More Than a Decade Later
"I can do it! I can do it!", Kenzo proclaimed, balancing a the plate of hot dogs on his head as he came out the back door of the family's Appalachian mountain cabin.
`I swear, if you drop this, you're going to unwrap, season, slice and cook 15 new hot dogs and then bring them out to everyone like a civilized person!" responded his cousin Ellen.
"Yeah, that's right!" threatened his younger cousin, KC. "Sarah and I marinated those overnight. If you drop just one of those on the ground we're going to marinate you!" he continued, to laughs around all the tables arranged on the outdoor deck that hugged the edge of the lake.
It was Drew and Mickey's annual July 4th picnic, where Drew and Mickey's family, the cousins, and Brad and Mike and their families all joined together at the Patterson cabin for a week of camaraderie and celebration. More than any other event, even Christmas, it was Mickey's favorite time of the year, as it was the one time that the entire family and their best friends could gather together almost like one great big clan.
Over the years, calling Drew's family house a `cabin' became more and more of a misnomer, as it was the one possession that they splurged on to expand and upgrade and rebuild into exactly what they wanted. They added bedrooms, dorms for the kids, bathrooms, expanded the kitchen to almost restaurant proportions and even added a home theater space for everyone to watch movies. Seeing the kids faces after an adventure movie on the wide screen, feeling the room shake during battle scenes, made it worth every penny. The guys had enough money for virtually any kind of indulgence, from fancy clothes to expensive cars and even to boats and yachts, but this was the only place that gave even a hint of their more than ample means.
The younger generation. led by Ellen as `general manager', and her younger brother KC and Marty and Peters' oldest daughter, Sarah, as chefs, had started a new holiday tradition of cooking and serving the first meal of the vacation. It was a way of trying to assert their adulthood while also allowing Sarah and KC to indulge their own budding love of cooking.
Where Sarah got the cooking bug, neither Marty nor Peter could figure out. She started with desserts, which her dads and grandparents had no intention of discouraging, but slowly branched out into sandwiches then more and more complex items until she was making every Sunday dinner. Like Peter, she had a small frame, but was a bundle of energy and was a natural fit with her `cousin', as they called each other, to lead the kitchen.
Balancing the plates would have been difficult for anyone and the 6'3" Kenzo seemed like an especially unlikely candidate. But Nate and Midori's slim, handsome son, with his pile of straight black hair, had grown up on a surfboard in Hawaii where he developed extraordinary balance that was only outpaced by his sometimes extravagant daring-do.
As he approached the adults table, he slowly bent at the knees, setting the plate on a glide path between his `uncles' Peter and Marty.
`Ok, you can take it now!' Kenzo said as he bent halfway down and crouched precariously in between them.
"Oh, are these are hot dogs," Marty said, enunciating the words so that his now near-deaf partner could understand him. "I was hoping for hamburgers. Could you go back and get hamburgers? And make sure that there are some cheeseburgers, too, OK? Peter and I both like cheeseburgers," he said to more laughter from all the tables, as by now Kenzo had drawn his usual audience.
But the laughter was from everyone but him.
The strain of supporting the food while stooped down was a trial even for this well-conditioned athlete. As his legs began to tremble his voice got a much more plaintive tone. "Um...I'll get hamburgers...and cheeseburgers...but...could you take these now and put them on the table?"
"Would anyone like a hot dog?" Marty asked, looking around the table.
"I'm not sure," answered his father sternly. "Let me take just one and we'll see if it's cooked enough and if we like it."
"It's cooked enough, Uncle Nate!" protested KC. "Sarah cooked them perfectly,"
"I know, but maybe they could have gotten cold. You know the freezing temperatures up at those high altitudes above my son's sometimes big head!"
"Um...Oh no...Uncle Marty, please take the whole plate," Kenzo quickly interjected, "I promise I'll bring hamburgers back right away. And cheeseburgers, too," he continued, struggling to keep the tone of his voice calm even as he pleaded for relief.
"What do you think, hon?" Nate asked, looking at Midori.
"Hmm..." she said, musing. "The hot dogs just aren't quite as appetizing when the waiter is such a show off. I just don't know..."
"Please Mom, Dad, someone take the plate, I can't do this...oh no!...'
Just as the beautifully plated main course was about to fall, Peter reached over and snatched the plate off his head.
"Phew! Oh, god, thank you, Uncle Peter, thank you!!' Kenzo cried out, dropping to his knees, the wood deck shaking as he landed.
"Everyone is still hungry," his cousin Ellen said, not giving him an moment of mercy. "Time to go and get those hamburgers that you just promised everyone Hop to it!" she ordered.
Ellen and Peter and Marty's oldest daughter, Sarah, had shared a room in the cabin for the last five years. Even though they always went to different schools, with Ellen following in her pop's footsteps to Middlefield, they were still the closest of friends.
Being the oldest in their families, they had taken it upon themselves to exercise the rights of primogeniture to get the best quarters of the cabin, which in the expanded but still rustic pile meant a cozy attic dormer room supplied with two single beds flanking a multi-paned window and it's sweeping lake view. It didn't protect them from the noises coming from the dorm rooms shared by the rambunctious younger cousins, but it did get them a tiny sense of privilege which they enjoyed sharing.
"Your dads looked so happy tonight," Sarah said as she sat down on her bed, kicking off her Hello Kitty slippers, old Christmas gifts from her grandpas. They were given half in jest, but they were cute and fit her great and now felt like part of her feet after all these years.
"They both look forward to it all year," Ellen replied as she turned off the light on the nightstand that they shared and crawled in bed herself.
They both laid there, staring at the ceiling, the moonlight streaming through the window and gently illuminating the four walls around them. It had been a long and eventful day, and they were both exhausted. But they also wanted to catch up after being apart for so long.
"Did your Dads miss you being away at Middlefield? Sarah asked, turning on her side and looking at Ellen's bed.
"Yeah, for sure. But it was really kind of funny," she answered. "The day before I was going away I went into my Dads' room and plopped down next to Pop. He likes to sleep-in on weekends and so I knew he'd be there.
I started talking about which clubs and sports to join at school and was kind of just going on and on, and then he says to me, "Um...El, are you sure that you want to go away to Middlefield?"
She sat up in bed, wrapping her hands around her knees. "What do you mean," I said, turning and looking at him laying there. "I've always wanted to go. I know that Carl is a bit nervous and all, but he still wants to go, too. I know that we'll both love it."
Then he says, "Well, I just didn't want you to feel like I forced you into this, you know. I kind of dragged you guys up there for board meetings and all, and I know that I always talked it up. But now that you're actually on the cusp of leaving... you know... I just want to make sure that it's your choice. There are good schools here, too. They are a bit of a drive, I know, over to the east side, but we could make it work. I mean, if you want that."
"After being practically raised on going to Middlefield, like going to school there was as natural as the sun rising in the east, it was the most bizarre thing to hear that my pop, of all people, was suddenly getting cold feet about it," Ellen said, an incredulous look on her face.
"Were you actually having any second thoughts?" Sarah asked, now propping herself up on her arm.
"Me? Oh gosh, no! When Pop would take Carl and I along for those board meetings we'd go swimming or the library or gym or just hang out. I loved the place and couldn't wait to get there. I mean, I knew that I'd miss everyone at home and would probably have a bit of homesickness myself. But it was really the adventure that I was waiting for."
"The only worry I now had was about my Dads, but especially pop, so I scooched a little closer to him in bed, and said, "yes, it is my choice. But you know that I'll miss you and Dad," I said, and kissed him on the forehead."
"Did he get finally get used to it?"
"I think it really helped that both Carl and I love it and we tell them both so. If Carl could be on two sports in a season, he would do it, so it's paradise for him," she said as she stretched out and laid her head back down on the pillow.
"Over the years, Pop has given a ton of money to Middlefield, but, fortunately you wouldn't know it walking around campus. He gave them the new science building, but It's named after Dr and Mrs. Glynn, who originally sponsored him at school. Both my dads always try to be low-key, but it really helps Carl and I to be stealthy," she added.
"By the way, how is Uncle Peter doing these days? He seemed like he could understand me pretty well. Do you think he's OK?"
Sarah rolled back in the bed herself and stared at the wood bead-board ceiling. "He seems to go up and down. His hearing really seemed to be slipping there for a while, but I think the decline has stopped," she answered. "But we're more worried about Grandpa Mike."
"Why is that?" El, asked, turning her head to look over at Sarah in the dim moonlight.
"He's had some really bad seizures lately, the kind that used to come maybe once a year now come almost once a month. He's incapacitated for days at a time, and Grandpa Brad hardly leaves the house. He want's to be with him all the time, in case something really serious happens."
Uncle Bik and Uncle Robert and my Pop have organized all of us grandkids in shifts to stay over there with them, and I think it helps. Grandpa Mike looked pretty good today, and I think they both looked forward to the trip. But Grandpa Brad won't let him out of his sight. He's afraid that one moment that he misses will be the one moment that Grandpa Mike most needs his help.
"That can't be easy on him, for sure" Ellen replied.
"No, not at all. But Uncle Bik is preparing an intervention of sorts."
"An intervention?"
"Yeah, I think you could call it that. He's going to insist that they both come live with him and Laura. Chessie and Brady are in college, opening up more room. Their youngest, my cousin Mike, who's still in grade school, is really close to them and keeps suggesting that his namesake Grandpa Mike could remodel their house for all of them to fit in."
"it sounds like a good plan if everyone is up for it," Ellen said.
"The only problem was that we all wanted to have them. Uncle Robert and Aunt Rhonda offered to add an extra wing on their house, and of course my parents and us girls would have lover to have them, too."
Ellen chuckled. "I hear of a lot o kids whose parent's jut want to put the grandparents away. You guys fight to get them. That can be a hassle of course, but it's better than the other way around."
"Yeah, you're right. And it was settled the old fashioned way, kind of like us in getting this room, with Uncle Bik exercising the right of the first born," she said with a chuckle. Uncle Robert and my Pop laughed at him, but he hung in there and it at least served as place for them to start negotiating."
"Did they give your Grandpas any say in the decision," Ellen asked, her smile noticeable even in the dim light.
"You know, not really," Sarah replied. "I think Grandpa Brad is just overwhelmed and was really looking for help. Not so much with the work, he'd do anything for Grandpa Mike. But just emotionally. He's mind is only on Grandpa Mike right now and practically nothing else."
"But everyone thinks that it's good for him to be around family. Part of the negotiation was that Uncle Robert's family would take them on vacations at least once a year and that everyone would come to our house for Sunday dinner.
"Did you insist on the dinner invitation so that you could cook? Ellen teased her cousin.
"Well, I can deny some self interest in making that suggestion," she replied with a laugh. "They can both be adventurous with food, so I'd like to think that they will look forward to it. I mean, they come over periodically now, but a regular thing is the next step."
"But you'll be off to college next year yourself?"
"We'll, my Dad says we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, I've got three captive families for my food experiments. So I can't wait to start."
Two bedrooms away, Kenzo and his cousin Carl were also laying back in their beds after a long day of picnicking, swimming, and hiking. Their bedroom was in a similar arrangement as the girls, with two single beds resting against the outside wall, a window and shared nightstand in between them, but their view was more of the local mountains with just a corner of the lake.
Carl spun a soccer ball between his fingers, while Kenzo was finishing up a text to his Dad about going kayaking the next day. The Kayaks reminded him of the dug-out canoes back in Hawaii and he was looking forward to races across the lake.
"Boy, El was all over my case out there!" Kenzo proclaimed as his fingers danced across the phone screen.
You should be grateful to Uncle Peter, he saved your bacon, boy!" his cousin responded as he balanced the ball on one finger while lying on his back in the bed. "
"Yeah, he sure did. Thank god! He save me from eternal retribution from your sister, " Kenzo acknowledged as they both laughed.
"I'm so glad that your Dads have this place. It's a blast to see get together and see everyone," he added.
`Yeah, you know, the group, this kind of makeshift family, it's just grown over the years, like this cabin," he replied, putting the ball down next to him on bed and waving his hand at the room. "When I was really small, this was just an attic. But my Dad's hired Uncle Mike to see if he could expand it and he did all sorts or neat things to create these cool little rooms. I really like to come down here and just chill sometimes."
"My brother Steve begs Dad to bring him down here, too. He's totally into astronomy and it's really dark down here at night. No cities around, so nothing of what he calls `light pollution."
"It was so cool the other night when set up his telescope and we could see the surface of the moon," Kenzo said.
"Yeah, and it's not just that," Carl continued. "You can see so much in the sky from down here, even without the telescope. I don't know all the constellations like Steve does, but even I like to just lay down and look at all the stars. It's incredible."
"He built that telescope himself, you know," Carl added. "Did you know that it's just a cardboard tube, with some lenses fitted into it?"
"Really?" Kenzo, asked, turning toward his cousin. "Oh my god, no I didn't realize that. He's a pretty mechanically minded kid."
"That he is, a lot more than anyone else in the family. My Dads offered to buy him a fancy telescope, but he really wanted to make his own so he went ahead and did it. Jeeze, he's a couple years younger than me but I could never do that. It's got a million other little parts, none of them really meant for a telescope. But he'd spent hours in the basement at that big old round table. Just putting stuff together."
"That table, the one in the corner of the basement, it's a mess with, glue, paint, cuts, burns, all sorts of gouges and marks. I think that it may even have come with the house. But he makes all sorts of other things down there, too, like model cars and model airplanes. But the telescope is his pride and joy, I think," Carl continued.
"He could have sold tickets to the viewing. Everyone was patiently lined up, Even El," Kenzo replied.
"Yeah, her and Sarah could have set up a concession stand and made some money," Carl added as they both laughed before there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Kenzo answered.
"Hey," Drew said as he cracked open the door and leaned around the edge. "Are you guys taking evening visitors?"
"Sure, Uncle Drew," Kenzo answered as he put away his phone.
"I just wanted to say goodnight to both of you. Me and Midori and Uncle Peter are making the rounds this evening to `tuck in' all you kids," he said, using his fingers for air quote as he stepped into the room.
"Thanks, good night to you and Uncle Mickey, too," Kenzo replied,
"The same, Dad, tell Pop good night, too," Carl seconded.
"Oh, by the way, Dad, do you want to go kayaking with us tomorrow morning. Kenzo and I are organizing a regatta," he said, getting a guffaw from his cousin.
"Flotilla might be more like it," Kenzo added. " laughing at his own joke. "But the more the merrier. Can you and Uncle Mickey come?"
"Sounds like fun, guys," Drew replied. "I'll ask him, I think that he'll definitely be interested," Drew replied. "Do we have enough kayaks for everyone?
"I'm not sure, we'll do a head count in the morning. I've texted all the cousins and everyone else earlier and we've got about 10 so far. if we don't have enough we'll just do relays, so that everyone can join in," Carl replied.
Mickey and Drew were always concerned that Kenzo and his younger sister, Aki, might not adjust well to life in the Midwest, especially for an avid surfer and `beach bum' like Kenzo. But, like he showed by his antics at dinner, he turned out to be a kid who always figured out a way to have a good time. Much to Drew and Mickey's relief and his own proud parents sometimes exasperation.
After bantering with his son and nephew for a few more minutes he was off to the bunk bed room with the younger cousins, their giggling and laughing beckoning down the hall.
Turning to Kenzo after his Dad left, Carl said, "After knowing a lot of kids at Middlefield, I guess I appreciate my Dad's good night visits more than I used to."
"What do you mean" Kenzo asked, propping himself up on his arm.
"There's a few students, really from the wealthier families, whose parents use Middlefield as a kind of catered warehouse for their kids. They just pay tuition, and, `presto!', there are surrogate parents and family on demand."
"It's like they sort of buy their kids a family, rather than providing one themselves. These are often the parents who make a very showy participation in all sorts of charities, hopping all over the place doing good deeds for children and poor people, but they ship their own kids off and out of the way," he added before reached down with his lanky arm and putting the ball underneath the bed.
"You know," he said as he scooched his own tall frame up on toward the wooden headboard, his feet still almost touching the bottom of the small twin bed. "If I had known how hard it would be for my parents to drop me off at Middlefield, I might have had second thoughts. When I hugged them to say goodbye, I'll never forget them both shaking, trying to control themselves and not cry in front of me."
"I think that I always kind of took them for granted, but now that we've had time apart, I guess that I appreciate them a lot more. Middlefield for Ellen and me was always an opportunity, but it's not an easy one in some ways, like being away from your parents."
"I wish you had come to Middlefied, too," Carl added. "I think that you would have enjoyed it."
Staring at the ceiling, Kenzo responded, "Yeah, it would have been an adventure, for sure. But my grandpa and grandma really need help as they've gotten older, and I guess I'm too much of an island boy, too," he said before adding, "And besides, that it's just too damn cold there!"
"That's not hard to notice with you," Carl responded, laughing. "That one time that you and Aki came back with us during the winter, oh my god, I thought that you were shivering for practically the entire week."
"I was!" Kenzo responded, as he grabbed a small stuffed moose of the nightstand and threw it as his cousin, "it was like 5 degrees. And all that white stuff on the ground. Who can live like that, let alone get an education,"
The house echoed with laughter and conversation into the night. Before turning in, Mickey and Drew would often walk the halls, listening to the sounds of their big extended family, some related and some not. They couldn't understand what anyone was saying, but the just murmurs of voices, the squeaks of doors and the thuds of dropping shoes, even the flushing of toilets, was all the evidence they needed of the vitality of the relationships that they had created over their almost tow decades of married life.
After their stroll tonight they sat on the lakeside porch as the moon glistened over the calm water of the lake.
"You know something, Drew?"
"What's that?"
There was the sound of crickets before he answered.
"I don't want this to end."
"Me, neither, "Drew replied, softly. "The first night is such a peak. Everyone makes it here for that big meal by the kids, which is always really good, and each year the entertainment from Kenzo and the rest of them gets better and better, whether they intend it or not," he said as they both laughed.
"What a kid! He's got so much energy, but not only him. They're all so much fun and so interesting! And your dad often says how much Steve reminds him of himself."
"And that's why," he continued, leaning into Drew, "I try to grab the moment, savor it. I almost enjoy the weeks ahead more than being here. When I want time to move fast, it moves slow, it crawls. But when I'm here, it's the opposite, I want time to move slow, to just stop. It's like I'm driving a car and trying to put on the brakes. But it seems to just move even faster."
"Drew smiled. "Yeah, I know, I feel the same way. Gosh, I know that we Facetime a lot with Nate and Midori and all, but seeing Kenzo and Aki every 6 months, it's a shock each time to see how they've grown."
"Yeah, my Mom says the same thing. It's bad enough with our own kids, and Peter and Marty's and Bik and Laura's, Casey's, everyone. It's hard to believe that Chessie has graduated college already."
"Yeah, that's really a shocker. And even kind of shocking that she and Brady still find time to come, when it's totally elective for them."
"Well, we did let her bring her boyfriend," Drew replied, chuckling.
"I'm sure that helped," Mickey replied, his hand slapping the skin of Drew's leg below hem of the plaid shorts that were his summer uniform at the lake.
The crickets seemed to turn up the volume for a few minutes, then quieted down again.
"You know, Drew, I'm the luckiest person around, I have great life," he said as he reached down again and squeezed Drew's leg.
Putting his arm around Mickey's neck, Drew reached over and massaged what he knew would be aching muscles.
To think the Mickey could say something like that, which was not that rare, never ceased to move him. Mickey had suffered the worst betrayal by a parent that a child could have and was literally left with the scars to show it. Then he spent years putting his heart and soul into successfully saving a floundering company that should have been doomed to failure, inheriting responsibility for the livelihoods of thousands of families. `He's gone through so much!' he thought.
But then again, Drew had his usual rejoinder.
"No, pal," he replied, gently scratching Mickey's chin, careful to avoid touching any still sensitive scars, "that would be me."
They both continued to look at the lake, the surface now like glass.
Drew thought back at that college lecture hall, all those years ago, and how that one class, that one moment, had transformed both their lives.
Thanks, everyone, for taking this journey with me. I appreciate your patience and also the many kind words that I've heard from readers. Special thanks go to Dick and Tony, my editors, who have tag teamed that task and have been a continual source of knowledge and advice.
My plan is to release a new story around the new year. For this new series, I'm going to complete the writing before publishing so that there is a more regular, probably one week, interval between chapters. Let me know if you'd like to know when it's published and I'll put you on a new mailing list.