Brenda stifled a shriek as she was yanked into the hall gruffly. She stared up into the fierce glare of her ex; or soon-to-be ex-husband.
"What on earth, Fritz?" She hissed, snatching her wrist from his grasp.
"You want to tell me why your parents don't know that I've moved out?" He growled in response.
"Well, it just hasn't come up. I was going to tell them over the holidays, face to face."
"So they don't know about Sharon, either?" He pressed.
"Fritz. If I didn't tell them we were separated, I certainly didn't mention my…" she trailed off.
"Your girlfriend?" He sneered.
"Well, that doesn't seem serious enough to describe it, but yes. I suppose that'll have to do. I haven't told my parents about my girlfriend yet." She turned to walk away, and then turned back. "But I'll be telling them tonight. So please don't think that you 'covering' for me means anything. I appreciate it, but it won't be necessary beyond this evening." She stalked off down the hall, tossing her hair behind her.
~~~LATER THAT DAY~~~~
Brenda blinked owlishly at the enormous silver trailer parked in front of her house. What in the name of all the southern fried hell was this? She shut the door to her car, and shrugged the strap of her bag over her shoulder, before moving in to take a closer look. The sound of her screen door slamming shut caused her to whirl around, coming nearly nose to nose with her father.
"Daddy, you scared me! I thought y'all would be taking a nap!" She tucked her arm beneath his, and kissed his weathered cheek.
"Well, now, we're not decrepit, Brenda Leigh, just retired. Your mama and I got plenty of rest on the way here, thanks to the surprisingly comfortable bed in this here trailer." He patted the metal behemoth cheerfully.
"You slept—that's YOUR trailer?"
"It sure is! Well, we're not getting any younger, are we, and you're always so busy, and your brothers, they've got kids, and it's hard for y'all to make the trips to us, so we thought, why not come to you? We'll spend the winter months here in LA, and the summer months with Clay Jr. over in Virginia. I suppose we'll see Russell whenever he's not on the haul. Don't know why he can't get a settled job. Long distance trucking is a surefire way to get hooked on those methamphetamines what make your teeth fall out."
"Daddy! Russ still had all his teeth at the last family get together, so you hush!"
"That was 4 years ago. A lot can happen in 4 years. Your mama tells me Charlene isn't going by Charlene anymore, wants to be called Charlie, and she's hanging out with those hoodlums over by the mini-mart. You remember when you saw her? She was 12, and wanted to be just like Auntie Brenda when she grew up. Now, the rate she's going, Auntie Brenda will be bringing her in for selling smack to pre-schoolers."
"Daddy! That's enough. If mama heard you say that, you'd be spending the night in the trailer!" Brenda propelled them towards the door. "Besides, I just talked to Charlie on that Facebook last month. She's got almost all As, except for a B in Spanish, and a C in phys ed. So don't you worry about her. Let's go see what mama's making for dinner. I didn't have much to work with, I was going to go shopping, but it just slipped my mind."
"Thought your Fritz took care of the shopping. He slacking on the job?" A fierce scowl creased his face.
"No. No, it' my fault. Fritz didn't slack…" Brenda trailed off, and hauled the screen door open, gesturing Clay through first.
"Willie Rae! Look what I dragged in from the cold!" Clay boomed as he headed for the couch.
"Brenda! So glad you're home already! Christmas Eve dinner is almost done! What time will Fritz be getting here?" Willie Rae stood at the stove, whipping something in a pan as though her life depended on it. Brenda took a deep breath, and guessed garlic mashed potatoes, along with ham, of course, and greens, or maybe green bean casserole. The smells of her childhood felt somewhat out of place here, but her stomach growled loudly, and she had to admit that it had been a long time since she'd had any downhome cooking.
"Fritz won't be joining us. Mama, Daddy, I need to tell y'all something, but I don't want it to ruin Christmas, all right?" Brenda stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, so both her parents could hear her.
"What do you mean, Fritz won't be joining us? Surely the FBI gives him the occasional holiday!" Clay clicked the remote, sending whatever sports program he was watching into silence.
"A while ago, you remember I was applying to maybe be the Chief of Police? Well, at the same time, Fritz got offered a promotion, but it meant moving back to DC. And I knew he really wanted to try, but I wasn't ready to leave my job, especially not with the possibility of my own promotion. And we'd been noticing our differences more, anyway. So I told him to go on ahead without me." Brenda shuffled to the fridge, and grabbed a bottle of water.
"He was in DC for most of the year. When you'd call, I just didn't know how to tell you that we weren't together, so I just didn't mention it, and told you he was at work. Well, he was at work. But it was in Washington DC." She took a long sip, and toyed with the cap.
"But he was at the station today! He helped wrap presents." Willie Rae furrowed her brow as she greased a pie tin.
"He was at the station today, that's true. About 2 months ago, he was offered his old job back, and he took it."
"Well that's great! He's back, you're not chief, so call him up! We'll set an extra plate, and hang a little mistletoe over the front door." Willie Rae beamed.
"Well, that's the thing, mama. He's back in LA, and back as the FBI Liasion to the department, but we're not back together."
"Whyever not?" Clay's foot tapped restlessly on the carpet.
"You see, while he was away, he met a woman. And so did I." Brenda decided that fudging this little bit of the truth wouldn't be the thing that sent her to hell; but telling her parent's she'd essentially cheated just might.
"You mean you met a fella." Clay corrected, a thunderous expression crossing his face.
"Course that's what she means, Clay, don't be nitpicky, let her tell what happened." Willie Rae leaned hard on the dough she was rolling out.
"I mean, I met a woman. Y'all met her too, actually, today at the station." Her voice cracked a little on the word station, and she took another pull from the water bottle.
"You mean that nice Sharon? She helped me make marshmallow casserole for those poor dears who had to work tonight. What does she have to do with anything? You aren't having an affair with her husband, are you?" Willie Rae held the rolling pin aloft, and Brenda backed up a step, just in case.
"No ma'am. I am not having an affair with her husband. She's not married. We are, that is, she and I feel that we're, the thing is, I love her. " She closed her eyes, waiting for the outrage.
"Of course you love her. We all love our best girlfriends, Brenda! I know you haven't had many, but it's normal." Willie Rae went back to rolling out the pie crust.
"Honey, I don't think that's what Brenda Leigh means." Clay pulled a toothpick from behind his ear, and chomped down.
"No, mama, I mean, I love her, and she loves me, and we're in love." Brenda squeezed the teeth of the bottle cap into her palm.
"So, you're like Jodi Foster and that nice lady we never see?"
"Well, yes. Yes. We are."
"So, I might still get grandbabies?" Willie Rae peered closely at Brenda's face.
"Mama! Sharon's already got kids! They're old enough to give HER grandbabies!"
"So I'd have great-grandbabies, and grown grandchildren?"
"Well, I suppose, yes, that would technically be correct." Brenda tried to imagine the proper Raydor clan and her boisterous UGA loving family.
"Technically nothing. You can get gay married here. I don't care who you love, Brenda Leigh, but you will not live in sin, you understand me?" Clay's words were clipped around the toothpick clenched in his teeth.
"Daddy! Gracious! We're still courting! We've only been on a few actual dates." Brenda felt the blush all the way to her hairline.
"I expect you'll make an honest woman out of her—or she'll make one out of you, when the time is right. I know y'all have some crazy ideas about long engagements or whathaveyou, making sure you're compatible, but don't wait too long. Your mama and I aren't getting any younger, and we'd like to see you in at least one relationship that sticks."
"Oh for heaven's sake, Clay, she's been married twice! Maybe she's not the marrying sort, after all. But if I get grandbabies, or greatgrandbabies out of the deal, she can marry Kubla Khan, for all I care. Or not. Besides, that woman is the first yankee who hasn't given my marshmallow casserole a side-eye. And she didn't burn it, unlike MY OWN DAUGHTER. So let's invite her for dinner! We can still hang the mistletoe. Your daddy and I watch Rachel Maddow sometimes, when we're up that late."
Brenda was grateful for the doorjamb at her back, because she was pretty sure she'd fallen through into an alternate universe, and maybe, if she stepped one way or the other, the real world, where her Southern protestant parents watched Fox, and didn't use words like gay married, and Jodie Foster, maybe the real world would come back into focus.
A timer in the kitchen dinged, and Willie Rae pulled the ham out of the oven, and slid two pies deftly in behind it. She looked at Brenda, who still hadn't moved from her statue like pose in the doorway.
"Well, come on and help me set the table! And then call your Sharon." Willie Rae hefted the ham onto a serving platter, and headed for the dining table. "Clay! Come carve up this ham while Brenda Leigh calls her ladyfriend!"
"She's supposed to be going to Park City tonight, to be with her parents." Brenda murmured, slipping on a pair of oven mitts and reaching for the greenbean casserole.
"Oh that. She can't leave til 3 in the morning, so she'll be able to come for dinner. I heard her telling that nice Andy Flynn about it as we were leaving the station." Willie Rae grinned, and skirted around Brenda back into the kitchen. "Give her a call. It's not right to leave family alone on Christmas Eve, after all."
"I'll just…go call her…then." Brenda felt like she was speaking a foreign language. But she headed to her room to change, and make the phone call.