Living Without Dreams

Chapter 34 - Weekend with the Gaffneys

"Cindy was telling me that you trained as a nurse," Ruth commented to Susan as she and the Gaffney family sat down to a lunch of Chinese food following the services at the synagogue on the morning of the last Saturday in October.

"I did, but that was a very long time ago," Susan said guardedly. "And I never did much nursing professionally, aside from being a mid-wife for a year or two right after graduating from school."

"Still, the fact that you have some medical training would explain how you knew what to do for Cindy, Greg and me," Ruth observed.

Susan shrugged. "I try to help where I can. I hope it helped."

"I feel almost normal now," Cindy announced as she consumed some of the rice and milder foods eagerly.

"I'm glad you're feeling so much better," Susan said.

"I really do. I should be perfectly okay by tomorrow," she said happily.

"Do you and Dad have plans for tomorrow?" Alan asked.

"I was hoping we could sleep in," Susan said. "This was supposed to be a bit of a vacation, but so far it seems like we've been doing a lot of running around and not too much relaxing."

"I believe at some future point I time we shall have to make a more concerted attempt at a honeymoon," Greg remarked.

"You haven't had a honeymoon?" Cindy asked in surprise.

"We've tried twice now, but something always seems to interfere," Susan explained. "The first time, Karen's baby came early while we were at the mission."

Ruth looked at the couple questioningly.

"Susan delivered the baby," Greg explained. "We were staying in a private cottage on the grounds of a mission run by our friends, on the edge of the outback in Australia. It's truly a beautiful place."

"It is," Alan agreed. "I can see going there for a vacation, but especially if they gave you one of those cottages down by the stream by the cottonwood trees to use."

"That's exactly where we were," Susan told him. "It would have been a great place ... except for Peter's arrival half way through it ... and your business trip," she reminded her husband.

Greg arched a brow. "And this time, the two days we thought we had are being preempted by meetings as well ... yours this time."

"Dad, I really do think it was optimistic of you to try to squeeze in days like that considering everything else you wanted to get done this weekend," Alan said.

Susan looked to Greg. "Am I missing something? Was there something else that was supposed to happen either today or tomorrow?"

"We were hoping to go for an autumn picnic at Tilden Park tomorrow," Cindy told her. "It's a fun place to relax, so we thought it might be nice. Have you ever been there?"

"Yes, about five years ago," Susan said. "Why couldn't we?"

"You said you wanted to sleep in and you wanted to attend services tomorrow," Greg reminded her. "Which means the earliest we could get here would be early afternoon, possibly not even until two, which would be too late for their picnic."

"Oh," Susan said with a slight frown. Her first thought was to tell him she could attend earlier or didn't have to go, but she knew neither of those options was likely to be well received. "I think we could still do that. There is an evening service I could attend tonight instead ... or we could simply go by on Monday afternoon, after my meeting. That might be better anyway," Susan said thinking aloud. "I mostly just wanted to show the facility to you."