Upon Further Examination: A Court Reporter Mystery by Dehnke Pamela

Author:Dehnke, Pamela
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kindle Direct
Published: 2024-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7: Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 28, 1996

I awoke to my dad yelling, “Hit the deck! The Macy’s parade is about to start, and Chris has his bangers and mash with a side of Scotch eggs at the ready.”

I looked at Mom, “Oy! Bangers and mash this early?”

“Well, he’ll also have his famous, or should I say infamous, Bloody Marys, so I’m outta here,” Mom said, popping out of bed and putting on her cozy orange robe.

“You’re right, those are worth getting up for,” I proclaimed.

Downstairs I grabbed a mug of coffee and joined the others in front of the big screen TV—well, everyone except for Dale. If he wasn’t working, then getting him out of bed was like pulling teeth. We oohed and aahed over the floats and all the personalities present.

Dale finally came down grumbling that Missy was on the phone. She’s our younger sister, whom our cousin coined ‘the evil sister.’ “Puppy pulled the covers off me,” Dale began, “and knocked the phone off the hook. I kept hearing, ‘Hello, hello.’ It sounded like Missy; I thought I was dreaming—having a nightmare is more like it—but finally realized it was the phone when I opened my eyes and saw it lying on the floor beside the bed. I picked it up and told her what had happened, but she won’t listen to excuses. She’s fighting mad because we didn’t call her to wish her a happy Thanksgiving. She wants to talk to you, Mom.”

“I’ll get the portable phone, Grandma,” offered Kat, who ran into the kitchen and quickly retrieved the phone for Mom.

“Oh dear! I think I’ll put her on speaker,” Mom said. “Hello, darling. Happy Thanksgiving. How are you and my lovely granddaughters on this beautiful holiday?”

“F’g pissed off!” Missy greeted us. “Nobody invited me to spend Thanksgiving with them. My own mother couldn’t even f’g call me. I’m just an orphan. Nobody cares anything about me.”

“But, darling,” Mom replied, “you can’t travel. You’ve just had another surgery following that terrible auto accident you were in last month.”

“You should have f’g invited me anyway,” Missy declared.

“It’s my fault, Aunt Missy,” Kat said. “You’re right, I should have asked you; it was your decision to make.”

“Kat? F’k! Am I on speakerphone?” Missy responded.

“Yes,” answered Kat.

“Mom,” Missy shrieked, “you need to learn to respect a private conversation.”

“I’m so sorry, Missy,” said Mom. “I thought you might want to say hi to everyone.”

“Everyone?” shouted Missy. “Who all is there?”

“Me,” I said. “Happy Thanksgiving, Missy. How are you feeling?”

“Like shit. I still think you f’g ran my car off the highway and lied about rescuing me from the burning flames.” Last month Missy’s car had indeed gone flying off the road where it hit a tree and eventually erupted into flames. Luckily, I was following her in my car. I ran down the hill and managed to pull her out of her mangled vehicle just before it caught fire.

“Missy,” I jumped in, “if you’ll remember, we were on our way to dinner. I was hoping to convince you to do some family therapy with us.

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