“Can I help?” Tommy asked. “I’d be glad to step into the breach and talk about my career as a pilot. I bet the youngsters would find that quite interesting.”
Tommy had worked his entire career as a commercial airline pilot, logging many thousands of hours in the air before retiring four years ago.
“They would definitely find it interesting, Dad, but when we planned this careers fair event we all agreed we wanted to include speakers who are as close to the kids’ ages as possible. We hope that will help them engage better and relate to the speakers and their experiences.”
“That makes perfect sense. But if you’re still stuck and can’t find anyone, just say the word.”
“Thanks Dad.”
Peter appreciated the offer. If he couldn’t pin down another speaker over the next few days, he’d take his father up on it. Tommy would have plenty of great stories to share about life in the cockpit and he was a natural speaker with an easy charm who’d keep the kids engaged. It was good to know there were options if he ran out of time to find an emergency replacement.
His story from the school chalkface had at least provided some sort of explanation for his lack of engagement tonight at the family dinner. Around him, the usual conversation and laughter continued. His mother’s gaze fell on his still half-full plate of food and her brow furrowed, just as his father’s had done a moment ago. The last thing he wanted was an inquisition from his mother about why he wasn’t eating the meal she’d cooked, so he forked up some chicken and potatoes and got to work clearing his plate.
While he ate, Peter tuned into the chatter around him and thought about the people gathered beside him at the table… and how much he stuck out like a sore thumb compared to his siblings.
His two older brothers, Brad and Shaun, had married young and had their first children by the time they were twenty-five. Brad and his wife Donna had three boys, Evan, Cole and Charlie. Shaun and his wife Lauren had two girls, Jasmine and Willow. Peter’s younger sister, Amber, had her first baby when she was just twenty-one and she and her husband, Mikey, had tied the knot three months after their daughter Alicia was born.
On the sideboard across the dining room, there was a framed photo of their wedding day, with Amber in her wedding dress and Mikey in his smart suit, the two of them looking ridiculously happy as they held Alicia in their arms, who was beyond cute in a gorgeous white baby gown and pink headband that matched her mother’s bridal bouquet.
There were framed photographs of his brothers’ wedding days too and countless photographs of all the kids. In the centre of the display was a photograph of his parents’ wedding day. They’d married when his father was twenty-four and his mother was twenty-two, and it still amazed Peter to see how young they looked in that photo—and how happy they looked, too.
The photo beside his parents’ wedding photograph was taken on their thirty-fifth anniversary, a couple of years ago. The whole family was in the shot, all dressed up for a special dinner celebration together. Peter remembered the chaos involved in getting everyone to pose for the photograph and persuading the over-excited kids to stand still long enough to capture the perfect image his mother insisted on.
While his siblings grinned out of the photograph while standing next to their spouses and kids, Peter stood alone. He was smiling of course, because it had been a happy night filled with joy and celebration. The thought might not have been at the forefront of his mind when the photo was taken, but Peter had always assumed that at some point he too would join his brothers and sister in falling in love and getting married and starting a family of his own.
And yet here he was, two years down the road from when that family portrait was captured on his parents’ wedding anniversary and he was no closer to those things than he’d been back then.
For a long time, he’d prioritised his career and he had no regrets about that. He loved teaching and didn’t mind the extra work required to keep on top of everything and do the best work he could on behalf his students. He’d had girlfriends over the years, both during his time at university and once he’d started working, but none of his relationships had ever come close to going the distance.
He couldn’t help but wonder what set him apart from the rest of his family. His brothers and sisters had found ‘the one’ when they’d been young and so too had his parents. Marriage and kids had come quickly to them all, and he couldn’t remember once hearing any of his siblings talk about wanting to wait until they were older and more established in their jobs before settling down and having kids. They’d all just cracked on with it.
One of the great stories in their family was how Peter’s sister Amber had been a ‘lovely late little accident’ as his mother put it. Kate and Tommy had had their sons in quick succession, with just three years separating Peter from his oldest brother Brad. When Amber was born, Peter was nine years old and he and his brothers had always teased her as the annoying little sister they’d never wanted, which everyone knew wasn’t true but which became a running joke in their family anyway.
It suddenly struck Peter now, as he gazed at the family photographs on the sideboard across the dining room, that while his mother talked about Amber being a ‘lovely late little accident’, Kate had been only a few years older than he was right now when she’d had her. She’d thought her family was complete until a surprise ‘late’ pregnancy brought a much-loved daughter into her life, but she’d only been thirty-six when that had happened.
At thirty-three, Peter hadn’t even started a family. He was almost the same age as his mother was when she had her last child, a child she’d always adoringly called her ‘lovely late accident’ because she’d thought those days were long behind her. The enormity of that thought suddenly hit him like the proverbial tonne of bricks.
The tinkling sound of cutlery on glassware broke Peter’s chain of thought and he looked up to see his sister Amber trying to get everyone’s attention.
“Before Mum brings out the dessert, I have an announcement to make,” Amber said. She paused and looked at her husband Mikey, the two of them exchanging a knowing smile. Mikey was holding their daughter Alicia on his lap, the little girl patting at her father’s face with one hand while waving her favourite stuffed tiger toy around in the air with the other.
“Well, don’t keep us waiting, squirt,” Brad said, using the term of affection the brothers had always used for Amber andwhich she’d long ago embraced once she’d realised complaining about it only encouraged them. “Mum’s made sticky toffee pudding tonight and we’re keen to make a dent in it.”
Amber rolled her eyes but her smile only widened. She glanced around the table, her gaze settling on her parents who sat together at the other end.
“My announcement is… I’m pregnant!” Amber said at last.
A whoop of celebration just about lifted the ceiling as everyone cheered and jumped to their feet to offer congratulations. It was total pandemonium, especially once the kids started diving around and making a racket, glad of the excuse to get up from the table and let off some energy. Peter’s parents’ dogs, Fozzie and Murdoch, got in on the action too, the two golden retrievers rousing themselves from where they’d been napping on the floor and launching a volley of barks as they rushed to join in with the kids who were leaping around the room like maniacs.
Peter waited his turn while his parents and his brothers and sisters-in-law each offered hugs and congratulations to Amber and Mikey. By the time he shook hands with Mikey and pulled his sister into his arms and kissed her cheek, the entire room was in the grip of a complete emotional meltdown. While Peter’s mother dabbed at tears and his father popped a bottle of champagne, as well as a bottle of sparkling apple juice for his pregnant daughter, his sisters-in-law shared excited chatter with Amber and his brothers exchanged a few more tough-guy hugs and back-slaps with Mikey as the kids and dogs continued racing around the dining table.
Peter meant every word of the congratulations he offered his sister and brother-in-law. He couldn’t be happier for them and the look of stupefied delight on their faces had him laughing as he joined in the celebrations and raised his champagne glass to toast the good news.
And yet, some small part of him still ached. Another baby would soon join their family… and he wasn’t even close to getting started yet.
“We can’t wait to welcome another grandchild into our family,” Tommy said, his glass in the air in a toast. “Congratulations to my wonderful daughter and her wonderful husband. And congratulations to Alicia who can now look forward to having a baby brother or a baby sister.”
“I want a sister,” Alicia announced. She might only be three years old, but she knew her own mind and having a clutch of older cousins meant she’d had to learn to speak up for herself. “I don’t like boys.”
