By Scribe
Chapter 31 –-An Arrow No More
I awoke early the
next morning. It was still a little dark
and pretty much everyone else was still sawing logs. When I opened my eyes, I found a pair of big
brown eyes staring back at me. Richard
was awake too.
“Morning Uncle
Tommy,” he whispered.
“Good morning
munchkin,” I said and reached out to gently tweak his nose.
Richard giggled
sweetly and pulled the comforter over his head.
I glanced over to
my right and saw that Matthew was still sleeping quite soundly, cuddled up
against my side. My right arm was
wrapped around his shoulders and his little hands were gently gripping my
forearm.
Richard peeked
out from under the comforter and reached up to tweak my nose as I had done to
him. As soon as he did it, his hand shot back under the covers once again.
I reached under
the comforter and began to tickle his ribs which elicited more giggles and
started him squirming around. With the
commotion, it wasn’t long before Matthew began to stir and join in on the fun.
“Good morning
Uncle Tommy,” he said sleepily.
“Good morning
little buddy,” I replied and gave him a gentle squeeze.
It didn’t take
long for him to figure out what mischief his brother was up to and he too
started trying to tickle my side and grab my nose. I soon found myself stuck in an easy chair
with two giggling, squirming twins!
“I have to go
pee,” Matthew announced a few minutes later.
“Me too,” Richard
agreed.
“Can we have a
bubble bath this morning Uncle Tommy?” Matthew asked.
“Sure kiddo, as
long as we have some bubble bath stuff,” I replied.
The twins bounded
off me and ran into the bathroom to relieve themselves, while I began to
extricate myself from the chair. Easy
chairs weren’t really made for sleeping in but this one wasn’t that bad. I glanced around and surveyed the room. Josh was lying flat on his back snoring
softly.
I’d barely made
it out of the chair when Richard came bounding out clutching a hotel sized
bottle of bubble bath soap. “We found
some bubble bath stuff,” he announced happily.
I picked the
little guy up and carried him back into the bathroom. After setting him down on his feet, I started
the taps to fill the bathtub and poured in the bubble bath mixture. The twins squawked delightedly as the bubbles
began to form.
I reached my hand
into the water to ensure that it wasn’t too hot and then turned off the
taps. “Ok guys, go ahead and hop
in. Try not to make a big mess,” I said
and then watched in amazement as both of them shucked their pajamas and then leapt
into the tub in the blink of an eye.
“Thanks Uncle
Tommy,” they said in unison.
“Your welcome
little buddies,” I replied and went back out into the main part of the room to
leave them to their fun.
I went over to
the bed and climbed up next to Josh. I
sat with my back against the headboard and just barely managed to get settled
in when Josh rolled over, wrapped his arms around my torso and snuggled
in. The remarkable thing is that he
seemed to still be asleep when he did it.
I gently ruffled
his hair as I listened to the sound of his regular breathing, the snoring
coming from the next bed and the sounds of the twins having a ball in their
bubble bath. I couldn’t help but smile.
Not surprisingly,
Mark, who was also a morning person, was the next one to wake up.
“Good morning
Tommy,” he said with a yawn as he climbed out of bed. “Where are the twins?” he asked.
“Morning
Mark. The little guys are in the
bath. They wanted a bubble bath.”
Mark smiled. “They sure are a pair of happy little boys,”
he said thoughtfully. “Do you think
they’d mind if I went in and took a piss?” he asked, clutching the front of his
briefs and doing a little dance on the floor.
“I don’t think
they’d mind at all,” I replied.
With a relieved
look on his face, Mark went to the bathroom, knocked gently on the door and
then went in. A moment later, I heard
some muffled chatter, some giggling followed by the sound of a toilet being
flushed.
When Mark emerged
from the bathroom, he had a bit of a red face.
“They said I have a big ‘peepee’,” Mark chuckled.
I couldn’t help
but laugh which made Mark turn redder.
“Well, I’ve seen you undressed and you certainly have nothing to be
ashamed of,” I replied with a smile.
“Anyway, pretty much everyone has a big one to a pair of six year olds.”
“They thought it
was pretty neat that I have hair like their dad,” he said sheepishly.
I chuckled to
myself. Mark had really come out of his
shell, but he was still more reserved than Josh. Had the twins made some comment like that to
Josh, he would have thought it was hilarious.
Mark was a little embarrassed, but he took it with good humour. He wasn’t at all shy, just less outgoing
unless he really knew you well. “I’ll
bet you thought it was pretty neat too when yours started growing,” I replied.
“Damn right,” he
said with a grin and then leaned down to give me a good morning hug before
getting down to the business of getting dressed for the day.
About ten minutes
later, Josh got the rudest awakening that any male can endure. The door to the bathroom flew open and
Richard, naked as the day he was born and covered head-to-toe in soap bubbles,
came bounding out. He jumped up on the
bed and landed squarely on Josh. Worst
of all, his knee seemed to have a homing device and it zeroed in on Josh’s
crotch.
Josh was wide
awake in an instant. “OUCH!” he squeaked
as he sat bolt upright.
“We can’t reach
the towels,” Richard announced, completely oblivious to Josh’s discomfort.
If not for
concern over Josh, I would have found the whole situation quite funny. “Careful Richard, you hurt Josh,” I said and
lifted him off a grateful Josh who breathlessly began to examine his injured
genitals. His voice, which had been
deepening a little bit lately, seemed to have gone up a few octaves.
Richard looked
crestfallen. “I’m sorry Josh,” he said
softly.
I had to hand it
to Josh. He took it really well. Despite his discomfort, he managed to roll
over and plant a kiss on Richard’s cheek.
“Its ok bud,” he said reassuringly.
“Come on kiddo,
I’ll help you with the towels,” Mark said as he led the little boy back to the
bathroom.
“You ok Josh?” I
asked.
“I’m ok, but I’m
not so sure about little Josh,” he moaned.
I couldn’t help
myself and grinned warmly at him. “I’m
sure he’s fine and I’m sure you’ll still be able to have children.”
That little crack
earned me Josh’s well known faux angry face and a light punch on the
shoulder. “You’re lucky that I love
you,” he said.
“I know I
am. I love you too son,” I replied and
pulled him into a hug.
Around that time
Mark emerged from the bathroom leading the newly washed and dried twins. “You don’t want to go in there,” he said with
a laugh.
Josh and I looked
at each other and then went to survey the damage while the twins went about
digging their clothes out of their overnight bag and dressed themselves.
We peeked
gingerly inside the bathroom and both of our mouths dropped open. Those two little boys, who looked like angels
but were, at least on this occasion really little devils, had decorated the
bathroom in bubbles. There were soap
bubbles everywhere. There were two empty
bottles of bubble bath on the floor.
Evidently they had found the remaining bottles and decided they needed
more bubbles in their bath.
Josh and I began
laughing our heads off. Soon we were
joined by Mark and then even
“Good lord, did
you two do that?” he asked Mark and Josh.
“No, actually it
was our nephews,” I replied.
“Those two little
angels?”
“Yep, they’re the
ones,” I replied.
The twins giggled
sweetly and tried to look innocent.
“I hope you
realize that this means that I owe you a tickle torture,” I said to the boys.
They giggled
again and broke into huge grins. That
was when Josh and I made our move. I
reached for Matthew and Josh went for Richard.
The little boys shrieked laughter and tried to dodge away from us. With an assist from Mark, I managed to scoop
up Matthew, toss him onto the bed and begin tickling his ribs while Mark went
for his feet. Matthew laughed and
giggled and squirmed to try to get away.
At the same time,
Richard ran behind
“Help me Uncle
Bryan,” Richard laughed.
“Help you? What would Josh want to do to you that’s so
bad?” He asked and began to tickle
Richard’s back.
Richard began
laughing and kicking his feet while Josh joined the fun.
For a few minutes
the bunch of us let ourselves be six years old and engaged in a massive tickle
torture, pillow fight and wrestling match.
Finally, after we
all developed sore ribs from laughing so much, I decided that I needed a
shower. I was still wearing my clothes
from the night before. Josh followed me
into the bathroom and the two of us managed to use hair dryers to slay the
bubble monster turned loose by the twins.
With the bubble
monster taken care of, I jumped into the shower while Josh perched himself on
the lid of the toilet to wait his turn.
Knowing that Bryan and I had four hungry boys on our hands, I washed as
quickly as I could. When I was done, I
didn’t even bother turning off the taps; Josh just climbed straight in. When he was finished, we both took a moment
to brush our teeth, shave, and get ready for the day.
“The twins are
real characters aren’t they?” Josh remarked.
“That they are
son. They’re about the most adorable
little guys I’ve ever known.”
“They sure love
you,” Josh said with a grin. “Not that I
blame them.”
“They adore you
too. Mark and Bryan as well.”
“Richard called
Bryan ‘Uncle Bryan’,” Josh said and smiled.
“And so he
is!” I said with a wink and a
smile. Then I asked with some concern,
“How are you doing below the equator?
Everything ok now?”
Josh looked
strangely at me for a moment and then chuckled when he realized what I was referring
to. “Yeah, I’m fine. Nothing appears bent, broken or
squashed. Plus everything worked fine a
moment ago while I was in the shower,” he said slyly.
“Glad to hear
that everything still works,” I snickered.
“Richard really got you good.”
“Did he
ever. I had some major morning wood
going there too! That went away pretty
quick when his knee hit me!” Josh laughed.
We finished up
and went back out into the room to discover that Mark had already taken the
twins downstairs in search of food. Only
“You guys go
ahead and join the rest of the gang,”
“Ok ‘Uncle
Bryan’” I said with a laugh.
“You heard
eh?”
“They’re little
monkeys!” Josh replied.
“I’ll say. I’ve never seen so many bubble bath bubbles
in one place before,” I said.
“They’re really
sweet kids,”
“They really
are. James and Anne have done a great
job of raising them. They live in a
really solid, loving environment and it shows.
They’re very intuitive for such little guys and they are a pretty good
judge of character.”
They really
were. They seemed to quickly decide
whether or not they could trust someone and once they decided that they could
trust you, you were another member of the family as far as they were
concerned. Once you earned their
friendship, you had it for life. Aside
from their mom and their dad whom they adored, it was no secret that I was
their favorite person in the whole world.
They were typical
rough and tumble boys who loved to wrestle and do all the typical things that
boys do, but they were also very sensitive little fellows. Like Josh, they lived for physical contact
and they got lots of it. You could put
them on a big couch with someone they loved and no matter how much room there
was, they’d be cuddled right up to that person in no time at all.
Josh and I headed
down to the restaurant while
“So you guys
survived the wrath of the twins, eh?”
James asked.
“They were
great,” I replied.
Josh proceeded to
tell them about how we all took turns reading to them and how they fell asleep
with me on the easy chair. “I even got a
picture of them for the album,” Josh said happily.
“They must have
had a ball,” Anne said.
“You won’t
believe what they got up to this morning,” I said.
“Uh oh,” James
replied.
By the time I
finished telling them about the bubble bath and the bubble monster, all four of
us were just about in tears because we were laughing so hard. “You should have seen their faces. They both looked like butter wouldn’t even
melt in their mouths!”
“We know that
look very well!” Anne said between
giggles.
When we entered
the restaurant, the twins saw us right away.
“MOMMY and DADDY are here!”
Matthew shouted and the two of them ran up and jumped into their parents
arms.
“Where’s
“He drew the
short straw and ended up last in the shower line today. He’ll be right down,” I replied.
Mark and Josh
were both gazing longingly at the breakfast buffet. Matthew and Richard probably would have been
doing the same thing if they weren’t so glad to see their parents. We decided that
Shortly after we
began eating, Richard stood up on his chair, raised a sausage impaled on a fork
and shouted “We’re over here Uncle Bryan!”
Anne looked as if
she wanted to scold him for poor table manners but in the end, she just laughed
along with the rest of us.
“There’s lots
over there,” Matthew replied helpfully and pointed to the buffet table.
I was sitting on
the other side of the large round table between Josh and Mark while Anne and
James sat on the other side of Josh.
“I heard that you
guys had a nice bubble bath this morning,” Anne said barely avoiding bursting
out laughing again.
“YEAH! It was great.
When we woke up, we wrestled with Uncle Tommy and then he let us have a
bubble bath,” Richard said enthusiastically.
“Mark woke up while we were in there and he had to go pee so we let him
come in.”
I saw what was
coming about one microsecond before it arrived.
Thankfully, I managed to swallow my orange juice in time.
“Mark has a big
peepee,” Matthew said.
“Yeah bigger than
ours are, but not as big as Daddy’s,” Richard added.
“He has hair down
there like Daddy as well,” Matthew continued.
At that moment,
several things happened. Mark and James
both turned about 15 shades of red and tried to melt into the floor. Josh burst out laughing and managed to blow
orange juice out of his nose. Anne
nearly choked on a mouthful of scrambled eggs and
In an instant, we
were all laughing uncontrollably. Even
James and Mark managed to overcome their initial embarrassment and were
laughing just as hard as the rest of us.
The twins, who didn’t understand what was so funny, were laughing
heartily. The rest of the diners must
have thought we were insane, but we didn’t care one little bit. I took a bit of pity on Mark and put an arm
around his shoulders and gave him a brief squeeze. “You don’t have to be embarrassed Marky;
we’re all family.”
Mark smiled at me
and squeezed my knee under the table and then resumed laughing. The fact that he could laugh at himself
showed just how far he had come. His
self-esteem had improved so much that he could see the humour in the situation
and I was glad. He was such a sweet boy
and it was nice to see him so relaxed and comfortable.
Poor Josh was
still coughing and trying to clear his sinuses.
“You ok bud?” I asked.
“I think so. That really stings. I couldn’t help it. The twins caught me totally off guard.”
“What was so
funny?” Matthew asked; causing us all to
burst out laughing all over again and leaving the twins looking very confused.
After we’d eaten
our fill and before anyone asked us to leave, we paid our bill and left the
restaurant. All four of the boys were
totally wound up and excited. Our next
stops were to be two of the highlights of the
The drive to the
museum was only about ten minutes. James
and Anne ended up driving our rental car because the twins insisted on riding
with Josh, Bryan, Mark and I. They knew
that they’d be going home that night and they wanted to spend as much time as
possible with us.
After we managed
to score parking spots relatively close to the front entrance, we all assembled
in the parking lots. Mark and Josh were
each carrying a twin on their shoulders.
The little boys were wearing identical grins.
The museum, which
we discovered had recently been renamed the
After we paid our
admission fees and made our way inside, one of the first things we saw was a
Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter. The
Starfighter looks more like a missile than an aircraft; a very needle-like
aircraft with short stubby wings. This
particular example had been in service with the Canadian Forces up until the
early 80s when the CF-104 was replaced by the CF-18s, which remain in operation
today.
“This thing looks
fast,” Mark said as he gazed at the sleek aircraft.
“It says here
that it could do better than Mach II,”
“That means twice
the speed of sound,” Josh explained to the twins.
“It looks like a
rocket,” James noted.
The twins, who
were still perched on Josh and Mark’s shoulders, had an excellent view of the
aircraft’s cockpit and they loved every moment of it. Airplanes, especially fighter planes, were
another of those things that boys naturally gravitated to. I felt a little sorry for Anne being the only
female in the group and not being all that impressed by fast moving, shiny,
noisy things. She was, as she always
seemed to be, a good sport about it and obviously enjoyed seeing her sons have
such a good time.
We made our way
through the exhibits and managed to get up close and personal with a CF-5A from
an aggressor squadron and decorated in Warsaw Pact like markings.
“They used that
one to simulate an enemy plane, right?”
Mark asked. Mark, given his
stated career choice, was taking a really keen interest in the various displays
in the museum.
“Exactly right
Mark. In fact, they used to use them at
Cold Lake Alberta to train CF-18 pilots in dog fighting as part of the annual
Maple Flag exercise.”
“What’s Maple
Flag?” He asked
“It’s a really
big annual NATO military exercise which involves most, if not all, NATO air
forces. They go in head-to-head
competition and perform various cooperating exercises.”
Some of the other
highlights of the tour included Korean War era F-86 and MiG-15 jet fighters,
WWII fighters including a Supermarine Spitfire in RCAF markings, a Hawker
Hurricane in RAF markings, a P51 in USAF markings and German Luftwaffe aircraft
including and ME-109, a Foch Wolf 190, and even an ME-163 Komet.
“That’s a weird
one,” Josh said pointing to the Komet.
“That was one of
Hitler’s wonder weapons. It was the
first rocket powered airplane. It
carried really corrosive fuel and only had enough to get a few minutes of
powered flight. After the fuel was gone,
it would glide back and land on a grass strip with skids rather than wheels.”
Towards the back
of the main Museum building, we encountered one of the star attractions. The nose section of the legendary CF-105 Avro
Arrow.
“What’s that
one? I’ve never seen anything like that
before,” Mark said.
“That’s the Avro
Arrow. It was designed and built in Malton,
Ontario in the 1950s to meet the requirements of the RCAF. In those days, most aircraft were barely
supersonic but the Arrow was designed to fly at more than Mach II. When the air force released its requirements
all the major aircraft manufacturers said they were nuts and that it was
impossible to build such a plane, but the people at Avro did it.”
“What sort of
requirements did the have?” Mark asked
with keen interest.
“They needed a
plane that could fly to an altitude of at least 50,000 feet, fly at a speed of
at least mach two, be able to pull two Gs with no loss of speed or altitude and
be able to operate completely independently of ground control. They exceeded all of those requirements. They had to invent new metals and new systems
to make it work. The Arrow was the first
plane in the world by more than a decade to have a fly-by-wire system. Most planes up there today can’t touch the
performance of this one that was built 50 years ago.”
“What happened to
it? Why isn’t it still around?” Josh asked.
“Politics,” James
added.
“What do you
mean?” Josh asked.
“The government
of the day foolishly believed that it was too expensive and that missiles were
the way of the future so they cancelled it.
Even worse, they ordered all the plans, photographs and even the planes
themselves destroyed.”
“That’s stupid,”
Josh said.
“I’ll say. When they did it, they put 14,000 people out
of work in one afternoon. Many of those
guys went to the US and ended up working on the space program.”
“What did they
replace it with?” Mark asked.
“Bomarc nuclear
missiles and CF-101 Voodoos. The RCAF
had looked at the Voodoos and decided that they were too slow, too lightly
armed and didn’t come even remotely close to meeting their requirements. The Bomarcs didn’t turn out much better.”
“Sounds like it
was a really stupid move,” Josh said.
“It was. They had plans for future versions of the
Arrow that would have flown at three or four times the speed of sound. In those days, Canada was building the best
fighter planes in the world.”
“Do we build them
anymore?” Mark asked.
“Not fighter
planes. We mostly buy American fighters
now. We do build some of the best
passenger planes in the world.
Bombardier builds the CRJ which is one of the safest and most fuel efficient
regional jetliners in the world.”
“We should start
building our own fighters again,” Josh remarked.
A couple of hours
later, we wrapped up out tour of the Aviation Museum. Amazingly, Josh and Mark had carried Matthew
and Richard on their shoulders throughout most of the tour. Before heading off to the Science museum and
all the cool space stuff that the boys were looking forward to, we stopped for
lunch at the small cafeteria in the museum.
Josh, Mark, and I
headed off to the bathroom while the rest of the gang, including the twins,
joined the lineup to get our lunch.
“You two are
amazing, you know that?” I said to Mark
and Josh as I put an arm around each of them.
“You guys are really making this a special trip for the twins.”
“We love the little
guys,” Josh replied.
“Yeah, they’re
like the little brothers I never had.”
Mark added.
“I know, but you
two are going above and beyond the call of duty and Bryan and I are very proud
of both of you.”
After lunch, we
headed off to the Canadian Science and Technology Museum. The museum is a very interactive place with
all sorts of fun stuff for the boys to do.
We watched several live shows including a demonstration of static
electricity, during which the twins volunteered Anne to be a test subject for
an experiment. The two little boys
howled with laughter when Anne put her hand on a big metal ball, which caused
static electricity to make all her hair stand on end. Josh managed to get the whole thing on video
and we knew it would be some of our favorite footage.
We arranged our
tour of the museum to save the best for last.
We were all looking forward to their huge space exhibit. When we finally entered the space exhibit
hall, we were all chomping at the bit.
We weren’t the least bit disappointed.
The space exhibit
includes, among other things, the actual space capsule from the Apollo 7
mission, a life sized mockup of the space shuttle cockpit, mid desk, cargo bay
and robotic arm.
“This was really
in space?” Richard asked as we all stood
before the Apollo capsule?
“It sure was
son,” James answered. “It says here that
this was the first manned Apollo capsule to fly. Spaceships just like this one took people to
the moon and back.”
“Why is it all
burned?” Matthew asked.
“It gets that way
when it comes back from space,” I replied.
“It’s coated in a special material called a heatshield. The heatshield burns away and makes it look
burned.”
“Why does it
burn?” Josh asked.
“Friction. Rub your hands together,” I instructed the
boys. “Notice how your hands get warm?”
“Yeah,” Matthew,
Richard, Josh, and Mark replied at once.
“Well, when a
spaceship comes back from space, it’s moving at thousands of miles per hour and
when it hits the air in our atmosphere, the air rubs against it and makes it
get super hot. It gets so hot that it
would burn up completely if not for the heatshield protecting it.”
Josh and Mark set
the boys down on their feet and the four of them climbed up on the scaffolding
to look in the windows of the capsule and study the myriad of switches, dials
and gauges inside. For display purposes,
the museum had placed three space-suited dummies in the seats.
“That’s pretty
cramped,” Josh said.
“How long did
they spend in that thing?” Mark asked.
“Believe it or
not, it was considered luxurious compared to the earlier spacecraft. Moon missions lasted about a week to ten days
depending on how long they stayed on the surface. It takes about three days to get to the moon,
then the astronauts would spend anywhere from one to three days on the surface
and then they’d take three days to get back.
“I couldn’t
imagine spending ten days in such a small space,” Bryan remarked. “Walking on the moon would be pretty neat.”
“I’d love to do
that,” Mark said.
“You never know
kiddo. One of these days’ people will go
back to the moon and if you go into the military, you could get to go. Look at Chris Hadfield. He grew up in Milton, Ontario, joined the air
force, became a fighter pilot, and was selected as an astronaut by the Canadian
Space Agency. Marc Garneau, our first
astronaut, was an officer in the Navy.”
“Cool,” Mark
replied thoughtfully.
After we
thoroughly filmed and photographed the Apollo capsule, we made out way to the
space shuttle mockup. When we got there,
Josh and Mark scrambled into the seats on the flight deck.
“Now this is more
like it,” Josh said enthusiastically from the commander’s seat.
“Oh yeah,” Mark
added from the pilot’s seat to Josh’s right.
“This I could
handle,” Bryan said. “Lots more room.”
“Yeah, lots more
room, but they cram as many as seven astronauts in here,” I chuckled.
Mark and Josh
climbed out of the cockpit seats and hefted the twins in to take their
places. Matthew and Richard were
virtually on cloud nine as they sat in the seats and messed with the various
switches and dials.
Bryan, Anne,
James, and I exited the mockup and waited outside for the boys.
“Those two are so
good with the boys,” Anne said sincerely.
“I can’t believe
they carried both of them on their shoulders for so long,” James replied.
“Josh and Mark
love the twins a whole lot,” I said.
“They see them
almost as little brothers,” Bryan said with a smile.
“They’re a pair
of exceptional boys,” Anne said. “You’ve
been doing a great job of raising Mark, Bryan.”
“There’s nothing
to it. He’s a wonderful kid. Until we all got together, we were all that
each other had in the world. We’re very
close.”
“He’s such a warm
and loving kid,” Anne said thoughtfully.
“I’m glad that he’s happy. Tom
told us a bit about what you guys went through and I think it’s great that
you’re together and have been so good for each other.”
“You’re both
welcome additions to our humble family,” James said and squeezed Bryan’s
shoulder.
Just then, the
herd of boys stampeded their way out of the shuttle and joined us on the
exhibit hall floor. With our eyes on our
watches, we completed our tour of the museum and then headed out for dinner
before heading to the airport.
We decided that
since we were in the city that plays home to our democracy, we’d take a vote on
where to eat dinner. The Mandarin
carried the night with all four boys voting as a block.
With our time
running short, we returned to our favorite restaurant and chowed down on some
of the best Chinese food we’d ever eaten.
Mark and Josh even talked the twins into trying lobster and patiently
taught them how to crack them open and eat the tasty meat inside.
Bryan and I
watched Josh and Mark with pride. They
truly were amazing boys and watching them with the twins, we knew that they’d
make exceptional dads one day. Both boys
had taken more than their fair share of hits along the way, but both of them,
due in no small part to our own efforts, had come through their tribulations
with flying colours. Bryan and I both
knew that neither of them would ever go without the material things they
needed, and more importantly, they would always have someone to love them, to
care for them, and to guide them.
We were all
amazed to see that the twins actually managed to keep the pace with Josh and
Mark through their first couple of trips to the buffet. They were growing boys and they certainly had
the healthy appetites to prove it.
Eventually we had
eaten our fill and it was time to get James, Anne, and the twins to the
airport. Josh, Mark, Bryan, and I still
had a few days left in Ottawa before we had to leave, but James had to be at
work the next day.
The twins were
unusually subdued as we entered the terminal and waited for James and Anne to
get them all checked in. They were
clingy and kept circulating between the four of us. Their usually smiling faces looked a little
sad.
I knelt down and
scooped the pair of them up in my arms.
Immediately, they both snuggled in and leaned their heads on my
shoulders. “Hey little buddies, are you
guys ok? You look kind of sad.”
“We don’t want to
go home. We want to stay with you,”
Richard said.
“Yeah, we’re
gonna miss you guys,” Matthew piped in.
“I know
fellas. We’re all going to miss you
too. Don’t worry though, it’s only going
to be a few more weeks and then Josh and I will be home.”
“Can’t we go with
you?” Richard asked.
“What about your
mommy and daddy? They’d miss you
guys. Grandma and Uncle Andy too,” I
said softly.
“Can’t they go
too?” Matthew asked.
The innocence of
children never ceased to amaze me. “Your
daddy has to work. I’ll tell you
what. Josh and I are going to be back on
Labour Day. The next weekend, we’ll take
you guys wherever you want to go. Just
the two of you, Josh, and me. We can do
whatever you guys want.”
“Can we go
fishing again?” Matthew asked
enthusiastically.
“Yeah, I wanna go
fishing again,” Richard agreed.
Sure. Fishing it is,” I replied and then kissed
each of my nephews on the cheek.
“I love you Uncle
Tommy,” Richard said then wrapped his small arms around my neck and kissed me
on the cheek.
“Me too,” Matthew
said and did the same thing.
I gently squeezed
both of the boys and smiled. I felt like
the luckiest person in the world.
“We had better
get going boys,” James said. He and Anne
had arrived with their boarding passes in hand.
“You boys be good
for your mommy and daddy and remember what I said,” I told the boys before
setting them down. As soon as they hit
the ground, they made the rest of the rounds starting with Josh, then moving to
Mark and finishing with Bryan. Bryan
smiled broadly as he hugged and kissed the boys on their cheeks.
“Take care of my
favorite little boys sis,” I said as I hugged and kissed Anne.
“You enjoy the
rest of your trip and be careful,” Anne replied.
I hugged James
while Anne turned her attention to Mark and Josh.
“Come here you
two,” she said holding out her arms.
“You boys were wonderful with the twins.
They love you and so do we. You
boys have fun on the rest of your trip.”
When she was
done, James hugged both boys as well.
“Welcome to the
family Uncle Bryan. You’ve made such a
wonderful change in Tom,” Anne said with a smile as she hugged Bryan and kissed
his cheek.
“Please don’t
spoil the twins too much. We love them
just the way they are,” Bryan replied with a smile, “besides, that job belongs
to Tom and I.”
“Oh, we’re well
aware of that,” James laughed as he waved goodbye.
With our
emotional goodbyes taken care of, we watched as James, Anne, and the boys made
their way through the departure gate. It
had been quite a day and all of us were feeling pangs of separation as we
watched the four of them head home.
Once they were out of site, we left the terminal and returned to our
hotel room. It was getting late in the
evening, but we could sleep in the next day so we took some time to unwind.
Both Josh and
Mark were a little stiff from having spent so much of their day carrying the
twins, so Bryan and I had them get ready for bed, then lie face down on the
beds so that we could massage their aching necks and shoulders. Before long they were both sound asleep.
“We really are
blessed you know?” I whispered to Bryan.
“Don’t I know
it. These two are the most amazing kids
I’ve ever known and we’ve a very solid extended family to boot. It’s nice knowing that it isn’t just Mark and
I against the world anymore.”
Before joining
the boys in bed, Bryan and I embraced and exchanged passionate kisses.
“I can’t go to
bed without telling you I love you.”
Bryan whispered.
“I love you too,”
I replied, “I’ve never been so happy, now that we’re a complete family.”
As usual, as soon
as I climbed into the bed, Josh rolled over and snuggled up as closely as he
could manage.
I wrapped my arms
around him and drifted off to sleep marveling at just how complete my life had
become and how lucky I was.