Chapter 20: The Phone Call

“Holy Shit, mom! Do you mind not making it so obvious you fucked dad last night ... several times in fact!”

“Would do you mean, Lucy, dear?” asked Mrs Hayward.

“Ohhhhh ... for god sake, mom! You’ve been humming and chirping away to yourself all morning. You’re like some Catholic school girl who’s just discovered boys for the first time, but not only that I could hear you guys. I could hear you two bumping around in there all night long ... unless you were spring cleaning and doing things with a feather duster that I don’t want to know about!”

Betsy Hayward paused at the breakfast table with a big pile of hot waffles in her hands. Very slowly she placed the hot plate with those waffles down on the table then said, “Well ... well, just never you mind about what we were up to. That’s our business. And for that matter what were YOU up to down at the mall yesterday. Leanne said you disappeared for about an hour or so with no explanation then acted all weird all the way home. So what is it that you were up to, daughter of mine?”

Lucy stiffened up noticeably at her mother’s enquiry about her own behavior down at the Smokey Rock Mall. Her response was just to echo that of her mother’s moments earlier with, “Well ... just never you mind about that. That’s my business, isn’t it!”

“Now don’t you go giving me any of your lip now, Lucy Hayward, or I’ll have you grounded for the next 2 weeks. Do you hear me!?”

“Yes, mom. Sorry, mom!” came Lucy’s rather penitent reply.

Lucy then looked up at her mother again and asked, “And oh ... what was the story with that weird phone call before from dad’s work. When I answered the phone it was dad’s boss wanting to know if he could come in to work for just a few hours to get ahead of a backlog of stuff and get ready for Monday morning. When I said ‘What again! He was there all day yesterday! Can’t you give him just one day off?’ he acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about then said he would find someone else and hung up. Doesn’t that guy know what his own staff are doing?”

Lucy’s mom just shook her head and said, “I don’t know what that would have been about. I’ll ask him later when he’s up, perhaps. Anyway, don’t worry about any of that now, just go tell your sister and our guest that breakfast is ready and they need to come while these waffles are hot. Off you go now! Your Gran and Pop will be here soon and I would like all this cleaned up before then. My mom just hates a messy house!”

Just as Lucy was disappearing off down the passage way to get Leanne and Kaden her father appeared at the table. He was still in his dressing gown and looking decidedly pleased and happy with himself and the whole world in fact. That was until his wife mentioned that phone call Lucy had just been talking about!

Jack Hayward’s countenance changed noticeably as his wife looked at him for any kind of an explanation.

“Why would they ask you to come in again today when you had already been there all Saturday? That all sounds a bit unfair, I think” added Betsy when her husband didn’t respond immediately.

Jack Hayward looked at his wife then let his eyes drop slowly down to the plate of hot waffles on the table and began to say, “Well, actually ... actually ... I ... I wasn’t really ... at ... at...”

Jack never quite got to finish his sentence because his wife’s attention was suddenly diverted from what he was saying to that of Lucy, Leanne and Kaden coming into the room. This created quite a bustle as they plonked themselves down around that table and began to hoe into the lovely hot breakfast Mrs Hayward had prepared. But if Jack had been able to finish his sentence it would have been a rather surprising revelation indeed!