Day 15...in which there's a new earthling named Javier

I dreamed of tigers loose in Australia. I'm with Jack; and I'm scared. There are other mothers around and none of them seem to be concerned.

My mobile rang.

I woke up.

It was very early; around 5:00.

This had to be it.

I ran to answer it.

My dad told me my sister and her new baby were doing well. His name was Javier Miguel.

I was so happy and excited. I was also relieved. I had been worried about my sister. She's so tiny and well.....she's my baby sister.

I then talked to my mom, brother-in-law, and older sister. We congratulated each other.

Tim woke up, and I gave him the news.

We sent texts to the new parents.

I doubted I'd be able to fall back asleep, but by some miracle we did. We woke up around 8. When Jack woke up, I told him the news. I didn't expect him to care much, but he did. He was excited to have a new cousin.

I wanted to tell the whole world I had a new nephew. But I think I just ended up texting my cousin in Australia. I also sent texts to my family telling them something I realized. Javier was born on Valentine's Day. His parents had their first date on Valentines Day. I thought that was cool.

It was raining outside. I wondered if we'd have another day in the cabin. The morning wasn't bad, though. We were excited about the baby and guess what else? Mamma Mia was on! We watched that.

I waited eagerly to get texts back from my family. I wanted more news!

I didn't get any. I figured my parents had gone to sleep. They had been up all night in the hospital.

It stopped raining. I took Jack for a walk on the beach. I don't know where Tim was or what he was doing.

There was a bridge at the end of the beach that was close to us. I decided Jack and I should walk across. It looked like there was a neighborhood over there. For some reason, Jack didn't want to go all the way across, though.

Instead we walked past the beach where there's.....Oh crap. I don't know the scientific name. It's near the beach. It's muddy. There's little pools of water. There are crabs. What would you call this?

Anyway, we walked, and it actually led to the back of our cabin. I think we called out for Tim. He didn't hear us.

We went back to the cabin and then we all took a walk together.




We decided we'd cross the bridge all the way and walk around the neighborhood. I thought maybe we'd find a cafe or something.

We did!

It had started raining again so I'm glad we found it fast.

We ordered a small chips and Jack got a little Milo ice cream thing. The cafe had chairs and tables, but you were not allowed to use them if you were getting take-away. And if you wanted to eat in the restaurant, you had to order from the menus and not the board. We'd see a similar rule at another place later on. (see? Foreshadowing here....)

It stopped raining so we were able to walk across the street and eat our food at a picnic table in a park. The chips they gave us was HUGE. We didn't know if they had heard us wrong and thought we wanted a large or if this was their version of small. Yikes.

The park had a playground. Jack and I played together for awhile.

We then went back to our cabin.

I took a long walk on the beach alone. I think I ended up doing this everyday.

The weekend people began leaving. I was glad about that. I had this sense that I'd feel more comfortable and social once the park emptied out a bit. The only thing I worried about was we still had three more full days. All the children close to Jack's age would probably leave. He's gone longer than that without playing with kids. But this was a holiday park. They're more fun when you have kids to play with.

I started to feel more social, though.

I talked to a nice older couple who were packing up their caravan to leave. They told me they lived near Royal National Park.

I talked to another couple I had talked to briefly earlier. They lived near Palm Beach. Mrs. Near Palm Beach told me she had spent time in Fort Worth. She talked about beautiful it was. I always thought Fort Worth was pretty okay until I saw Australia. In comparison, I think Fort Worth is pretty ugly. I can't see why an Australian would find Fort Worth pretty. I mean there are some lovely scenes every so often. But Australia has so many more lovely scenes. Maybe Mrs. Near Palm Beach was just trying to be nice? Or maybe it's just a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Maybe Fort Worth is the type of place she finds beautiful. We all have our own personal taste.

I think by this time there was a family next door to us.  They had a little girl and little boy. They seemed friendly, but for some reason Jack didn't want to play or talk to them. I mean he wasn't a snob towards them. He just seemed shy and/or disinterested. We exchanged a few friendly hellos with the parents. I felt, since they were our neighbor,s we should do more, but I guess I felt shy too. I'm good at the initial hello...basic greetings. I sometimes have trouble going beyond that.

I later suggested to Tim and Jack that we go into town and get ice-cream. We drove to Gerrigong which is closer to us than Kiama. The ice-cream store was closed. We'd have to come back another day.

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online  a novel by Dina Roberts