Chapter 6

My parents got home about 4 o'clock, a bit later than planned. I saw the car pull up in front of the house, so I went out to help with the luggage. They had only gone for a three day weekend, but you would have thought they were gone for a month with the entire luggage they took. I had complained when we hauled it out to the car, so I complained again as we dragged it all back to the house.

"Oh, shush" my Mom said. "Your Dad needed a suit and a tux and some casual clothes, and I needed a formal dress and some nice dresses and things. Quit your complaining and take those suitcases into our room. We brought supper home."

That was a surprise. Sometimes we went out to eat, but my folks seldom brought anything home. But they had stopped at the Kentucky Fried Chicken place and a brought home a bucket of chicken, slaw, fries, rolls and gravy. The grease was already coming through the bottom of the chicken bucket.

Carol put plates around the table and I grabbed glasses. Mom set out milk and some juice, and then we sat down and dug in. I noticed that Mom kept looking at Dad in kind of a strange way. I thought something was up between them, but didn't know if I should come out and ask what the deal was.

"Did you guys have a good time?" I asked.

That was all it took for my Mom. "Oh, it was wonderful. We had such a lovely room at the Banff Springs. You could see the golf course, and the weather was just perfect. And do you know what?" It was one of those questions that didn't need an answer. "Your Dad won an award!"

Mom sat back and looked at Dad with a degree of love and admiration I hadn't seen in her eyes for a long time. Dad looked kind of embarrassed. Carol and I both congratulated Dad, and she asked him what the award was for.

"Just for some work stuff" Dad said, and grabbed another piece of chicken.

"Oh, pooh!" Mom exclaimed. "It wasn't just some old work stuff. Over the past couple of years your Dad has headed up a very important task force for the Chartered Accountants Association. It's setting a national standard for education for accountants in Canada. The Association was recognizing him for his accomplishments." She beamed like he had been knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

I couldn't think of anything more boring, myself, but I saw it was important to Mom. Dad was blushing a bit. So I just said "Wow. That's great. Congratulations, Dad. It's great to have a famous Dad."

Dad looked at me over the tops of his glasses and rolled his eyes. Mom was bouncing around like she still had some news. And sure enough, she finally spoke up and said "Well, we have some other news for you. First, Don, we know you were disappointed that we weren't going to Penticton this year." I started to protest but she waved me off. "No, no. We understand. So we've made arrangements with Aunt Marge and Uncle Jack for you to fly out there on Tuesday."

I was shocked. Fly? That was unheard of. Only rich people flew. I could see taking the bus, but flying? My mouth was hanging open in surprise, and Mom smiled at me. "Yes, I said fly. We checked out the ticket prices and got a decent youth fare since you're staying a couple of weeks. You'll fly from here direct to Penticton. You can fly back on Sunday, the third of September. That way you'll have Labor Day to get your school things together, and you'll head back to school on the fifth. How does that sound?"

"Wow! That's great" I exclaimed. I couldn't believe my luck. I was going to get a couple of weeks in Penticton after all. For a brief second, I thought about the pool scene and what I would miss, but Penticton was too special to me to pass up just to spy on some naked ladies. I remembered that Josh Lowe had invited me to the Stampeder's football game next weekend. I'd have to call him and cancel. Penticton still sounded better. And my first airplane ride, too!

"And finally, our big news" Mom said. She was smiling from ear to ear. She sat back in her chair a bit and folded her hands on her lap. "We're going to have a baby" she announced.

A hush fell over the room. Then my sister burst into tears and cried "How could you do this to me?" She got up and ran out of the dining room and downstairs to her bedroom. I wasn't sure what Mom having a baby had to do with her. I wasn't sure what the whole baby thing was about anyway. Mom seemed very happy. I thought they were a little old to be having babies. "Well, that's very nice" I said, unable to think of anything else.

Mom ignored me. She spoke to my Dad. "Oh, dear. I didn't think she would take it so hard. I better go and talk to her." She got up and headed downstairs.

Dad and I didn't speak. We dunked our fries in the gravy, then in some ketchup, and chewed them thoughtfully. After three or four fries, I said "Would you like to tell me what Carol was so torqued about?"

Dad had another fry before he answered. "Son, let me explain something about women." I panicked. Not the sex talk! Not now! Dad had another fry, and then he continued. "Women can't be explained." He seemed to think that was very profound and he ate another fry.

I nodded my head slowly. "I believe you are right" I said after a moment's contemplation. "I'll help you clean up the dishes."

We put away the leftovers and washed the dishes. We didn't speak, but neither Dad nor I ever talked much to each other. When the dishes were done, we went into the living room and Dad turned the stereo on. Mom and Carol came upstairs eventually and joined us.

"Daddy, I'm sorry for the way I reacted" Carol said. She sounded like she was going to cry any minute. Dad looked like he wished he was someplace else. "I just can't believe that you guys are going to have a baby when I'm leaving to go to school" she started to blubber. "I'll be in maternity class and we'll go onto the wards and there will be my mother. None of the other girls will have their mother in the maternity ward." The waterworks were flowing again.

"Oh, honey. Everything will be fine" Dad said. He looked at Mom with a look that said 'get me out of this', and Mom went and put her arms around Carol. It was too much drama for me so I went and called Josh.

I explained to Josh that I wouldn't be able to go to the game with him because I was going to Penticton after all. He suggested I come with him to the Labor Day game, and I jumped at that chance. On Labor Day, the Stamps always played their arch rivals from the north, the Edmonton Eskimos. The rivalry between Calgary and Edmonton was the same as that between Ohio State and Michigan, or Texas and Oklahoma. We hated each other. It would be a great game, and I accepted his offer quickly.

Wow. A plane trip to Penticton and an invite to the Labor Day Classic. Life didn't get any better than that. I went downstairs and worked out for a bit, just for something to do. When I came back upstairs, Carol seemed to have calmed down. Dad was doing his crossword puzzle. He always did them in ink. Mom was reading, but she wasn't turning the pages. She had a smile on her face and one hand on her stomach. I went over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Congratulations, Mom" I said. "I hope you're feeling good." I knew that women sometimes got sick when they were pregnant.

"Oh, thank you, Don" Mom said. "That's so kind of you. I'm just fine. We're very happy about this."

"Good job, Dad" I said. Dad snorted, and Mom chided me with "Don! Don't talk like that."

"I meant his award. The accounting thing. What did you think I meant?" I tried to look innocent.

Mom looked at me with a look that said she knew I was fibbing but she would have to let me get away with it. I told her about my invitation to the Labor Day game and she thought that was nice. Whenever she said something was nice it meant that she didn't really care about it.

I went to bed early that night. I whacked off into a tube sock, as was my practice, and then drifted off into sleep.

I got up about 7:30 the next morning. After my morning ablutions I wandered into the kitchen. Mom and Carol were already there. Dad had left for work.

"You will need to get your things ready today for your trip" Mom said. "You should probably get some new school clothes too, since you won't be back until school starts. We'll head down to Chinook Center in a couple of hours."

Shopping wasn't really my thing, but I had sort of grown out of my clothes over the summer. Mom called it a growth spurt. I thought it was because of my exercising. Whatever the reason, I needed a couple new pairs of jeans and some shirts along with socks and underwear. Mom was pretty good about letting me get the kind of clothes I wanted but then I didn't have a lot of style sense anyway. I also got a new pair of runners. Then Mom decided I needed some dressier pants, so we ended up with two pairs of pants that I called my church clothes.

We got home about 3 PM and I decided to go for a run. Mom thought I should pack, but I told her it wouldn't take long and I could do it when I got back. I planned to do about a three mile loop that would take me past some of my friends' houses. That way I could let them know I was going away for a couple of weeks.

I didn't see anyone on my run, but as I was coming past Coach's house, Peggy stepped outside and waved to me. I stopped to talk to her.

"How have you been, Don?" she asked.

"Great. My folks bought me a ticket to fly to Penticton for a couple of weeks. I'm really excited."

She was very happy for me. "What fun. Your first airplane ride? I love to fly. I've never been to Penticton, though."

I told her about the two lakes and the great beaches, and how my cousins let me hang out with them.

"I see. You're just looking forward to being on the beach and seeing all those girls in their itsy bitsy teeny weenie bikinis" she teased.

I had a momentary flashback to the sight of the six naked women at the Baldwin pool. I grinned at her. "That's the best part of it" I admitted.

"Well, you behave yourself with all those pretty girls around" she said.

I wasn't sure what to say. Should I compliment her with some line about there not being any as pretty as her? No, that sounded kind of lame. So I just said "I always behave myself. You know that."

She laughed again, and we said goodbye. I headed for home, and got my things packed into my suitcase.

My flight left around 1:30 the next afternoon, so I wasn't in any rush to get up. Mom had other ideas and she banged on my door at 8:00 and yelled at me to get going. I got dressed and headed into the kitchen. I gave Mom a big hug and said "How's the mother of my new brother?"

She slapped my arm. "Oh, you" she said. "How do you know it's going to be a boy?" And before I could answer she said "You've gotten so big. It seems like you've shot up a couple of inches since we went to Banff. If you keep this up, I'll be buying you more clothes before Christmas. Sit down and I'll get you breakfast."

I finished a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. Mom said she wanted to be at the airport by 10:30. I asked her why so early, and she said she didn't want me to miss the flight. I thought 3 hours hanging in an airport was a waste of time, but what did I know? So an hour later I hauled my suitcase to the car and we were off.

We got to the airport about 10:45, with Mom fretting and stewing about being late. I kept telling her the plane didn't leave until 1:30 but she ignored me. We went to the CP Air ticket counter and checked in. They put a tag on my bag, and it disappeared behind the ticket clerk. Mom asked what time I would get into Penticton and the clerk said. "The plane lands at 20:05, ma'am."

Mom thought for a second. "But that's 8 o'clock at night! I thought this was a direct flight." Mom was about to learn a valuable travel lesson.

"Yes, ma'am" the clerk replied. "Direct means you don't have to change planes. This plane will stop at Cranbrook, Castlegar and Kelowna before it goes to Penticton. You're thinking of a non-stop flight. There are no non-stop flights from Calgary to Penticton."

So that put Mom in a flap. I told her it didn't matter. She was worried I would get off at the wrong stop. I laughed and told her it wasn't like the bus. I'm sure they would tell me when we got to Penticton. Besides, I knew what Penticton looked like. She finally calmed down and we went to the gate area to wait.

And wait. We were at least an hour earlier than we had to be. Carol got all antsy sitting around. Even Mom looked like she wished she could go. Finally they called that they were boarding. I gave Mom and Carol a hug, and told Carol to have fun in nurse's school. She would be starting before I got back. Mom told me to behave, blah, blah, blah. I waved goodbye and walked out onto the tarmac to board the plane.

The plane was a DC-6. It had four engines and held about 50 people. There were two rows of seats with two seats on one side and three on the other. I was sitting next to the window in row 6. 6E my ticket said. I got seated and the stewardess came by to tell me to fasten my seatbelt. In about 15 minutes, the door was closed. The engines fired up and we were on our way.