A May-September Wedding Page 4

  Lydia giggled. "David's not that shallow."

  "Almost. And Elaine is still jealous that Phyl got along better with Mom than she did. Although Elaine has mellowed a lot since she had Emily." Felicity sighed. "Dad needs a keeper, though."

  "Mum would enjoy doing that. I mean she already does a lot of stuff for you guys."

  "And Dad does all of your yard work."

  Simultaneously they said, "It would be easier if we all lived in the same house." Then they both sighed wistfully.

  Chapter Five - September

  Cal picked up the phone on the second ring. "Cal Richardson, can I help you?"

  "Cal, it's Phyl. Tim's gotten into a fight at school and I need a favour."

  Cal was curious. "What do you need?"

  Phyl paused. "Well I can give you a choice. You can be home for the girls when they get off school then take them to youth group at church while I go speak to the principal or you can go get Tim at school and speak with the principal for me."

  Cal thought about it for a moment. "It might be better if I spoke with the principal. She doesn't seem to try her 'niceness is nice' speeches with me since she found out I work for the military-industrial complex. And maybe I can have a talk with Tim about what really happened."

  "He's been pretty closed off since school started. I don't know what his new class is like but he did have some problems with some of the anti-Christian kids last year."

  "Anti-Christian?"

  "There are a couple of hard line Muslim kids in his year that used to give him a hard time but they seem to respect him now. It's the two boys whose parents are atheists are the ones giving him the really hard time."

  "It's not easy being a Christian kid in public school. I was thinking about exploring the possibility of putting Felicity in the Christian high school next year."

  Cal could almost see Phyl nodding as she said, "Let's talk about that sometime. It might be better for the kids if they could. Neither of our public high school choices are a good environment for a committed Christian from what I've heard and a boundary transfer takes a lot of work."

  Cal looked at his clock. "I guess I have to leave now if I'm going to take care of this. Make sure you call the school to let them know I'm picking Tim up."

  There was a paper rustling sound. "Oh. Can you make sure Tim gets supper?"

  "No problem, Phyl. Now, I have to go let the boss know I have a family situation to take care of. Bye."

  "Bye, Cal. Thanks." Phyl sat back. Family? I wonder if he realized what he just said.

  Cal hung up and packed a messenger bag with some reports he needed to read. He let the director's admin assistant know he was leaving for the day and went down to his car.

  Memories of rescuing Jeremy from the principal's office came to mind. He had two firm rules that he got from his mother – first, it was okay to finish a fight but you never made first contact and second, if you have to fight try not to damage your opponents eyes but everything else will heal.

  As he was driving along Bronson, he replayed the conversation. Had he used the word family? Was that what this was? He lied to himself and said that of course the Schuylers were family. Their long friendship entitled Phyl to lean on him like they were family, right?

  Then a strong image of the previous evening when they were washing up after yet another meal together came into his mind. Phyl had been wearing a dark scoop neck summer dress that exposed the delicate muscles that ran from her shoulders to her neck. She'd put her fine shimmering blonde hair up and the combination of domesticity and womanly grace went straight to his heart. It had taken all of his iron will not to wipe his soapy hands and grab her around the waist to nuzzle her neck from behind.

  He shook his head to clear the image and return his attention to his driving. Of course there was no point in fantasizing about Phyl. There is no way she wants to get involved with an old man.

  Tim was sitting sullenly on a bench outside the principal's office. He looked both puzzled and relieved when he saw Cal. "Where's Mum?"

  "She's taking the girls to youth group at church, so I agreed to come see what the problem is."

  A dour middle aged woman with a helmet of dyed blonde hair asked, "Mr. Richardson?"

  "That's me."

  The principal looked him over with undisguised interest and said, "You're Felicity's father." Recognition dawned. "Brenda's husband. I'm sorry to hear she passed away."

  Cal gave a polite smile and said thanks. "I'm here to pick Tim Schuyler up."

  "Right." She motioned him into her office and took her seat behind the desk. Cal took the right hand visitor's chair.

  "I'm afraid that Tim has been acting out since his father died. Do you know if he's been getting counselling?" She looked professionally sympathetic.

  "Yes. He has been getting counselling. We all have. But he's also being bullied. My daughter and the Schuyler children are practising Christians, like me and Phyllida. Are you sure he's not being persecuted by his classmates?"

  "It's never appropriate to fight, Mr. Richardson, and persecution is such a strong word," she said in a condescending tone.

  "In my world, it's always appropriate to defend yourself using the same level of effort that the instigator uses and when someone is being picked on because of their faith it's normally called persecution," he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

  "Well, if Tim holds such intolerant views, then I'm not surprised that he gets into fights." The principal sniffed.

  "Did you ask who started the fight?"

  "Well I did question the boys involved, but they all said Timothy started the fight."

  "They all..." Cal fixed a stern look on his face. "Would these boys be in the habit of running together in a gang or would they be best friends who are willing to lie to protect each other?"

  "I assure you, Mr. Richardson, I can tell when children are lying to me."

  "Was Tim lying?" Cal looked her in the eye until she dropped her gaze to the desk.

  "Well, none of the witnesses confirmed his version." She sounded unsure.

  "But if you can tell when children are lying, you should be able to answer my question. Was Tim lying?"

  The principal fidgeted before saying, in a quiet voice, "No, I don't think so."

  "Then you have two conflicting stories about what happened. Only one is likely to be true if you have the whole story. Were there any other children who saw what happened?"

  "No one came forward," she admitted.

  "Then what I think you have is a classic case of a gang bullying an outsider. None of the other witnesses want to be singled out either, so they are going to let Tim take the fall. Now, what are you going to do about this?" Cal asked, looking intently at the woman across the desk.

  "Well...I think Tim needs to see the anger management counsellor..." she started.

  "I meant about the gang of bullies. Surely your teachers and other parents have spoken to you about them." Cal commented in a reasonable fashion.

  "I don't see that it's any of your business how we deal with those boys." She said defiantly.

  "When it's my godson that's being bullied, I think I have every right to ask how you'll deal with it. I think that Tim has already been punished enough. He doesn't need you to pile on." Cal stood. "I think I'll take Tim home, now. Thank you for your time." He turned as he got to the door. "Please consider doing a better job of actually supervising the yard next time rather than just spouting platitudes about respect at the next assembly." Cal left as the principal's face turned red.

  "C'mon sport, let's go home." Cal quickly led the way out as the principal stood in her office door debating with herself about saying more.

  In the car, Cal said, "Your Mum is going to want your story. I wouldn't mind hearing it either, but I'm going to make the assumption that you threw the first real punch but only after they shoved you around for a while."

  Tim stared at his shoes. "Yeah, pretty much."

  "Then, for what it's worth, I think
you did the right thing. They'll probably pick on someone else next."

  "But it was someone else this time, Mr. Richardson." Tim sounded dejected. "Poor Marie has a speech impediment and they were teasing her something awful. I had to do something."

  Cal smiled at Tim's chivalry. "Did they stop?"

  "Yeah, after I called them cowards for picking on a girl but then this kid in Lydia's class, Tyler, asked if I was man enough to take him and he started shoving me. Then two of his buddies and his brother Steve, the one in my class, started shoving me. So I kicked him hard in the ankle and punched his brother in the nose."

  "Are you hurt?" Cal asked sympathetically.

  "Nothing serious, maybe a couple of bruises." Tim shrugged it off.

  "Okay, guy. We're on our own for supper. How about you and me head over to Local Heroes and catch the start of the CFL game? I think it's Hamilton at Montreal." Then Cal thought for a bit. "How's the homework?"

  Tim's broad smile changed to a crestfallen look. "Just a couple of pages of math."

  "Okay. The offer still stands, but we'll go home and get the homework done first."

  Cal dropped Tim off at his house shortly after eight-thirty. Phyl's new station wagon was in the driveway and Felicity waved from the dining room table as they came in.

  Tim said, "Thanks, Mr. Richardson," and went up to his room.

  Phyl beckoned from the kitchen and asked, quietly, "So what happened?"

  "You know Marie with the lisp?" Phyl thought for a second, then nodded. "Well, four boys were teasing her in the yard at second break and Tim tried to put a stop to it."

  "That's pretty brave of him."

  "Yes, well. They turned their attention to Tim instead. He got in two good blows then took a few himself before the on duty teacher put a stop to it."

  "What did the principal say?"

  "The other boys all told her the same story, that Tim started it. He did throw the first real punch, but they were shoving him around for a while first. She wanted to punish him for the whole incident."

  "What did you say?"

  "I asked her what she was going to do about the bullies and she tried to blame Tim. So I told her that she needs to do a better job supervising the yard and that Tim had already been punished and didn't need any more. Then I just left her there debating whether to yell at me and told Tim we were going."

  Phyl nodded. "Thanks, Cal. I think you handled it better than either Harry or I would have. I would have gone all passive-aggressive and agreed with her to shut her up then told Tim that the principal was being an idiot. Harry would have sent some sort of a mixed message by being proud that he stood up for Marie and disappointed that he got into trouble for it. I like what you did." She gave Cal a sunny smile to say thanks. "I just made some decaf. Do you want a cup? The girls have another half hour or so before they are finished their project."

  "That sounds great. I took Tim to Local Heroes for supper and I ate too much. The coffee will definitely help." Cal smiled appreciatively.

  Phyl gave an affectionate smile in return and busied herself tidying the kitchen while debriefing Cal on the girls' evening.

  Chapter Six - October

  Phyl was muttering as she tried on the fourth, and last, of her black dresses. "Lydia, come help me with my zipper."

  Lydia came in to her mother's bedroom to see a small pile of dresses on the foot of the bed and a much larger pile at the head. "Sure Mom. What's up?"

  "Cal asked if I wanted to go with him to the literacy foundation fund raiser this year. I was hoping that I'd have a dark dress that still fit me." Phyl pointed in exasperation at the small pile. "Only those dresses still fit me. And they're all bright colours."

  "You're complaining about losing weight?"

  "No, I'm complaining because I have to shop for a dress, I think."

  Lydia zipped up the back of the dress. "Isn't this supposed to be a fitted bodice?"

  Phyl looked in the mirror to see the dress hanging loose across her chest. "Oh. Now I remember this dress. I needed a cocktail dress for a party when I was four months pregnant with Tim." She sighed and said, "Your bust size goes up when you're pregnant." At the mild look of confusion on Lydia's face in the mirror she added, "Because your body is getting ready to nurse a baby. Unzip me, please?"

  As she saw her mother add the dress to the pile at the head of the bed, Lydia asked, "Why did you put the bright colours in the 'doesn't fit' pile. I thought you needed a dark dress."

  "I've been meaning to give away some of these dresses for a while and some of them I just know are too big for me now."

  "Can I see if any of them fit?" Lydia looked excited at the prospect.

  Phyl stood back and truly looked at her thirteen year old. "Stand back to back with me."

  They stood in front of the mirror and Phyl said, "I think you're taller than me now. And almost as wide." She pondered for a bit then said, "I don't think very much will suit you because we aren't the same shape, but go ahead." Phyl picked up the clothes on the end of the bed and hung them back up in her now spacious closet.

  Lydia ran downstairs to get a blue recycle bag and began to sort through the dresses. "You don't mind me getting them ready to give away?"

  Phyl had to suppress a snicker as she began to sort through old blouses and slacks. "No, I should have done this while I was sorting through your Papa's things" She turned around to see Lydia trying on a peacock blue halter dress that made her look much older than her thirteen years. She felt a strange mix of emotions seeing Lydia look so grown up but found her Mum voice and said, "If you wear that, you don't wear makeup."

  "But Mum..."

  "No buts. You don't want to give the boys the wrong impression. You look beautiful enough in the dress without makeup." Phyl didn't want the boys thinking her daughter was interested in dating.

  Lydia sighed. "Okay, Mum. But can I wear it to the dance at school?"

  Phyl almost said no, but remembered it was an afternoon activity in a fully lit gym. "Sure."

  Lydia bounced like the little girl she could still be and hugged her mother.

  "The literacy gala? That's nice, Dad. Mom would be very glad to know that you're still supporting her favourite cause. Are you going solo?" Elaine sounded pleased that her father was getting out of the house.

  "No, I've got a date." Cal was non-committal. "How's Emily?" he asked in an attempt to change the subject.

  "She's fine, Dad, but I'd rather talk about your date. Who are you going with?" Elaine sounded very curious.

  "Well," he paused then said, "it's Phyl Schuyler, actually."

  There was a pause before Elaine said, in a neutral tone that could only be disapproving, "I see."

  Cal felt a flash of irritation. "Phyl and Harry went with us most years. You babysat the kids a couple of times."

  "I know that, Dad, but Phyl? Isn't she..." Elaine hesitated.

  "Too young?"

  "I don't mean that." Cal could almost see Elaine blushing.

  "Well then what do you mean? That I'm not capable of getting a beautiful woman to go out with me?" Cal let his irritation creep into his voice.

  "Just forget I said anything."

  "Elaine, just remember that I've know Phyl since before Felicity was born. We're good friends. That's all. Besides, she deserves a night out for taking Felicity next week and I know she loves to dance."

  "What's next week?"

  "I'm part of a team that's headed to Washington to explore the possibility of buying some used helicopters from the US Coast Guard to replace our search and rescue choppers."

  "You know we'd take Felicity, Dad."

  "I know that Elli, but it would be a big change in your daily schedule. Felicity walks to school with Lydia and they end up sharing a bedroom two or three nights a week anyway because they're up late talking. I don't know what they have to talk about when they spend sixteen hours a day together. In any case, Phyl says it's no more trouble to look after the two of them than one."

&n
bsp; Elaine thought about saying something, but something in her father's tone suggested that the matter was closed, so she began, "I'll be happy to come over to spend the evening with the girls but I have to tell you something else, Dad. It's actually why I called. I'm expecting again."

  Cal whooped. "That's wonderful news Elli. When are you due?"

  "In early March. I wanted to wait until I was at least three months along before I said anything to anyone."

  Cal remembered the several miscarriages that Elaine had gone through before finally bringing Emily to full term. "That's great news. How is Brian taking it?"

  "Well, he's started treating me like I'm made of blown glass again. It's very sweet but I can still stand up long enough to wash dishes." Elaine laughed and launched into some stories about Emily's latest achievements.

  Lydia looked like lightning would strike from her eyes as she marched into the house. Phyl asked, "What is it, lovie?"

  "Ooo, that Tyler Brown." Lydia hung up her coat carefully but stamped her feet before she took off her shoes.

  Phyl went over and gave Lydia a hug. Tim came sauntering in, but put his stuff away very quickly and raced over to the family room to turn on the television before Lydia could claim it.

  "So what happened, Lydia?"

  "Felicity's waiting outside the principal's office for her Dad to come get her. Tyler's in the hospital with some sort of knee injury."

  "So what happened?" Phyl's voice lowered and got gentle.

  Lydia looked into the family room at her brother and decided to go to the kitchen to fish a bottle of juice from the fridge. Phyl followed, full of curiosity.

  "So what happened?" Phyl asked again.

  Lydia sighed. "Tyler and his gang of mini-mes were teasing Marie again, so Felicity went over to take her away from them. So, Beast gets over to them and the five boys surround them and Tyler tells Felicity that he'll let Marie go if Felicity will give each of the boys a kiss."

  "Where were you when this was happening?"

  "I was trying to get the teacher's attention and not having much luck. Anyway, they let Marie go when Tim walked over but they crowded even closer to Felicity. She's just staring Tyler down. Then he points at her chest and teases her about not having any real boobs. Beast starts to blush and I'm walking over to help her, when Tyler grabs her chest. She kicks him in the knee like she's striking a long shot and then Tyler's on the ground screaming. Steve picks Felicity up from behind and she puts her heel into his crotch just at the teacher finally gets there."