© 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 11
It's Not All Snow in Buffalo
As the garden grew, so did John and Macy's cabin. It was the same size and shape as Paul's cabin, but there were differences. The peak had a cupola with a weathervane and lightning rod on the top. The doors and windows on the front of the cabin were the mirror images of Paul's. The only actual difference other than the cupola was that Macy insisted on electric heaters in their cabin. They had a wood stove, same as Paul and Andi, but Macy didn't trust either her or John to wake up and put another log in the fire at night, especially with a baby on the way, so she insisted on thermostat controlled heaters like in the 'modern' cabin.
Outside, an eight foot wide patio was made from cabin to cabin and the roof over Paul's patio was extended the length of the three cabins. On a rainy summer day, you could move from cabin to cabin without getting wet, and in the winter you could do that using the connected doorways and remain warm. In front of the central cabin, Paul and John made a fire pit for campfires in the evenings.
Paul had a well dug to deal with the added need for water, but he left the cistern and the second floor tank in place because he was still a bit of a survivalist at heart. Luckily, with all the local springs, the well didn't need to be deep, and they crowned it with an antique hand pump that worked. The twins loved to pump the handle and sometimes they were rewarded with a splash of water.
Her little cabin reminded Macy of the tiny house she lived in as a child, but it was better. It was hers; it belonged to her, and her husband, and she vowed that any child that entered there would be loved and welcome. She loved sitting on the patio, watching the trees sway in the wind and the garden growing. Soft music played while Macy and Andi drank iced tea and watched the twins play in their pop-up tent. Macy even invited the women's ministry to have a prayer retreat there.
Unfortunately, Andi and Macy couldn't enjoy the cool waters of the pond. They would wade in knee deep, but swimming in open water was unsafe for their babies. One day was so hot and sweltering that it was unbearable. They wanted to head back to the house for the air conditioning and give up on the cabin. The twins were cranky and fighting. "Oh, you two, let's go jump in a creek," said John. He and Paul got their swimsuits on, and they convinced Andi and Macy to put on shorts and their bikini tops. They piled the twins in the van, and they drove down into Zoar Valley.
"Here you go," said John at the bottom of the valley. "Nature's air conditioner. Cattaraugus creek."
"What?" asked Sandy. She and Madeline were wearing their swimsuits.
"Come here," said Paul and he coaxed the girls to wade out into the middle of the wide, but shallow stream. There was a section where a weeping willow shaded the creek and the stream tumbled over round rocks. Paul and John led the twins to that area. "Now sit down."
"What?" asked Sandy. "In the river?"
"Yes, it's nice and cool," said John as he and Paul sat down in the water.
The twins looked skeptical. Finally, Andi's little scientist, Madeline, poked the water with a stick and seeing that nothing bit the stick, she sat down. The running water washed over her, cooling her off, and she leaned back on a rock with a contented smile and let the water wash the heat away. Angry, Sandy crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "I wanted to sit there."
"Oh, sit down you silly girl," chided Andi, and Sandy plunked down on Paul's lap. Andi and Macy opened up lawn chairs in the creek and were sitting in the shade where the water level was just under their bottoms.
"
Je suis content
," sighed Macy in contentment. "
This
is how you spend summer." The shade and the cool waters flowing over their feet and shins really helped cool off the women. They soaked cloths with creek water and splashed the water on their foreheads and rounding bellies. The six of them relaxed in the shallow water and let the heat bother other people. Occasionally, folks floated past in inner tubes, often drinking a beer as they went. They greeted the tubers with waves and watched them drift down the creek.
"Can we do that?" asked Sandy.
"We can, but Mommy and Aunt Macy can't," said Paul. "It wouldn't be fair to leave them behind. We can all do it next summer."
After about a half hour of sitting in the creek and cooling off, Andi asked. "Ok, magic man, what's your next trick?"
"Maybe we could go to Ashford Hallow and see if they discovered ice cream there yet," said Paul.
"Perfect idea." They packed back up in the van and drove south on US 219 into the village of Ashford Hollow and there in the shade of the spreading beech trees, surrounded by shag bark hickory trees, they found a little restaurant that sold frozen custard. They sat at a shaded picnic table overlooking a corn field through the trees and after that cool down in the creek, the breeze felt perfect. Paul and John brought out cones for their wives and themselves, and small cones for the twins. "This is incredible!" cried Andi as she stared at her cone in shock.
"You've never had custard before?" asked Paul.
"No! This is amazing!" Andi couldn't be distracted from her cone. Smooth, creamy, so flavorful and so rich! "This is the best ice cream I've ever had!"
"It's not ice cream, it's custard. It's similar to ice cream but ice cream is made with milk, custard is made with cream and egg yolks," said Paul.
Andi looked at her cone and considered it, then said, "all those years I avoided egg yolks with a passion..." then she took another lick of her cone. "I found a use for them now!" That made Macy laugh so hard she almost wet herself.
Meanwhile, the twins discovered the half dozen hummingbird feeders hanging in the trees around the restaurant. The girls were holding their little cones high over their heads, hoping to give some custard to the "baby birds" that fluttered and buzzed around the feeders, but the "baby birds" didn't seem interested.
"No, those are hummingbirds," said Paul. "They get their food from flowers."
"I could put ice cream on the flowers," said Sandy brightly.
"That would make the flowers sick," said Andi. "Let's just let the hummingbirds eat their hummingbird food." And they settled down to watch the hummingbirds squabble over the feeders. They were almost disappointed to leave the show behind after they finished their ice cream.
Paul and John grilled chicken and store-bought corn for their families that night and they were joined for dinner by Josh and Veronica from across the road. Veronica's dad Mike moved in with them and he was loving the quiet life next to Josh's pond, fishing and listening to the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games on the radio. "Did you invite Mike over for dinner?" asked John.
"Yes, but there's a game on the radio, the Pirates are playing the Phillies," said Josh. The Pirates/Phillies rivalry goes back over 125 years to 1887, and baseball fans love the rivalry.
"The Pirates are on a six game winning streak and he's not going to miss a pitch," said Veronica. "The Pirates are leading the series 1,228 wins to Philadelphia's 1,084 and he's going to listen to every single game that he can." She grew up listening to the Pirates with her dad.
"We should take Mike to a Bison's game," said Paul.
That evening, after slathering the twins down with mosquito repellent, Paul led a nature hike back into the woods behind the pond. "Be nice and quiet, we don't want to scare anyone." As they hiked, moisture from the cooling air condensed on the hay in the fields and their legs got wet as they walked.
"Will we see the king of the woods?" asked Sandy as Paul pulled them in their twin hauler wagon while he and Andi, John, and Macy walked through the cooling fields. They saw a 10 point buck last winter and deemed him to be the king of the woods.
"Maybe, but I want to show you his little friends." They came to the bridge over the stream that runs through the property in a shallow ravine, and they didn't have long to wait. One by one, little greenish lights began to flash and drift around in the cooling air. Soon they filled the little wooded gully with their flashing and glowing.
"What are those?" asked a huge eyed Madeline.
"Fireflies."
"Are they burning?"
"No, they're looking for their girlfriend. They have a built in light they're hoping that she can see."
"Ohhh!"
Paul had brought a glass jar with him, and he crept up on a firefly that was laying in the grass and captured him and showed him to the twins. "What do you think?" The twins were astonished with the little bug that occasionally glowed.
"His butt!" cried Sandy. "His butt glows!"
"Yeah, that's about the best description. You guys let him go so he can go find his family." The twins took the jar and shook it until the firefly dropped out and flew off. They watched the silent fireworks for a long time until finally the fireflies settled down for the evening and they headed back to the cabin, which had cooled off nicely.
"I think we should have Gus put a cupula on our cabin too, it should drain off a lot of heat in the summer," said Paul as he and Andi settled in on their couch after putting the twins to bed. They had a fire in the wood stove, more for entertainment than heat, and they heard the accordion door slide closed between the center cabin and John and Macy's new cabin. "Newlyweds," he whispered, causing Andi to laugh.
"Are the twins asleep up there?" asked Andi.
"No," Paul whispered in her ear. "I can see them peeking down the stairs at us."
"Get to bed!" yelled Andi and suddenly the twins and Wonka raced down the stairs and hopped on the couch with Paul and Andi. "I said get to bed!"
"You didn't say which bed," said Madeline.
Over in the new cabin, furniture was still sparse, but somehow toward the end of construction, a futon couch appeared. It was approximately the same model as what Paul and Andi had consummated their marriage on, and John and Macy made little Katarina on in February, so it was perfect for them. They opened the windows and the cupula vents, and closed the curtains, then lit a fire for entertainment and snuggled as the curtains waved in the warm evening breezes and a French-speaking radio station played soft music via John's cell phone and blue tooth speaker. "
Comment allez-vous
?" (How are you?) When alone, John and Macy would always speak French. They both want to continue the language of their initial romance.
"
Much better... I told Andi that I didn't have a mother, so I didn't know what was going on with the baby and she helped
!"
John knew it was going to be an interesting answer when he asked, "
How did Andi help
?"
"
She told Tammy Schatz that I didn't have a mother and didn't understand what was expected of me
."
"
Ah mince
," (Oh darn) groaned John. Tammy Schatz was the head of the woman's ministry at church. If she knows something, by now 75% of the women in the congregation will know.
"
