BOXING DAY

Most of the family were going to spend the day near a park which they could enjoy the winter weather. There were even some hills nearby so the girls could go sledding. As the girls ate their cold cereal, and Ben prepared some toast for them, Riley entered, and moved a little awkwardly. "Is something wrong?" her mother asked.

"I'm not feeling as well as I could."

Mrs. Perrin felt Riley's forehead. "Well you don't have a fever."

"No, it's more something with my stomach. Like I ate something wrong."

"Are you nauseous?" Ben asked.

"Maybe it's a baby!" Emma guessed.

"Where?" asked both her sisters, with Mathilda getting off her chair and looking under the table.

"Emma, your mother isn't pregnant," Ben corrected.

"No, I think I just need to lie down a little after breakfast." Riley poured herself some cereal and started eating.

"Does that really help?" Mrs. Perrin inquired.

"What? Oh yes, it does. Thank you for asking."

Mr. Perrin returned from walking the dog, who then went in a corner and slept, having spent most of the night and evening sleeping as well. Mr. Perrin was going to spend the day at various boxing day sales. As the children brushed their teeth, Mrs. Perrin Skyped with Rebecca who went on about how lovely the Bahamas was yesterday. "It's so wonderful that you're happy." her mother replied. Meanwhile, Ben prepared some snacks so that wouldn't have to come back for lunch. Mathilda was wondering whether to bring along both Mr. Heffalump and Mr. Penguin, while Ruth helped her grandfather fish out the sled from the garage. Emma was flipping through the television channels, somewhat annoyed since the channel listings were different from the ones in Manhattan. "How's the weather Mr. Perrin?" Ben asked.

"It's about 14 F" (Or -10 C)

Soon Mr. Perrin drove off the car to go to a nearby Mall. Meanwhile Ruth and Emma were getting slightly impatient with their grandmother who was still Skyping. She, in turn, as also impatient when she abruptly stopped and the children weren't immediately ready. Ben quickly smoothed any frustrations, and soon they were close to leaving. "Ben, are you leaving?" Riley called from upstairs.

"Yeah, almost. Are you feeling better?"

"Actually, I'm just a bit under the weather."

"Well, you know where we'll all be when you feel better."

"Ben, I don't want to be all alone in the house. If you could stay with me..."

Ben looked at his mother-in-law who sighed and accepted this turn of events. "OK. I just have to dress Mathilda and I'll be with you shortly."

The girls were soon outside. Ruth placed Mathilda on the sled along with Mr. Penguin and started to pull it. She then realized it was heavier than she thought it would be, and Emma came and helped her. Mrs. Perrin joined them and they all started walking the few blocks to the park.

"Are they all gone?" Riley asked when Ben entered her bedroom.

"Uh-huh. They just crossed the street. You can see them out the window." He turned to Riley who was lying on the bed. "Is there anything specifically wrong with you? Would you like some tea? Do you just need a nap? Maybe I could get..." but Riley interrupted her husband by reaching out and embracing him.

"Riley?!"

"Duh! I'm not really sick! I'm just pretending to be so we could have some time alone."

"So just to be clear, your hard-working and endlessly tolerant mother is going to take care of our three rambunctious children just so that we can fool around for an hour?"

Riley was embarrassed. "Well kinda."

"Works for me." And he took off his sweater and joined Riley on the bed.

Half an hour later, Ben closely held Riley and lightly touched her smiling face. "Riley, have you ever thought about having another child?"

Riley's mood soured immediately. "Is this something that I have to immediately worry about?"

"No, no, still not possible. For both of us. But I read somewhere that in the next five years or so, they'll be able to reverse vasectomies and tubal ligations."

"Ben, no offense, but why would you want to? We already have three children in a very small apartment, and for the next nine years at least, they're only going to get bigger."

"I know it's not the most practical idea..."

"Well, no, not remotely."

"But look. I'm 31, while Danny just had his first child at 34. He could easily have his last one when he's 40, which means he'll be taking care of his kids until he's 58. But when I'm only 46, Mathilda will be off to college."

"So? Why would you want to keep doing that?"

"I mean people tell me, well not very often, but occasionally, that I'm a good father."

"And you are."

"But that's all I am. I mean being a bartender pays the bills and I'm competent at it. But once the kids are grown up, it's not much to peg my life on. It's not like being a lawyer, where you can really work my mind. In time, you'll really be someone people admire. Not just your friends and family, the whole city, maybe the whole state. But without the girls, I'm not much of anything."

"Ben why would think that? There's so much you can do once you don't have to spend much of your waking life looking after kids!"

"Hmm. Maybe I could get a college degree."

"Let's not go nuts. Paying for three kids' education is going to be trouble enough."

"I told you Sanders should have won."

"I mean look on the plus side. People think you're a great father. That's more than they say about me."

"What? I say you're a great mother all the time. And sometimes it's not just to have sex with you." Riley laughed and Ben kissed her. "Look, the kids love you."

"Well yes, but they don't know any better."

"Danny and Tucker say you're a great mother."

"Yeah, but they're not really the best judges."

"But Naomi says you're a good mother."

"But her son is so kind and wonderful, and he can almost read more than Matty Jenny can."

"But Ruth and Emma's classmates' parents think you're a good mother."

"Actually many think you're doing most of the work, what with your schedule and attending meetings."

"Look, who is badmouthing your paren..." and then Ben realized the answer. "Look, the best thing we could do right now as parents is get dressed and have a fun Boxing Day with our children. Let's see." And then he noticed his T-shirt behind him on the pillow. "Oh, there it is. How many times do you think we can fool your mother with this trick?"

"I'd say once. Or less."

About half an hour later, Ben and Riley rejoined Mrs. Perrin and the children at the park. "It's a good thing we came later," Ben said, bringing along the snacks. Mrs. Perrin winced at forgetting them, and briefly glared at Riley for reminding her of her failure. The kids were happy. Mathilda was learning how to make snow angels. Ruth was playing on some jungle gym equipment. Emma was making snowballs and throwing them at a tree some distance away. Mathilda got up and called out to Mrs. Perrin. "Look, me Grandma! Look what I did!" Mrs. Perrin nodded indifferently and Mathilda then ran to the jungle gym. She climbed up to the lowest level and circled its wooden square in triumph. Ruth climbed off the gym and walked around. Ben looked around and wondered what to do. Then an idea came to him. He went over to Emma and gave her advice on how to throw snowballs better, leaving Riley with her mother and the other two daughters.

"There's a lot of snow around Emma. You know there were a couple of times when I was your age when we built snow forts. There often wasn't enough snow, but when your grandparents were kids there was more and they had a lot of fun."

"There some kids over there trying to make one. It's a shame we're going back to the city tomorrow."

"Yeah. Maybe kids will make one at your school."

"Maybe. But then the school will probably tear it down because it's a danger risk."

Ben frowned. "Well that sucks. Don't tell your mother I said that."

"Don't worry Dad. I got your back. Hey look at that!" And Emma pointed to Mathilda walking on a snow drift. Although it was very deep, the snow was crisp enough and Mathilda light enough that she didn't fall through. Meanwhile Riley was pulling Ruth along in the sled looking for a hill to go down, while Mrs. Perrin followed behind. "This hill looks a little steep."

"Oh for heaven's sake Riley, you can be such a wimp." And Mrs. Perrin kicked the sled down the hill. Once it reached the bottom she tried to prevent Riley from helping get the sled back up again. "It's an important life lesson. Pleasures involve lots of tedious work just to get a few seconds that are often more frightening than enjoyable." Notwithstanding this, Ruth went up and down the hill several times, and Emma joined her, while Ben watched Mathilda and Mr. Penguin. Mrs. Perrin was soon bored and started calling people on her cell phone.

As the day wore on Ben and Riley got the snacks out for their children. Once they were finished Mathilda said she needed to go the bathroom. Ben took it upon himself to find a place and eventually found one without any embarrassing incident. As they walked back, Ben saw Emma and Ruth with several other girls at the jungle gym. But then he saw Emma push a girl a year younger than herself down to the ground.

Ben raced over and put Mathilda down. "Emma what are you doing!? That's not how you treat people!"

Emma turned to Ruth. "Tell Dad what this girl was asking you to do."

"The girl said she would give me a surprise if I licked this metal pole."

Ruth was completely ingenuous when she said this. "Is this true?" he asked the girl and her friends. The girl and her clique nodded shamefacedly. "Then you should count yourself lucky that you faced Emma instead of me." The clique quickly retreated just as Riley joined them. She had been distracted because her mother had been lecturing her about financial advice, and then lectured her further when she found Riley didn't have the savings to take advantage of the advice in the first place. Ben explained the situation. "Still Emma, you shouldn't push people like that." Riley admonished.

"Quite right. It's not like you're your mother pushing me around like we were kids."

"I don't understand," Ruth wondered. "Why was Emma so upset?"

"Ruth, if you had licked the pole, your tongue would have stuck to it in the cold." Emma explained. "You'd have to pull it off and you'd lose some of your tongue." The children took to other activities. Ruth decided to make a snowman. Mathilda was curious about how hockey worked. Riley explained the basic rules, and Ben made a snowball that served as a makeshift puck. Emma noticed a fallen tree branch and brought it over to Mathilda, who used it to push the snowball/puck a few feet. Satisfied she then sat down on a park bench.

"Uh no, Matty Jenny." Riley explained. "You see in an actual hockey game there are several big players trying to push the puck into the other side's goal with sticks. It's very exciting."

Ben spoke up. "Let me show it to you better. Wheelers vs the Perrins. Me and Emma will be one side, and your mother and grandmother will be another."

"No, I don't think I'll bother." said Mrs. Perrin, who was clearly bored. So Ben and Emma played against Riley alone, who said she could beat them single handed. There weren't enough sticks so the game of ice hockey soon turned into a game of snow soccer, before the ball fell apart after repeated kicks. Emma then got the inspiration of pulling along Mathilda and Mr. Penguin in the sled. She noticed that there was a skating rink nearby and thought she could push Mathilda across the ice. But the rink was still covered with snow from yesterday. And her parents vetoed the idea of using the parking lot. But they still found other enjoyable things to do.

Meanwhile Ben tried to engage Mrs. Perrin in conversation. "The kids are so active. What was your favorite sport as a child?"

"Swimming."

Riley spoke up. "What was your favorite thing about winter days like this?"

Mrs. Perrin thought. "I liked the hot chocolate and marshmallows we had at the end of it. There was this special recipe that I loved."

"That sounds wonderful. We should make some when we get home. It hasn't been cold enough before now to make it this year but the children would love having some."

"Well there isn't any cocoa or marshmallows at home. I actually haven't had any hot chocolate since I had Rebecca. And I haven't made any since before Rebecca graduated from high school." Mrs. Perrin thought some more. "Also, I completely forgot the recipe." As the afternoon wore on, Ben and Riley tried to engage Mrs. Perrin in conversation, with the same awkward and inconclusive results. Eventually however Ruth yelled "Mommy!"

"What is it dear?"

"I can't push this snowman anymore." And well she couldn't, since it was now absurdly big. "You should be proud Emma." Ben said. "That's a very big ball you've made."

"All she's done is make a very big ball." Mrs. Perrin pointed out. "It's getting late. And a second ball would be too heavy for her to lift onto the first."

"You know what? If we all chip in we can make a proper snowman together." And Ruth started to make the third ball that would be the snowman's head, while Ben, Riley and Emma all made their own balls they would combine to make the second ball. Mathilda sat on the bench and talked to Mr. Penguin, while Mrs. Perrin looked impatiently at her watch. Fortunately, it didn't take long to complete the snowball with everyone working together. It was now getting dark and Ben carried a drowsy Mathilda, while Riley pulled Ruth in the sled.

Once back at home Emma asked what was for dinner. "Leftovers, obviously." Mrs. Perrin replied. "The whole point of cooking a ridiculous amount of food on Christmas is not having to cook anything for the next three days afterwards." She went into the study and started Skype with Rebecca. After a couple of minutes Rlley knocked on the door. "Riley what is it? I spent all day with your children. Can't I spend five minutes with my other daughter?"

"I was just thinking I might make a souffle for desert." Such a souffle was Mrs. Perrin's favorite desert.

"Really? Well you'll have to get the ingredients yourself. I don't feel like making another grocery run just for you to get them."

"Umm, OK."

"And you'll have to go quickly. The stores are likely to close soon."

And so she did, and after some stressful racing about the neighborhood to get the ingredients was soon busy trying to make it. Ruth entered the kitchen and tugged at her shirt from behind. "What is it?" Riley barked. Ruth drew back and Riley instantly realized her mistake and reached out to comfort her. "I'm sorry Ruth. You just startled me." Ruth showed her mother a painting she had made from her paint set. It showed the three sisters with their parents and their grandmother out in the snow. "That's very pretty Ruth. I'm trying to make a special dessert from Grandma, but you can show it to the others."

So Ruth went into the living room and showed it to everyone. "There's Mr. Penguin!" Mathilda happily pointed out.

"Good job Ruth" added her father.

"Nice work, Ruthie" Emma agreed.

"Oh, that's very nice," Mr. Perrin added, who had finally come home after indifferent success at boxing day sales.

"I do not look like that," Mrs. Perrin said to herself, who was still on Skype with Rebecca and had been for more than an hour and a half.

Indeed Becky was the main subject of conversation over the dinner of reheated leftovers. It certainly wasn't the souffle, whose flaws Mrs. Perrin didn't hesitate to point out. But she was actually very happy about Becky. But the fact that she had gone out of her way to get the locket over the last two days, notwithstanding that she was in the Bahamas, was especially worthy of praise. Mrs. Perrin spoke with special emotion about her own mother, who had died suddenly of a heart attack a year and a half ago. Jennifer Perrin's father had died of a stroke when Riley was only 12, and in the point of moving things around much of the family heritage had been misplaced and apparently lost forever. Even more striking was the locket itself. "I remember when I was Ruth's age. One day I had returned from school and showed her my first report card. She was proud of my marks, and she sat me down on a chair, and told me to wait. A few minutes later she returned wearing the locket. She told me the locket had been given to her by her own mother as a wedding gift. In turn it had belonged to my mother's maternal grandmother who had tragically died in childbirth, and who insisted on her deathbed that it be given to my grandmother who was then five years old."

"What's so special about the locket?" wondered Ben.

"What my mother told me that day, wasn't just that the locket was a family heirloom. It was to be given at a moment of special love for a daughter. That's why my mother got it when she was married, and her mother got it when her mother was on her deathbed."

"What if you don't have a daughter?" Emma asked.

"Then you give it to a sister, or a niece or an aunt or a cousin or somebody else," Mrs. Perrin almost snapped. "The point is that when the locket was lost my mother was heartbroken. And not just at the time. She felt sad when I was married, she felt sad when my father died. But she was saddest of all when I just had Becky. She came into the hospital room where I was holding her sleeping in my arms, not even a day old. She told me she was so happy, and that Becky was so beautiful. And we spoke about that for a few minutes, and then she said she wished she had the locket so that she could give it to me right then. And then she broke into tears."

"What about when she had Mom? She is older," Emma inquired, but Ben told her to shush.

"The point is that once I have the locket back I can give it to Rebecca at her wedding."

"So you've been asking Rebecca to spend her Christmas vacation running around getting this locket, and then you're just going to give it back to her in less than five months?" Mr. Perrin wondered.

"Yes! It would be so sweet!" And there were tears in her eyes.

After dinner Ruth brought down the big book of games and tried to get Emma to play one of them. Emma was not really interested, but couldn't find a way to say no without being rude and breaking her Christmas promise. Meanwhile Mathilda had found a toddler's book that used to be her aunt's and looked at the pictures. Meanwhile Mr. Perrin talked with his wife. "If you took the trouble to watch it once, I'm sure you would like it."

"But you just watched it last night with your brother!"

"You can watch it more than once."

"But the language! We have three granddaughters who don't need to know the words!"

Meanwhile Riley looked over her upcoming schedule and entered the living room. "Ben, you have an appointment to give blood the Friday of next week."

"Thanks, I was wondering when that was."

"Since when do you give blood?" Mrs. Perrin asked.

"Well, this is the only the second time. I thought it would be a good idea to get into the habit. You can do it every 56 days."

Mrs. Perrin said nothing and went to the study. Ben was going through the TV channels looking for a schedule. "What are you doing baby?" Riley asked.

"I'm trying to find a movie that your mother might like."

Riley frowned. "Give the remote to me," she said with determination. A few minutes later she knocked on the study door. "Mom, Little Women starts at 8:30. Would you be interested in watching it with us?"

"Which version is it?"

"It's the one with Wynona Ryder and Susan Sarandon."

"Oh that's a good one. I remember taking you to it and you not appreciating it at all."

Well I was only four at the time, Riley thought. But after spending the interceding time reading to Mathilda while Ruth and Emma played a board game commemorating Nelly Bly's journey around the world in the 1870s, soon the entire family was watching Little Women. "This family has no testicles whatsoever," Mr. Perrin said to himself.

"I'm sorry, Matty, but it is past your bedtime." Ben said about fifteen minutes into the movie. "Get into your pajamas and we'll join you in a few minutes."

But aside from that interruption, watching the movie was actually a pleasant experience. Ben was happily surprised that he liked the movie so much. Ruth contentedly watched it, while resting in her mother's lap. When the movie actually ended Riley kissed her daughter. "Time for bed, darling. You were a little sleepy weren't you?"

"I guess so. But I liked it. I wish I had a third sister."

Riley picked up Ruth and carried her upstairs to bed. "Ruth, there's no way your father and I can guarantee that. And remember, you'd have to share your bedroom with her. It's already fairly crowded with the three of you already."

"I suppose so. Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"How come there were four sisters at the beginning of the movie, but only three at the end?"

Riley thought for a minute to come up with a convincing lie. "Well, it was a very long movie. And movies are very long and complicated things to make. Maybe the directors mislaid her."

One problem Riley and Ben had successfully managed was how to arrange three separate bedtimes for their children. As such Ben gave Emma some more time with the television after she and her sister had gotten into their pajamas while the Perrins got ready for bed. While Riley was saying a quiet goodnight to Ruth and not waking up Mathilda, Emma turned from the television to her father. "Is there something wrong with Mom?"

It has been such a long day that Ben almost forgot that Riley had pretended to be sick in the morning so that she and Ben could have sex. "Well, she was a little under the weather this morning, but you can see she's all better."

"That's not what I meant. Sometimes she doesn't seem happy."

You really are my daughter. You're just like a Wheeler. You can be blindly oblivious and self-absorbed but then realize that someone you care about is hurting. Ben wondered how to approach the problem. He didn't want Emma to worry, but he also didn't want to be complacent. "You know that your mother wasn't the happiest girl when she was your age. She wasn't a popular kid, people teased her for being fat. But your mother was strong, and she adapted to that. And one of those ways was doing well at those things, like schoolwork, where she didn't depend on fickle children to praise her. And as she grew up, she continued to work hard and she continued to get that praise. And then she not only graduated from law school, and not only passed the bar, but she also joined a prestigious law firm. Now this was particularly gratifying. Graduating from law school is not a license to print money, despite what you might have heard. Most graduates either are in small firms, don't practice at all, or enter some other profession. So entering her law firm, in Manhattan of all places, was very gratifying indeed.

"But there was a problem. Several of the lawyers there were very dishonest. They were very bad people, and when they realized they were going to be caught, they tried to frame your mother. But they didn't succeed. Instead, your mother made sure they were punished. But as a consequence the firm collapsed, and your mother had to take a new job at a considerable loss of salary and prestige."

"Is that why Mom's an ambulance chaser? Like Paul Newman in that old movie we saw a couple of months ago?"

"Your mother is not an ambulance chaser. She's a public interest lawyer."

"What's the difference?"

"Well do you remember that housing discrimination lawsuit Mom won earlier this year? If she was just an ambulance chaser she would have been paid in contingency, and we could have bought a four-bedroom condo."

"A four bedroom condo?! In Manhattan?! Holy sh-"

"Emma!"

"Sorry. But to be fair, I didn't actually swear."

"Look, sometimes your mother needs to be reminded that she is all that she can be. And sometimes that requires the praise of people who are least likely to give it. And right now, that's a little tricky."

"Would it help her if I was kinder to Ruth?"

"Emma, you shouldn't be kind to your sister because Riley and me want you to."

"I shouldn't?"

"No, you should be kind to Ruth because you love her."

Emma grimaced. "Well, I just walked into that one."

Soon everyone else was in bed, and after looking over the things she would have to do the first thing in the morning, Riley joined her husband in bed. "This was a pretty good day. The girls all seemed to be happy." Ben said. Riley murmured something. "They were all right? Ruth didn't say something when I was talking to Emma?"

"No, it's all good." But she turned away from him when he turned off the light. Ben kissed her good night, but the sense of unhappiness was still there. Why can't your own mother love you, he thought.