"Anytime! You know that."
So, I turned to Meg and took her in my arms, kissing her cheeks:
"Welcome home sis! Everything okay with you?"
"Yeah, great thanks. Did I just ruin a romantic dinner for two or something?"
"Actually, yes! But Meg, it's okay, I promise! We change the plans, set another place at the table and bring another bottle of wine out. There's enough food for you too, and you love romantic movie's as much as Celia. You won't share our bed though, there are limits to the hospitality after all!"
She blushed but giggled, and after they had dropped their outerwear we all sat down at the table. The take-out food was put away for late-night snack or lunch the next day. While we ate and drank I was told what it was all about: Meg had taken her degree a year 'early', and since she had studied landscaping architecture Celia had convinced her to work for her. Our parents didn't know anything either, and Celia had offered Meg our spare room until she found somewhere to live. It was cause for celebration of course, but it felt strange anyway with my original plans for the evening.
So, we surprise each other from time to time and it creates that little extra spark that you need to keep the marriage alive and well. Ordinary boring things can be exciting and fun that way, and it doesn't need to be all that much to make the difference.
We have a huge garden, the lawn covers 5 hectares and there are a lot of outhouses, bushes and trees all around. Mowing it isn't the most exciting thing I have to do, even if I get to sit down and drive around doing it: it takes hours and crouching under the trees is a bitch. One Saturday when I had suggested that we should pour concrete over it all before I went out to start, Celia stood up behind a bush all of a sudden. She had Daniel's play police-uniform on, whistle in mouth and stop-sign in hand. Confused I stopped beside her and the kids rushed up serving me water from a squeeze-bottle and pushing a cookie into my mouth before they backed off and Celia took down the stop-sign and waved me away.
I didn't know what to think right then but couldn't help smiling at the crazy pit-stop. It could have been perhaps 30 minutes later that Daniel showed up behind the trunk of a tree in the same outfit, stopping me. Once again I parked and Amanda and Celia rushed forward with the water bottle and cookie, serving me. When done Celia pushed a kiss on my cheek before backing off and I was waved on by Daniel. It continued that way until I finished and were back outside the garage to park. Beside the garage all three of them stood cheering and applauding, Amanda with a chequered flag that she waved as I passed the 'finishing line'. Seriously, you can't wait to mow the lawn again after that!
Of course, the kids are the centre of our lives. That is something that ought to be unnecessary to say, but then again, today you can't be too certain of anything, can you?
Both Mandy and Dandy are well behaved and positive kids, seldom giving any trouble at all. They tend to react in a negative way when we have our - thankfully rare - fights, and you can't blame them for that, can you?. They both have friends who live with one parent after divorces, so they are well aware what can and does happen in families. We always make sure that they understand that we love each other as well as them even if we scream or sound angry. We have tried to explain that it is better to talk about things, even if it is with raised voices, and get it over with than to keep quiet and glare at the other but I don't know if they understood it.
Once in a while they do get into trouble though, like every kid that have ever lived.
Frankly I find it amusing when Mandy gives Dandy grief one day and then protect him with her fists the next day at school. I know, I shouldn't find it either amusing or charming, but I can't help it.
Dandy has a way to charm Mandy's friends so that they invite him to play with them when he is alone, and sometimes Mandy is put-off by that: she wants her friends for herself without sharing with her brother. That leads to argumentation now and then, both at the dinner table and 'in private'. In reality it isn't that private, but she think it is, and Dandy always lose those arguments.
A couple of times there has been continued play with the girls the next day in school for Dandy, and other boys has started teasing him for it. No one messes with Mandy's kid brother, that's just the way it is: she has the right to tease him or whatever, but no one else.
She starts off easy enough, telling them to back off or else. Those who doesn't gets a close-up killer glare and a snarled warning, but if that isn't enough her fists speak instead. So far it has happened twice but I doubt that it will happen again soon. She has Celia's temper but in a physical way and from the reports I've had she has scared the boys to the degree that they run away as soon as she looks at them. That isn't acceptable, of course, not for anyone, but it works.
The first time she was in a fight I went over to school and was met by a teary eyed Amanda at the principals office. She explained the circumstances, not withholding her part in it, and said she was sorry and never meant to hurt anyone. The boy had ended up with bleeding nose and lip, laying on the ground with Mandy sitting on him, telling him what would happen the next time. Then she had let him up to go see the school nurse. It was over before anyone could intervene. We had a long talk together with the principal where I explained that hitting anyone was wrong unless, possibly, it was in self defence. I got the phone-number to the boy's parents, called them and arranged for us to come over to apologize.
The second time she pounded two boys that had teased Daniel and then, when she stepped in, one of them had called her 'bitch' and slapped her. That boy had received a knee in the holy place before she beat them up. Celia and I got over there, gathered Dandy and Mandy and had another talk, now with both of them as well as the principal. Celia apologized for what had happened but also questioned the school:
"First of all it doesn't seem that you care about kids being teased for playing with the opposite gender, and I find that disturbing. Second: what about a boy slapping a girl and calling her 'bitch'? They are 7 to 9 years of age after all, and if you are to stop such behaviour it is now you should do it. Third: where are those boys? Shouldn't they be here to explain their behaviour and apologize too? One wrong behaviour doesn't make another wrong right all of a sudden. When you can satisfy my curiosity about those three things our kids will return to school, but until then they stay at home. And if you should think that I am a bitch too and that my husband is a meek sheep who you can run over, forget it! We talked this over on the way here and agree on this. It's simply the case that I have a short fuse, just like Amanda, and he is a slow burner like Daniel. If we haven't heard from you in a couple of days the slow burn will reach ignition-point for real."
We didn't hear from the principal that week and I caught fire just like Celia had said: I went public with all the details and our doubt about the competence of the staff at that school. We caught some flak for that naturally, but a lot more support. It even reached the city-counsel and in the end we contacted another school that had a clear policy when it came to such matters. It may surprise you, but in difference to the previous school the new one was considered to have a lot of troublesome kids, but as that principal explained, it caused them to address the problems that occurred at once and in a strict manner to prevent escalation. So far it has worked out good.
Are we then the strange family that do odd things and behave like ass-holes when accused of anything? Maybe we are, but I'll leave that to you to decide on, and frankly I don't care what you might think. Oh, did you just add 'arrogant' to your judgement? Fine, I can go along with that if you so wish, but I would rather call it self-assured and protective of our family-members.
Despite good intentions (at least I hope that is the case), today's society is often focused on 'I, me and mine', not 'we, us and ours', and everyone has to watch out for themselves any way they can. Well, that doesn't have to mean that you ignore what happens around you. Often the best way to protect yourself and what is yours is to take care of others and what is theirs.
Like I said we were economically well off with Celia's income. We owned the house with a total of 10 hectares of land and we had two cars, both paid in full. But we didn't swim in money in any way. We had to prioritize too, like most people, but with a slightly bigger 'costume' than average. We thought about buying a summer-house on the coast but got a boat instead, an old 25-foot sail boat I got for a kiss and a song when it was about to be scrapped. That was because there was a decrease in orders for Celia's business due to the economical stagnation, you might say. There wasn't any risk for the company, but with the usual take-out of salary for us there would have had to be a cut in staff by one person. Celia was confident that it was a temporary drop and that it could be used to produce new ideas, look at alternatives and so on, things that the deadlines seldom allowed ordinarily.
That would keep the four architects, including Meg and Celia, somewhat busy, but leave one of the PA's superfluous. Not only was Celia sure that it was a temporary stagnation, there was also the knowledge that Alice - the one that would have to go - went through a rough divorce at the time, had three kids between 2 and 6 years of age, would have to leave her house and had no family to help her out. A tough situation even if you don't lose your job at the same time, right? It worried Celia and I noticed that something was bothering her even before she told me. She was kind of distant, sitting in her own thoughts at dinner and flinched when spoken to, saying 'What?' with a confused smile that never reached her eyes. After the third time it happened I 'cornered' her in bed later in the evening:
"Honey, talk to me! Something is on your mind, I can see it and so can the kids, so speak up."
She lay cuddled up against me, head on my shoulder, and flinched that way once more.
"What? Oh . . . sorry."
She spilled it all out after some hesitation and finished:
"I don't want to fire Alice, she needs the job, is good at it and I'm sure I will have to recruit again within a year or two if I do, but I have to cut expenses somehow."
