Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright© 2016 Karen Lockhart All Rights Reserved.

CHAPTER 71

It's said a ball drops in Times Square to count down the seconds until the New Year, well the only ball I saw dropped was my eyeballs at about 11.30pm. The next thing I knew was the front door opening at 8am ushering in a frigid blast of cold air and a still tipsy Virginia.

She looked at me and giggled, “I had help unzipping the gown, you were right, I couldn't do it myself.”

This is not what I wanted to hear before breakfast.

She disappeared into her bedroom and apparently she either figured it out or the zipper started partially open, because a few minutes later Ginny flew back into the room and landed in the recliner chair wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. She proceeded to give me a description of the whole evening starting with dinner and dancing at Angelica's on Route 114.

“The food was great! We started with a fruit cup, then a Caesar salad; then the main course, surf and turf, Filet Mignon and roasted lobster tails. Desert was Bananas Foster over vanilla ice cream.

“Dancing started after dinner, and a bottle of champagne was brought to each table for the New Year's toast. Kevin ordered an additional bottle for us while we were dancing. We left for his house around 2am and went to bed and....”

At this point I jumped in, “Stop, stop, enough! I don't need to hear more. I noticed you were walking a little funny.”

Ginny smiled, “I'm starved, how do you feel about breakfast?”

“Great idea, let me run to the bathroom and I'll be ready for coffee. Did you bring in the paper when you flew in?”

I quickly took care of business, washed my face and was back in time for the Kurig to heat up and give me my Nantucket Breakfast blend coffee.

We talked about things we could do over the long weekend and plans she had for us in Thailand. No sight-seeing! She had reservations at a very nice European style hotel offering meals we were used to along with traditional Thai cuisine.

It had been cold enough for the ski areas to have a great base down, so she and I decided to try skiing at Wildcat in New Hampshire on Saturday. Since it's a four hour ride, we agreed to leave by 4am. This meant hitting the hay early on Friday night. Right now that sounded good. I could see a short nap after breakfast in my future.

We had a great time skiing. Again Ginny was eye candy for the pimple-faced crowd, while I turned a few older heads myself. We headed home feeling good about ourselves, stopping at Spud's in Saugus for supper. I had the lobster pie and Ginny had the baked crab and scallops. Amazingly we left there for $50 including a couple of Sam Adams Beers.

January 4th was the last regular game of the season for the Patriots. They would have a one week bye, but a victory would guarantee home field through-out the play-offs. The last game of the year, the local franchise won by five touch downs over Jacksonville, 38 to 3. It just occurred to me, we would be in Thailand during the Super Bowl. Thank goodness, it was an international affair. I'd hate myself if the Patriots went well, and I'd missed it.

The next few days flew by, getting closer and closer to the overseas trip, but first we had a performance of Shakespeare to enjoy.

Our tickets were for Monday night the 12th. That meant we had to rush back from work, shower, get dressed and head for the Shubert Theater in time for the performance at 8pm. It was questionable if we would have time to eat before the show, so we planned to have a large lunch and a snack when we got home afterwards.

We had clam plates from Kelly's for lunch and arrived home by 3pm. Ginny had me shower first because she was going to do my hair and make-up.

I got out my new red dress and four inch court shoes before showering, taking pains to keep my hair dry. She decided to wear a LBD with five inch titanium heels, ankle breakers in the winter.

We decided to go by limo service to and from the theater. We confirmed with the driver the play would be over by 11pm and we'd look for him for the trip home.

I saw this play in high school at the theater in Beverly but remembered almost nothing about the play.

The acting was wonderful, eliciting a lot of laughs, there was a story within a story. It was easy to see why this is such a popular play.

I'll admit, my head was spinning trying to keep track of who was in love with whom and which god was in love with which human, but it was all good fun, and quite enjoyable. During the intermission, every-one was asking questions hopefully to be clear during the next acts.

The first thing I did after entering the limo was to take off those toe-pinching shoes of mine. I noticed Ginny followed suit.

I fell asleep on the ride home and didn't wake up until we crossed the drawbridge between Lynn and Revere. I slipped my shoes back on for the walk into the condo. After taking off our dresses and make up it was 12.30am on Tuesday. Ginny scrambled a few eggs for a snack, and I made some toast.

We were hurting for sleep the next day but had fun talking about Oberon and John Bottom the actor. There was the pending marriage of the Duke also.

In two weeks we were headed for Thailand, and the greatest adventure in Ginny's life.

She and I talked about the trip; you know, what clothes to bring and what reading material. This one was easy; Ginny would bring her Kindle Paper white, and I'd bring my Kindle Fire.

Regarding clothes, I expected laundry facilities to be available. It made no sense to take three weeks of outfits, one week was enough. I wished there was someone I knew who had gone through the process, that way we'd know for sure. Oh well, those Thai dresses looked nice, we might have to buy a few.

The rest of the week flew by and before we knew it, Saturday and our riding lessons were there. This would be Ginny's last day riding, until she received Doctor's permission.

On the ride up we discussed letting Cathy know of Ginny's upcoming surgeries. We agreed to keep the secret and call it ladies' surgery.

It was nice to see Tina again, and the three of us gabbed for a while after our lessons were finished. Again, we kept the Thailand trip secret.

To be concluded.