“Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything” – C.S. Lewis
Lynda and Adam were away for a couple of weeks and I was getting home around 4:00PM just to make sure that I am there when Maxine gets home. Lynda had left cooked meals in the fridge for us that lasted a couple of days then we started eating out almost every day. We also ordered pizza on the weekend, not to mention the fact that I tried to cook something which turned out to be a bad idea.
Lynda and Adam were having a fabulous time in London. If I remember correctly, Lynda’s uncle Eddie Levy was trained to be a cook in Paris, France, when he was a young lad and he used to be a chef at Harrods before he retired. Harrods was known as the world’s leading luxury department store in London. While Harrods was known for its Food Halls, Harrods had been a food Pioneer since 1834. I also remember that Eddie used to cook for the Queen, too. In any case, Lynda was telling me on the phone that one day Uncle Eddie was kind enough to put his chef’s uniform on to cook and serve spaghetti to Adam. Adam always loved spaghetti.
Lynda called me on Friday night just to remind me that they will be landing at the Toronto Airport on Saturday around 6:30PM. Next day Maxine and I were at the airport around 6:00PM waiting for them with bells on. Luckily the Lufthansa Airline flight wasn’t late that day and when they came out after going through the immigration and luggage inspections, Adam ran towards me and Maxine ran towards her mother to hug. I hugged, kissed Lynda as soon as I got a chance and said welcome back stranger. She said we had a nice time but it’s nice to be back.
Adam was totally excited and never stopped telling us what they did in London and poor Maxine had nothing exciting to share with them as we didn’t do anything exhilarating while they were gone. I asked them if they were hungry and was surprised to hear that they already had a nice afternoon tea and supper on the plane as they were 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. Lynda also said that they were very impressed with the airline as the service was excellent. Typically, in-flight meals were served on trays but Lufthansa opted to serve meals with glassware, tablecloths, and metal cutlery.
Right after we got home, Lynda opened her suitcase and started giving things to me and Maxine. She bought me nice underwear and a beautiful blue velvet jacket from Marks Spencer. I was surprised to see that she managed to buy me a size 39 which was my right size but it was hard to find that size here in Canada. They both were tired as it was almost 1:00AM in London when we managed to go to bed.
The next day was Sunday, we had a nice late breakfast cooked by our beloved Lynda and I told her I missed her cooking. She asked me if everything is fine at work. I said seems to be okay. She said probably we should go to our townhome and check it out if everything is fine there. I said let’s do it. So we decided to leave the kids home for a little while and went to see our tenants.
When we knocked the door the man came out. I said we thought we should come and check it out if you guys are settling down okay. He said everything seems to be fine with us. Lynda said can we come for a minute. He opened the door and let us in. As soon as we entered, we saw a bunch of African artifacts were hanging on the walls in the living room. The nails they used were so huge and ugly. Then Lynda noticed a couple of bad spots on the beautiful living room carpet. I asked what the heck that is. He said my wife dropped beer accidently. Lynda spotted a hole on the corner of the beautiful drapes in the living room and he said that’s from her cigarette. There were several other damages and Lynda was going bananas as she loved that townhome. The problem was that those people never lived in North America before and they were living here the way they used to live in their country. I don’t suppose they knew any better. I said to him that we are completely disappointed with them and they will hear from our lawyer. He didn’t acknowledge the fact that they did something wrong.
We had to go through a painful process to kick them out from the townhome and clean the place before we rented it out. In the meanwhile we went ahead and submitted our case in Small Claim Court. We were disappointed again with the Canadian Justice system when the judge asked me if I had pictures of the property before you rented it them in order to compare and assess the magnitude of the damage done to your property. We had no experience of renting out properties to anticipate the requirement like that. We felt sorry for them that they just arrived in Canada and they were having difficulties to rent a place. The judge said I am sorry there’s nothing I can do and the case was dismissed.
Mrs. Benda was so busy organizing the company Christmas party that I hardly saw her in the office. They had a tradition in the company that she will invite everybody and his brother including all employees and their spouses, big-shots from the department stores along with their spouses and anybody else she wanted to.
I was looking forward to the party as Lynda was inquisitive to meet Mrs. Benda. I started sharing the background information about the people she was going to meet just to give her an idea about what kind of people I put up with during the day. But I didn’t know any details about the party. When I asked Mrs. Benda she said you will love it. When Lynda and I got there, we found out that Mrs. Benda had rented a restaurant exclusively for our party. The beautiful polish girls wearing Krakowski Traditional Polish Dancing Costumes were serving cocktails. loud Polish music was playing, and everybody was having a nice time.
As soon as Mrs. Benda saw us, she rushed to meet us and hugged Lynda and said I was dying to meet you. Lynda said I heard so much about you Mrs. Benda and I was looking forward to meeting you, too. She said was he complaining anything about me? Lynda said, no. She took us around to introduce us to other folks I never met before. As soon as Mrs. Benda turned around and started talking to other folks, Lynda said to me why didn’t you tell me that she looked like Zsa Zsa Gabar. I said, I just wanted to see your reaction.
The food was great. Mrs. Benda made sure that no pork was served to us. Following the nice dinner, there was an entertainment which included the folk Polish dance which was performed by those beautiful Polish girls. All in all it was a delightful evening.
