346. Places

 The phone rings. My husband passes it on to me. Oh dear. Muddy Boots. When Muddy Boots calls we are on the edge. It could be unpleasant; it could be pleasant. It could last 1 minute; it could last 1 hour. 

'What's that noise?' She asks right away. I cannot decipher the tone. Annoyed? Reproachful? Inquiring? Accusatory?

'That noise? What is it?' She insists.

'The Wolf.' I say. 'We're away for the long weekend.'

She laughs. I'm relieved. The conversation can go on.

'So am I.' She says. I can read the tone now. Happy. Enthusiastic. Cheery.

'Great! Just like your parents are.'

She cannot read me either but maybe the noise of the Wolf's engine is not helping.

I fill her in with the details of our trip and ask about hers (trekking the highest peak of the Vosges with two (boy) friends and she's in charge of the food. The boys are lucky my second daughter is a meat eater, bloody steaks and all. 

'South Africa?' She yells down in the phone so loud it covers the engine's noise all right 

'Yes.' I wish my husband wasn't driving. 

'What on earth for?'

My husband answers very loudly. 

'WHAT D'YOU THINK?'

I have the phone so I don't need to yell so much.

'Rugby.' I say. 'What else!'

I think it's funny. She doesn't.

'South Africa! Mum! Come on, it's miles away.'

I'm wondering if I'm about to get a lecture on parenting skills. For goodness sake's she's only ... Hang on ... How old is she?

'It's miles away!'

'Look.' I say, now annoyed and wanting her off the phone because we're driving through a picturesque village and there's a busy market and all the bars are full of people and I want to be part of that.

'You went to India and that's a million miles away and your sister went to America and that's a million miles away so now your brother is going to South Africa even though that's a million miles away.'

And I pass the phone to my husband. Who stops the car. So we can go and enjoy a drink in one of the cafes around this quaint place du village.

My husband is cool as a cucumber as usual but I can hear Muddy Boots going on and on about how mum does not realise that the whole family is going to be scattered around the globe next year.