Every one of Levi and Ira's friends were at party they threw at Jordan's house. Jordan was grateful to have Reece, Ronnie, Jake, and Delilah there to give her a hand making sure the kids didn't get too rowdy. There were a lot of kids present. Both of the boys were highly active in school. Levi and Ira both played football. Ira was on the school robotics team, A/V club, student government and was just a chill easy guy to get along with. Levi was also in student government, as well as the debate team, science club, and the lit club. He was also easy to get along with. It was no wonder they had so many friends.
The adults just let the kids dance and talk. The boys had been pretty good about not having steady girlfriends, so when Jake and Jordan saw their boys disappear up the stairs into different spare rooms, all either of them could do was laugh. "It seems your son is a man whore", Jordan laughed to her twin.
"So is yours", Jake laughed in response. "How long do you think they've been active?"
"Oh, a couple years now, I'm sure. They seem to love competing so I'm almost willing to bet it was a race to see who would get laid first tonight."
As Jake opened his mouth to respond, they saw Anthony disappear into a room. "Meagan is going to trip", Jake said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent his little sister a text detailing what he just saw.
"Oh I'm sure. She had to be the good girl and not lose her virginity until she was a senior in high school."
Jake looked out over the crowd and saw Reece breaking up a fight. "Well, I had better go help him with that." He made his way through the crowd to break up the two teen age boys who seemed to be arguing over a young woman.
Jordan watched as her brother and her children's father pull two of the boys' friends apart and smiled. One down, one to go. Or in Jake's case two down, two to go. Ronnie came to her and wrapped arms around her waist. "What's wrong, baby?"
Jordan shook her head as she returned the embrace. "Nothing really. Just getting used to the fact that my little boy is all grown up."
---------------
Back at homestead, Miri was showing her grandparents her pets. "Here are the fish", she said as she carried their bowl down. Once it was on the table, Miri headed back upstairs to grab a couple more of her pets.
David and Brie looked into the bowl at the fish as they circled each other as if they were dancing. It was beautiful and hypnotic. “They just won’t stop moving”, Brie said as she watched.
“It’s really pretty though”, David said with a smile.
Out of nowhere a set of black beady eyes and a long snout were in Brie’s face. She screamed. “HOLY SHIT!” She jumped, climbing onto the couch backward.
“Gramma, are you ok?” Miri asked.
Jeremiah ran in from the kitchen. “Mom, are you alright?”
“MIRIAM REBEKAH DRAIMAN, GET THAT FLITHY CREATURE AWAY FROM ME!” Brie shouted as she clung to David.
“Gramma, it’s just my rat Sven. He’s not going to hurt you”, Miri said.
“Miriam, your grandmother doesn’t like rodents. You really shouldn’t have stuck him in her face like that”, David explained.
“I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t know.”
“Just get it away from me”, Brie said as calmly as she could manage. She was still clinging to her husband.
Miri walked away and put Sven and Svetlana back in their cages in her room, then came back to apologize to her grandmother. “Gramma, I’m really sorry. I didn’t know. I thought I’d surprise you with him.”
“Miri, sweetie, you can’t just stick your little rodent friend in my face and not expect me to freak out. I don’t like rodents. Never have. If you had gotten to meet your Great- Uncle Matt, he could have told you the same.”
Miri nodded. “I really am sorry, Gramma. I really didn’t mean to frighten you. I just wanted to introduce you to my pets.”
“Just give me a moment to slow my heart rate back down and I’ll greet your rats and your other rodents. Just don’t expect me to hold them.”
Miri smiled. “Ok Gramma. I’ll go tell Sven you’re sorry for calling him a filthy creature.”
Brie laughed. “You do that.”
Once Miri was gone, David looked at his wife. “Baby, I can’t feel my arm.”
Brie forced herself to pry herself from him. “Sorry. The sudden rat in my face scared the hell out of me.”
“I understand. You’re staring at the fish one moment and the next you’ve got a huge rat staring you in the eyes. Would have freaked me out too.”
“I wasn’t hard on her, was I?”
“Nah. You weren’t hard. You just let her know that it scared you and that you needed a minute.”
“I feel like I’m getting bitchy in my old age.”
“A little, but it’s to be expected, I think. Hell, even I’m having my moments. It’s got to be the fact that we’re in our 80’s and we just don’t put up with bull shit. We’re too old to play games.”
“So, we’re finally old David?”
He thought about it for a moment. “Maybe. Jury’s still out on that one, I’d say.”
---------------
“Gabriella, Gabriella. Gabriella”, Ira said breathlessly. “Girl, what did you just do to me?”
“What I’ve been wanting to do to you for four years. You’ve ignored me.”
“No, I honestly didn’t pick up on it and I wasn’t looking for anything steady during high school.”
“Who said I wanted to go steady, Ira Draiman? I just wanted to screw your brains out.”
He laughed. “Then you should have made it a little more obvious. I mean, we’ve in student government together since eighth grade. You should have cornered me during Homecoming or something.”
She laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind if I ever want a booty call.”
“Yeah, no. I’m a one night stand kind of guy right now. I don’t want to get too serious. Hence why I used protection.”
“Thanks for that, by the way.” She got up and went to take a shower. Thankfully, there was a half bath in the room. “Why did you use a condom?”
“Because my father told me and my siblings that if we made him a Grampa before he was 50 we were dead. My dad’s not a guy I want to cross. I love him to pieces, but he’s kinda scary when he gets mad.” He took a deep breath as he dug around in the dark for his clothes, finding his underwear first. “You wanna know what I think is funny as hell?”
“What’s that?” she called as she turned on the water in the shower stall.
“We have all of these advances in medicine and stuff like that. We have hover cars, but methods of contraception have not changed since my grandparents were young.”
She laughed. “What do you mean?”
“I asked my grandfather about the methods of birth control that were around when he was a teenager and he said that there wasn’t anything that we have that he didn’t grow up with. They’re just better quality”, he laughed.
“That’s insane.”
“No kidding.”
“Maybe that’s what you should do with yourself, Ira. Develop a better and new form of birth control.” She laughed as she stepped into the shower.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He thought about it for a moment as he walked into the bathroom and joined her. “Nah, I think I'll leave medical revolution to other members of my family. I want to work with machines, particularly cars and motorcycles.”
She wrapped herself around him and started kissing along his collarbone and neck. “Well, damn.”
He took a shaking breath. “You had better stop this shit before you start something we can’t stop.”
She chuckled. “We can do want I want to do, because it’s my turn to take care of you.” She dropped to her knees and took him in her hands.
He debated on whether or not he wanted to continue what was going on. On the one hand, the sex was awesome. On the other, she seemed like she wanted to tie him down, no matter how much she said she didn’t. Finally, he had to put an end to it. “I’m sorry, Gabby, but I can’t.”
“What?”
“I told you, I don’t want to get tied down or roped into anything. When I’m a little older, maybe. But not until I’ve gone to school and gotten an education of some sort, and I’m not living with my parents anymore. You and I are not going to be the happy couple you want us to be, no matter how much you want it or how much you protest the fact that you don’t.”
As he grabbed a towel and tried to get out of the shower, he could see the look of disappointment in her eyes. “But, Benji…”
He shuddered in discomfort and disgust. “Please, dear GOD, don’t call me that. I hate that stupid fucking nickname. I’m gonna get dressed and rejoin the party. Get cleaned up and I’ll see you down there. Or go home after you’re cleaned up. I don’t really care.” He got out and wrapped a towel around his waist. He got dressed really quickly and headed down to the party, which was winding down. Everyone was heading home. Tony and Levi had already come out. “What’s going on?” he asked his Dad, who was the first person he ran into.
“Everyone’s going home. There have been too damn many fights and Aunt Jordan decided that enough was enough”, Jake responded to his son. “What happened with that girl that dragged you into a spare room?”
“We had our fun, I was gonna get a quick shower with her to save water when she tried to start things up again. It feels like she wants to tie me down. I’m not ready for that. Maybe when I’m older, but not right now. I need to sew all my wild oats before I settle down with any woman.”
Jake nodded. “I understand that. I didn’t have that desire really. Your mother was the first person I was with in college and the last. After I graduated Pre- med, Medical School ate the world.”
“What about my Uncles? Didn’t any of them need to sew their wild oats before settling down?”
“A lot of us met our soul mates young. I think the only one that really had wild oats to sew was Uncle James. From what he’s said and from what Uncle ‘Miah has said, there was a point during college where James was with a few different women every day. I think his record was 13 in a day.”
Ira laughed. “NICE! I’m gonna have to talk to Uncle Jay about that. That’s what I’m talking about. Getting all this acting a fool out of my system before I settle down. When I talked about the future being uncertain, but not having to be scary- that wasn’t just for my peers. That was personal to me as well.”
Jake nodded. “I see. Well, Benjamin, I don’t want you to feel pressured into settling down with anyone until you’re ready. I’m in no hurry for you to get married and make me a granddad.”
“I’m not in any hurry for that to happen either.”
---------------
After meeting the pets that Miri had been collecting, David and Brie sat up and talked with Jeremiah. They wanted to get caught up with him about how he and Jona were doing, as well as his mother and father in law- Skyler and Kaylian Mason. “Skyler’s still keeping his eyes sharp, going out and shooting with me every day. It’s usually just him, Jake, and me. We’ll go out to the course and get an early work out, then hit the range for some target practice. Then we all go about our days.”
David nodded. “I’m glad everything is going well. How is his health? And signs of that Chronic Fatigue?” Brie’s head was on his shoulder and she was dozing in and out of consciousness.
“Not that I know of. Jona keeps a pretty good eye on him, as does Kaylian.”
“That’s good. I’m glad they’re ok.”
Jeremiah looked his father in the eyes. “Dad, can I ask you something really personal?”
“Depends on what the question is about, Jeremiah.”
“About your relationship with Grandpa Draiman.”
David thought about it for a moment. “Ask away.”
“I know why you and he weren’t speaking at the end of his life. He didn’t like a lot of the choices you were making. But, do you think that you two could have patched things up so that we could know him if he hadn’t died during the War?”
David shook his head. “No. You don’t have the whole story, son. None of you do. Your grandfather defrauded and stole from me. There was no patching things up with him, not after that. There wouldn’t have been a snowball’s chance on a cold day in Hell.”
Jeremiah nodded. “I was curious. I know that he was dead long before I came along, but that’s always been something that I’ve personally wondered.”
David nodded as well. “I understand that, son. I know that you all wanted to know all of your grandparents, both sets. Unfortunately, I wasn’t on speaking terms with mine and your mother’s were killed by the Utopians. Your mother’s parents would have loved the hell out of you all. When he visits your mother in dreams, he tells her to tell me that I’m a better man than he is. I don’t see how. Different sets of circumstances.”
“You met Granddad Cartwright?”
“I did. The day we picked Malachai up from their house in Tennessee. You mother knew the town like the back of her hand. It was a small town outside of Nashville called Brentwood. They wanted to meet us in town, but Mom said that it was just as easy to drive to the house and that’s what she had me do. She directed me through the streets of Brentwood, Tennessee to her parents’ house then told me to wait in the car. She went up, knocked on the door and a tall older Irishman answered the door. She threw her arms around his neck and I smiled. That had to be her father, I thought. Then she waved me to the door. I went up and she introduced me as her husband. We hadn’t been married all that long.”
“Wow. That’s cool. What happened after that?”
“Granddad gave me a scrutinizing eye- much like I’ve given all of the boys your sisters have brought home over the years- and told me in his thick Irish accent, ‘It’s a cryin’ shame I ain’t met you sooner. I could have seen what kind of a man you really are. Treat my daughter well and my grandson well, and we’ll have no problems. Hurt either of them in any way and I’ll have my son set his scope for 151’. I couldn’t help myself, I smiled and nodded and said, ‘Yes sir, I completely understand. I wouldn’t dream of hurting such an angel’. Granddad looked at me and smiled, saying to your mother, ‘He’ll do, Nikki girl. He’ll do just fine’. He let us in, I met your brother for the first time where he asked me if he could call me ‘Dad’. I told him I’d be honored. I met your feisty little Jewish Grandmamma Cartwright and was greeted with a hug. She looked at Granddad and said, ‘Mitchell, you shouldn’t give the boy too much hell. He’s a Jew. He knows how to treat a woman’, and I fought not to laugh hysterically.”
“Did either of them know who you were? Did they know that you were the front man for Disturbed?”
“They did. Granddad thought it was awesome. Grandmamma was a little more stand offish until she heard a little bit of the Indestructible record.”
“What song on Indestructible changed her mind?”
“Indestructible for one. She also enjoyed The Night. I sang a little Metallica while we were there. Your Grandmamma fell in love. Told your mother in Hebrew what if she wasn’t married to Granddad and were 30 years or so younger your mother would have had a fight on her hands.”
“What did you say to that?”
“I responded back in Hebrew that there wouldn’t be a fight because I loved your mother more than anything else in the world. Grandmamma said, ‘I can’t keep secrets from you. This isn’t right. Not only are you perfect, you speak fluent Hebrew.’ I told her that I was being groomed to be a rabbi as a child and she couldn’t help herself, she laughed. ‘I can’t see that. You don’t have a rabbi’s personality. You would have made a great attorney, though’. I just took the compliment for what it was.”
“I wish I could have known them. They sound like they would have been wonderful people.”
“Oh, you would have loved your Granddad and Grandmamma Cartwright. I certainly did and I’d only met them the one time.”
Jeremiah sighed. “I’m glad that Matt and Rina have had the opportunity that I didn’t. They get to know both sets of Grandparents.”
“I’m glad that your mother and I could be there for our grandchildren too. It’s been fun spoiling the hell out of them all. Can’t wait for great grandkids.”
“Do you think you’ll live that long?”
“One can only hope, Jeremiah. One can only hope and pray.”
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