I Should've Just Said Yes

In a rare (don’t challenge it, it’s true) moment of stupidity, I threw out my York map before leaving town this morning.  All I needed to do was follow the city walls around to the train station.  A 15-minute walk, given my “laden with two rollaboards” status.  I could have taken a cab, but since I haven’t been able to work out, or even walk briskly, in six weeks, I was eager to get a sweat on this morning.

Well, I did do that….

After about 45 minutes, the kids started complaining.  Gently, but firmly.  I noticed that I hadn’t seen the city walls in a while, so I assumed we needed to make a right turn.  I tried, but then found I was on the outskirts of town, near the horse racecourse and an abandoned chocolate factory we’d driven by on the “swing outside of town to puff the bus tour up to a full hour” stop.  Damnit!

I had two separate people help me find my way to a bus stop.  I sent the kids to get seats as I stuffed our bags up on the carriers.  When I sat, I explained to the kids that this was all part of the adventure for travel.  Being naïve, they took that explanation just fine.  I think they were happy to be sitting down.

At one stop, an elderly woman got in the line to get off the bus.  She asked me if we were Canadian.  When I said we weren’t, she was pretty obviously disappointed.  I think the fact that I have the North American accent, but was lugging a GIANT Union Jack-printed rollaboard flummoxed her.

I wonder what the reaction would have been if I’d said yes.  Maybe she’s Canadian and wanted to play the “Where are you from?” game.  It always seems so random to ask where people are from.  But I guess the standard American “What do you do for a living?” is similarly inane.  I felt I’d disappointed her.

But I’m used to disappointing strangers. I do it on a near-daily basis.

Usually the way I disappoint people is by letting on that the girls aren’t twins.  They look ridiculously alike.  They’re the same height and have the same haircut.  Their faces are nearly identical.  Helena weighs five pounds more than her older sister.  They wear the same size of clothing and often dress similarly (not identically, but same dress different colors).  So we’re often asked if they’re twins.  “Sixteen months apart,” is the refrain the girls have memorized to answer the inevitable questions we get.

Some days it’s easier not to fight City Hall.  Someday I’ll just say, “Yes, they’re Canadian twins.”  Someday the expediency of the lie will win out over my natural predilection for accuracy.  But not quite yet.