It has some mature themes, nothing explicit, spoilers for Season 3
» Click to Show Spoiler - Click Again to Hide... «
Disclaimer: Tim Kring owns all!
Rating: PG
I don’t like Thanksgiving… it’s worse than Christmas. At least at Christmas there are presents. Only freaks don’t like presents. It’s the same almost every year, we go up to New York to see my Daddy’s family and have some big fancy meal that no one ever seems to enjoy. I still don’t know why we come… everyone whines and moans about it.
Daddy’s hands grips mine tighter as we’re led into the foyer of Grandma Angela’s house. It’s a really big house and when I was very little my older brother Noah and I would run around the house playing hide and seek when the grown ups talked about boring stuff. Noah says he’s too old for that now and pretends to listen to them talk instead so I just sit next to Daddy because I know that he finds it boring too but he’s too old to say he’s bored. I don’t really know why, it’s stupid.
He bends down and picks me up, not worrying about crinkling my dress like Mommy always is and he kisses my hair, “Eww, Daddy don’t!” I squeal making a face.
He just laughs and says, “I can’t help it! It tastes like strawberries!” He then pretends to eat my hair making chomping noises, but stops at Mommy’s stare. “You ready to go in, honey bunch?” I give a firm nod and he laughs. “What about Ralphie?” I look down at the ‘well loved’ stuffed bunny that I carry with me always, hug him tightly and nod again. “Well,” Daddy mutters. “At least that makes two of us.” I pretend that I can’t hear him and just hold onto Ralphie tighter.
*
I’m the youngest one here, which is strange because at eight I don’t feel young – I’m the oldest one in my class! But next to all these grown ups I feel like small and stupid. I’m bored too and I can’t even play with Noah because he’s still pretending to be a grown up. Maybe I can get Daddy to make him play with me… Noah’s bound to get bored eventually…everyone’s talking about politics and politics is boring. My cousin Monty winks at me and Simon pulls a face and that makes me giggle but their Daddy (my Uncle Nathan) glares at them and they stop.
Uncle Nathan doesn’t like me; quite a lot of my family don’t seem to like me apart from my mommy and daddy of course. Oh! And Uncle Peter. Uncle Peter is round all the time. He picks me up from school, takes me to the park and swings me around until I’m too dizzy to walk and dances with me to music on the Disney Channel that I know he hates. He’s the only one who doesn’t seem to look at me weird, the rest do. Uncle Nathan however does it the most and I don’t know why. At last years Christmas party on Christmas Eve I was trying to find my Grandpa to say good night. I asked Uncle Nathan if he knew where he was… he just made a strange noise and drank his drink really quickly. Luckily Ralphie and I found Grandpa Noah and afterwards Mommy told me to ignore Uncle Nathan, he was just sad. About what I never found out…
*
My orange juice has bits in it. I know I shouldn’t moan or complain but I really don’t like bits in my juice. Everyone else has wine and Noah has Lemonade. Why couldn’t I have lemonade? I pull at Daddy’s sleeve until he turns to me. “My juice has bits in it.”
“Don’t you like it?” I shake my head. “Does Ralphie?”
I sniff and rub at my eyes and try not to cry. I shouldn’t cry, I was a big girl now but I still can’t keep the tears away and I feel stupid and even younger. “I don’t know. I can’t ask him because.” Sniff. “Because Pilar took him away.” Sniff. “Said that he was dirty and I was too old.” Sniff again “And he was dirty! He’s not dirty is he?”
“No, sugar plum he’s not. Hold on and I’ll go see if I can get him. Other wise who else is going to eat my vegetables?” He gets up and leaves the room, Mommy strokes my arm and Noah just rolls his eyes so I stick my tongue out him when no one’s looking. Daddy returns and passes me my beloved bunny and after hugging him extra tightly (because I missed him) I sit him up at the table and try to feed him a carrot.
Grandma rolls her eyes… maybe she told Pilar to take Ralphie away from me, it was something she would do… “What, Mom.” Daddy says. “She likes the stuffed rabbit.” She says nothing but I get the feeling that she’s far from happy. But I don’t care, I have Ralphie and a moment later Pilar comes and gives me a glass of lemonade.
When they came to take our plates away there was a small pile of vegetables at Ralphie’s feet and not all came from my plate. Even Ralphie doesn’t like them.
*
I get Jell-O and ice cream for my dessert and the grown ups are talking about- I don’t know what…
“…Then you went and married the man.” Grandpa Noah is saying and I lift my head from my Jell-O. “Some times I think you’ve forgotten who he was.”
“That man is dead, Noah.” Daddy tells him, “He died a long time ago. But trust me when I say that he’s not forgotten.”
They do this a lot. Talk about a dead man who wasn’t very nice. Sometimes I think he was a friend of Daddy’s as he keeps reminding everyone that he’s dead. No one seems to have liked him though, which makes me wonder why they spoke to him in the first place. But then again Linda in my class isn’t nice and everyone speaks to her.
I just think it’s funny how he had the same name as Daddy’s broken watch.
*
Later on when Noah goes up to him room to play on his computer console (I’m not invited, hmph.) I fall asleep on Daddy’s shoulder, my eyes are too heavy to open but I can hear the grown ups arguing about something and vaguely I notice that I’m no longer on Daddy’s shoulder but resting on the arm of the chair.
“I don’t care! I love Claire, I love our children!” That’s Daddy yelling! He never yells, when he’s angry he goes all quiet and sends me to my room… I wonder why he’s yelling and I crack open my eyes like its Christmas Eve and I’m looking out for Santa. No one notices. “And there’s nothing wrong or out the ordinary with them.” He yells again.
“Well, they’ll have abilities surely?” Uncle Nathan says… what does he mean by that?
“Maybe.” Mommy says, “But who in this family doesn’t? Whether they have abilities or not has nothing to do with-“
“The fact that they were spawned from an incestuous relationship?” Grandma says very matter of factly, the way that my teacher speaks when she’s explaining division to me. I don’t know what the word means and I wonder whether she would know… my teacher’s super smart. “I could understand why you had Noah… you didn’t know. But with Caitlyn? You were fully aware and yet you still went and had her. Really, Gabriel I thought that you would have at least given her up so that she wouldn’t know, now we have to pretend and Nathan has to lie to the press to avoid the scandal, all because of her.”
“Mom!” Daddy yells again. “Enough of that, how can you even think like that! I would never ever do that. It doesn’t matter, we don’t care and neither should you! And I don’t give a damn about the press!” He’s angry, really, really angry. I’ve never seen him this angry not even that time I hid a plate under my bed and it grew mould on it… and not even after I insisted that I named it. Something smashes; my eyes snap wide open and I gasp but no one notices and I sit up wondering if it would be ok to ask to be excused, tears threatening to escape. What did Grandma mean? What was my fault?
“Leave them alone, Mom!” Uncle Peter yells. “Cousins marry all the time; it’s the same thing really.” Eww! Cousins marrying? Wouldn’t that be like me marrying Monty and Simon? The idea makes me cringe and pull a face but Uncle Peter is speaking again. “And there’s nothing wrong with Noah or Caity, five fingers, five toes.”
“She thinks the stuffed rabbit is real. “ Uncle Nathan mutters into his glass of scotch and my fingers curl around Ralphie’s ears. I know he’s not really real, deep inside. I just don’t like being on my own and it’s easier to bring my rabbit with me everywhere than Mommy or Daddy.
“It’s an imaginary friend.” Daddy sighs, he sounds tired. “Lots of people had one, I did!”
“Who then manifested itself and-“
“Dad!” Mommy snaps. “Be quiet, he’s dead. Do you think I would risk the lives of my children if I weren’t sure?” What do they mean? I don’t know and I don’t understand. All I know is that they’re all ganging up on Daddy and somehow it’s my fault. I always felt as though I was the cause of something… now I know that I am. I just don’t understand why and I feel sorry for Daddy for having to take the blame.
“I’m sorry.” I mutter and tears spring to my eyes before I can stop them and they’re rolling down my cheeks as I cling to Ralphie very, very tightly. “Please don’t be mad at Daddy any more. Whatever I did, I’ll make it better. I promise.” Daddy turns around and looks at me, his hands extended but he doesn’t pick me up. He just looks sad. “I’ll tidy my room really tidy and I’ll make sure my homework is done on time.” I cry again wiping my eyes. “Please don’t be mad any more.” I take a big gulp of air sobbing openly now… like a baby. “I didn’t mean to.”
Finally Daddy scoops me up in his arms and smiles at me. “Caity, listen. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sorry you had to hear that, but you didn’t do anything. Ok?”
I nod slowly as he walks out the room with me and Mommy and Uncle Peter tell Noah to get down stairs because we’re leaving. Daddy straps me into the car and sits down in the driver’s seat without saying good bye to anyone and Mommy and Noah follow. Uncle Peter puts our stuff in the trunk, before he leans in the window next to Daddy and says something. I don’t listen, I never want to listen to grown ups talk again.
As Uncle Peter says goodnight to me Daddy tells me to ignore everything Grandma and Uncle Nathan said. They were just sad. This time I don’t want to find out what about.
I really, really don’t like Thanksgiving. But I get the feeling that we won’t be coming here next year. At least that’s something.
I'd love it if you could leave me a review here