Just the other day, the Honbon’s came down for a visit. It
was a short little tease if you ask me but I loved every minute of it. Laurie and
Don came down on Thursday and Dad and I sat in the living room, just waiting on
them. Laurie did not follow the rules and arrived with four pans of sweet
rolls, a huge bag of M&Ms, and some tiny rug coasters. We had a Low Country Boil that first night and I taught them all about the girls I work with. The rising
and furrowing of Don’s eyebrows followed the ups and downs of my tales. We all
stayed up late eating sweets and playing Shanghai.
I was reluctant to go to
work the next day and I frantically made someone’s wedding day preparations
with little concern. How could I focus on a metallic seating chart when the
Hon’s were in town and Will was on the way? My day inched by slowly. I finally
got off work to find them sitting on the porch, drinking sweet tea and
discussing dinner plans. It was such a delightful thing to find somehow. They had
visited the Yorktown earlier and Don amused them with concocted tales of the
Muddy Water Army in Vietnam. We had a grand dinner and a few more rounds of
Shanghai while we waited for Will to arrive. We waited and played. And waited.
And finally we gave up and went to bed, or so they told me. Not ten minutes
after driving home I got a text from Will asking why I wasn’t part of the
Welcome Committee.
While we gobbled up sweet rolls the next morning, Mom told
those Hon’s all about Captain Chris’ Multiple Maritime Mishaps. She told
them about fierce storms, dead engines, and even falling overboard. “No
problem.” Capt. Chris always said amid chaos. All this in mind, we decided to
go boating under Captain Chris’ command and as we arrived at the marina Will jokingly
asked if we had gas in the boat and Dad gasped, shouted “Oh no!” and then
laughed maniacally. “I forgot about gas!” he wailed. So instead, we rode down
to the gas station, all five of us smashed into one car, and waited
patiently for Dad and Don to fill’er up.
We had a rough rockin’ ride once out on the harbor. There
were white caps and swells and lots of other boaters churning up trouble.
Buddy, Will and I rode in the front of the boat, enduring chilly ocean spray
and forging the waters. We had to hold on to Ole Budd’s who would nearly slip
and slide overboard, insisting on riding on the nose of the boat. We had a
pleasant little ride through the creek but once back out on the harbor, we discovered that the water had gotten choppier. It took one cold wave breaking over
the boat to turn us around. We parked at Granddaddy Bob’s house and then made him
drive us home. We spent our afternoon snacking and lounging on the dock while
Dad and Don made small repairs around the house. Mom ran over the mailbox with the boat trailer that morning but those two fellas had it upright again in no time.
That night we ventured out towards Kiawah to sit in some
grass and listen to music. Again we all piled into one car like the Clampetts
and rode the thirty minutes out to Freshfields Village for music in the park.
We had a grocery store dinner, gathering “plunder in piles” and taking it back
to our grassy patch. Will and I explored a nearby field and found turkeys and
deer and as we rejoined the party, we found Don dancing wildly behind an
oblivious fella we’d been laughing at all night.
Sunday afternoon was another lazy day of snacking and dock
time. Laurie laughed and laughed at Buddy chasing birds and barking while he
swam. Will, Buddy and I went for a lovely kayak ride, calmly gliding through
the creeks with Buddy jumping out to swim on occasion but the tide had turned on
our way back home and we accidentally beached ourselves on an oyster bed. I
tried to push us off with my paddle and when that didn’t work Will began
bucking wildly. Forwards and backwards, scratching the bottom of the kayak in
half inch intervals. He was laughing and jerking his body around and I got so
tickled I couldn’t help him at all. I sat and laughed and watched Buddy
casually stroll past us on foot. We had a pulled pork dinner out on the patio and played cards and ate sweets while telling stowries and laughing like simpletons.
On our last day together we decided to reattempt our boat outing. The water looked calmer than it had on Saturday so we loaded up and set out. It turned out to be quite rough. More so than before and within ten minutes Will and I were soaked. Waves crashed casually against the tip of the boat sending a cold rush of water under our fannies, past Capt Chris, and down to the other end, sloshing at Mom and Laurie's feet. It was terribly cold. We rode around near the port to look at the cruise ships and then around to the battery. Here, as the Coast Guard patrolled the marina, Dad admitted that his tags were expired so we turned around and acted nonchalantly until we cleared the patrol area. We all huddled in the back of the boat wrapped in towels and shivering. Even Buddy turned down riding in the front and sat down by our feet.
We sent Will off sometime around five that afternoon. He had to work in the morning. We gave him a bag of chicken and some candy and hugged him goodbye. I hated to see that kid go.
We sat in a lethargic slump until dinnertime. We lazed silently in the living room watching the news and dozing off. We poison ourselves you see, with sugar and late nights. We always start out so lively and by the end it takes everything just to stay awake. I felt like I was in a stupor all through our last patio dinner that night. I hated knowing it was my last night with the Hons. I hated that I'll stop hearing about how awful it is to get old and how everything hurts when you wake up in the morning. And then the low rumbling hum of Don's commentary disappears and then goes Laurie's good tunes and luminous smile and suddenly I have no reason to wake up in the morning.
"Well, it's been a good day." I mumble before bed each night now and think of Laurie chuckling at Dad's goodnight phrase.
Were sending you Hons lots of love from your favorite people.
-Sandy, Candy, Bobbie, Debbie, Connie, Bonnie... and Jay
No comments:
Post a Comment