Guess Who I Saw Late Last Night?

Yes, Charlie. I was feeling lonely late last night and I knew my father doesn't go to bed until around 1 am on nights he doesn't have to work the next day. Maggie wasn't being much company deciding to go to bed early. Dad was in the kitchen cooking more cake layers as his first batch didn't turn out.

"Andrew!" Charlie said exuberantly. "Don't mind me. I am just taking a quick nap."

Charlie had kicked his shoes off and was laying on the couch as dad cursed as he cooked in the kitchen. We call this "bake and hate" in the family. He was fixing to go get Horsefly at the bowling alley which closes at midnight.

"I just left him down there to bowl until his heart's content for Christmas. I bet he is worn out and a sweaty mess."

It always makes me feel uncomfortable when Charlie leaves Horsefly like that, but I guess he knows what he is doing.

I didn't stay long -- basically just long enough for me to drink a diet Coke and just long enough for that lonely feeling to leave me. Dad called me at midnight just as Maggie and I had crawled into the bed. Maggie and I both got up to answer the phone.

"Are you better now?" he asked me. "I am just worried about you."

"I am fine now," I told him. "The Magster and I are about to head towards dreamland."

"You know? You used to would never get lonely when you were drinking," my father told me.

"John Barleycorn was my best friend," I replied.

Fast Forward to Today...

Maggie and I slept in until about 2 pm. A phone call woke me up and it was my father.

"I've got to go get you some cigarettes," he said. "I will call you when it is time to pick them up along with your diet Cokes."

Dad soon called again and I was on my way to his house in a raging downpour. I was thanking my father profusely when there was another knock on the back door.

"Come on in!" dad said loudly as he sat in the command chair.

It was Charlie with a crystal cake plate and cover for my father's cake. Horsefly doesn't stop for anything and they were on their way to the movies in Auburn.

"Don't forget I am bringing you biscuits in the morning," Charlie told me.

"You don't have to go to all that trouble on Christmas," I told Charlie.

"I have to get Horsefly's sausage biscuit come hell or high water," Charlie said with a chuckle. "I'll see you in the morning."