What Am I Doing Here?: This Road

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After landing in Kentucky, Mrs. Guthrie picks up the new arrivals and brings them back to the homestead, where she promptly tries to feed them.


Mrs. Guthrie had volunteered to pick Sam and his friends up at the airport, and she wouldn't be talked out of the idea. Taking a cab to their homestead would've been pretty expensive, and she had a large sized mini van that could easily handle them all anyway - thanks to still having to handle a rather large family, even without Sam, Paige, and Jay - so that was that.

"Here we are, gang. Home again, home again."

Sam was riding shotgun, and he was the first to hop out of the van once they'd parked outside the Guthrie residence. He headed for the back of the vehicle to start unloading their bags, the wide grin on his face evidence of how happy he was to be back home.

Really, she was just glad to have her oldest child home for a little while and if he brought some friends, so much the better! She really felt that she had no idea what was going on in her three oldest children's lives even though she tried to keep up with them. They were very different lives than what she led here, but so long as they were happy, she was happy. "I have you girls in Paige's old room," she said as they all entered the house, the boys would be in Sam's old room and the current occupants were bunking with their younger siblings. It was a rambling old farmhouse, but clean and well loved.

Lorna had let Lili out of her kennel and watched as her dog took off to sniff around the yard. "Thank you Mrs. Guthrie for your hospitality." Walking into the house and moving out of the way to allow the others in.

"Yes, many thanks, Mrs Guthrie", Kurt said with a smile as he entered the building. "You have a lovely home."

The word "ma'am" did not come naturally to Jersey-born Tabitha, but for Sam and his mother, she had practiced. "Thanks for the lodging, ma'am, we appreciate it."

Sam followed the others inside with his arms full of as many of their bags as he could carry. He laid them down in the porch, off to one side so as they wouldn't be in the way of anyone coming or going in or out of the house. "There we go, I think that's all of 'em." He wiped his brow, then turned to his friends. "I don't know about y'all but I'm starving, can I fix up somethin' for anyone to eat?" Before his mother could interject he raised his hands to her. "And no, mama, I know where the kitchen is and I'm big enough and ugly enough to make my own grub, I promise."

"I don't care," she replied resolutely, "You're here visiting and the least I can do is fix something. There's plenty," she had a crock pot going now with supper, but it was still a little early for that. "You all want a snack or an early supper?"

"Whatever would be most convenient for you", Kurt said politely. "There was a little food on the plane, so I at least am not desperately hungry."

Lorna smiled, it might be nice not to be the go to girl for food for the next couple of days. "Either or is fine. Though whatever you are cookin' smell delicious."

The mere thought of forgoing Gu for the entirety of her stay nearly had Tabitha shedding tears of gratitude. "I will happily eat whatever you put on my plate," she said enthusiastically. "Ma'am," she remembered to add belatedly.

"Alright, alright, I know better than to argue with you." Sam grinned, then hugged his mother. "You really don't have to, as long as you know that, but I can't really put up too much of a fight anyway." His mama's home cooking was pretty legendary, after all, though he might've been a little bit biased when it came to that. As if on cue, his stomach rumbled, causing him to put his hand over it. "Um, 'scuse me, heh."

"Did someone mention food?" Jubilee asked from the open door she now held open, shoving her cellphone into a back pocket. While this was a holiday, there were still some things she had to keep on top of, and 'lack of cellphone reception' would never be a good enough excuse. "Because like, I'm totally starving."

"I should warn you, Mrs Guthrie", Kurt said, laughing, "meine Feuerwerkin will eat everything you put in front of her and have room for more. Do not be fooled by her being tiny."

Sam opened his mouth to warn Kurt about the dangers of making such statements but before he could do so he was interrupted by a high pitched shout of "SAM!" Mere fractions of a second later the porch was swarmed with little Guthries, many of whom latched onto Sam and yelled to get his attention. Thankfully his mother would look after their hungry guests since he had a lot of catching up to do.