Spring Fever
Chapter 6: Call Waiting
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Notes: From Travis’s point of view.
The fact that Nish wasn’t around didn’t necessarily mean that everything went calmly.
They had arrived to the beach house at six in the evening, and everybody was exhausted. Until now, the house was the only thing living up to their expectations.
Travis took a deep breath and opened the door to the room he’d been given. Fred hadn’t been sure how many rooms there were, but it was far more then necessary.
If they wanted to, they could all have two rooms each.
“I’m gonna put my plans at getting drunk into actions,” Charlie told them when they sat down at the kitchen table. Well, it must’ve been the kitchen table, although it looked like a dinner table for twenty persons.
“I can do that,” Cecilia replied. “I feel like getting drunk.”
“The hell you are,” Fred objected. “You shouldn’t be drinking at all.”
“I shouldn’t?” Charlie asked.
“I was talking to her.”
Cecilia gave Fred and icy stare and said something questionable in Swedish. Fred gave her a tired look. Everyone else at the table tried their best not to smile.
Travis wasn’t sure what he was doing here. The only thing he’d done was to show up at that last lesson on Friday. Somehow he just got dragged along for the trip. Not that he could complain. So far it had been a real eventful journey.
He was just glad that he wasn’t stuck in L.A. all alone. The fact that Charlie thought it was obvious for Travis to tag along just made it even better. No one had asked him, they just thought for sure that he was going.
He hadn’t even had a chance to call Nish, to see how he was doing. Hopefully Sarah was bugging his brains out back in Tamarack.
“What do you think we should do?” Charlie asked him.
Travis had no idea. He was satisfied with the simple ness in staying at the house. He was tired. “I don’t know, if you guys wanna do something, it’s fine with me.”
“You’re not coming with us?” Cecilia asked. “Please, Travis, we can’t be out having fun without you!”
“Of course you can.”
“No! Please, you can drive if you want,” she enticed. “So we know that we can get home later.”
“He’s not driving anything,” Charlie objected. “One more accident, and Bombay’ll shoot me. Travis doesn’t have a license either.”
“Funny thing is, that Bombay seems to think that you do,” Cecilia grinned. Charlie gave her a meaning stare.
“Shut it, Cee.”
“No, it’s really funny, that he seems to believe that you have a license, especially since you’re not sixteen yet. I bet Bombay’s not gonna be so happy about that knowledge, huh?”
“Didn’t you hear my say ‘shut it’?” Charlie hissed at her. Travis smiled. Charlie’s big scheme was about to be revealed in the open. Did he actually think that he was going to get away with it forever?
Both Guy and Fred began to laugh. “You don’t have a license either?” Guy smiled. “I knew this would be a great trip!”
“I do have a license...” Charlie started to explain, but Cecilia cut him off.
“It’s just not valid in the country, huh? Or anywhere else, either, for that matter. Invisible drivers-licenses can be like that.”
Charlie was close to kill Cecilia, so Travis decided to change the subject.
“Anyway, let’s just take it easy, I don’t think Bombay’ll be so happy if he finds out that we’re out having fun, when we should be feeling guilty about the accident.”
“Yeah, he said he was going to call tonight,” Charlie mumbled. “Travis’s right. We can examine the house instead. I thought I heard something about a big screen TV. I’m gonna see if the rumor’s true.”
Travis waited until the others had left the table, to get up and call Nish. He assumed that they didn’t have to pay for the long-distance calls, so he better take the opportunity when he had it. Even though he had some bad conscious for not paying.
He waited for the signals to patch through. He was about to hang up, when someone answered. “Nishikawa’s resident.” Travis smiled. That sounded so fun, every time he heard it. Nishikawa’s resident.
“Hi, Mrs. Nishikawa, it’s Travis.”
“Hello, Travis. How nice to hear from you. We were expecting a visit from you, but Nish told us that you were staying in Los Angeles. I hope everything is fine with you?”
“Yeah, everything is great. Is Nish there?”
“No, he’s out with that lovely Cuthbertson-girl. I think they were going to see a movie. He has his portable phone with him, if you want to call him. You have his number, right?”
“Yeah,” Travis said. Talking to Nish’s mum was like talking to someone from out of a fifty’s movie. It was just so impossible to imagine that she was Nish’s mother. How could a wonderful woman like that, give birth to a brat like Nish?
“I met your mother at the grocery store today. She told me that you weren’t coming home at all until this summer. Maybe you should call her. It’s always nice to get a call from your children.”
“I’ll do that,” Travis said automatically. Mrs. Nishikawa was nice and sweet, who could argue with that? But she had the ability to give someone the worst feelings of guilt sometimes. Maybe that was something that you had to develop, when you had a kid like Nish.
“Well, I guess you’re busy with other things, so I’ll let you get back to that.”
Travis nodded, and tried to listen to the rest of the conversation. Why was it so easy to tune out, whenever parents were talking?
When Mrs. Nishikawa finally hung up, he was too tired to call Nish up. He was trying to decide what to do, but it was probably for the best to call Nish, in case his mum asked about it later.
“What?”
Nish’s usual way to answer the phone. The only time he answered with his name, was when he saw his parents number as the calling number.
“It’s me,” Travis said tiredly. Nish was quiet for a while. He was probably trying to act like he didn’t know who ‘me’ was. Travis knew for a fact that Nish knew. He had been introducing himself like that for years.
“Oh, it’s Travis. Jeez, I didn’t recognize your voice. I’d almost forgotten all about you. It’s been a while.”
“Two days,” Travis rolled his eyes.
“Two and a half, actually. I have a bad memory.” Nish tried to sound busy. He was probably sitting somewhere, being bored out of his mind.
“How’s the movie?”
“Did you call my mother?”
“Yeah.”
“It sucked. Sarah forced me to watch it. It was a total chick-flick.” Travis heard Sarah’s voice somewhere close. She said something about Nish crying.
“I did not!” Nish winced. He was obviously not talking to Travis anymore.
“How’s Sarah doing?” Travis asked, so he could get the conversation back on track.
“Annoyingly well,” Nish growled. “Why couldn’t you have come home too? Now I’m forced to spend spring break with the nutcase of Tamarack.”
“No, she could never take that position away from you. What have you two been doing all weekend?”
“Very funny. We haven’t been doing much. My parents thought I should hang out with her, in lack of other things to do. They miss you, Trav. You’re like their long lost son. Not just them, your own parents have been asking about you too. If you don’t call them, I have to kill myself.”
Travis listened to Nish’s long interpretation on his weekend with Sarah. Great, now he had to call his parents too. Even if he loved them, there wasn’t anything more pain filled then to call them and listen to them talk about how much they missed him.
“And, of course my mum had me cleaning my room, the first thing she did. It looks like a cave now. She hadn’t even dusted!”
Travis sighed. Maybe because she was busy with her own life. My God, Nish was such a spoiled brat.
“Maybe you and Sarah can take a couple of flashlights and go mining in your room. I have to go now, Nish.”
“No! What have you been doing? Why aren’t you in L.A.? I didn’t recognize the number.”
“Not the number, and not my voice. Maybe you should go see a doctor about these memory gaps.”
“Seriously, where are you? Last thing I heard, you were going to stay back at school. Was it fun on that last lesson, by the way?”
“Hilariously. I’m at Fred’s dad’s beach house, down in Florida. We got into a car-accident, and had to fly here, after we crashed the team van. I hope you and Sarah have fun together, I have to go now.”
“No, wait!” Nish yelled, but Travis hung up anyway.
He dialed the number home to his parents immediately. His mother answered after only two signals.
“Hello?”
“Hi, mum, it’s me.”
“Hi Travis, I’m so glad to hear from you. I was talking to Nish today. He told me that you’re still in Los Angeles. I was hoping that you’d changed your mind about coming home.”
“Sorry, mum. I got invited to tag along to Florida.”
“By whom?”
“Fred’s dad have a beach house here, so we’re all down here now.”
“Everybody’s there? Tell me, these ‘everybody’, who are they?”
The third degree. Peachy.
“It’s me, Charlie, Cecilia, Fred, Luis, Adam, Guy and Connie.”
“I hope you have fun down there. Your dad and I miss you. How did you get to Florida?”
Now was not the time to tell her about the car-accident. He had to save something for his deathbed.
“Fred bought us tickets, his dad’s company paid for it.”
“Are you going to pay him back?”
“I was going to, but he said that it was unnecessary.”
“Well, I rather see that you pay him back anyway. He shouldn’t have to pay for everything, just because his dad owns the company.”
“Actually, he owns the airline, but that’s the same thing, I guess.”
“So, Cecilia and Charlie are also on this trip? Who’s in charge?”
“We all are, mum. I’m the co-captain, so I have some responsibility too.”
“I know, Travis. I know that you’re a good assistant captain. I trust you. That girl, she seems nice too. Is she in charge too?”
“Cecilia? Yeah, she’s also the co-captain. You know that.” Why was she acting like he’d just run away from home? He wasn’t living at home anymore, but she still didn’t seem to trust that he would stay away from trouble. Since he left home, had she got one call about him that hadn’t been to his advantage?
“I know that, Travis. You told me about her. She seems nice, that’s all I’m saying. Are you two close friends?”
He usually called home once a week to tell his parents about the latest news. That was a lot more then what Nish usually did. His parents had to check up on him twice a month, to see that he was still alive.
Travis was one of the few that called his parents at regular basis. That seemed to be really rare when it came to the rest of his teammates. That’s why he got a little irritated, when his mum didn’t seem to remember all his conversations, where he had told her about Cecilia and the rest of his new friends.
“Mum, I have told you about her. Many times.”
“I’m sorry, Travis, but I’ve got a lot on my minds these days. Tell me again.”
What was the point, when he knew that she wasn’t going to pay attention?
“She’s the co-captain of the team too, and yes, we’re friends.”
“So, you are all close friends? Everyone on this trip?”
“Yeah. Well, I don’t know Luis that well, but I know everyone else.”
His mother was quiet for a second, and he thought she was going to pass the phone on to his dad. She usually did that, when she didn’t have anything more to say. Instead, he heard her clear her throat. More silence.
“Mum?”
“This other girl, what did you say her name was?”
“Connie?”
“Yes, is she on the team too?” Great. She did listen sometimes.
“Yes, she is.”
“Oh, she’s the girl going out with your friend Fred?”
So freaking close.
“No, she’s with Guy. Cecilia’s with Fred.”
“So, Cecilia has a boyfriend. I didn’t know that.”
He’d only told her several times. Now he was annoyed. It was probably time to hang up.
“Yeah, she does.”
“Too bad, the way you were talking about her made me think that you two...”
Really, now’s the time to hang up.
“I have to go, uhm, I think someone just... Uhm... Broke their leg. I better go. Love you, mum.”
He heard his mum object, but he didn’t wait long enough for her to get another word into the conversation.
When he finally had gotten Nish and Sarah to stop bugging him about Cecilia, his mother had to start. Life was just great.
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