Eli and B missed dinner at his parents’ house. His muse had too much for him to do. Not only did he finish the painting of his grandparents together, but he finished two more- both were inspired by the dynamic family he came from. One was of his grandfather with his band on the last night they ever performed. That cool spring night in Chicago that Disturbed retired. Their hotel room overlooked Millennium Park where the show was held. He opened the blinds to get a view of the lighting as the sunset and painted the stage from the up close angle he had- his grandfather linked arm in arm with the men that he called ‘brother’ for over 40 years as they took their final bow- from memory.
B was astounded. It was like Eli was tapped into something that he’d never know or understand. His muse was strong with him that day.
The other piece was of his aunt and father when they were on stage that same night with the two remaining members of Avenged Sevenfold. His father and Aunt had walked out on the catwalk with the two men as the two guitarists- Synyster Gates and his father, Malachai- played and the two vocalists- M. Shadows and his Aunt, Jordan- amped and interacted with the crowd. The sun was setting as they were playing the song “Nightmare”. Once he was finished, he looked over his shoulder at B and said, “I think my new collection is going to end up being focused on my family. I think my muse is trying to tell me something.”
“What do you think it is?” B asked.
“My grandparents aren’t much longer for the world. This is going to be my way to honor them as well as my father and my aunts and uncles. These painting and my sketches that I did the other day.”
“You never showed me your sketches.”
Elijah dug out his sketch book and showed B the sketches that he’d done the day before. “This is Aunt Jordan and her girlfriend Ronnie”, he said as he flipped through the book to the first one. He flipped the page. “I call this one, ‘Los Tres Amigos’ because it’s Ira, Levi and Anthony. They’re the Three Amigos. They always have been.” He flipped the next page. “This is Aunt Jona with Rina and Matthew. Uncle Jeremiah is in the corner laughing.” The next one was of a tall, slender man sleeping with the sheets of the bed pooled at his waist and one arm slung carelessly over his eyes. “And this one is of you.”
B studied the picture carefully, his fingers gently caressing the page as he looked on in shocked. “Wow. Baby. When did you do this?”
“This morning while you were still sleeping. I was sitting in that chair over there by the window drinking some coffee and I couldn’t help myself. I grabbed my sketch pad and sketched you sleeping. You’re so sexy and you don’t even know it.”
“Can I keep this one?”
Eli grabbed a pencil and scribbled something on the page quickly before ripping the page out of the book. “Here you go, babe.”
“What did you write on there? Your handwriting is atrocious.”
Eli laughed. “It says, ‘To the perfect guy, you’ll never know how much you mean to me. Love Elijah’. And I wrote it in French.”
“I can’t read French. But, I do love you too.”
Elijah smiled softly and brushed his fingertips down B’s cheek. “You have no idea how special you are, Brandon. You’re my world.”
B chuckled as his hand cupped Eli’s cheek and his thumb caressed his lover’s cheekbone. “Ditto, Elijah.”
---------------
Jake checked his email one more time before calling it a night and chilling with his parents and the family that lived in the immediate vicinity of homestead. The email he was waiting for wasn’t there. He sighed. I hope to God that girl keeps her word and calls me before the night is out, he thought.
He shut down his computers for the night and leaned back in his chair for a moment, thinking that he was going to set to panicking if he didn’t hear from the photographer soon. His wife knocked on his closed office door. “Come in”, he called.
She entered the room and looked at him like he was crazy for being so stressed. “What seems to be your malfunction?” she asked with her hands on her hips.
“I’m freaking out because the photographer hasn’t gotten ahold of me yet and she told me by the end of the day.”
“Would you get a grip, Jacob, please? She’ll call, I’m sure. If she doesn’t, ask ‘Miah or, Mom or Dad to make the phone call to check on her in the morning. Something may have come up. Freaking out is going to do what?”
He shook his head. “Nothing, I know. But, the fact of the matter is that I want to do this for Mom and Dad before everyone goes back home to live their lives. I’m not worried about Mom and Dad slipping away on us before this happens. I’m worried about getting it done before everyone goes back to where they came here from.”
Delilah nodded. “I get that, Jacob. And I’m sure she’ll get with you so we can do this in a reasonable amount of time. You stress too much.”
He chuckled. “It’s a good thing I have you to keep me grounded, huh?”
“We’ve been married for 22 years, Jakey. If I don’t know you better than you know yourself by now, then it will likely never happen.”
He held a hand out to her and she went to him, taking it in hers. “You’re my angel, Lilah baby. You keep me grounded; you keep me sane. Thank you for 22 years of keeping me sane.” He pressed his lips to the back of her hand.
She leaned over the back of the chair and kissed his head with a laugh. “It’s my job, Jakey. If not me, then who? I don’t think there’s another woman in this world who can handle your OCD, anal retentive ass like I do.”
“I kinda have to be OCD and anal retentive”, he laughed. “It comes with the job I do.”
“I know, and I understand it. I’m as OCD, but not nearly as anal.” She sighed. “Jacob. Relax. I’m sure she’ll call soon.”
As she finished speaking his work cell started ringing. He picked it up off the desk with a question on his face. He didn’t recognize the number. “This is Dr. Draiman. How can I help you?”
There was a sigh. “Hi, Dr. Draiman. This is Kelly Demarco, the photographer. I’m sorry to call you so late and on your personal line, but things got pretty crazy after I talked to you this morning. I barely had time after we talked to see when my calendar was open for a week. Now, I have it in front of me and I wanted to know what will work for you and your family.”
He chuckled. “I understand busy. I used to work as the Chief of Medicine in two different hospitals at the same time. It nearly killed me, literally. And, this is actually my business cell. This is the number that other doctors call when they need a consult or something like that. You’re fine.”
She laughed. “Good thing I kept this number then. So, what is the time frame we’re looking at here? How long do we have to do this in?”
“This needs to be done within the next week and a half. I have a niece who’s about to be featured on Broadway, a nephew trying to prepare for a gallery showing. A sister and her husband that need to get back to Israel for work. A sister that needs to get back to NASA in Houston. So on and so forth.”
There was silence. “I can block your week out starting in two days. Will that work for you?”
“That should be perfect. You’re awesome.”
“Wait until you see my work, Dr. Draiman, before you go praising me too much. I’m good. I’m sure you took a moment to look at my site, as did your brother who contacted me earlier. Speaking of, he sounds familiar. He doesn’t teach philosophy at UCCS, does he?”
“He does.”
“J. Alexander Draiman, PhD.”
“That would be him.”
“I had him for Post- Modern Philosophy to fulfill my humanities requirement for my Bachelors’. He's the head of the Theology department too.”
“He must not recognize your name.”
“That’s because Demarco is my married name. When I had him it was Warren.”
“So, I should be calling you Mrs. Demarco. My apologies.”
“No worries, Dr. Draiman. I’m not worried about it. It happens. I will see you in a couple of days. Make sure that your family is aware and they know how to dress for the event.”
“Oh, they know. My mother won’t tolerate anything less than our best. If someone is dressed unsatisfactorily, you’ll hear it. My 80 year old mother does not care.”
“And your father will say?”
“That we heard our mother, and to go change before he beats our ass. He’s 84, and doesn’t care either. ‘I’ve seen and done far too much in my life to allow you to act a fucking fool’, he’ll say. ‘Now, go change your clothes like your mother said before I kick you in your ass’.”
“Nice. I can’t help but laugh. Something tells me that your folks are going to keep me rolling the entire week I’m there.”
“Oh, they will. Don’t think for a second that they won’t. You’ll lose weight from laughing so hard you’re burning more calories than you’re consuming.”
“If that’s true, then I seriously can’t wait. I’ll see you in two days, Doctor.”
“I’ll see you in two days, then, Mrs. Demarco.”
---------------
"Zack, is there any way you can fly out for a couple days?" Miranda asked her boyfriend over web chat that night.
"Why? What's going on?" he asked. "It's not your grandparents is it?"
"No. We're doing huge family portrait in a couple of days and Grampa said that those of use that have a special someone could have them in the picture if we wanted."
"Grampa David sounds like a pretty cool. I'm setting up the flight as we speak. What do I need to bring with me?"
"Gramma wants everyone to dress nicely. She says, 'I refuse to have my picture taken with a bunch of slobs'. That means dress to impress."
Zack Winfield laughed. "She sounds like my grandmother before she passed."
"My grandmother is a very opinionated woman. She's almost 81."
"You think we'll be able to get some kind of alone time?"
"Maybe, but after the week of having our pictures taken we'll need to head back for rehearsals. And I need to put tickets for my grandparents aside to."
"You mean at will call?"
"No. I'm going to make sure he gets them. The last time my Dad used will call, he had issues. I'm not putting my 80 year old grandparents through that."
Zack smiled. "I'm kinda excited to meet your grandparents. They seem like they have a huge influence on you."
"They do. They've been there through everything, man. Hell, Grampa paid for Julliard. Between my college trust and scholarships, I had a free ride."
"Cool. I have to have Grampa's approval to keep dating you, don't I?"
"Yeah. But don't worry. You'll do just fine. My Grampa's a really nice guy."
"I hope so. I'm kinda nervous as well as excited. Any words of advice?"
"Show no fear and be yourself. Be respectful, but be yourself."
He nodded. "That sounds reasonable. I think I can pull that off. I am an actor after all. I can act confident."
"Hopefully you can do it so well that they don't know you're acting."
---------------
Miri was sure to be in contact with the shelter as she prepared for the portrait that they were getting ready to do. She wanted to know when to expect the horse so that her summer project didn't interrupt the week of family photos.
She was also sure to prepare as much as she could for the animal that she was about to take on. She prepared to take detailed notes, taking to her father about how to take medical notes properly and how in depth to go.
She'd taken a trip out to the clinic to see the horse she was taking in for the summer. His name is Ranger and he was a thoroughbred Arabian. He'd been a race horse for a couple of seasons, until the owners fell on hard times. He'd been severely beaten and was what the vet called "gun shy". It didn't mean necessarily that he was afraid of guns, but that he was afraid in general. Every little movement had to be carefully measured or he would spook. The people at the shelter knew that Miri had the patience to work with him.
When she got home, Miri plopped down on the couch next to her grandparents and sighed. "It's not right", she said.
"What's not right?" Brie asked her granddaughter.
"You know that horse I'm rehabbing over the summer?"
"Yeah", David said. "What about him?"
"I went with to the clinic to see what I was getting myself into. I'm not backing out, I just wanted to see the horse so that I could get an idea of what I needed to do. Gramma, Grampa... this poor horse is so easily spooked that all we have to do is move an arm too fast and he's freaking out."
"I know it's disheartening, Miri baby", Brie said, wrapping an arm around the young woman's shoulders. "But, if anyone can do this it's you. You have the patience to do this. They wouldn't have asked you to do it and Grampa and I wouldn't have said that you could do this if we didn't believe that you can do this. It's going test your resolve in becoming a veterinarian. There will be good days and bad days. Rehabilitating any animal is a heart breaking experience, but a rewarding one at the same time. Grampa and I will be here for a good portion of the summer. If you need to talk, you know you can come to us, right?"
Miri nodded. "I know Gramma. What has me so upset is that the horse's former owners took the fact that they were having a rough go of things out on a helpless animal. That horse didn't do anything to deserve the way they beat him."
"No animal deserves to be treated badly", David said, brushing a lock of Miri's brown curls behind her ear. "Miriam, honey, you can do this. Gramma and I know you can. You have more compassion in your pinky than most people have in their entire bodies. Just stay strong and when you feel like you don't have anything left to give; we'll be here for you. Ok baby?"
Miri smiled. "Ok Grampa." She sighed. "Thanks you two. Have any of us told you recently that you're the best grandparents in the world?"
They both laughed. "No sweetie, but it never hurts to hear it."
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