All Aboard Andi's Dream

© 2024 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

All Aboard Andi's Dream

Chapter 5

Home Again, Home Again

The last few days in Florida were spent in the Jupiter area. They remained on Andi's Dream in the Jupiter Yacht Club and just relaxed. Bit-na was in school, so she was dropped off every morning and they returned to the boat and relaxed. The repairs to the Zodiac were completed and after charging up the batteries, Paul loaded up Andi, Macy, and the twins and they explored the local waterways of Jupiter, Florida on the small boat. The zodiac is stored on the foredeck of Andi's dream. There's a davit up front to lift it into its storage space, but it also ties down nicely to the swim deck.

The twins loved the zodiac much more than Andi's dream. To them, the zodiac was a

boat,

while Andi's dream was a bouncing, rocking apartment with a pleasant view. As they purred along through the waterways of Jupiter Florida, the twins dangled their little hands in the water, hoping to pet a manatee or, better yet, catch a baby shark. Being able to hold bait fish, they believed that were ready to move up and catch a baby shark.

There was a huge brick lighthouse in Jupiter that they sailed over to in the little Zodiac. They spent the afternoon there and climbed to the top and looked out on the Jupiter area from the top of the light. The twins had to be carried down because they were too tired to climb back down, but once they were down, they had no problem frolicking under a huge live oak tree near the base of the tower. But the real fun they had as they stayed was the Amalthea.

Amalthea was Paul and John's 24-foot Bermuda rigged Tartan 245 Caraluna sloop. It was a nice little sailboat with a small outboard motor and a 12 volt electrical system to power the data center which combined compass, wind gauge and sonar. They took it out and gently sailed up the intercostal waterway to a restaurant in Sebastian that Paul and Macy loved on previous visits. On the way, they saw manatees as the gentle winds pushed them up the Indian River.

"This is so nice," said Andi. "Would you mind if I laid out?"

"No, go right ahead," said Paul. While the twins played in the tiny space below deck, Andi and Macy crawled forward and laid out in their bikinis on either side of the jib sail and watched the clouds keep pace with them. Andi has never experienced a more peaceful way of traveling. She had to be roused by the twins when they got to Sebastian. The trip was just that peaceful. The restaurant that they stopped at was named Squid Lips, and it had its own docking pier.

Paul pulled up to the pier and dropped sail, and they tied off. The tide was out, so Paul had to lift the twins up to Macy and Andi, who were on the pier. Then donning a sarong, Andi did something she never, ever dreamed would happen. She entered the restaurant wearing a bikini top. Her large breasts bobbled merrily, barely confined in her bikini top. In fact, she and Macy wore matching sarongs and bikinis. "Isn't it cold?" asked the hostess as she seated them.

"No, it's quite warm," said Andi. "I'm from Denver. This is so nice down here."

"I am from Quebec," said Macy. "We now live in Buffalo. Like my sister, I am used to the very cold weather. This is nice today." The temperature was about 80 and the locals were shivering. "My sister, her husband, and I will start with a cup of conch chowder."

The conch chowder was out of this world as far as Andi was concerned. She and Macy split an order of Bahama Mahi (dolphin that was pan sauteed and topped with mango salsa) and Paul had the lobster and crab cake while the twins split a chicken finger basket. "This place caters to the tourists and snowbirds," said Macy. "Their quality is quite satisfactory. Yi may even enjoy it."

"Don't be hacking on Yi. She's moving to Buffalo to be with us."

"Oui, there is a lot of love there," admitted Macy.

After lunch, they checked out the souvenir shop, and the girls noticed a prize they couldn't live without. Stuffed sailfish dolls. "Mister Unicorn!" they cried. "Please, please, please, can we have one?"

"One or one each?" asked Paul.

"YES!"

They headed back to the Amalthea, a stuffed sailfish in the loving caress of Sandy and Madeline. Paul isn't the type to buy a child a toy just to quiet them down, and neither is Andi, but the twins have been good on this trip. Their only souvenirs were plastic sand pails full of seashells, so this time, their good behavior was rewarded. They each got a stuffed sailfish, and both named their "stuffy" Mr. Unicorn, and they proudly showed off their sailfish to everyone on the pier.

"Won't that be confusing if both fish have the same name?" asked Paul.

Sandy and Madeline looked at him in shock. "No," they chimed in unison and they walked back to the boat, shaking their heads. Fathers can be confusing.

Soon they were in the Amalthea and purring out the channel to the Indian river headed back to Andi's Dream in Jupiter. Out in the dredged boating channel, Paul lowered the running board and raised the sails. They caught a lively breeze and were soon sailing at a sparkling pace.

"I could do this all month long," purred Andi.

"Sailing back and forth between Jupiter and Sebastian?"

"Just sailing. Have you taken this out into the open ocean?"

"Yes, it was a super calm day, but we sailed around for a few hours. Then we got becalmed for a few hours. Then when we got back, we bought a bigger motor."

Again, Andi had her dream about sailing topless with her man, just basking in the sun as the wind carried them away. "This is what sailing is all about..." she purred as she leaned back and soaked up the sun.

"

Oui

," sighed Macy. "For John and I this boat helped our marriage so much." She leaned back and smiled.

"Helped your marriage?"

"

Oui

, it calms us. Being a pastor can be very stressful. This relaxes us, helps us cleanse our souls and we come back with a fresh outlook on life."

"The church council will occasionally beg me to drag her and John down her for a little together time," chuckled Paul.

"Next time, could we tow the Amalthea behind Andi's Dream and do our island hopping from this?"

"I'll look into it."

The next night was their last night in Florida. As soon as Sunny picked up Bitty from school and they arrived at Andi's Dream, they cast off. They easily threaded their way out of the Yacht Club with Andi at the helm, then they charged the Jupiter inlet. The seas at the Jupiter Inlet were pretty rough, the tide was coming in and they were headed out, but soon they were free of the rough water and Andi turned north and opened up the throttles.

They raced north to Cape Canaveral and got there just after sunset. Stan showed Andi how to set Andi's dream to station keeping. As Yi prepared dinner, Andi and Paul packed everything up. They were heading back to Buffalo in the morning. Yi grilled steak and some huge shrimp on the grill in the cockpit and served them with perfectly baked potatoes. A simple but delicious dinner.

As they finished dinner, the sky to the north of them suddenly grew bright and a triple point of light slowly climbed into the sky. The rumble and roar of the Falcon Heavy reached them as the huge rocket raced skywards. Bitty and the twins were in the cockpit, bouncing up and down with excitement as the rocket blasted off into space. And then, just to entertain the girls, the two boosters returned to Cape Canaveral. The twins were in slack jawed shock as the "rocket pieces" landed not very far from where they were eating dinner.

Later, there was swimming off the stern and the twins finally trusted their life jackets and splashed around with poppa. Then, as the twins slept in Gus and Lucy's suite, Paul and Andi made love one last time in their executive suite. At sunrise, they were boarding a shuttle bus from Cocoa Beach to Orlando Airport.

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Sandy and Madeline Jarecki strode through the Buffalo International Airport like they owned the building. They were decked out in matching brightly colored tropical print sundresses, neon pink sandals, Minnie Mouse sunglasses, straw hats, straw purses emblazoned with "Florida," and each carried a stuffed sailfish under their arm. Heads turned as they walked through the terminal and a photograph was taken here or there, but the twins carried on like genuine celebrities, their heads turning neither left nor right. They were focused on one mission, and nothing was going to deter them.

Their parents had to rush to keep up, struggling under the load of carryon baggage and the girl's snacks, along with jackets and boots that the twins refused to wear. They were followed by Macy and Yi, who were watching the parade with great enjoyment.

Paul went to get the Ranger out of long-term parking while the girls collected the luggage and wrestled the twins into winter clothing. To keep the girls occupied while she collected the bags, Andi dialed up her mom, set up a face time call and handed the phone to the twins, then turned to Yi. "Ok, you're on the clock. They tend to wander around when they talk on the phone, try to keep them corralled." Then Andi and Macy headed off looking for the luggage, leaving the first time governess Yi alone in a strange town, with two precocious children who weren't interested in paying attention to her.

"Grandma Heather!" they cried as Heather's face appeared on the screen.

"Grandma Heather? Like you have another grandma?" Heather knew Mama Giardino, occasionally called "Grandma Busketti" by the twins, and her insisting that she was going to be a grandmother to the girls. In fact, she and Mrs. Giardino spoke at length about Paul and John at the wedding reception and the Christmas dinner. However, being called Grandma Heather came as a bit of a surprise because she was used to being called simply as Grandma.

"We do! We just got her before we went on the boat," said Madeline.

"Yeah! Grandma Mama!" said Sandi, "she gives us busketti"

"And ravolini!"

"And crams!" Heather smiled as she remembered the "crams" that Mama Giardini brought to the wedding reception, a huge plate of Clams Casino, and some of them were clam free for those with shellfish allergies and for the small children that were there. The twins turned up their noses at them until someone dropped one and Wonka gobbled it up. It was only then that they tried one and loved them.

"Where did you go on your vacation?"

The twins thought hard for a moment. There had to be something that happened in the past two or three weeks. "Mmmm... oh yeah! We saw Micky, and Minnie, and Ella, and Snow White, and the Pirates, and a haunted house, and a train that went zoom! Zoom! Zoom!" The descriptions came fast and furious and it appeared to Heather that the rest of the vacation couldn't hold a candle to Disney World for these two imps.

"What about the boat? Didn't your mommy get a boat?"

"Yeah, that was pretty cool, but we got a boat too!" said Sandy. The twins considered the Zodiac theirs.

"It's bouncy and you can touch the water and it has a motor and you can put it on top of mommy's boat, and it takes us swimming and shopping..." Madeline was bubbling about the Zodiac. She then took a deep breath and continued, "...and I got a stuffy that looks like a unicorn fish and a... oh wait, mommy wants to talk to you, bye Grandma!"

"Wuv yoo!" cried Sandy and Madeline in unison as Andi retrieved her phone. She killed the video feed and put her ear buds on.

"Hi mommy!" she said, and her cheery demeanor surprised even herself. She looked out the glass doors and saw that it was slushy and wet outside. A miserable gray day, cold and nasty and wet, her tropical vacation just a fading memory, and she has her "mother monster" on the phone. And through all that, she feels happy, almost elated to be talking to her mom cheerfully for the first time since that horrible news came back from Iraq.

"My goodness little one, you haven't called me mommy in decades!" And Heather was right. Since Andi's father died, so did a special piece of Andi. It was always "mother" or "ma", rarely mom and never mommy.

"I know, mom, and I want to talk about it, just you and me. Together, with nothing going on to distract us and not over the phone, face to face, ok?"

Heather had waited so long to hear those words! Sadly, their mother-daughter relationship had cooled that horrible day, and Heather thought it had died in the years since her Danny died. She wanted to scream Yes! as loudly as possible, but she held back her excitement. "That sounds wonderful, dear, but..."

"No buts," said Andi and she continued, "Fourth of July weekend. Trust me, it's going to be great. We'll fly you out then Paul and Harold and Yi can watch the twins while you and I have some girl time together... ok? ... please say yes!"

"Of course, dear, Harold and I will love to be there."

"Ok, gotta go. Paul just pulled up with the car. I'll send more pictures later," then in a softer tone, "I love you, mommy."

Heather's heart leaped into her throat; she hadn't heard those words in almost 30 years. "I love you too, darling."

Andi and Paul were still loading the luggage into the Ranger when John pulled up and after a long passionate kiss with Macy, he loaded up Macy and Yi's luggage and drove off before Paul and Andi had the twins strapped into their car seats. "Awww, no fair!" cried Sandy.

"We didn't have to wear these on the boat!" added Madeline as she tugged at the child seat restraints.

"You're not on the boat anymore," explained Andi. "There are crazy drivers here."

"It's yucky and cold and wet here!"

"Yeah, we want to go back to the Obamas!"

"That's BAA-hamas," corrected Andi for what felt like the one hundredth time.

She and Paul finally finished when Paul noticed Madeline was on the wrong side. She was seated on the right, and she always insisted on sitting on Sandy's left. Right now, they were not saying anything, but experience has shown Andi and Paul that in about 20 minutes, the twins will notice and start complaining about everything as they got cranky over the seating arrangement. Keeping Sandy on the right side prevented arguments, so the exhausted parents switched out the girls and were soon on the road.

As they headed south on US 90, the sloppy, rainy weather soon turned to more spring like weather, the snow was gone from the sides of the roads and was only seen in slowly melting drifts and piles at the ends of driveways, but as they merged on to "da two nineteen" and headed south towards "the snow belt", winter returned. As they passed Orchard Park, snow gently fell from the sky. That is when the twins started sniffling.

Andi turned around and saw the pouting faces. "Hey, what's wrong, you two?"

Sandy pouted. "It's snowing. Bitty said she never seen snow before." Huge tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I miss Bitty!" wailed Madeline and suddenly both were crying softly.

"Aww, come on you guys! Bitty had to go back to school." Andi turned around to settle down the girls. "But she'll be coming up to visit us this summer, and you can take her swimming in Poppa Paul's pond!"

"I thought they would have missed Wonka," said Paul softly.

"WONKA!" shrieked Sandy, "We forgot about Wonka!"

"NO ONE WAS THERE TO FEED HIM!" shrieked Madeline at the top of her lungs.

"AND THE CHICKENS!" cried Sandy.

As the twins wept in horror over the suspected deaths of their animal friends, Andi glared at Paul. The entire time they were gone, Wonka was never mentioned, and they agreed to keep it that way to prevent a scene like this. "I didn't think they'd hear me over their crying," pleaded Paul.

"Little five-year-old ears work a lot better than your jet engine deafened ears," Andi reminded him. She loosened her seat belt and turned around. "Wonka is ok, Veronica, and Mister Ayato and Miss Julissa have been taking care of him, and the nice people with the piggies, Mr. and Mrs. Clemmons, have watched the chickens."

"You sure they're ok?" sniffed Sandy.

"They're fine," Andi assured them. "They would have called us if there was a problem."

Madeline shuddered on the edge of crying again. "What if Wonka forgot us?"

"You'll see, he remembers you," said Paul. "He'll be so happy to see you he may even piddle!"

Andi thought that Paul's statement was to make the girls laugh, which it did, but it also turned out to be quite prophetic. Twenty minutes later, as the twins burst through the kitchen door, snow swirling about them, Wonka came up to everyone whining in excitement, his tail whirring like a fan, licking the girls' hands and faces as they hugged him, adding to his excitement. They tried to tell him about their trip to Florida and to the "Obamas", but he didn't seem to care about their stories. He was just happy to have his girls back.

Just as the girls were ready to dash out of the kitchen, Gus appeared in the doorway, and with a grin said, "Are you ready to take a look?"

"Are you ready to start?" Andi's eyes opened in anticipation of the project that first came to mind in the library on Christmas night.

"Start? I had my guys start before I got on the plane to go to Florida," Gus exclaimed with a laugh. "Grab your coats. The best way to see this is from the main entrance."

They put on their coats and, exiting the kitchen door, they walked around to the front and went in the front door. Previously, when you stepped in the front door, you were immediately taken by the grandeur of the main staircase and the crystal chandelier. Now there was a bit of a hall to funnel you into the house. There was a dressing bench on each side of the hall with coat hooks, a bench to sit when you pulled on/off your boots, and a mirror to do that final check to your suit or dress when entering or exiting the building. The little entryway, only four feet long, matched the Victorian decor of the house perfectly. Even though it was newly constructed, it looks like it has always been there.

At the top of the grand staircase, they could see the twins running with Wonka barking and chasing them merrily, but they weren't running back and forth. They were going in one direction, running laps. Andi had to climb the stairs partially to see that the balcony had been completed all the way around. The new handrail perfectly matched the handrail that had been serving this house for the past century. The grandeur of the beautiful staircase was not diminished by the addition of the "mudroom" whose primary function was to provide support for the new balcony extension.

As Andi and Paul inspected the woodwork where the new flooring met the original flooring, the twins and Wonka roared past them, all giggles and barks. "Do you wonder if this is the reason why the original owners didn't extend the balcony all the way around?" Andi asked no one in particular.

"It seems likely," smiled Gus.

"That was John," said Paul as he hung up his phone, "they're on their way over with..." he gave the twins a sideways glance, "our new employee. I told John to bring her in the front door."

"And not the servant's entrance?" asked Gus with mock surprise.

"Well, just this once," answered Paul in a mock snobbish tone.