It was a bright and beautiful spring day. Jordan knew it. She didn’t even have to open the blinds on her bedroom window. She could hear the birds chirping; see the sun gently kissing the skin of the gorgeous woman she lay next to.
Things between herself and the father of her children hadn’t worked out, though they still lived together. She and Reece just couldn’t make a relationship work, no matter how hard they tried. They wanted it to work, but they knew that it wouldn’t. At least things weren’t like they had been with her ex-wife; who was currently a ward of the Colorado Department of Corrections and had been for approximately the last nine years.
It had only taken a year for Jordan Draiman and Reece Tyson to figure out that the two of them just weren’t meant to be. Jordan loved women too much to allow herself to be solely with a man. She was a monogamous creature- like her parents. She let him keep a room in her house, though, so that he could be close to the kids. After the shit they went through with Davina it was the least she could do to let them be close to their Dad. Levi had seriously benefitted from it. There had been times over the years that he needed that male influence. Jasmine too. She was totally her Daddy’s girl.
Jordan pushed the thoughts from her mind and rolled onto her side to greet her angle. She kissed her softly on the cheek after brushing a lock of hair from her face. “Good morning, beautiful”, she said softly.
The woman rolled onto her back and smiled softly. “Good morning”, she said softly in return. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”
“Levi’s graduating high school, Ronnie. My boy is graduating from high school. Him and Ira. God, where has the time gone?”
Ronnie, or Veronica Petrage, shrugged. “I don’t know. Where has it gone, Jord?”
Jordan laughed. “I love you, did you know that?”
“I did, but I love to hear it.”
Jordan leaned down and pressed her lips to Ronnie’s softly, meaning for the kiss to be chased and contained. Instead, it became intense and started to build into something physical until there was a beating on the door. “MOM! ARE YOU UP?!” Levi shouted on the other side of the door. “GET UP! I KNOW YOU AND RONNIE ARE SCREWING AROUND IN THERE BUT IT’S TIME TO GET UP AND GET MOVING! GRAMMA AND GRAMPA WILL BE ARRIVING FROM HOUSTON SOON. UNCLE JAKE ASKED US TO PICK THEM UP. REMEMBER?”
Jordan and Ronnie laughed. “That boy of yours, Jordan”, Ronnie giggled.
“I know. He’s a buzz kill. I can’t help but remember pulling something similar when Uncle Ben came over from Israel to watch Jake and me walk at our graduation.” She sighed and took a deep breath. “HOLD ON TO YOUR MOTOR, BOY! WE’RE GETTING UP! GO PESTER YOUR FATHER!”
“HE’S DOWNSTAIRS MAKING EVERYONE BREAKFAST- INCLUDING HIS NEWEST FLING, TRIXIE. JASMINE IS PUTTING A FLAT IRON TO HER HAIR. SHE WANTS GRAMMA AND GRAMPA TO SEE HOW LONG HER HAIR IS NOW.”
“THEN GO EAT SOMETHING OR STARTCH YOUR SUIT FOR TONIGHT. JUST GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY DOOR!” Jordan couldn’t help but laugh. “That boy! He’s not a boy anymore. He’s a man and he’s about to leave me and go to Loyola for a degree in Political Science. He’s determined to be the first Draiman to run for President.”
“Good luck to him. Is he going to run for Congress first?”
“Yep, straight out of college.”
Ronnie sighed. “We’re gonna have to put what we were just doing on hold, huh?”
“Yeah, so we can pick up my parents from the airport.”
“The fact that your parents are 84 and 80 and still flying amazes me.”
“You and me both, baby girl. Now, let’s get up before Levi decides to break our door down.”
---------------
Jake was searching frantically for something. He was practically tearing the large mansion apart. "Delilah", he called as he tore through the living room. "Have you seen my glasses?"
Delilah was in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast. "Have you checked on top of your head?"
He reached up and patted gently atop his head. "Yep. Not there."
"How about your office?" she asked as she came into the room.
He thought about that one for a moment. "No. Can you go check?"
Seth came down the stairs. "Dad, your glasses", he said, holding the glasses out to his father.
Jake shook his head in embarrassment. "If it weren't for you kids and your mother I swear I'd lose my head."
"Did Grampa anything like that when you were a kid, Dad?"
"A few times. Like your Uncles, I spent more time calling him old."
Samantha, who had been assisting her mother in cleaning the kitchen, laughed. "How old was Grampa when you and Aunt Jordan were born?"
"Late thirties. I believe he was about 38. He would have been 38 two months after we were born."
Delilah chimed in. "Speaking of Gramma and Grampa, this living room needs to be straightened up again and Seth and Samantha need to take themselves upstairs and clean their rooms. Now, get moving. Aunt Jordan will be here soon with Gramma and Grampa soon. This house needs to be clean before everyone arrives."
Seth and Samantha both trotted off up the stairs and Jake looked at his wife. "Help me straighten this ruckus up?"
She smiled at him. "Of course."
They started cleaning the mess and straightening up the catastrophe that he had created looking for his glasses. "Are Miri and Ira still in bed?"
She nodded. "Keep in mind that Ira and Levi are having a rager at Jordan's tonight after graduation. He's going to need his rest. And your little princess is recovering from traveling home after year 2 of vet school. Her poor brain is fried."
He laughed. "Did you know that she's thinking about specializing and being a veterinary neurologist?"
"She's mentioned it a couple times. She comes by it honestly. She has two parents that deal with the brain in some aspect. Do you blame her for wanting to carry on the torch?"
"She wants to head a research project to see if my research can be applied to animals."
"Meagan tells that Anthony wants to see if it can be applied to cardiology."
"This is what I get for being a revolutionary in my field. Everyone wants to outdo me."
"Baby, I think your spot atop the medical food chain is safe. I mean, you were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine after all. I don't think you have anything to worry about."
---------------
Anthony hadn't stopped chattering since they left the house in Houston to catch their plane to Denver. He was excited to get to party with his cousins and he couldn't wait to tell his Uncle Jake that he was going to do better than him. "Uncle Jake better watch out", he said as he sat on the plane with his Mom and grandparents. He went on about how he was going to do everything he could to outdo his Uncle in whatever way he could.
His grandfather had had about all he could take. He gave the boy a stern look through his glasses. "Anthony Robert Draiman, stop talking for a little it. We know you're excited to go to college and try to outdo your Uncle Jake, but we don't need hear how you plan to do it", he said.
Anthony stared at his reading pad sitting on the tray in front of him. "I'm sorry Grampa David. I don't know why I'm talking so much."
"Just read your book", his mother said chidingly. She looked at her parents. "I'm sorry, Mama and Daddy. He doesn't usually talk like this."
"Well, he's excited. He's off to Loyola soon for the Pre- med and he's hoping for Johns Hopkins for Med school just like Jake. We understand the excitement", her mother said. "We just can't take the constant chatter anymore."
"We dealt with enough of that when you kids were younger", her father added.
"I wasn't that bad."
"Please Leann. You were that bad, but you weren't the worst."
"Who was?"
"The worst was probably James", her mother. "Law school had him so excited. He was determined to go to Harvard."
"I remember that. And Jeremiah was still asking himself what he wanted to do with himself. Kay and I; we knew."
"I think that the only one of you that was unsure was Jeremiah. The rest of you all knew what you wanted to do in life."
Her father nodded. "The fact that all of you knew and Jeremiah had no idea never bothered us. If all of you had been certain then we probably would have been worried."
"Is the fact that so far all of your grandchildren that have graduated know what they want to do with themselves worry you?"
"Not really. There's bound to be one of them out of 26 that has no idea. It's been luck that all them so far know."
"What do you think of Miri and her koi fish?"
"She did an amazing job caring for it through childhood and such", her mother said. "That fish is going to be a lifelong companion."
They lapsed into silence after a little while and Meagan Draiman looked at her watch. "How much longer are we going to be in the air?"
Her father looked at her. "When you do this as often as your Mom and I do, you learn to stop asking, 'How much longer?' and just enjoy it."
"And why do you say that?"
"Because, as often as we do this and at our ages, you never know when it's going to end.
---------------
Jordan and Levi were sitting at the airport waiting on their family members to arrive. Jasmine, Reece, and Ronnie were all at Jake’s place waiting for them to arrive. Levi was bouncing up and down. “Gramma and Grampa are coming. This is so exciting.”
“You see Gramma and Grampa every year for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. What seems to be so special about this one?”
“Because I’m going to tell Grampa my major and what I want to do with it.”
“You know your Grampa David is going to have a heart attack when you tell him that you want to run for President. He believes that there’s no such thing as an honest politician and that they have no souls.”
“Well, I’m going to prove him wrong. You can be a politician and still hold on to family values and morals and all that good stuff. There have been several Mormon politicians that have managed it. Why can’t a Jewish one?”
She shrugged. “Whatever makes you happy, my son. Now, do me a favor and go see when their flight touches down.”
He hurried off and checked what the screen said, checking and double checking before returning to his mother’s side. “It says we have another, like, five minutes or so. They’re probably flying over the city and descending right now.”
She nodded. “Awesome.” She reached up and rubbed her neck. “So, you excited to see Anthony?”
“Oh yeah. Him, Ira, and me have decided that we’re going to take a road trip before Ira going into mechanic training and Tony and I head off to Loyola.”
“Road trip? Really? Where to?”
“Vegas and LA. It’s just gonna be a short thing because Anthony and I have to be back home to start packing in mid- July. We’ve got to be at the school August 10th for Freshman Orientation.”
“Are you two going to be roomies?”
“We won’t get room assignments until we get there. We did however request it. We know we can live together. We’re cousins. We have to put up with each other regularly.”
She laughed. “Boy! No you didn’t!”
“I did.”
“You wanna know something funny about your Uncle James and Uncle ‘Miah?”
“Sure.”
“They thought that they could room together because they were twins and nearly killed each other. They ended up moving in with girls before the end of the first year.”
“Aunt Jona and who?”
“I don’t know if you remember her, but her name was Kim. She was frickin’ crazy.”
He laughed. “We’re crazy, all of the Draiman’s. Are you saying that she made us look like little kittens?”
“Something like that, yeah. She was nuts. Loca. She made that actress you think is so cute that’s hooked on pills and shit look like she was on a sugar high.”
“You mean Holly Gilmore?”
“Yeah.”
“Weird.” Levi sat with his mother and contemplated that as he waited for his grandparents, aunt, and cousin’s plane to land. When he checked his watch, it was time so he stood and looked out for any sign of any of them. He spotted the bald head of his grandfather first. “Mom, they’re here.” He started waving his arms like a madman. “Gramma, Grampa, Tony, Aunt Meagan! We’re over here!”
Tony looked up and saw him and started waving back. “LEVI!” He looked over his shoulder and spoke to his mother and their grandparents. He saw Levi saw Meagan nod and Anthony took off through the crowd. “Cousin!” he said as he and Levi grasped arms and embraced.
“Cousin!” Levi said in return.
“So, you ready to graduate high school?”
“Been ready, man. Senior year just dragged ON, and ON.”
“How’s Ira doing?”
“Last I heard from Seth, Ira was still crashed because he’s saving up energy for the party tonight.”
“NICE. Sounds like Ira. Are you packed for the road trip?”
“Ready to go. Ira’s been packed for a month.”
“Well, once we figure out whose car we’re taking and how we’re paying for gas and all that good shit, we can take off.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
After Levi greeted his aunt and grandparents, the boys took their grandparents bags- at the very vocal protest of said grandparents- and they all went out to the car. The boys planned on waking Ira rather rudely once they got to their Uncle’s house. Little did they know, but Ira was awake and had a rather rude awakening in store for them.
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