Rosa's lunch with Julia

“What would you like for lunch?” Julia asked Rosa, when she came out onto the deck where the entire family except Brenda, who was taking her late morning nap with Wicket, who was laying on his back counting the times he heard Melody scream with joy, as she played pickleball with Herman the hermit crab. They were both practicing for the all important world pickleball championship of North Topsail Beach, against two self described champions, who had recently moved there from Raleigh.

“What are you making?” asked Rosa as she watched the intense pickleball game together with some choice words shared between Melody and Herman, when one of them should’ve scored and didn’t.

George had to fly down there at one point to ask them to be careful with their language, because there were young chicks everywhere. Melody apologised profusely, while Herman rolled his eyes and uttered the word, “birds,” more than once.

“No, I’m not making anything. I thought I would fly to Sneads Ferry because a new hamburger joint opened there called 5 Guys and I thought I would get lunch for us.”

Rosa jumped out of her chair. She couldn’t believe that her eldest sister was asking her what she wanted for lunch, instead of presenting her with something like kale salad. George perked up. “That’s a wonderful idea. I don’t remember the last time I had a hamburger. Would you like one Sybil?” he asked while Sybil remained laying on her deck chair with an eye mask on pretending to be asleep. She wasn’t a big fan of hamburgers.

“Do they have chicken nuggets like Chik fil A?” she asked not moving.

Julia shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Dad, mum, I was going to get lunch just for Rosa and me and we were going to eat it by ourselves.”

“What!” shouted everyone including Timmy who came out of his room where he was still trying to launch his Lego space shuttle in low earth orbit. Both Melody and Herman stopped when they heard the shouts from the Blau deck.

“Hey guys,” shouted Herman who was tired of the numerous interruptions to the game, believing it would eventually cost them the world championships. “Hey guys, can you keep your voices down?” he added shaking his head.

Julia wasn’t pleased. “Well, the rest of you guys,” she shouted equally loudly, “can have kale salad and of course, there’s crab in the fridge. Kale salad is always good with crab on it!”

“Oy vey,” moaned Herman, “and I’m not even Jewish.” He served and the game began again in earnest.

“All right, dad. I’ll get everyone lunch, but this was meant to be a treat just for Rosa and I. So, you guys can eat out here and maybe the two of us can go downstairs and sit on the beach and watch the game, if it’s still going on.”

“Oh,” replied Sybil, her eyes still covered, “it will still be going on. They’ve been playing since 4 o’clock this morning.”

“That’s silly!” replied George putting down his newspaper, “the sun wasn’t……” and then he stopped. This was familiar territory. He knew how it was going to end, so he stopped and opened up the newspaper again. Julia took everyone’s orders and then asked her father for his Platinum American Express card.

“Well dad, I had just enough money saved for Rosa and I, not this large order.”

George pulled out his card and gave it to his daughter. “Don’t forget the receipt!” shouted Sybil as Julia began to fly away.

While she was gone, Rosa sat silently in a chair watching the tide come in and wondered if her sister was finally becoming a grown up, or if it was her. She liked the fact that Julia and her were getting on so much better since she asked Julia nicely to make some shrimp for dinner a few nights ago. Whatever it was, she whole heartedly approved.

About an hour later, Julia flew back to the nest and landed on the deck. “Where’s the food?” asked George who the whole time his daughter was away, had gone through his memory banks trying to recollect when he last had a hamburger. He knew he hadn’t had one from 5 Guys but had heard Moshe say they were very good but not kosher, he warned George, “so don’t tell Ruth, who was his wife.”

“Well dad, one hamburger I could’ve brought home with me. But it was a large order. There was no way I could’ve carried that back with me.”

“Did you get the receipt?” asked Sybil her eyes still closed.

“Yes mummy.”

“Good!” she replied taking the mask off her eyes and taking the receipt from Julia. “I haven’t photographed a receipt in a long time. I’m nearly at $5 in a gift card,” she continued while Julia was trying to explain how the food was being delivered.

“Benne in his Uber?” asked George.

“No, dad, that costs money. No, I saw the mail man. He was in 5 Guys as well and he was taking a large order home, so because he lives around here, he offered to bring our food as well.”

No sooner had she finished, than there was a loud swoop and the mail man landed on the deck, dropping off the food and without waiting for a thank you, flew quickly off into the distance. “I guess storks come in handy other than delivering babies,” said Timmy watching the stork gracefully fly away and thought that maybe he could adapt that flight pattern to his Lego spaceship.

Julia put the food on the table and everyone took their orders. “Mama!” they heard and everyone knew that Brenda was awake.

“She must’ve smelled the hamburgers. But she’s too young, she can’t have any,” said Sybil getting up from her deck chair and heading indoors.

“Where’s ours?” shouted Melody from the beach.

“Didn’t think you would like any, especially when it would interrupt your game,” replied George grinning from ear to ear.

“I gave you a free coke the other day,” replied Herman.

“There’s kale salad with crab in the kitchen if you would like some.” Julia laughed. “It’s ok guys, there’s plenty here so there’s enough for you as well. Come on Rosa,” said Julia as she picked up a hamburger and walked towards the sliding glass door. Rosa with a big grin followed her older sister into the house, where they passed Sybil carrying Brenda with Wicket on her shoulder. Wicket saw the food and smacked his lips but remained with the two birds. Finally, when they got downstairs, Rosa and Julia pulled up two chairs next to a small wicker table, where Julia placed the hamburger.

“What do you want on it, Rosa, mustard, mayo or ketchup?”

“All three,” she replied.

“All three?” shouted Julia, “that must taste awful!” But she agreed to her younger sister’s request. “Not that bad,” she replied after she took a bite of the hamburger she had cut in half.

“See,” replied Rosa, “until you try something, you should never say you don’t like it.”

Ah, thought George sitting on the deck above them listening to his two daughters’ conversation. This is what makes life great.

“Coke anyone?” asked Herman.

“Only Pepsi,” replied Sybil as George closed his eyes and turned his face up towards the sun.