Chapter Twenty-Two
-- Thanksgiving, 1973
Python Lee Jackson – “In a Broken Dream”
Sandra cried in her bedroom. She had the time because the turkey was in the oven and everything else was already prepared. She got this way sometimes when big tasks were finished and she was bowled over with thoughts of “what’s next?” She did it alone because it was no one’s business but her own.
Walking by her open door, Bill saw his mother racked with sobs. He knocked and waited a moment for her to compose herself before he entered. “You okay?” he asked.
“Fine and dandy,” she said, standing quickly and fixing her eye makeup.
Bill wasn’t convinced. “Do you need to take a pill?”
“No really, I’m okay.” She gave a quick once over at what her son was wearing. “You’re going to put on a tie, right?”
“Hadn’t thought about it...”
“Please, okay? I want today to be special.”
“All my ties are at school.”
“Then borrow one of your father’s.”
“You know how he is about his ties...”
Sandra rubbed her temples, thinking of solutions. “Your Sunday school outfit is still in the dry-cleaning bag in your closet.”
“But that’s a clip-on and it doesn’t even--”
“--Can you just do this for me?!” Sandra broke in, hysterically.
Bill finally nodded.
**
Janet arrived soon after. And she wasn’t alone. She was in the company of an older man. He had invasive eyes, a distinguished beard, and wore a tweed jacket over a black turtleneck.
Bill ran into the two of them at the base of the stairs. “You brought someone to thanksgiving dinner?! You can’t bring someone, I’m bringing someone!”
“Not a competition, Bill.” Janet said, laughing.
As Janet and her date hung up their coats, Bill noticed a set of fingermark bruises on his sister’s arm. He turned his attention to Janet’s plus-one. “Who’s this?” he asked.
The new guy had dandruff on his shoulders. He extended a hand. “Arthur. You must be the older brother, Bill.”
Bill let the man’s hand hang there. Eventually, he left the room altogether.
Arthur turned back to Janet. “He’s charming.”
Catching sight of the bar cart, Arthur left to get a drink. Janet watched him go then entered the kitchen to see if there was anything she could help with. But her mother dismissed her, saying “Everything’s taken care of...” Janet watched as she flitted about putting final touches on everything. Her mother had never been so trim, having successfully executed a radical diet in the run up to Thanksgiving in anticipation of seeing her own mother. Nothing was ever good enough for Grandma Jean.
Janet’s baby sister was sitting on one of the kitchen counters wearing an apron. In an effort to look like she’d been helping Lynn had put a couple dabs of flour on her cheeks. “Why is your boyfriend dad’s age?” Lynn asked.
“He is not!” Janet insisted.
Their mother was ping-ponging around the room so often that Lynn asked Janet quietly, “why is Mom so jumpy?”
Janet leaned in. “Grandma and Grandpa are coming for dinner.”
“So?”
“So, it’s complicated, Lynn.”
“No, it’s not – you just set two extra place settings!”
“I meant they don’t get along.”
“But why? They’re grandma and grandpa...”
“To you maybe. To Mom and Dad, it’s different. Grandpa was against them getting married.”
“He was? Why?”
“Do you know what the ‘social register’ was?”
“Yeah,” Lynn nodded, clearly lying.
“No, you don’t! It was a list of the richest people in the country, what everyone calls high society, and if you married someone that wasn’t on it then you were taken off.”
“So, daddy was poor?”
“We say ‘he came from nothing.’ But when Grandpa realized Mom was going through with the marriage and that he couldn’t stop it, he decided to step down from the family business and let Dad run it.”
“That was nice of him.”
“It was. But now he’s mad that it became more successful than when he ran it.”
“Okay, but that’s all about Dad. Why’s Mom nervous?”
“Because grandma thinks that nothing Mom does is ever good enough.”
“Why?”
“Don’t worry about it...”
“Tell me!”
“You’re too young.”
“I’m practically a grown up, you stupid idiot!”
“Fine, you really want to know?”
Lynn nodded, vigorously. Janet looked up briefly to make sure her mother couldn’t hear them. “You remember how Nannie had a baby brother growing up?”
Lynn thought about it. “The one who got drowned in the tub?”
Janet nodded. “Mom was the one running the bath for him when he fell.”
Lynn twisted around to look at her mother. “That’s terrible...” she whispered.
Janet continued, her voice lowered. “It wasn’t her fault. She was six. She was still hungry from dinner and snuck into the kitchen to get some food from the fridge. She was barely gone for a minute, but that’s all it took--”
“We’re starting!” Sandra called out all of a sudden. “Everyone bring stuff to the table!”
Out in the den, William had fallen asleep watching Huntley-Brinkley. He found himself knee deep in an erotic nightmare about Jane Fonda having an orgy with the Vietcong. His wife’s voice brought him viciously out of it, and he sat up with a start.
Getting up to shut the set off, William lingered a moment to finish hearing David Brinkley report on an eighteen-and-a-half minute gap on those white house tapes.
Janet and her date passed, carrying a pimento loaf and ambrosia salad to the dining room table. The table was dressed ostentatiously, a casualty of Sandra’s nervous energy. As Sandra directed where the plates were to go, she made sure to note that she had a Baked Alaska for dessert.
Her mother and father were already seated. “Daddy, we got that Mateus you like...” Magnus, as usual, appeared salty. His wife balanced him out by being almost overwhelmingly sociable. “Mom,” Sandra ventured, “I can pour you some Lilique if you want...”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
But Jean merely brushed her daughter off. “Oh dear, I haven’t drank that in years...”
As Janet and her date took their seats, Bill motioned. “Grandma, grandpa, have you’ve met Janet’s date, Father Time?”
Magnus sat there, confused. “You’re a priest?”
Arthur fixed Bill with a peevish glance. “No, he’s only joking.”
Sandra looked around the table, expectantly. “Who wants to say grace?”
Janet turned red in front of her date. “Ugh, do we have to?”
William wasn’t in the mood either. “You know, what? Fuck it. Dig in.”
As the family started filling their plates, Nick came hurrying in through the front door, out of breath. “Sorry, I’m late.” he said, his eyes red and bleary.
“Where were you?” Janet asked.
“Cody’s.” Nick noisily tucked his chair in under him.
“Who’s Cody? Wait... our Cody?”
“Yeah. Why? What’s the big deal?”
Bill fielded this one. “He’s five years older than you, don’t you think that’s weird?”
“No, but I do think you’re weird.” Nick tried to change the subject. “Who’s father time?”
Bill scoffed. “Already said it.”
“How long have you guys been dating?” Lynn asked, as she piled food on her plate.
Sandra watched her daughter, skeptically. “Lynn dear, don’t you think you’ve had enough?”
“I’m hungry.”
“Why don’t you finish what’s on your plate first.”
“You know I love turkey.”
“And I love you. I’d just love you a little more if you were skinny.”
“Mom!”
“Oh, that’s not what I meant! I meant we’d be a lot closer if there wasn’t all that...” Sandra searched for the right words. “...fat in the way--”
Janet laughed, shocked. “MOM!”
“You could do with some reducing yourself, missy.”
Janet stared blankly at her mother. “I guess it runs in the family...”
Sandra scowled. Swallowing her response, she picked up her plate and went into the kitchen. She came back with a chalky shake in a glass.
William, who was cutting the bird, offered her some. “White meat, hun?”
Sandra shook her head. “Oh, none for me thanks, just my metracal.”
There came a knock at the door and Bill ran to get it. While he was gone, Janet talked about her new acting class. “At school they’re teaching us about staying in the moment, about living in your discomfort and letting it propel the scene.” No one seemed to be listening.
Bill returned to the table with a slim, lovely asian girl by his side. She had dressed for the occasion in a blue picnic table dress and matching hair ribbon. She had a dish of scalloped potatoes wrapped in seran wrap in hand, but when she saw that everyone was eating already, she whispered to Bill: “You started without me...”
“It’s okay, just grab a plate. Everyone, this is Linda. We met at the Student Union. She was organizing an anti-liberal rally.”
William watched as the girl took the empty seat between him and his boy. He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead turned to Janet’s date. “So Arthur, tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a professor at a small liberal arts college up north.”
“Oh, what school?”
“Colby-Sawyer.”
Sandra brightened. “Oh, Janet goes there-- dear god, you’re dating your professor?!”
Janet saw this coming. “Oh, I’m sorry mother - are you awake tonight? Have the meds not kicked in?”
Nick laughed, high and delighted. “Good one.”
Magnus was unable to stay quiet a moment longer. “If this is how you raise your kids, it’s no wonder they walk all over you.”
William slowly turned to face him. “Come again?”
Sandra smelled a fight brewing and tried to diffuse. “Now daddy, be nice!”
Magnus motioned to his oldest granddaughter. “You are squandering this girl’s future. You are wasting her potential. College is for expanding one’s horizons. She needs to see the world, not just one piece of it! Sweetheart,” he said turning to Janet, “how would you like to travel with your grandmother and me? Maybe see Europe?”
Janet’s eyes bloomed. “Oh my god, grandpa thank you, I’d love to--”
William interjected, “We can discuss this later...”
Jean picked up where her husband left off. “I mean really, Sandra – how can this young lady be expected to secure any kind of engagement if this is the example you’ve set for her?”
Sandra let her mother’s comment wash right over her. Instead, she turned her attention to Lynn, who was slouching. “Sit up straight, sweetheart. Good posture’s a must.”
Lynn dropped her fork and groaned. “Manners are for when we go out to dinner!”
Under Jean’s watchful eye, Sandra corrected her daughter. “No, manners are what separate us from the animals!”
Lynn unhappily went back to her food as Bludgeon breezed by her leg. She leaned over to pet him, but quickly pulled her arm back in disgust. “Ew, mom! Look at Bludgeon!”
Sandra stood up to see Bludgeon rubbing his anus on the carpet. She shrieked. “Get it out of here, Bill!” Bill rolled his eyes but threw his napkin down to pull the dog outside.
Magnus, though, wasn’t done with William. “I don’t know why I’m surprised seeing behavior like this, you’ve never had a firm hand the way that I did...”
William forced a smile onto his face. “You know, Magnus, I’ve heard things about you that wouldn’t make for a very nice Thanksgiving.”
Magnus’s forehead wrinkled. “What? Tell me.”
But William just shook his head. “No.”
Magnus slapped the table, triumphantly. “See! You’ve got nothing.”
“What did you hear, dad?” Nick wanted to know.
“Kids, your grandfather is a war profiteer.”
Magnus’s eyes went wide. “What?!”
“I don’t know why you thought I wouldn’t find out. I mean really, bribing that Colonel to get the ropes account--”
“That is not what happened!” Magnus bellowed. He stood up, red-faced and apoplectic. “Come on, Jean – we’re leaving!”
“Daddy!” Sandra pleaded. Jean looked like she might object, but in the end just followed her husband out to their car.
William pushed his chair back when they were finally gone. “Well, I don’t know about any of you -- but I need a drink.”
He got up and went to the kitchen, pouring himself a tumbler of scotch. It wasn’t long before Bill entered the room. “So, dad... what do you think?”
“What do I think of what?”
“Of Linda... of my date...”
William laughed. “Son, I get the appeal. I really do. But you fuck ‘em, you don’t date ‘em.” He took his drink back into the dining room, announcing to everyone, “Now that the riff-raff is gone maybe we can actually enjoy dinner.”
When Bill returned to the table, something in him had changed. If the kids only got attention for acting out, he thought, then he would show them what real acting out looked like. He let the conversation continue on for a few moments before he spoke up.
“You’re so full of shit.” he mumbled.
Sandra dropped her fork. “BILLY!”
But Bill just stared at his father. “You know, I have never once felt safe in this house. Not with her. And certainly not with you--”
William sighed. “Go ahead, Bill. Tell me how I’m full of shit.”
“We talked about it in business class. You’re stuck selling burlap when the world is changing to synthetics. You’ll be broke by 1980--”
“Is that all?”
“And your idiotic fights with grandpa, you think he’s mad that you took over his company? Sure he is! But what he’s really mad about is that you’re sleeping with his daughter-"
“--Jesus, Bill!” Janet laughed.
“Stay out of this,” he warned her.
Arthur didn’t take too kindly to that. “Now, wait a minute here--”
But Bill was only too happy to have a new target. “And you, new guy! I have a question -- do you hit my sister?!”
“Do I what?!” Arthur stammered.
Janet stared down at her plate, unable to find her voice.
Sandra dropped her face in her hands as William tried to regain control of the sinking ship. “Look, you’ve upset your mother!”
Bill scoffed. “Oh please, she was already crying before dinner.”
William looked up. “Is that true, Sandi?” His wife said nothing, just kept her face covered. “You told me you were done with the crying...”
Bill powered on, no one able to stop him. “Goddamn, this family! You’d eat your own kids if someone told you you looked good doing it!”
But William could hear no more. “Give it a rest, Bill.”
His son balked. “Why? I have done nothing wrong here tonight. I’m just being honest, just being myself--" Bill’s date squirmed, uncomfortably.
By then, William was almost yelling. “You must really be proud! What a wonderful way to treat your family!”
Bill got to his feet. “We're not family. You're just people I have to dress up around.” He removed his clip-on tie and threw it to the ground.
“We’re not family?! I gave you my name! And what do you do with it?!” William laughed, grimly. “One-big-nothing!”
“You didn’t give me your name, you gave me your father’s name! Because you hate me just as much as you hated him!”
William leapt up from his chair. He slammed Bill down onto the table and began spanking him; big, violent swings that left welts and broke the glasses on the table.
Nick screamed for his father to stop, but William wouldn’t listen. Unable to do anything, Nick clamped his hands firmly over his ears. Sandra tried to pull William off but to no avail. It looked like it would never end until Bill reared back suddenly, knocking his father to the ground.
All the children went silent. Bill took one look at his old man lying vulnerable on the floor, his nose bleeding. He tore out of the house, leaving his date by her lonesome.
Next to Sandra, Nick quietly clasped his mother’s hand as she started to cry.
It was deathly quiet until Linda asked, “can someone give me a ride to the bus stop?”
**
In the family car, Bill drove angrily, a bottle of vodka in hand. He slowed to take a swig, but mostly just sped through the night, taking turns at the last minute, riding the guardrail. He dropped the bottle briefly and had to reach over into the depths of the passenger seat to find it.
He didn’t see the cop car hidden under the bridge until the siren roared to life behind him in the rear-view. The surprise took his eyes off the road for just a moment too long. His wheels clipped the curb and sent the car careening down an embankment, rolling end over end until it finally settled to a stop at the bottom of the ravine.
When the police officer wrestled open the door of Bill’s upside-down car, he found Bill tangled in his seat belt, sucking on the vodka bottle like a baby with a bottle.
**
In the hospital hours later, a Doctor stitched Bill up as his mother yelled at him. His father watched from the hallway, refusing to even enter the room.
“I mean what were you thinking?!” Sandra screamed. “You knew what you were doing bringing one of them to dinner!” When she got no response, she stormed out of her son’s hospital room, leaving only Janet and Bill’s doctor behind.
Bill stared daggers at his sister, now able to speak freely with his mother gone. “Why would you let me drive?” he demanded.
Janet replayed what her brother had said. It didn’t make any more sense than the first time she heard it. She leaned over him as the doctor was finishing up.
“I want you to listen to me carefully,” she began. “Because this is the last time we will ever speak. If I had your problems, I would probably blame other people too. But I am not your keeper and you are not my responsibility. Your mistakes are your own! If I wanted a child to take care of, I would have one of my own!”