Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
Grandma Joy’s Words of Wisdom:
‘How you spend your minutes is how you spend your hours, how you spend your hours is how you spend your days. How you spend your days is how you spend your life. Spend wisely.’
‘Twas the night before Christmas in the Collins’ house. The children had hung their stockings, or more accurately, their jumbo-sized Santa sacks, over the couch with care, and Santa, er – Pete – soon would be there.
The kids were finally asleep after the excitement of Christmas Eve and the talk-show-worthy debate about what sort of food to leave for Santa and his reindeer. Jacob brought out a plate of cookies, but Lily suggested Santa might have allergies like Toby, and perhaps they should leave out some rice milk and rice crackers instead. Jacob shook his head at her suggestion, reasoning that Santa might think they were yucky and not leave any presents in a sign of protest. Toby didn’t contribute to the discussion, simply moved his head side to side between Jacob and Lily as they discussed the pros and cons of each option, as though he was watching Wimbledon. The final ruling decided by Pete (who would, unbeknownst to the children, be the consumer of their fare), was to have a smorgasbord so Santa could choose his preference.
As Cara kept guard by the doorway to Toby’s room, Pete, complete with his Santa hat, tiptoed out of the bedroom with the first load of presents. Pausing to peer discreetly into Lily’s room (who wouldn’t sleep with the door fully closed), he then locked eyes with Cara and performed a couple of strange hand signals, like an FBI field agent, in effort to ascertain whether the coast was clear. Cara held back a laugh, and came up with her own hand signals while mouthing, ‘Go, now!’
Pete delivered the presents, then performed more hand signals to make sure it was safe to return to pick up the second load. He looked like a cross between someone on the Wall Street trading floor and Jack Bauer from the television show 24 . Cara had to cover her mouth to avoid an explosion of laughter as Pete/Santa/Jack scurried past quietly.
On his third and final delivery, after devouring a few samples from the smorgasbord, Pete tripped on a toy, waking up Bobo the dog in his kennel outside. Bobo barked and the door to Lily’s room opened further. Lily emerged, rubbing her eyes. Upon seeing his daughter, Pete’s eyes appeared to jump out of his head and he dove for cover behind the couch.
Cara quickly approached Lily, careful to act naturally, turning her away from the scene of the crime and ushering her back into her room .
‘I heard Bobo,’ Lily said, yawning. ‘Did you hear him too, is that why you’re up?’
‘Yes, but he’s fine, now you go back to sleep.’ Cara gently but firmly encouraged her into bed.
‘Mum, can I check if Santa’s been yet?’
‘No, the rules are we wait till morning, remember?’
‘Alright...’ Lily rolled over.
Cara waited outside Lily’s room until the sound of slow breathing signified her daughter was asleep again, then tiptoed to the living room. ‘Pssst! You can get up now!’ she whispered to Pete, before scampering back to her position.
Pete’s head appeared to float up from behind the couch, his eyes searching left and right to ensure his cover hadn’t been compromised. He shoved the presents haphazardly into the Santa Sacks and dashed back to the bedroom, Cara following and closing the door behind them.
‘Phew!’ He collapsed breathlessly onto his back on the bed, Cara falling next to him, giggling. Pete raised his hand, and they high-fived each other in celebration of another successful Christmas Eve mission. Pete winced and massaged his shoulder, and Cara pulled back his t-shirt revealing a bruise from his dive behind the couch.
Cara looked at her husband and made some hand signals.
‘What does that mean?’ he asked.
‘It means: I love you.’
‘So does this,’ Pete whispered, leaning closer and claiming her lips with his.
At 5 am, Jacob bounced onto Pete and Cara’s bed, just as Cara was in the middle of a dream in which she was being rescued by Jack Bauer from psychos who’d infiltrated the Wall Street trading floor. ‘I’ll get you out of here safely,’ Jack had said, ‘I give you my word!’ When Jacob had pounced on her, she almost thought it was one of the psychos tackling her to the ground, and she shot up in defence with arms in Karate Kid position.
‘Mummy, what’s wrong? It’s Kwismas morning!’
‘Oh, of course it is, Jakey. Sorry, honey, you surprised me!’ Cara shook the dream from her head.
‘Daddy, Daddy!’ Jacob shook his father’s shoulders. ‘You have to wake up too, remember, we have to open pwesents togevva.’
Pete growled, his breath smelling strangely of rice crackers, and after Jacob’s twentieth shake, he finally joined the land of the living.
Lily came into their bedroom, carrying Toby, and the covers were ripped off the bed as Pete and Cara got up. Pete rubbed his shoulder. ‘What’s wrong with your shoulder, Daddy?’ asked Lily.
‘Oh, it’s still a bit sore from that injury I got, that’s all.’
‘Why don’t you put your neck thingy back on?’
‘Daddy’s fine, don’t you worry. Now, let’s see what Santa brought you, huh?’ Pete slid his arms around Lily and Jacob, scooping them into the living room. Jacob rushed over to the tray of food first, smiling when he saw that Santa had eaten some of everything. His worry about receiving no presents obviously disappeared when he pulled out a new Thomas the Tank Engine train and yelled, ‘yes!’ Within minutes, he’d removed all the presents from his sack and had strewn them all over the floor, while Lily carefully folded the wrapping paper from present number two and put it neatly aside.
Cara sat with Toby while he ripped the wrapping paper from his presents, making an ‘Oooh’ sound when he held up a Barney puzzle.
‘Look, Mum and Dad, a pink calculator!’ Lily exclaimed. Not that she needed one, with her almost savant numeracy skills. But, it was pink. She tapped away at the calculator. ‘Did you know that nine hundred and sixty-four plus two thousand and seventy-six equals three thousand and forty?’
Cara looked at Pete, then at Lily. ‘No, I didn’t. Wow, that’s amazing.’
Pete tapped Lily on the shoulder and winked. Lily rose quickly. ‘Oh, Mum, I almost forgot, here’s a present from all of us.’ Lily carried a large package to her mother, and Cara unwrapped it to find an art easel.
‘Thank you so much! It’s just what I need!’ Cara hugged her children, then Pete, and asked Jacob to hand a present to his father. It was a book on ‘How To Sell Your Own Food Creations’, which Pete flipped through immediately, dollar signs in his eyes.
When the children finished opening their presents, Pete pointed outside. ‘Look, what’s that?’
The gaze from five sets of eyes landed on a large box, a big red bow attached to it. The kids zoomed outside to inspect it, greeting Bobo on the way.
‘It’s a slippery slide!’ squealed Lily.
‘It sure is. This is from Mummy and Daddy.’
‘I thought so. It wouldn’t fit in Santa’s sleigh, would it?’ Lily shook her head and held out her palms, as though explaining the laws of physics to a bunch of pre-schoolers. ‘Thank you, Mum and Dad!’ She hugged them, then ripped off the red bow.
After setting up the plastic slippery slide and ensuring Lily would supervise Toby and Jacob, Pete and Cara went back inside.
‘Here’s your present, honey, Merry Christmas.’ Cara handed Pete an envelope. ‘Oh, and don’t worry, I know it looks like an electricity bill, but it’s not!’
Pete slapped her gently on the arm with the envelope, then opened it, his jaw dropping. ‘A ticket to the Australian Open finals? But, Cara, how did you afford this?’
‘I sold your grandmother’s antique vase.’
Pete looked at her silently.
‘I’m kidding! I saved up some money from my art sales. I know how much you love watching the tennis every January, and I heard a couple of your friends are going, so now you’ll be able to join them.’
Pete shook his head in awe. ‘You are so thoughtful, how lucky am I to have you as my wife?’ He kissed her lips, wrapping his arms around her.
‘You deserve it. You kept things together while I was off having my premature mid-life crisis, and I got to have that amazing weekend away. You need a little time for yourself too.’
‘Thanks, honey. Here’s yours.’ He passed her a small silver package, wrapped with a metallic blue ribbon that was curly like her hair. Like a child, Cara eagerly opened her present, revealing a gorgeous pair of sapphire teardrop earrings.
‘Pete! They’re beautiful! And they’ll go perfectly with my ... wait. You didn’t peek at my dress, did you?’
‘Of course not, but you told me your dress was blue, so I figured these might match.’
‘They’re a perfect match, just you wait and see!’ Cara held the earrings up to her ears in front of the mirror. ‘Thank you, I love them.’ Pete came up and hugged her from behind, kisses tickling her neck.
Squeals of delight reminded them they still had children outside, so they stood at the window, watching them climb and slide repeatedly while Bobo wagged his tail. Jacob stood in the way on purpose, at the bottom of the slide, quickly jumping away when Toby slid down. Toby kept covering his eyes, obviously afraid he’d bump into his brother, but then laughed when he saw he’d moved.
Pete chuckled and turned towards Cara. ‘Honey, I want you to know I’m more than happy now to just have three kids. Look at them – we’re so lucky! I just love them so much, and love being a father, that I wanted to do it all over again. But after that close call I had, I’ve realised: I’m already living my dream. My family is complete.’ He clasped his lips together in a satisfied smile, running the back of his fingers along Cara’s jaw line.
‘Are you sure?’ Cara looked up into his eyes.
‘I’m sure. And, I want you to pursue your dreams. You’ve got a rare talent and the world needs to see it. Besides, there are always grandkids!’ He winked.
Cara laughed. ‘True, but that’s a long way off – I hope!’
‘Can you imagine us when we’re old, grey, and wrinkly?’ Pete sucked in his bottom lip, as though he’d lost his teeth, then hunched his back, pretending to walk awkwardly with a walking stick. ‘Can you pass my false teeth, honey?’ his croaky voice said, and Cara burst out laughing.
‘God help me if you really end up like that.’ Cara lifted a hand to her forehead, pretending to faint. They embraced in laughter, and Cara realised she was quite possibly the luckiest woman in the world.