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The North Carolina trip for Spring Break was Derek’s idea.
“I think I’ll go to North Carolina for Spring Break this year,” he idly answered Charles’ question as they packed up their books. “I have some friends that I’d like to spend some more time with. James Benson recently lost his wife and he’s been living with his brother-in-law and his wife: Frank and Bianca Harville.”
“Where did you meet them?” Isa asked, her hand resting on her cheek as she leaned towards him.
“I was in the Navy with James. He’s about two years older than me, but I think my knee injury would have been much worse if he hadn’t been there. He was an EMT before deciding to enlist.” Derek was momentarily lost as he started remembering. “He has the calmest head on his shoulders, even if he is depressed after Francine’s car accident.”
“Oh, that’s just terrible,” Isa sighed. “I wish I could go with you.”
“Why can’t we all go?” Mary asked from her ever permanent seat on the sofa.
Rolling her eyes, Anne turned back to the cooking therapy in front of her. The art teacher at her high school placement had Anne doing set up today and got frustrated with her when she didn’t know the art storage room as well as he did.
“We can’t invite ourselves on Derek’s trip,” Anne pointed out from her place at the counter where she was cutting up frozen broccoli into smaller pieces for her loaded potato soap.
“Why not?” Derek asked her. “The more the merrier. Hopefully somebody can cheer James up and help distract him from the poetry he’s taken to reading and quoting. I think Byron is one of his favorites, but I know I’ve heard him quoting one of the Shelley’s as well.”
He missed Mary’s confused look and hissed, “What is he talking about?” to Etta who was sitting on the floor playing with Henry Walter.
“Literature,” Etta answered, not looking up from her nephew.
“Oh,” Mary replied. “Sounds boring.”
“Depends on who you are talking to,” Etta retorted. “Anne is an English minor, and Derek does read a book whenever Charles is running late.”
“Whatever,” Mary concluded. Turning to Anne, she changed the subject and asked, “How much longer ‘til supper, Anne?”
“If somebody would help me with the salad...”
“Soup and salad?” Mary interrupted, crinkling her nose. “No meat?”
“There’s ham in the soup.”
“But it’s potato soup.”
“It’s loaded potato soup. It has ham and broccoli in it as well,” Anne explained.
“Sounds good,” Derek interrupted. “And I know I need more vegetables in my diet. What can I do to help?”
“Here,” Anne pointed with her knife to the salad veggies she had cleaned and were waiting to be cut up. “If you can cut up those, and dump the lettuce bag into the bowl, that would be a huge help.”
“Gladly,” Derek volunteered, unsurprised when Isa started to help him.
“Tell us more about North Carolina,” Mary asked, bringing them back to the topic she would rather talk about now that the matter of dinner was concluded.
“Haven’t you ever gone with your Aunt Cassandra and Anne?” he asked.
“Why would I want to go to the beach with Anne?” Mary dismissed. “All she did was spend all of her time drawing in her sketchpad and getting sunburned.”
Anne looked around and glanced at Derek. A slight flush on her cheeks told him that she remembered them doing more than just sketching in the sand dunes and getting sunburned.
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Anne, after checking out her bank balance, originally declined the trip much to Derek’s disappointment. It wasn’t until Mary and Charles started insisting, stating that they would pay her way, that she finally relented. It helped that Mr. and Mrs. Musgraves had refused her help at watching the boys over the break, much to her relief.
After dealing with high school art students and their high-handed art teacher, she relished the break. It was just pure chance that her placement’s Spring Break fell at the same time as her friends’ break.
It didn’t take much to convince Anne to put aside her unease at somebody else paying her way and to start packing her bags.
Truthfully, she craved the chance to return to the beach. It was her favorite place to be.
