June 4, 1977

"Phil, wake up," Edward whispered to his son, but he was still fast asleep. Edward wasn't sure how he could sleep through Holly running around the house at six in the morning, but now, Edward needed Phil to wake up. He had something special planned for today, and he didn't want Phil to miss it.

After a few more minutes, Phil finally rolled out of bed. "What are we doing today, Dad?" he asked.

"You'll see," Edward said. "Let's go have breakfast first."

Phil and Edward both went into the kitchen, where Lorraine was making eggs for the whole family. As Lorraine served both of them, Holly ran into the kitchen and clung onto Edward's arm. "Dad!" Holly exclaimed. "Can we go swimming today?"

"I have a better idea," Edward said.

"What's your better idea, Dad?" Phil asked.

"Nothing's better than swimming," Holly argued.

Edward couldn't hold in his excitement any longer. "I'm going to teach you how to sail," he said.

The kids weren't nearly as excited as Edward was. "I'd rather go swimming," Holly said while Phil absentmindedly played with his food.

"Trust me," Edward said. "You'll love sailing."

After breakfast, Edward took Phil and Holly out to the lake. Lorraine went with them, but she couldn't stay for long. "I have to judge the race today," she told the rest of her family. "I'll see you all in a few hours."

"Bye Mom!" Phil and Holly exclaimed.

"See you soon, Lorraine," Edward said. He wished that he could compete in the race or judge with his wife, but he knew that he wouldn't find a better day to teach the kids anytime soon. The weather was perfect - the wind was just strong enough that Phil and Holly would have no problem getting going, but it wasn't too strong for them to sail by themselves.

After Lorraine took off in the judges' boat, Edward got into his sailboat and told the kids to join him. Phil and Holly both jumped in, and Edward introduced them to all of the parts of the boat. "You know I'm going to quiz you on all of this later, right?" Edward said after he was done.

Holly watched a butterfly float by, not paying much attention, while Phil said, "I don't think I'm going to remember this."

"It's really important that you know the parts of the boat," Edward said. "You can't learn to sail without knowing them." He gestured toward the right side of the boat and asked, "What side of the boat is this?"

"Starboard," Holly answered.

"Very good, Holly," Edward said.

"Dad, can we start sailing now?" Phil asked.

"I haven't even gone over how to tack yet," Edward said.

"We can learn that later, right?" Phil said.

Edward considered it and then said, "I suppose so. Let's start sailing." He set sail and headed toward the part of the lake where the race was. "I'll handle the sheet line. Holly, do you want to steer?"

"Yes!" Holly said. She grabbed the tiller and shook it back and forth violently.

"What are you doing?!" Edward shouted. Holly let go of the tiller and backed away. "Phil, why don't you give it a try?"

"Okay, Dad," Phil said. He took the tiller and steered right toward where the race was happening.

"Phil, are you sure you want to go that way?" Edward asked.

"I'm trying to go the other direction, but it won't work," Phil said.

"Push the tiller the other way," Edward instructed.

"That doesn't make sense," Phil said. "That's the wrong way."

"You always want to push the tiller in the opposite direction of where you want to go," Edward said.

"I don't get it," Phil whined, but he did as Edward instructed.

After some additional practice steering, Edward decided to move on in the lesson. Both of them were starting to understand the basics of sailing, but they still had a long way to go, and Edward had much more to teach them. He handed Phil the sheet line and after quickly explaining how it worked, he told Phil to handle the sheet line while he and Holly steered. Phil soon got the hang of the sheet line, and after a few minutes, they switched places. Before long, both kids were beginning to learn how to steer and how to control the sail. Edward knew that by the end of the summer, he wouldn't even need to sail with Phil and Holly. They were making good progress.

The race finished around noon, and as Lorraine's boat headed home, Edward, Phil, and Holly did the same. Edward took the tiller and the sheet line again, and he sailed them home. "Did you kids have fun?" Lorraine asked as Edward started to take the sail down.

"Yes!" Phil and Holly exclaimed in unison.

"That's good to hear," Lorraine said. "Are you ready to go to the yacht club party?" Phil and Holly nodded, and Lorraine suggested, "Maybe we should sail there."

"I don't know about that," Edward said. "We've been sailing a lot today."

"Are you okay, Edward?" Lorraine said.

"I'm fine," Edward said. "It's just that the party starts in twenty minutes, and it will take far longer than that to set up the boat again and sail there."

"That's a good point," Lorraine said. "We'll drive then."

Edward drove Lorraine and the kids to the party, but even though they drove there, the party was already in full swing when they arrived. Gary and Margaret Reinhart were in the middle of talking to the Sterlings, and most of the food was already gone. Edward was a little bit mad that he was late, but even though the Reinharts were hosting the party this week, he was still in charge.

Edward found a table next to the shore, and although the lake wasn't always the prettiest sight, it was nice having a table for just himself and his family. Once they had a table, Edward went up to the food table with the kids. As usual, he wasn't quite able to keep up with them, so Phil and Holly saw before he did that there were only three hot dogs left. "What are we supposed to do?" Phil asked.

"Your mom and I will split one," Edward said as he took a hot dog. Phil and Holly then each took some food, and all three of them returned to the table.

Phil and Holly sat next to Edward, and the whole family enjoyed their meal together. "How did judging go?" Edward asked Lorraine as he cut the hot dog in half.

"It was fine," Lorraine said. "Nothing exciting happened."

"Well, sometimes no news is good news," Edward said.

"I just can't wait until Phil and Holly are ready to sail in the Junior League," Lorraine said. "It will be so much fun to watch them compete."

"They're not quite ready for that," Edward said.

"I know," Lorraine said. "It's just fun to think about."

All of a sudden, Gary and Margaret Reinhart sat down at the Morrisons' table, much to Edward's chagrin. "Hey there," Gary said. "Did I hear that your kids are planning on joining the Junior League?"

"We're thinking about registering them," Lorraine said.

"They're not quite ready though," Edward added. "I just introduced them to sailing today."

"You should have started them earlier," Gary said. "My son's already in the Junior League, and he's sailing very well. They're having a race this afternoon - you should come and watch."

"Lorraine, are you judging that race?" Edward asked, hoping that he could use his wife's position in the yacht club to get out of having to watch Gary Reinhart's son.

"Beatrice Ogden is judging instead," Lorraine said. "I personally wouldn't mind watching the race."

"I think we already have plans," Edward said, reminding himself that he was in charge now. He didn't have to listen to Gary Reinhart if he didn't want to.

"That's okay," Gary said. "I just hope that Phil and Holly will join the Junior League soon. I look forward to watching Theo beat them." Edward grimaced at Gary's rude remark before Gary said, "I was only joking, Edward."

"I know," Edward said. "Phil, Holly, I think they have some cake at the food table. Why don't we go get some?"

"Cake!" Holly shouted, and both kids eagerly followed Edward to the food table. Edward was still angry about Gary - clearly nothing had changed since they were children. Even though Edward was the commodore of Clearwater Lake Yacht Club now, Gary was still the same bully that he had always been.

Edward took a slice of cake for each member of the family and returned to the table, but by the time they got back, Holly's face was covered in chocolate frosting. "Holly, you can wait until we get back to the table," Edward said as she wiped off her face.

"It's good cake," Holly said as she ate the rest of it.

Edward tried the cake, and he had to disagree. It wasn't anything special, but he ate the cake anyways. He had to distract himself from Gary and Margaret's conversation and focus on what he had to do next. He had to speak to the whole yacht club today, and to be honest, he was terrified. Edward had pulled it off last week, but he already knew that he never wanted to be commodore again. It was too much public speaking, something that Edward hated. As much as Edward loved Clearwater Lake Yacht Club, he didn't want to be in charge of it again. He had to savor his feeling of leadership now.

"Hey Edward, why don't you start your speech?" Gary suggested as Edward finished up his cake.

"Give me a few more minutes," Edward said. He took a deep breath and then shouted, "Hey yacht club!" However, everyone continued to talk amongst themselves.

"Quiet down!" Diane Stafford shouted. "The commodore is speaking."

"Thanks Diane," Edward said, leaning on his cane for support. "It's great to see everyone here today. Let's start with the race results from this weekend." Edward listed off all of the winners, and then went on to announcements, just like every commodore before him had done. He had gone to every yacht club party for the last thirty three years, so he knew exactly how this was done. However, he still seemed to trip over his words every so often, much to his annoyance. Edward knew that he should be better than this. Nobody expected much from a man who could barely walk, so he had to be the best commodore that he could be, and he was failing.

Edward was glad when the speech was finally over. He tried to keep it brief: he had sat through far too many long commodore speeches as a child. Once he was done, he stumbled back to his seat. "You did a great job, Edward," Lorraine said, but Edward didn't believe her.

"Thanks, Lorraine," he said anyways. "Let's go home." He turned to the Reinharts and thanked them for hosting, and then the whole family got back into the car and went home.

"Dad, can we go sailing again?" Phil asked on the way home.

"Yeah, I want to go sailing again!" Holly said.

"The Junior League race is about to start," Edward said. "I don't want you to run into those boats."

"We sailed while the regular race was going on," Phil argued. "Why can't we sail now?"

Admittedly, Phil had a point. "It's just not a good idea," Edward said. He had no desire to run into Gary Reinhart again, but he didn't need to tell Phil and Holly that. "Besides, you don't need to sail twice in one day."

"But I want to sail twice!" Holly whined.

"Let's do something else today," Edward said. "Why don't we sail again next week?"

"I don't want to wait that long!" Phil exclaimed.

"We'll compromise," Edward said. "Let's sail tomorrow."

"That works," Phil said.

"No!" Holly shouted. "I want to sail today!" She started to cry, and Lorraine tried to comfort her while Phil covered his ears, not wanting to hear his sister's screams.

Despite all of the noise in the car, Edward was glad that his kids were enjoying sailing. They weren't very good sailors yet, certainly not ready for competition, but he was feeling good about their progress. All he wanted was to pass his love of sailing onto his children, and he had succeeded.