Chapter 10: Survival tip 2: Don't drown
So there stood Luke and Jess, hair still wet from their respective showers wearing typical male summer weekend wear of convertible cargo pants and t-shirts in front of an extensive breakfast table spread and their quite formal dressed in-laws. Richard still sat behind his paper, but the silver cufflinks on his crisp white shirt could be clearly seen. At the other end of the table sat Emily in a tailor woman's suit with a very sour look upon her face. Neither Luke nor Jess seemed to be able to speak or move for that matter. Emily asked again clearly annoyed by their silence, "So where are the girls?"
Luke, being the good guy that he was, threw himself into the lion dens with one simple statement, "Jess, why don't you go check on Rory and Lorelai." He made sure not to mention he hadn't seen Lorelai when he was just up in their room.
"Sure thing, Uncle Luke." Jess didn't need to be told twice; he hightailed it back up stairs as fast as his feet would take him.
Luke took a seat near the middle of the table and sat in silence with Emily and Richard for what seemed like hours. He was actually starting to understand Lorelai's prison of war comparison from just the night before. Emily was starring at the stairs so starkly that Luke was conflicted about the return of his family to the table. Then after a few more agonizingly long minutes, Jess reappeared with Rory by his side. However, Lorelai was still nowhere to be seen.
"Sorry, grandma," Rory started as she walked around to the other side of the table with Jess, "Mom and I overslept. She'll be down in just a bit, but she needed to take a quick shower. I showered last night, or else I'd be doing the same as well. But Mom always says if she showers at night she wake up looking like a poodle."
Emily interrupted Rory's nervous ramblings. "It's ok Rory. I realize that youths like yourself enjoy the occasional late morning and such is the privilege of your age. However, your mother is a grown woman with responsibilities and should be able to handle a moderately early breakfast. How does she expect to get you to school if she can't wake up on time?" Rory was a little taken back listening to her grandma so openly demeaning her mother; she wanted to speak but she couldn't formulate the words in her mouth.
Before Luke could logical and calmly respond or Rory started to cry, Jess interrupted this woman verbal assault. "We," he said gesturing to Rory and himself, "are never late to school or swim meets, which can be as early as 6 am. Although they sometimes work long hours, which can extend quite late, Uncle Luke and Aunt Lorelai always put us first." With that the table was brought back to silence for the next two or three minutes. No one ate; the food still sat just as it was served over twenty minutes ago now.
Richard then put down his paper and greeted the new guests at the table. "Good morning Rory, Jess, Luke," he said nodding at each of them as he stated their names. "Where's Lorelai? My what a fine spread we have to choose from this morning. Shall we as they say 'dig in'."
Lorelai did finally join them for breakfast about twenties minutes later, as everyone else was finishing up, and Richard had already left to return a phone call in his office.
"How nice of you to join us," Emily started clearly not ready to let this slip of etiquette go. "We to leave for the Gellar house by ten or we will never be there before eleven. They live on the other side of the island, so we must take the ferry across and it leaves every hour on the thirty minute mark." Emily continued to talk to the entire group as if they were children. The dress is proper casual and because I was unsure if you had such attire with you the girl and I brought everyone their outfits for the day. The maid Susan, Sharon, whomever, should have them pressed for you when you return upstairs."
"Shannon," Lorelai said under her breathe.
"What was that, Lorelai?" Emily asked, visibly perturbed about being interrupted again.
"The maid's name is Shannon. She was laying the clothes in the rooms as I left to come down here to this happy table," Lorelai said with a smile.
"No one thinks that's clever. Really Lorelai," Emily stated before moving on with the schedule. "We also picked up a matching beach bags for your towels, bath suits, and such, which should also be packed for you. The agenda for the party is as always in the capable hands of Martha Eustace Gellar, who never fails at creating such creative atmospheres. We will be returning back to the house around five to allow an hour for dress and back out the island for the annual Fourth of July formal at the club. Lorelai, Rory, I have schedule my local hair dresser and her assistant to come by and fix your hair." Emily continued on like this for the next ten minutes before realizing the time, and subsequently excused herself to prepare for the day.
Lorelai was the first to speak as they all started to move back upstairs, "I knew today was going to be bad, but oy with the poodles already."
"That not the correct way to use that phrase," Rory spoke for the first time since first coming to the table.
"Just how bad are we talking with this party, casual dress mess?" Jess asked tautly.
"How much did you hate kind of matching yesterday?" Lorelai started with.
"No, no way. How come you didn't try and stop this?" Jess pleaded.
By now, they were all standing in a circle in front of their doors. "No reason to argue about it yet. Let's go inside get ready for this day and meet back out here in ten minutes. Deal?" Luke said stopping the ongoing commentary.
"Deal," they said in unison.
-10 minutes later-
Luke and Jess were wearing identical slate gray narrow Bermuda length shorts with belts, navy polo shirts, and dark brown boat shoes. (No one would say they didn't look good; however, they certainly didn't look like themselves.). Lorelai wore a navy striped empire waist dress with wide sleeves, which distracted from her slightly rounding middle, and slate gray canvas wedges. Rory had a cap sleeves top with the same navy stripes, an almost knee length pleated white skirt, and slate gray ballet flats. Each of the girls carried a ruby red sweater for the imagined chill that might whiffed across the ocean. Every item was pressed and spotless.
"We look ridiculous," Jess stated after looking over everyone, "for a picnic," he decided to add for the girls benefit.
"You just lucky mom talked grandma out of the first couple of outfits she picked out. You don't even want to know how close you were to wearing pink," Rory snickered. Jess just shuttered. After that no one knew what quite else to say, so Luke grabbed their pristine beach bags and lead the family down the stairs to wait in the foyer.
As they came down their stairs they were greeted again by an impatience Emily, who was looking at her watch. Emily was wearing a red dress that matched the girl's sweaters, a white sweater, and matching accessories. "There you finally are. You're father will be here any minute; then we'll be on our way," Emily spoke to seemingly only Lorelai. They all waited for five minutes before Richard emerged looking just as miserable and forcefully dressed as the rest in white pants, a red polo, and boat shoes.
"Emily, don't you think this might be a little much?" Richard asked as he entered the front room.
"Not at all, now we must leave right away if we wish to make the ferry," Emily said quickly.
"You're quite right, dear," Richard concluded looking at the clock in the hall, "You'll follow us to the ferry. Come to think of it why don't you borrow my car, and Emily and I will take the Mercedes. Its decided then; here are the keys." Richard finished before anyone else could voice his or her opinion.
-A few minute later driving in the car-
"Boy my parents are good. For a minute they even had me fooled. I would wonder how long they practiced that exchange last night," Lorelai started rambling.
"What are you talking about?" Luke looked over for a moment than shifted his eyes back toward the road and Richard's tail.
"The whole borrowing the car thing. You know it's only because they're embarrassed of me and the car that I love," Lorelai explained.
"They're not embarrassed of you, the car maybe, me definitely, but not you," Luke said very lovingly taking her hand to give it a squeeze before returning to ten and two.
"Awe," Rory and Jess teased from the backseat.
-An uneventful ferry ride later-
"So this is the old Gellar place?" Jess asked starring at the huge house on the water, "You sure we didn't make a wrong turn and end up at the Kennedy compound in Kennebunkport?"
"You mean Hyannis Port along Nantucket Sound," Rory corrected.
"Whatever," Jess answered absentmindedly since he normally hated the word and over use of term: whatever, and so pledged to rarely if ever use it..
They all slowly got out of the car and followed Richard and Emily to the more centrally located group of people on the terrace. There were a group of kids playing in the sand closer to the beach, another group of teenagers seemingly about Rory and Jess's age talking in smaller group around the compound, and the majority of the adults, who were not on the Gellar's payroll, were gathered around the house. In totally their were probably about forty people there. Emily gathered Lorelai and Rory to introduce them to more of her DAR friends and Richard took the task of leading Luke and Jess to the group of men at the bar.
"Lorelai this is Martha Gellar the host of the party, like I was telling you their family has been coming here for years and she has a daughter, Paris, just about Rory's age, who has been at Chilton since pre-kindergarten.
"Thank you so much for extending your invitation to my family. What a beautiful house you have," Lorelai said sounding more like a stepford wife than herself.
"You are more than welcome. I am just so pleased to finally meet you, Lorelai and the famous Rory. But that can't really be your formal name; it doesn't seem to fit such a lovely girl as yourself," Martha gushed.
"My given name is Lorelai, my mom named me after herself; she figured men to it all the time why can't I," Rory stated genuinely.
"That's the logical excuse, but it might have also been due to the drugs," Lorelai laugh letting a little bit of her actual personality shine through as she absentmindedly let her hand fall to her stomach.
"I tell you. I always thought I would have the same three children that everyone in my family does, but after one childbirth experience I was done. It took three years and two doctors to put me back together in respectable shape," Martha laughed lightly.
"How does your family share the same three kids?" Lorelai asked, while she and Rory giggled at the question, which seemed to go over the head of most of the circle of women. Emily just rolled her eyes at her perpetually immature daughter.
The next woman to speak was Meliora Lynn. "I am the mother of two of the most beautiful girl, Madeline and Marianne. I told Michael I wanted two girls and then I am done. He either didn't believe me or thought a boy could be negotiated. But good lord what do you do with a boy?"
Most of the other women in the circle laughed. "So have any of you have ever had or raised a boy?" Lorelai asked pondering the odd probability of that idea.
"We left that to Claudia and Joanna," laughed Abigail Grant, whom they later found out had three daughter, Eleanor, Louise, and Genevieve.
Claudia was the youngest of the women, Lorelai and Rory removed. "I have two girls and three boys. What can I say; I married a catholic. My oldest Abrielle is eleven, Balin is nine, Crispin is seven, Deacon is four, and this little one is one month due either Elana, Emberlynn, or Eudora."
"Wow, are you trying to finish the whole alphabet?" Lorelai asked the rounded woman.
"Good heavens, no. This is most definitely the last one. I love my kids, even with two nannies I feel consistently overwhelmed," Claudia finished.
"What about you Lorelai? Are you one and done?" Martha asked, " I know you had Rory quite early, and I'd hate to see you loose that lovely figure."
"Well," Lorelai started out slowly trying to think through what she was about to say, "Let's just say I formerly haven't ruled anything out, yet. However, for now, we are quite busy with Rory and Jess."
"Whose Jess?' Martha asked.
"My nephew," Lorelai stated pointing in the direction of the men, but unable to catch neither Jess nor Luke in the middle, "Well he's here nonetheless. I'm sure you'll meet him before the days up."
"I was under the impression you were an only child, Lorelai," questioned Meliora.
"Well technically he's my husband's nephew, but what's mine is his and what's his is mind," Lorelai shrugged giving Rory a side hug.
This type of chitchat between the ladies went on until lunch was served at one when the separate groups met up again at their assigned seats.
"So what did you do?' Lorelai whispered to Luke at the table.
"I listened to a bunch of men complain about business, discuss golf, and held Jess up from falling asleep from shear boredom. Just as they were finally moving on to a more interesting sport, lunch was called. What did you do?"
"We talked about girly stuff, houses, family, babies, the DAR, shoes, etc," Lorelai answered knowing Luke wasn't listening to anything she said after babies. "I was good; I didn't say anything," Lorelai smiled.
Luke smiled back, "So what happens after lunch?"
"I believe the swim suits are donned and everyone sizes each other up," Lorelai smiled deviously at her husband. Luke was about to respond when the hostess began to speak.
"Thank you so much for coming everyone. I'm so sorry my husband, Henry, could not join us, but he was detained on business in New York for the weekend," she continued on like this for quite sometime.
Rory and Jess were sat at a table with the other teenagers at the compound: Paris Gellar (14), Louise (14) and Eleanor (17) Grant, Madeline (14), and Paris's nanny. The younger kids and other two nannies were sat at the table adjoining the teenagers'. As one could clearly see Jess felt no more at place in this group than he had in the last. Madeline and Louise just kept looking at him, whispering something to each other, and then giggling. Paris was silently starring at the new comers (yes, it was just as creepy as it sounds), and Eleanor kept complaining about not being with her boyfriend in Vale. He decided his best course of act was to not engage anyone in conversation; he pulled out a small book of poems from his pocket and started reading. Jess pretty sure he heard the words "mysterious, sensitive, and misunderstood." from across the table. Dang it why did I pick poetry, he inwardly cursed.
The rest of the lunch was a quiet affair. Martha announced that the yearly couples badminton tournament would start in precisely thirty minutes giving everyone the chance to change and sign up.
"No way," Lorelai stated as she saw Luke's eyes on her.
"Yea right. You have no coordination. I'm asking Jess or Rory," Luke said. This earned him a swat on the arm.
As it turned out, no one really signed up for the "tournament." Most of the men retreated back to the bar and a few more including Richard had made their way into Henry's study for stiffer drink and cigars. Most of the ladies had changed into their bathing suits and covers except Emily and Rosemary, who turned out to be Claudia's mother. Lorelai who usually was the queen of the bikini was wearing a strategically placed wrap about her middle.
Luke quickly found Lorelai when she reemerged from the house.
"What's Rory wearing?" Luke asked pointing her out across the terrace.
"It's a tankini," Lorelai explained, "It's like of a semi-modest version of a bikini."
"I don't like it," Luke concluded.
"I'm pretty sure your not supposed too, hunny," Lorelai remarked.
"What happen to all the nice track suits?" Luke tried again.
"Mom didn't like them," Lorelai started and then smiled, "I don't see you complaining that Jess is wearing board short and not jammers like at the swim meets."
"Board shorts mean more coverage; the more appropriate comparison would be a Speedo," Luke replied.
"Are you volunteering?" Lorelai dared.
"Not in this life time," Luke concluded resigning himself to the fact Lorelai wasn't going to let him make Rory change. At least there aren't any teenage boys here, Luke thought to himself.
"So what about in the next?" Lorelai tried.
"How would that work?" Luke questioned.
"Soul mates meet and fall in love every lifetime they live," Lorelai stated stepping closer to her husband.
"You said you don't believe in soul mates," Luke challenged leaning in closer.
"I believe in us," Lorelai hoarsely whispered millimeters from Luke's lips.
"A guys you have an audience," Jess stepped in and said. Luke and Lorelai were then brought back to reality. They looked up and saw most of the women watching them; Emily was of course glaring.
"So we'll continue this later," Lorelai stated rather than questioned.
"Yes," Luke sealed the promise with a kiss on her forehead.
"You missed," Lorelai, said while walking back to the danger zone.
"You two are so cute," Claudia gushed.
"His not bad looking for an old guy," Eleanor stated attempting to enter the adult conversation.
"Thank you, I think" Lorelai replied.
Abigail and Eleanor then started talk about her debutante ball and coming out. They other mothers started talking about their own balls and their daughters' plans. Emily shared about her own dress and ball, but remained silent about Lorelai's failed debutante introduction. This is totally not the weekend to announce her news, thought Lorelai.
Luke and Jess had pealed off their shirts and were teaching Rory how to hit the birdie for badminton.
"Do we have to call it a birdie?" Rory asked, "It just seems so cruel."
"That's just what it's called Rory," Luke tried to reason.
"Yea, its not like we went baby bird hunting this morning, so we could convene in the merriment of torture this afternoon," Jess supplied.
"Thanks, Jess, big help," Luke groined, "Rory just try hit the small netted ball, ok."
"Ok, Luke," Rory answered.
They continued to play for the next thirty minutes or so until they heard one of the nannies screaming and point out into the water. Everyone within hearing distance at the compound stopped and looked to see what could have caused the nanny to scream. The water seemed normal enough until they saw a small child a good 900 yards out in the ocean. Between the two present neither thought she was accountable for watching the seemingly responsible 10-year-old Marianne, whose own nanny was visiting her family in California. Meliora immediately started screaming for Michael, who had disappeared inside for a cigar. Almost very one seemed paralyzed by fear. One of the men had stated running inside for Michael, while another was immediately on his cell phone calling for an ambulance. Luke and Jess had already removed their shoes and wallets and were about an even 100 yards out to sea. Rory was charged with finding a first aid kit and the closest thing to a backboard she could fine in the third minutes or so it might take them to get back.
Luke got to Marianne just a little quicker then Jess, so Jess was charged with finding the best and safest way back to shore. "Is she breathing?" Jess asked between wave breaks.
"Yes, but its shallow. And she's most likely swallowed a lot of water," Luke yelled back against rush of the water.
By the time, they hit the shore Rory had found Dr. Martin the Gellar's neighbor, who came with his own first aid kit.
"We swam all the way out there, rescued the child, and you still found away to out do us," Jess moaned as he lay in the sand catching his breathe.
"Good Girl," Luke said simple giving her a quick, albeit very wet hug.
"Hey what about me," Jess said from the ground sounding more like a kid then hero material.
Luke first thought was to say 'good job not drowning', but given the circumstances it didn't seem right. "You did good kid."
By then the paramedics had arrived and were speaking to Marianne and Dr. Martin, while Meliora and Michael had started yelling at each other about whose fault this was.
Within the next twenty minutes, Martha Gellar had reluctantly decided to end the picnic early. Everyone's nerves were fried. Yet everyone but Meliora promised to see each other at the formal tonight.
"Let's go home," Luke said wrapping his tired arm around Lorelai's shoulder.
"You mean it. Your going to willing skip out on the last day and a half of this hell," Lorelai said excitedly.
"Let me restate. Let's go to your parents temporary vacation house," Luke supplied, "Sound better?"
"Does it sound better? Absolutely not. Is it more accurate, yes," Lorelai responded opening the car door.
"So how were the girls you met?" Lorelai asked Rory and Jess once they driven an appropriate 10 feet away from the house.
"Louise and Madeline have a crush on Jess, Eleanor is 17 going on 25 going on like 13, and Paris is kind of creepy scary," Rory answered.
"You do know all those girls attain Clinton, right," Lorelai tried reading the teenagers.
"Yep," they both said in the same monotone note.
"Yep," Lorelai whispered out the window to nobody in particular. She really wasn't looking forward to tonight. Just before the commotion at the picnic Martha mentioned run into Francine and Straub Hayden at lunch the other day and inviting them to the formal. Lorelai couldn't help but wonder if there might be more then one type of fireworks this Fourth of July night.
Okay so, I took some liberty in naming secondary and tertiary character's family members and creating a few more generalists. Sorry if I missed any real names. anyway… Moreover, that got a little serious with the possibility for more. Was it to over the top? No one got bit by a radioactive spider and got super powers, so it's all still all-good right? Anyway, thank you so much to everyone whose read the story in the last couple days and an extra special thank you to anyone who took the time to review. I love hearing the feedback (ok my ego love the positive feedback). This chapter was a little different, so we'll see. Shout out to the person who used the word outstanding to describe the story. Although I believe that was truly a generous word to use in describing anything I do, it still made my day.
So please read the story and send some feedback my way. Sometimes a word is all you need to put.
"A word, a look will be enough..." – Captain Fredrick Wentworth, Persuasion by Jane Austen