A May-September Wedding, Page 2

Cal hugged his son then did the same with Vivian and the three grandchildren. "Have a safe drive back to Moncton, Mark."

  "I wish I could stay longer."

  "I’m still working, too, Mark. I know what you’re going through. At least you got some time off. I wasn’t able to make it to my mother’s funeral because they wouldn't find anyone to go to Korea to replace me. I found another job pretty soon after that."

  "Okay, Dad. I’ll call when we get home and let you know we’re safe."

  "Do that."

  Elaine was next. "Dad? Are you sure you don’t need anything?"

  "Do you think your Mom would leave me without making sure the pantry was full or without a casserole in the freezer?" Cal tried to make light for his grieving daughter.

  Despite herself, Elaine snickered. "No, Dad. I guess not." She threw her arms around her father. "I’m going to miss her so much." She stepped back. "She told me not to marry Colin. She said he’d run out on me as soon as things got tough and she was right." She looked through tears at her father. "I’m going to miss her advice."

  Cal brushed a tear away from Elaine's cheek. "I’m going to miss her, too, Elli."

  Elaine’s husband Brian came forward. "Do you want to go to the reception or home, sweetie?"

  "Do you need me, Dad?" She asked uncertainly.

  "Always. But I think you should do what you need to. I can handle the reception if you aren’t up for it." Cal said seriously.

  "Then I think I’ll go home and play with Emily." Elaine looked nervously at Phyl. "I was sorry to hear about Harry."

  Phyl pasted on a polite smile. "Thank you."

  They continued walking toward the building with the chapel. Phyl spoke first. "Elaine’s always been uncomfortable around me, hasn’t she?"

  Cal gave a wry smile. "Her first marriage was the same year as yours and Harry’s, but you’re her Mom’s best friend and she always felt jealous that you and Brenda spoke so often. She and Brenda butted heads more than talking through most of the two years leading up to her disaster of a marriage to Colin. They didn’t speak for almost five years after she married him."

  "But she has Brian now."

  "Yes, she does, thank God for his mercy. But she’s still uncomfortable around you."

  "My parents weren’t very comfortable with Brenda after they met her. I must have talked about her for a year before they finally met at the baptism. They were really shocked to find out they were younger than you."

  "They were pretty dismissive about us having another baby so late in life. Your mother actually said, 'But how will you be able to enjoy your retirement?' to Brenda. Then Brenda got that funny look that always told me that I should choose my next words as if my life depended on it."

  Phyl snorted. "And yet Mum and Dad didn't get to enjoy their retirement either." Cal glanced sympathetically at his neighbour.

  Jeremy came over. "Hi Dad. Hi Phyl. Dad, I just wanted to let you know that we’ll be staying until the very end, so if you wanted to head home early, just say the word."

  "I have enough room for you and Felicity if you want a ride, Cal," Phyl offered. "I can stay until you’re ready to go, even if that’s until everyone leaves."

  Cal nodded and said, "That would be kind, Phyl. It would save David from going out of his way. Thank you." Turning to Jeremy, he said, "I think I'll be staying until the end as well. Brenda would have expected it and I don't want to disappoint her." He looked over at Felicity and Lydia talking quietly on a bench outside the chapel. Jeremy headed into the chapel with his family.

  "I wonder what they’re talking about?" Cal nodded toward their daughters.

  "I told Lydia that asking Felicity to tell some stories about her mother would help."

  "Brenda told Felicity the same thing when Harry died."

  "I’m not surprised. I overheard some of Lydia’s stories. It’s amazing what sticks in your head." Phyl had a nostalgic look. "She told Felicity about one afternoon when Harry picked her up after school so that they could come get me and Tim at the clinic in Billings Bridge. That was one of the times when Brenda dropped me off somewhere because the old car wouldn’t start. Anyway, when they got to the clinic, Tim was still about tenth in line, so Harry went down to the grocery store in the mall with Lydia to buy a big bag of popcorn. The river was close so they took a walk over to the park and shared their popcorn with the ducks and swans." Phyl’s eyes got moist again. "Harry treasured all of those simple moments, too. He worked so much that he didn't get enough of them."

  They walked over to the girls. Cal stepped up to his daughter. "Felicity, I’m going inside to talk with your mother’s friends. Are you going to come in or do you want to stay here with Lydia?"

  Felicity looked up with a sad and serious expression. "I think I’d rather be here, Dad."

  Cal smoothed Felicity’s hair and said, "If you get thirsty there are some soft drinks inside. Stay close to the chapel, though, I don’t know how long all this will take. Some of your mom’s friends can talk for a long time."

  Felicity rolled her eyes. "Mrs. James is the worst, but she remembered who I was right away." She put on a miffed look, "Half of Mom’s friends assumed I was her granddaughter. As if."

  Lydia said, "Well, it doesn’t help that Eric and Jason are both older than us."

  Felicity looked like she wanted to cry. She looked up again and said, "I think I’ll just stay out here with Lydia, if you don’t mind."

  "I don’t." He smoothed her hair again and turned to go.

  Phyl said, "We’re giving Cal and Felicity a ride home, lovie. But it may be a while, as Cal said."

  "That’s okay, Mum. Seeing Dad’s grave again was pretty hard." Lydia smiled too brightly. "Felicity and I need to talk. Here’s as good a place as any, if Eric doesn’t bother us."

  Cal said, "Eric’s on his way home to Moncton. I know he bugs you guys but he wouldn’t be doing it if he didn’t like you." Seeing the sceptical looks he said, "It’s a guy thing."

  Cal and Phyl headed into the chapel and spent the next hour and a half listening to how special Brenda had been in other people’s lives trying to use that knowledge to paper over the gaping hole she’d left behind.

  Chapter Two - June

  "I still can’t believe Mom did that." David was livid.

  Cal steeled himself for yet another rant. "Did what, David?" Cal sounded tired.

  "You know what I’m talking about Dad – the guardianship issue. How could she have assigned guardianship of Felicity to Harry and Phyl? What’s wrong with me, or Mark?"

  "Your mother was expecting that I’d go before her. She asked me about it once and I said I didn’t have any objections. And she made that will in February before she was admitted to hospital."

  "No objections? They aren’t family." David was raising his voice again.

  Cal rolled his shoulder and neck to ease his tension. "David, Phyl was your mother’s best friend. Felicity and Lydia are almost twins they’re so close. If it had turned out that both of us passed on, Felicity would need her very best friend to lean on. That’s all."

  "So what are you going to do about it now?" David asked.

  "I’m going to abide by your mother’s wishes. Phyl told me that if anything happens to her that she’s assigning guardianship of Tim and Lydia to me." Cal looked at his son and said, firmly, "And I agreed to do it. She’s agreed that she’ll look after Felicity if anything happens to me. It would be the least disruption for the kids if it happened that way."

  "I can’t agree with that, Dad. She’s our sister. She shouldn’t be raised by a stranger you know nothing about." David looked self-righteous.

  "A stranger? You live in the same city as we do and we only see you once a month, if that. We see Jeremy more often and he's stationed in Halifax. Felicity and Lydia go to the same school, they’re on the same soccer team, they go to summer camp together, they study together, and I expect that they’ll be doing all of the teenage girl stuff together. Between the soccer carpool, studying,
church, Tim's baseball, and school events, I think I see Phyl six days out of seven. And it’s been like that for the last thirteen years." Cal felt his voice raising. "She is not a stranger."

  David looked put out. "It’s still not right, Dad."

  "I’m not going to discuss it any more, David. I've made my decision." Cal took a drink from his water bottle. "You said you wanted my help with the deck. Let’s get started."

  They worked in somewhat strained silence for a while and then turned their conversation to the Senators prospects in the upcoming NHL draft. Around three Cal said, "I have to go pick the girls up from soccer."

  "Okay, Dad. Thanks for the help."

  "Thanks for lunch. Call me if Brian can’t help next Saturday."

  "Will do."

  When his father left, Judy said, "I don’t know why you’re still fighting with your Dad over Felicity. He’s right about her and Lydia."

  "I don’t know. I never got why Mom would choose someone my age to be her best friend, I guess. And I don't trust Phyl."

  "We were already married with Jason when the Schuylers met your folks." Judy kissed her husband on the cheek. "You’re just jealous that your Mom spent more time with Phyl and Felicity than with any of you."

  "I still miss her, Jude." He wrapped his wife in a hug.

  "She was a special woman, David. But if you continue to fight your Dad on this, you might lose him, too."

  David grunted. Judy continued, "The odds are that Felicity will be married with her own kids before Cal passes on. And this better not be about how your Dad’s estate gets split. What your mom left us let us pay off the house, so be content with that. I want Cal around for as long as possible so he can be Grampa to our kids. I’d much rather have him than his money."

  David gave his wife a peck on the cheek and changed the subject. "Are you sure you’re okay with the canoe trip weekend after next?"

  "Is your Dad still going?"

  "Yes, but he’s bringing Tim Schuyler so that the girls can have a sleepover."

  "The coward. He and Harry did that canoe trip every year the weekend of the girls’ sleepover."

  David stiffened then gently extricated himself and began to put his tools away.

  "We won, Dad!" Felicity was in an excellent mood.

  "You should have seen the corner kick she made, Mr. Richardson. It was awesome." Lydia flung herself into the back seat next to her best friend.

  "It was Lydia who was awesome, Dad. She jumped higher than the defender and did a perfect header into the top corner of the net. The keeper had no chance at all."

  "But Felicity scored two goals on the sweetest strikes. She’s been working on bending her shot and she nailed one. The keeper thought it was headed outside the post, but it just caught the inside and trickled in."

  They kept up their post-mortem all the way home. At the lights, Cal studied the two girls, glad that there was something positive to talk about. They were coming up on their thirteenth birthday and were starting to exhibit the coltish look of girls about to become young women.

  Felicity was petite and slender with dark hair like her mother’s. Her legs seemed too long for her body but that was to her advantage when running toward the opposition goal.

  Lydia was tall and skinny but she already had wider hips and shoulders than the other girls in her class. She was taking after her father in having a big and tall frame but she was blonde like her mother. Her height and ability to score on Felicity’s corner kicks made her the leading scorer in the league.

  They pulled into the driveway at the house and Phyl stuck her head out the door. "Cal, Felicity!"

  Cal turned around and saw Phyl looking both ways before crossing the quiet street. Phyl examined her daughter. "Ugh. Lydia, you need a shower and this time you are going to put your gear in the wash right away."

  Lydia said, cheerfully, "Yes, Mum. See ya, Beast." She grabbed her bag and ran over to her house.

  Felicity waved, "See ya, Monster."

  Phyl wrinkled her nose. "I think both of you have been working hard, too." She paused, "Never mind that. I just wanted to say that I made a huge batch of chili so you’re welcome to come over for supper."

  Cal noticed the wrinkled nose. "I think we’ll shower and change first. Half an hour?"

  "Sure. We can finalize the details for the sleepover and the canoe trip."

  Cal showered and changed into a pair of sedate walking shorts and his wildest green and mauve Hawaiian shirt.

  Felicity stared at her father as she thundered down the stairs. "Dad, you’re not wearing that shirt in public are you?"

  "I could add my fishing hat if you like." Cal smirked. "Or I could wear my Buchanan Ancient kilt with it."

  "Not a chance. I’d die of embarrassment. Really. Besides you can't wear that many colours at a time without people's eyeballs exploding. It wouldn't be fair to the Schuylers."

  Cal rolled his eyes then went into the kitchen to fetch a bottle of the Marechal Foch red from Jost Vineyards in Nova Scotia that Jeremy had given him and Brenda for Christmas.

  Felicity looked suspiciously at the wine. "I thought you weren’t supposed to have wine with chili because it spreads the heat around."

  "I wouldn’t dare with your mom’s chili, but Phyl’s is pretty wimpy."

  They both paused, feeling Brenda’s loss once more. Felicity moved forward for a hug. "This will get better, right, Dad?"

  "That’s what the counsellor told us." Cal tilted his daughter’s chin up and kissed her nose. "I’ve seen too many of my friends work their way through similar losses and they all said it will get better... Someday."

  "Will I ever stop missing her?" asked Felicity in a small voice.

  "Not really, no. One of the guys at work says it gets less painful as the years go on, but you always miss the special people when they’re gone. I still miss my parents." Cal gave Felicity a squeeze. "Now, we have to go. Phyl’s expecting us."

  Dinner was companionable, although there were strange pauses here and there. Tim ran from the room after one story about his Papa and came back silently, with a blotchy face, about five minutes later. He excused himself from the table as soon as he could and ran up to his room.

  The girls gave each other a speaking look and Lydia rolled her eyes. They excused themselves from the table and went to the family room to monopolize the television. The theme song for Total Drama Island came to their ears.

  Cal helped Phyl clear the table then brought their wine glasses out to the deck. Cal heard the dishwasher start and Phyl joined him a few minutes later.

  "That wasn’t too bad," Cal offered.

  Phyl let out a big sigh. "No, it wasn’t. Tim’s been a bear since Brenda died. I think he’s trying to grieve for both of us."

  "Is he looking forward to the canoe trip?"

  "Yes and no. He was pretty close to Harry. I know you’re not supposed to have favourites, but Harry did spend more time with Tim than Lydia. I don’t know how he’s going to be without Harry along."

  "David and Jason are also coming and there are two more father-son pairs from church going along with a couple of the university guys. And we won’t do one of Harry’s normal routes this year. That might help."

  Phyl looked pensive. "That should work. Eventually you’ll have to go back to Wolf Lake with him. He loves the island campsite up there."

  "I do too. Maybe we should take you and the girls sometime. Do it in four or five days so we don’t have to knock ourselves out. Harry was a pretty hard taskmaster."

  Phyl smiled. "Only on camping trips. Most of the time he was a teddy bear."

  "I know." Cal sipped his wine. "How is the job search going?"

  "I might have to go back to school so that I'm qualified for something. I went from high school to being a stay at home mum, thanks to Harry's ability to sell anything to anyone. I’m looking into seeing if I can get my nursing degree. What about you? Are you still planning on retiring?"

  "I was planning on it and doing some c
ontract work in the winter, but without Brenda to share the time off it seems pointless. So, no, I haven’t put in my papers. I can’t retire until my birthday anyway. Or I could wait until my anniversary date in January. Although... I really can afford to retire now. Brenda had a couple of insurance policies I wasn’t aware of and I have all of her investments to fall back on, so I could afford to retire next month."

  "Harry had a couple of big policies, too and the standard double salary policy with his job. And we got some money from my parent's estate. That’s why I can consider going back to get my degree. But the house is paid off and I have enough in the bank to live on for several years. So I don’t want to make a big decision right away. And I’m too late to apply for nursing school this fall."

  "So you'll be a stay-at-home mom for a while?"

  Phyl frowned. "Probably until a year September. I'll be happier with that anyway. Lydia and Tim will both be a year older. And I'll have a chance to prepare them for it."

  "I'm going to need your help soon."

  "Oh?"

  "I'm almost out of leave and I'll have to either go back to work or properly retire. I'd like to go back to work but Felicity will need a place to come to after school and the summer is almost on us."

  "Cal. You know she's always welcome here. The girls might as well be sisters. It's actually easier to take care of the pair of them than either one individually. Lydia's either on the phone with Felicity or she's bugging me to either invite Felicity here or let her go over to your place. So, believe me, it's no problem looking after the Beast."

  Cal looked relieved. "I can help you out, too. You know, handyman stuff, heavy lifting, that sort of thing."

  Phyl looked at her neighbour. "Well, Harry had a fairly long 'honey do' list that he didn't get around to. Are you sure you want to do that for me?"

  "If Brenda was still with us, what would she have said?"

  Phyl got an odd sad look then smirked. "She would have said, 'Phyl, Cal's headed to Bytown Lumber to pick up some paint for the deck. Didn't you say you needed a patch for some drywall?' or light bulbs or whatever else I'd been getting irritated at Harry for putting off." Phyl went silent for a while.