Hello all! If you read my last authors note in the last chapter you're probably wondering what I'm doing posting a story now. Well I've been following the strike, and though it hasn't officially ended it's beginning to look like the end is very near, Wednesday hopefully. So I figured if it does end, that day I'll be able to update my other story but not this one? Not fair, especially since that one has more chapters but anyway… Thanks for all the reviews, they really brighten my day! Glad you enjoying it and I hope this one makes up for last weeks not so long one…
About two weeks later California got a trip from the Bunkers. Stephanie, however, stayed in New York at a friend's house, while Archie and Edith flew out to meet Gloria and their new home. So far no luck.
"Are you sure, you've got the right address?" Edith asked her husband. They were riding around in a cab looking for their new home.
"Course I'm sure, it's the address Gloria gave me over the phone." he told her and she shook her head abit.
"Oh I don't trust phones, when it comes to important information." she said causing her husband to look at her with a questioning look across his face.
"Edith the telephone ain't the one giving you that information, it's the person you're talking to!" he said at first thinking it was a side effect of the stroke but then realized it was just Edith being Edith.
"Oh I know that, I mean, with all the static you get sometimes, ya hear things that wasn't said." she explained before going into another one of her forever loving and lasting stories. "You see when I was a little girl, my sister Jessica caught a terrible cold."
Archie slouched down abit in his seat, "Ah geeze a cold story."
Edith obviously didn't hear him as she kept on with her story. "You see my Uncle Martin called our house, and talked to my father, asking him how Jessica was doing now, but my father heard 'Jessica looks like a cow.' and my father got so upset he promised he would never speak to him again, and he didn't. He didn't even find out that what he had heard was wasn't what my uncle said, until he went to Uncle Martin's funeral and then he felt terrible. And that's why I don't trust the phones." she finished
Archie looked over at her, "Well Edith I gotta say two things. One, that's gotta be one of the dumbest stories you've ever told. And two, I gotta say you're uncle was right your sister did look like a cow."
"Oh Archie." she said shaking her head while frowning.
"Hey I'm only telling the truth, your sister did look like a cow. Cause youse got all the looks in your family." he told her and her smile reappeared.
"Oh Arrchie!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
The two obviously forgot where they were, as Archie deepened the kiss and Edith didn't pull away.
"Ehem." the driver cleared his throat and the couple broke apart as fats as teenagers would if they'd been caught by their parents looking just as embarrassed as well.
"Ain't youse got a cab to drive?" Archie asked the driver.
"Oh look Archie I think this one's it." she told her husband pointing at a condominium through the window, Archie took a look.
"Nah that ain't it." he told her and then looked around at the other condos. "Nah I think it's that one over there." he said pointing at the same condominium Edith had been pointing at only seconds before.
However before Edith could say anything, Archie was already telling the cab driver to stop. "Uh righto hero senero." he told the man.
"Sir, I understand English." the cab driver told Archie.
"Hey look at that , you ain't go no accent." Archie stated as he paid the man, "You can't even tell you're a spic." he finished as he followed Edith out of the cab. The cab driver rolled his eyes and before Archie closed the door, mumbled "Pendejo"
"What did he say?" Edith asked as the cab drove away, Archie shrugged his shoulders.
"Eh it probably meant goodbye or something of the sorts. It sounded like Bonjour." he told her and she frowned
"I thought that was hello." she said aloud and her husband frowned.
"I don't know! And there ain't no reason for me to know. These people need to drop their dopey languages and speak the American one."
"English?"
"Right."
"Ain't it funny? There's Spanish that's spoken in Spain, and Italian spoken in Italy, but English don't sound nothing like America. It sounds more like England."
Archie just frowned, "Would you get moving?" he asked a bit loudly, obviously upset.
Edith and Archie walked over to the condos. "Oh my, these houses all look the same."
"These ain't houses, their condos Edith, although I don't know why they look dis way. I mean most people who lives in these here things are old folks. And the with the people's memory, they musta gotten in the wrong house plenty a times." Archie told his wife while looking around for their future neighborhood.
"Ma? Daddy?" they heard a female voice call and as soon as they did, the turned around to see their little girl.
"Oh Gloria!" her mother exclaimed
"Is that my little Goil?" her father asked
"Oh Ma!" Gloria exclaimed before running past her father and his open arms and into her mother's arms.
The two women then began asking questions at once, while talking over each other as Archie remained standing his arms still open from when he thought Gloria would embrace him first.
Finally not being able to take it any longer Archie began to talk to himself . "Hiya there little goil. No I'm fine. Nah the trip n the plane was a disaster."
"Oh Daddy!" Gloria said smiling before going over to him and hugging him, "I'm sorry."
"Geeze I coulda stayed in Queens and youse wouldn't have known I was missing." Archie grumbled.
Gloria playfully smacked her fathers' chest before turning to her mother. "You guys are hear early." she told them, "Where's your luggage?"
"Oh we left it at the hotel." Edith told her daughter
"Yeah, so we gotta hurry back, I saw some colored guys near our room there and they wasn't in no whatdaya call hotel uniforms." Archie explained, Gloria rolled her eyes at her fathers remark, while her mother shook her head.
"Maybe they were guest Daddy."
"Nah." Archie disagreed, "We're in one of them fancy like hotels."
After saying this both mother and daughter looked at each other and shook their heads. Archie frowned, "What was dat about?"
Gloria just ignored her father, as she tried to distract her mother by walking with her into the condo while Archie followed behind them still asking the same question.
Minutes later the family exited the condo through the same door they had entered.
"Oh I love it!" Edith exclaimed
"Yeah Little Goil you did a great job there." Archie told Gloria and she smiled.
"Thanks Daddy."
"And the house I mean condo is so much prettier then the way it looks in the pictures." Edith shared, Gloria frowned some.
"Really Ma?"
"Oh yeah, I ain't never really trusted pictures, just like I don't always trust the phone. You see…"
"You don't trust picture, let's just leave it at dat, Edith." Archie groaned
Gloria smiled before saying what was on her mind. "Oh Ma, Daddy, I forgot to tell you. Your new neighbors would really like to meet you, and I told them you were coming today."
"Ah geeze Little Goil, I don't wanna go meet…" Archie stated just as Edith said, "Oh we'd love to!"
Gloria, of course, chose to go with what her mother said. "Great!" she exclaimed as her father groaned.
"Now are they just next door?" Edith asked
"No Edith their two blocks away." Archie replied his tone full of sarcasm
"Yeah Ma right next-door, not even an alley apart." Gloria explained as they walked next door.
Seconds later they were standing in front of a door that looked similar to the one on their new home. "Ok now, you two stand here and I'll get the doorbell." Gloria instructed as she rang the doorbell.
"Coming!" a man's voice muffled through the door.
"Oh Archie see there's a man living here, maybe you two could be good friends." Edith predicted smiling.
"Yeah maybe." Archie said smiling a small smile.
Just then the door opened.
"Surprise!" Gloria exclaimed happily and Archie's face dropped.
"There goes that idea." he said mostly to himself.
Edith looked confused as she saw the man before her, "Oh hi Mike! Do you know our new neighbors?"
Michael Stivic looked at his in-laws, his face reflecting Archie's. "Yeah ma, I know them pretty well." he said dryly.
"Oh are they home?" Edith asked still not figuring it all out.
"Ma, we're your new neighbors!" Gloria said smiling away
"Oh Gloria!" Edith cried before hugging her, "Oh Mike!" she said hugging him while Gloria hugged her father.
"Ah geeze," Archie groaned while glaring at his son-in-law "another thing to add to the disasters out here in California."
Well there you go! Chapter 16 of As Time Goes By! Thanks for Reading! Hope you liked! Please review! Until Next Time! Have a Nice Day! Bye!