Adam Blake - 19. Chapter 19

I woke early Wednesday morning and was making coffee when Mom came into the kitchen.

“How was dinner last night?” Now I knew the word is out and she had talked to Jennifer.

“It was very nice. Jennifer is a good cook. I had fun with Scotty and when I told him I was going to Disney and asked if he wanted to come along, he ran and wanted to start packing. Jennifer got him quieted down, we’re leaving after they have breakfast.” I knew that wasn’t what my mom wanted to hear, so I waited for the next questions.

“Jennifer said that one of her friends was going to be there.”

“Yes, he was there, a nice fellow.”

Mom looked at me, “It was sup..” She stopped, I looked at her and she knew she slipped up.

“Mom, don’t start the parade. It’ll happen when it happens and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I’m not looking into getting married because I’m getting older or feel lonely. I meet a lot of people and when the right one comes along, I’ll know and so will you.”

“You’re right and I’m sorry. I see how your face lights up when you speak of Bill and Jennifer’s kids. I want the same for you.”

“Mom, if it happens, it happens. There are a lot of kids that need a home and maybe that’ll be my destiny instead of being married and having my own kids. I never was anxious about girls, even in high school while the other guys were chasing skirts my vision was on school and getting ahead scholastically. I’m happy, just give it time.”

Dad came in as Mom started to make breakfast, “I take it didn’t work?”

Mom just glared at Dad. “I told her to stay out of it. I think there’s something built into a woman that says every man must have a woman and that mission is theirs to fulfill.”

“Dad, better cool it or you won’t get breakfast.”

We laughed and pretty soon Mom joined in. Breakfast finished, I went and packed for the trip and my meeting. Leaving I kissed Mom, “Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll marry the princess.” Yep, that got me a loving slap on my backside as I left.”

Arriving at Bill's, I had to laugh. Scotty was sitting on the front porch with his suitcase. As soon as I got out of the car, he tried to pick up his case and run to me. I was afraid he would fall so I quickly moved to take the suitcase. “Where were you? Breakfast was over an hour ago.”

That wasn’t true but when you are a kid, 15 minutes seems like an hour when you are excited. I took his suitcase and put it in the car’s trunk. Scotty got into the car when he saw me head toward the house, “Uncle Adam, where are you going?”

“Scotty, isn’t there someone else coming? I don’t see his suitcase and I need to say hello to your mom and dad.” Scotty got out of the car and took my hand as we walk into the house.

“Adam, we’re glad to see you. Guess who was up at 6 this morning wanting to pack his bag.”

“Where’s Billy? We can’t leave without Billy.”

The next thing I knew Scotty was pulling Billy to the door. “Uncle Adam, I need to eat something before we leave.”

“Ok, Billy you go and have some breakfast while I put the suitcases in the trunk. Scotty, come and help me.”

I didn’t have to say that twice. As soon as we put the cases in the trunk, Scotty was sitting in the back seat of my car. “I’m going to check on Billy. Wait for me before you drive off.” I was chuckling at the expression on Scotty’s face.

“Adam, a cup of coffee while you wait for Billy to have his breakfast?”

“Yes, thanks, Jen.”

I watched Billy eat, he was eating very slow and I knew he was teasing Scotty, who was waiting in the car. You can only stall for so long, when Billy was finished he wanted to brush his teeth. I decided two can play his game, I thanked Jen for the coffee and headed to the car. I started the car, beeped the horn, and made like I was leaving. The door flew open and Billy was sprinting to the car. “Were you going to leave without me?”

“Now would I do that?” He just looked at me. Billy got in the front seat and buckled his seat belt. “You know Billy sometimes teasing is fun and sometimes it isn’t. Because it took you so long to eat your breakfast, Scotty won’t have as much time today to enjoy the park.” Guilt trip number one

“I’m sorry Adam. I knew Scotty was looking forward to this trip. I shouldn’t have teased him by making him wait.”

Scotty looked at Billy and smiled. Billy was his hero and in Scotty’s eyes, he could do no wrong.

The drive was pleasant, we talked about Billy running, Scotty said he was going to start running as well. We smiled at that. “I think you’re Scotty’s idol. That’s a big responsibility, you’re his big brother and he looks up to you. Everything you do he’ll want to do as well. You’ll need to help him because you never know when you’ll need him to help you. I never had a brother so I think you’re pretty lucky.”

Billy turned around in his seat, “Scotty is asleep”

The drive to Disney would take a good 8 hours. “Uncle, are we going to stop for lunch?”

“Yes, I thought we should stop at about 2 and then plan on having dinner at Disney. What do you think about that? Scotty is still sleeping so we can wait.”

Billy looked at me with a grin as he pulled an apple from his jacket pocket and began to eat it. Smart kid, I know he was teasing me with the apple.

“Did you know that apples have a lot of sugar in them?”

“He looked like he wanted to toss the apple, I started to laugh. “You just want a bite of my apple.”

I laughed and that woke Scotty up. “Are we there yet?”

“No, Scotty, we have a long way to go. But soon we’ll stop for lunch, are you hungry?”

“Uh-huh”

“Well, I guess we’ll stop soon.” I looked at my watch, we had been on the road for 4 hours. I guess it was time for lunch. “Billy, check the signs for a restaurant and we’ll stop for lunch. Scotty is hungry.”

“Hey, I’m hungry as well.”

“Yes, but you are Scotty’s guest so we need to let Scotty decide when we stop.” I looked at Billy and winked, he knew I was saying that for Scotty’s benefit.

We drove for another 30 minutes before we saw a sign for a diner. Billy pointed out the sign, we followed the turnoff and soon we pulled into the diner’s parking lot.

“Do you think they have a jukebox?”

“Probably not, they look like a modern diner. They will have what is called canned music that is downloaded from a provider as they have in supermarkets.”

Entering the diner, a waitress told us we could sit anywhere we liked. I steered the boys toward a table with a window. The waitress came and took our drink orders and dropped off the menus. Scotty wanted a hot dog while Billy and I took chef’s salad, dressing on the side.

When she brought our food, Scotty’s eyes grew large at the size of his hotdog. “Do you think you can eat all of that?”

He looked at me and then the hotdog, I smiled as he began to tackle his lunch. To his credit, he ate the hotdog before he ate any french fries

“These are large salads, can we get a doggie bag?”

“Why do you want a doggie bag? We don’t have a dog with us.”

Laughing, “I just want to take it with us. When you go to a restaurant and can’t eat everything they put it in a container so you can take it with you. It’s called a doggie bag.”

“So if I don’t finish my lunch I can take what I don’t eat with me?”

“Yes, but we don’t have a way to heat your food. So you would have to eat your french fries cold.”

“That’s ok Scotty, eat what you can. We’ll stop for dinner once we get where we’re going.”

I decided I didn’t want to take my leftover lunch with me but Billy did ask for a doggie bag. Paying our tab, leaving a tip, we left to continue our trip. We had about another 4 hours of driving before we reached Disney.