some trepidation regarding their worry about me, I knew that I’d still travel even without their sanctioning it.
“Helen…” Michael said shaking his head.
“Michael, the fact that you and Lu responded to Charlie’s call for help showed Charlie that his needs and worries are valid. For you guys to give him that kind of support means the world to me. Thank you. Do you want me to talk to Lu?”
Again Michael just shook his head as though I were being unreasonable.
“Baby,” my turn to use the endearment.
“Charlie isn’t finished with what he has to say about this trip and the time that it took from me and I’m all for getting our worries out on the table. Just like you and Lu, Charlie has to know that I’m all in this and plan to do more exploring. Just the fact that we can travel calls for me to do it.” I tried to explain.
Done with that particular conversation, I took Michael’s hand and pulled him along with me to the kitchen.
“Charlie’s going to be hungry when he wakes up. Let’s go get dinner going.” I suggested.
We tabled the talk about red travel and took care of fixing dinner. Michael and I were a good team in the kitchen and had the house smelling wonderful from the mushrooms and garlic that simmered in the sauté pan.
Michael went to the garden to gather the produce for the meal and then fixed the salad. The new potatoes were par-boiled and waiting for further treatment and the asparagus waited for its attention while we went to see about our mates.
Charlie was just waking up and reached for me as soon as he saw me. I slipped out of my clothes and curled in next to him. We coupled and expressed our love in a number of ways. Charlie was really good at loving me and I gave to him in equal measure.
“What you got cookin’ that smells so good?” Charlie whispered in my ear.
“Something you’ll like, I’m just sure of it.” I responded.
After Michael and I roused Lu and Charlie, the four of us met in the kitchen to finish fixing dinner. Charlie and Lu jumped right in with what needed doing. Michael grilled the steaks and I finished up the treatment for the asparagus and the potatoes. Michael requested that we also make corn bread. It was a really good meal and the time spent at the dining table was comfortable and fun.
We talked about the coming trip to London and the fact that Denice and Sam, my sister and her husband, as well as Amanda and Rick, Charlie’s sister and her husband would be there for most of the week. Michael let us know that he would be at the welcoming dinner.
The dinner that Michael spoke of was hosted by Wyatt and Millie. Wyatt is my English barrister, and Millie is the manager of the ‘Three Women’ London office. The dinner was held at ‘The Miles’. ‘The Miles’ is the grand residence that housed the London office of ‘Three Women’ and was part of the inheritance I received from Mr. Miles K. Henley, deceased, previous owner of Tut.
At the mention of my sister’s name Michael’s ears perked up; he likes my sister as everyone does. What’s not to like? She’s one hundred percent gracious in everything she does even when she’s being a gorgeous clown. She’s striking to look at, completely put together, beautiful and acutely astute. She’s not only my sister and business partner; she’s my very best girl friend and female confidante. Even though our roles have changed in each other’s lives, due to our ‘best friend’ husbands, we have an understanding of and are card carrying members of the sisterhood of women and will always make ourselves available for the other when called upon. She is a co-founder of ‘Three Women’ a house of design. Amanda joined the team to make it a threesome; my sister, Amanda, and me. We could boast two offices, one in San Francisco – the home office and the other in London within ‘The Miles’.
Without warning I changed the topic to get to what I wanted to discuss.
“Since the last time the two of you were here I’ve been thinking about travel and how it could relate to Charlie and Lu, now that we know they can see the particles. I’d like to schedule a time when we can teach them to travel – first just a short trip with one of us monitoring at all times. Then after that’s been mastered maybe we can talk about multiple riders on a red travel adventure.”
I sat back and watched the response from each of them. Lu carried a worried look and Michael was shaking his head in the affirmative whereas Charlie put his head down and had nothing to say.
Looking at Michael, I continued.
“Another question is whether or not our power to ascend would be any greater or if we would have any more control with the addition of another connected person along.”
The three of them just sat there with looks of frustration probably because of me and my incessant need to push the limits; I really was trying to be tactful and say things without scaring them any further.
“Why don’t you guys just think about that and we’ll talk more about it on the way to the airport in the morning?”
I stood up and said, “Time to clear.”
We made short work of the dishes and kitchen clean up before we went to the ‘Catch Room’ for a challenging ‘Group Catch’. Our ‘Catch Room’ was something for Charlie to be proud of. He created a bleacher seat section with luxury cushioned seats; he also made the prototype of the ‘Tote/Score Board’ that my son Kevin designed to impart to the audience the step by step status of each catch.
Charlie programmed the board to call the players to the chairs; he liked to use playful names for each of us. That night Charlie and I were the Twiddles, Dee and Dumb, Michael and Lu were the good eggs, Humpty and Dumpty.
Lu of the Humpty Dumpty team began the catch with the initial honors for the Queen of the Catch.
“To our Elena queen mama excellence may she rein until I wear the crown.”
Smart girl, she put both Michael and Charlie a bit off balance while they laughed at her. She was cute and funny and knew what she was doing.
“Twiddle Dumb.”
She called and then she sent the object in Charlie’s direction wobbling all over the place.
Her pitch added to her distraction but Charlie was up to the match and caught and returned the object with some fun speed that looked really nice but wasn’t that difficult to catch. Always Charlie carried the proper attitude of the catch and practically willed the catcher to catch his pitch, no matter how fast or challenging.
“Dumpty.”
Lu called and sent the object to Michael in a girly side arm which turned out to be another distraction. Michael bobbled the pitch off the end of his fingers. Both Charlie and I dove for the missed pitch. Charlie got there first and knocked the object into the air where I intercepted it.
“Dumpty.”
I called and sent Michael a respectably fast curve which he was again unable to control but when he bobbled it, no one could save him.
Michael sat in the bleacher seats and watched as the ‘Tote Board’ announced the change with Dumpty’s elimination and showed a short cartoon with Michael throwing up his arms and sitting down but falling on his butt instead. It’s
