Chapter 8: Gareth Chancelor, Saturday

I moved from sleeping to waking in that easy way that happens when it’s a Saturday and your alarm is switched firmly to the off position. The warm body cuddled up against me was still and relaxed which meant she was still asleep. I lay still for a moment until the idea percolated into my head that Estelle was sleeping in the other room so therefore I should’ve been on my own.

I carefully rolled until I was lying face to face with Jen, my elder daughter. Her arms had allowed me to roll and then she’d shifted in her sleep and cuddled back into me. She was wearing an over-sized shirt and it felt soft and warm against the skin of my chest. I lay there and watched her face as she slept. It was relaxed and calm and the sheer peacefulness made her look beautiful – even more beautiful.

I’m not sure how long we lay there like that, but some time later I felt the tension in her muscles change and the rate of her breathing quicken. I watched as her eyes blinked open. She gazed back at me with those big eyes full of peace and love.

After a time I decided to break the silence. “Good morning, beautiful,” I whispered.

She blinked at me, her gaze never wandering from my eyes.

Then she lifted her arms and stretched – her whole body straining and relaxing. Her arm returned to fold over the top of me and hug herself back into me. She shifted her head forward enough to plant a delicate kiss on my lips. Then she wriggled herself back against me and closed her eyes. She lay there with her nose brushing against mine and looked as if she was about to go back to sleep.

I tilted my head back slightly and blew soft puffs of air across her closed eyes. They blinked open and I smiled at her.

“Whatcha doin?” I sang quietly, trying to imitate the musical way she’d always asked one of her favourite questions when she was younger.

She blinked at me. “Sleeping,” was her softly spoken answer.

“Whatcha doin here?” I asked – still using the sing-song tone she’d used as a little girl.

“Sleeping with my favourite man,” she whispered.

“Whatcha doin that for?” I sang.

“Cos I like it,” she answered with a little giggle. “Cos it’s the nicest thing ever.”

She giggled again and flashed her eyes at me.

“I know a secret,” she sang in a little girl’s whisper voice.

I made my eyes go wide in wonder and let out a little exaggerated gasp. “Wot secret? Tell me, tell me.”

She lifted herself slightly and leaned forward so that the soft skin of her cheek brushed against the rough bristle of mine. Her lips touched softly against the flesh of my ear while her hair dangled across my nose and mouth.

“Daddy’s got a stiffy in his pants,” she whispered and giggled again before returning her head to the pillow in front of me and gazed into my eyes with her own eyes sparkling cheerfully.

I blinked at her and wondered how to respond. She made no move to pull away from me, her body was still pressed against mine. I’d been hoping she wouldn’t notice – I don’t know how that was supposed to happen. I could feel the soft press of her breasts against my chest and the line of her body pressing against me all the way down to a bony knee pushed up against my thigh. My morning erection was trying to dig a hole in her leg.

I blinked at her again. “Daddy has to go wee-wee,” I said, vainly hoping to keep our conversation innocent and childish.

She giggled again and put her hand flat onto my chest. “Jen has to go wee-wee too,” she said with a chuckle.

Then suddenly she pushed away from my chest and literally sprang out of bed.

I laughed as I watched her dash into the en-suite and close the door. Then I dropped my head back onto the pillow and laughed again. Oh, the resilience of the young. I remember when I used to be able to bounce out of bed like that.

I yawned and sat myself up and yawned again. I swung my legs down beside the bed and sat for a moment, scratching my chest and wriggling my neck to get the kinks out. I heard the toilet flush and the tap run as Jen washed her hands. I stood and walked around the bed, arriving at the door to the bathroom just as it opened and Jen popped out. She flitted past me and climbed back onto the bed as I went into the bathroom and closed the door.

A short time later I emerged from the bathroom and saw Jen sitting in the bed with her back propped against a pillow and the sheets pulled up over her legs. She patted the bed beside her in invitation. I rolled my head and made my way back around the bed so that I could ease myself back into bed. Jen fluffed and arranged a pillow for me to lean against and then pulled herself into my side as soon as I was arranged to her satisfaction. I put an arm around behind her and kissed the crown of her head.

“This is nice,” she said.

“I’m still wondering why I found you in my bed this morning,” I said.

“Don’t you remember our meeting yesterday?” asked Jen. “We made me the woman of the house. That means I get to sleep here, beside the man of the house.”

I wasn’t convinced by her logic but it didn’t seem to be worth the energy to argue.

I shook my head and conceded without saying a word.

At that moment the bedroom door opened and Bonnie wandered in. She was wearing one of my old flannel shirts which I’d lent her once about eight months previously. We were eating out and she’d spilt spaghetti bolognese down the front of her top. My shirt had saved Bon from the embarrassment of walking around for the rest of the evening with a huge stain down her front. Somehow she seemed to assume I was giving her the shirt rather than lending it so I never got it back.

My shirt hangs down to a little above her knees and when buttoned up, makes a loose but fairly respectable looking dress on her. This morning it wasn’t buttoned up so it hung loosely and left a thin gap open in the middle. The thin strip of skin I could see showed that she was wearing nothing under it but a pair of fluorescent pink undies.

Bon’s hair needed brushing and she looked tired and cross.

“Nobody woke me up,” she grumped. “I missed gymnastics.”

I flashed a guilty look sideways at my bedside clock and then looked back at Bonny. “Oops. Sorry Bon. It was a really late night. We all slept in.”

She peered at the two of us and sighed. “I s’pose I needed sleep too.”

She climbed onto the foot of the bed and then crawled on hands and knees up the bed. Crawling like that allowed the shirt to fall open and tangle with her arms. When she got up next to me, she stopped long enough to wrap the sides together across her chest before she swung around and tucked her legs under the sheets so that she could cuddle up against me on the other side to Jen.

“Guess what?” said Bonny.

A long time ago, I noticed that when people ask that question I absolutely never manage to guess correctly what they have on their mind. As a result I’ve given up trying and now I entertain myself by making completely random guesses that are as outlandish as I can make them.

“Er...” I said. “An elephant wearing a bright yellow tutu was dancing out in the hallway when you came out of your bedroom this morning.”

Bonny giggled. Then she punched me in the arm. It didn’t hurt but I said “Ow!” and rubbed my arm anyway.

“Oh, so the elephant wasn’t dancing. I see. Then maybe the elephant was wearing a waiter’s uniform and invited you to sit down for a cup of tea using an outrageous French accent.”

Bonny giggled again. “You’re silly,” she said.

I felt proud.

“So what was I supposed to guess?” I asked.

“I didn’t wear pjs last night. I slept all night in just my undies.”

I nodded solemnly. “I never would have guessed that. So no elephants involved at all then?”

“Not unless she was wearing her Babar the Elephant undies,” chimed in Jen with a grin.

Bonnie lifted the sides of her shirt (my shirt) in such a way that she could peek at her undies without the rest of us being able to see. Then she wrapped her shirt back around herself again.

“I wasn’t,” she announced. “I was wearing my pink ones with the little kittens.”

“Ah,” I said and nodded solemnly. “Kittens instead of elephants. It’s an easy mistake to make. They aren’t that different.”

Bonnie giggled again.

“That was my fault, Bon,” said Jen as she leaned around me to look at Bonny. “I put you to bed last night and I couldn’t be bothered getting you into your pjs.”

“So how do you feel about sleeping all night in just your undies?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” grumbled Bonny. “I didn’t feel anything. I was asleep. But it felt weird waking up like that.”

Then she looked at me curiously and ran a finger over my exposed ribs. “You always sleep in just your boxer shorts. Doesn’t that feel weird?”

I looked at her and shook my head. “I’ve been sleeping like this for a long, long time. I’m used to it now. I would probably feel weird if I tried to sleep in pyjamas.”

Bonny said “Huh,” as she tried to assimilate that.

At that moment, Estelle wandered into the room in her nightie – obviously searching for the rest of us.

I wanted to immediately greet her and fall back into our usual conversation and way of interacting after we’ve been apart for a time but suddenly I felt awkward. All those unresolved feelings from yesterday came flooding back. I ended up smiling a greeting to her but saying nothing. (Maybe it was more of a grimace than a smile, but the intent was there.)

“Good morning Estelle,” said Jen. “Come and join us on the bed.”

Estelle looked at her strangely but then sat on the end of the bed with one leg tucked underneath her.

We were now all gathered on the bed the way we’ve done on so many weekend mornings. The only difference was that Jen and Estelle had swapped places.

There was an awkward silence for a moment and then Bonnie looked across at Jen. “How did the rest of your party go? Was everything good?”

Jen nodded. “Yeah. It was a great party. Everyone had a good time. I was really happy with it. Did you have fun?”

“Yeah,” said Bonnie. “I like your friends. They’re all nice to me and they’re fun to be with.”

“I suppose we have some tidying up to do,” said Estelle.

“It’s all been taken care of,” replied Jen with a cold voice.

Estelle huffed. “Sorry. I was simply asking.”

“Let’s stay calm,” I said, soothingly. “Let’s not start off the morning by sniping at each other.”

I met the eyes of Estelle and stared at her. She looked back briefly but then she looked down and started fiddling with the hem of her nightie. I wasn’t used to her backing down so easily. It caught me by surprise.

Then I glanced over at Jen. She was looking back and forth between Estelle and me. She raised a shoulder at me in a kind of half-shrug. I wish I could read teen body language – I’m sure that half-shrug meant something but I have no clue what.

I looked around at my little family. “We usually plan out our day like this, so let’s do that.”

At this point we started a general discussion about our plans for the weekend. Jen was booked in to upgrade her driver’s license on Monday afternoon, so she wanted to go for one last drive with Estelle watching and trying to pick holes in her technique. I reminded everybody that I was taking them all out to dinner at the club that evening. Jen reminded Bonnie to get some of her homework done in the afternoon and we talked about what homework she had. In other words, it was a pretty normal sort of discussion to have on a Saturday morning.

Normal, except for everything feeling a bit skew because of Estelle being so, so – I guess the word is subdued. A couple of times Estelle tried to tell Bonnie to do something or other and each time Jen shut her down with a sharp word.

And each time Estelle allowed herself to be shut down.

Jen and I ran through the chores that had to be completed over the weekend and we divvied them out between the four of us. I noticed that Jen was careful to make sure that Estelle had chores that she wouldn’t normally do but she also made sure that we didn’t pile everything onto Estelle.

Finally I chased Bonnie and Estelle out of the room, telling them to go and get their showers and get dressed before breakfast. Once they were gone, I tickled Jen in the ribs and suggested she should shower and dress as well. Jen squeaked and bounced out of bed.

Jen said, “Dibs on the bathroom,” then she poked her tongue at me, giggled and then scampered out of the room.

I leaned back against the pillows for a moment and shut my eyes. My life had become too strange for words and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do to fix it.

My moment of quiet reflection turned out to be an incredibly short moment because Jen came bouncing back into the room about two seconds after she’d left. She was carrying an armful of clothes, most of which she dropped on the end of the bed. She then selected a few items from the pile and scampered into the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind her. There was silence for a moment and then an exclamation.

I heard cupboard doors being opened and closed and then a series of clunks and clatters. I had no clue what was going on and started to play guessing games in my head. I might have gotten to the right result eventually but before I got there, Jen came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel and carrying a plastic basket overflowing with a collection of Estelle’s shampoos, conditioners, handwashes and so on and so forth. She ran out of the room with the tail of the towel flapping behind her while I pondered the meaning of life.

I waited patiently for the next episode in my own little mini-drama and wasn’t disappointed. Jen came dashing back into the room except now she was carrying a second plastic basket which was filled but not overflowing with her own collection of shampoos and soaps and whatnots. The basket was shoved onto the top of the dresser, drawers were flung open and clothes were grabbed, inspected, and either rejected or draped over a shoulder.

That episode finished with Jen running back out of the room with the tail end of the towel still flapping behind her. I looked at the basket of shampoo etcetera sitting on the dresser and then at the open door. I thought about calling for popcorn because that clearly wasn’t the end of this piece of performance art.

Sure enough, a moment later Jen came dashing back into the room. She picked the basket up and then looked at me.

“Now I can have my shower,” she said. “Sorry about that. Who knew being the mum would be so much hassle?”

She spun and dashed into the bathroom. Unfortunately that flapping tail of the towel caught on the slightly open door of the dresser. Perhaps if she’d had a hand free, Jen would’ve been able to rescue the situation but she was carrying her basket of shampoos so the towel stayed caught on the dresser while Jen kept going towards the bathroom. Apparently she’d finished undressing before noticing the issue with the shampoos because the loss of the towel left Jen stark naked.

She squeaked and hesitated but then she dashed into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. I had a brief glimpse of long legs and a tight trim backside and a pale flawless back but then the vision was gone.

The dresser had been shifted out from the wall in the tussle for possession of the towel. I looked back and forth between the dresser with the errant towel dangling from it and the closed door of the bathroom and decided that I would get out of bed and push the dresser back into place. I also considered passing the towel back into the bathroom but then I remembered that there was a pile of spare towels in one of the cupboards in there so I decided not to bother.

The shower came on in the bathroom and I leaned back against the pillows. There was no point me getting out of my nice comfortable bed too quickly because then I would be hanging about waiting for the bathroom. I worked backwards through what I had to do after getting out of bed, then added some time for actually getting out of bed and decided that if I started moving when I heard the shower shut off then that would be about right. That was assuming that Jen took about the same time post-shower as Estelle did. That’s a big assumption, I know, but without any other data it was the best I could do.