KP – One Oh One : Part XIX – Riding in Cars with Stoppables
Kim dozed with her head against the headrest in the back seat of the Stoppable's car. It was the first time she could ever remember riding with Ron's entire family. Sure, she had taken this trip with Ron's Mom when she visited his Grandmother some five years earlier, and had been driven around by her on many occasions, but it was never the entire family. Somehow it was always the opposite sitch. Ron would be along with the whole Possible clan, as if he were part of them all along.
That one trip, they were just best buddies, though there were some special rules that applied when best friends were of the opposite sex. One of those rules said that she was allowed to use Ron as her pillow, so she spent most of that car ride leaning against him, snoozing away the trip, trying to recover some of the sleep she lost when the Stoppables insisted they leave the house at five in the morning. She must have known subconsciously that Ron actually liked it when she did that, especially since he wouldn't move a muscle, and it wasn't because a girl was touching him. Back then she wasn't so much a girl to him, but Kim, or at least she thought that was how they saw each other.
They did the very same thing again, leaving their house just after five. Something in Gene Stoppable's genetic makeup made him want to be extra-early for everything. She could just imagine him waking Ron up at the crack of dawn on their wedding day, saying something like 'Come on, Ron, two hours early for an inter-faith wedding.' That thought set her to smiling as she slept while they drove in the pre-dawn darkness. She could already imagine the scene. Her in a white dress, her bridesmaids dressed in her signature pink. She would have three, though so far she only figured on Monique and perhaps Joss filling those roles. She really didn't have all that many female friends who were close enough. Maybe Tara, though she hadn't even heard from her since she went to that school in Kentucky. She didn't even know if the platinum blonde was still dating Josh Mankey.
More than three and a half years in the future and she was already making her plans.
She apparently wasn't going to have the opportunity to use Ron as a pillow on this trip. When they all piled into Gene's Camry that Tuesday morning, Jean surprised Kim by climbing into the back seat after setting CJ's car seat in the middle. It seemed, as Ron got older, the men would take the front seat while the women rode in the back. It seemed a little odd to her at first, but they all acted as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She would have to ask Ron about that later when they got a chance to talk privately. For the first thirty minutes or so of the ride she was trying to decide if she was tweaked because it seemed so chauvinistic. Then she just let it be and relaxed. At that point in the ride nobody was talking, except for the little baby sounds CJ made before she fell back to sleep herself.
The decade old Toyota, while being a more advanced design, was actually not quite as comfortable as Jean's even older Pontiac, but Kim preferred the car for other reasons. The old Catalina drank down gas like it was going out of style. That was fine for short trips around town (such as 'parking' at the bluff) but not for a four hour drive. Given her druthers, she would have taken her car since it didn't use any gasoline at all, but the back seat was just a tad too small for two adults and a baby seat. It could have been done, but she was voted down by Ron's parents.
The drive to Denver the day before was quite a bit different. Ron insisted they take separate cars and follow his parents in. It turned out he was planning to take her to dinner at a place not far from Mile-High stadium called, appropriately (and amusingly) The Mile High Club. Despite Kim's obvious embarrassment when Ron bought her one of the T-shirts that read "I joined the Mile High Club,' the impromptu dinner date was a welcome reprieve, considering what Kim had to go through with his Dad's family for most of the day.
Reuben's wife, Samantha (or just Sam to Reuben and some of Ron's family) started off the visit glaring at Ron, then, for some unknown reason, turned her ire at Kim, as if she were the one to blame for unleashing the attitudinated, super-evil Ron on her wedding reception. It was probably guilt by association, since they were an official couple this time and weren't constantly specifying they were 'just friends.'
Besides Samantha, Kim was greeted warmly by the family. At least once, as they were introduced, she was sure she heard one of Ron's cousins tell the other "You owe me a buck," as if their protests had fallen on at least one set of deaf ears two years earlier.
It wasn't until mid-day when they all sat down to dinner that the true evil spawn of the Stoppable clan reared his ugly, red-haired head. Kim was openly shocked the first time Ron mentioned his younger cousin. He was deathly afraid of a seven year old. It wasn't until she actually saw the little monster in action that she believed him. How could a seven year old be that evil? Somehow in the intervening two years she started asking that question.
An evil nine-year-old was definitely much worse than she could have imagined.
It all started out simply enough. Since Shawn was the only child, there wasn't a kid's table set up this time. As fate would have it, he was seated right beside her. Actually, at first he was going to be sitting right beside Ron, but Kim just silently switched places, hoping she could create a buffer between the two of them. All that managed to do was make her the target of his childishness.
As the food was being passed around he set his plan into motion. Every dish that came around the table, he would get up out of his chair, walk past both of them and hand it to another relative. Kim just watched, stupefied that the child's mother wasn't saying a single word to correct him. Ron had to pass every dish back to her. She should have been expecting the next as the gravy boat made its way around.
"Oops." He said out loud as the hot gravy soaked into Kim's lap, she had been paying attention to the potatoes and was very, very thankful it wasn't any hotter than it already was. She excused herself from the table and went to clean herself up. At least she was wearing black slacks and the wouldn't show the stain too badly, though she would have to deal with it the rest of the day.
Shawn was nowhere to be seen when she came back to the table. Maybe his mother had finally done something to discipline the little monster. She pulled her chair out just enough to sit down…and promptly landed on her butt as the seat was several feet further back. The little brat had hidden under the table and shoved the chair just as she was trying to sit.
Embarrassed half to tears, Kim just sucked it up and tried to ignore the child, wishing they still had a working version of the Attitudinator to use on the brat. Still, she didn't think sticking the helmet on the child at the family dinner table would go over any better than just yelling at him.
Actually, as it went on and on, she felt all the much more like yelling at Ron's aunt. It was as if she were content to let the little monster run rampant his whole life.
At one point Ron turned white as a sheet. It was pretty obvious why. Shawn's pet iguana had crawled up into Ron's lap and was staking out his bulging cargo pocket, just waiting for Rufus to show his little pink head. Iguanas were supposed to be herbivores, but it was obvious this one was trained to at least attack small animals. With a slight growl, Kim picked the green lizard up and handed it to its owner.
This is all just a test Kim told herself as she struggled through the meal. I can get through this. I can do anything! and that includes getting through this without blowing up at this vile little brat!
Their supper out later that night would have been better if she hadn't spent the whole meal griping about the family dinner. At least there she was able to enjoy her steak without playing defense. Rufus was able to come out as well, eating more than half the fried onion flower thing.
Ron just talked her down, deliberately shifting the subject of their conversation to their weekend.
The skiing had been less-than-spectacular, but it was fun nonetheless. Only two of the slopes were open and the conditions weren't as good as they could be. With none of the longer trails open, they had to content themselves with constantly riding the lifts for the short run down the mountain. Neither of them could wait for high-winter when the whole area would be blanketed with snow, allowing them the chance to really get back into the hills, perhaps even to find DNAmy's abandoned lab again.
The main event of their trip really wasn't the snowboarding, but the chance to first curl up together, sipping hot cocoa in front of the raging fire in the main lobby. The place was nearly empty on Friday night, since they weren't expecting much of a crowd until the next day, and even then most of them would only be up there for the day. The lodge was quiet and cozy and the couch they staked out was so deep and soft they found themselves feeling like they were totally alone. That was perfectly fine with both of them, since Kim liked to experience first-hand exactly how good Ron was at kissing. Even then, she decided he needed practice, and she was a particularly demanding coach.
By eleven that night they finally made it back to their room. It wasn't anything fancy, but it did have a small gas-powered fireplace with a love-seat facing it. They took turns changing into their night clothes in the small bathroom and curled up once more in front of the fire. Even though they had been somewhat more adventurous together in the past, simpler romance seemed to suit them that evening. That, and the fact that after classes all morning, skiing most of the late afternoon and tender kissing during the evening, they were just about beat. It was two in the morning when she woke up on the small couch and pulled Ron to bed. She wasn't even sure if he even woke up.
If it had been mid-winter, they both would have been ripped by the weather the next day. The temperature soared up into the fifties, which was nothing short of a heat wave that high in the mountains. That wasn't the worst of it. The day dawned gray, with a light mist coming down. Kim had been up at sunrise, took one look at the sky and settled back down into bed to indulge in some well-earned lollygagging. They didn't have to check out until the next day and if there wasn't going to be any skiing, then there wasn't any good reason not to simply take it easy for a change.
They even decided to forego breakfast. For Rufus, they had a bag of nacho chips, so he didn't complain while they gave each other very, very extensive back rubs. As the rain picked up, so did the heat in their room. The tender romance of the night before gave way to some serious making out. They did go out for lunch, but they had dinner brought in. They ended the evening going back to bed fairly early, though they still fell asleep quickly. Ron was just in his long pajama bottoms and Kim was wearing his black and white sweatshirt…and both were wearing smiles.
Kim opened her eyes. She had no idea how long she had been napping, but the morning sun was fully up. The highway was fairly non-descript, lacking any significant landmarks to tell her how far they had driven. Checking her watch, she noted it was half past seven. They were roughly halfway there.
Almost immediately she realized the deeper reason for the seating arrangement in the car. Ron and his Dad were chattering on and on about none other than football. If it were spring and summer, she was sure the subject would have been baseball. If there was one thing the two of them didn't connect on, it was sports, especially the two aforementioned contests of athleticism. She knew if she actually did try to play either, she would probably find a well to excel. She knew absolutely nothing about Soccer when her father asked her to coach her brother's little league team three years earlier, but after just a couple days of study, she found she could play the game like a veteran. She had absolutely no clue how she was able to pick up that kind of skill so quickly, it was just something she did.
If baseball wasn't so ever-loving boring!
Still, watching father and son yammering on and on about a ball game filled her with contentment. Ron rode in the front with his Dad because that was how the two of them connected. There were many times with Kim feared she was the only focus at all in Ron's life, that he was drifting away from his family. There always seemed to be some kind of distance there, making her fear he was becoming so close to her family to compensate. Now it was clear it wasn't a lack of closeness, it was just a different dynamic at work.
"I always thought you were a morning person, Kim." Jean whispered, leaning forward past the baby seat that separated the two women.
Kim rubbed her eyes lightly, yawning. "Actually, I usually am, but getting up at four this morning, after getting in from Denver past eleven. Not a word was said when the two of them crashed in his bed. They were both sound asleep in the tiny bed before the covers settled down around them. Perhaps if the elder Stoppables had been up, they might have suggested Ron take the couch, but since the two had spent the last two nights together, what was one more, especially when it was obvious the two of them would be separated during their overnight stay with Gram.
"Serves the two of you right. Just another reason you weren't going to be the one doing the driving today." She chided with a slight smile.
Stretching slightly, as much as she could in the cramped space in the back of the small car, Kim finally sat up a little straighter in the seat. "Actually, I've gotten into the habit of catching forty winks whenever I'm traveling. Helps to pass the time."
Jean laughed softly. "I would have thought you and Ronnie would have other ways of passing the time."
Kim blushed slightly. "Sometimes. It's not like we spend every waking moment together making out."
"Really? You could have fooled me." Jean smiled broadly, letting Kim know she was just ribbing her. "Kim, I really wanted to apologize for yesterday."
"Jean, really, it's no big. Shawn is just…spirited."
"Feh. That boy's the spawn of Satan. Him I'm not so worried about, though why you didn't just jerk a knot in his tail, I'll never understand. You don't strike me as being that patient."
Kim shook her head. "Sometimes when you're babysitting, you have to be, or else things will just get out of hand. At least with Shawn I had the benefit of knowing by the end of the day I'd be a little more than a hundred miles away from him and I could potentially get away with not seeing him for another two years."
"Don't get your hopes up too high, Kim. For all intents and purposes, you're part of this family now. You do know they're all coming to our house for the Seder next spring."
"Oh boy." Kim muttered.
"I think the word you're looking for is Oy Vey." Jean corrected.
She blushed again. "I didn't, well…"
"It's okay, Kim. You're not going to offend us using that word. We're not exactly the most Jewish of Jews in the first place. That's something I need to talk to you about."
"Really?"
"You've met my mother."
"Yes ma'am."
"Well, as you know, she's kind of, well, unconventional."
"She was nice."
"Kim, she was kind of a hippy. She might have been born in Poland, but she was in her thirties during the sixties, and even if that seemed a little old, she picked up on a lot of it. Thing is, as odd as she turned out, her three sisters…weren't. How much has Ron told you about what's going to happen today?"
"He warned me they're going to make a big issue about me not being Jewish."
Jean nodded seriously. "My aunts try to make a pretense of living in a modern world, but there are some things they cling to fervently. They gave me a ton of grief when I married Ron's father, because he's a Reform Jew. That's why we seem so…for lack of a better word, Waspy. The only difference between us and you is we go to Temple on Saturday."
"So, you're saying I'm about to meet a bunch of old fashioned Jewish ladies?" Kim suddenly had a mental image of a gaggle of old Italian matrons. She knew that probably wasn't a fair comparison, but that was all she had to work with. Certainly they wouldn't be near cartoon characters like the older family members on that show about the Jewish woman working as a nanny for an English family.
Could they?
"Kim, there's not getting around the fact you're a gentile. Aunt Ida is probably never going to forgive any of us for letting Ron get engaged to you."
She put a hand to her mouth. "I didn't know."
Jean shook her head at the younger woman. "Listen, don't you ever fret about that. What matters is how much Ron loves you. Sure, there are some issues with religious law, but I think what's best for my little boy is you, so I'm confident we can get past all of that, but like I already said, you're part of this family, even if it's not legally binding yet. You're going to have to deal with these folks from time to time, even if they disown you."
Kim frowned again, not liking the prospect of being disowned before she even met these people.
"Listen, like I said, I think Ida is a lost cause. Freda, eh, she might warm up to you. Just remember, Gram already likes you. We already like you. That's what's important."
"I'll try to remember that." Kim reached out and squeezed her future mother-in-law's hand.
"There's one other thing." The older woman said seriously.
"What's that?"
Jean frowned deeply, then looked Kim straight in the eye.
"You're going to have to cook for them."
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