It was Christmas Day and Taylor’s family arrived at Isaac’s house for lunch. Morgan was home from LA. Xavier and Electra were spending Christmas with Electra’s dad. Zoe, Rogue and Storm were still on tour, but as they had timed it so they were in Australia, they were spending Christmas with Babsie’s and Rita’s family.
“Hi Uncle Ike,” Morgan said cheerfully. “Oh, Billy Joel said to say ‘hi’.”
“Billy Joel?” Isaac asked raising an eyebrow. “When did you talk to him… recently?”
“At the Hanks’ Christmas party.”
“How do you know the Hanks’?”
“Through my friend Caroline. She met them after one of her performances.”
“Ahh.”
“Great party too.”
“I can imagine. So, what’s Billy up to these days, now he’s retired?”
“Doting on his grandchildren, if you ask me,” Morgan grinned. “Melinda is so gorgeous. She looks so much like Alexa.”
“Alexa married… Tom’s son huh? Colin, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. They also have twin boys, Cam and Mac. Actually they’re mirror twins, I found out.”
“Mirror twins?”
“Yeah. That’s when one of them, in this case Mac, is physically the complete opposite to the other, Cam. Mac’s left-handed and even his internal organs are on the other side!”
“Interesting.”
Taylor wandered over to Babsie.
“Rita told me,” he said.
“Ahh,” she smiled knowingly. “Whatcha think?”
“It’s gonna take some getting used to, but I’m glad she’s found herself something. I sometimes wondered if she was happy just following me and my career around, and raising the kids. Especially after you and Ike got married. I remember you hated following, and you hated being separated.”
“Mmm, yes, well, I reckon everything has worked out now. Except that for some deranged reason or another I’m living in America. If you had told me I was going to live in America twenty-five years ago, I would have laughed in your face.”
“You don’t like America much, do you?”
“I have nothing at all against America. It’s a nice place to visit, but I don’t wanna live here,” then Babsie shrugged and laughed. “Oh well, I have Ike. I have my kids. I have my crazy house. And most importantly, I have my true blue Aussie lingo. When I lose my lingo, it’s a sign I either have to move back to Australia immediately or become an American citizen, and the latter is not an option.”
“Aww, why not?”
“Well, for starters, Americans can’t spell.”
“Yeah we can,” Taylor laughed.
“No, you can’t. You keep dropping ‘u’s and putting ‘z’s where there should be ‘s’s and stuff. Let’s face it man, you Americans changed the spelling just to defy the British. And that’s the same reason why you drive on the wrong side of the road, and why your billions are smaller than British billions”
“Are they smaller?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Six zeros smaller. And your trillion is smaller still. I don’t know, sometimes defiance and rebellion can be taken way too far.”
“You know,” Taylor teased, “Rita’s talked about becoming an American citizen.”
Babsie just poked her tongue out at him.