A Second Chance

By Dawn Natelle

Since it has been so long since the last chapter was posted (my back is better, but still a bit sore) I will recap. Yesterday we had three main events. The first church service after the installation of the painting, including a visit from some LGBT protestors; Rachael and her family moved to Grandpa’s house, and Pastor Helen moves into their old house; and Maria met with motel owner Bill Strong, who paid her $1000 for consulting on the restaurant he wants to build. I hope that saves a lot of you from having to reread the last chapter. Dawn.

MONDAY, May 30, 2016

When the girls got on the bus on Monday morning, Rachael asked Larissa to sit with her. “This hockey camp your brother is doing?” Rachael asked the taller girl. “Do you have any information about it? Who to call?”

“I don’t,” Larissa said. “But my mom would have all that information. You could give her a call anytime. She hasn’t got a work permit yet, so she will be at home most of the day.”

“Great. Don’t tell Marc, but there might be a chance for Bobby to go.” She told her friend about Maria getting money for consulting, and she wanted to check if the hockey camp was something they could afford. Bobby had talked a lot about how much fun he had with Marc, usually as a goalie for the bigger boy to take shots at. She had a feeling that when the NHL started in the fall, he would be wanting to watch the games on Grandpa’s big color TV.

The morning classes today were French and Phys. Ed., and Rachael finished her French work early, and then stepped out into the hall, calling Mrs. Hafleur first, and then calling Sam Weaver, a local man who had played about 25 games for Chicago in the NHL five years earlier, and who began running a hockey camp in town during the summers. He still played pro hockey in Europe for a German team in the winter.

“Mr. Weaver?” Rachael started.

“Speaking.”

“I’m calling about your hockey camp at the Ingersoll arena in July. Are there any vacancies? Not for me: for my brother.”

“How old is he? Does he play now? What position?”

“He is turning 10 in a few weeks. He only plays ball hockey right now. Goalie, I guess.”

“That would be Atom age group, then. That is filled, except for goalie. We have trouble getting boys that age that want to play goal, and it really doesn’t work as well having older boys play goal with the little ones. In fact, this year we offered a $200 discount for goalies. Right now we are desperate, and would be willing to up that to 50% discount.”

“That is $500 then?” Rachael asked. “Could you let us know what the equipment costs would be? I don’t even know what he would need.”

“Yes, $500 per session,” the hockey player said. “And you don’t need to have much equipment for a goalie. We supply all the pads, to encourage kids to try goal. He would only need to have a pair of long johns, and his skates. We would supply the rest: pads, uniform, and even a stick.”

“Wow, that sounds doable. I will have to check with my Mom, but I think you can pencil him in. Bobby Cartright … No, it is Bobby Barron, two Rs. We are changing our last name when Mom remarries.”

“I’ll wait for your call, Rachael,” Sam said. “And congratulations to your mom on her wedding.”

Rachael hung up, and hustled to the gym, where she was a bit late for Phys. Ed. She liked the sound of Sam’s voice, and hoped she could swing hockey camp for her brother. Even if Maria couldn’t justify spending the money, Rachael tried to mentally tally up things to see if she could swing the cost herself. She had saved most of what she had earned at the bakery lately. If Maria or Geoff would lend her some, she could work it off in the bakery during the summer, and Bobby could go to camp with Marc. For at least one session. Marc was going to attend both of the two-week sessions.

Arriving a few seconds late, Rachael got a dirty look from Phys. Ed. teacher Ms. Smith, but a second later a smile followed. Of late Rachael had become a second teacher in the class, and would work with the six or seven girls who were having the most trouble in the class. All of her friends had improved beyond the hopeless point, so it was a new group of girls, who had started the year with no interest in Phys. Ed. that she was working with. Rachael’s infectious enthusiasm had started to make the practice fun, and girls who hated basketball three weeks ago were now starting to have fun, especially with the attention and encouragement that Rachael gave them.

In the game at the end of the class, her new team was playing Larissa’s team, the one that Rachael had started out with. They had become one of the best teams in the class, and normally won their games by double digits. Rachael’s new team was ahead by a single point at the half, and only fell short by four points at the end of the game, thanks to some unstoppable layups by Larissa in the last minutes, while Rachael was on the bench to give the others some crunch playing time.

At the end of the session, Rachael again declared the game a moral victory for the team, and congratulated all the girls on their improving play, noting that soon they would actually win a game, if they were so close to beating the best team in the class. All the girls went to the change room with smiles on their faces, and a new enthusiasm for sports.

Lunch followed, and Rachael noticed that both Mikki and Janice were off running about the room with sheets of paper. “What are they doing?” she asked Carly.

“Oh, nominations just opened for the grad awards,” Carly said. “They have both nominated you for Top Girl and are racing to see who can get the 12 nominators signed up first. My mom was Top Girl when she came to the school, and keeps pushing me to run. She’s going to be disappointed though.”

“Why? You would be a great Top Girl,” Rachael said.

Carly snorted derisively. “Fat chance of that. You are sure to win. You have all the girls in the class from Phys. Ed., and all the kids from the movie nights. I’ve heard that a lot of the boys even think you are hot, and that will get you a lot of votes.”

“Hot? Me? I’m fat,” Rachael protested.

“Not any more,” Carly said. “You were chubby in your Goth days, but now that you are thinner you’re really cute.”

“Me cute?” She looked at Robert, who smiled.

“I’ve always thought you were cute,” he said. “But yeah, I hear the other guys talking, and you are now getting to be one of the hot girls.”

“Wow, I never knew,” Rachael said. She thought about it for a few minutes. “They can’t nominate me if I don’t sign the papers, can they?

“No, of course not. But why wouldn’t you sign?” Carly asked. Rachael didn’t answer, but left the cafeteria and went to get a nomination paper from the office. When she got back to the table, both Janice and Mikki were there with their papers.

“I won,” Mikki said. “I filled my sheet first, but you weren’t here to sign it. Sign right here.”

“I’m not running,” Rachael said. “I mean I’ve gotten popular lately, but for most of the year I was a nobody. It is only fair that we vote for somebody who has been popular all year long. I’m going to nominate Carly, and I want both of you two to sign as nominators for her.”

The girls argued for a while, until it was clear that Rachael was adamant about not running. They then signed Carly’s form. Rachael got a few more nominators at her table, and then went around to the other tables, getting nominators from the A-list table, from the Goth table, and even from a couple of the grade seven tables. Grade sevens got to vote, but weren’t allowed to run. They seemed excited to be included by Rachael.

Near the end of recess Rachael brought the filled sheet back to the table, where a sobbing Carly signed it. While Rachael was away, Carly had phoned her mom, and tearfully told her that she was being nominated for Top Girl.

“Thank you do much, Rachael,” she sobbed. “This shows why you should be the Top Girl: and why you will always be Top Girl to me. I wouldn’t mind not winning, but it would drive my Mom insane. She has plans for me all the way through college. Top Girl here, cheerleader next year, head cheerleader in Grade 12, and then cheerleader at Western University. It is all planned out.”

“Well then, we will just have to make sure you win,” Rachael said with a smile as they moved to their history class, the first of the next three periods working on their video. Mikki took charge. They had two Mac portables to work on and they went into pairs, with Carly working with Mikki, and Larissa and Rachael on the other machine. They would take turns with one on the computer, and the other giving a second set of eyes to make sure all the work was done correctly.

Rachael and Larissa were given the task of editing the battle scene, which Rachael had missed seeing on Saturday due to her visit with the Pastor to John and Paul’s gallery. She was amazed at how realistic the work was. The first step was desaturating the file, to make it look black and white. That only took a few minutes. But then they had to delete a yellow rope from the picture by cloning other material over the rope.

One of the boys playing soldier had a harness, and at the point he was ‘shot’ the theater boys all yanked on the rope, causing him to fly backwards as if he had been hit by a bullet. It ended up looking realistic, except for the rope that had to be erased from the entire scene. After a few minutes, the girls realized that it would be easier to delete from the color version, and not black and white, and Mikki allowed them to work from a backup of the original footage. She had chosen yellow rope instead of wire mainly because it would be easier to clone over.

Rachael and Larissa took turns at the tedious job of deleting the rope, with the one not working the computer watching the other to make sure that nothing was missed. One scene took just over an hour to retouch, and then it had to be desaturated again. A second video, from a different angle then had to be cleaned up, and this took until the end of the day.

The girls walked over to the elementary school to pick up Bobby and Marc, and the group then walked down to the strip plaza. Rachael got the boys each an apple at Dasilva’s and then went to the bakery, sending the boys home with Larissa so they could bike for an hour or so until supper. Rachael went into the bakery, which didn’t seem as busy as last week.

There was a new girl working the front with Carol, who introduced Jennifer Hope to Rachael when she popped in.

“How are you liking it,” Rachael asked.

“A lot,” Jennifer said, “It was really busy this morning, but it has slowed down now. I have learned so much, and everyone has been so nice. Well, except for one lady who was mad because there was no Love bread left at 3:30.”

“Yeah, that happens,” Rachael said. “I’m glad you like it here. So you will be coming back tomorrow?”

“Oh definitely. I would be even if it wasn’t such a fun place to work. I have a little baby and I have to stop relying on my parents to support us.”

“Well, keep in mind that your employee discount works for babysitting too. Just let me know if you need someone. You look young. You’ll have no problem getting asked for dates. The only trick is to find a good guy, like my Mom did.” She recounted the story of Maria’s date with Steve, the policeman. “He seemed the perfect guy, good job, handsome, really sweet, but they just didn’t click. Mom could have settled but there was no spark. She said no to more dates, and a few weeks later she meets Geoff, and there were sparks all over the place, even though they couldn’t see them at first.”

Just then Maria walked into the shop with a pan of cookies to load into the display. “Rachael!” she snapped. “Are you telling stories to the staff?”

“Yep,” Rachael said with a smile, snagging a cookie. “A good lesson for Jennifer and a warning for Carol. Look, are you super busy? I need to talk.”

“In the lunch room?” Maria asked.

“No, in the back is cool,” Rachael said, “Geoff should hear this too. It’s family stuff.”

In the back Rachael explained to the pair about Bobby’s dream of going to hockey camp, and the information she had gotten today.

“I thought that maybe with the money you got for consulting … “ Rachael told Maria.

“He’s going,” Geoff said abruptly. “You don’t need to use your money, love. He’s my son, or will be soon, and if he wants to go to hockey camp he goes.”

“He is ‘our’ son,” Maria corrected, “and he will go using ‘our’ money. My consulting fee will go into a family account, and whatever the bakery can spare from its account can be added into that. I agree that he should go. My old brain keeps telling me, ‘no, it’s too expensive’ but we do have the money now, and it will be a special time for him.” She turned to Rachael: “But that doesn’t mean that you and I aren’t going to do some serious clothes shopping. Before school in September, if not before. My daughter will not start high school as a Goodwill Girl.”

“Thanks guys,” Rachael said, hugging them both. “You are the best parents ever, to use a Bobbyism. We could even make this his birthday present. He turns 10 in a couple weeks. Can we afford a party for him, too?”

In the past neither Rachael nor Bobby had birthday parties, only small family gatherings with a mix cake. But with things changing, Rachael wondered if it was time to start.

“That is a wonderful idea,” Maria said. “We could have a small party for him, and a little bigger one for you in the fall. How many boys would he have, do you think?”

“Well, there would be Marc and Jerry, his bike buddies. And Danni would probably love to come. There might be a few others. I could ask him tonight. We could even do it at the arena, since public skating is on that weekend. Bobby and I have both borrowed old skates from the Stoners. We could go for pizza after.”

“That sounds wonderful, honey. Let’s talk about it at dinner tonight. Are you cooking?”

“Yeah, it looks like you don’t need any more help here. I’ll head off to give Grandpa some love, and make something special. Are you joining us tonight ‘Daddy?’”

Geoff got the widest grin at that. “Sure thing honey. I may be a good baker, but you are the best cook in the family. Whatever you make will be perfect, I’m sure.”

Rachael went out the door, and Geoff looked at Maria. “That girl is incredible. How does she do it? It is like sunshine follows her around. I was getting tired and sluggish before she came in, and now I feel as fresh as a daisy. You must be a great mother to have raised her like that.”

“Well, it wasn’t always like this,” Maria said, starting to tell Geoff the story of Rachael’s turnaround six weeks ago. They continued to work as she spoke.

Soon it was six, and Carol locked the door, and Geoff came to the front. Doug was there as well, since this was payday. Carol had introduced him to Jennifer, noting that he was ‘another of the good guys she should be looking for, but about five years too young.’

Maria got the task of handing out the pays to Doug and Carol, who both had big smiles as they opened the packages. There were also envelopes for Kyle and Rachael, and Maria pocketed those to hand out later.

“Jennifer?” Geoff asked.” We usually give advances to new staff, if they need it. Could you use a few dollars to hold you over until payday next week?”

“Yes sir,” Jennifer said, with tears in her eyes. “The baby needs diapers, and a few other things. Anything you can give me would help.” Geoff handed her two twenties.

Maria then snatched two more twenties from the stack Geoff was holding and handed them to her, causing Jennifer to start full out bawling. “I know what diapers cost,” she said, enveloping the young girl in a hug.

“But that is more than I have earned yet,” she sobbed. “You guys are so good. I love you all. Carol for getting me the job, and you guys for … for … just for being you. I’m never, ever going to work anywhere else. This is going to help so much.”

“So let’s get going, girl,” Carol said. “I’m betting you want to make a quick run in at Wal-Mart on the way home.”

At home, Rachael had made dinner, chatting with Grandpa as she prepared things. The salad was just cut and placed in tubs so that Bobby could ‘make’ it when he got home (after three attempts at cleaning his hands).

Dinner was a pork roast, since the Sunday dinner had been smaller than normal due to moving the household. Butter carrots and turnips (Bobby and Grandpa’s favorites respectively) were the veg, along with baked potatoes, another Bobby favorite.

Maria and Geoff arrived, hand in hand, at about 6:30, and Rachael had dinner on the table soon after. Grandpa led the prayer, remembering another veteran for them.

Before a simple dessert of ice cream was served, Maria brought up the idea of a birthday party to Bobby.

“A party? For me? Why?”

“Because you are my special little guy, and you and your sister have been so good these past weeks,” Maria said.

“Rachael is a good sister … now. I’ve never had a party before. What do we do?”

“Well, Rachael suggested that we could take everyone to the arena for skating, and then go out for pizza. I know a certain baker that would really like to make you a birthday cake.”

“Skating? Pizza? Cake?” Bobby’s eyes got wide. “That would be the best party ever. Who gets to come?”

“It is your party,” Rachael said. “You get to decide. Not your whole class though. But you could pick a few of your special friends. I was thinking of Danni, but that would only be if you want it.”

“Of course Danni,” Bobby said. “Marc, and Jerry. And you and Mikki and Larissa, and Mom and … Dad. And Gary from the church … he gave me a bike. He has to come. Oh, can Grandpa come too?”

“I don’t think skating is a good idea for me,” Grandpa said with a friendly smile. I would like a piece of your cake, if you can spare it. I’ll just take a nap while you guys have fun. But you have to come back and tell me all about it.”

“I sure will,” Bobby said with a smile. “You may be my Grandpa now, but you are still my hero, General.”

The old man’s eyes glistened as he puffed out his chest a bit, and then started to stir his ice cream when he noticed everyone looking at him.

“We’ll make a list later, and decide exactly who comes. You know everyone who comes will bring you a present?” Rachael said.

“No way,” Bobby said in surprise. “I don’t need presents. I just want all the people who love me to come and be with me.”

“You are a special little boy,” Maria said with tears in her eyes. “Now give your new daddy a kiss. He has to go home and get some sleep.” Rachael also gave her new dad a peck on the cheek and a deep hug. Maria then gave Geoff a kiss that should have curled his toes, before pushing him out the door. Soon after she also went up to her new bed, knowing that Rachael would look after the others.

When she had first Grandpa, and then Bobby, in bed Rachael kneeled at her bed.

Dear Lord

Thank you for such a perfect life. Carly was so happy that she gets a chance to be Top Girl. Please let her win it. And I think Bobby will burst when he finds out what his birthday present from Mom and … Dad … will be. Can you please find someone to help at the bakery? Jennifer is helping in the front, but there is too much to do at the back. And please let me help more people. I really like making people smile.

Amen