Levi and Anthony stayed with Ira after the party was over. The moment Jake and Delilah walked in the door with them, Meagan was standing there with a bone to pick with her son. She even said as much. "Anthony Robert, I have a bone to pick with you."
He was confused. "Yes ma'am?"
"I know what you did at that party. All I want to know is if you were safe."
"Of course. I don't want to ruin my chances at making it into Johns Hopkins. I know how picky they are. But how did you know about what I did at the party?"
"Uncle Jake texted me and let me know that the three of you were off being teenaged boys. I don't want to know the details but I want you to know that I'm not ready to be a grandmother. For the love of god, I am not ready to be a grandmother." She was nearly shouting near the end.
Jeremiah walked into the room from the kitchen where he was getting something to drink. "Meagan, keep it down, will you? Mom and Dad are asleep in one of the rooms upstairs. It took forever to get Dad to stay in here for at least tonight. And the only reason I managed to get it to happen was because Mom was asleep on his shoulder."
Meagan nodded. "Sorry. You're lucky that you don't have to deal with this yet. It's no fun. "
"I may have too soon. Matthew's around that age."
Jake shook his head. "Matt's too shy. It does gonna be Rina that you have to worry about."
Jeremiah shrugged. "True. But keep it down. Mom and Dad are sleeping." He turned and walked back into the kitchen to disappear out the back to his little house in the back.
Meagan looked at her son. "As long as you were safe, that all I care about. Don't make me a Gramma until you're a successful doctor working in an awesome hospital and you're married to a nurse or something like that."
Anthony laughed. "Mom. I love you, but you worry far too much. Girls are as of the end of the party tonight the furthest thing from my mind."
Meagan nodded, satisfied with the answer she got. "Ok. Go get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."
The boys all headed up the stairs and Jake looked at his little sister. "Mae, you worry entirely too much. And Mom and Dad call me a worry wart?"
Meagan chuckled. "I know, but he's my only child and I stress."
"He's a grown up now", Delilah said. "Let him be a grown up."
Jake nodded. "Exactly. We had trouble accepting it when Miri graduated. It's a little easier with Ira."
Meagan looked at her brother and his wife. "Stop channeling Mom and Dad", she laughed.
"It's what we do, so it seems", Jake chuckled. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to bed. It was a hell of a night and we're tired." He took his wife's hand and went up the stairs to their bedroom. They were tired and Jake had and early day the next morning. He had patients to see, even on a Saturday. The life of a revolutionary neurologist was never dull.
Meagan sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. She was finding it hard to sleep. There wasn't any reason on particular. She just couldn't sleep. As she sat and flipped through the channels, she let her mind wander. She thought about the day she went to the orphanage and saw her son. She had an instant connection with the little six year old Anthony. He was a bright and bubbly little boy that warmed her heart the moment she laid eyes on him. That had been twelve years before. Now her was 18 and about to go off to Loyola to start his Pre- Med studies. He wasn't a virgin anymore and he was showing the same nymphomaniacal tendencies as her "twin" brother James or even Marc when he was still in high school. It was a scary thought. Well, he's a Draiman, that's for sure, she thought. Can't say the boy doesn't fit into the family.
---------------
"So, boys, whose car are we taking for the road trip?" Anthony asked.
"It's all depends on when we want to leave", Ira said. "I wanna hang out with Gramma and Grampa for a couple of days before we take off. It's so little that we all get to see them that I think we should chill here for a day or two before we head out."
Levi nodded in agreement. "Ira's right. And we should see what kind of stories about our parents Gramma and Grampa have to tell."
"I'm sure they have plenty to tell about your mom Levi", Anthony laughed, throwing a pretzel at his cousin.
"Fuck you, monkey!" Levi laughed as he reached out and punched Anthony in the arm.
"Gentlemen", Ira said, putting a hand between them. "Let's try to remember that the same grandparents we want to chill with are in the next room asleep. We do need to keep it down or we're going to have a rather angry grandfather beating on my door to tell us to shut the fuck up. If we want to kill each other, then we should wait until morning when they're awake to do so. Can we agree on that?"
Levi and Anthony looked at each other. "We guess", they said together.
"Good, now... back to the topic at hand. We can take my car to Vegas. It's pretty good on power, gets great highway mileage, has the best safety rating, and-let's face it- it's just prettier than Levi's."
"Your car is not prettier than mine", Levi laughed with a roll of his eyes.
"Either way", Anthony said, "if we're staying here to hang out with Gramma and Grampa, Ira's car is closer. Now the question is, when do we want to leave? I know we want to hang out with Grampa and Gramma, but we need to decide how long we’re going to do that. I know my Mom is going to head back to Houston in a couple of days.” He chuckled. “Anyway, I want to make sure that I’m here long enough to tell Uncle Jake that I’m after him.”
Ira laughed. “Good luck with that. If you think you can outdo my Dad, have a blast. He’s been practicing medicine for over 20 years now. You have a lot of ground to cover.”
“Don’t you worry about that, cousin of mine. I’ll make it happen. I am, after all, a Draiman.”
“Yeah… we all are, moron!”
---------------
Rather than sleeping, Miriam Draiman was on her laptop talking with a young man back in Chicago. “I know, Shane, I miss you too. But, I need to spend some time with my grandparents. I never know when they’re going to leave the Earth for good.”
“Maybe I could come out there, meet your folks. I mean, your Dad’s a legend in the medical community. It would certainly love to meet him, even as a nursing student.”
“I don’t know, Shane. I mean, my Dad’s a really busy guy. And, with my grandparents being here, Dad’s gonna be a wreck until they go home to Israel. Dad and Uncle Jeremiah keep begging them to move back to the US.”
Shane Jackson laughed. “Miri, pitch the idea to your Dad. Just let me talk to him. I’m sure he’ll love me.”
Miri laughed. “You don’t know my father. I’m Daddy’s little princess. I’ve been Daddy’s little princess as long as I can remember because I was born prematurely. According to my Dad, there’s no one good enough for me.”
“Let me talk to him and convince him that I’m willing to try to be good enough for you. Come on. What’s it going to hurt?”
Miri laughed. “Shane. You’re so sweet.” She thought for a moment. “Ok. I’ll tell you what. I’ll talk to him, see if he wants to meet you. And, seeing as my Grampa is in town too, you might as well kill two birds with one stone.”
“What do you mean there?”
“We have a very tight knit, mafia like family. You might get through my Dad and my uncles, but in order to really court me, you have to get through the Don. My grandfather. I’m my grandfather’s first biological grandchild. He’s going to be hard on anyone that thinks they’re going to be my man.”
He laughed. “Bring it on!”
“That will impress him. You’re looking forward to the scrutiny. That’s good. You can’t show fear around the men of my family. They will rip you apart. I’ve seen it happen too many times.”
“Well, they can bring it on! I’m a nursing student! You can’t intimidate me!”
Miri laughed as she shushed him. “Keep it down. My grandparents are sleeping across the hall.”
“So, why don’t you tell me about them?”
“Who?”
“Your grandparents. What are they like?”
She smiled. “They’re the greatest. My Grampa retired 15 years ago after being a mega super awesome rock star for 40 years. That show was so cool. Grampa owned that stage for three solid hours.”
“Hold on a minute. My parents mentioned something about a show like that when I was growing up. Something about their favorite band retiring and they had to catch it. It was free.”
“That would have been my Grampa and his band. They were Disturbed.”
“Your grandfather is David Draiman?”
“The last name didn’t give that away?”
Shane chuckled. “Now, I’m officially nervous. I’ve heard horror stories.”
“None of them are probably true.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that your grandfather has a reputation for being crazy.”
“He’s a really nice guy as long as you act like you have common sense. Act like an idiot and you’ll be treated as such. Anyway, he’s 84. What can he do to you?”
Shane took a deep breath. He nodded. “You’re right. You’re right. It’s just David Draiman. He’s just a man. Never mind the fact that he’s a rock legend. Hell, a rock GOD. He’s just your Grampa.”
Miri looked at Shane over the connection. “I don’t think you’re ready to meet my family, Shane. I really don’t. You can’t freak out like that. Grampa is just Grampa. That’s all that should matter. Maybe you need a little more time to get used to the idea. And that means no talking to me.”
“But Miri, wait. I’m sorry. It just hit me from out of nowhere.”
“And this is exactly what I didn’t want to happen when people figured out that David Draiman of Disturbed is my grandfather. When people figure that out, they figure out that Jordan and Malachai are my aunt and uncle and then shit hits the fan. They act like fools and that’s not about to fly. You need to let it sink in, then I’ll let you talk to my Dad. If you can convince him to let you come out, then we’ll be fine. If not, then I think we’re done. I need to get a little sleep, Shane. I’ll talk to you again soon.” Miri closed her computer, effectively putting it to sleep, then grabbed her reading pad. She couldn’t wait until she started at the animal shelter the following week. She wanted to get around the critters again. She was really looking forward to getting out in the pasture and helping to rehab a few horses that had been neglected by their previous owners. She loved her fish and her rodents, but she loved horses more. She’d been trying to convince her parents to get her a horse for years to no avail. Eventually, she would have one, but now just wasn’t the time. She’d just have to settle for tending to the horses at the shelter.
She lay in bed and looked over one of her favorite books. It was a classic by Stephen King called Rose Red. Her Grampa loved Stephen King’s work and had recommended it when she was looking for a new author to check out. So far, she hadn’t been disappointed. She loved Pet Semetery and It was interesting. The Shining had freaked her out. REDRUM indeed.
As she read her book, she drifted off to sleep, unaware of the fact that her dreams that night would show her what would happen if Shane actually met her family. They showed her what would happen. Shane Jackson meeting her family would be a complete and utter disaster. But, she told him that he had to impress her father first. She doubted that was possible.
---------------
In the hotel room he was staying in across town, Elijah Draiman was pacing. He couldn’t sleep. His nerves were on edge. He was about to do something that he was sure was unprecedented. He was about to tell his entire family his biggest secret.
He stopped and sat in the foot of the bed, looking over his shoulder at the person he should have been curled up next to. Dad and Grampa are going to freak, he thought to himself. But, this is my life. I’m going to live it my way. This is what makes me happy. This is what I need. I can’t live my life afraid of how they’re going to react to my secret. They’re just going to have to get over it if they’re not happy about it. None of them is perfect.
But, still Elijah’s thoughts of doubt and uncertainty plagued him. He was sure that his 84 year old, retired rock star grandfather would have a heart attack from the bombshell he was about to drop. Little did he know, but of the 40 some odd people he was going to announce his secret to in the morning his grandparents were going to take it the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment