At Home, part 6

Having solved the problem of how to get the kids cared for when I’d gone to Paris with Mike, I was excited to hear that he had an upcoming trip to London. “Do I get to go?” I asked.

“Absolutely, if you want to,” he said. And I didn’t even have to arrange the child care. “I’ve worked out a deal,” he said. “Remember Andy Dunn, the Price Waterhouse guy in London who helped us with Sky TV? He and his wife want to visit Spain, and they’re willing to watch Julie and Lisa in exchange for being able to stay in the house and use the car.” I knew Andy and Laurie Dunn had a baby girl, Hayley, so they were kid-friendly—and if they were willing, I was more than happy to let them take care of my kids.

I did some quick planning and found a bed-and-breakfast for us to stay in during the weekend. We’d fly to London together on Friday, spend the weekend seeing the sights, and on Sunday night Mike would move to a grander hotel where his meeting would take place, and I’d fly home to Madrid. I even planned to do a travel article on central London bed-and-breakfast places for the Stamford Advocate.

It was a gray and blustery English fall weekend, but we dashed around the city seeing plays, taking walking tours, and eating Indian food. I decided I needed a new raincoat, and this was definitely the place to buy one, so I got that task done. And I did some running around to check out hotels for my travel piece. We didn’t feel the need to revisit museums we’d seen years before, so on Saturday we took the train to Cambridge and did a walking tour there. The weather was better, and the campus looked beautiful with the leaves turning colors among the Gothic buildings.

When I got home I found the girls happy, and they said they’d had a great time with the Dunns. “But I’m afraid something went wrong with the car,” Andy said, looking sheepish.

“What happened?” I asked.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t really know,” Andy said. “I don’t know much about cars. I just tried to start it on Saturday, and it wouldn’t go. I didn’t really know what to do, so I asked your friend across the street for help.”

“Phil?” I asked.

“Yep,” Andy said. “He was great. We never did figure out what was wrong, but he spent a ton of time with me, checking everything out. I guess you’ll have to have it towed in for service or something.”

“Well, no problem, I’ll take care of that,” I said. “I just feel so bad that you didn’t have the use of the car! That was part of the deal!”

“It was okay, really,” Andy said. “Phil told us how to take the bus into Madrid, so we did that a couple times. And mostly we just walked over to the playground and let the three girls play there.”

“Well, I still feel guilty,” I said. “We had a wonderful weekend in your town! I can’t thank you enough for making it possible!”

“No, we had a great time, too,” he said. “Your girls are terrific, and Hayley had a ball with them.”