Читать книгу Dangerous Hilarity: The Great Adventures of the Jackson Twins, Their Family and the Dogs in Their Lives, A Novel for Teens and Young Adults and All Those Who are Young at Heart - Sioux Dallas - Страница 9

Chapter Two

The next day, in their homeroom at school, the students were eager for the holiday and too excited to think of lessons.

“Mrs. Berry,” Tim kept waving his hand in the air and even half way standing up. “Tom and I have something to share with you and the class.”

“Make it quick, Tim. We have much to cover today.”

“Our dad has been requested --” Tim started.

“You know he works for the Federal Government,” Tom butted in. “We may have to move --”

“to Alaska.” Both boys finished together. “For two or three years,” Tim bounced as he talked.

A lot of the students began talking at once with surprise and excitement. Most of them thought it was great and told the twins that they envied them. Hearing the excitement in the voices of their classmates, the twins began to feel that it might not be such a calamity after all, still they were not totally convinced that it would be a good move.

The bell rang to leave the homeroom and go to other classes. The children were clattering about the news and telling others that they met in the hall. The twins were momentarily pleased at the attention.

Herb had been giving each child ten dollars a week for an allowance which they earned by doing chores around the house. Anna earned extra money by babysitting. The twins mowed laws, shoveled snow and ran errands for people to earn extra money according to the time of the year.

Christmas at last and snow. The children loved it, but the people who had to drive to work were not pleased. The twins each got skis and Anna got a motor bike for their main presents. The twins also received a complete set of ‘Harry Potter’ books. Herb got books he enjoyed written by John Grisham, Ken Follett and Frank Patterson. Irene got a hundred dollar gift certificate to a local spa for a day of relaxation and pampering. The three children had pooled their money and purchased tickets for a stage play and a dinner for their parents. Everyone received smaller gifts.

The twins went to friends’ houses to compare gifts. Anna left with two girlfriends to go to another friend’s house. She could hardly wait to get their reaction to the possible move to Alaska.

The new year came with a lot of celebrating. The Jacksons celebrated with friends at the Emerald Greens Country Club, and had a great time. The thought often ran through their minds that this might be the last time they’d do this for a long time. The Fairfax Fire Department put on a display of fireworks and ended with a giant rose and the American flag in the sky. The police bagpipe and drum marching band furnished music.

January brought more cold weather and the fulfillment of many plans. “It was so wonderful. We collected enough to adopt two families. It was touching to share in their pleasure,” Irene was pleased that her class had a successful project. Her ideas for the Main Street Art Festival were accepted and plans were made to print brochures for distribution to business places and to the public.

“Ya hah!” Tom dodged a snowball thrown by Alex Baughman. Then Tom shot one and hit the scout leader. The twins and fourteen other boys enjoyed the camp-out even in cold January on a long weekend. Fortunately there was only a light dusting of snow. In spite of the bitter weather the boys enjoyed hiking through the safe areas of the Blue Ridge Mountains, plotting different trails according to the maps provided by forest rangers, and learning to find their way back to camp with a compass.

Tom was bouncing around. “Zowee! Isn’t this great,” he exclaimed. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”

“Yeah,” Danny Garrison stated, “think of all you’ll be missing if you go to Alaska and we’ll be here doing a lot of fun things. You won’t be here to enjoy them,” he said with a sneer.

“Stuff it, Danny.” Mark Tully said. “You’re just jealous that they’re going to get a great adventure and you won’t have a chance to do as much.”

“Ha. Who wants to go to old Alaska with the cold, ice and dangerous animals?” Danny answered with a twisted grin. Privately he was envious. Starbursts of anger shot through his mind as he thought of what he considered the injustice of it all. Why can’t I ever have a chance to do something fun or go somewhere so cool?

“I would love to be going,” Benjamin Dyang yelled.

“Besides, they’ll have a chance to do more fun things than we’ll ever get to do,” Jed Winters proclaimed.

“It’s going to be a fantastic experience,” Ed Warden, the scout leader, said. “We’re all glad your family will have this opportunity and we’ll be waiting anxiously for you to return and share with us.”

Come on, boys,” the assistant leader, Ben Sturgill called. “We have to get back to camp so we can prepare supper and get ready for bed.”

Tim walked happily on talking to different ones, but Tom hung back walking more slowly and thoughtfully. How can Tim and I get out of going to Alaska? I have to think of something.

The boys stuck wieners on sticks and cooked them over the fire. Chili was heated in a big pot. The boys squirted cheese out of a bottle on the hot dogs and sometimes on each other. There was a selection of chopped onions (brought from home in plastic bags), relish, mustard, ketchup and baked beans. They had left white potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil baking in the hot ashes. Two older boys (Eagle Scouts) had stayed behind to watch the fire and the camp supplies. Later the boys roasted marshmallows on sticks over the fire while the two leaders told ghost stories. The boys then washed, brushed their teeth with water from the melted snow and slid down into warm sleeping bags inside tents. Camping lanterns were in each tent for warmth and light and, in some cases, for comfort.

February flew by and then March rolled around with cool but sunny days. People were dressed warmly and happily enjoying the big street festival that had followed a huge parade of fourteen floats, four high school bands and a marching bagpipe and drum band. A great horse group had marched and demonstrated how their hoses danced to music. A few people had decorated their pets and walked with them. One woman had dressed her little black poodle in a doll’s dress and pushed her in a baby carriage. The Shriners had funny little cars, clowns and several marching groups.

Two blocks had been roped off so that people could walk freely but vehicles could not drive through. There were loads of arts and crafts booths, a face painting booth for the children, several food booths and various business booths that gave out goodies to advertise their particular business. An artist sat on the sidewalk doing caricatures of people for five dollars which would be donated to the city fund for youth programs. A new bakery was giving out tiny donuts and cookies. The longest line was at the booth selling funnel cakes.

Some of the police demonstrated the agility and obedience of their dogs. The dogs ran through an obstacle course and then showed how they followed commands with hand signals as well as voice.

Irene began to make preparations for their move with a reluctant Anna and even more reluctant twins helping. They conferred on lists of things to do, things to take and things to store until they returned to Virginia. Time passed much too quickly.

Anna gradually began to talk with more interest after finding her friends were interested. The twins only expressed themselves when someone brought up the subject.

With a lot of groaning and excuses from the twins, Irene took all of them for medical check-up and dental care. Even Galena visited her veterinarian. Irene reminded them, “All medical records will be taken with us, but school records will be sent. Now let’s go home and see what clothes we can take and what we need to buy. We’ll be needing far different clothing than we do here.

Galena busily inspected all of the packed boxes and items left on the beds to be packed while she went from room to room supervising. Irene was exasperated one day to discover that she would place an item in a box and look around to see Galena industriously unpacking by taking the item in her mouth and dropping it somewhere in the house. Well. She was helping, wasn’t she?

During March Herb planned to leave to meet his crew and find a house for his family. He promised to call as often as possible and to take pictures so the family would have an idea what to expect. One evening he called the family together.

“Anna, I know I can count on you to help your mother and relieve her whenever possible. Boys, I’m counting on you to take care of your mother and sister and be a help instead of a hindrance. Remember, Galena is old and will need a lot of care and attention. Her age is about seven times that of a year of yours, so take good care of her.”

In April Anna celebrated her fifteenth birthday in Paris with her school group. Her family would have a birthday celebration when she returned. After talking to several friends about her move, she began to feel a little better about leaving Fairfax. Of course she would miss everyone, but it would be exciting to make new friends in Alaska.

In May the twins celebrated their thirteenth birthday with a super party. At one o’clock they had a cook-out in the back yard and games galore with eighteen boys that were invited. Tom had vetoed inviting girls with the explanation that girls didn’t want to get dirty and they would be playing rough games. They played a tug-of-war, touch football, volleyball and several others.

The boys argued over who would cook the burgers and hot dogs on the grill until Irene just stood back and let them have at it. She smiled to herself thinking that half of them would scream indignantly if they were required to help at their own homes. The potato salad, baked beans, tomatoes, pickles and chips vanished as if a magician had waved a wand. Anna could hardly believe that the boys could eat all they had and still demolish two sheet cakes and four gallons of ice cream with twenty-eight cartons of soft drinks.

Some of the parents had offered to help, but Irene thanked them graciously and said she and Anna could handle it with the help of the boys.

The parents and other neighbors were invited to come later for a grown-up gathering.

“This is super,” Dan Baxter said around a mouth full of food. “A cook-out’s great, but the skating will be fun, too. Course this isn’t the end.” He almost choked when Jacob Solomon quickly placed his hand over Dan’s mouth and Enrique Cabrera glared at him. The twins were too busy opening gifts to pay attention to Dan.

At five o’clock the boys left to go to the skating rink and Anna went to a friend’s house to meet a group to go to a movie. The adults gathered with Irene each bringing food and beverages and lots of curiosity about the move.

The twins ran back to the house at eight-thirty just as a taxi pulled up. Slowly crawling out of the taxi, Herb was smiling as he walked tiredly to the group in the back yard. After greeting Herb and hearing about his trip, the neighbors went home and the Jackson family were together alone at last. Galena was so happy to see Herb that he could not sit without her trying to climb in his lap. Herb was happy to be back with his family and had a lot of news about Alaska and their new home.