The sound of an alarm going off was what woke Aaron up the next morning. He heard Tony get out of bed shuffle around the room, trip on something presumably his desk chair which had somehow made it's way from the desk to the center of the room, then he heard the door open and shut. Blinking a little Aaron rubbed his eyes sitting up on his elbows. Sunlight was barely shinning into the room, Tony's bed was empty and the sound of movement from down the hall in the kitchen could be heard. Aaron looked at his watch discovering it was only six thirty in the morning. Yawning wide, Aaron stood up and walked over to the mirror attached to Tony's bureau, he pushed his hair down a little so it wasn't sticking up as bad.
He walked out into the hall and headed down to the kitchen. Sitting at the table was Tony and Mema, Mrs. Casale was fixing a cup of coffee for herself. She turned and spotted him in the doorway looking lost.
"Aaron good morning, we didn't wake you up did we?" he shook his head
"Naw I usually get up 'bout this time at home."
"Are you hungry?" he nodded as his stomach let out a very loud grumble, his ears turned red grinning sheepishly a little as Mema and Mrs. Casale returned the grin chuckling a little, while Tony was practically on the floor rolling.
"A little bit," Aaron admitted his ears a magnificent shade of red, he sat down next to Mema as she patted the chair next to her.
"Well as long as Tony hasn't managed to eat ALL of the food, there should be some bacon and scrambled eggs left." Tony ducked his head towards his food and Aaron couldn't help but grin. Mema passed him a plate with scrambled eggs and bacon on it.
"Che far tu occorre di bibita" (What do you want to drink?) Aaron grinned, ever since Mema had discovered that he spoke fluent Italian, she would randomly start speaking it with him.
"latte piacere." (milk please) he answered, Mrs. Casale reached into the fridge and pulled out bottle of milk, she poured the liquid into the glass before handing it to him.
"Grazie," he said taking a sip (thank you) he looked over at Tony who was literally stuffing his face and catching a sideway glance from Mema he began to laugh as she shook her head also laughing a little. Tony looked up with them his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk
"Wha?" he asked around his food, Mema reached over and smacked him offside the head.
"Do not talk with mouth full." She said loudly.
"So…um Tony what's with the early rising?" Aaron asked as he took a bite of his scrambled eggs looking at Tony expectantly.
"Hockey practice,"
"Hockey?" Aaron asked raising an eyebrow, he had pegged Tony for football, but hockey did make sense.
"Yeah," Tony leaned forward gesturing for Aaron to do the same, he lowered his voice to barley a whisper "it was either hockey or swim team at the Y, believe me the whole speedo idea, not my style man," Aaron snorted
"But it totally goes for your style dude or even, what's that thing called the dancing in water," he paused for a moment "oh yeah synchronized swimming I can totally picture you in the bathing cap and water dancing." he said Tony grinned at him giving him a goofy kind of glare and after glancing at his mother and Mema, picked up his fork, loaded it with some scrambled egg, and aimed it at Aaron's head. "Don't even think about it," Aaron mouthed to him still grinning, he in turn picked up his own fork and also loaded it up with the scrambled eggs, if Tony wanted to start this kind of war he was in trouble, Aaron had no problem retaliating against Tony's food flinging. "If you continue with this be prepared for the consequences that WILL follow."
"Boys," Mrs. Casale said shaking her head; she sat down next to Tony with her cup of coffee "any food fights that begin at this table will end with the both of you cleaning my kitchen, waxing the floor and washing the fridge are included in that inside and out." Tony and Aaron looked at one another and quickly ate the eggs that had sat on their forks waiting for deployment. "Tony you have twenty minutes to finish eating, get to practice, suit up and be on the ice. Unless you want to be doing lines like Coach Clarkson threatened the other day." Tony kind of paled for a moment; he shoved the last bit of bacon in his mouth and could be heard running down the hall. Mema began laughing and shaking her head, muttering in Italian.
"Doesn't Rosie have practice too?" Mema asked sipping her tea
"No not today, the coach would prefer she stay off the ice for at least another week." Aaron looked up at Mema and Mrs. Casale.
"Rocky's playing hockey too?" he asked
"Both of them are on the same team,"
"Cool," he seriously had never once pictured either one of them playing hockey, but since baseball was all he had ever seen them play well picturing them playing other sports just didn't pop in his mind.
"I still say Rosie should not play, to dangerous she will get hurt even more." Now Aaron quickly looked at Mema
"Hurt?" He asked
"Rosie sprained her wrist at a game last week, nothing very serious, but she did fall down on it at practice the other day, the coach asked her if she would be all right with taking a few days rest, she's one of the best players out there and they have a tournament in about a week that the team needs her in."
"She didn't mention anything 'bout her wrist bein' hurt." Aaron said thinking as he chewed some bacon.
"Believe me Aaron it took her falling down on it at practice for us to find out about it. You know Rosie." He nodded grinning
"Stubborn," Mrs. Casale smiled and nodded
"That is most certainly true." She paused and looked at Mema "and it's good for her to be so active, she is one of the best athletes in the school." Mema nodded, Aaron knew that Mema was constantly trying to get Rocky to be more girly, something that he knew wasn't gonna happen anytime soon.
Tony came running into the kitchen panting as he dragged a large hockey bag and a hockey stick into the room dropping them onto the floor.
"Rea…Ready ma?" he asked between breaths
"Tony this is what you get for waking up late, if you would just set your alarm for an earlier time you wouldn't have to rush through breakfast and then make me rush you to practice."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah" Tony said picking up the equipment. Mrs. Casale rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.
"I'll be back in a little bit; mom let Rosie sleep in a little longer ok?"
"Hey Aaron later on tonight we should all head over to the rink and go skating it'll be cool, not many people go to our rink so it aint crowded, plenty of room for a race."
Aaron blinked a little, ice… skate…that was something he didn't know how to do, his skateboard was the closest to skating he had ever gotten, the last time he had ever been on ice was when he was running from British soldiers in the winter of 1777, he registered a guess that they hadn't appreciated his firing a shot over their small camp spooking the couple of horses causing them to bolt. It had a way to distract the soldiers so the militia he was a part of could safely go past the camp. They figured Aaron being smaller and quieter, could sneak close enough to the camp, fire a shot to spook them and the horses and while the redcoats were chasing their horses the rest of the militia could continue on their way.
The soldiers had given chase after him and he had taken a short cut down a path that looked like it was just wide enough through the thick brush for him not realizing that the path turned into a hill that led towards a small pond which was frozen over. The ice had been useful in his escape, because by the time the soldiers got through the brush Aaron was across the ice, which was thick enough to support his weight, but when the soldiers, weighed down with equipment and being much larger then himself, made it only a few steps before the ice began to crack and break forcing them to retreat. He had made it across before everything gave way, but not before slipping plenty of times twisting his ankle pretty bad, nailing his jaw on the ice and slipping into a snow bank. None of that had been a very pleasant experience to say the least especially the snow down his shirt part, luckily the ploy had worked as his militia was able to get past the redcoats as planned..
"I'll see what Rosie wants to do, but if I know your sister she'll want to go, if I agree to let her out on the ice swear to me Tony no roughhousing that means no racing."
"Aw come on ma, just a little?" he grinned "you know check each other into the boards or something?"
"Anthony!" Mrs. Casale said loudly, Tony quickly put his hands up fending his mother off.
"All right, All right."
"Lets go," and with that the two of them were gone.
When he had finished his breakfast, Aaron helped Mema clean up from breakfast, though she threatened to whap him with the wooden spoon if he even touched the dishes. But at realizing that he wasn't going to listen to her at least not on that note, she finally just shook her head sighing, and handed him a towel to dry them. After cleaning up the kitchen, he followed Mema into the living room where she sat in her chair and picked up the remote and turned on the television. A game show called Jeopardy was on.
"With twins at practice and Alice with them, give me a chance to watch my show in peace." Aaron nodded and sat down on the couch watching the show intently. He had always liked trivia type games, it took him a little bit to catch onto the answering the question by asking it, idea, but once he caught on, him and Mema had a contest of their own going.
"The Eiffel tower, completed in 1889 was designed by this famous architect." The announcer asked, Aaron grinned wide, he couldn't believe the contestant couldn't get this; Mema didn't seem to know either.
"Who is Gustav Eiffel," he answered waiting to see if the people on TV would get it. A buzzer sounded and the announcer shook his head
"I'm sorry the correct answer was who is Gustav Eiffel?" Mema looked at Aaron smiling "next question."
"Very good, how you know that?"
"There's very few things in history I don't know 'bout Mema, very few." He said grinning wide.
By the time Mrs. Casale had returned home from dropping Tony off at practice, the contest had escalated into a betting game, every right answer won the victor a dollar from the loser, and by the time she had walked into the living room, Aaron had racked up thirty dollars while Mema who was a master at the game itself was up to thirty five. When Mrs. Casale learned what was going on she rolled her eyes sighing and walked down the hall to go wake Rocky up.
When Rocky finally emerged, Jeopardy was over making way for a cartoon show, Aaron who had little experience with cartoons on TV sat with curiosity watching the show called the Jetsons. Rocky, yawning a little sat down next to him.
"Morning," she said
"Morning," he replied turning to look at her "what's up?"
"Nothing much," she said pausing for a moment to watch as the main character George Jetson was getting chewed out by his boss. "I didn't know you liked the Jetsons"
"Neither did I, we don't have a TV at home, but I like this it's kinda cool it's always cool to watch people's take on what the future's gonna look like." He said laughing a little at the characters. Mrs. Casale came into the room and looked at them,
"Rosie go get something to eat we're leaving in twenty minutes, Aaron you should probably go get dressed too, do you have a sweatshirt?" Looking at Rocky who simply grinned and scampered off to go eat, Aaron shook his head, he had packed his jacket, but that was it and he really did not feel like wearing it. "Well I don't know how cold it will be, so you might want to raid Tony's closet and find a sweatshirt ok?" he nodded and headed off to Tony's room.
Inside he changed into a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt, looking in Tony's closet he found a sweatshirt that was just his size a little bit big, but he liked his clothes that way. He was curious however, as he once again tied his hair up in the same short pony tail from the previous night, where Mrs. Casale was taking them and why he needed to at least dress warm. He pulled the sweatshirt on and slipped his cross on over his head, putting it under his shirt carefully and slipped his baseball hat on.
Walking out back into the living room, his hands shoved deep in the front pocket of the hooded sweatshirt, Aaron looked over at Mema who was wearing a homemade shawl and carrying a large pocketbook. Mrs. Casale was also carrying a smaller one and wearing her jacket.
"Good you all set Aaron?" he nodded, moments later Rocky emerged from her room wearing jeans and a jacket. "Are you going to be warm enough with that Aaron?" again he nodded.
"Yeah I don't get cold very easily, uh stupid question, but where are we going?" he asked looking at Mema and Mrs. Casale who just smiled mischievously "what?"
"You will see when we get there," Rocky let out a wide yawn. "We need to swing in and pick up Tony and then we'll be off." Rocky seemed to know what was going on because after she yawned again she looked at him grinning. They headed out of the apartment, once outside they walked down the street a little bit to a parking garage. Once in the garage, they walked to Mrs. Casale's car, got inside and headed off.
The entire ride after picking up Tony at the rink, had Aaron glued to the window watching the scenery fly by, though he was still very curious as to where they were headed he couldn't help, but enjoy the landscape as they drove out of the city and into the country. He had always loved New England in the fall; remembering carriage rides and riding his horse Yona throughout Massachusetts when he lived with Sam Adams and his family.
Tony had fallen asleep during the long car ride and Rocky was contently reading a book. She had offered him a book as well, but he was perfectly content with watching the scenery, enjoying himself, partly because he was reminded of the last time he had tried to read while in a moving anything, he had felt nauseas after the first couple paragraphs and had vowed to never repeat the experience.
After an hour or so, Aaron was beginning to feel kind of carsick, even without having the help of reading he wasn't used to riding in a car for such a long time this being the longest time in a car he had ever spent, even the trip from the Cape back to Boston with his father hadn't taken this long. So he was very glad when Mrs. Casale pulled the car off the main road and went down a dirt one for about a mile before pulling into a parking lot surrounded by a number of other cars. She parked their car in an empty spot and they all got out, after kicking Tony to wake up that is.
A smell in the air hit Aaron's nostrils a smell he recognized, though unable to place it, it hit a deep chord in his memory bringing back feelings that he hadn't felt in a long time. And though it was extremely faint he thought he heard music, music that almost sounded like drum rolls. They walked towards the music and towards the smell; all of these factors were making Aaron's curiosity work over time, wondering desperately what the Casale family was up too.
They walked through the entrance of the fair grounds and the scene that lay before them, well Aaron could hardly believe his eyes, his mouth dropped open and he felt his heart pick up speed, apart of him wanted to jump up and down in happiness and the other part wanted to hug Mrs. Casale tight. Before he could do anything, Mrs. Casale reached over and hugged his shoulders tight.
"What do you think?" she asked him, Aaron tried to answer her but was unable to find the words.