Fun in the Sun

Chapter 4

The children rode along behind John as he headed his horse into the path through the trees at the farm. The occasions when they had gone riding had greatly diminished over time, but they all seemed to love it still. The riding skills of Bree and Ashley had improved with their age and size. Patrick had always been very good on a horse.

“Why do you think Patrick invited him?” Bree whispered to Ashley as she got her horse up beside the other girl.

“Maybe he gets sick of being around us girls,” Ashley sagely replied.

“Poop!” Bree commented. “I get sick of being around men.”

Ashley chuckled. “That’s why you invite me over,” she reminded her friend. She gave Bree a wide smile.

“I guess so,” Bree agreed reluctantly. Bree stared at the young boy on the horse next to her Patrick. His name was Chet, and Patrick had met him at baseball camp. He had come to Edna’s Treasures a couple of times while Bree and her fathers were away in Toronto. Bree wasn’t sure if she liked Chet. She had liked David … a lot, and then she had found out that he wasn’t really very nice. The jury was still out on this Chet, but she supposed she could wait and see how things went. Patrick laughed at something Chet said to him. Bree felt a twinge of jealousy. She didn’t like sharing her Patrick.

They rode along in silence until they reached the stream. John pulled his horse to a stop and dismounted.

“I thought maybe we could take a break and dip our feet in the stream,” he told the children. “This is a good spot for that.”

“Good idea, Uncle John,” Bree agreed as he helped her down from her horse.

Everyone got off their horse and tethered the animals in the little meadow near the stream. There was some shade for the animals, and a rocky projection out into the stream where the humans could sit and dangle their feet in the refreshing water.

“This is nice,” Ashley said as she dipped her toes in the water.

“I’m glad you like it,” John said. He pulled off his own boots and stuck his feet into the cool water. “How do you like it, Chet?” he asked.

“It’s okay.”

“Just okay?”

“I have a pool at home,” Chet replied. “I like to swim in that.”

“But we’re not swimming,” Bree stated. “This is just to cool off before we continue on.”

Chet gave Bree a condescending look. “We have air conditioning for that.”

“Not out here, you don’t,” Bree reminded him.

“Um, aren’t we near Grandma’s house?” Patrick asked looking around. He also hoped to deflect the increasing tension between Bree and Chet.

“Yes, good observation,” John said to his son. “We can ride over there after we cool off. I bet she’ll even have some cookies ready for us.”

“Yum,” Bree said happily. “I haven’t seen Grandma Claire in a long time.”

“When I told her we were going riding today, she told me I better bring you to see her or I’d be in big trouble,” John said with a chuckle.

“I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble, Uncle John,” Bree said sincerely.

“Where’s her house?” Chet asked.

“Over there through the trees, and a little further up the stream,” Patrick explained. “She makes the best cookies.”

“My mom always buys her cookies,” Chet informed them.

“I make cookies with my Daddy,” Bree contributed.

“And I make them with my mommy … sometimes,” Ashley added. She didn’t want to be left out.

“Making cookies is for girls,” Chet said disdainfully. “You don’t bake cookies, do you?” Chet asked Patrick.

Patrick gulped. He didn’t want to seem like a girl in front of his new friend, but he knew he wasn’t going to lie. “I bake cookies with Bree sometimes. She makes really good chocolate chip ones.”

Bree beamed at Patrick. “Thank you, my Patrick, and we have fun making them.”

“Doesn’t sound like fun to me,” Chet informed them.

“I enjoy making cookies sometimes too,” John decided to add. He hadn’t seen this side of Chet when the girls weren’t around. He didn’t like his superior attitude over people of the female persuasion.

Chet shook his head. “Are we going to ride some more or sit here all day?” he asked.

“You’re in a big rush, Chet,” John said gently. “In the summer we like to take it slow and easy.”

“I don’t like to waste time.”

“I’d hardly call sitting in the sun relaxing a waste of time.”

Chet shook his head. He’d like to tell them all what he thought about their idea of relaxing, but he knew he’d get in trouble for being rude. “I’m sorry if that sounded bad. I like riding better than sitting here.”

“Okay, son,” John said, “let’s ride over to my mother’s house.”

They all got up and dried their feet on the grass. They waited a few minutes until the sun did the rest of the drying for them, and then they put their boots back on. John led the way to his mother’s place.

“Mother!” John called out as they approached the old farmhouse.

“Well it’s about time you got here,” Claire said with a big smile as she came out of the screen porch.

“Grandma Claire!” Bree shouted bouncing in her saddle, hardly able to wait for her uncle to help her down. She immediately ran to her grandmother as soon as John helped her to the ground. They exchanged a long, tight hug before Patrick got a chance to hug his grandmother too.

“And Ashley,” Claire said, “I haven’t seen you in months. My, my, you’re growing up.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Ashley replied seriously. She liked it when grownups noted that she was indeed becoming a big girl.

“I told you ages ago to call me grandma.”

“Yes ma’am, I mean grandma.”

Claire pulled Ashley into a warm hug, just as she noted the new person on the scene. “And who do we have here?”

“This is Chet, grandma,” Patrick said making the introduction.

“Hello, Chet,” Claire responded.

“Hello, ma’am,” Chet said taking his lead from what Ashley had called the lady.

“I met Chet at baseball camp,” Patrick explained. “He wanted to ride horses with us today.”

“That’s nice,” Claire said sizing up the young man. “I have some cookies and lemonade all ready for you. Come on in.”

“Don’t I get a hug?” John asked as they all entered the screen porch. It was nice and cool under the screening.

“Of course you do,” Claire said with a laugh, giving John a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. Then she proceeded to pour tall glasses of lemonade.

The children ran inside to wash up following John’s instructions. When they returned, the lemonades were ready and a big plate of cookies awaited them. Grabbing a cookie and a glass of lemonade, each child found a seat in the porch.

Claire watched the children carefully as they took a bite of cookie and a sip of lemonade. “I hope the cookies and lemonade meet with your approval,” she said with a smile.

“I love your oatmeal raisin cookies … grandma,” Ashley replied.

“Me too,” Patrick added.

“You know I love whatever you cook,” Bree stated. “The lemonade is particularly good today.”

Claire chuckled. “Sounds like you and your dads must have eaten out quite a bit while you were in Toronto.”

“Oh yes, Grandma Claire. The hotel had a wonderful restaurant, and the maitre’d was so nice. His name was Rudolph.”

“You asked his name?” John questioned.

“Yes, Miss Cynthia says it’s always a good idea to introduce yourself and ask people’s names,” Bree explained.

Chet made a sour face but said nothing.

“And how about you, Chet? Did you enjoy baseball camp?” Claire asked the boy.

“It was okay.”

“Just okay?” Claire asked.

“That seems to be Chet’s favorite expression,” John told his mother with a little shake of his head.

Claire raised an eyebrow. “What really grabs your attention?” she asked the boy.

“I don’t know.”

“There must be something that gets you excited,” Claire persisted.

“I like my computer games.”

“Computer games?” Claire questioned.

“Yeah, Warcraft is great!”

“Warcraft! That sounds … depressing,” Claire stated. She didn’t want to be too critical, but playing at war didn’t seem like a good thing for a young lad to be doing.

“It’s great,” Chet averred.

“I don’t like war,” Bree stated emphatically.

“What do you know about war?” Chet challenged. “The game’s great.”

Bree made a face. She was learning not to like this kid, just like what had happened with David in Toronto. She was about to challenge Chet again when Patrick decided to jump in.

“Dad, can we go up the treehouse?” Patrick asked.

“Sure, just be careful on the ladders,” John said.

“Everyone want to come?” Patrick asked.

The girls both nodded and followed Patrick and Chet out the screen porch door.

“What kind of treehouse is this?” Chet asked Patrick as they made their way across the yard.

“Um, it’s a treehouse, up in a tree.”

“I figured that out,” Chet replied sarcastically. “I mean is it a bunch of boards stuck together?”

“See for yourself,” Patrick said stopping near the old maple tree and pointing up.

“Wow!” Chet replied as he scanned the complicated structure and the series of ladders leading up to the house at the top.

“It’s really neat inside too,” Bree stated. “My Daddy painted a mural in it for my brother.”

“Brother?”

“Yes, my brother Gus. He’s in university,” Bree informed the boy proudly.

“Let’s go up,” Chet said sorry he had bothered to ask.

“Sure,” Patrick agreed. Then he led the way up the ladders. At the first landing he stopped so they could look out over the yard of the farmhouse. “If you look really carefully over there, you can see the stream where we cooled off.”

“Oh yeah,” Chet said as he peered out at the spot Patrick indicated. “Let’s go to the top.”

They continued to climb and entered the doorway to the main building way up in the tree.

“A fireplace!” Chet exclaimed in amazement.

“It’s great in the fall or spring when the nights are cold,” Bree informed him as she and Ashley arrived in the main room.

“It really works?” Chet asked.

“Yep,” Patrick replied. “There’s canisters of gas or something that you put in it and it makes it nice and warm up here.”

“Can we start it up?” Chet asked.

Patrick shook his head. “My Dad has the canisters in the barn and we never start the fireplace without his help.”

“Oh,” Chet said with disappointment.

“I bet we could stay here some night … if you wanted,” Patrick told his friend.

“Really?”

“Sure.”

“I…um…I’m not sure my parents would let me,” Chet said uncertainly.

“It’s really fun,” Bree told him. “Patrick and I have stayed up here.”

“All by yourselves?”

“Well, my dads have stayed with us … mostly.”

“Yeah, we played chess and games and told stories,” Patrick said with a grin as he remembered the times they had spent there. It had been a long time since they had stayed in the treehouse. He thought it might be fun to stay there with Chet, if his parents let him do it.

“I could ask my parents,” Chet replied uncertainly. He liked the idea of staying overnight, just him and Patrick. He hoped the invitation wouldn’t include the girls.

“I’ll ask my dad when we go down,” Patrick volunteered.

“We should take the slide,” Ashley said. She loved the slide.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Patrick replied. They all started their way down the ladder to the landing where the slide would take them to the ground.

“That was fun,” Chet said enthusiastically as his feet hit the ground at the bottom of the slide.

“Let’s go talk to my dad about staying overnight,” Patrick said.

The boys ran towards the screen porch while Ashley and Bree were still coming down the slide.

“I think Chet found something that was better than okay,” Ashley said wisely.

“Yeah,” Bree agreed. “He’s a pain in the … butt, most of the time. He thinks everything he has is better than ours.”

“Except for the treehouse.”

“Yeah, I’m kinda surprised that he liked it. I thought he’d want it to have a pool or something.”

Ashley laughed. “Oh Bree, he’s not that bad.”

“He’s bad enough.”

“Let’s go get some more cookies,” Ashley suggested.

“Good idea.” The girls ran for the screen porch.

When they came through the door, Patrick and Chet were asking John about the possibility of staying overnight in the treehouse. John was saying that Chet would have to get permission and then they would try to arrange it. They went into the kitchen to call Chet’s parents.

Bree grabbed a cookie from the plate that was still heaped high. She bit off a piece and flopped down on a chaise. She looked glum.

“What’s up, sweetheart?” Claire asked.

“I bet we’re not invited to stay in the treehouse,” Bree replied sulkily.

“You know you’re always welcome to come stay here, either in the house or the treehouse. You too, Ashley.”

Ashley smiled at the older woman as she sipped her lemonade.

“That’s not what I mean,” Bree said petulantly. “Chet and Patrick don’t want us.”

“Sometimes boys want time with other boys,” Claire advised her.

“I wanted to spend time with Patrick while my daddies are away. Now he’s got Chet!”

Claire tried not to chuckle as she thought about Bree’s dilemma. “Maybe you and Ashley could stay here in the house while the boys are up in the treehouse. We could bake cookies, or maybe I could show you how to make my famous apple pie.”

“Maybe,” Bree responded slowly.

“I’d like that,” Ashley chirped up.

“Would you be okay with that, Bree?” Claire asked, sensing that Bree was still not satisfied.

“I guess so,” Bree reluctantly conceded.

“You wanted to be invited to stay in the treehouse with Patrick, didn’t you?” Claire surmised.

“Yeah. Why do boys have to be such jerks?”

“Sometimes it just goes with the territory,” Claire advised them.

“I met this boy in Canada, and I really liked him … for a while,” Bree informed them. “Then he turned into a real jerk.”

“What happened?” Claire asked curious about Bree’s experience with boys. There would be many more experiences with boys to come in the future, she was sure.

“I met David at the park and he played on the slide and seesaw and all kinds of things with me, and then we went to Niagara Falls with him and his father. He turned weird that day.”

“Why do you think that was?” Claire asked.

“Cause boys are stupid.”

Claire chuckled. “I bet there was more to it than that.”

“What do you mean, grandma?” Bree asked with a frown.

“Something must have changed to make David act differently.”

Bree frowned again and thought about the question. She couldn’t think of anything.

“When did he start acting differently?” Ashley asked. She wanted to figure out what happened too. She couldn’t imagine anyone being mean to her friend. Everybody liked Bree, even Chet seemed okay with her.

“I don’t know,” Bree said. “David taught me to play pool, and … and then I tried to hold his hand. He shook me off. I didn’t like that.”

“Maybe he thought you were getting too … attached,” Claire said choosing her words carefully.

“I did like him.”

“Boys of David’s age, your age, aren’t really ready for that kind of thing,” Claire counseled. “Even if girls are ready, the boys probably aren’t.”

“How come?” Bree asked.

“It’s just how it is,” Claire replied, unable to give a better reason. “That’s why most women end up with an older man because he’s more likely to be ready for the relationship.”

“Men are complicated,” Bree decreed.

“No more complicated than they think women are.”

“So how do we figure it all out?”

“It’s called living,” Claire said with a smile.

“Okay,” John said as he came back into the screen porch, interrupting the life lesson that was being given. “We got everything worked out. It’s time to mount up and head out.”

“Okay, Uncle John,” Bree said as she stood up. She gave Chet a wary look before they all headed out to the horses.
 

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