Grandma eats Breakfast

It was a very long night. By the time International Rescue had transported the wet and weary hikers to the nearest hospital and picked up the Jodrell, it was four thirty in the morning, local time. By the time they returned to their base in the South Pacific, Thunderbird One pacing Thunderbird Two at her maximum speed, it was twenty minutes short of midnight. Add an hour or more to refuel the craft and put the Jodrell back in its slot in the pod bay, and another half hour or so to debrief while snacking, and it was two in the morning... again.

The tired heroes of Kedgwick and their support team stumbled into their bedrooms. Some showered, others eschewed a relaxing bath and instead just fell into their beds. Whether they went to sleep clean or not, not a Tracy man showed his face in the waking world until at least nine a.m.

Jeff appeared first, greeting Kyrano as he sat down with coffee and a newspaper. Tin-Tin usually took the time to print one out on the extra wide paper in the lab as she logged into the Tracy's computer network. Kyrano, his pancake griddle hot, began to cook flapjacks for Jeff, and for his sons as they began to filter in, yawning and stretching, and murmuring their good mornings. Gordon entered jauntily, a towel around his neck and his coppery hair tousled and wet from his swim. Brains and Tin-Tin were already awake and fed, and hard at work, so it was just the Tracys who gathered around the kitchen table, talking about the less important details of the rescue.

"It sure was a surprise to see that bear come out of the woods!" Alan commented. "Good thing he didn't think we were anything tasty."

"I warned you about the bears," Scott reminded him. "Though personally, if I were one, I'd stay in bed until half past May."

"Those med students were sensible people," Gordon said. "Between them, Ben and Maggie had BJ's leg all splinted up and ready to go. All I did was wrap my our inflatable splint around it for some extra support."

"Did you ever find out what 'Ben' stood for?" Virgil asked from behind the section of the newspaper that Jeff had abandoned.

"Nope. Never did. Her full name was just as elusive as 'Lou'," Gordon remarked with a grin.

"Hey, Dad! How did Lucinda become Lou?" Alan asked.

"Simple. Both your mother and Lucinda were known by their friends as 'Lucy'. In order to keep them straight, we decided to call one Lucy and one 'Lou'. Lucinda's sister and parents call her that, so it was natural that she'd end up as 'Lou'," Jeff explained.

Suddenly the banter stopped as a frail figure stepped into the doorway and Alan cried, "Grandma!"

"Hello, Mother!" Jeff said, pleased. He put aside his paper and rose from the table as Eleanor entered the room. He offered his arm but she waved it away, shaking her head.

"Grandma!" Scott exclaimed, smiling. "You look a hundred percent better this morning!"

Jeff pulled out his mother's chair and she sat down in it with a small sigh. She smiled wanly, and put a hand on the face of each grandson as they came to kiss her on the cheek and greet her with delight.

"Well, Scott," she was finally able to say after all the greetings were done, "You'd feel a lot better, too, after a good night's sleep in your own bed without a bunch of know-it-all nurses or smart-alecky doctors coming 'round to poke and prod you every fifteen minutes!"

"What would you like for breakfast, Mrs. Tracy?" Kyrano asked, a welcoming smile on his face.

"Just some plain oatmeal, and a glass of rice milk if you have it, Kyrano," Eleanor replied. "My throat's still a bit sore, and my tummy's not what it should be. Some comfort food will help me get over this bug."

"Of course, Mrs. Tracy," Kyrano said as he turned to prepared Eleanor's breakfast.

"Rest is also what will help you recover," Jeff reminded her. "Rest and taking that anti-viral medicine... which I see you haven't brought here with you. I'll go get it." He got up from the table and left the kitchen.

"Lands' sakes! In my day, you didn't have any fancy medicines to cure the flu," Eleanor grumbled. "You just rode it out, or got a shot for it at the beginning of the season."

"Yes, Grandma," Alan said, swallowing a mouthful of pancake. "We know. But a lot of people your age ended up dying from it anyway."

"And what does my age have to do with anything, Alan Shepherd Tracy?" Eleanor challenged. "Why, I'm as fit and spry as I was twenty years ago!"

"Sure you are, Grandma. Sure you are," Alan hastily reassured her.

"Th-The medicine will, uh, ensure that you d-don't spread it around to the rest of the, uh, family," Brains said as he walked into the kitchen, looking for his misplaced stylus.

She glared at the scientist for a moment, then conceded, "Well, if it does that, I reckon it's worth it. Don't want any of you boys to come down with this, no sirree."

Kyrano placed the glass of rice milk before Eleanor, then returned to the stove for the oatmeal.

"Thank you, Kyrano," she said with a small smile. She lifted the glass and took a few careful swallows.

"What are your plans for the day, Grandma?" Virgil asked.

Eleanor set down her milk. "Well, I..." she began.

"She has no plans," Jeff said firmly, as he returned with the bottle of pills. He put them down by her meal, then returned to his seat. "No plans except to rest and recover from this flu."

She turned her glare on him, but he sat there, unfazed, a silvered eyebrow raised in challenge. The staring contest lasted for a whole minute and a half (Gordon timed it), until at last, Eleanor looked down at her bowl of oatmeal.

"All right, Jefferson Grant, you win. I'll rest. But I don't want to do all of my resting indoors and in bed! I had enough of that back in Kansas!"

"Of course not, Mother," Jeff agreed, beaming genially now. "Some sun and sea air are just the ticket. Once you're done with breakfast, I'll be happy to escort you to the balcony or even down by the pool, if you like."

"Hmm. Escort me? More like take me some place where you can keep an eye on the old lady," Eleanor groused, spooning some sugar onto her warm cereal.

"Absolutely," Jeff retorted. "I know you, Mother. If someone didn't keep an eye on you, you'd be trying to do laundry, or you'd be in the kitchen baking pies." He speared a finger at her. "Now, understand this. The kitchen if off-limits to you except for eating. So are the laundry room, the pantries, the cleaning supply closet, and anywhere else in this place that has anything to do with housekeeping." He looked around at his sons. "We can all pitch in and keep things clean around here."

"Hmpf. All right. I'm too wrung out to argue with you," Eleanor admitted. "Let me finish my breakfast and then, Jeff, you can 'escort' me outside and keep me entertained."

"With pleasure, Mother."

One by one, the Tracy sons left the kitchen, bound for their own tasks. Virgil went with Brains to discuss an idea for a cold weather vehicle. Gordon headed to the beach for a run, while Scott and Alan went down to finish loading Thunderbird Three for its monthly trip to Thunderbird Five.

"Looks like I'm not bringing any of Grandma's pies with me this time," Alan groused. Scott said nothing, just raised his eyes to the top of the silo and shook his head.

When Eleanor had eaten as much as she could stomach, Jeff pulled back her chair and offered his arm again.

"Where would you like to go, Mother?"

Eleanor thought for a moment. "Down by the pool, I think. There's a lot of lovely greenery there, and the flowers are still blooming."

"Then the pool it is."

He stepped carefully down the stairs at the end of the patio outside the dining room, helping her descend safely as there was no rail. They walked down the flagstone path to the kidney shaped pool with its high and low diving boards and the many places, both sunny and shady, where one could sit. Jeff indicated a pair of chaise lounges that sat in the dappled shade of a copse of palms and Eleanor nodded. They walked over there slowly, and Jeff stood by as Eleanor lowered herself into one with a relieved sigh. He pulled the second chaise closer to her and sat down by her side.

"This is just what I needed," she said, taking a deep breath that elicited a cough or two. "Well, maybe not so much of that fresh salt air all at once." She exchanged glances with Jeff and he was encouraged to see some color in her face and an indication that her usual spunk was beginning to return.

"I think I needed it, too," Jeff commented, stretching out his long legs. "There's only so much of New York a person can take." They sat quietly for a while, just soaking up the sunshine and the warmth of the autumn day. Then Jeff turned to his mother, and said, "There was a rescue after we got home."

"I thought I heard the emergency signal go off," she replied. "Tell me about it."

So Jeff told her about the rescue, where it was, what time of day at the Danger Zone, what the weather was like, how they handled things, all the while making it sound like a thrilling narrative, just as if he were telling an exciting story to one of the boys. Eleanor interjected questions; Jeff answered, and an hour passed without either of them being aware of it.

"Scott's right," she said at last. "That bear should have been hibernatin'. Spring comes later to the mountains, y'know."

"Yes, I know."

They settled back into the quiet again, and Jeff was about to ask if she wanted to go back in, when suddenly, she said, "I heard you talking about Lucinda Myles as I came into the kitchen."

Jeff was startled, but nodded. "Yes. I was."

"What brought that on?" Eleanor's voice was flat, but there was an undercurrent of disapproval to her tone. She looked straight ahead and wouldn't meet Jeff's eyes.

"Alan asked a question about her and Lucille, that's all," Jeff replied, hoping that his mother would leave it at that.

She didn't. "What does he know about Lucinda and Lucy? What brought this up?"

Jeff sighed heavily. He knew that the subject would come up eventually, but he had hoped to have the support of his sons when he told her about the uninvited guest that had washed up on the beach.

"While we were gone, Scott and Gordon found a woman washed up on our beach. She was in a bad way; sunstroke, severe sunburn, dehydration. Turned out to be Lucinda. She was here for a couple of days, driving Scott crazy because he thought he remembered her from somewhere. When Brains said she was well enough to go home, she went. She sent a letter back with Tin-Tin, a thank you note of sorts. I called her, and we explained to the boys just what her relationship to the family was."

"Why didn't she tell Scott who she was?"

Jeff huffed, exasperated. "You know what a tease she can be. She was being mischievous, that's all. When we talked on the phone, she embarrassed him but good with a tale I hadn't heard before. And, she sent you her get well wishes, too."

Eleanor sat silent, her lips pressed in a thin line. "I'm surprised she even thought of me."

"Well, she did. She asked how you were, and when I told her you were sick, she expressed her sympathy and told me to tender her wishes for a speedy recovery."

There was silence between them for another few minutes, and Jeff began to think that their discussion of Lucinda was over.

"Did you tell the boys about the affair?"

Jeff took in a deep, noisy breath, then exploded from his chair. "Mother. I told you then. I've told you since. And I'm telling you again: Lucinda Myles and I never had an affair. I never cheated on Lucy with any woman. Ever." He paced in front of her chair, fuming. "For God's sake, Mom, even Lucille told you that we didn't have an affair! She trusted me. She trusted Lucinda. I don't know what you've got against the woman, but you're wrong about her. And you always have been."

"Wives can be deceived," Eleanor said, her voice shaking. "I never trusted that woman around you. I never trusted her around the boys. And I never understood what Lucille saw in her that made her take such an interest in her."

Jeff was about to let loose with a cutting remark, but realized the futility of it. He dropped his hand and shook his head, gazing at her with a mixture of frustration and pity. "You never will understand, Mom. Never. You're just too damn stubborn to give Lucinda a chance." He looked at his watch and at the sun, and said, "I think you'd better go back in now, Mother."

"I think so, too," Eleanor agreed. Stiffly, she got to her feet, pushing away Jeff's attempts to help, and slowly she shuffled back to the steps. They met Gordon coming up from the beach after his run.

"Hi, Dad! Hi, Grandma!"

Jeff stepped back and said, "Gordon, could you take your grandmother to her room to rest? I think she's had enough sun and salt air for a bit."

Gordon's eyes flicked from parent to grandparent, then he replied, "Sure, Dad. No problem. C'mon, Grandma. Let me give you a hand on these stairs."

Jeff watched until Gordon and Eleanor had finished climbing the flight and were out of view. Then he drew in a deep breath through his nose and sighed, a short frustrated breath. Putting his hands in the pockets of his slacks, he began to wander down to the beach, hoping to walk off his frustration and clear his head from the confrontation with his mother.