glared at them, but he couldn’t be too offended. He was glad
that his sister was safe and alive, even though she had gotten married and had
babies without ever telling him. He hadn’t known Kenneth for more than an hour,
but he seemed nice, and Trudy certainly seemed happy with him. And the babies
were cute, even if one of them did like to tug on his ears.
He had another
question in mind at the moment, though.
"How did
you escape from the World Trade Centre?"