Welcome to all of my new readers, and welcome back to everyone else.
Chapter 41. GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
House, Cameron and Gretchen met Clair and Emily at a popular family
restaurant for lunch. It was a favorite for both girls because it
had a game room inside and miniature golf outside.
Cameron knew that Emily would be unhappy when they told her and her
mother about their decision, but hoped they could cheer her up with
the food and games. She wasn't prepared for Emily's tears. Luckily
both Clair and Gretchen were.
"Oh, Emmy honey, it'll be OK," her mother told her. "We'll visit them
whenever we can, and they'll come back here to visit, too."
"But who will I eat lunch with at school and who will I do my
homework with?" Emily asked, trying not to sound like a whiney baby.
"You'll make other friends," Clair promised.
"Uh-uh, no I won't, not like Gretchen," Emily insisted.
"Hey, Em, don't cry," Gretchen said. "We can message each other
every day and tell each other what happened at school. We can even
help each other with homework and stuff."
"Promise?" Emily asked.
"Didn't we talk every day I was at my Dad's?" Gretchen asked. "We'll
both make new friends, but we'll always be bestest buddies."
Emily sniffed, feeling and sounding a little less abandoned, said, "OK."
"Hey, let's go play some games," Gretchen suggested, turning to the
adults for confirmation that they could go. They'd already finished
eating. "Can we?"
"Sure, go ahead," Clair said, and Cameron nodded in agreement.
House, Cameron and Clair watched the girls run off towards the game
room. A middle-aged man approached their table.
"Allison? Clair." he said.
"Chuck," Cameron said "What are you doing back in Albany?"
House studied the man. Medium height, medium coloring, pleasant
enough to look at.
"My Mom's been sick so I've moved back. I'm working at Presbyterian
now." He looked her over and then looked at the man sitting with
her and her friend.
"Chuck, this is Dr. Gregory House," Cameron said by way of an
introduction. "House, this is Chuck Fowler."
"Ah, the ex," House said, as if that explained everything.
"Have you joined the staff at Children's?" Chuck asked him,
wondering how he knew he'd been married to Cameron.
"I'm about to be offered a job there that I'm not going to take,"
House said. "I'm head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine at
Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey."
Chuck looked puzzled. Just then Gretchen returned. "Dad, you've
gotta come play this game. It's outrageous." She pulled at House's
arm. Chuck watched House limp off after the girl.
"That old cripple is Gretchen's father?" Chuck said incredulously.
"That's the guy you carried a torch for all these years?"
"One and the same," Cameron said, smiling at his astonishment. "Makes
me wonder how I ever could have thought I saw anything in you."
"Oh, Allison, that's really harsh!" Chuck said.
"You're right," she said, but couldn't help laughing. When she
finally stopped she said, "I'm sorry, but if you saw the look on
your face, well..." and she started laughing again.
Chuck walked off in a huff.
"Allie, you shouldn't have," Clair said, but she was holding in her
own laughter.
Once they could contain themselves, Cameron looked at her friend.
"Clair, would you consider making a move too?"
"What?"
"Greg says there may be an opening at PPTH, similar to what you're
doing at Children's," Cameron told her. "Would you be interested
when it happens?"
"Well, it's certainly something to think about," Clair said,
surprising herself at how the prospect cheered her. "Emily's not the only one who'll miss you two. I guess I would like that a lot."
They all left the restaurant and went back to Cameron and Gretchen's
house so that House could give the girls their rides.
"Em, you can go first," Gretchen said.
"Really?" Emily said, grinning at her friend.
House handed her the helmet Gretchen had used. She put it on and
looked up at him with a nervous smile.
"Ready?" House asked. She nodded.
"Tie your shoes," her mother ordered. She looked more nervous than
Emily. The girl bent over to tie them. House noticed they were
similar to his, and then saw that Gretchen's were, too. He had to
smile.
He got on the bike and Clair helped Emily settle in behind him. They
took off slowly, the girls thin arms holding on for dear life.
House sensed she was not as much of a daredevil as Gretchen and took
it easy, just around a few blocks and then a long straight stretch
on the streets. He could feel the girl relax as she realized she
wasn't going to fall off.
He gave her a little more sense of speed as they rode back. When
they reached Cameron's street, she relaxed completely. And when she
got off the bike and handed the helmet to Gretchen for her ride,
Emily was beaming.
Chapter 42. YOU MAY TAKE ME TO THE FAIR
"Mom, what was Chuck doing at the restaurant today?" Gretchen asked
that evening. Clair and Emily had gone and they'd finished their
dinner. They'd just sat down in the living room, getting ready to
watch a movie.
"He's moved back to Albany," Cameron said. "He said his mother is
sick."
"Old Mrs. Fowler? She was always mean to me," Gretchen remembered.
"But I'm sorry she's sick. Did you tell Chuck we're moving to
Princeton?"
"I didn't get a chance," Cameron confessed.
House raised a quizzical eyebrow.
"He left rather abruptly when I laughed at him," she told him. "His
response to you, the expression on his face when he realized who you
were, very comical!" She began to snigger again just thinking about
it. "I can't imagine why I ever married him in the first place."
"You were lonely and wanted a father for Gretchen," House guessed.
"I suppose," she said. "But he never met any of those needs."
"Do you think he's still interested?" House asked.
Cameron shrugged. "I hadn't really thought about it, but he never
called or wrote after he moved to Boston."
"So, what are we gonna watch?" Gretchen asked, changing the subject.
The next morning as they ate breakfast, Cameron asked House "Have
you ever been to a state fair?"
"What, prize cows and gourds as big as watermelons and watermelons
as big as tanks?" he sneered. "Nope."
"There's also rides and games and all sorts of junk food," she told
him.
"Yeah, funnel cakes and corn on the cob and elephant ears," Gretchen
added.
"Elephant what?"
"They're kinda big flat sugary donuts without the hole," Cameron
explained.
"Yum!" Gretchen said.
"Sounds like my kinda place," he said, grinning. "OK, you convinced
me."
They finished eating, cleaned up, and got in Cameron's car for the
long ride.
"You'd think the New York State Fair would be in Albany," House whined
as they drove west on the Thruway to Syracuse. "Are we there yet?"
"Almost." Cameron had to laugh.
By the time they arrived he was hungry. OK, he was probably hungry
before they pulled out of the driveway. A large sign near the
entrance to the fairgrounds proclaimed all the things you had to see,
eat and do. Among the 'gotta eats' was something else House had never
heard of, fried spaghetti and meatballs.
"Lunch," he declared, so they found the place selling the spaghetti. It was tomatoe-y and flavorful like good spaghetti and meatballs, but House declared the texture, "Weird." That didn't stop him from finishing his portion and whatever Cameron left over.
After that they wandered through the grounds, stopping to see the
historic trains and antique tractors on display. One of the people
displaying tractors told them that there would be a tractor pull
later in the afternoon and House's eyes lit up. That would be almost
as cool as Monster Trucks.
They came to the area with the rides and Gretchen insisted on going
on the giant slide. Her parents looked at each other, then Cameron
said, "We'll just sit here and wait for you."
They found a bench and sat, watching Gretchen join the other kids of
all ages waiting to head down the slide. "Thanks for suggesting
this," House said. "I forget sometimes the things I never got to do
growing up."
Cameron took his hand in her much smaller one and smiled at him. "I
just thought it was something we could do as a family."
Gretchen returned after her trip down the slide declaring, "I'm hungry
again."
House didn't need another invitation. They found a stand selling the
elephant ears that Cameron had mentioned and each got one. "These
really are good," House said between mouthfuls. Cameron couldn't
finish hers, but she knew he'd eat it.
It was time for the tractor pull. They found seats right up front
and watched as the modified farm tractors pulled their loads through
muddied ground. None of them had ever seen anything like it, and to
watch it so close up was even more fun.
"Dad, will you go through the maze with me?" Gretchen asked. It
sounded like something they could all do. By the time they made their
way through they were all laughing.
After several more treats, including ice cream from the dairy barn
and really greasy, salty and vinegary fries, and another elephant ear
for House, they were ready to head back to Albany.
"I wonder if New Jersey has a state fair," Gretchen said when they got
back in the car.
"Guess we'll just have to find out," her mother told her.