Chapter 21
Louisa settled into a chair in the arrivals lounge at Luton airport and pulled a book out of her bag to help pass the time whilst she waited for her mother's plane to land. It was mid-March and Miriam was coming to London for the wedding of a very dear childhood friend over the weekend. She had managed to find an economical midday non-stop flight from Faro in the Algarve to London and Louisa had agreed to meet her and escort her back to their London home. The train ride out to the airport was lengthy, almost an hour, but it was really the most efficient way to get there. She could have driven the family car or taken a taxi, but one never knew what the traffic would be like and she really didn't want the hassle. Fortunately, Jemima their current nanny had agreed to stay with the children for the afternoon so she didn't have to drag them with her.
Miriam had agreed to come a few days early to help celebrate Robert's second birthday with the family on Friday, and Louisa was excited to have her mother share in their festivities. She sighed with the thought that Miriam would never agree to visit England in March were it not for this old friend's wedding and she felt sorry for Robert that he might never have his grandmother visit to celebrate his birthday ever again. It made her think that if they had another child, they should time it so that its birthday would be in the summer. Of course, that was sheer fantasy; she and Martin had never been able to time the conception of either of their first two children, why should she think they could schedule the third.
Funny, she mused, how you think of odd things like that when sitting in an arrivals lounge with all the world milling around you. True she and Martin had decided to just let nature take its course from now on; they were both "geriatrics", a term Martin still let slip from time to time, and it was getting less and less likely that they could conceive another child, but they were hopeful that perhaps in the next year or so they would achieve success. She wasn't entirely certain that Martin wanted another child no matter how genuinely he had agreed to try for a daughter. She knew that the chaos into which their home sometimes descended could try his patience, occasionally spilling over into a rant against the noise and the clutter. A third child would definitely add to the pandemonium. But, as she sat there thinking about it, he was obviously not opposed to another child , of that she was certain. If he were, he might be reluctant to engage in physical intimacy, and he was still as ardent a lover as he had always been, so she felt confident that he was open to another child.
She looked up at the arrivals board and saw that her mother's plane had landed. She closed her book; she had barely glanced at it; and she rose from her seat and walked over to the hallway where passengers departed the secure area. She hoped her mother had travelled light; waiting at baggage claim and lugging a heavy bag would not be easy on the train. She herself flew from this airport every February when she made her annual visit to her mother, but Martin always drove them and helped with the luggage. Travel was always so much easier when he was with them.
"Louisa!" She must have been daydreaming because, before she realised it, her mother was just a few feet away waving frantically. "Help me with my bags, will you." She had a large tote from which wrapped presents were on the verge of tumbling out and her purse, bulging with whatever she had stuffed in it, was slung over her shoulder, but she didn't have any luggage. "Great", Louisa thought. "Seems like we'll be headed to baggage claim after all.".
Louisa took the overflowing tote from her hands and sighed, "Okay, let's head to baggage claim."
Miriam laughed, "No need. She nodded over to a middle-aged man walking next to her, "My friend, Marcus here agreed to help me with my bag."
Louisa smiled at the man walking just a step behind her mother and then exclaimed, "Mum, you should have checked your bag. How did you ever manage to get them to let you carry all that on the plane?"
"Marcus agreed to carry on the tote as if it were his." She stopped and introduced them, "Louisa this is Marcus; I met him when we were checking in and he has been an angel. Marcus, this is my daughter Louisa. She can help me from here on. It was so nice of you to help."
Miriam shot him a dazzling smile and he leaned in to give her a kiss on each cheek, "Always happy to help a beautiful lady. Don't forget to call me if you have a free evening while you are visiting." With that he left them to amble towards baggage claim to pick up his own bags which he had wisely checked.
Louisa rolled her eyes. That was so like her mother, always flirting with any man who might come in handy. None of them ever seemed to mind though. Louisa had always felt the need to assert her self-sufficiency and had never felt comfortable playing the helpless female; but her mum, one of the strongest and most able-bodied women she knew, seemed to enjoy the attention she drew from these men. How different she and her mother were from one another.
Louisa stopped for a moment to rearrange the packages in her mother tote, returned it to her, picked up the handle of the carry-on, and led them to the bus that would connect them to the train station. By the time the taxi from the train station dropped them off at the Ellingham home, it was nearly four o'clock. Miriam grabbed the house keys from Louisa's hand, and whilst Louisa struggled to carry her mother's bag up the steps and into the foyer, Miriam ran in and shouted out, "James, Robert, Mimi's here. Come give me a kiss."
The boys came running and in moments Miriam was making a fuss over them. They had just seen her the month before when they visited her in Portugal, but you would have thought it had been years. She pulled out some special sweets that she had packed in her bag and handed them to the boys. Louisa immediately swooped in and gathered them up with an admonishment, "After dinner. Daddy will be home in an hour. We will have dinner and then you can have some of Mimi's sweets."
xxxxx
The two days since her mother's arrival had been full of shopping and cooking and now all the celebrating was over; Ruth, who had joined them as she always did, had headed home; the children were in bed; and Louisa's mum had retired for the night. Louisa and Martin were seated on the couch as they were almost every night before bed, just the two of them sharing their thoughts with their usual evening cup of tea, just the two of them plus Miss Lizbeth, of course, who was snuggled in deep slumber on Louisa's lap as she was most every evening. Her mother would be busy all the next day with her friend's wedding leaving the Ellinghams to their usual weekend routine, Saturday morning shopping, a visit to their favorite local play ground sometime in the afternoon, and a simple supper in the evening. Sunday would be a relaxing day as well with Martin preparing a special breakfast, and a trip to the airport to see Miriam off and where the boys could watch the airplanes take off and land. They hoped to enjoy a picnic outing in the afternoon since the weather was forecast to be mild.
"Do you think Robert enjoyed his birthday?" Louisa cradled her mug in her hands, lifting it close to inhale the warm steam emanating from the brew.
"He certainly seemed to enjoy the cake." Martin said with just the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Why do you insist on giving our children food with so little nutritional value?"
Louisa stared at him, "Do you really want to have this argument … again …. tonight? I prepared a very healthy meal before we had the cake."
It had been a long day and they had had this argument many times before, essentially on every birthday they had celebrated since their marriage. Why couldn't Martin just give it a rest? She had told him many times over that cake was traditional on birthdays and that their family was going to uphold the tradition as long as she was in charge of the celebrations. Plus, she was in no mood for this argument; she was tired. She was still teaching three mornings a week and this Friday morning she had had to get to school earlier than usual for a parent conference. After her last class was over at one pm, she rushed to the market to pick up some chicken and vegetables to make Robert his favourite meal, sautéed chicken fingers with broccoli and cauliflower trees with peas and cut up carrots.
She had decorated the kitchen table with a toy train surrounded by colourful streamers and balloons and had set out special train decorated paper plates and napkins. Robert loved trains and she saw no reason not to indulge his obsession on his birthday, especially now that he was old enough to understand that his birthday was special. Even the few presents they had given him were train centred. He loved Ruth's present the best. It was a riding toy shaped like a train engine. He jumped on it and rode it around the house until it was time for bed. Fortunately it was designed to be ridden both indoors and out; the wheels wouldn't damage their hardwood floors or they would have had to consign it strictly to outdoor playtime. She knew that Martin would prefer that its play be limited to outdoors, but for today, he kept that to himself.
She noticed that Martin appeared remorseful as he said, "Yes, the meal was delicious, and was of optimal nutritional value." She chuckled inwardly at one of his favourite phrases and outwardly smiled, "Thank you Martin."
"James did well preparing the cheese toasts. "
"Yes, he is becoming quite the little chef. I don't know if he told you but he let Robert add the currents for the eyes." Both Martin and Louisa had been encouraging James in some elementary cooking skills. She had bought a package of cookie cutters in the shapes of various animals the previous summer which intrigued James, and she suggested that he could use them to cut out the bread for their meal. "I was slicing the bread when James asked if he could cut it into a cat shape and make the bread look like Lizzie. He was very careful to cut the bread just so and then add the cheese. When Robert saw him working, he wanted to help and that is when James showed him where to put the currents for the eyes and nose. When they were done, James grinned and said, "See Mummy, they are just like Lizzie." Robert grinned and echoed his remarks, "Just like Lizzie!"
Louisa was surprised at Martin's reaction as he sat staring down at the tea mug cradled in his hands, his face stony with a sombre expression. After a very long minute of silence, she asked, "Martin? Are you okay?"
He startled, "What?"
"You were awfully quiet. I think it was fine to let James use the cutters to make the toasts. Were you worried about that?"
He sighed and turned his gaze toward her, 'No. That's fine. That's good. I was just thinking how nice it is that James and Robert have each other. "
She reached over to grasp his hand and lace her fingers with his, "Yes they are lucky." She gave him a loving smile, "And we are lucky to have two very fine children, aren't we?"
He put his teacup down on the table and put his arm around her shoulder, "Yes we are."
She reached over and gave him a kiss on his cheek and snuggled into his side. Lizzie resettled herself, sprawling across both their laps, and they sat in companionable silence for a few moments listening to the soothing orchestral music that was playing in the background. Louisa absently ran her fingers in circles across Martin's shirt, slipping her fingers under the buttons, and then changed the subject, "How was your day?"
"Routine." He paused, "Until I arrived home, of course. How was yours."
She reached for her tea and sat up, taking a sip and then rested her head against the back of the sofa. "Busy. I met with Robin Skyler and her parents this morning before school. We developed a tutoring plan for her to catch up on the topics she missed whilst in hospital this past month."
"This is one of your students? What was wrong with her?"
"I told you about her a few weeks ago. She caught measles and had complications. It took more than a week in hospital for her pneumonia to clear up. She was on iv antibiotics and oxygen. It was pretty bad. Then another two weeks of bed rest at home. Needless to say, she has a lot of catching up to do."
"Yes, I remember now. I assume she hadn't had the MMR jab?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Why do parents think it acceptable not to vaccinate their children? It would prevent this ghastly disease."
"Some of them think the vaccine is dangerous. There have been studies linking vaccines to autism you know. "
"Studies which have been debunked." Martin stated definitively. "Will that misinformation never die?" He let out a loud sigh.
"What? What is it?" He had a curious look on his face and she knew he had something else on his mind.
"Oh. I was just remembering a discussion I had with you in my dream about this very same thing."
"Really?" She was always surprised when he would reveal something from his dream. There was no way of knowing what would trigger a memory for him, but she loved when he shared those memories with her and she put her mug down so she could give him a hug.
"Do you want to tell me about it?"
"Hmm …" He tilted his head down to give her forehead a light kiss. "Nothing much to tell. Pretty much the same things we just now said. The parents of one of your new students had refused to vaccinate their child. These people were horrible … the boy ended up with tuberculosis." Martin looked down at his lap, stroking Lizzie's head lightly, and then added, "They burned a badger in their yard."
"They burned a badger?"
"Yes, the wife was giving it a proper Hindu burial."
Louisa laughed out loud. "You certainly have a vivid imagination, Mr. Ellingham."
She reached up to kiss him tenderly on the lips. "You know I love when you share your dream memories."
"Mm" He caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers and then worked those fingers through her hair to wrap his palm around her head as he returned her kiss, gently at first, and then drawing her closer deepening the kiss.
As he pulled away from the kiss, he rested his forehead against hers while trailing his fingers across her jaw and down her shoulder, "Would you like to dance before we retire this evening?"
As was his custom each evening before they sat down to their tea, Martin had turned on some soft classical music. His taste tended to classical or jazz, while she was partial to show tunes and soft rock. Tonight, he had selected some instrumental show tunes with classical overtones perfect for dancing. She had observed over the years that he would select danceable tunes on the evenings when he was feeling romantic. This evening he had been staring at her often and more tenderly than usual, and she hoped that the evening would turn out this way. She gave him a softly seductive smile. "Of course. I would love to dance with you tonight."
She picked up Lizzie and placed her very gently on the sofa, giving her a slight nuzzle just to assure her that she was still loved before turning to Martin. He took her hand and led her to the area in their lounge that they kept clear for the boys to play and for themselves to dance. She looked up at him with a gentle welcoming smile as he took her in his arms and led her in a slow waltz.