What Nobody Saw: Day 14

Word Count: 84,004

Summary of Events:

Walker attended the first game of the Jets' second-round playoff series, put in a lot of hours of work, and otherwise kept himself busy while waiting for Frederick Schissler to get back to him about whether Jolene wanted to see the letters or not; he was participating in a game with his recreational league baseball team when one of his teammates let the dugout know that a cellphone was ringing . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Walker recognised the ringtone and went over to find it was his cellphone that was ringing, and to his surprise, Frederick Schissler was the name on his display.

Eagerly Walker hurried behind the dugout and answered the call.

“Sorry about the wait,” Frederick said. “I’d wanted to take Mom out sooner but it didn’t work out.”

“It happens,” Walker said — grateful that Frederick had been able to take Jolene out for lunch.

“Mom knew nothing about the letters,” Frederick said. “She was completely shocked, she didn’t realise Dad had gone that far I don’t think.”

“Really?” Walker asked, finding himself quite surprised that the woman who’d suffered at Mr. Schissler’s hands the longest wouldn’t have expected this sort of thing out of him.

“She didn’t really say, but she looked shocked,” Frederick replied.

“Well, does she want the letters, though?” Walker asked.

“She would really like to see them, yes,” Frederick replied.

“So did you talk about arranging that?” Walker asked.

“Not really,” Frederick replied. “I didn’t think it would be wise, considering how much I’d already told her. I didn’t want to overwhelm her.”

“Understandable,” Walker said.

“We’d want to arrange to do it in public somewhere in Brandon,” Frederick said. “But I do think that Winnipeg would probably be Mom’s preference, as she was intrigued by what I said about the house being remodelled.”

“Okay,” Walker said.

“I’m hoping Mom won’t say anything to Wanda about it,” Frederick said. “I don’t know what Wanda would think or do about it, and I don’t know that I want to find out.”

“I’m pretty flexible,” Walker said. “So if you want to bring her to town, like, next weekend or something, I mean, I’ll probably have games in the afternoons, but I’d have evenings free to meet with her.”

“A weekday might be better,” Frederick replied. “You could maybe go down to Brandon and meet Mom for supper with me or something. I think Wanda would question it less that way, in fact, she’d probably hardly notice it.”

“What?” Walker asked. “Why is it such a big deal whether she knows what your mom’s up to or not? Couldn’t you just tell her you want to have your mom over for the weekend, I mean, she’s your mom too, your sister can’t hog her.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Frederick hedged. “It might work, but Wanda might also just tag along for the ride. I’ll have to see.”

“Okay,” Walker said, although he felt supremely puzzled.

“I’ll get back to you, hopefully a bit sooner than this last time,” Frederick said.

“Right,” Walker said, turning to see Corbin animatedly gesticulating, suggesting either he was up to bat soon or they were on fielding. “I have to get going, so I’ll talk to you later.”

“Alright, talk to you soon,” Frederick said.

Walker ended the call.