A long drabble
"Wonder what she looks like?" Soda Curtis pulled out the beer from his brother's well stock fridge, in contrast to his own fridge, half busted and covered in so many magnets it could lead a battalion of appliances into battle; and Pony's still covered in his daughters' years old doodles, the passage of time shown by the transformation of messy scribbles into legible signatures; Darry's stainless steel refrigerator is solid, clean and expensive.
Mary Curtis puts the finishing touches on the fruit kebabs, hell, if it was up to her, they'd just buy those premade plates from Piggly Wiggly, but no, Cathy insisted on making everything by hand.
She sticks a toothpick in a slice of melon.
"Leave that man alone, shoot the way you and Darry hoover over him it's a wonder baby brother ain't still a virgin." She laughs and even Cathy can't help but laugh along with her.
Soda reaches over his wife's shoulder, grabs a piece of melon, pulling back before she can slap his hand.
"You're worse than Haze," she cracks up again, her laughter is loud and free and fills up every empty space, every nook and cranny of the sizable house.
"Uncle Soda, Dad wants to know if you want bacon on your burger?" Billy Curtis stands on the front patio, his hand on the screen door.
"Shit," Soda mutters, of course he wants bacon, Darry knows that, "yeah buddy," he says in a light voice, "tell your dad not to skimp on it either."
"Okay," Billy says in a serious voice.
"Dad, don't skimp on the bacon."
Darry turns from away from the grill, waving a tong full of bacon at his brother.
Soda gives him a lazy thumbs up sign.
"William!" Cathy calls out wearily, "shut the door." She points to the still half open patio screen door, Billy runs to the door and…
"don't slam it either," Cathy says, opening up a tub of ranch dip for the veggies.
Billy shuts the screen door, softly.
"Mom, can I have a strawberry?" Tommy Curtis reaches for a strawberry on Aunt Mary's carefully constructed fruit kabob, Cathy sighs, "sure, why not. Just one."
"He's gotta be pretty serious about her if he's spending Mother's Day with her," Soda says to his wife.
"He says she's 'pretty' but he said the same about Aimee and she was ho…" Soda is about to call his former sister-in-law, Aimee Gent, 'hot as all git out' but stops himself.
His wife playfully hits him with a spatula and imitates the sound of buzzer, "saved."
Soda jokingly wipes his brow. Years ago this moment would have caused a fight between the couple, but now they laugh. Patrick and Hazer help, so too does the wine they had earlier.
Besides, Mary would have to agree, her former sister-in-law was hot as fuck.
Tommy Curtis grabs two strawberries.
"I wonder what she looks like too," Cathy says with a smile.
"Wonder who who looks like?" Tommy, half a strawberry in his mouth.
"Never mind," his mother says quickly, "go outside."
Mary takes a piece of pineapple and pops it in her mouth, she figures by this point she might as well; there's no way these kabobs are gonna stay uneaten before Darry is done grilling.
Hazer Curtis is two and half, she has curly dark hair and dark eyes, she doesn't look anything like her daddy and she's the apple of his eye. In contrast to her father, decked out in old sandals, worn jeans and his trademark red flannel (if they were celebrating at his house he'd ditch the shirt) and her mother, dress in black spandex leggings and a long black shirt complete with rhinestones; Hazer looks like someone dipped her in a vat of cotton candy.
Her skirt has so many lacy layers to it; Cathy wonders how the little girl is able to move in it.
Besides her lacey pink skirt, she has on a sunny yellow silk top, all held together by a sky blue silk sash, tied in a big bow. Even her socks, white with pink hearts, have laces around them.
Mary Curtis would have rolled her eyes if you suggested three years ago that she would be dressing a daughter like a junior prom queen, but three years ago Mary would have also scoffed if you suggested that she would have a daughter in the first place.
Karen Curtis is unofficially 'babysitting' Hazer, making sure the little girl doesn't poke her fingers, wan thin, like her mother's, where they don't belong.
Hazer squirms out of Karen's arms and runs to her mama, her skirt makes her look like a penguin who drank a little bit too much electric Kool Aid.
"you behavin'?" Mary flashes her daughter the biggest grin and Hazer, though she doesn't understands what's so funny, grins and shakes her head no, which only causes everyone, even Karen, to laugh.
She's a quiet little girl, Hazer. She talks less than her cousins did at that age, even Paige; but she loves helping her Daddy out in the garage, even holding a wrench for him. Soda brags that his daughter's gonna be a mechanic someday, her hand eye coordination is amazin'.
C.D. is watching the grill, Darry walks into his kitchen.
"What time's Patrick and Crystal getting here?" He asks his younger brother. His nephew and his new bride spent most of Mother's Day with his mom. They spent the day before with her mom. In Vietnam, Mother's Day is part of Parent's Day, known as "Mua Vu Lan" but while Anna would roll her eyes at the idea of slapping a corsage on her and taking her out to brunch; she's glad to spend time with her son.
Soda looks at his watch, "they shoulda been here about twenty minutes ago…" He tries to keep the worry out of his voice. Patrick is a grown man, not a little kid, hell he's gonna be a daddy in a few months. That trips Soda up, he's not sure what's harder to get his head around, that his son is going to be a father or that's going to be grandfather.
"Angela and the kids should be here soon too," Cathy says. An awkward silence falls across the room.
"Oh come on," Cathy says exasperated, "she's family, sorta," Cathy mumbles under her breath.
Mary nods, "you're right, Angela is our grandbaby's grandmother," we can't let her spend Mother's Day alone."
"She won't be spending it alone," Darry mutters, "she has her kids."
Cathy gives her husband a dirty look.
"Patrick wants her to be here," Soda says softly but in a tone of voice that brokers no opposition.
That settles it. Angela Wilcox nee Jennings nee Jones nee Shepard is officially welcomed at the Curtis family Mother's Day cook out.
"Now," Mary says, watching Hazer twirl herself dizzy, "Biff is the hubby who's in jail right now for corruption?"
"Yup, as oppose to the hubby who killed a trustee and got blown to kingdom come by the cops," Soda breaks in.
"Jesus Christ," Darry mumbles.
"And Chrissy's Daddy is the racist asshole," Mary says.
Mary Curtis is not known for being the most circumspect woman around, though she's more cautious than she was when she was younger, but when it comes to Ted Jones, 'racist asshole' is as mild as an expletive as she can come up with.
Ted, who claimed to love his own baby girl more than the stars and moon, refuses to acknowledge his 'Gook' son-in-law or the baby that his beloved daughter is carrying.
Soda feels his muscles tighten. He hates Ted Jones.
Everyone loves Crystal though. Crystal is shy and sweet, though they're only 19 and 20 everyone agrees that both Patrick and Crystal have a maturity of people twice they're age. If anyone can weather the storm of young parenthood and dysfunctional family, it's these two.
"What's Pony's woman's name again?" Soda asks his brother, hoping to keep his mind off of all the terrible reasons his son and his new daughter-in-law might be late. Patrick is a good guy, if he was planning on running late, he'd call ahead.
"Geena," Darry says, watching his two oldest sons at the grill, "with two es."
"Aimee with two ees, Geena with two ee's, I'm seeing a pattern." Soda taps his chin, right below where his tongue ring is.
"We're guessing what she looks like," Mary tells her brother-in-law, "I'm saying brown hair, Sherlock Holmes over there thinks blonde. Whattabout you Cat?"
Cathy shrugs as she counts out the forks, "red-head."
Hazer climbs into her Daddy's lap, and Soda's kisses the top of his baby's head.
"She has brown hair, I ran into them at the grocery store."
"What?!" Mary cries out. Little Hazer, imitates her mother "what?!"
"Christ, Darry, you didn't tell us?" Soda straightens his posture.
Darry shrugs helplessly, "I didn't think it was that big of a deal."
Even Cathy rolls her eyes, "come on."
"She has brown hair and light eyes, we talked for a few minutes then Pony had to pick up Paige at a friend's house."
"What color are her eyes?" Mary asks.
"I have no idea, blue, maybe green? I don't remember."
"What else?" Soda asks, anxious to get the run down on his brother's first serious girlfriend since his divorce.
"Shit, what is this, twenty questions? I dunno," Darry puts his hands out, "she looked normal, nice."
"She looked normal," Cathy gently mocks.
"Well, Pony and normal looking Geena with two ee's should be here for dessert."
Patrick and Crystal arrive. Mary thinks Crystal is beginning to show, but Crystal thinks it's still too early. Although everyone is nice, very nice to Crystal, she feels a bit intimidated, Patrick, puts his arm around her. "Come on babe, I'll show you around," he says in a voice that reminds everyone of his dad, which is funny, since Patrick doesn't sound a thing like Soda.
But the gentle way he puts his arm around her, protective, sensing her slight discomfort at being greeted by a bunch of people she barely knows, is a Soda gesture if anything is.
Patrick shakes his dad's hand and his dad pulls him in for a quick hug. Hazer runs to her brother and he bends down to hug her. Patrick still isn't big on hugs, but for family, he'll make an exception.
"How's your mom?" Mary asks after giving her stepson a hug.
He smiles at her, he appreciates that she cares,and Mary, she does care. "She's good."
After a quick tour, Patrick and Crystal sit on the couch, they're both quiet, especially her. C.D. sits down on the foot rest, telling his favorite cousin all about his baseball team.
"I'll probably be a pitcher this year," C.D. brags. C.D. Curtis will not be a pitcher this or any other year.
"Yeah right," Karen Curtis says under her breath.
C.D. gives his sister a finger on his no pitching hand.
Angela and her two youngest children, Anthony and Shantelle arrive. Angela smells like booze. Crystal is relieved that her brother was driving. Anthony Jennings has a black eye. He just got released from Juvie. The black eye is because his step daddy is Biff Wilcox, the most corrupt cop in Tulsa's history, a blight on the proud tradition of Tulsa's finest, at least according to the editorial page of the Tulsa World.
When Anthony's identity was revealed, the black eye wasn't the only injury he received. He never told anyone, certainly not his mother, bout what happened to him. He keeps it to himself. He keeps everything to himself.
Anthony has no idea why he has to spend Mother's Day with these fucking snobs, hell he don't even know why he needs to spend it with his own Ma.
Every time Ma visited him in prison she'd cry, bitching about how tough her life was, how much she missed him, promising him that she was going to stop doing drugs. "I mean it Anthony, I'm stopping, this ain't the life I want for any of you." That was a riot. Though she doesn't know it, Anthony was Angela's first customer.
Angela was never good at hiding her shit.
Angela loops arms with her son, as if he's escorting her. Anthony rolls his eyes, he wishes his Ma would just drop the pretense, she's a fuck up, he's a fuck up, stop pretending they're the fuckin' Brady Bunch.
"Stop," he whispers to her.
She claws her fingernails into his forearm, hard enough to almost draw blood, and smiles at Cathy Curtis.
Patrick stands up when his mother-in-law comes into the room and offers her a chair.
"Nice to see good manners ain't skip this generation," she says to her children. Anthony shrugs, "whatever."
She stumbles into her chair. Patrick pretends he doesn't notice how drunk she is. Crystal glares at her mother. Angela smiles at her eldest daughter. Crystal gives her mother a half-hearted smile. She loves her mother. Despite all the mistakes Angela has made, she loves her mother blindly, and Angela she knows, loves her children.
Darry is, as always, a gracious host, welcoming Angela with open arms. Once he out of view he mimics a drunk guzzling down beer to Cathy.
"Wasted," he shakes his head.
"Well, this oughta be fun," Cathy says with a sigh.
Karen and Anthony sit at the adult table, the kids all lounge on the patio. Shan refuses to eat her meal.
"Come on," Angela says as she tries to stuff food in her daughter's mouth, "you like it," She laughs, loud and desperate.
"It's okay," Cathy says quickly, hoping to defuse an awkward situation, "we got some food in the fridge if you want to see if anything looks good," she tells Shan.
Tommy Curtis' jaw drops.
"No, she's gonna eat it," Angela says, a fork full of potato salad inching close to Shan's zipped mouth.
Then Shantelle gives her mother the two words that cut like daggers, "Daddy wouldn't." Daddy wouldn't make Shantelle eat this nasty food, Daddy wouldn't make his baby girl do anything she didn't want to do. Shan knows that her Daddy is working a top secret mission and that's why he can't be with her. Shantelle cries herself to sleep.
First Daddy, then Anthony now Crystal, Shan's family always leaves her; Anthony is back now, but he's acts like a real asshole, even to Mom, especially to Mom.
"Fine," Angela says in a low voice, she softly cuffs the back of her daughter's head. Brat.
The ghost of Emily Post must have been looking after the family because besides for a hand that landed on Soda's lap, Angela acted fairly decent.
"When's Ponyboy coming?" There is still a hungry desire in Angela's voice, though she's 36 and about to become a grandmother, she never got over Ponyboy Curtis. Now he was divorce, hmmm, served him right.
"He should be here for dessert," Cathy says evenly.
"That's the boy who helped your Daddy hotwire a car," Angela says loudly to Anthony, despite the fact that he's right next to her.
Patrick rolls his eyes, and Darry gives his nephew a knowing grin.
Angela grabs a bottle of beer. "Mama," Crystal says softly, although her tone is severe, "you think you need another one?"
Angela doesn't say anything, but the pop of the bottle does all her talking for her. She's sure.
Crystal Nguyen thinks about her baby, if it's a boy they're going to name him Curtis, after Patrick's family, if it's a girl, Kristen. She's hoping for a girl, she wants a little girl so badly.
While Crystal and Mary talk, Patrick pulls his Uncle to the side. He runs his hair through his head, "Is that job offer still good?"
Darry blinks, he offered Patrick a job at Curtis Construction once he knew about Patrick's impending fatherhood, Darry knew firsthand the cost of raising a family, but Patrick claimed that he and Crystal we're doing fine.
Patrick Nguyen was lying.
Darry nods, "it's yours. It's hard work, I can't give you any special treatment cause you're my nephew, but…"
Patrick nods, "I get it, absolutely, I really appreciate it." Patrick Nguyen never imagined that he'd work construction, but then again, he never planned on having a wife or baby at this time in his life.
He never wanted to be the guy who needed to rely on his family member for a job, he wanted to be independent, but the costs of Crystal's doctor appointments convinced him that it was impossible to be independent on his salary.
Patrick sighs, his father was a soldier at nineteen, his mother already lived a million lives by age nineteen, yet Patrick feels overwhelmed by the prospect of having a baby.
But he refuses to let anyone, even his own father, know just how overwhelmed he is. He feels like a coward, he needs to man up. He's going to muddle through, it's the only way.
Even if it kills him.
Angela falls asleep on the couch. She and her two youngest children go home.
Cathy cuts slices of cake for dessert. Karen gets the bowls out for ice cream.
Crystal is tired, she wants to go home. She had enough family for one day. "Ten more minutes, okay babe? Then we can leave." Patrick asks. He doesn't want to leave.
She nods. It's hard for Crystal to put her foot down, even with something as small as this. But she knows that Patrick will keep his word, and she smiles when she sees him looking at his watch and saying goodbye to his stepmother and father.
At the tail end of dessert, after Patrick and Crystal have left, Ponyboy and Geena show up. This Sunday is supposed to be Pony's day with the girls, but since it's Mother's Day they're with Aimee. It's only right, and he'll get the girls on Father's Day, but he misses them.
Pony and Geena spent most of Mother's Day visiting her parents in Stillwater. Pony looks dead tired from the drive.
Geena is, as Darry described, 'nice' she's not a looker like Aimee, but she's pretty and seems friendly enough. She's a talker, which takes everyone by surprise.
She reveals that Pony just got published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It's a big deal, Pony worked harder on that story than almost anything he published before, the exception being his story on Soda and Vietnam. He's proud of himself.
The day he got published he grabbed the phone, ready to call Aimee at her work with the good news, then he remembered. He slammed the receiver.
"What's it about?" Cathy is glad that Pony is back to shaving his beard, he looked disheveled for a while after his divorce, she was worried about him.
"Oh, just your standard suspense." Pony says with a half-hearted grin.
The story is a mystery focused on a wife who murders her ex-husband and his family.
Soda knows that this day is especially hard on Pony, he couldn't imagine what he'd do if he lost Mary and the idea of not seeing Hazer everyday kills him. But Pony is strong, if there's anyone who has the strength to weather through a divorce, it's Ponyboy Curtis.
The thing is, as much as he wants to, he can't hate Aimee, not just because she's Paige and Daffy's mama, but Soda liked her, still does.
She's a good woman and Pony's a good man and they fell out of love and nothing, not even the love for their babies, could put them back together.
"There ain't no good guy or bad guy," Pony said to his brothers one night, drunk, explaining his upcoming divorce. Then he paused, "things fall apart." Pony wants to cry that night, not just because of his divorce but because his brothers don't get that reference, Aimee would.
But Pony still helped his daughter pick out Mother's Day flowers for Aimee and he knows that she'll help them pick out a mug for Father's Day.
He's going to hire a lawyer, try to get a better custody arrangement. The advance for the article will go to getting an attorney.
He takes a swig of beer.
"Hey, Miss. Hazer Stargazer," he says to his niece.
He misses his babies.
Mary is putting Haze in her car seat. She's fast asleep. Cathy's children are helping clean up the living room. "I don't get it, we didn't make the mess" C.D. points out.
Cathy puts the dishes in the sink. Geena offers to help, despite Cathy's protestations that she's a guest.
Pony tells a story about Daphne at school, laughing, shaking his head, when he talks about his daughters he becomes animated, happy even.
"How's Paige?" Soda asks softly.
Paige has been seeing a counselor because of her parents' divorce.
Pony straightens up and gives it to his brother straight, "better, she's…" Pony doesn't know what to say except his daughter is amazing and he loves her and he hated himself and Aimee for making her so miserable.
But mostly, he just hated himself.
She's a sensitive girl, but therapy seems to have helped her a lot. Now, she goes just to talk and play with her counselor. Daphne, Aimee and Pony join her, to help Paige, they become a family unit again.
The three brothers sit on Darry's picnic table, Darry, Soda, Pony. They look up at the sky.
"Can you imagine if Mom met Angela?" Soda says with a laugh.
"Glory," Pony shakes his head. "Was she here?"
"Delightful as ever," Darry says with a chuckle.
"She wasn't that bad," Soda says defensively, Mary's right, in a few months Angela and him will be grandparents to the same baby. He doesn't like the idea of talking smack about her no more.
"Mom would have so much fun with my girls," Pony says quietly, "with all the kids."
"Can you believe she would have been a great-grandma this year?" Soda shakes his head.
Darry looks at his fingernails, "I miss her everyday."
Things Fall Apart refers to the book by Chinua Achebe
"there ain't no good guy" is a reference to the Dave Mason song, "We Just Disagree"
S.E. Hinton owns.
Thank you for reviewing! :)
