KNOCKOUT
Ch. 19: On the Road -- Friday
Friday morning, Tim woke to the smell of brewing coffee. And bacon and eggs, the second sniff told him. He lifted his head from the pillow and worked on bringing the face of the alarm clock into focus. 8:15, it read. He dropped his head back to his pillow and moaned.
"8:15 is not sleeping-in," he groused loudly, knowing his wife was nearby, trying to 'accidentally' wake him up.
He was right, her answering voice was only feet away, standing in the open doorway of their bedroom.
"Good morning, sweetie," she purred. "There's a lovely Western Omelet waiting for you. But you need to hurry before the eggs get dry and tough."
"Sneaky bitch," he grumbled into his pillow.
"What did you say?" she asked with a bit of spice.
He turned his head to the side. "Need to piss," he 'repeated'.
"Mm, uh huh," she responded doubtfully. "Well, you have time for that, but that's all. Get that fine, lazy ass moving!" He heard her move back down the hall toward the kitchen.
Tim really would have liked to drop back to sleep, but he had to smile, enjoying the tizzy Janice was in. He knew she was desperate to get on the road and finally uncover his big anniversary surprise. He rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom for a pee.
After flushing and washing, he took a short slug of mouthwash and rinsed it around while pulling on a pair of pajama bottoms and t-shirt, then stepping into his house slippers. He went back into the bathroom to spit and rinse, then headed toward the kitchen himself.
Tim poured himself a cup of coffee from the machine, then sat in front of a plate that already held a large, delicious-looking omelet. Janice dropped two slices of toast alongside the eggs and Tim gave her a hearty smile and thank you.
He took his time and enjoyed his breakfast, but was careful not to dawdle.
"That was delicious, baby, thank you," Tim said. "You're obviously already dressed to go," he continued. "I'm going to shower, shave and dress myself, then we can hit the road. Like I said, our schedule is very easy, but I guess if we head out now, we'll be able to take even more time enjoying our first stops if we like."
He gave her a light kiss; said, "I'll be quick," and headed back to their bedroom.
True to his word, Tim had himself cleaned and dressed and back in the kitchen with Janice by 9:30.
"Want a coffee for the road?" asked his wife.
"Sounds good," he answered. "How about you put together our road coffee and I'll take the bags out to the car?"
She kissed him on his freshly shaved cheek. "Sounds very good," she said.
Soon they were on their way. Tim headed over to the interstate bypass and headed south. The bypass looped around the city and would take them from their home on the northern edge of town, down to the airport that lay south of the city. They'd missed the worst of the morning rush hour of suburban commuters making their way into the city, so the traffic was busy, but not slow.
Before long, Tim was in the right lane, signaling his exit.
"The airport?" Janice said. "Why didn't you tell me we were flying? I would have worn something different."
"You're wearing comfortable clothes, with good walking shoes; seems like a very good choice for crossing a big airport."
"But a nicer pair of slacks or blouse..." she whined. "I feel like a schlub."
"Baby, you clearly haven't been on a flight in a long time. Yoga pants and loose sweatshirts are the order of the day for lots of women travelers these days. Long gone is the idea of dressing up to look sharp on a flight. And you don't look like a schlub, anyway," he added, with an amused glance over at Janice.
"You still should have told me," she grumped. Then, "Hey, you missed the exit for the terminal. We're not going to park in one of those remote lots where you have to spend another half hour coming back to the airport on a bus, are we?"
"Wow, you certainly are in a happy travel adventure mood, aren't you?"
"I'm sorry," she said. "I guess I have let myself get a bit worked up." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm just going to relax and let my mysterious husband show me a good time."
He patted her thigh. "That's my girl. Showing you a good time is what I'm all about."
Her eye caught sight of the exit sign for airport remote parking and her head involuntarily turned away from him as she stared at it. When he drove on by without slowing, she brought her head back facing forward and didn't say a word.
He put his hand on her thigh again, but higher up, and this time he squeezed instead of patting. "That's my girl," he said again.
A quarter mile further down the airport highway he did finally exit. Only now the sign didn't say anything about the airport, it said, "County Arboretum".
"The Arboretum? We're not flying anywhere?"
"Comfortable walking shoes, sightseeing and nature walking; remember me saying that? Or did you just hear dinner and dancing?" he asked with a laugh.
"I guess it is a bit early in the day to hit a nightclub, isn't it?" she responded a bit sheepishly, but with a smile of her own. "God, I don't think I've been to the arboretum since I was a kid; maybe on a school field trip."
"I know, me neither," said Tim. "But I've read that they've done some incredible things over the years. It seems that in exchange for giving up a little of the arboretum's original land on the north side for the airport expansion, they added six times as much to the south and turned it into a preserve of the native grasslands."
They pulled into the parking lot and Janice saw the large frame house that had served as the entrance and gift shop for the arboretum ever since it was established a hundred years before.
Ch. 20: In the Gardens -- Friday
As Janice and Tim walked toward the entrance, they were pleasantly surprised to find it was in better shape than when either of them had last seen it, at least 12 years earlier. The house had been the home of the arboretum's founding family until they donated it along with 110 acres of land early in the last century. It was a large, white traditional farmhouse, but with all the extras a wealthy family of the time would have wanted. Janice remembered it as being pretty run down during that long ago school trip, but the county had obviously restored the house to near-original condition and it looked lovely.
The inside of the house was also a joy, with one part serving as a museum of the city's founding era, with period furniture and decorations. The larger portion served as museum, gift shop, and research center for the arboretum and its amazing collection of plants.
After a surprisingly interesting 45 minutes spent exploring the displays inside the house, the young couple made their way out the "back door" and into a wonderland of nature. Tim had their video camera in his small backpack and brought it out to capture the sights. Meandering paths led them from one garden to another. Lush plants thrived along the small stream that ran through the property, while more desert-like flora survived beyond the stream's reach.
Tim and Jan wandered for hours, enjoying the beauty around them and each other's company. They smiled at the groups of schoolchildren clearly out on field trips of their own and wished they could encourage the kids not to wait 15 years before coming back and exploring this incredible place again.
"Right in our own backyard," Tim said with wonder as they strolled through a grove of eucalyptus. He stayed busy capturing all the wonders on their digi-cam.
"You think Jerome would be up for helping replace some of our water-hungry lawn with a garden with some of the dry-climate plants we've seen here?" asked Janice.
"I don't know," said Tim. "The kid's been working on getting the yard just the way you want it for years now. Don't know what he'd think of digging it up after all that effort."
"You know," she said, "I think he'd actually be up for the change and the challenge. He really takes pride in his work, which is why you can easily tell which yards he works on in our neighborhood. But they're still all the same: traditional, plain green lawns with a few bushes and flowers along the edges.
"I wonder if he's ever been out here?" she continued. "I think he'd love it just the way we are and it would inspire him. Hey! How about we bring him out here and see what he thinks about making a change to our yard then?"
Tim looked around, thinking a moment. "Actually, I think you're right. I think he would dig this place. Plus, you two would probably want to spend some time inside learning more about the best plants for our native environment and how to get your new garden started."
"He really is a good kid, isn't he?" said Janice. Then suddenly, "No, we have to stop calling him a kid; he's 18 and nearly full grown," she said, echoing Tim's thoughts from a couple of weeks earlier. "But 'good man' seems pretentious," Jan continued. "I guess he's just a good guy. Heck, he was even willing to take the time to help me with my rusty dance moves."
"Somehow, I don't think that was much of an imposition. He looked like he was enjoying your garage dance just as much as you were," Tim said as he turned the video camera on his wife.
"Wait a minute; you saw us dancing? How? We stopped when we heard you pull into the driveway and the garage door was closed. How could you have seen us?" asked Janice.
Tim hid behind the viewfinder and thought for a moment about saying that it had just sounded that way when Jerome had praised Janice's dancing. But in the end, he decided to go with the truth. He told her about his first arrival and hearing the music from the garage and watching their dance practice through the kitchen door.
"And how long were you spying on us?" Janice asked with a bit of strain in her voice.
