The Take-Over Friend by Carol Dines

Author:Carol Dines
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Published: 2022-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

19

On Christmas Eve, we always invited Mom’s cousins, J. J. and Kirsten and their six-year-old son, Leif, who adored Will. They dressed alike: turtlenecks, hand-knit sweaters, khakis, and Merrills. J. J. was ten years younger than Mom, but he looked just like her: tall, blond, blue-eyed. Kirsten was tiny with hair the color of clothespins and a long face. They had both become religious after they met in treatment years before, and now they were both counselors for drug-addicted teenagers. At one point Kirsten was describing the opioid problem in Hinkley where they lived, an hour north of Minneapolis. “We see a lot more burglaries now, and it’s mostly drug related. People are desperate.”

Leif was a small quiet boy with wide ears, gray eyes, and short-cropped blond hair. As his mother talked, he unconsciously lowered his hand to his crotch.

“Do you need to use the bathroom?” Kirsten asked him. Leif shook his head, but he kept scratching. Kirsten grew stern. “Then leave your little man alone.”

“That’s his penis,” Dad said.

Leif burst into giggles. “You’re not supposed to use that word.”

“Penis?” Dad looked at Kirsten. “Is there something in the Bible against using the word penis? I think not.” He turned back to Leif. “I use penis all the time. In fact.” Dad grinned.“It’s a wonderful penis-Christmas, isn’t it?”

Ali glared at Mom. “Why do you let him do this?”

“What?” Dad laughed. “Start a penis conversation?”

Kirsten reached over and put her hand on Leif’s arm. “Uncle William is just being silly.”

“Silly penis me,” Dad whispered to Leif.

“Penis Uncle William!” Leif giggled uncontrollably. “Penis

presents! Penis napkin! Penis everything!”

I laughed. Will laughed. Even J. J. smiled. Kirsten, Mom, and Ali glared at Dad.

Very soon Kirsten, J. J., and Leif left, and we all helped Mom clear and stack the dishes in the dishwasher. Dad went outside to walk the dogs. No one said a word until Mom held a dishtowel to her face. “Go upstairs, please, all of you.” She didn’t want us to see her crying. Ali hugged her, until Mom gently pushed her back. “Go. I need to talk to your father when he comes inside.”

I went upstairs and got into bed. We were a different family now. We listened harder, stared harder, but spoke our truths less. I wondered if we’d always been this way, so separate, or if now that I was older, I was seeing the truth of my family for the first time, pieces instead of a whole. In my mind, I tried to draw a line around us. I tried to hold us all inside the line. But more and more, I felt the line had been broken, and instead of a circle, we were dots, scattered separately. I heard a scratch on my door, and when I opened it, Vinnie jumped on my bed. I lay awake, feeling his breath on my ankle. I wondered if he could smell the future, if he knew why the silences inside our family had turned so heavy.

On Christmas Day, Mom wasn’t speaking to Dad.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.