Chapter 18

I rolled over and stretched, my body creaking as it responded to my commands. After flexing my shoulders a couple of times I looked at the alarm clock and found it was early, not ridiculously so but still before I'd normally wake up on a Sunday.

I grinned as I hopped out of bed. It must be that anticipation thing again.

I dashed into the bathroom for a quick shower and carried it out without really giving it much thought. My thoughts were on the up coming meeting with Kirsty's Aunt and the conversation I'd had with Kirsty on Friday night. I was a little worried that her Aunt would roll over me and I was trying to come up with a strategy to avoid that without causing a scene of some sort that would create problems for the two of us later.

I was no closer to solving the dilemma when I'd finished my morning ablutions than I had been when I started but the need to feed the beast meant that I needed to get downstairs and raid the kitchen now.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Dad said, "Morning," as I walked into the kitchen.

"Morning," I responded and frowned at him.

"Your mother's got a headache so I left her in bed," he said answering the unasked question. "You'll have to get your own breakfast this morning." He picked up his coffee mug and turned his attention back to the paper.

I poured a cup of coffee from the pot Dad had made into my mug and added milk. I guess I was a bit young to drink coffee but I'd found I liked it when I was studying for the last lot of exams I'd taken. Now I'd have a cup with my breakfast at weekends and like I had when I was out with Rosa or Kirsty.

I didn't fancy cooking anything and I was fed up with the cereals I had all week so I decided that toast was the easiest thing to manage.

"Would you like some toast?" I asked Dad with my hand in the bread bin.

Dad looked over the top of his paper. "With marmalade?" he asked.

"If we've got any," I replied.

"Go on then," he answered before returning to his paper.

I dropped four thick slices of bread into the toaster and went looking for the butter and the marmalade.

"You're in luck," I told him. "Mum must have liked you when she went shopping." I held up a jar of orange marmalade and one of lime. "Which would you like?"

"I'll have the orange," he said folding up his newspaper.

I carried the two jars back to the side by the toaster and waited for the bread to pop out of the top. My thoughts drifting back to the discussion I had with my parents over dares and whether they'd ever carried them out. As the toast popped up I decided this was as good a time as any to press Dad for the full story, especially as Mum should be safely out of the way.

I breathed in deeply. I simply loved the smell of freshly buttered toast. I dropped another four slices of bread into the toaster and carried the prepared slices over to the kitchen table and joined Dad.

He took the orange marmalade and I opened the jar containing the lime preserve. "That is too strong for me, especially the thick rind stuff that Mum buys."

"It's the one I prefer," said Dad, scooping out a generous portion and depositing on the first slice of toast.

"What about Mum, which one does she prefer?" I asked. Strangely given the number of breakfasts we'd shared I didn't know. I couldn't actually remember her ever putting marmalade on her toast.

"She doesn't like either variety," confirmed Dad. "She'd rather have soft cheese."

I nodded and took a large bite of hot toast, "Mmmm..."

Dad chuckled. "Does this mean you're going to be a chef after college?"

I shook my head, "Not me," I replied. "I fancy going into business."

"Management?" he asked looking at me seriously.

"That's what I'd like," I replied. "I've found the stuff we've done so far fascinating, the way everything interacts and is interdependent. I can see it being a real challenge but the feeling you'd get when everything worked would be great."

Dad munched his way to the end of his first slice. "Any particular area you fancy?"

"Not really. I haven't looked into it enough yet. Finance seems to be drawing a lot of people but I like the Manufacturing sector, but..."

"But what?"

"Well it's shrinking rapidly," I replied. "It's down to less than ten percent of GDP already and with the way India and China are expanding into the global market it may be a bit of a dead end to get into."

"What other options are there?"

"I.T. is one but I'm leaning towards the Energy field, you know, supply, exploration, renewable's, all those buzzwords that are flying around the media at the moment."

Dad snorted. "Yeah, global warming comes up every night doesn't it."

"Throw in terrorism, Green-peace and energy dependency and it looks like it's going to be the next big thing," I said finishing off my last piece of toast just as the toaster spat out its load.

"Do you want any more?" I asked.

"Go on then, while your Mum's not here to moan about the calories," said Dad pushing his plate over to me.

"I know," I said. "She's always going on about her weight but I don't think she's got anything to worry about."

"She doesn't," replied Dad smiling. "She's as slim now as she was when we were in college."

I collected the toast, slapped on a layer of butter and carried the plates back to the table.

"Talking of college," I said as I passed Dad another two slices. "What happened there, you know, that dare thing?"

I held my breath as Dad paused and looked at me.

Eventually he sighed, "You better not tell your mother," he cautioned, "but you know we went to the local college?"

I nodded.

"Well we were at a party at one of our friend's house's and, as I'm sure you know, one thing led to another and we started playing truth or dare." He took a bite of his toast and chewed it slowly. "We'd had a bit to drink and things were getting silly, the dares were getting more extreme, you know, sexual. Anyway Marj picked a dare and it was to run around the block topless."

My eyes went wide and Dad chuckled. "What, you don't think she was up for it?"

I stayed quiet and Dad continued. "Anyway she peeled off her clothes and with us all hang out of the windows she dashed out of the front door and after giving us a wave from the garden gate set off around the block."

Dad frowned. "Five minutes later she reappeared and we cheered her as she came into the house but she was upset. She didn't seem to know whether to laugh or cry and I had to take her out into the back garden to get her calmed down. That's when she told me what the problem was."

I sat there spellbound, my mouth hanging open as I listened to the story.

"It seems that it had all been a laugh until she was just over half way round, then she'd turned the corner and practically run into a man walking a dog." Dad raised his eyes and looked at me. "It was her father."

"Granddad?" I gasped.

Dad nodded and then smiled, "It seems he stood there open mouthed, his eyes bulging at the displayed charms of the woman in front of him. According to your mum he never looked at her face but she shi ... She panicked and ran as fast as she could."

"Did Granddad ever say anything?"

"No," replied Dad shaking his head, "and Marj didn't go home for a month, either."

I chuckled, "I wish I'd been there," I said and then looked up my eyes nearly popping out of my head. "Sorry, I didn't..."