It was that time of the year when Summer turns to Autumn. One day it would be too hot and the next too cold, compounded by sudden storms. My Father, being an idiot at times, managed to get caught by one of those storms while dressed for a hot day, resulting in him being drenched. Knowing that it was going to be hot he ignored the drenching and went his merry way, relying on the sun to dry him off.
Someone forgot to tell the sun. Several hours later he came staggering home, bedraggled and wet, shivering, coughing, and sneezing. A very nasty little cold. Continuing with his current run of luck he decided that the only treatment required was an early night which would let him sleep it off.
Someone forgot to tell the cold. When he woke up in the wee, small, hours the cold was gone, having morphed into influenza and my Father was now sick as a dog.
Not a good patient, that man. By the end of the next day his three beloved children were ready to kill him and put him out of our misery. My Mother, she of the sainted aura, took steps to prevent patricide. She sent my two younger brothers to stay with her sister who was willing to watch them for a week while my father recovered. I was given three options. One, go and stay with Aunt Melody, a distinct possibility but not high on my list of preferences. Two, stay home and help look after my Father, a choice at the very bottom of my preferences, my Mother's preferences (you lack that certain sickbed assurance, dear), and my Father's preferences (you might as well bury me right now if she's hanging around all the time). Three, see if I could go and stay with my friend Suzy for a few days. Now that last I could see myself doing.
I called Suzy and explained the situation and asked if I could stay for a while. "No worries," Suzy said. "Come on over."
I delicately suggested that she might like to ask her father before I just rolled up and she told me to hang on for a moment. I could hear the following conversation take place.
"Dad, Megan's father has the flu and her mother wants her out of the house for a few days."
"Don't blame her." I could hear the comment in the background.
"Then you don't mind if she crashes here for a few days. Thanks, Dad."
"Dad says it will be fine. Come on over."
It sounded more like she'd just suckered him leaving him wondering what happened, but he hadn't said no, so I packed a few things and headed over to Suzy's place where we had a happy reunion. I very politely thanked her father for letting me come and he just smiled and nodded, the gracious host in action. Suzy and I then vanished into her room.
For the next few days Suzy and I entertained ourselves, also acting as occasional baby-sitters for her three younger siblings. Of the bunch of us I was the eldest at eighteen, followed by Suzy at seventeen, and her three siblings being pre-teens. The place got rather noisy at time but Mister Bee handled it with no problems, never having to raise his voice to get heard.
On the fifth day my Mother told me that my Father had recovered well enough that I could come home anytime. I took this on board and decided that I'd go home that evening. I'd had fun but I rather missed my own house and family. I told Suzy and then let Mister Bee know.
"Okay, Megan. It's been nice having you. Are you going right now or waiting until this evening?"
"I thought I'd go home this evening, hanging around with Suzy for one last day."
"Okay. As you'll be here you and Suzy might as well come to the beach with us this afternoon. The weather looks as though it will stay hot for the day so we might as well go out before the cold days arrive in earnest."
That was fine by me. I might even be able to get a bit of a tan on. The result of this was that Suzy and I and about six small fry (we had a few extra) were stacked in their microbus. A very useful vehicle if you had a small crowd to shuffle around.
We finished up parking in the car park area, no fees required, and headed off down to the sand and the sea. Suzy and I doffed our outer clothes and lazed in the sun, working on our tans. We got up a couple of time to take a dip to cool ourselves down but spent most of our time relaxing.
In the middle of the afternoon I got up and stretched.
"I'm going to go and buy a coke," I said, jerking my thumb in the general direction of the kiosk. "You coming?"
Suzy looked at how far she'd have to walk to reach the kiosk and gave me a pitying look.
"Why would I do anything so strenuous when I have a servant to do the fetching and carrying? Just make sure it's cold."