Tabletennis For Tuplets by Joanne Okano

 This is a sequel to The Moose Story.

     To the Haras.


     "I hate it when there are flies in the bathroom, roosting on me while I'm bathing!"  cried the very pregnant Mrs. McLelland from behind the bathroom door.  "Shoo!"  she flailed wildly.  She was kind, but she'd had it with the flies.  She let them out the window.
     "The moose is outside the window, children!"  she called out to them.
     They ran to see it at the living room window.  "Aah," they said, when they saw the moose calf and its mother.  They were pondering the morning.  High time for a snack.
     The children all went to highland dance lessons and table tennis in this story.
     They had found that they didn't get enough social interaction with just homeschooling, church, and highland dancing, so they had joined a table tennis group as they had heard that this was a good way to meet nice people.  Boy, they had fun!  Round and round they went playing tournaments and making friends.  Mummy had to do a lot of driving though, but they had overcome their fear of the moose family.  They were friends, although they still kept their distance.
     Their teacher came round to help them with their schoolwork and they were just happy as sandboys about the way things were.  Their knowledge of Canadian history had grown and they knew just as much about Confederation as the next person.  Things were going along swimmingly in their other subjects and they had many friends in their highland dance classes and primary (church) classes.  Things couldn't be better.
      Mummy had a new baby coming and the children said it was tuplets, funnily.  But only one baby came out.  The baby's name was Hamish.  It was doing well and so was Mummy.
     They were very thankful and went to church and had the baby blessed.  ~
     The next few days they went out on a jaunt to a table tennis tourney, except things didn't turn out quite as expected.  They got lost.  There were beavers and bears.
     "Oh, Mummy," said the children.  "Take us home!"
     "I don't know where home is," said Mummy.  The baby was crying.  "The baby is hungry," she said and stopped to feed the baby.
     Fortunately they had enough supplies with them to last the trip.  Home was a long way away.
They were frightened. They were scared.  They were terrified.  What if a bear came for them?  What would they do?  They stayed in the jeep, sleeping in upright postitions, but it was very uncomfortable.
Soon they came to a town, an unknown town, but a town nevertheless.  They asked the way, and the man said over there was the best way to get out.  Over where?  Over that truck crossing.  So they went over the truck crossing and continued their journey. 
     "Phew!  Relief," said Mother to herself.  And that was all they had to worry about.  The rest of the trip went smoothly.  They won the tourney.  The baby cried less than usual, because Mummy was holding it all the time.  It was a nice day out for the baby, too, this way. 
      Mummy and Daddy held hands a lot when they reached home and Daddy heard about the waif and stray he had almost been without wife and little ones if they had got lost for longer.  How happy he was they were home!

The End

    

   

The Moose Story by Joanne Morris Okano

      To my mother, who was a lovely dancer

      "Please take your shoes off that scale, son," remarked Mother as she sauntered through the house.
     He did a handstand onto the scale.
     "Where are my spectacles?" she said absentmindedly.  She wandered through the echoey white-painted Edinburgh home, across a Persian carpet into the living room and peered at herself in the mirror over the beautiful mantelpiece adorned with roses and photographs.  "I'm wearing them," she said, relieved, taking them off her head.  She put them on and noticed the dust.  She fetched a duster from the kitchen and saw to the mess quickly.  She sadly picked up the duster and put it away, after a look in the mirror.  Her uncle had passed away.  He died yesterday, she said to the children.
     "I'm so sorry, Mummy," said her son said to her, the one who had been doing the handstands.
     "Why is he dead?" the other children asked.
     "He died of a heart attack," she answered kindly.  She showed them the letter she had received with the little house or cabin they had inherited through Mummy in a picture at the side.
     "That's a log cabin," said her son.
     "Why did he live in a log cabin?" said the other children.
     "He was a pioneer in an area up north in Canada," she answered again.
     Soon the signs of wear and tear showed and she went for a nap.

     They arrived in winter to find a cabin in the middle of nowhere.  A moose stood at the door.
     "He's guarding the place to make sure no one gets in until we get here," said the youngest.
     "No, he isn't," said Daddy.  "He's going to charge."  The family drove away in their jeep just in time before he charged and hit their car.  The moose paused, let out a Coo-ah-ca-coo-ah and headed off into the underbrush.  Cathy was petrified.
     She said, "I don't want to go to school here.  It's too far to walk!!"
     "I'd like to ride the moose to school, but I don't think he'd let me," said Iain.
     "I don't have to go to school, do I, Mummy?"  asked Hugh.
     "No, dear - I think we're homeschooling," she said, frightened out of her wits.
     Ronald, the youngest, was strangely quiet.
     They drove back quietly and went into the house.  It was dusty.  Mother started dusting.  They immediately started unpacking.  ~
     "Mother can I go outside for a walk?"  said Cathy, "or do I have to stay in here and unpack?"  once her fear of the moose being in the area had subsided.
     "Stay inside dear, then you won't freeze to death."
     "Just kidding."  ~
      Back in Scotland, each of the oldest two children had gone off to Highland Dance classes when he or she was four.  It was a family tradition.  Hugh went off to dance classes with the others this time and he did well.  His teacher loved him.
     They went to church which was a mile away and got there safely.  There they met several new friends.  They went on missions and then came back in this church.  They did not have a lot of money but they were kind people.
     The missionaries came over for supper, all three of them.
     They were so sad they didn't have any contacts but glad the supper was good.  They didn't have cheese on toast, it was a good supper.  They had saved their money to come on their missions.  At the end they said they had had a very good meal.  ~
      The children all wished that they could go on missions too.  ~
     They said, "I wonder where I'll go?"  ~
     The moose came to the door and bellowed.  Then it ran away.  ~
     The homeschooling books arrived from the school district and the children did their work.  They had lots of problems with the Canadian history and had to ask the teacher for help.  She came round to the house and helped them.  They succeeded in writing their reports and sent them away.  They came back again with an A in each turn.
     They went on a jaunt with Mummy to see a museum down south.  It was a First Nations museum.~
     They were enjoying life.  It was fun.  They went to bed happy at night.  Their mother did too.  ~
     Father, on the other hand, was having a rat of a time.  He had no money from his business almost.
There was no business at all.  All he got was the chewing gum machine money.  No one wanted French food.  They wanted burgers.  So he switched.  ~
     The missionaries came back again, this time with  a friend, a person who wanted to know more about the church.  His name was Bill.  They sat down and taught him a discussion in their home.
More and more discussions followed.  He was baptized.
     He went into the water and came out again a new man.  Then he went on with his life in a new way.  He was happier.  They were too.
     His family followed.  They had the love to get baptized too.  One of them had to be baptized twice, because her foot went up to the surface during the baptism.
     But there were problems.  Their relatives didn't like the idea.  And all hell broke loose.  They took them to court and sued them for things they had never had the thought to sue them for before.  And Bill's family won.  ~
     Back at home, the children were wildly famous in the district for their Scottish highland dancing.  They went to a party for the children of the ward (a ward is a congregation) to show love for their neighbours and invite them too.  Several children came who were non-members of the church.  Ukrainians came and danced and so did the highland dancers and this is what happened...People walked in and set up the party.  Soon the next door neighbours, the Kecharskys' grandson, little Nick, came in with other friends from the local Ukrainian dance group and their families.  The folks formed a large circle, the music went on and all took a turn dancing in the circle in a solo, duet or trio, those in the circle clapping in time with the music while they waited for their turn to dance.  The McLellands did Highland dance since they didn't know any Ukrainian dance, and it was all fun.  Mr. Kecharsky danced, too.  He went step shuffle, step shuffle shuffle kick, shuffle kick.
      Each group of people brought food from their own culture.
     The McLellands had a wonderful time.  They ate their fill and talked until Daddy closed up the restaurant and came to get them.
      The Ukrainian dancers were showing everyone a few moves when it was time to go.  A closing prayer was said and they went home.  ~
     They drove carefully home so they wouldn't bump into the moose.  There it was at the end of the road, with a mate.
      They drove into the driveway to see the letterbox was full with a letter from home.  Grandma was coming over. 
     A few days later she arrived  and the female moose was pregnant.  They went out to see it in the meadows and caught sight of it once.  It was a splendid sight.  They wanted to catch a shot, so ran in to get a camera, but when they came back it had gone.  Several days had gone by and they saw it again.  This time they caught a shot and submitted it to the local newspaper, and it was printed on the front page.  Grandma went home and they went on with their lives.
     She wrote them a letter telling them how much she'd enjoyed it at their house and asked them for a recipe.  She asked them for the recipe for moose stew.  They didn't go out of their way to find the recipe.  They wrote back a kind letter, saying, "We prefer to be friends with them!"
     They got their schoolwork done and let their hair loose at the end of the year.  When they went out in the yard one day, there was little moosekins, standing on wobbling legs, by a stream drinking.

THE END