Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright 2016

CHAPTER 57

We were a long time digging out. Not only was there a four foot high bank from the plows, but we also had to dig through a six foot snow drift right behind the cars.

Earthquakes and brush fires sounded good right now. Even the smog that goes with it. How does that song go? “California, here I come”. One way to look at it, is a white Christmas should be guaranteed, unless we get an awful lot of rain between now and December 24 .

“Leave it to you to smile at all this snow. What are you thinking?” Ginny asked

“I was thinking of a white Christmas, and Steve going nuts trying to clear snow at the site.”I responded, Hey, you wear the same shoe size as me, want to try my cross country skis?”

Ginny snickered a little, “I was thinking of Steve too. And I would love to try your cross-country skis. If you have two sets, we could ski to work and see how Steve's doing.”

I was glad I had only one set, if we got there when Steve was, we'd be put to work doing something. We finished clearing snow, and went inside through the garage.
Taking off my boots and parka , I turned to Ginny, “Grab an arm-full of logs before you leave the garage please, I'll do the same.”

“This is the first time I was in here in the daylight Ellen, you have a lot of things in here. Wow you have a 'Specialized' road bike and a Peugeot mountain bike. We should go riding sometime.”

I just laughed, “How about tomorrow?”

Ginny had a huge armload of logs, all she could do was grunt,”smart ass” as she carried the load upstairs to the fireplace.

I followed her inside, and finished filling the log holder.”Soup and sandwiches today for lunch?” I asked

“Great idea, what kind of soup? I have tomato, Italian wedding, and chicken noodle, you choose.”

“Tomato? With ham and cheese if you have it? Would be great.”

After lunch, we sat down and talked about GRS surgery. I reminded her it was a painful operation, and that for several months after the surgery, she would have to dilate her new vaginal area. Hmm, I thought to myself, how else to describe this.

“I'm aware of this, I got more information on line on dilation, than I got from the clinics. The dilation process is painful, the clinics don't tell you this.”

I looked at her, “I figured it may be uncomfortable, but painful? I have a battery-powered friend in my drawer that doesn't hurt, just the opposite.”

Yes, I turned red when I said this, afraid of questions by Ginny. She ignored me and started talking about a 12 day stay in the hotel next to the clinic.

“One good thing Ellen, you can get your fill of hockey games. We'll be only a half mile from the arena the Canadians play in. And if you're short of cash, you can dress up and wander around on Saint Catherine's street.”

The hockey I was fine with, but Saint Catherine's Street? “What about Saint Catherine's Street?”, I asked.

She snickered, “That's the red light district in Montreal. You know, hookers.”

Beautiful, I turned red again, this time real red.

That closed our discussion on surgery, I tossed a couple of chunks of wood on the coals of the fire, and sat down with my book on the travails of Captain Bolitho in the Caribbean. I heard Ginny dialing on her phone, Kevin I assumed. We hadn't seen him for a while. From what I overheard, the romance wasn't over.

An hour later, Ginny came over and sat beside me on the sofa, and admired the fire. Saying, “That feels good, Ellen, should I put another log on?”

She did that then started to fill me in on Kevin and the snow in Lynnfield where he lived. “He said they had snowdrifts over 6 feet high, one going from his front yard across the street to his neighbor's house. It needed a front end loader to clear a path for the snowplows.”

“Will we see him on Saturday for our lesson?” I asked, “He wasn't there last week.”

“Yes, he was planning to get there early to see us before the lesson starts.”

“Us, you mean you don't you?”

Now it was her turn to turn red. After watching some television we went to bed, planning to sleep late again.

I was pleasantly wakened by the smell of pancakes about 8:30. I ran into the loo, did the basics, and entered the kitchen. Ginny poured me a large cup of coffee, and asked how hungry I was.

I said I could eat the pot holder, she laughed and passed me a plate with eight big pancakes on it. As I buttered the stack and opened the maple syrup, she finished her plate and joined me at the table.

“No news paper yet, that makes two days. Tomorrow we'll probably have three papers, so he doesn't have to credit us.”

I laughed at that,”A newspaper is full of old news anyway, three days old is so old you can't call it news anymore.”

After finishing a last cup of coffee, we headed for the garage and my cross country skis. “Where will you head” I asked.

“I was thinking of following the beach toward Nahant, and may be to the jobsite. I should be safe from Steve.”

“Take your cell phone, in case you run out of snow to ski on, or if you get tired. I'll come get you with the Explorer.”

She set off nicely down hill towards the ocean, that made me want to watch the surf. I tossed on my Gor-tex parka and Bean's boots, and walked to King's beach to watch the surf pound the seawall and shoot up 30 feet into the air. After an hour of this, I headed home to my book and fire.

A couple of hours later I heard noises in the garage and guessed Ginny was home. She came upstairs red-faced and excited.

“Wow, you should see the surf. The causeway to Nahant is just being opened. I went as far as the job, almost no snow there, the wind blew it off onto the road.”

“Ginny, sit, calm down, and take a breath.” I poured her a cup of tea, “Now tell me again, but slower this time.”

“The surf going over the seawalls was spectacular. I've only seen this on television, in person it is something else. The National guard must have been called in, I saw their heavy equipment clearing the road to Nahant, they must have been cut off for two days.”

“I guess we missed that on the news. You said you went to the jobsite also.”

“Yes, that Steve was fibbing about the snow there. In some spots you could see the dirt poking through, most of the snow must have blown across the street. Our office had a big drift, that, Steve shoveled out of the way.”

I laughed at Steve saying he said to stay home tomorrow, which we'll do, returning to work, happily on Thursday.

Ginny was just starting to boil water for pasta, when a pounding on our front door startled us.

I got up and opened the door to find Tina there with tears streaming down her face. I pulled her inside and hugged her.

“Tina, what happened, what's wrong.”

As I helped her off with her parka she said, “It's my father, I think he's dead!”

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