Kristen Ashley - Wild Man

“Hey Dad,” Jill warily whispered.

That was when we heard, “What… the… fuck? ”

My eyes got big and my lower lip stretched out in an “eek!” look at Elvira as everyone turned to the door.

“What the fuck? ” This time it was shouted and I didn’t know him very well but I knew it was Levi.

“Dylan, honey, go get your sister and go outside and play,” Laura said urgently to her bewildered and somewhat frightened looking son who had his head tipped back and looking at someone in the hallway. “Now, honey, all you kids stay outside.” Dylan dazedly looked at his Mom and she repeated, “Now, baby.”

He let his grandfather’s hand go and dashed away.

Cob’s gaze slid through Jill and Laura, he cottoned onto the situation and then he turned to look down the hall.

“Now, Levi –” he started.

“Get the fuck out,” we heard.

“Levi –” Jill began, moving to the door.

“Get… the fuck… out!” Levi roared.

“Son –” Cob started again only to be cut off by Levi.

“I am not your son, you motherfucking asshole.”

Cob winced.

Oh man.

“Levi!” Laura snapped, also moving to the door but she didn’t need to.

Levi shoved passed his father and entered the kitchen, starting the wave that included Austin, Fritz and Brock but Brock settled just inside the doorway close to his father.

“Levi, cool it until the kids are outside,” he rumbled.

Levi scowled at his brother, visibly counted to ten then fifteen (and I was right along with him), we all heard the door close and then he let loose.

Turning to his sisters, he snarled, “You two are un-fucking-believable.”

“Careful, bud,” Fritz growled.

Levi swung to Fritz and declared, “Fuck that.”

This needed to play out but without the audience it had.

This was my decision therefore I whispered, “Kalie, Kellie, why don’t you guys, Lenore, Elvira and I go out and see what the kids are up to?”

“Good idea, Tess, this is a family situation,” Levi gritted at me.

Bad move.

Really bad move.

I knew this when Brock took two long strides to his brother and got toe-to-toe and nose-to-nose with him and the thick atmosphere became suffocating.

“Tess talked me down earlier and now I’m seein’ I shouldn’t have let her. You need to cool it or, honest to fuckin’ God, Levi, I’ll see that you do.”

“Do not bullshit me, Slim, you do not want that man here any more than I do,” Levi shot back, throwing out an arm and pointing at his father.

“You don’t know what I want,” Brock replied and Levi’s eyes narrowed.

“Fuck me, you? You are buyin’ this bullshit? Pretty convenient he sees the error of his ways when he’s got cancer eatin’ out his insides,” Levi returned scornfully.

I pressed my lips together, Laura made a noise like a whimper, Kalie moved so she was closer to Kellie and Fern decided she was done and I knew this because she said so.

And she did this with a whispered, “I’m done with this.”

Brock disengaged from the angry man stare down, turned and stepped to his brother’s side and all eyes turned to Fern.

Fern looked to Cob.

“This is my house and I say who’s welcome here. It’s Thanksgiving, Cob, and I’m sorry for you that you don’t know if you’ll have another one. But I’m happy for you to sit at the table with your family for this one. You didn’t give me much but you did give me the four most precious things in my life. For that, I can give you this.”

Okay, well, I pretty much liked Fern before.

Now I knew I really liked her.

Then she looked to Levi and kept talking.

“I love you, sweetheart, but you have to get that hate out of your gut or it’ll eat out your insides like the cancer is eating your father. And,” her eyes slid to Lenore then back to Levi,

“I’ll add it might be a good time for you to wake up.”

I felt eyes, looked to Elvira and saw her grinning at me.

Fern wasn’t done.

“Now, we’ve got dinner to finish off so go and watch your game and, I’ll tell you this,”

her eyes honed in on Levi, “it might be Cob’s last Thanksgiving with his family but that also means it might be his family’s last Thanksgiving with him. And we all should do what we can to make it a damned good memory because for my grandbabies out there, it’s gonna need to last awhile.”

No one said anything and no one moved.

So Fern went on, “Levi, can you do that for your sisters and your nieces and nephews?”

Levi didn’t answer. Levi stared at his mother for long moments before his eyes sliced through his sisters then he turned on his boot and walked out.

Fern sighed.

Cob said quietly, “Appreciate it, Fern.”

Her eyes went to him and she nodded.

Then she looked to her granddaughters and said softly, “That looks pretty, girls, put it in the middle of the dining room table, would you?”

Then she went to the stove to check the potatoes.

I looked to Brock in time to see him jerk his chin up at his father, pass him and turn in the same direction Levi went. Austin and Fritz guided Cob out.

Elvira came to me.

“Shoo, girl, big, ole, honkin’ W… T… F? Your bad boy’s family is whacked. Makes my brother with his skinny, skanky, natty-‘fro ‘ho and my sister with her inability to return that fabulous dress she borrowed without red wine stains seem tame.”

I didn’t think a ‘ho in the family was good news but definitely Brock’s family issues were more intense than a dress returned with wine stains.

“Um…” I mumbled. “Brock’s family is working through some issues.”

“Issues?” she asked, leaning back a bit then leaning back in to confide, “I knew it. Got me a premonition. Woke up and it said, ‘Thanksgivin’ with Tess’. Tellin’ you, girlfriend, this is better than TV.”

Well, it was good someone was enjoying themselves.

“I can’t wait to see what happens next,” she muttered then moved away and the away she moved was in the directions of the plethora of wine bottles on the counter.

I could. I could wait to see what would happen next.

And with what did, Elvira was probably not disappointed.

An hour and a half later, I found that, upon calculating the need for dessert, I had not taken into account children who had bottomless stomachs, men who had high metabolisms so they didn’t really need to worry about how much they shoved down their gullets and women who were experiencing one of six days of the year they could let it all hang out (the others being Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, 4th of July and their birthday).

Let’s just say, even though Fern provided a plentiful and delicious Thanksgiving spread, there weren’t a lot of dessert leftovers.

For dinner, at the big table I was sandwiched between Fritz and Austin who made it clear, after Levi’s earlier show that they cast themselves in the roles of my protectors. It was all for one and one for all when it came to being hooked to a member of the Lucas family.

It was also seriously cool and obviously very appreciated.

Brock sat at the head of our table, Fern sat at the foot and Cob, Jill, Kalie, Laura and Elvira rounded out our company. Cob being at the big table meant Levi, who Brock somehow talked into rejoining the family festivities, commandeered Lenore and he sat amongst the card tables set up across the way in the living room with Kellie and her younger cousins.

Although a fair amount of wine and beer were being consumed, the tense atmosphere had not lightened and the only person who seemed oblivious to it was Elvira.

Therefore, I engaged Elvira in conversation knowing from experience anytime Elvira spoke interesting if somewhat surprising and possibly inappropriate things would come out and I did this in the hopes it would lighten the atmosphere.

It did.

Austin and Fritz clearly thought she was a hoot, Cob not far behind, Jill, Laura and Kalie shortly joined in and finally Fern melted. For his part, Brock mostly studied Elvira like she was an unknown creature he didn’t know what to make of but I could sense he was relaxed and pleased his family was enjoying dinner and I could sense this because that was the mood he filled the room with.

Further making things seem almost festive was the fact that Uncle Levi, although having a short fuse, was clearly the funny uncle and much beloved by his siblings’ progeny because laughter rang from the card tables across the way with a lot of giggled, “Uncle Levi! ”

shrieked from Ellie.

Since we made it through dessert without another scene, I relaxed and unfortunately let my guard down.

Therefore, I wasn’t prepared to feel the snap and crackle of Brock’s mood to hit the room.

My head swiveled to him to see his back straight, his face like thunder and his eyes pointed out the window.

Then I heard from the card tables, “You are fuckin’ shitting me.”

This was Levi.

Then suddenly there was motion and that motion was Brock and Levi folding out of their chairs and the rest of us craning our necks to look out the window.

When we saw what we saw, I froze and stared.

Fern, Jill and Laura didn’t freeze.

Fern hissed, “Oh no, I do not think so.”

Jill snapped, “I do not believe that woman.”

And Laura bit off, “On Thanksgiving. ”

Then they jumped up and followed Brock and Levi, Cob going with them and both Fritz and Austin scooted closer to me with Fritz saying, “Kalie, honey, you and your sister get your cousins downstairs, yeah?”

Kalie turned her own angry face from her contemplation of the window (Kalie and Kellie, I had noted much like their younger counterparts, had a close relationship with their Uncle Slim and had also, it would appear, been old enough to have some dealings with Olivia and, it would also appear, had not liked those dealings) and she headed to the living room to do what she was told.

I hadn’t moved.

That was because Olivia was outside.

What on earth?

“Uh… who’s that?” Elvira asked the window, still looking out and now Olivia was standing on the front walk confronting the full force of the Lucas Brigade.

“Brock’s ex-wife,” I whispered.

“Oo lawdy,” Elvira whispered back.

She could say that again.

Half a second later, we heard Laura shriek, “Bitch! ” and we saw her lunge at Olivia.

Elvira repeated a whispered now emphasized, “Oo lawdy, ” and Austin muttered, “Fuck,”

at my side, pushed his chair back and took off as I watched Brock plant a hand in his sister’s chest, Cob wrap his arm around his daughter’s waist and pull back and Olivia lift both her extraordinary hands to her face and melt into beautiful woman tears which every woman on the face of the earth knew held magical powers over any man who was breathing as long as that man wasn’t blind.

Oh man.

“I’m just going to, uh… start to clear the dishes.” I heard Lenore whisper.

Fritz muttered, “Good idea, Lenore. Elvira? Tess, honey, why don’t you two help? I’m gonna go on outside.”

And outside words were being exchanged while Brock was leading a still sobbing Olivia down the walkway with a hand at the small of her back and I decided Lenore’s idea was an excellent one.

So I nodded, got up and started to help her as Fritz headed out.

“I got your back, sister, I’ll keep an eye out,” Elvira told me but I didn’t answer. I started loading my hands with plates.

After trip two when I was in the kitchen, I heard the reentry of the Lucas Brigade and this included Jill’s, “I do not, do not, do not believe that bitch. ”

“Jill, sweetheart, shush,” Cob shushed her.

“She’s a piece of work!” This was Laura and it wasn’t shushed, it was loud.

“Laurie, quiet… Tess.” This was, surprisingly, Levi.

I waited several seconds and then walked into the hall. They were all standing at the front door and all their eyes came to me.

“It’s okay,” I told them when I got nearer. “I’ve met her. It’s okay.”

Then I went back to the table and started clearing but, try as I might, I couldn’t keep my eyes from straying to the window and when I looked out I saw down the way that Brock and Olivia were standing by a silver Mercedes, Olivia still sobbing but now she was doing it with her face planted in Brock’s chest and his arms were around her.