TIME-TO-SEE-24
That afternoon, returning from their Target Tour de Force, the boys went back to their PSP battlefield with no permanent injuries from the Fitting Room skirmish. In minutes they were engrossed in their personal War Against the Droids! I was just glad the day was almost over.
I knew that I'd need to get on the road over to the hospital to get Hugo in a couple of hours, but there was NO WAY I'd leave these two "Disasters-In-Waiting" by themselves. So, not yet having any likely sitter in mind, I told them that they were going to have to go with me to pick up Hugo from work....
After the way the day had gone down, they were very accommodating and agreeable to my request to accompany me. We three agreed to rendezvous inside of the SUV parked in the garage, for our trip to get Hugo; so right on schedule, and at just a few minutes before six, we pulled into the hospital parking lot.
A little after six, Hugo came running out of the hospital. After he got into the car, he realized that the whole family was there.
When he saw they were there, he got up on his knees on the front passenger seat and reached into the back with both arms and gave each of them a hug hello! They both yelled "Hi, Hugo," not worried that he couldn't actually hear them. They were greeting him with vibrations that accompanied their hugs! And Hugo felt the truth.
Hugo turned back around to me and smiled, like he was ready to go.
I pulled a pad and pen from the glove box and wrote to Hugo: "Unless you object, because you're too tired or something, I'd really, really love it if you would accompany the whole mob to Coco's for supper tonight. I'm tired. I want to tell you about the day, and I think we need to talk about the dogs."
"Sure," Hugo said with a smile. Then he leaned over and gave me a kiss on the lips.
Our favorite waiter was to be our server for the evening. He was completely familiar with the task of gathering orders from our unpredictable group. He started with the boys giving them their huge, colorful plastic menus. "And how are you gentlemen-- as he addressed them-- this evening?"
"Fine," Jilder replied as though he were actually civilized.
"Fine," Nicky said sounding normal too.
"Well, that's wonderful," the waiter said, and then looking at Hugo and me he said, "and you gentlemen, I hope you're well too," nodding and smiling.
"Thank you, yes, we're very good," I replied. Hugo smiled and nodded in the affirmative too.
Jilder then spoke up, "Do we supposed to get a hamburger?"
"What was that?" I asked.
Jilder looked at me with a question in his eyes, like perhaps I was nuts.
What he clearly asked was, "Should we get something cheap or can we have anything we want?" he clarified himself.
Silly me, of course, I should have known that's what he was saying????????
"Jilder, maybe you could be a little simpler, maybe a little more direct with me, when you ask me a question. I really didn't get what you meant. Sure. You can order whatever you are in the mood to eat. Just don't order a lot more than you can consume... I don't like to waste food."
"OK. Then I'd like to have the salmon with that rice stuff," Jilder said.
"You mean the rice pilaf," the waiter clarified.
"Yeah. I guess?" Jilder said looking to me and Hugo.
"Yes." I confirmed. "You got the rice pilaf last time, Jilder."
"Can I have the same thing," Nicky asked.
"Of course, do you want the rice pilaf or do you want a baked potato?" I asked.
"I like the rice," Nicky said.
"Okay. That was simple." I commented surprised that things went so smoothly.
"The boys would like the salmon, and you gentlemen?" the waiter asked, looking to Hugo and me.
Hugo pointed to the Chinese chicken salad with sesame seed oil dressing pictured on the menu.
"Humm. That sounds good to me too. I think I'll join Hugo and order a Chinese chicken salad too," I said.
"And to drink," the waiter asked.
Nicky said, "Can I have a lemonade?"
"Of course," the waiter replied.
"Me too," Jilder added.
"Okay. The boys want two lemonades, and I'll have an iced tea." I said.
I turned to HUGO and pretended to drink from an imaginary glass. He understood at once and said in words, "iced tea."
The waiter understood perfectly, smiled, and wrote down our drinks. "Thank you very much, gentlemen."
No sooner had the waiter left our table than Nicky commented in a loud whisper, "He called us gentlemen!"
"That's because he sees you have good manners and respects you and wishes you to know that he thinks that you deserve good service," I improvised.
"Yeah! Well I like that," Jilder agreed.
"I'm glad you do. That means that you understand that you are behaving politely and deserve respect and good treatment. See how good manners are rewarded with nice treatment from other people?" I was trying like hell to seize a Teachable Moment here, but maybe they both thought I was just dishing out bullshit. It did seem like they bought it, though.
"One thing, well-mannered young people are given infinitely more respect than their undeveloped brothers," I pontificated for the benefit of both boys. Everybody kept a straight face; so I figured I was okay again...
Eventually, the subject of conversation changed. The boys started talking about having the bench break under Nicky in Target today. By now it was funny, and they couldn't stop laughing enough to explain to Hugo, who would have needed a patient explanation complete with written details.
While the boys laughed and giggled imitating their wobbling around in the fitting booth, I wrote out a long explanation for Hugo, who thought it was hilarious. He pointed to Nicky and reached across the table patting him on the shoulder.
Jilder now knew that his brother understood; so he stood up next to the booth we were using and began to act out his knocking over the chair and fall against the wall. Hugo again was amused and both boys couldn't stop laughing, no matter that the whole affair was silly beyond belief.
I wrote to Hugo "We all visited Dr. Gilmer who gave them his seal of approval and said we didn't require emergency surgery-- much to my immense relief." I showed the pad to all of them.
Eventually the dinners arrived, and the boys began to calm down. Every now and then there would be an eruption of some laughter, but by and large, the boys had talked about their bazaar experience and were happy now with how much they had entertained Hugo.
I thought that it might be a good time to bring up yet another of our family concerns: getting a dog.
So I said, "Listen guys, you still have to think about your pictures of the dogs we saw and decide whether you want to get ONE dog for both of you to share the care, or whether you each want a dog. Remember, you'd have to take care of your own dog, just like the lady described. What do you think? You ready to make any decisions or is it too soon?" I asked.
Jilder said, "I haven't decided, but I think I liked the big brown one with floppy ears best."
"That was the dog that was part lab," I added. "Yes, he was a beautiful animal. I'll bet he would be a well-behaved dog too."
Nicky said, "I liked a different one, although I thought the floppy eared one was really nice."
"Which one," Jilder asked.
"You remember the white and black one with the long fur hanging down everywhere. He was kinda quiet; did you notice," Nicky asked.
"Yeah! But he had floppy ears too, just part of his face was white and part was black," Jilder observed.
"What do you think, Kevin? Do you want to get a dog too?" they asked. "What about Hugo? Is he going to get a dog?", they alternated asking questions.
"Humm? I don't know. Let's ask Hugo." I said.
I took the pad and told Hugo what the boys had decided about their favorite dogs and that they wanted to know what we liked. "Do you have a favorite?" I wrote
"Yes." Hugo wrote back without any explanation.
Well, with that the boys went nuts.
"Which one? Tell us?" they yelled, and I wrote their questions down for Hugo.
"You remember," Hugo answered on the pad. "The black one that liked to have his head scratched? I liked him a lot," Hugo wrote.
Then Hugo directed his question to me, "What did you like, Kev?"
I spoke the words aloud for the boys as I wrote each word for Hugo: "Oh, gosh, Hugo. I liked so many, but I did feel sorry for that little guy right there near the door that they decided was worth only $10. I think I liked him best, although REALLY I liked them all... every single one of them... BUT I KNOW WE CAN'T HAVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! :-)" I wrote with a happy face at the bottom of the pad, and showed it to everybody.
Hugo picked up the pen and wrote the obvious question: "SO? What are we going to do?"
We just looked at each other...
Later, after we were home and everybody was in the family room, Hugo and I enjoyed cups of hot tea and kept warm by cuddling together on the sofa. The boys were on the floor leaning up against the furniture engaged in PSP-3000 games.
Hugo reached out for a pad from the coffee table.
Out of the blue he wrote: "I'd like to have that black dog... and I'll feed him everyday and give him water and take him out to go to the bathroom. (Oh, My God! I can't believe I said that!!" :-)" Hugo wrote with a self-conscious, embarrassed flush to his gorgeous brown complexion. He threw the pad down on the floor to the boys after I'd read it.
They both scrambled to see what was on it, and a cheer went up in unison when they read it: "Yeeeaaaaa!"
"Me too. I want the big brown one," Jilder yelled out.
"And can I have the black and white one?" Nicky asked.
I looked at Hugo when the pandemonium broke out, right into his silly, smiling face that looked like the cat that ate the canary. I got down on the floor on my hands and knees, grabbed the pad from the boys and wrote Hugo, "Can I have the little one, Daddy? It don't cost but $10. :-)"
Hugo read it and bopped me on the head with the pad and followed that with a nice kiss on the lips.
"OH MY Friggin lord!" I thought.... "FOUR dogs in this place. If they ALL turn out to be male dogs, we'll be drowning in testosterone-- just what we need!"
All I can say is, "I sure hope those fucking dogs get along with one another!"