Dorsai - Kelly's adventures

When we were finally in our seats and waiting our turn to take off, Kelly told me "I'm going to miss this place, and them. But it's nice to be going home, too."

I agreed with her as we felt the plane accelerate down the runway.

The flight home wasn't much different than the flight over – the stewardesses were just as cute (and helpful and friendly), the food as good, and we spent longer trapped in the little box at 40,000 feet – playing 'catch up' with the stopovers we were scheduled for as the planet below moved them away from us.

Still, we finally made it home – customs in L.A. hadn't been as bad as I'd been afraid it would, and the taxes and duties on the little bit of stuff we'd brought with us (mostly the silver from Baguio) wasn't too outrageous.

When Kelly and I finally got clear of the jet way, we found not just Paul, but Jan, Sandra, Robyn, and Susan were waiting for us with a big "Welcome Home!" banner. Kelly and I hugged and kissed all the girls, Kelly kissed Paul after I shook hands with him. Kelly and the girls started all trying to talk at once; Paul and I just chatted about the trip and what all had happened while I was gone as we made our way down to the baggage area in hope of reclaiming our luggage. For a change of pace, the airline decided that the passengers and their luggage should arrive at the same place at the same time, so it wasn't too long before the bunch of us could load up Paul's minivan. I rode shotgun so Paul and I could talk while Kelly regaled the others with stories of all the things we'd done, and all the places we'd been.

After we'd gotten away from the airport, Paul pulled into a convenience store; Robyn went in to get drinks for all of us, knowing that Kelly and I would be a little dehydrated from the flight. Kelly and I both thanked her; she just gave both of us the Goober look (as if to say "You are*such* a Goober!"). The rest of the ride, Paul and I listened to Kelly telling the others about our trip.

At one point, Paul told me "Sounds like you had your hands full most of the time." I could only reply "That we did."

When all of us got to my house, all the girls wanted to come in with us; Paul was thoughtful enough to tell them "C'mon, ladies. They just got back from a dozen time zones away after spending almost an entire day on airplanes. They're probably tired, and need to rest and get over their jet lag."

All them quieted down at that, and Kelly told them "We really do want to tell you all about it, but Paul's right – we are pretty tired. Can we do this tomorrow night, instead? You're all invited over for a pizza party, okay?"

They all cheerfully agreed, and apologized to us for not thinking of it themselves. I spoke up to tell them "It's okay, we understand.

We're still getting over the excitement of it, ourselves."

Jan quickly gave us a rundown on what all we'd gotten in the mail, and what the situation was in the house and with Cat, then didn't hesitate to take shotgun in her dad's car. The others followed suit, and after they'd welcomed us home again, they left.

Kelly held the door as I got our luggage inside, where Cat was enthusiastically welcoming us home.

We got the luggage into our bedroom, and decided that some rest was called for. Cat jumped up on the bed with us, and after tolerating a hug from Kelly, curled up on her belly to begin purring in contentment as Kelly rubbed her ears.

I woke up a couple of hours later to find Cat on my stomach – though quieter – and Kelly curled up next to me, her arm on my chest. I hadn't any more than looked at Kelly when I saw her eyes open – and her smile as she realized we were finally in our bed in our own home.

She reached down to start petting Cat – who promptly started purring loud enough to wake the dead – before telling me "I'm starved . What's for supper?"

I thought about it for all of two seconds and told her "Barbeque. I don't think you want to cook; and I sure don't want to. We're having pizza tomorrow night, and it's been entirely too long since we had decent barbeque."

Kelly happily nodded her agreement before shooing Cat off of me so she could lie on top of me to give me a kiss. We lay like that for a few more minutes before my stomach growled; Kelly laughed and said "It sounds like you're pretty hungry, too. You order the food, and I'll get started unpacking. If we stick to it, we can be done by the time it gets here."

"Deal. I'll feed the appetite with fur while I'm at it, too."

Kelly grinned in response, and we managed to get ourselves out of bed and moving.

As I passed the den on my way to the kitchen, I saw that Cat had curled up on the end of the couch. I stopped to look at her, and asked "Would Your Highness like me to bring you your supper, so that you don't have to actually move?"

Cat just looked up at me as though to say "Well, yeah, if you would…"

I got our order in to the barbeque place, then went on to open up some food for Cat. As usual, the sound of the can being opened up had her in front of her dish in a matter of seconds.

As Cat chowed down, I took the opportunity to make sure she had fresh water, then checked her litter box – and finding that one of the girls had been thoughtful enough to clean it out very shortly before Kelly and I had gotten home.

Everything taken care of, I grabbed a couple cans of soda from the fridge and went back to help Kelly get us unpacked.

We were almost done when Mabel, my home automation system, announced that someone was at the door. Kelly told me "You go ahead and take care of that, and I'll finish here; there's only a little left, so I won't be a minute."

Doing what I was told, I paid off the barbeque delivery guy and got things ready for supper. A couple minutes later, Kelly came into the den – stopping to eyeball the pile of packages off to one side and ask "Did we really send THAT much stuff back?"

I laughed, and asked "WE?"

Kelly laughed, too, and said "Yes, WE. Ninety percent is mine, ten percent is yours. So all of it together is WE!" as she sat next to me. I turned on the TV so we could get caught up on what all had been happening in the world while we were gone; Cat wandered in to sit in front of us as though to tell us "I'm not begging, you understand, but if you wanted to share some of that delicious food with me, I wouldn't object." Cat thought that any kind of tomato-based sauce was delicious barbeque, pizza or spaghetti sauce, even just plain old ketchup were all welcome additions to her diet. We were careful not to let her have them very often though, and she'd learned – after being sprayed with water a few times – not to try to steal them.

When supper was done – Cat had been allowed to lick the barbeque sauce off Kelly's finger a couple times – I put the dishes and leftover food away as Kelly started going through the packages we'd sent back.

Cat thought the wrapping paper and empty boxes were a new toy, and delighted in playing in them – until she jumped on the couch and realized that there was even better stuff. She tried to lay down on some of the clothes that Kelly and bought, only to be shooed back onto the floor. Ever the trooper, Cat promptly jumped back on the couch, and laid on the clothes at the first opportunity (when she though Kelly wouldn't notice). Back on the floor, back on the couch, back on the clothes.

Repeat. Again. And again. Kelly finally had to laugh, and say "Okay, fine. Here's something you can lay on!", and moved Cat to a different item. Content that she was laying on something new, Cat stayed there to watch us while Kelly and I got the rest of the stuff unpacked and arranged. We hauled everything into the bedroom, and put it away – making two trips each, and a third for Kelly when she displaced Cat for the last time. I got all the packing cleaned up – with Cat's expert 'assistance'. Both of us knew that there would be a few more packages, delivered over the next couple of weeks, but we'd have plenty of time and energy to deal with them then.