seen from China
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seen from Yemen
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seen from United States
seen from Yemen
Never thought I’d be breathing Whibley air like this again…
…and definitely not here.
Some party they’re throwin’. Can’t be doing too badly without me.
The doorbell was barely audible against all the birthday party commotion inside the Ward lake house.
“I’ll get it!” the happy birthday boy shouted. At the same time, Bonnie giggled to her sister, “Is he still dancing?”
Amy answered both of them: “Ben, honey, don’t run — you’ll smack into someone! And, yes, Brandon’s still givin’ his all on the living room dancefloor alright.”
“He’s so cute!” his mother teased.
Harold Ward was mid-sentence when his son Richard interrupted him to call after Ben: “Little big man! Havin’ a good party?”
Ben spun around with a beaming smile and two thumbs up. “Oh yeah!”
“It’s probably the pizza. Need a hand?”
“I have two! No worries, Dad.”
The happy teenager started dancing backwards towards the door feeling quite confident that pizza was the only thing missing from this perfect day.
Until Ben opened the front door:
“D-Dad?”
“Happy birthday?”
Ben tackled Max Green in tight embrace. He could feel his father’s back was sweaty. He sniffed a faint mixture of smoke and spearmint deodorant off his shirt. He was real.
“I can’t believe you’re really here!”
And Max squeezed his son back tighter than either of them thought possible or comfortable. “Neither can I, pal.”
“Um, Amy? You should probably come to the front door.”
“Why? Pizza money is on the—"
“—table.”
Ben announced, “Everybody! Look who’s here!”
“Hi.”
Max entertained Ben and his teenage friends with stories from his time on the road — all the shows he played, the cool people he met, the parties he attended — while the adults quietly panicked about what to do about their surprise guest.
It was decided that Amy would try to talk to him alone first, they’d save Richard as back up. Bonnie leaped in as party host and ushered the children outside to meet up with the other half of the party already playing by the water on this beautiful, summer-like spring day.
Bonnie Weseman greeted her dejected teen with sweet relief, “Oh good, you’re home,” just as his kid brother Nick whined, “Braaaaaandon, you’re in the waaay!”
Through a panicked smile she asked him, “Are you hungry, sweet pea? Do you want any supper? I can reheat the—”
“No thanks.”
“W-well, what about—”
“No thanks, Mom.”
“Okay…”
This is the part of nostalgia-fueled endless summers that we try to forget:
the agony of boredom.
[The couple starts with City and Colour’s “We Found Each Other in the Dark,” then they welcome crowd suggestions for a peculiar fantasy combination of Dallas Green vocals and rhythm guitar with Jimi Hendrix lead guitar mastery. Lol. Idk. Don’t ask me, I just work here.]
Ben Parker Ward was elated to call out, “Lee! You made it!”
“’Course, man!”
“Lookin’ sharp, dude! Shirt looks great on you.” (The boys coordinated outfits for the occasion.) “And, hey—new do?”
“Yeah,” Lee beamed, “got this and grad comin’ up so Jo cleaned me up.”
“Love it! I love you!”
Lee laughed along happily when he returned, “Love you too, man!”
Behind them, Brandon W. squirmed a little at his friends’ casual use of such an important phrase.
Lee’s parents caught up with them then. “Hi boys!” Genji waved.
Brandon couldn’t help but notice their sickeningly adorable matching outfits when he sheepishly waved back. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Sato.”
Michiyo was eager to ask, “Ben, sweetie, where’s your mother? I need to thank her for inviting us.”
And Ben was eager to answer, “It’s the reception! Party time, haha! Everyone’s welcome now!”
“She’s over there by the ice cream cart.” Lee nodded in the correct direction.
As Michi and Gen wandered over to a smiling and waving Amy, Brandon kicked sand around.
Ben asked, “Uhh, Brandon? Somethin’ wrong, bro?”
“Huh? No.”
“Whatever you say.”
Richard approached the teens next and greeted them with his cool, deep voice: “Hey kids, you ready for our little gig tonight? Think Max is gonna kick things off soon.”
Ben enthusiastically answered for all of them: “Oh yeah! We’re so stoked, Dad!”
“Guess that answers that, hey?” he chuckled in Brandon’s direction, who smiled weakly in return unsure how else to reply.
Likewise, Lee also felt a little starstruck looking up at Richard Ward in his newly married radiance.
“Rich!”
It was Claude Rousseau and his family Sophie, Jonathan, and Deryck.
Richard left the teens with a brief, “Excuse me, kids,” and happily greeted the latest new arrivals behind them: “Rousseaus! Glad you could make it, just in time too.”
Meanwhile, Ben asked his friends, “You guys wanna stay here and be close up, or go on the deck for a better view of everythin’?”
“I don’t care,” Brandon answered with melancholic honesty.
“You better make the call Ben,” Lee told him.
“Ground zero it is then!”
There was extra bounce in Kate Rose and Brandon W.’s walk today.
He was proud to say, “I knew you’d like Sim41, I knew you’d get it.”
“So good, right? I’m obsessed. They’re my favourite.” Then she started air-drumming in tune with the song, and he beamed in tune with her puffed out cheeks.
Kate snort-laughed and Brandon smirked to himself. As the current song started its fade out she asked excitedly, “What else, what else?”
He was already mid-way through scanning the small pixelated list on his MP3 screen for something they didn’t already listen to earlier. “I think we’re gettin’ to the end, heh. Damn, gotta download more.”
The sun was hot while the air stayed comfortable, it was too early in the season for any heavy humidity to cloak the air and make things sticky and uncomfortable. So Brandon and Kate crossed the field from the Whibley pier to Brandon’s house with laughter and shoulder punches following a full afternoon walking around town listening to music together. Their first of many walk n’ listens.
“Hey Mom.”
“Hi, Bonnie.”
Nick exerted an exaggerated whine-groan, he wasn’t too happy his brother and his friend interrupted his video game.
Bonnie welcomed the pair with a kind smile. “Hi, sweet peas. Go wash up please, supper’s ready. Kate, you’re staying, aren’t you honey? At this point I just kinda assumed. There’s plenty if you want it, sweetheart.”
Kate answered courteously, “Thank you, I’d love to,” for which Brandon quickly and rightly mocked her:
“I’d love to? Don’t be weird. You’re always welcome here. Right, Mom?”
“Of course you are,” she assured, nodding to Brandon’s favourite friend lately. “No one leaves my house hungry, you know that, Little Miss Skinny.”
“I eat!” Kate pleaded. “I eat more than Brandon!”
“Thank goodness I see it with my own two eyes, hm? You know the drill: phone your mother first please, then both of you go wash your hands. That goes for you too, Nick! Who knows when Brandon last cleaned those controllers, if ever.”
Kate had supper at Brandon’s house a couple times a week. They usually timed it well so she’d come over on the nights his father was “working late” because then they’d get more time to hang out together after the meal. Ol’ Cranky Frankie stayed away from their guest if Sam wasn’t around to laugh at his crude jokes, often opting to have his supper alone in his room much to the joined relief of Bonnie and Brandon.
“What the hell was that? You totally cheated, B!”
“Like to see you prove it.”
“Like this match even counts now.”
“Sure it does, I’m about to win. Every round I win counts. My house, my rules.”
“You’re such a—! Rematch. Hurry up, let’s go; load the next game.”
“Hold yer horses there little lady, I’m busy winning.”
Sometimes after supper the teens played cards with Bonnie and Nick, other times the friends played video games or hid downstairs in Brandon’s room. As long as her boys shared a room, young Nick was the mother’s peace of mind buffer when it got awfully quiet down there as Kate and Brandon talked about “stuff.” But admittedly, Bonnie liked it a lot more when the teens were upstairs so she could listen to their cute bantering. It was nice hearing the Weseman house be filled with something other than shouting. Well, the bad kind anyway.
But once Sam returned home that was always the cue for Bonnie to give Kate a ride home. Brandon tagged along riding shotgun, usually messing with the radio and trading jokes with his mother for Kate’s giggling amusement.
Bonnie Weseman spoke a little out of breath when she asked, “Are you sure you’ll get to school alright on your own, Brandon honey? Nick, hurry up sweet pea, we’re already late—wait, where’s your backpack?”
“I got it, Mom,” the eldest son answered, smiling down at the golden-haired youngest. Brandon was upholding the promise he made to himself pretty well so far co-parenting his brother like this, he thought.
Bonnie eagerly wrapped her arms around her teenage saviour. “Thank you, sweet pea.”
Brandon W. laughed a little awkwardly into his mother’s shoulder. “S’all good, Mom, really.”
“I thought I was ‘sweet pea’?” Nick asked.
“You both are,” she answered, smiling warmly at her eldest. Bonnie didn’t miss how Brandon was stepping up lately, but then she always knew he’d make a wonderful big brother. She sensed a lot of herself in Brandon. “But no matter how big you boys get, you’ll always be my two precious, baby sweet peas.”
“Okay there, Mom.” Brandon patted her shoulder; he might as well have said, Chin up, champ. “Seeyah at dinner.”
“Alright, honey. Have a good day!”
