Chapter 23: Tuesday Morning

The alarm clock, making its infernal buzzing noise, woke Dexter. He opened one eye and reached out to turn it off. His hand found the switch. He breathed a sigh of relief when quiet returned to the room.

“Good morning, Honey.”

She ran a hand across his back in a tender caress before snuggling in closer to him. She gave a contented sigh.

“Good morning, Janet.”

He rolled over and kissed her cheek. He always felt a little uneasy about kissing with a bad case of morning breath.

“I don’t want to get up,” Janet said.

“Let’s just stay here,” Dexter suggested.

Janet said, “I would love to, but I’ve got to get Sarah off to school.”

Dexter sighed. “I suppose we should get up. ‘Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,’ as they say.”

Janet kissed him and then got out of bed. She took a moment to stretch. Dexter took a moment to appreciate her naked body. That was one of the changes that Dexter had come to enjoy tremendously. Janet was much more open to walking around without any clothes when the kids were out of the house.

Seeing that he was watching her, she said, “We can come back here after Sarah has left.”

“How about we go in the backyard and get a little sun?”

“We should probably take advantage of the warm temperatures. The weather will be too cool to do that before long,” Janet said.

“We can always warm each other,” Dexter said.

Janet smiled at him. “It’ll take a lot of warming when it’s forty degrees outside.”

“That’s true,” Dexter admitted.

She went into the bathroom while he slowly sat on the edge of the bed. He looked over at the clock wondering how six minutes had already passed. He went to the door, grabbing a robe on the way. The kids were still at home and there would be no walking around naked until they left.

He went into the kitchen and started the coffeemaker. It was one of their twelve cup machines.

Janet came out and said, “The bathroom is all yours.”

“Thanks. The coffee will be ready in a minute or two,” Dexter said.

Dexter returned to the bedroom knocking on the doors to wake Will and Sarah along the way. He did his normal morning routine. His memories of performing that routine in this house were not pleasant. This time, there were no calls, emails, or text messages interrupting him.

After finishing his routine, he put on his robe and returned to the kitchen. There was a mug of coffee waiting for him on the table. He took a sip of it and turned to watch Janet preparing breakfast.

“Do you want any help?”

“I’m almost done making the fruit salad. You can toast some bread for everyone,” Janet answered.

Dexter slipped four slices of bread into the extra long toaster. He glanced over at the clock on the wall thinking that at one time, he would have already been on his way to work at this time of the morning. Today, he didn’t need to be at work until eleven.

Will shambled into the kitchen walking like a zombie. He had worked the evening shift the previous day, and they’d had a late delivery that had required him to work late.

Will yawned. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Dexter said. “How’s the produce business?”

He fished the slices of toast out of the toaster. He put in four more, and started to butter the toast.

“I had to work late last night, because the delivery truck had a flat tire on the way to the store.”

Janet said, “The fruit you brought home looked so good that I decided to make fruit salad for breakfast.”

She had found it rather convenient to have Will working in a grocery store. She would text him if she needed anything from the store before he got off work. It saved her or Dexter from having to go.

They were also saving a lot of money. Will would bring home items that were on special. Some of the sales on meat were so good that they had bought a freezer to store it. He also brought home a lot of fruits and vegetables.

In the old days, she hadn’t bought fresh produce since their schedules often kept her from using it before it spoiled. Now, they were eating a lot healthier. Gone were the instant breakfast foods and microwave meals. The reduction in salt and high calorie foods, coupled with a moderate exercise program, made keeping in shape a lot easier.

“We got in some pretty good looking stuff last night,” Will said.

He had discovered that he enjoyed his job although he didn’t want to do it forever. His boss was a fitness nut and often gave his opinion on the nutritional value of a lot of the food carried in the store. Will had to admit that he was learning a lot by working there.

He had started taking two classes at the local community college: a literature class and a history class. He still hadn’t made up his mind if he liked college, but it was early in the semester yet. He had class that morning and would have to leave shortly after breakfast. It was amazing to him how few students had signed up for early morning classes.

Sarah entered the kitchen.

“Morning,” she said.

“Good morning,” chorused Dexter and Janet (Will had his mouth full with a bite of toast he had liberated from Dexter).

“I hate mornings,” Sarah grumbled before taking her seat.

Janet put a large bowl of fruit salad on the table. It contained slices of two kinds of melons, apples, oranges, bananas, kiwis, and passion fruits. Janet had mixed a little orange juice with honey, and poured it over the fruit.

Dexter brought over the plate of toast.

“Hey! Fruit salad,” Sarah said looking into the bowl.

“Compliments of your brother,” Janet said.

“My acne really has cleared up since we started eating healthier,” Sarah said while loading her bowl.

“That’s good,” Janet said.

“I’m riding my bike to school,” Sarah said.

“That’s good,” Dexter said. He wiggled his eyebrows at Janet.

Sarah made a face and said, “Don’t start with the lovey-dovey stuff. At least, not until I’ve gone, please!”

“You should be happy your father and I are back together,” Janet said.

“I am, but still ... you aren’t married,” Sarah said.

“So what?” Dexter asked.

“It’s just kind of weird,” Sarah said. “My friend Ann doesn’t know anyone else whose parents are living together after being divorced.”

“We’re thinking about taking up swinging. What does Ann say about that?” Dexter said.

“Oh, gross!” Sarah exclaimed.

Janet said, “No, we’re not!”

“I’m just teasing,” Dexter said with a grin.

Will chuckled. He kind of liked the new versions of his parents. They joked and laughed, unlike before, when they were stressed and tired all of the time.

The family continued chatting while they ate breakfast. Plans for the day were discussed. It was actually a very pleasant morning.

After Sarah and Will had gone off to their respective schools, Dexter and Janet went out to the backyard. It was a little cool, but the sun was out. Dexter slipped off his robe and settled onto one of the two lounge chairs. Janet, as always, took a moment to look around before removing her robe. She sat down on the lounge chair next to him.

“The kids are growing up,” Dexter said.

“They’re good kids,” Janet said.

Dexter nodded his head in agreement. He said, “I wouldn’t have said that two years ago. Of course, I couldn’t have said too much about them one way or the other, then.”

“I’m glad you’ve gotten to know them a little better,” Janet said.

Dexter said, “It took getting them disconnected from the internet and the cellular network to do it.”

“To tell the truth, I think that’s a good thing,” Janet said.

Dexter sighed.

“What?” Janet asked.

“I was just thinking that I used to be at work for an hour by this time of the morning. Now, I’ve gotten enough sleep, eaten a great breakfast, and still have time to sunbathe before heading in to work.”

“There’s been a lot of changes since those days.”

“Isn’t that the truth? The whole world was out of control. We were running headlong into disaster.”

“There are still problems,” Janet said.

“Unemployment is still high. Executives are still mismanaging companies. Politicians are still incompetent.”

“Still, things are a whole lot better.”

Dexter said, “I’m still going to keep pounding away that we should care more about people, than we do about things.”

“I think getting rid of some of that disposable society garbage will help that along.”

“Looking back at those times, it was like we were swimming against a raging torrent. The harder we swam the faster the current flowed. We weren’t making any headway,” Dexter said.