Annie and Auggie family and home part 20

Gladys Anderson enjoyed the family reunion. She rarely saw three of her five sons at the same time. But of most of all, she enjoyed having Auggie around after her youngest son had avoided coming to Glencoe for so long.

James was heating the grill with charcoal whilst Gladys, Annie, Jessica and Sandra were getting everything from the kitchen and laid the table. Alan had suggested to postpone the barbecue until Oliver´s arrival and now everyone enjoyed the summer weather in the garden. Jeremy, Stella and Claudia played, whilst Samuel, the youngest Anderson member was sleeping in his baby-cart.

Auggie sat in a rocking chair on the porch and listened to the barbecue preparations . Alan and Oliver had gone to the supermarket close-by to get some beer and lemonade for the kids. In moments like these Auggie felt the whole weight of his blindness. At work in Langley everything was different. He had a job to do and he was good at it. Everybody knew about his capabilities and he was valued and appreciated by Joan and his colleagues.

Coming to Glencoe however was something else. Being with his family, meant to share things. And in these moments Auggie often felt like his blindness excluded him, separated him from the rest of his family. He could not look at the photos that Oliver had taken during his vacation, he could not see the picture that Stella had drawn and he couldn´t see his baby nephew unless he could hold him in his arms. In Langley he always had so much to do, that he had barely time to think about his inability to see. His job was challenging and for most things he did not need any help.

Apart from Alan, nobody knew what he did for a living. The rest of the family just assumed that he worked for the government authorities in an IT department. This wasn´t even a lie. The CIA was an authority, closely connected to the government. But of course, it was a very unusual one with unusual working hours and unusual working conditions.

Whilst Auggie was still immersed into his own world of sounds around him, Stella approached with a book in her hands.

"Uncle Auggie, could you read that to me please?" She asked and put the book on Auggie´s lap.

Auggie felt for the book and replied "I am sorry , but I cannot read that book. I cannot see"

"But Jeremy said that you could read stories to him" Stella insisted.

"Yes, that is right but I need special books that I can read with my hands"

"How can you read with your hands? " The 5-year old girl asked

"Well, I can read with little dots printed on paper. And there are story books for children of that type. I used to read these books to Jeremy when he was not at school yet"

Jeremy and Claudia had watched Auggie talking to Stella and Claudia had hopped off the swing that was still hanging from that huge chestnut tree in the garden. Now the two kids also walked over to Auggie and Stella.

"What are you talking about" Jeremy asked when he had taken the last stair to the porch and walked towards his father.

"Your daddy says he can read with his fingers" Stella said, still a bit incredulous

"Of course he can" Jeremy said with pride in his voice. "Blind people can read with their hands and I can, too. My dad taught me how to read Braille"

"What is Braille?" Claudia asked.

"The dots on paper are called Braille" Jeremy explained and when you touch them with your fingers you can read. If you like I´m gonna show you. I got a book with me that is in print and Braille. It is the story of Buddy the Penguin and his friends at the North Pole. My daddy has read that story to me so often"

"Could you bring us the book" Auggie asked "Stella wants to hear a story and I could read to her while you play with Claudia"

"I ´ll be back in a second" Jeremy walked to the door and ran up the stairs to his room and grabbed the book. Then he put it onto Auggie´s lap. Auggie felt for the first page and started reading.

"Buddy was the youngest penguin of a penguin colony at the North Pole. His parents spent a lot of time out in the sea hunting for fish that they could eat whilst Buddy played games with his penguin friends….."

Now, not only Stella was listening, Jeremy and Claudia also had taken a seat on a chair and listened to the penguin story that Auggie read, sliding his fingertips across the book pages. He enjoyed reading to the kids because those stories sometimes distracted him a bit and he forgot for a while that he couldn´t see.

Sandra looked over to Auggie and the kids whilst laying the table. She had not seen her brother-in-law for a while and she had not assumed that Auggie had such a way with kids.

"The kids love him" she said smiling and Gladys replied "Yeah, he is great with kids. I have seen that a couple of times when we visited DC"

Moments later, Alan and Oliver returned. They had bought beer, white wine for the ladies and lemonade for the kids. The steaks and sausages were already sizzling on the grill and Auggie took in the smell of the meat whilst reading to the kids.

Oliver and Alan brought the drinks into the house and filled the fridge with the bottles.

When Auggie had finished reading the story, the first steaks were ready and everyone took their seat at the table. Jeremy grabbed Auggie´s hand and led him to the table. Auggie felt for the back of the chair and sat down. He slowly assessed the table, feeling for his plate, the napkin and the cutlery in front of him. The table in the shade of the old and huge chestnut tree was nicely arranged with colourful napkins and there was potato salad, tuna salad, cucumber, tomato salad and a number of sauces and dips with and without garlic.

"Do you want some potato salad? "Annie asked

"Yeah, and if there is some ketchup I would like to have some, too with my steak" Auggie replied.

Annie took her husband´s plate and added some potato salad before she put some ketchup onto Auggie´s steak.

Jeremy was already chewing on his first sausage. He and the other two kids sat together at the end of the table and the baby was still asleep in its baby cart.

"So how is it going in DC?" Oliver asked looking over to Auggie

"It is going great" Annie replied "We have a nice house and a garden and Jeremy will already be in 3rd grade after the summer break.

"I guess we should visit some time Jessica said, looking over to Oliver

"It would be a pleasure to have you visit us" Auggie said, wiping his mouth with his napkin.

"Are you still working in the same office Auggie?" Oliver asked

"Yeah, I do. Things haven´t changed. I like my job, the pay is good and Annie and I have some nice colleagues"

If he only knew what we do Annie thought by herself, remembering how much effort it had required to keep the truth about her real job hidden from Danielle and her family.

The conversation among the family went back and forth until Sandra got up from the table. Baby Samuel had woken up and wailed because he had gotten hungry. Quietly Sandra withdrew to the porch, opening her blouse to breastfeed the baby.

Since he could not see, Auggie hadn´t really got acquainted with Baby Samuel and so he was happy when Sandra returned after a while and asked him

"Do you want to hold Sam for a while?"

"Yeah, of course"

Sandra put the baby into Auggie´s open arms and Auggie slowly explored the baby with the sensitive fingertips of his left hand whilst holding the baby with his right. He touched the soft skin of the baby face, gently touched the lips and finally felt for the soft hair of the child.

"He is so sweet" Auggie said

Samuel looked up to Auggie with huge, blue baby eyes and grabbed Auggie´s finger to suck on it.

"Hey baby boy, are you still hungry? " Auggie smiled and took in the typical baby scent. A mixture of baby powder, baby cream and milk. The smell reminded him of the time when Jeremy had been a baby and toddler.

"You and the baby make a perfect pair" Alan joked "what about you and Annie having a second child?"

"Well, I have to talk that over with my wife first, she has to do the greatest part of the job" Auggie grinned

"Did I hear my name?" Annie said, returning from the kitchen where she, Sandra, Jessica and Gladys had gone to in order to get the apple cake for dessert.

"Yeah, we were talking about you and Auggie having a second baby" Alan said

"How nice that you intend to include me into your plans, Annie said and grinned, while she touched Auggie´s shoulder with her right hand.

"Did you change Jeremy´s diapers and did you feed him when he was still a baby" Oliver asked

He still could not imagine that his blind brother was capable of doing all that

"Of course I did, or do you think I couldn´t do that because I am blind?"

"Well…I mean….these things must be a lot harder when you cannot see" Oliver replied

"Everything is more difficult when you are blind but life goes on, giving up isn´t an option" was all Auggie had to say.

"This is what I like about you so much, you´re not a coward" Oliver said with admiration in his voice. He could not imagine living a life without eyesight. He felt like his younger brother was a hero and not only because he had been a soldier in Iraq.

The Anderson family spent an enjoyable evening and when they finally all went to bed it was already past midnight.

Annie was still sound asleep in her husband´s arms when both woke by the sound of Auggie´s cell phone

Incoming call Joan Campbell, incoming call Joan Campbell….

The phone announced and Auggie felt for his Iphone on the nightstand next to him. It had to be important when Joan called him so early in the morning.

Auggie tapped the screen twice, taking the call and could barely understand a word

The usually cool and well contained Joan Campbell was crying so that Auggie could barely understand what she tried to explain.

"Arthur had an accident" she sobbed "Auggie, I need you to come back to Langley and run the DPD for me. I don´t know who I could trust with this job, and besides, most of the others are on vacation and out of the country, please Auggie, come back to DC and help me out!"

"Oh my God, what happened?" Auggie was appalled

"He was about to cross the street when a car did not observe the red lights and ran over him. He is still in ICU and I don´t know when he will wake up again. I need to be with him and therefore I need your help"

"You can count on me Joan" Auggie promised. He and Joan had a relation that went beyond the usual boss-employee relation. Auggie did not hesitate for a second. If Joan was in trouble he would help her and he was sure Annie would understand.

"I ´ll be back in DC tomorrow night and back in the office on Wednesday"

"I appreciate your support so much" Joan said between two sobs. "Thank you for being so understanding"

"That´s what friends are for" Auggie replied before he tapped the screen again and ended the call.

"What´s going on" Annie asked. She had been listening to the phone conversation and was concerned.

"We need to go back to DC today, Arthur had an accident and Joan wants me to run the DPD for her for a while"

"Let´s have breakfast and pack up" Annie replied. One of the things she liked about her husband was that he was a reliable friend even if it meant that they had to change their own plans.

An hour and a half later Annie, Auggie and Jeremy were on their way back to DC.