CHATROOM LOVE
Chapter Thirty-Five
November 19, 2001
Jack yawned widely as he walked towards
the townhouse, dragging his backpack behind him by one strap. He had fallen
asleep on the bus, and only the fact that his snoring had irritated someone
else on the bus who lived in the same neighborhood as him had kept him from
missing his stop. Annoyed, his neighbor had shaken him awake, pushing him off
the bus while the driver had watched, shaking his head.
Luckily, the bus had stopped not
far from where Jack lived, so it taken him only a few minutes to make his way
back to his cousins’ townhouse. He walked towards the front door, frowning at
the sight of a strange car parked in front of the house. Is someone
visiting? he wondered, then put the thought from his head.
Jack’s eyes drooped sleepily as
he pushed his key into the lock, then frowned as the doorknob turned easily. Of
course, he should have expected someone to be home this late, but he was so
tired…
"Jack!" Sandy and
Johnny raced towards him, throwing their arms around his legs and almost
knocking him off his feet.
"Mommy’s mad ‘cause you’re
not home yet," Johnny informed him bluntly, grinning widely. "She
said she was gonna look for you herself if you didn’t show up soon."
"Yeah," Sandy added.
"She said you’d better not be sleeping at Rose’s house, ‘cause she didn’t
want—"
"Sandy! Johnny! That’s
enough!" Margaret came out of the living room, pulling them away from
their cousin. Looking at Jack, she added, "It’s about time you got home.
We’ve been waiting for you. I was ready to call Rose’s house and see if you
were there, but I know that she and her mother were out as late as you, and I
didn’t want to disturb them if they were sleeping."
"It’s okay, Aunt
Margaret," Jack told her, yawning. "Rose and I went to the library
after school. Something important came up."
"Well, I’m glad you’re home.
We have guests."
Jack vaguely remembered seeing a
strange car parked out front. "There’s a car out there."
Margaret sighed. "Yes, I
know. That’s what the guests arrived in. They’ll be staying with us for a
while. Luckily, they mind taking the couch bed."
"Who’re the guests?"
Jack wanted to know.
"Why don’t you go in and see
for yourself? They wanted to surprise you."
He shrugged. "Okay."
Yawning, he headed for the living room.
He came abruptly awake at the
sight of the guests. "Trudy? Kenneth? What are you doing here? I thought
you were in New York."
Trudy jumped to her feet and ran
to give her brother a hug, then pulled away, sighing, as a wail went up from
the crib set up in a corner of the living room.
"Sorry. Julie and Emma don’t
enjoy traveling much. They’ve been crying off and on since we left New
York."
"What—when did you get
here?" Jack asked, his exhaustion forgotten now.
"About ten o’clock this
morning. Our cousins knew we were coming, so they left a key for us under the
doormat."
"Why are you here?"
Jack knew that the question sounded rude as soon as he said it, but his tired
brain wasn’t working very well at the moment.
Trudy looked annoyed for a
moment, then sat down on the couch again, smiling slightly as she cradled Emma
in her arms. "You look tired, so I’m going to ignore that," she told
him. "Margaret told us that you and your friends got back from Las Vegas
at five o’clock this morning."
Jack nodded. "We did. And we
all had to go to school anyway. It was horrible."
Trudy smiled, moving closer to
Kenneth and making space on the couch for Jack. She patted the spot. "Come
on. Sit down."
Jack slouched down beside her,
yawning, remembering again that he was tired. "So, what brings you to
Canada? I thought Kenneth had to work and you were looking for a new job."
"I haven’t succeeded in
finding another job in New York," Trudy explained. "Things haven’t
been so good there since 9/11. And Kenneth’s company is still going, but
they’re having a slowdown. Still, their foreign offices are doing well, and that’s
what brings us here."
At Jack’s questioning look,
Kenneth elaborated, "I’ve been transferred to the Sherwood Park office,
not far from Edmonton. We’re staying here until we find a place of our
own."
"Okay." Jack sat for a moment,
digesting this information. "I don’t think I’ve been to Sherwood Park
yet."
"Neither have I," Trudy
told him, "but Kenneth went to the office after we got here to find out
what was going on. He’ll officially start work Wednesday."
Jack nodded. "Okay. But what
are you gonna do?"
"Well, as soon as I can do
so legally, I’m going to look for a job, too. For now, I’ll look for a place
for us while Kenneth works." She looked apologetically at Margaret.
"It’s not that we don’t appreciate your letting us stay here, but it is
kind of crowded. You have your own family to take care of, and there’s four of
us, too—and two of us are wailing babies."
"Well, you’re welcome to
stay as long as you need," Margaret told Trudy, picking Johnny up and
setting him in her lap. Johnny put his thumb in his mouth, staring at Emma in
fascination. "Johnny certainly doesn’t mind the babies."
"You make a good cousin,
don’t you, Johnny?" Kenneth asked, leaning forward and looking at the boy.
Johnny shrank back into his
mother’s lap a little, a bit shy. He nodded, taking his thumb from his mouth,
then popped it back in, turning his attention to the crib in the corner, where
Julie was beginning to stir.
Kenneth got up and picked Julie
up before she could start crying. Trudy started to open her blouse so that she
could feed the babies, then looked at apologetically at Jack, who was blushing
and trying to look anywhere else.
Kenneth handed her Julie and a
large blanket. Trudy took the blanket gratefully, covering the nursing babies.
"Jack," she began.
"Margaret says you’re still going out with Rose."
"Yeah. We’re together,"
Jack mumbled, embarrassed in spite of the blanket now covering the twins.
"Well, I would like to get
to know her better. I never really paid that much attention to who your friends
were when we were younger, or let you get to know my boyfriends. I’d like to
change that. I can’t do anything about what happened five years ago, but I can
get to know your girlfriend now."
"I didn’t have girlfriend
five years ago," Jack mumbled. "Except for that girl who kept chasing
me, but she was dumb."
Trudy sighed. She knew that Jack
had always been a bit resentful of her because she had spent so little time
with him and their parents, but she wanted a fresh start. "Margaret says
that she’s putting together a big dinner on Saturday to celebrate our moving
here. I’d like you to invite Rose." She turned to Margaret. "Is that
okay?"
"Sure. I like Rose. She’s a
sweet girl."
"Jack, why don’t you go and
call her now? See if she wants to come. Then, you can come back and tell us
about your trip to Las Vegas."
"I don’t know. She might be
sleeping…"
"Jack!" Margaret
scolded. "Stop being rude and go call her!"
"I’m going, I’m going."
Jack yawned, getting up and heading for the phone.
He hesitated before dialing the
number. Rose was probably asleep. It would be better to call her later, or
e-mail her. But he didn’t want to make his aunt mad, or his sister.
Finally, he punched in the
number. The phone rang a few times before it was picked up, Rose’s drowsy voice
coming over the line.
"Hello?" The word was
obscured by a huge yawn.
"Rose? It’s Jack."
"Oh, hi, Jack. What’s going
on?"
"It turns out that my sister
and her husband have come to Canada to live. Kenneth’s been transferred to his
company’s office in Sherwood Park."
Rose yawned. "That’s nice,
Jack. Can we talk about it later? I can hardly keep my eyes open."
"Rose, wait a minute. Aunt
Margaret’s fixing a big dinner on Saturday, and she and Trudy wanted me to
invite you. Can you come?"
"Hold on a second."
Jack heard some papers rustling as she checked the calendar. "Yeah, I can
be there. What time?"
"Uh…hold on. Let me find
out." Jack covered the mouthpiece and called to his aunt. "Aunt
Margaret? When’s dinner on Saturday?"
"About five, Jack."
"Five." He listened for
a moment. "Rose?"
"Huh?"
"You still there?"
"Oh…uh…yeah…I think I dozed
off."
"Dinner on Saturday’s at
five."
"Oh, okay. Yeah, I can be
there. We don’t have a game that night."
"Good. Trudy says she wants
to get to know you better."
"That’s nice." There
was a clunk as the phone hit the floor. "Dammit."
"I’m gonna let you go now,
Rose, before you fall asleep. Okay?"
"Uh-huh. Remind me later
what we talked about, okay?"
"Sure. Good night,
Rose."
"Uh-huh."
There was a click as she hung up
the phone.
Jack shook his head, hanging up
the phone and yawning. He almost collided with his uncle as he left the
kitchen.
John looked at him, eyebrow
raised. "Jack, go get some sleep before you hurt yourself."
"I’m okay."
"Jack, now." His uncle
pointed up the stairs.
"But Trudy—"
"You can talk to Trudy
later. Upstairs. Now."
Jack grumbled a little, but it
was more for show than anything else as he headed upstairs and collapsed on his
bed, asleep before his head hit the pillow.