George's urgent phone call

Rosa calmly walked outside on to the deck where her father was sitting as usual reading his newspaper. He appeared to be very engrossed in an article. Every now and then he would shake his head.

“Something bad you’re reading?” Rosa asked sitting down on her mother’s lounge chair holding a bagel and cream cheese in her wing.

George looked over at his daughter and smiled, “oh no, nothing bad. I’m just thinking about the phone call I had earlier with Mr Harrison.”

“Oh,” replied Rosa taking another bite out of the bagel and remarking upon how good they were.

“Yes,” George agreed, “I think Chaim outdid himself this time.” Rosa shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t a connoisseur and so one bagel to her was as good as another, as long the person baking them had a Jewish first or last name. George thought for a second before lowering his newspaper and taking a good hard look at his daughter. Rosa wasn’t paying attention to her father. She was too busy eating her bagel and looking out at the ocean where a group of young sandpipers were chasing the waves.

“You and mummy didn’t have more chicks while we were at school, did you?” she asked innocently and George after glancing down at the beach laughed.

“No Rosa. Those are the Harrison chicks. You’ve never met them before.”

“No, but I know Mr Harrison. He’s the deputy principal of my school.”

“Correct,” replied George, “and that’s why I asked you to ask him to call me. I just didn’t expect him to call me that quickly. Any idea why? The first thing he asked was how I was.”

“No daddy. But isn’t that what everyone says on the phone, how are you?”

“Yes, but he seemed concerned.” George thought for a long second before asking his daughter the question that had been bugging him. “What is it you said to make him call so quickly? Usually, he doesn’t call me back until at least a week later and sometimes longer.” Rosa pointed to her beak. “Take your time young lady, thank you for letting me know your mouth is full.”

The sliding door opened and father and daughter looked up. They knew who it was. “Hi mummy,” said Rosa now that her mouth was empty. She knew her mother wanted her to get off her chair, but Rosa wasn’t ready to. Sybil stood there and folded her wings while Rosa turned to her father. “I told him that you wanted to talk to him and then asked him to call you sometime between now and before you die.”

Sybil screamed with laughter forgetting the reason she was standing there with her wings crossed and George wasn’t sure whether he should laugh or cry. He thought for a second while Sybil kept laughing. The sound of her laughter was unusual. That brought Julia and Timmy out onto the deck to see what all the fuss was about, while Brenda slept and Melody and Herman had gone to Sneads Ferry to work out the remaining details about the upcoming world pickleball championship. Julia and Timmy stood there for a second savouring the scene, because it wasn’t often they heard their mother laugh.

George by then had figured out what he was going to say. “So, that’s why he thought there was something wrong with me.” Rosa had finished her bagel and cream cheese but still remained on her mother’s chair. “Why did you say that to Mr Harrison?”

“Well, daddy,” explained Rosa using her bizarre logic. “You’re as old as dirt. At least that’s what Anjali thinks and so do I. I don’t know when you’re going to die. So that’s why I said that.”

George became a little more serious. “Well young lady, I’m not quite that old. I hope there are many years before I decide to depart life.”

“I hope so too daddy. But you never know,” and she emphasised, “it did the job, didn’t it? He called you before you died. And he called you almost immediately after he made sure we were all in class and the two Caster twins didn’t try to flush each other down the toilet.”

By now, both Timmy and Julia were laughing at their sister’s logic, while Sybil had laughed long enough. She then decided to push the issue and walked closer to her chair. Rosa got up and walked over to the sliding glass door. She was about to slide it open when she turned and said, “daddy, why are the Harrison chicks here in our ocean?”

“Well, it’s not just ours. It belongs to everyone.”

“Yes, but it’s in front of our nest. Why can’t they go somewhere else?”

“Rosa dear,” began George, “we don’t own that beach in front of our nest, it belongs to everyone.”

“Oh,” replied Rosa, knowing what her father was about to say.

“Is that why Mr Harrison had left me a message at the business yesterday? Hmm, I wonder who told him that we owned everything between our nest and Africa.”

“Well daddy,” Rosa replied immediately. “You’re the one who told me that.”

“When?” George finally folded his newspaper knowing that the chances of him continuing to read were slim to none, now that the entire family with the exception of Brenda, were on the deck and she would probably be waking up soon.

“You come out here every morning and stretch and say welcome world, it’s me. And then you shout hello Africa! so I thought we owned everything between here and Africa.”

George was about to explain himself when he stopped. Brenda had woken up and Sybil, who had just sat down, groaned and got up from the chair. “I can get her,” said Rosa.

Sybil knew differently, “no, that’s ok little one, I’ll get her,” and with that, she opened the door and disappeared inside, only to reappear a minute or so later with Brenda in her wings. “Where’s Wicket?” asked Rosa noticing that Brenda’s shadow wasn’t with her.

“He’s cleaning up in Brenda’s room,” replied Sybil. Brenda giggled. “It looks like Wicket had been eating some of Brenda’s cereal and spilled it on the floor. So, I told him to stay there and clean up.”

Timmy and Julia rolled their eyes. Their mother was back to normal and so they both went inside, while Rosa followed them to see if there were more bagels for her, while George decided his dream had come true and he could finish reading his newspaper. However, a minute after he had picked up his paper, he felt something drop in his lap. “Your turn,” said Sybil putting Brenda in his lap. “I need to go back inside and make sure Wicket is cleaning up. The last time he spilled something, he called his family in to eat the stuff and Brenda’s room was filled with crickets,” and with that, she slammed the door behind her. Brenda looked at her father and proceeded to drool on his newspaper.

“Why me?” he asked.

“We’re back!” shouted Melody echoed by Herman, “we are going to be stars,” Herman shouted not expanding on his comment. The Harrison chicks screamed with delight as a wave washed over them and George closed his eyes wondering how far Africa really was.