Thanksgiving 2019—
Sean, and Sue are the first to arrive for Thanksgiving dinner. Sue gasps when she enters the house, and finds the house decluttered, and every wall painted a neutral color. She is so caught off guard that she nearly drops her bowl of green Jell-o salad. Mike sits on the couch wearing a rust color flannel.
"Did someone else move in?"
"No. Since all of you moved out we decided it would be nice to spruce the place up a bit."
Sue's eyes fall to the hardwood floor beneath her feet, "I bet all of this cost a pretty penny."
He nods, "It was definitely an investment. All new flooring, and a new metal roof. We gutted the kitchen, and the bathrooms. We pulled down all the wall paper, and fixed all the holes. There is fresh paint on every wall."
"It looks nice," Sue grimaces.
"Really nice," Sean nods in agreement.
"What did you have to do to come up with that kind of money? Sell a body part? Where is mom? Dad, did you do something with mom?"
"What?! No. I think she's in the bathroom."
The door flies open, and Brick and Cindy wander in behind Sue, and Sean.
"Brick when you said they were going to do a few updates I thought you meant changing the lightbulb out front," Cindy elbows him.
Brick pulls at the collar of his shirt, "That is usually what it means, Cindy. A guy goes to college a year early, and they just change the whole place. Who knew?"
The four of them file in, and nervously hover around Mike.
Mike shrugs, "Brick you don't live here anymore. We figured with you halfway across the country at college you wouldn't be around much, so it would be safe to make the place look nice."
Brick furrows his brow, "Michigan is not halfway around the country."
Lexie, and Axl fly through the door arguing with one another. Three steps in they stop dead in their tracks.
"Did someone die? Why does it look so nice in here? Has someone been cleaning, and painting? What the Heck?"
"Listen, guys now that you're all here I can warn you. Make sure that you don't stare at your mom when she comes out. She is feeling a little self-conscious about herself right now, and I don't want to unleash the beast."
Sue shrugs, "What are you talking about?"
"She's let herself go and gained a bunch of weight with all of us out of the house, hasn't she?" Axl guesses.
Twenty seven minutes later they are all sitting down to the table when Mike finally convinces Frankie to join them. Axl is half way through eating a roll. All eyes gravitate on the matriarch of the Heck family as she comes to join them. Brick is seated between Sue and Cindy. He elbows his sister, and mouths 'say something'. Mouths hang agape, as all eyeballs are glued to Frankie. She wears an orange sweatshirt with a huge turkey on front.
"Mom, I love your fingernails. They are very festive," Sue smiles awkwardly, as if this situation could allow for anything else.
"Thanks, for noticing Sue," she smiles as she and Mike take their respective seats.
As Mike quietly begins to cut the turkey on his plate he glances over, and notices that Axl looks as if he is going to have a stroke. He gently kicks him under the table, as he shakes his head. Axl shoves his chair away from the table.
"Dad, I can't. What is going on here?! My head is literally going to explode if I don't get some kind of explanation. I came home for a typical dysfunctional Heck family holiday, and I walk into invasion of the body snatchers, or something. Not to be rude, but mom that better be some sort of hideous tumor. I can also accept that she swallowed an entire turkey whole."
Brick clears his throat, "I think what Axl is trying to express is concern regarding your…" he looks to Sue.
"Condition," Sue supplies.
Frankie sits next to Sue looking less than amused. She shakes her head, and rolls her eyes.
"See Mike, I told you they wouldn't understand," she begins crying, and runs out of the room.
"What is happening?" Lexie chimes in.
"What is wrong with all of you? Can't we just get through one meal like normal people?" Mike growls.
"Maybe if our mother didn't look as if she swallowed an entire watermelon. Please tell me that you guys floated April fool's because none of us were here," Axl responds.
"There has to be some rational explanation. I am sure that all of mom's um… lady bits are out of… um… commission," Sue nearly chokes to death on that sentence.
"Her advanced age suggests that her eggs have long since been released," Cindy nods in agreement.
"And," Axl gesticulates, "Dad would never agree to another one of us."
"No. I would not. I did not, and I have not," Mike responds.
Lexie tilts her head, "What if it isn't her egg?"
Everyone slowly shifts towards Mike. "I think I should probably go console her."
Axl shakes his head, "Not until we get an explanation. What is going on here? We come home to this place expecting it to be the same dump it always has been. Meanwhile it's not a dump. It's practically the Hilton. Then our mother rolls into the kitchen for dinner, and she looks eleven months pregnant. That can't be possible because our mother is old. So old."
"Could you keep it down?" Mike shushes.
"If you could catch us up, I am sure all of us would return to being calm, and rational human beings," Brick insists.
"With all of you out of the house last fall your mom, and I went on a little vacation. When the church had a couple's retreat one weekend we couldn't find a reason to say no. We actually had a great time, and we met some really amazing people from all over the world."
"Cut to the chase," Axl growls as he paces in front of the table, and chews on his cuticle.
"There was a couple there who were having a lot of struggle to have a baby."
"No! No! Don't say that," Axl warns.
"So after a lot of consideration, a lot of back and forth, and medical exams your mom agreed to be a gestational carrier for one of the couples we met."
Axl lays down on the floor, and falls silent. Sue unfurrows her brow.
"I am just trying to clarify for the group. What you're saying, is that our mother is in fact pregnant?" Brick gesticulates.
"Yes."