Building on Dreams

Chapter 10 - Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

As often happened when one of them was preparing to go somewhere, the hours available for them to spend together before it was time for the person traveling to leave went by extremely quickly. Before they knew it, it was Friday morning. Greg packed as Susan got the children out of bed, they breakfasted together, and she ended up saying good bye to them all at about the same time.

"Bye Papa. Be safe," Jessie told Greg as she and Zackary left for school.

"Yeah Greg, have a good trip," Zackary added.

"I will. Help your mother out while I'm away, both of you. All right?" Greg asked.

"We will," Zackary assured him.

"Bye Susan. Call me if you need me," Greg said as he kissed her good bye.

"Really? Aren't you going to be flying or on the red carpet nearly the whole time?" she wondered.

"More or less," Greg admitted and he kissed her again, longer and deeper than he usually did when saying good bye. "I miss you already," he whispered in her ear.

"I think it's a good thing Thanksgiving's next week," Susan said.

"Why?" Greg asked curiously.

"I'll going to be very thankful to have you home. Be safe," she said.

"I will. I'll call you tonight, after I get there," Greg said.

He kissed her another time and left in his hired car.

Work for Susan that day felt lonely but she had more than enough to do to keep her busy. She and the children welcomed in the Sabbath on their own that evening, wondering when they'd be good enough at Hebrew to say the prayers by themselves. Then they all watched a movie together until Greg called.

"Are we going to the synagogue tomorrow, Mama?" Jessie asked afterwards as they all got ready for bed.

"No. I think we'll sleep in," Susan said. "We can have a late breakfast, and then go for swimming lessons. How would that be?"

"That'd be okay," Zackary agreed. "I keep wondering why they don't their services later if the Sabbath is supposed to be a day of rest. I mean wouldn't it be more restful to go later?"

"After sleeping in you mean?" Susan said.

"Yeah," Zackary said.

"I think some people do go to services on Friday evening instead," Susan said. "Would that be better?"

"Not really," Zackary said. "Then we wouldn't get to hang out on Friday evenings."

"True," Susan said. "Well we've hung out enough for tonight. It's time for you and Jessie to get ready for bed."

"Awe Mom!" Zackary said with a hint of the tone he and Matt used to use years ago when together they used to complain about going to bed. Susan smiled in spite of herself. It seemed so normal and it felt good to hear it again.

"Come on," Susan insisted and she went to keep them company and to tuck them in when they were ready for bed.

c

Susan had every intension of sleeping in on Saturday morning. She pulled the blinds closed the night before, turned off her alarm and did what she could to insure nothing would bother her. But it didn't help. Getting up early was getting to be such a habit; she woke up early any ways. At first she rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. But when that didn't work, she got up, showered, made herself coffee and decided to call her mother instead. They'd talked a number of times on the phone since she and Greg returned from Australia, but often it seemed like one of them was in a hurry to go somewhere. On this morning she hoped they could take their time. Her dad wouldn't be up yet and Greg was gone, so the possibility of a lengthy mother-daughter talk seemed very encouraging.