I'll Hum Along

My parents went back home about two weeks after I had my appendectomy. They said they had to go home and pack so they could move into their new home in Vancouver. They took me to see it one day while they were still visiting, and it was a very nice place. It was a good size for the two of them, and had spare bedrooms for when, as my mom said, “my lovely grandkids come over”.

I was still in a little bit of pain when my parents left, but I was feeling okay. I could eat solid foods again, so that was nice. Josh was supposed to be home a few days after my parents left, and I was excited about that. Mariah came over for a little while one day. I hadn’t seen her in a while, so after I dropped Finley off at school, Mariah and I took the twins with us for some ‘retail therapy’ as Mariah put it. “Oh, come on. If Josh can go out and buy new guitars and Prada jackets, you can buy a little something for yourself!”

Well, there was really no arguing with her there. We loaded up the twins into their stroller and walked to a bus stop to take a bus downtown. I knew the area fairly well, but Mariah was still a little befuddled by it all (she did live in Abbottsford, and she didn’t make it out to Vancouver that often). We went to a little coffee shop to get something to eat before going off and exploring. Mariah wanted to go into a tea store she liked so much, so we went in there. We went into a few more stores before heading down to the Pacific Centre mall. It was around 11 when we got there, so we wandered around the mall for a little while before getting something to eat. Mariah wanted to go look at new cellphone options, wanting to know what the best would be. She was thinking about an iPhone, but I told her she wasn’t allowed to get that. I had an iPhone for a while, and I hated it. I switched over to an Android phone, and I had had that for about 4 years.

Around 12:30, we finally stopped to have something to eat, since both twins were starting to get fussy with us. Mariah went and got a sub from Quizno’s, and I really wanted chicken fingers, so I ended up going to A&W. Mariah and I met back in the food court, and we also found two booster seats for the twins, and we started to eat. Mariah took over feeding Autumn because she didn’t really understand the sign language needed for Kodi. Mariah asked me at one point if it was okay to give Autumn a pickle from her sub, and I said it was okay. Autumn didn’t really like the pickle, but the face she made was hilarious.

“You’re a strange girl.” Mariah told my daughter. I smiled and shook my head.

“Gets it from Josh.” I said. Kodiak signed ‘more’ at me, the pointed to his food. Mariah watched me while I fed Kodiak, and then turned to the twin that threw something at her. I laughed, “She does that when someone doesn’t pay attention to her.”

“So I noticed.” Mariah said, shaking her head and picked up the sippy cup Autumn dropped on the ground. “I don’t know how you do it, Josline.” She told me. I raised an eyebrow at her. “I mean, how you do this whole mother thing. You’ve got a six year old, and two fourteen-month olds. Plus, you’ve got a career, and a husband, who is much like a six year old. God, I have a panic attack when I’m down to my last roll of toilet paper.”

I shook my head at her and smiled, “I like keeping myself busy.”

“I think ‘busy’ is an understatement.” Mariah said with a strange look on her face. I rolled my eyes at her. “Honestly, how are you so patient?”

“Years and years of practise,” I said. “Remember, I live with one of the most indecisive men in the existence of the world. And I also have a child that changes his bloody mind every five seconds.” I said. Kodiak tried to grab at my food, so I told him no. He pouted at me. “You kind of learn to accept it after a while.”

“Well, you’re like a super mom, or something.” Mariah said.

“If you ever have kids, you’ll be the same way.” I told her.

“I’m not so sure about that.” Mariah said with a bit of a frown. “I can barely handle myself, let alone another, smaller version, of me.

“You never know.” I said in a sing-song voice. Mariah just shook her head. “Oh, don’t give me that. Besides, if you and Ian ever settled down…” Mariah gave me the dirtiest look I had ever received. I could only laugh.

Ian and Mariah’s relationship was a little bit difficult to understand. “I mean, I do really like Ian, but we’ve just been on and off for, what, five years? And we don’t even live in the same city.”

“You could move.” I said.

“I like my job though. It’s not the best paying job, but the people I work with are great.” Mariah shrugged. We remained silent for a moment; I knew not to press the matter, because Mariah didn’t really want to talk about it. I knew she really cared for Ian, and I think that scared her.

Kodiak waved his hands at me to show me he was done eating. I finished my food and packed up, smiling at my friend. “Come on, why don’t we do a bit more shopping before we leave?”

Mariah stayed at my house to watch the twins while I went to pick up Finley, and she left after that. I really missed hanging out with her; I didn’t get to do it often. The rest of the afternoon and evening was fairly uneventful. Finley did his homework, I made dinner, we ate dinner…it was a normal night in the Ramsay household.

I went to bed around 11:30 because my day out of the house seemed to tucker me out. My eyes opened at around 3:30 in the morning when my phone started ringing. I groaned and rolled over, grabbing my phone off the nightstand. I squinted and looked at the bright screen; it was Josh. I groaned again and answered it. “You know it’s 3:30 in the morning, right?” I asked him.

“I know.” Josh told me. “I forgot my key.”

“What do you mean, ‘you forgot your key’?” I asked, rubbing my hand on my forehead.

“I forgot my key, in the bowl, by the door. So, I’m locked out. Open the damn door so I can sleep.” Josh said. I was just confused. Mainly because I was tired.

“I…I don’t understand what you’re saying.” I said. I heard Josh sigh, and then there was a loud knock at the door. Soon, Bennie started barking loudly. I huffed, set my phone down and got out of bed, pushing Bennie to the side and telling her to lie down. I looked through the peep hole before opening the door. “You ass.”

Josh smiled at me, “You love me.”

“Not when you forget your fucking key and wake me up at 3:30.” I said. Josh gave me a sleepy smile. I smiled back, wrapping my arms around him. “But I’m glad you’re home.”