The temperatures, which dropped the night before, did not rise much higher on Saturday morning, as coffee was poured and students and chaperones checked supply lists and started the arduous task of loading up the bus and van.
But the crispness in the air kept everybody busy and moving.
Ryan Hendrickson arrived on campus early, not much after six, and he met his sons early for breakfast in the cafeteria. He buzzed Roger first, who mumbled, half asleep, that he’d get ready and be down. Ethan didn’t answer, so Ryan called Roger back. Roger explained that Ethan had probably risen early to either go test out a rod and reel they’d pulled out of storage the day before, or that he might have gone early to the cafeteria to give Bertha a hand.
Ryan checked the stream first, which snaked across Piedmont’s campus. But after tossing a couple stones, and thinking about his date last night with Victoria, he turned and made his way to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria was open, but no one was there yet, so Ryan stalked back to the kitchen area where he found Bertha and Ethan tousling over a large metal bowl full of biscuit dough.
Bertha looked up and saw Ryan first.
“Good morning Mr. Hendrickson,” Bertha said. “I don’t care what age they are, or what it is being mixed, if they see it being mixed in a bowl they want to lick it clean.”
Ethan grinned at his dad and Ryan crinkled up his nose in mock disgust and said, “Biscuit dough, there’s not even any sugar in it Ethan. That can’t be good.”
“Bertha puts honey in her dough,” Ethan squealed. “It’s her secret ingredient.”
“It ain’t no secret no more,” she muttered, also laughing.
Ethan had a surprised look on his face but Bertha laughed and told him she was just kidding, that it wasn’t a secret.
“Well, speaking of secrets Dad, how was your date with Dr. Davenport?” Ethan asked.
Ryan had actually told both of his sons, the day before, about the date, but prefaced it all by saying it was nothing serious or nothing for them to worry about. In fact, both boys took the news very well. Roger even echoed Max’s sentiment by saying, “It’s about time, Dad.”
“Ethan, mind your manners,” Bertha said. “It ain’t your place to be grilling your father about his dates.”
Ryan laughed and said, “Oh, it’s allright Bertha. And actually, we had a very nice time.”
“Did you kiss her?” Ethan asked, grinning.
“Now this time that’s none of your business,” Ryan said.
“Yep, he kissed her,” Ethan said. “Look he’s about to blush.”
“Now knock it off,” Ryan said, trying to be serious, while trying not to grin and laugh like a school boy.
“In fact,” Bertha said, “why don’t you go unload the dishwasher. Mr. Hendrickson, the coffee is dripped, can I get you some?”
“That’s okay Bertha, I know you’re busy, just show me where the cups are and I’ll get it,” Ryan said.
Bertha nodded over towards the cupboard and Ryan retrieved a clean mug. He filled it with coffee and took a sip.
“Is Mr. Chambers planning on us leaving today?” Bertha asked. “I thought we were leaving first thing Sunday.”
“That’s what I thought too,” Ryan said. “But there’s some talk about leaving today if we get everything packed early enough. I guess it’ll depend on how long it takes the kids to get their stuff packed.”
“I hate to say it, but I think most of the kids packed three days ago,” Bertha said. “You know how kids are. They’re raring to go.”
“Is that coffee I smell, because if it’s not someone might get hurt,” exclaimed a voice from the kitchen door.
There stood Trisha Ellis, dressed in faded jeans, a plain white tee-shirt and a big Gortex-looking jacket.
“Allright, let’s here it for the Gortex,” Ryan said, laughing.
“Hey, it’s not sexy, but it sure as hell is functional,” Trish said, spinning around in a circle, bowing.
“Don’t pay him no mind, Mrs. Trisha,” Bertha said. “I think you look very pretty this morning, kind of a natural kind of pretty.”
“She does look like she has a glow to her,” Ryan said.
“I exfoliated this morning,” Trisha said, laughing. “And speaking of glows, how was your night last night lover boy?”
“Geez,” Ryan said. “Is there anybody here that doesn’t know that Victoria and I went out on our first date last night?”
“Probably not,” Trisha said. “It was this morning’s headline in the paper, above the fold.”
Ryan did a double-take and Trisha laughed wickedly.
“I’m kidding,” she said.
Trisha too made her way to the cupboard, grabbed and mug and filled it, just about the time that Victoria walked in. She was also wearing faded jeans, but wore an old Penn State sweatshirt and a wool jacket. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail and Ryan thought, once again, that she looked absolutely stunning.
“Well it sounds like someone’s having fun in here,” she said boisterously, as she walked in, stopping short as she looked up to see Ryan smiling at her.
Everyone grew silent for a moment, looking at Ryan and then Victoria and back to Ryan. For his part, Ryan was like a deer stuck in headlights.
“Well you better get over here and kiss me after keeping me up half the night you son of a bitch,” Victoria said, breaking into a laugh.
With that, Ryan walked over to her, and hugged and kissed her.
Trisha whistled and clapped, and about that time Ryan heard the cheer of “Go Dad,” coming from two directions, Ethan from the dishwasher and Roger who popped his head inside the kitchen door.
“Allright now, allright,” said Bertha. “I hate to be the one to break up your little fun festival, but have you ever heard the expression too many cooks in the kitchen? Go on now, go sit down out in the cafeteria. I’ll bring the coffee out.”
The fun didn’t stop in the cafeteria though. The good natured ribbing continued and Roger was the first to ask, possibly semi-serious, “so when’s the wedding?”
This got everybody quiet and Ryan shot his son a glance, but Victoria placed her hand on Ryan’s forearm and said, “Well Roger, it was only our first date. But we were interested to know when you and Ethan think it should be.”
“Summer,” Roger said. “Everybody knows that.”
“No way,” Ethan said. “I think you guys should do it on Thanksgiving day up at the cabin.”
If Victoria had any reservations about being accepted by the boys, they practically dwindled to nothingness with those two endorsements.
“Whoa guys,” Ryan said. “I think we need to slow down just a little, I haven’t even proposed to her yet.”
“Oh, so you’re going to propose,” Trisha said. “Sorry Kiddo,” she said to Victoria, “I guess the cat’s out of the bag now.”
“He’s mine, mine all mine, yes my precious” Victoria said, mocking Golem, from Lord of the Rings.
“Come on Golem,” Ryan said as he stood up. “I told William I’d give Jason a hand changing the oil and spark plugs on the bus this morning. As for the rest of you, get ready, I think William is intent on us leaving today, so no farting around.”
“Wow, that was kind of sexy,” Victoria said, as they walked outside, holding hands.
“What was?” he asked.
“The way you just kind of barked out orders like that, taking charge of the situation,” Victoria said. “I liked that.”
“You did, did you?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “It got me very, very wet.”
Ryan actually did blush and she smiled.
He leaned over and kissed her and they walked in silence for a little while.
“You also handled yourself very well with the three stooges,” Ryan said.
“As did you,” she said.
“Although, I didn’t see the wedding question coming this soon,” Ryan said.
“Really?” Victoria asked.
“Well, I know Ethan and Roger both adore you,” Ryan said.
“Just like you,” she said, kissing him again.
“Yes, just like me,” Ryan replied. “But I didn’t know how the dating approval rating was going to go, if you know what I mean.”
“I worried a little about that too,” Victoria finally admitted. “But, this may sound funny, but I just let go, left it in God’s hands. I have to say it was the best thing I could have done.”
“Victoria,” Ryan said, holding her hands, looking into her eyes.
“Yes,” she said, thinking this may be the “I love you” moment.
He was trying to get it out, but got flustered.
“You’re so beautiful,” he finally said, leaning over and kissing her.
For the time, it would suffice.
The actual “I love you” moment came about fifteen minutes later and caught Victoria completely off guard.
Ryan walked her to her office and helped her open her door. He walked in and they browsed over the headlines of the front page of the newspaper.
Eventually, though, Ryan said he did have to get a move on, because Jason was probably waiting on him. Victoria nodded and he leaned over and kissed her. This time it was a long and deep kiss that, had he not had to meet Jason, could have easily led to other things.
“Boy, I don’t want to go,” Ryan said.
“I know, but we’re going to be spending the next week with each other,” she said. “I think we need to the strength to tear ourselves apart just until we get on the road.”
She walked him to the door, and they kissed again. But just as he was about to walk out he stopped and said, “I’ll see you in a little bit. I love you.”
He didn’t hurry through it just because he was nervous either. The words flowed so naturally he didn’t even realize he’d said them until she smiled at him.
“I love you too,” she replied. “Hurry up.”
—— —— —— ——-
About ten minutes later, Ryan walked up to the large garage. It was actually the size of a small warehouse and housed the bus, a couple snow plows, and a tractor. There was a small office built off to the side.
However, when Ryan approached, the bus was pulled out in the driveway, and Jason had a CD player set up, blaring some kind of heavy metal tune. Ryan glanced around and didn’t see Jason at first.
A moment later though, Jason walked out from the garage area with heavy chains draped over his shoulders. He saw Ryan and nodded at the CD player.
“You can turn that down,” he yelled and Ryan turned the volume down. “Hey man, how’s it going?”
“Not bad,” Ryan said. “Sorry I’m running behind.”
“You’re not,” Jason said. “My Uncle William said you’d be coming by around nine. I told him it was okay, that I was sure you had other things to do, but he seemed sort of insistent. He’s weird like that sometimes.”
The metal song was replaced by Don’t Fear the Reaper, by Blue Oyster Cult, prompting Ryan to laugh and say, “That’s a little bit more my speed.”
Jason just nodded and said, “I’ve got the oil and the plugs changed, but I’m trying to see if we have enough of these, or if they’re even the right size.”
Jason let the chains clank heavily to the concrete.
“Is that a tow chain?” Ryan asked.
“No,” Jason said. “Snow chains, you haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?” Ryan asked.
“Follow me,” Jason said.
Ryan followed Jason into the small office, where at television was on. Jason opened a small mini-fridge and grabbed a beer. “You want one?” he asked Ryan and Ryan nodded.
“Sure, what the hell,” Ryan said with a grin. “What’s going on here?”
“Weather Channel,” Jason said. “Looks like we’re going to get some weather, a big snow storm.”
“Well, maybe we should cancel the trip,” Ryan said.
“That’s what I said,” replied Jason. “Uncle William wouldn’t have it. It’s not forecast to start falling until late Sunday night, early Monday morning. I figured you’d know about it. That’s why he’s so gung ho on leaving today.”
“Oh,” Ryan said, trying to ignore the very bad feeling he had.
——- ——- ——- ———
Four hours later, after hurriedly packing and preparing, Piedmont’s bus and William’s packed van pulled out of the gates and onto the highway. About ten minutes later, Max pulled out of the convenience store parking lot in his pick-up truck.
He had a feeling it was going to be a very long trip.
