"Did Thanksgiving come early?" Red muttered dazedly as he walked into the kitchen and stopped short.
Hyde peered around him to look, and saw that there was a mountain of food already on the table and trays of it formed a line on the counter near the sliding door. Kitty was bent over the oven and straightened as she heard him, slamming the oven door shut with a loud bang.
She threw down her oven mitts and glared at her husband, then felt around the stovetop behind her for her glass of wine. Her fingers closed around the bowl of the wineglass and she seized it and downed it all in one gulp.
"Oh-kay," Hyde muttered, and pushed around Red to get to the fridge.
Red looked at Kitty apprehensively. "Uh, honey, did you forget to take your pills again?"
Kitty shot him another murderous glare and grabbed the half empty wine bottle, splashing a generous amount into the glass in her hand. She brandished the bottle at him.
"You. You talk some sense into your son. I don't care how. But you tell him he has to be back for Christmas, he has to! And he can't, he can't!" her voice choked on a sob, "be staying in Africa for another year. He simply CAN'T!" she shrieked the last word at Red then downed the rest of her wine in a long wild swallow, before bursting into sobs and flying into his arms.
Red patted her awkwardly on her back, looking a little lost, and shot a helpless and befuddled look at Hyde. "Er…," he said.
"Wait, Mrs. Forman," Hyde interrupted, trying to be heard over the sound of her bawling, "you sayin' that Forman won't be back after his year is up?"
Kitty wailed. "No! He won't! My boy doesn't want to come home!" she yowled and broke into a fresh round of sobs.
"Uh. There now, Kitty," said Red. "It's not so bad. Let the dumbass stay there if he wants to. I'm sure Africa appreciates him more than we do. And hey! Maybe if he stays away long enough, he'll forget to come home!" He brightened visibly at the thought.
Kitty ceased howling and looked up at him balefully. "Red Forman, you can't have just said what I think you said."
He looked suitably chastised. "I'm just saying that for once in his life, he's doing something worth respecting — which is more than what I can say for the rest of the dumbasses who don't actually live in this house."
Donna, Randy and Fez chose that exact moment to come trudging up from the basement. "And there they are!" he muttered pointedly, giving them all a resentful glare.
"But. But!" Kitty hiccoughed and struggled to compose herself. She failed miserably, sobbing all over again. Wails of 'My baby!' and 'can't hiccough possibly hiccough mean to hiccough hiccough' interspersed her furious sobs.
The gang lined up along the cabinets in the kitchen, arms crossed or on their hips (Fez) and stared curiously at the scene in front of them.
A can of beer fizzed open and Hyde brought it to his lips.
"What's going on?" Donna whispered loudly to him.
He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Forman called to say he preferred African Christmases to American." He took another swallow from the can. "Oh, and that he was gonna be there another year," he gestured to a hysterical Kitty. "You can see how that's workin' out. Heh," he snickered, and thumped Red on the back as he left the kitchen.
It was difficult for Donna to remain unaffected as she took in the news. Sure, she was with Randy now, and she was happy with him, but a part of her was dismayed that she wouldn't see Eric for yet another year.
Thank God I didn't wait for him, she thought fiercely, the selfish bastard. But she was subdued and rather quiet for the rest of the day and the feeling stayed with her for a good two weeks after that.
"Your mom's pretty upset," remarked Jackie to Eric on the phone.
She heard him sigh in reply.
Truthfully, she was a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to see him this year as well, but a selfish part of her was glad that he had decided to stay on in Africa. She was happy because she had been very nervous about how their new relationship would survive if he had come back to Wisconsin, and she had been afraid that things would have gone back to the way they were before he had left. Now that he had decided to stay on, they could continue as they were and she didn't have to worry about losing her only friend.
The larger part of her though, the side that truly cared and wanted the best for Eric, knew and understood why he had to stay on, and she respected that and left him be, silently supporting him in the best way that she knew how.
"Don't worry. I'll be by to keep her company and listen to her talk about you. A lot," she teased.
Eric was grateful. He was a good son and he didn't like the idea of his mother sobbing buckets over his need to stay away. But he couldn't go back to Wisconsin just yet.
He couldn't go back and act the good son, the laid-back friend, the untroubled person that he used to be when he wasn't, not anymore. Going back and having to pretend, weighed too heavily for him, and was a load that he simply couldn't take on his already overburdened shoulders. And he would act the part too, just to save his friends and family the trouble and pain of knowing the truth.
Jackie knew, and understood, if not in actuality, then on some sub-conscious level, for Eric never revealed. She knew he was suffering, sensed it to some degree, and the sensitive side that had been deeply buried in her psyche that never made an appearance until her deep, abiding love for Steven had brought it out in spades, kicked in and she acted on pure instinct, and gave Eric the support that he needed without once pressuring him to open up more than he could have.