HOME AWAY FROM HOME

We pull into the parking area and I turn off the ignition and heave a sigh of relief. Then I realize that the compact car containing Christopher and Izzy isn't there. I wonder aloud if, when we weren't right behind them, they decided to drive down to the beach for a bit. We piled out of the SUV and I mentioned the HUGE spider web I had noticed in my peripheral as we came up the driveway and then the HUGE spider that lived in it. I had missed him at first because he was green with red dots and blended in with the flora.

Shonah and Amy ran down the driveway with cameras to get pictures of the horrid thing, and left me to heft the luggage out of the car. I walked through the little wooden gate set into a cream colored adobe wall and gasped with delight at the view. Even though I had, as previously mentioned, seen all of this on the internet already it was about a thousand times better in person. The glassy pool lay immediately ahead with the red-tile roofed house right behind it.

The terra-cotta tiled patio was surrounded by a white fence in the typical Caribbean style and the sea and islands lay far below and to the horizon in a haze of many blues.

I slowly made my way into the house and it too was exactly as pictured on the internet; terra-cotta tiles on the floor, heavy rattan furniture with deep cushions, and a fabulous gas stove in the kitchen that I was looking forward to using.

The girls joined me with cries of delight over everything they saw, and insisted on showing me photos of that ghastly spider down the driveway. I asserted that, as long as he stayed there, he would continue to enjoy his life in the Caribbean. If he came up to the house for a look, his days were done. Not sure how I would accomplish the deed though, as stepping on him would be akin to stepping on a small dog.

We each went to see our rooms; Shonah would be upstairs in the master suite with her sister, the bride, for the first two nights, and I would share the kids room with Amy. Christopher, when I arrived, would have the lovely downstairs room with a queen bed and Izzy would take the small child's room. We started unpacking and I wondered aloud where said son and girlfriend could be. We were all settled in and checking out the fridge to see what the 'welcome snack items' might be when we heard their car pull into the parking spot. They arrived, dragging their suitcases and told us where they had been for the past hour.

Apparently, the guy leading them in the white van was leaving for Florida the next day. He had friends all over the island that he needed to stop by and see to say his farewells to and decided that this was as good a time as any. He led Christopher all over the island. And I do mean all over. The next week, anytime we drove somewhere new to explore a beach or a little area, the two of them would exclaim - 'yep, we were here already'. He took them so far that they even had to stop and fill the car up. That annoyed me and I declared that car would be the one that went back tomorrow full of gas then, and my tank could stay as it was.

Not long after, the housekeeper (who we would grow to love) arrived with the bride. She had offered to drive down to Long Bay, where Ashleigh had stayed for her first two nights on the island with the groom and his family, and bring her up to the house where she would stay until the wedding day. We had a joyful reunion and while the late-comers settled in, I called the airport to inquire on the status of my missing luggage. I got the same affable fellow and was told it had just arrived and would be put in a taxi to the house. I asked how he would know where the house was as there wasn't an address - the road didn't even have a name that I knew of. He said not to worry, it would be fine. I worried.

The housekeeper told me that if I wanted to be sure to have the luggage tonight, it would be better to drive back to the airport myself to get it; that they would tell me it was coming but it wouldn't come and might not even come tomorrow. That this was the way of the Caribbean. The wedding was the day after tomorrow and so I had to have it before then. And we had work to do tonight on some bits for the table and for every single thing we needed to do, a component of it was in that bag so we couldn't do anything. But it was dark now and I didn't want to drive all the way back on those roads when I didn't know where I was going yet. I called the airport every half hour to see if the bag was on it's way, and I am sure the poor guy was ready to fly to the states to buy me whatever I needed by the time I made the last call. He told me it was on it's way in a taxi and about half an hour later I heard a honk outside the gate. I ran out and, oh what a glorious sight, there was my bag.

I hauled it inside, and pulled out all the bits for the wedding. The girls spent the next happy hour putting it all together while I tried to figure out how the PILE of groceries I had pre-ordered, and had just arrived, were going to fit in the fridge and cupboards. The kids gave me such a hard time about how much food there was spread all over the kitchen, but I knew what I was doing. I had found a website for a grocery store called Bobby's and they had put up sample orders for a week on a bare-boat charter, so I had a good idea of how much food the six of us would need for this first week. I had carefully planned menus and worked out quantities and now, although it looked like I might have over-estimated just a tad, I was sure it was just what we needed.

It lasted two weeks.

To be continued.....