Thank you for your kind reviews! Let me know if you have seen the 1960 film The Facts of Life, which I have based the plot on. I am interested...
The next morning Charles left early, waking Alice to give her a kiss and a goodbye. She slept in Jimmy's room all night to ensure his temperature didn't go up. She bid him goodbye and wished him good luck fishing. Charles kissed both his son's without waking them. He would miss them, but this was the nature with having children. One had to learn when to slacken the reigns.
He pulled his one bag out to the car and dropped it in the trunk. "Shit," he said out loud. He just remembered he had to pick up Elsie. And tell her about Alice. And they had the whole car ride to spend alone together. He climbed in the front seat and prayed they wouldn't kill each other.
Elsie was waiting outside the house, sitting on her case with her hat on her head. "You're late."
"Yes Elsie I know I'm late." He opened the trunk and tried to pick up her case, but she was too fast. She lifted it into the trunk with a bit of a struggle. "Is this all you have? In the past you usually have three or four cases."
"Those were mostly Joe's. He likes to bring all his work papers with him in case he has some free time after he is through relaxing." Her voice dripped with sarcasm. Elsie moved to get into the back of the car when she noticed the passenger seat was empty. "Where's Alice?"
Charles sighed and opened his car door. "Alice is not going. Jimmy has a bit of a fever and she feels the need to nurse him."
"Poor Jimmy, and poor Alice to have to miss the trip. Why are you still going then?" Elsie stared at him across the top of the car. She knew what it felt like to be left behind. "Don't you care enough about your wife to stay with her when she needs your support?"
Charles could not believe they were having this conversation. "Yes I care, Elsie! I wanted to stay, but Alice insisted I go. But now I am bloody well questioning my ultimate decision!"
Elsie saw him build up his defenses and surrendered. "Fine, I'm sorry. Let's get on."
She slid into the front seat beside him.
They spent the ride listening to the radio. She hummed along to the songs she recognized and sang quietly. Charles rolled his eyes. Of course she would, always drawing attention to herself.
"Can you use the GPS on your phone to tell me what exit I need to use?"
She plugged in their destination information. "It's the next one on the left."
"Are you sure? I thought I saw a sign back there that said the airport was in two exits."
"Then why did you ask me to find the exit if you already knew which one it was?"
"I wanted to be sure."
"But now you're not sure."
"No! I'm not sure!" Charles was getting frustrated.
"Follow the phone's directions. Maybe there is a shortcut." She made the decision and he listened.
Soon enough, the airport appeared on their right.
Elsie pointed. "See, it was a shortcut. We skipped all that traffic."
Charles turned into a parking space. "You were right."
She looked over at him. "Yes I was."
They wheeled their luggage through the parking lot and into the terminal. The ticket window had a long line and they waited together. They watched a family of three in front of them. The mother held the three year old girl and they waved at their luggage traveling down the belt. The father held their tickets and talked with the woman at the window. Charles and Elsie couldn't help but smile at the family.
It was their turn at the next window. Charles let Elsie go first.
"I have a ticket to Acapulco for a Mrs. Burns." She gave the woman all their flight information.
The woman found her flight. "Yes, I have two tickets here for Mr. and Mrs. Burns and I see your husband has a bag too."
Elsie was quick to correct. "No, no, no! This is not Mr. Burns. You see, my husband is not able to travel with me today so I only need the one ticket."
"Oh, yes mam we can do that." Charles just smirked haughtily. Elsie glared.
Their ticket situation was resolved and their luggage went down the belt. Elsie had a large purse as her carry on that had everything she needed for the long plane ride. Charles carried a book and his ticket, everything he needed.
They got in line to go through security. Charles held Elsie's purse while she took off her necklace, hat, and shoes.
"Do you mind if I put my book in here? I feel strange carrying it all around the airport."
"Makes no difference to me." She answered.
He huffed at her response and but his book in anyway.
After they made it through security, Elsie texted Beryl and found that they were just arriving at the airport. Their plane was to leave in 1 hour, so they had plenty of time. They sat by their terminal and looked out the window at all the passing planes taking off and landing.
Charles leaned over to her so she could hear. "It's amazing isn't it? All those planes perfectly scheduled so they each know where to go, what altitude to fly at, when to land, where to take off from. What an impressive system."
Elsie never really thought about it before. "I guess so." Her non impressed answer drew a great sigh from him. She elaborated. "I wonder more about all the people traveling for one reason or another. We pass everyone like ships in the night, but when you think about it everyone has their own story and their own destination. It is a fascinating idea to wrap your head around."
Charles acknowledged her thoughts with a raise of his eyebrows and a nod of his head. Well, it seemed she had some deeper thoughts.
Beryl and Bill came bustling through shortly after. They were very excited for the trip. Beryl had a beach bag as her carry on with tons of magazines she was determined to catch up on.
Shortly after, the plane arrived and they began boarding. Beryl and Bill's section was called first.
"See you in Acapulco!" Beryl exclaimed, already half way to the boarding station.
Elsie smiled watching her go. "She doesn't hold back, does she?"
"Well neither do you," Charles challenged.
She looked up at him. "You would be surprised, Charles."
Their section was called next and she walked ahead of him.
Elsie had a window seat which she preferred. She liked to look out as they were taking off and landing. A woman about her age sat beside her after bidding her a good morning. She seemed very friendly, maybe they could start up some conversation and make the ride go faster. She looked out at the luggage being loaded on. It would still be a few minutes until they would take off. She shut her eyes for a moment. She hadn't slept well the night before.
Charles was seated a few rows behind her. There was a man beside him obviously flying on business. He had a bluetooth device in his ear and was complaining to whoever he was on the phone with. This was going to be a long ride. He remembered he left his book in Elsie's purse. He stood up and quickly found her seat.
"Pardon me mam." He reached across the woman sitting beside her and tapped Elsie's shoulder. "Elsie, may I have my book?"
She opened her eyes, hearing his request. "Of course." She reached under the seat in front of her and dug through for his book.
The woman beside them jumped up. "Oh mam, I'll let your husband sit here beside you and I can just take his seat as I'm traveling alone."
That statement had Elsie' head up and she dropped her purse. "No, no! Please mam, stay in your seat!"
"Nonsense, I will just pop back here. This was your seat, wasn't it sir?"
Charles answered, as flustered as Elsie. "Yes mam, but you see Elsie is…"
"I won't hear another word about it." And with that, the woman took Charles's seat beside the other gentleman.
He could see it was no use, but he was very sorry when he turned back to Elsie and found her lips pursed tightly together and staring at the seat in front of her. Charles tentatively sat down beside her. It took her a moment before she retrieved his book and slammed it into his chest.
"Are you happy?" She said under her breath. "You have your precious book." She saw the book out of the corner of her eye and pulled it back again. "Damn it."
"What are you doing with my book?" Charles admonished.
She searched through her purse again. "What do you think? I gave you the wrong book, this one is mine."
"Not it isn't. I'm reading Great Expectations, or rereading it I should say."
"So am I." She finally found the other book in her purse, the same copy as his. She sat back in her seat. "I'm not sure why I'm surprised. I knew you enjoyed classic literature."
"As do you, I see."
"It was one of those books I never got to read in school, so I thought I would give it a shot now. I haven't started yet. I saved it for the trip."
"I haven't started my reread yet either." He turned to her. "Perhaps we can read it at the same pace and discuss it?"
She looked over and saw how his eyebrows furrowed. "If you wish, Charles."
The plane took off smoothly and Elsie decided to start the ride with a nap. Charles read the first few chapters of his book before also napping. Elsie woke and read some. About half way into the trip, they were both awake, but not speaking. Elsie had her ear bud's in her ears and was listening to music.
Charles checked his watch and sighed, only half way. He thought he heard Beryl's laugh erupt from in front of them. "I wonder what she found so funny?" He said out loud.
Elsie removed a bud from her ear. "What was that, Charles?"
"I thought I heard Beryl laugh from all the way back here. I was wondering what was so funny?"
She huffed. "And you needed to ask me that?"
"No, I was just talking to myself."
"Bloody hell." She said putting her ear buds back in. "How he ever manages to…"
Her mutterings were interrupted. "What was that, Elsie?"
"It's nothing. I wasn't talking to you."
"Then who were you talking too?"
"I was talking you myself!"
They slowly turned to each other and started laughing at the same time. Their giggle left after only a short amount of time, but they lightened the atmosphere completely.
"Charles, I don't want to bicker with you this entire trip. We are both going on this trip together so let's make the best of it."
"I couldn't have said it any better Elsie. It shouldn't be that hard to be civil for a week."
"That's right, then you can go back to insulting my animated character and making all kinds of false accusation on how I treat my husband." Her voice had a hint of disdain.
He met her irritated eyes. "Yes, and you can go back to making fun of my jaded demeanor and accuse me of neglecting my children."
Elsie turned serious, still keeping his eye contact. "I would never accuse you of neglecting you children, Charles. I see how much of yourself you give to those two, when you're allowed."
He stood down. "Thank you Elsie. And I would never accuse you of mistreating Joe. I am beginning to understand how much he takes you for granted."
She was almost overwhelmed by his attentiveness. "Thank you, Charles."
This was the most polite conversation they had had in years. To keep it from turning violent, both decided they should let the discussion end there.
To the reviewer who saw the movie on TCM- Yay! I am happy to know someone else has actually seen it! I loved it when I first saw it and love Lucy and Bob on screen together. This was their third of four movies they made together, but they were very good friends off screen. It is definitely a change of pace for both of them, less comedy more storytelling.