"At least this one didn't bring an entire turkey with him," Maas said.
His middle sister was making the rounds introducing her new boyfriend to their extended family. Their eldest sister Miriam's house had become the de facto assembly point for all things holiday related after their mother had died. The small nine hundred square foot house they had called home for so many years could never have fit the gaggle of relations anyway. Aric recognized some of those faces from past years. It wouldn't have surprised him if another wedding or two was in his future. Other faces, like the one belonging to the man following Cady, were brand new.
Aric gave voice to the thought as it passed through his head. "I wonder what he did with it?"
Miriam walked by her two brothers holding a covered dish of something. "He probably took it home with him. And then spent an hour complaining to it how none of us appreciated all the trouble he went to making it."
The incident was three years in the past. Maas—and Aric—had yet to revise their opinion of the bird or the man who'd brought it instead of the wine Cady had asked for.
"Serves him right, stupid fucker," Maas said as he sipped his beer.
Aric nodded his head in agreement before stopping to consider his brother's statement. "The guy, or the turkey?"
Maas had time for only a short reply. "Same difference."
"Antonio, these are my brothers Aric and Maas." Cady, dark-haired and dark-eyed, barely hit five-four in shoes. Her boyfriend, equally dark-haired, hadn't stopped smiling in twenty-five minutes.
"How's it going?" Maas said as he stuck out his right hand, only to pull it back again once the vise like grip had released it. "Easy there, pal! Jesus! That's my jerking off hand!" he complained as he shook life back into it. "Guess I'm not getting lucky tonight."
"I'll just wave if it's all the same," Aric said through his laughter, his left hand raised in salutation as Cady buried her face in her hands. "Glad you could make it."
Their host, who was the eldest of all of them, stopped next to them. Her hands were filled with a ten inch apple pie. "You're glad because neither one of you has done shit since you got here but stand around and drink beer. You don't work, you don't eat."
Aric finished the rest of his beer in one go, beating Maas by a fraction of a second. "Fine, I'm all yours."
"Me too," Maas said as he turned towards the kitchen only to turn back again to address Cady's date. "Please tell me you didn't bring a turkey."
Cady's face once again disappeared into her hands as Antonio's face became a mask of confusion.
"Third fucking time," Jessica said as she walked back to the kitchen. Luke was basting a turkey that looked like it could feed half of Harlem. "Don't your fucking customers know how to read?"
Luke didn't look up. "They see the lights are on. Some of them are looking for any escape from the annual torture of a family Thanksgiving get together. They think they can hide out here until tomorrow."
"But they know you're closed for Thanksgiving every. fucking. year. Jesus."
"It's desperation. There'll be more. They might not even realize what they're doing. Until you yelling at them brings them back to reality."
"When you say it like that, I sort of feel sorry for them now."
Luke's attention switched to the large dish of Spinach Madeleine he was preparing. "Then maybe don't call the next one an illiterate shit for brains. Try being nice."
"I don't feel that sorry for them," She continued to lean against the stainless steel countertop.
Owning a bar had its perks—you could host a dinner party for ten without cramming every inch of kitchen space with chairs. It needed only a fraction of the kitchen space in Cap's Bar and Grill, I Can Do This All Day. The three couples and four singles who had chosen to enjoy Thanksgiving together would need an equally small percentage of the dining room.
Luke transferred the contents from the saucepan to a baking dish which would go into the oven at the last minute. "Remember the first time we all ate together?"
Jessica didn't have to try too hard to recall that night. Or the events that gave birth to their small group. Sure, not as powerful as the Avengers. And still lacking an official name. But Jess thought they could have given those stuck up assholes a run for their money.
"You and Danny did all the eating. I left before the fireworks started."
Luke nodded. "That you did. But then you came back. And you saved our asses by doing so."
Jess kept silent and watched while Luke worked. She sipped her drink. The rich scent of roasting turkey clung to the air, undercut by the tang of sautéed onions and melted butter. Jess felt like for this short time all was right with the world.
She broke the silence eventually with a question she asked every year.
"Who's Matt bringing? He's brought three different women the past four years. Wanna lay odds?"
Luke navigated the kitchen like a pro. He was still on the move when he answered.
"I assumed that, since he's not seeing anybody right now, it would be Karen."
Jessica walked to the center work surface. She picked up a raw carrot and began to chew it noisily. "On again, off again, on again...can't they just admit that they love each other and be done with this see-saw shit?"
Luke answered over the sound of running water as he washed the sauce pan before placing it in the drying rack. "You know why she said no. And you know why he said no."
They could hear the sound of the front door opening. Jess's back straightened as she marched out of the kitchen, but stopped when she recognized the two faces that were walking in.
"Where can I put this?" Colleen asked as she carried a covered dish of something that smelled amazing.
"You can put it on that table right there and hand me a fork," Danny said as he removed his jacket.
"Hands off, buster," Colleen said as she handed the dish to Luke before taking her own jacket off. "If you want it now you'll have to fight Luke for it."
"Don't give him any ideas," Luke said over his shoulder as he walked into the kitchen.
"Matt's not here yet?" Danny asked, scanning the empty dining room.
"He's probably looking for a parking spot," Jess answered.
Danny shook his head in disbelief. "Wow, a joke about a blind guy driving. That's new."
"Hey, you don't like the entertainment, go back to that fucking monastery you came from. They're probably a million laughs if they're anything like you two."
"What the Hell?" Colleen asked as she raised her hands in a posture of protest, "What did I do?"
"It's called guilt by association is what you did."
Daniel Rand, also known as the Immortal Iron Fist, was not one to allow any sort of false statement regarding K'un Lun to stand unopposed. "Wèile zhòng shén de ài, it wasn't a monastery. It was a city. One of the seven Capital Cities of Heaven. How many times have I told you that?" {For the love of the Gods}
"Was that Klingon?" Luke asked Colleen quietly.
Colleen Wing's answer was just as quiet. "No, that was Nüshu."
Jessica waved off Danny's question like she was swatting at a fly. "How should I know? I don't listen to a fucking word that comes out of your mouth, that's your girlfriend's job."
"Does that mean that you listen to everything that Luke says?" Colleen Wing asked of the woman who she had personally seen pick a dumpster up and throw it at Andrei and Grigori Veznikov, two of Madam Gao's goons.
"No it does not," Luke answered as he carried an entire dinnerware service for ten into the dining room and began to set the table.
The front door opened for a fifth time as Misty Knight and Claire Temple arrived.
"Thank God," Jessica said loudly, "somebody with a fucking sense of humor."
Across the country, while Jess and Luke prepared dinner in Harlem, Kate and Beth stood in the crisp autumn air of Chicago.
"He said he was coming, right?" Kate asked her sister.
Aric had not been the only one to notice something between himself and Kate when they had first met. Kate had felt it as well. But in her case the image that formed in her mind was that of a small boat being drawn in by a whirlpool. Her efforts, which Aric had interpreted as prodding, had in fact been her rowing frantically against the current. Since that night she'd been looking for the opportunity to prove that she hadn't imagined it.
Beth nodded as she sipped her coffee. The scent of vanilla still emanating from her mug. A soft breeze was toying with what few leaves remained on the snowless ground around them. The smells of late autumn were present. Soon the ground would freeze, and take the fall fragrances with it.
"Yes, but later. He's having dinner at his sister's. He'll stop by after that."
They had exited their father's house through one of the four double doors that led to what Jacob Kane called the backyard. In this instance he was referring to a plot of land that was several acres. It was hard to tell due to the density of trees and other green growing things that covered the land. The obstructed property line was half a mile away. Kate and Beth were standing in a smaller area defined by trellises. They bare at this time of year, as were the planters that sat just inside the wooden structures.
Kate found the idea that Aric had a sister strange.
Like saying a celestial body has a sibling
Which, if she thought about it more, some of them did. Kate knew that The Pleiades were a cluster of stars in the constellation of Taurus that were also known as The Seven Sisters.
I wonder if she can do what he does? Or if not, does she know what he can do? Do any of his family members know?
"Where does she live?" Kate asked finally.
"Concord. About 70 miles north of Boston. Ever been?"
"Boston? Yes. Concord? No. What's it like?"
Beth executed a combined shoulder shrug and head shake like a professional. "No idea. Never been there."
Kate placed her phone in front of her face before she spoke. "Weather, Concord Massachusetts."
"Currently in Concord Massachusetts it's 42 degrees with lots of sun. Today you can expect more of the same, with a high of 46 degrees, and a low of 32 degrees," the female voice on Kate's phone responded.
Kate replaced her phone in her back left pocket. "A bit colder than here, but not by a lot. He didn't invite you to go with him?"
"He did, but I said I wanted to be here with you guys the whole day. And I'm still not comfortable being around a house full of people I don't know."
"So you still haven't met any of them?"
Beth's only answer was a silent shake of her head.
Neither woman had any idea what Miriam Turner's house looked like. Aric had offered to take Beth there once, but she had politely declined. Both could guess by virtue of their shared knowledge that Aric's family was in no way, shape, or form wealthy, that it looked nothing like the house they were currently standing behind. Winnetka was much closer to Chicago than Concord was to Boston, which was an important reason that Jacob Kane had chosen it. No one would be surprised, when comparing the two properties, to learn that Jacob's home would cost almost ten times what Miriam's home would cost if the two were placed on the market at the same time.
"I'm glad Dad and Bruce agreed to have the dinner here," Kate said. "Bruce's house is too gloomy. It reminds me of the Addams Family."
"Are you saying that my father reminds you of a tall, creepy butler?" Julia asked as she walked up behind her two friends.
"Yes," Kate said sarcastically, "that's exactly what I'm saying."
Beth turned to look at the back of the mansion. "I can't believe he actually downsized when he moved in here."
"He said it didn't feel right rattling around that big house all by himself," Kate explained.
Beth was not convinced. "He wasn't by himself. He had like twenty people taking care of him."
"It was more like ten, and he brought them all with him."
I would get lost in a house this big and die from starvation before I could find the kitchen.
The Daughters of Lilith had lived in a large complex, but in Beth's mind it was eternally small. Her tiny closet of a room, which the sisters called cells. The training areas. The classrooms. All of them had been small. Their common hall, which they had used for meals, and ceremonies, and anything else that had required them to all be together at once, was the largest room she could remember. But she could relate to her father's feelings. She had been surrounded by dozens of people during her time there, and she had still felt alone.
Guess it wasn't just me then
Another thought occurred to her.
"How many people does Bruce have looking after him?" she asked Julia.
Julia needed almost no time to consider her response. "Four. Including my father."
Kate likewise needed almost no time before pouncing on her friend. "How the hell do you know so quickly exactly how many people Bruce has taking care of him?"
"Ummmmm..."
The look of triumph as it radiated on Kate's face gave the early afternoon Sun a run for its money. "I knew it! I knew you'd been talking to him before your lover's get away last night!"
Julia's face turned an alarming shade of red. "For the love of...we didn't..it wasn't..."
Kate's face was also turning red, but for a different reason. "I knew it!"
Beth's face did not turn the least bit red as she spoke calmly. "One of you is going to have an aneurysm, but I'm not sure which."
"So I'm talking to him? So we went out to dinner. So what? It doesn't mean anything. Why are you getting so worked up?"
Kate pointed her right index finger at Julia as her voice climbed to a higher pitch. "Because your face! If it doesn't mean anything, why are you blushing like that?"
"Oh, for fuck sake," Julia replied out of sheer exasperation while Beth laughed.
The sound of a motorcycle arriving lured the three women back into the cavernous house. They arrived at the front door just as it opened. Alfred Pennyworth picket up two insulated carriers and stepped completely in the house. He left the door open as he set the carriers down again. Cold air rushed in as he embraced his daughter.
"Sorry we're late. Someone had to be dragged out of his office."
"Dragged is a rather strong word," Bruce said to Julia as he stepped through the door before closing it. "Your father was a bit over eager to get on the road."
"You road your motorcycle?" Julia asked, her face turned towards Bruce Wayne while the rest of her was still in her fathers warm embrace. "Weren't you freezing?"
"No, it's in the fifties. It was a nice ride. Hardly anyone on the roads. Except for this guy, who tailgated me the whole way."
"I did not tailgate. I was following the two second rule," Alfred Pennyworth replied in his defense as he picked up the two containers and carried them in what he assumed was the direction of the kitchen.
"Two millisecond rule more like," Bruce said under his breath. He stood at the front door and with Julia's assistance continued to strip off his riding leathers.
Beth glanced sideways at her sister, catching the way Kate's gaze lingered just a beat too long.
"Am I the only one getting serious husband/wife/father-in-law vibes from the three of them?" Beth whispered to her sister.
"You are most definitely not the only one," Kate replied in a whisper just as her phone vibrated.
google maps is trying to drown me. It's giving me directions to the middle of Lake Michigan, Trish's text said, that's not where you're having dinner, is it?
It hadn't been a total disaster. Truth be told, Harvey thought he had done well. The chicken seemed to be cooked all the way through. The mashed potatoes weren't watery. Sure, it was gravy from a packet. Stuffing from a box. And cranberry sauce from a can. But as first attempts went, he thought it was a good one. June would have smiled and kissed him on the cheek and told him that everything had turned out excellent. He would have wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in closer. The scent of her perfume would have caused his heart rate to increase. And his mind began to build a fantasy he would attempt to bring into reality later in the evening.
But June was gone. And after all the activity of cooking, and eating, and cleaning, the familiar loneliness settled on him again.
It's amazing what you can get used to, given enough time.
He sat in front of the television and watched a football game he couldn't care less about.
An empty house, a broken heart, a sadness so deep it didn't seem to have a bottom.
Harvey Abrams closed his eyes as his mind traveled backwards thirty seven years. The day that he carried June across the threshold of their new home. He drifted off to sleep as the memory of that day continued to play in his mind. His beautiful wife young and strong as she stood in the middle of her new and, for the time at least, modern kitchen. Her smile that was the first (OK, the second) thing that Harvey Abrams had fallen in love with the night he had gotten his first glimpse of June Rasmussen. He woke up an hour later, but only to turn off the TV and go to bed. He did not look at his phone, and so missed the text message from one of his oldest friends.
Harv. Something came up...what we talked about...the middle thing...Need to call you tomorrow.