Chapter 3: Food for the body and mind

The worse thing about being sent into your past is that nothing is set in stone. You can change many decisions you made before. Just think carefully about making changes — a wrong choice can have worse consequences than what happened the first time around.

Keith

Wednesday, March 7^th 1984 —Noon

When Kristina joined Alessandra in vetoing my — admittedly joking - suggestion that we keep on walking around the block, I didn't hesitate in agreeing with them. As we backtracked our steps, Kristina and Alessandra started talking among themselves, and I started to think about how I apparently had gotten my wish to be able to go back and fix some of my mistakes. One thing occurred to me, possibly nothing that happened in my first lifetime was set in stone, and I would have to be careful not to screw up worse this time around than I had before.

"Is this where you live Keith?"

"No Alessandra, I live in that house on the other side of this vacant lot."

"Now don't you go zoning out on us again."

"I won't. Will you ever forgive me for doing that before?"

"I didn't see anything that needed forgiveness Keith," then with a twinkle in her eye Kristina continued, "That doesn't mean I won't tease you about that on occasion..."

Both girls were still laughing when we reached the gate leading to the postage-stamp yard in front of my home. As I unlocked it, I briefly considered what surprises life might have for me this time around. One thing for certain, knowing the results of my previous choices, I can try to make decisions that would lead to a happier and more successful life. As I opened the gate, I remembered that I had been in my early twenties the first time I had invited a girl home in my previous life.

"Ladies first," I said giving a slight bow, flourishing my gestures for my classmates to lead the way inside. My theatrical gestures were in response to Kristina complaining, during one of our earlier talks, that none of the guys she knew at her previous school acted like gentlemen.

"Why thank you my dear sir," Kristina said as she exaggerated a curtsy, with her knees coming within about six inches of the ground before she raised herself. Standing, she strutted through the gate. "Wait a minute, I forgot to pay the toll," she said, as she turned and gently kissed my cheek, before continuing to the front lawn, stopping just inside the gate.

Meanwhile, Alessandra was softly giggling. Putting on a more serious face, she gave me a peck on my unkissed cheek before walking through the gate, stopping on the other side of Kristina. I joined the two of them on the path next to the Mom's flower garden, and locked the gate back up.

"I've noticed that just about every place I've seen has a wall or at least some sort of fence in front. Is there any particular reason?"

"They serve a combination of purposes Kristina. Probably the main one is security, but they also can be used to ensure privacy. Mom was the one responsible for this wall having ornamental purposes as well. Mom also was the one responsible for that tall hedge. For some reason, she didn't think the driveway to the carport where she and Dad keep their cars was a good match for what she has done with the rest of the front lawn."

The last comment brought out some snickers from both girls. I decided not to mention that the fences and front walls had another purpose. Until the early nineties, the larger empty and accessible lots were used to graze a few horses and cows every so often. About that time there was a building burst that put up buildings and homes over those lots. The fences and walls also worked to prevent stray dogs from visiting.

I then kissed Alessandra and Kristina on their cheeks before taking the six steps between the gate and the front door. Opening it, I called out, "I'm home, and I have company." Turning towards my guests, I continued in a softer tone, "Alessandra and Kristina, go on ahead and make yourselves comfortable."

Closing the door behind me, I followed them through the small entry way, into the living room. As I set foot in the living room, both my parents walked in from the dining room.

"Bom dia. Eu sou Davi Anderson, o pai do Keith. Esta é minha esposa de quase vinte anos e a mãe do Keith, Priscila,"

"Good morning, Mr and Mrs Anderson," Alessandra replied with a reasonably strong accent, adding after glancing at her watch, "Or rather, good afternoon. My name is Alessandra, and Keith has mentioned before that you normally speak English in your home so don't feel like you have to go to Portuguese just for my sake. Besides, I think that Kris will find it a lot easier to understand as well."

"Pleased to meet you Mr and Mrs Anderson. I will admit that I only recognized about a half a dozen words besides your names. I met your son this morning when I was placed in his and Alessandra's classroom," Taking a breath, she continued, "By the way, what did you say as you walked in?"

"Kristina, Dad basically introduced himself to the two of you. He then introduced Mom as his wife of nearly twenty years," taking Kristina's and Alessandra's hands I continued, "I met Kristina today and she will be spending a year here as an exchange student to learn a little bit about Brazil. Alessandra, my other beautiful friend, has been my classmate for several years. You might remember me mentioning her name a time or two." I announced, provoking a couple of blushes. Kristina's blush was the more pronounced of the two due to her light skin color. Alessandra's skin is slightly darker than mine is normally, but I get darker than her when we both spend enough time in the sun to tan.

"Or a few hundred times," came a voice from behind me. "I'm Lisa. I would shake your hands, but as you can see, my hands are full," my sister said as she passed us, giving me an extra nudge, on her way to the kitchen carrying a bag with milk and French bread.

"I decided to invite the two of them to help me celebrate my birthday," I finished, setting down the three book bags on the sofa, ignoring my sister's interruption.

"In that case Keith, I need for you to give me a hand in bringing up the card table and some chairs so that everyone has a place to sit. Alessandra and Kristina can stay here and visit with your mom for a bit."

"Son, when exactly did you decide to invite your two friends here?" Dad asked after we had gotten to the unfinished basement that had become a storeroom.

"I don't suppose the old they followed me home would be enough of an explanation will it?"

"Not really."

"I decided to invite them on a spur of the moment about two, two and a half hours ago. I got to talking with Kristina after recess and I found out that she was going to be eating alone. I decided to be a gentleman and invite her to eat with us today. Alessandra overheard me inviting Kristina and mentioned that she also was going to be eating alone. Knowing how much lasagna Leticia (our cook/maid) normally makes, I figured it would not be much of a problem to add a couple of places to the table."

"Were you just trying to be a gentleman or is it something more than that? Don't answer, I'm not sure I want to know — at least not yet," Handing me the card table after dusting it off with a damp cloth, Dad continued, "Just be careful. Right now both girls may seem interested in you and willing to tolerate the other. It's my experience that eventually one or both of them will want for you to chose one over the other. In fact, Alessandra's reaction when you invited Kristina over indicates that might happen sooner rather than later. Now, let's get these upstairs before before they start wondering what we're up to."

As I followed Dad, who was carrying a couple of folding chairs, upstairs, a thought occurred to me. Since the dining room table can hold up to ten, we really only needed to bring up a couple of chairs, and Dad or Jason could have done that by themselves. Dad intentionally separated me from Alessandra and Kristina without so he could talk a bit with me. I'm glad he did that without treating me like a little kid.

"By the way son, Jason told your mom and me that he overheard you talking to Alessandra and Kristina about them joining us for lunch as you were walking home. He mentioned trying to say something to you out front, but you completely ignored him as you walked right past the house. He was mad when he told us that it looked like you would be bringing company for lunch. Hearing that, your mom sent Lisa over to the bakery to get some more bread to make into garlic toast," Dad mentioned as an afterthought while "resting" on the top step.

I thanked Dad for the warning about possible problems with my siblings. After helping him get the table and chairs in place, Dad sent me back to my classmates. When I returned to the living room, Mom left to, as I later discovered, talk with Dad and redo the seating arrangements. A few minutes later, Dad called everyone to the table to eat.

When my friends and I got to the table after washing up, we saw that Jason was sitting between my two sisters, with three empty chairs facing them. Since I had noticed Kristina writing with her left hand in class, I pulled out the leftmost chair for her, and after she sat down, I showed off a bit by picking up it up a couple of inches and scooting it forward. I repeated that for Alessandra on the chair to the right before sitting in the middle one myself.

"How was school today?"

"It was, Dad." Lisa said with a touch of sarcasm. Dad gave her a look that our family had joking called the double R or Ricky Ricardo look. The reason for that nickname was that usually Dad would accompany that look with some version of the person's name he was talking to - the closer to being your complete name the more trouble you were in - and a bad imitation of one of Dezi Armaz most famous lines in the sitcom I Love Lucy "... , you got some 'plaining to do."

The fact we had guests probably saved her from explaining what exactly what she ment with her answer - at least immediately. Remembering a similar incident from Take One, I was glad. That day Lisa spent nearly half an hour describing everything that had happened to her at school. Her explanation came to an end when Dad took advantage of her pausing to take a breath and eat a couple of bites to ask her, "Lisa, are you just telling us, in a very long-winded way, that you had a fairly normal day?"

"Yes Dad, my day at school was fairly normal. Since you didn't like my short explanation, I decided to give you a long one." Lisa replied.

"She got you there dear," Mom said before starting to laughs. Dad started to frown before agreeing with Mom and joining her in laughter.

Eventually "It was" became a code within our family. It said that while things were not great, the person saying that was not in a mood to talk about that.

"School was fairly normal for me, Dad. I heard a rumor that there was a new exchange student, but I think Keith can tell you more about that. Then again, she's here so, I guess that wasn't a rumor after all."

"It was OK," I started, "no... it was much better than just OK. The classes themselves were their usual, but I had a good time beween them, getting to know Kristina, and talking with Alessandra. The best part was when both of them accepted my invitation to eat here."

During the rest of the meal we had our usual amount of conversation. Jason was unusually quiet, but my sisters made up for his silence by asking Kris and Alessa, as they nicknamed them, questions until Dad put a stop on it until they were done eating. Before he put a stop on their inquisition, we learned that Kris had used that name in her hometown. She had decided that she wanted people to use her full name in Portuguese. I happened to be looking at Alessandra the first time Lisa called her Alessa and saw a weird look on her face.

"Is there anything wrong Alessandra?"

"No, when Kris called me Alessa, I was reminded of a good friend of mine. It just surprised me to hear someone call me by that nickname."

"So, would you prefer for us to call you Alessa, or Alessandra?"

"In private, either one is fine. I would prefer to be called Alessandra in public though."

When everyone was finished with the main course, I began to stand. Mom vetoed that idea and had Alessa and Kris wait with me for desert. The dirty dishes and leftovers were soon taken to the kitchen by my siblings. Lisa sat a stack of bowls and a container of ice cream next to Mom's place. She also distributed spoons to everyone who, like me, had left theirs on their plate.

"One, Two, Three, Happy..." Lisa started singing with the rest of my family as well as Kris and Alessa joining in before the end of the first line. While the singing was going on, Mom brought a cake with two candles forming the number 15.

After we finished eating my birthday cake and ice cream, Alessa asked me if I wanted to study some with her.

"Where would you like to study Alessa?"

"Could we study here? My parents might have trouble with you coming over when they aren't there."

"Ok, that sounds like a plan. Kris, would you like to stay with us as we study or would you rather we take you home now?"

"I think I would like to watch you and Alessa study some. It probably would help my Portuguese."

I was glad that Jason and I normally kept our room clean since that is where we went to study today. I did notice that it was somewhat cramped for three people so I knew that we would have to figure out somewhere else to study together if we were to make a habit of this. After studying for about an hour, Alessa said she was ready for a break in English.