Now that the game was over and the Bears were wearing Championship rings again, everyone in the Draiman clan started looking forward to two new events- Miranda's wedding and the birth of Grace Irian Maguire, the first great- grandchild for the Matriarch and Patriarch of the family.
After the game David and Brie stayed at Jordan's as Skyler started getting things together for the grandest prank ever pulled. Jordan was being the usual worrywart that she had become when she noticed her once vivacious parents health starting to deteriorate. She fussed over their every move. The day they went back to Jake's place, they made sure that Jordan knew what they thought. "Damn it Jordan!" Brie said as she walked through the front door. "Back the hell off. I am perfectly fucking capable of walking into the house without assistance."
"I don't want you to get hurt Mom", Jordan said, a hand at yet mother's elbow.
"It is highly unlikely that I'm going to do anything worse than stub my fucking toe between your car and the house."
"What if you fall and break your hip? Or if Dad's knee gives out and he falls? I have to listen to Jake bitch at me because I wasn't careful."
"If Mom or me fall between the car and the door it's because we're in our 80's and have a little more trouble moving around than we used to. If Jake bitches at you he'll deal with me. Now, BACK THE HELL OFF JORDAN HANNAH!" David said, his temper showing just a bit. “Now, move so that your mother and I can sit down.”
She threw her hands up in the air and backed off. “You two are impossible. I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t.”
David massaged his temple and took a deep breath so that he could speak calmly. “Jordan, you cannot baby us. We are adults. We can take care of ourselves. We’ve been doing so for several years. All of you need to learn to back off. I’m to the point where I’m tired of it and will tolerate no more. We are not going to be around forever. You need to accept that.”
“So I’m not accepting of the fact that you won’t be here forever by making sure that you don’t hurt yourself coming into the house?”
Once they had lowered themselves to the couch, Brie looked from her husband back to their daughter who was still standing by the door. “First of all Jordan, get in the house and close the door. Jake’s not paying the bills so that you can stand there with the door open and heat the outside. Second, that’s precisely your father’s point. You’re going to have to let go eventually. Yes, our health isn’t what it used to be but that’s doesn’t mean that we’re not capable of… of getting in and out of the car or the house without you or one of your siblings grabbing our arm or our hand the moment we move. If we need the help we’ll ask for it. Our pride isn’t so much that we won’t speak up and ask for help if we need it.” David just nodded in agreement.
“I’m sorry that I just want you to be ok. Maybe I want you to stick around a little longer to see Jasmine graduate.”
“And if that’s what’s in God’s will then that is what will be, Jordan”, David said.
“Have you started reading the Talmud recently or something Dad? This doesn’t sound like you.”
“Jordan”, Jake said when he came in the room, “stop arguing with Mom and Dad. Show a little respect for them and their wishes.”
“Jake, butt out. This is between me and our parents.”
“No, I will not butt out. You’re going to respect our parents or you can leave.”
“Family dinner tonight, Jake. I’m here on Delilah’s orders.”
“Then respect my house, respect our parents for the fact that they gave you life and raised you, or you are dismissed from family dinner until you can do as much.” Jake was getting pissed at his twin’s attitude. “I told you before Mom and Dad left that after Hanukkah that you needed to back the hell off. I was reluctant to even entertain the thought of them going and staying with you because I know how you are. And everyone tells me that I need to relax.”
“If I want to fret over them, that’s my prerogative.”
Jake took a deep breath, closed his eyes and counted to ten in his head. “Jordan, my office. NOW”, he said through gritted teeth and waited for her to head for the stairs before following behind her.
David and Brie exchanged a look. “This isn’t going to be pretty”, Brie said.
“Nope. But it seems that Jordan has earned it.”
---------------
“Of all the bone headed bull shit you’ve spouted over the years, Jordan, this certainly takes the fucking cake!” Jake shouted as he paced his office floor. “And the fact that you come into my home and blatantly disrespect me like that is fucking repulsive! I have told you countless times that you need to grow the hell up and let Mom and Dad go so that they can pass in peace when it’s time and you have deliberately ignored me. And now it’s grating on Mom and Dad’s nerves. What the hell is your problem?”
“I would like it if Mom and Dad were more fucking careful so that they can stick around for Jasmine to graduate from high school. Is that too fucking much to ask?” she screamed right back at him.
“When the hell are you going to grow the fuck up, Jordan? Honestly? Will it be the 12th of fucking never?”
“Do you know something that I don’t?” Jake hesitated. “Spit it out Jacob. I have the right to know.”
“NO YOU DON’T!” he screamed. “DON’T PRESUME TO COME INTO MY HOME AND TELL ME WHAT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW! WHEN I HAVE LICENSE TO TELL YOU WHAT I KNOW, YOU WILL BE TOLD THEN AND NOT A MOMENT SOONER!”
Jordan looked at her twin brother in shock. “I’ve never heard you speak to anyone like that, Jake.”
He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I lost composure for a moment. You and I both know I don’t lose my temper like that. There are things going on with Mom and Dad that you will never understand. Things I can’t even share with Delilah. The only other souls that I know of that know are Maddie, Jeremiah, and Jessykah. If any of the kids that saw things they haven’t told us anything. I can’t share what I know. You have no idea how badly I want to I want to tell you all what I know, but I can’t. This is delicate, Jordan, and you need to let them go. Give them permission to go when they’re ready to and it will be easier on all of us- including them. I told you a month ago when I first said this that I could gladly do whatever you needed of me and Jeremiah said the same thing. If you need to talk because you’re having trouble coming to terms with it, then open your mouth and say something. I don’t read minds. I’m a neurologist not a telepath.” He chuckled at the end and took her hands in his. “Sis, I know you worry after Mom and Dad. I do too. Believe me; it’s just as hard for me to come to terms with this idea of them slipping into the next life as it is for you but I’m slowly doing it. I can only hope that by the time they finally go that I’ll be ready so that I can handle the necessary business.”
“What business will there be?”
He sighed. “I’ve had to look into a LOT of Jewish burial law since Mom and Dad gave me their will and all that wonderful stuff. They outlined everything they wanted done and to be truthful, there’s a lot that was left out. Part of the law is to have them interred within 3 days of death. Someone has to escort each body back over to Israel, seeing as they have bought their plots. If they go one at a time then the one that survives will escort the one that’s passed back and Jeremiah or I will go along with then everyone can follow. If they do like we all suspect they will and go at the same time Jeremiah and I will both have to go at the same time and then everyone else can follow.”
“I hate thinking about Mom and Dad dying Jake. I really do.”
“I know, Jordan. I don’t like it any more than you do, but you have to realize that it’s going to happen whether we’re ready for it to or not.”
---------------
“The last time I saw that kind of anger in Jacob’s eyes was the day that Miriam was born”, Brie said to Delilah, who had come into the living room not long after Jake and Jordan had disappeared upstairs. “He looked like he was seconds from breaking our biggest rule when they were kids.”
“Never to strike their sisters?” Delilah asked.
“Yeah. He looked pissed.”
“But in Jake’s defense”, David said, “Jordan was being pretty disrespectful. Now, do get me wrong, we can both fight our own battles but neither of us really enjoys confrontation and we did sell the house to you and Jake when we moved so Jake taking over was only natural. You two have made this your home after we moved out and he is the man of the house.”
“Yeah, and it’s not the first time he’s had to go off on any of his siblings since you left either”, Delilah said, “that time everyone gathered here when the Utopians were trying to take over again 11 years ago aside. Jake’s had to blow his stack a few times. And as we all know, Jake’s not one to lose his temper.”
“That’s for sure”, David said. “That’s why he’s better suited to take over after I pass than Malachai would have been. And you’re going to make a wonderful matriarch.”
Delilah smiled. “Thanks Dad. It’s taken a lot for me to get comfortable in the role. When Jake and I met I wasn’t this assertive. I’ve had to learn to be. It’s been pretty liberating, I have to say.”
“Being a mother of 4 has helped you with that, I’m sure”, Brie said with a smile.
“Oh yeah. There had been a point when Jake and I tossed around the idea of trying to outdo the two of out in the baby department. I told him he was out of his ever loving mind after the twins were born.”
“Why on Earth would you two want to try to outdo us? Did you want to be raising children into your 60’s?” David asked.
“No. It had just been something that Jake had dreamed of doing when he was younger and when we first got together for good we kicked around the idea and it seemed like it would be fun to try. Then the twins were conceived and I looked at him and told him that the novelty of us having more than four had worn off.” She laughed.
“Good for you”, Brie said.
“Are there ever times when you wish you had told Dad no after Maddie?”
Brie shook her head. “No. I love all ten of the little bastards, from Malachai to Jessi and Marc and everyone in between. I adore all of the children that married in and my life would not be complete without the 27 grand brats you’ve all blessed us with. The opportunity to greet little Grace is certainly a blessing in and of itself for the both of us. I mean; our first great-grandchild. This is something I was almost certain that we’d never see. Miranda and Isaiah are pushing 30. We were hoping for sooner, but we understood that they wanted to get settled into their careers first.”
“Hell, I was nearly 40 when I met your mother in law here and we started having children”, David added.
“How old were you when Jake and Jordan were born?”
“I was almost 38 when they came along.”
Delilah grinned. “Now look. You’re nearly 85 with a massive family that exploded before your eyes and you’re in the twilight of life. What do you think when you look at the huge portrait of the family over there above the fireplace?”
“I look at my wife and think, ‘Damn we did good’.”
“What about you, Mom? What do you think?”
“The same thing. We usually think it simultaneously”, Brie responded. “We’re pretty in tune with each other.”
Delilah grinned. “I think Jake and I have developed something like that. We know what the other is thinking.”
“You’ve been married long enough to be able to. Patterns develop and you know each other inside out. You know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Once you know someone that well, it’s hard not be able to know what the other is thinking. The question is; what do you do with it?”
---------------
When everything settled down after Jake chewed Jordan's ass and made her apologize to their parents for not only her behavior but her attitude, James came over after all of the younger kids were out of school so that Josie, Nikki, and Will could hang out with their cousins. He found his parents in the kitchen enjoying a cup of tea together while there was some form of quiet in the house. He sighed and set his Nook reading pad on the table as he took a seat. "Sorry to interrupt with my melancholy. Just ignore me."
His parents looked at him from the corners of their eyes and shook their heads. "Fat chance of that one, Matthew. What seems to be the problem?" his father said.
"I'm feeling a bit... inadequate; I guess is the word I'd use."
"What has you feeling inadequate?" his mother asked.
"I'm not necessarily comfortable sharing this with you Mom. It's just a little awkward."
"Is it something to do with your love life?" He nodded. "Well then, maybe I can add a female perspective."
James sighed. "Ok. Kenna says she wants to change things up in the bedroom and has investigated this thing called the Kama Sutra. Are you familiar with it?"
Both of his parents tried not to choke on the tea they were drinking. "Yeah James, we're familiar", his father chuckled. "Please continue. This is too funny."
"Well, she brought me the book and this eZine for Cosmo and said she wanted me to look at them. I thought she was happy with the way things were in bed."
Brie laughed. "My poor, cocky, misguided, sex fiend of a son; you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. She just wants to explore, that's all. There's nothing wrong with that."
"Really?"
David nodded. "Yep. There's nothing wrong with wanting a little variety in bed. Hell, your mother and I have done all 526 positions described in the Kama Sutra. We did it to have a little variety in love making."
"But does this mean that she's not being satisfied?"
Brie shook her head. "Not by a long shot. Now, seeing as I can't get into Kenna's head and tell you what she's thinking I'll tell you my thought process when I brought the prospect to your father."
"What were you thinking?"
"That I wanted to find more ways to please your Dad. So, I started looking into different resources like Cosmo and the Kama Sutra. Once I had an argument to bring to Dad I sat him down and we talked about it logically. Once we agreed- and believe me, it didn't take a lot of convincing- we started trying different things and came to learn that the things were trying weren't just about pleasing him, but there were things that we did that were just to heighten intimacy or things that were mainly for my pleasure. There were things that tested my flexibility, Dad's strength, both of our sense of balance and it provided variety. We weren't doing the same thing every time we made love."
"It didn't hurt that the first one we tried involved a strip tease and Mom came out of our bathroom wearing the sluttiest lingerie I'd ever seen", David added.
"Really?" James laughed.
Brie nodded. "Yeah and we applied standard strip club rules- he could look, but he couldn't touch. We had a really sturdy chair that we did a LOT of things in. It's part of why we got that chaise lounge and that rug in front of the fireplace we had put in after we all moved back here after the Occupation."
"What was with the fire place?"
"It served a dual purpose", David said. "First and foremost it was to keep our room warm. Neither of us can stand the cold and that was one of your mother's sticking points. She said that just because we lived in Colorado didn't mean that we had to freeze during the winter. And, it was for romance and intimacy. We would curl up in front of the fireplace and talk. We'd just lie there and hold each other. We'd do all kinds of things in front of that fireplace. It was honestly our favorite place to be together during the frigid ass winters we spent here."
"Just one?"
"James, what do you think you father and I did during the years we spent raising you and your brothers and sisters?"
"I know you fooled around every chance you got. Other than that I have no idea."
"We both worked and had a million other things to do while I was home. We snuck what time we could away from business and spent time just the two of us, sure. But it wasn't until Mom retired that one of us had a flexible enough schedule to do all of the things you kids seem to be under the impression that we did", David said. "That was when Mom would sneak into my office so that we could play or she would 'convince' me to step away from my work so that we could go to lunch or something like that. We took what time we could when we were both working. Amazingly you kids seem to think that it was practically endless when I was home."
"You want to know what fed that illusion?"
"Please?"
"You were always in the kitchen helping Mom cook no matter what time of day it was. You didn't do business while we were home, even if we were home sick. You didn't work weekends, unlike Mom who worked six days a week unless it was a birthday or holiday."
"Who do you think took care of the logistics so that I could have five, six clients in and out of the house a day until I retired?" Brie asked. She and David both pointed to him. "This guy."
"So you guys didn't fuck as much as we're all under the impression you did?"
"Probably not, but we've done a lot of it in our relationship and we know what we're talking about as far as Kenna want to explore things sexually", David says. "And if you doubt us, you can just grow a set and ask her yourself."
No comments:
Post a Comment