SYLER MCKNIGHT: A Holiday Tale

by Brent, Cora

  Deanna had gotten divorced a couple of years back and every time I was in town she would simper and flirt and look me over like I was a tower of whipped cream she couldn’t wait to devour. I would no sooner agree to have lunch with her than I would pop a laundry detergent pod into my mouth. I could have muttered a polite, noncommittal response to her lunch invitation. But she was a witch and I was too much of an asshole to be polite just for the sake of politeness.

  “Nice to see you too, Deanna,” I said and gave her a once over. “You leave the new baby at home?”

  She was puzzled. “What baby? Dax is six now.”

  “Oh.” I scratched my chin. Pretended to look embarrassed as I averted my eyes. “Sorry. I assumed you just had a baby.”

  Deanna immediately looked down, obviously wondering with horror why I thought she’d just given birth. I didn’t care much if I’d hurt her feelings. As far as I could tell she’d never evolved past high school mean girl crap and the only reason she’d come over here today was to make my sister feel like shit.

  Gemma struggled with her laughter from behind the wide rim of her coffee cup. I peeled off my snowy jacket and wet baseball cap and winked at her. She knew what I was doing.

  “Uh, no,” Deanna muttered, frowning. “I didn’t just have a baby.” Then she must have realized that I was being an intentional jerk because her vague frown evolved into a full blown scowl.

  Deanna was suddenly eager to get away, rising and snatching her expensive looking purse from the back of the chair. “Before I go, Gemma, I should tell you that the Boosters had an emergency meeting yesterday.”

  My sister’s eyebrows shot up. “No one told me.”

  “Well, you had so much going on we thought we’d do you a favor. I talked to Karen and Renata and we all agreed that for this year we should take over handling Gloria’s Cookie Capers since of course you’re not going to be up to it. Karen thinks she can get the fire house to host.”

  Gemma was irritated. “The event is called Gloria’s Cookie Capers for a reason. It was started by my grandmother and it’s always held here the Saturday before Christmas, followed by caroling in the town square. It’s been that way ever since my grandmother planned the first one some thirty years ago.”

  Deanna pressed her lips together. She’d already taken it upon herself to settle everything behind Gemma’s back and hadn’t been expecting an argument. “We don’t want you to feel like you’re expected to carry the world on your shoulders after Russ – uh, I mean after everything that’s happened.”

  Gemma took a sip of her coffee. She wasn’t one to erupt in anger but I could sense her annoyance from across the room. “Thank you all for thinking of me. I do agree that I shouldn’t be expected to carry the world on my shoulders. But I will be hosting Gloria’s Cookie Capers like I always do. And if I need assistance from you or Karen or Renata, rest assured that I won’t hesitate to reach out. Syler, can you do me a favor and grab Deanna’s coat over there? She probably wants to get going before the snow starts up again.”

  The fur-lined, heavily perfumed coat was in my hand before Deanna pulled herself together enough for a response.

  She didn’t thank me for holding her coat, choosing to just grab it out of my hand. “I’ll call you later, Gemma.”

  “I’ll probably be busy later but you can try,” Gemma said and I was impressed with her rare use of sarcasm.

  Deanna wasn’t sure how to take that comment. And she didn’t flash me anymore of those lip glossed ‘come hither’ smiles before marching through the front door as I held it open.

  Back at the dining room table, Gemma was rubbing her temples. “That gave me a headache.”

  “Deanna’s a walking headache.” I plopped down in an overstuffed armchair beside the fireplace.

  “I should have known. We’ve been in a power struggle over control of the Boosters for years and when she smelled an opportunity she pounced.”

  “Like a vulture.”

  “Not sure that vultures pounce. But yes.”

  “Good for you not taking any of her crap.”

  “I just asked myself ‘What would Katrina say?’ She’s all sass.”

  “That she is,” I agreed, staring into the fireplace while thinking about all the other adjectives I would use to describe Katrina. Eventually I looked up to find my sister grinning at me.

  “What?” I demanded.

  “It means the world having you here, Sy. You and Katrina both. This is going to sound corny, but you guys are my people. I feel stronger with you around.”

  “It’s not corny in the slightest. I should have come up for Thanksgiving.”

  “I’m sure you were busy.”

  I hadn’t been that busy. Sure, I’d been in the middle of a work contract but those would always be there. All Thanksgiving weekend I’d stayed in my apartment, feasted off leftover pizza and kept my face plugged into a screen.

  Gemma was still wearing her blue bathrobe. She tightened the belt and gazed out the window. “Looks like it really is going to snow again soon. Katrina doesn’t plan on trying to walk back from Annika’s, does she?”

  “I won’t let her.”

  “Thanks.”

  I watched my sister. She looked better than she had first thing this morning but she was obviously still reeling.

  “How are you really doing, Gem?”

  She sighed. “I’ll be all right I guess. All that’s left now is the shock. If Russell wanted a divorce he should have been an adult and said so. He certainly should have stuck around to explain the situation to the kids. And I can’t help but be bitter that he’s not here to deal with any of the gossip. Did I tell you that my soon-to-be-ex-mother-in-law called last night?”

  “Patricia.” I acted like I was gagging over the name of Gemma’s pinch-faced mother-in-law. She used to turn the hose on us kids when we played ball in the empty parking lot next to the tire store she owned with her husband.

  “Yup, Patricia. She didn’t want to talk about Russ at all. Even also though he left them high and dry by abandoning his job at the store.”

  Knowing Russell and his lazy ways, he was likely just dead weight at the job his parents had given him anyway. “What did she say?”

  “She wanted to remind me that she and Mark are leaving for their Caribbean cruise tomorrow but that they’d cancel and stay home if I really needed their help.” Gemma shrugged. “Honestly, they wouldn’t have been any help. They don’t take much interest in the kids. I told her to go and have a good time.”

  I was almost afraid to ask the next question. “Has Russ called?”

  “He texted. Wait, let me read you his compelling words directly. ‘Gem, I’m sorry if this seemed sudden to you. I’ll call the kids in a few days when they’re not so mad at me.’”

  She tossed the phone on the table in disgust. “Acts like he went on a damn business trip.”

  “What a piece of shit.”

  She rubbed her eyes and didn’t disagree with me. “People keep calling, texting. Some of them genuinely do feel bad. Others just want in on the gossip. I’m not really ready to talk about it yet. I’m dreading calling The Units.”

  “You have to tell them sooner or later.”

  She chewed her lip. “They’re busy. I don’t want them to feel like they need to come running down here.”

  I thought the chances that would happen were pretty slim. Our parents weren’t bad people. They just had a different set of priorities. They would be mighty sorry to hear about Russell’s betrayal but it was doubtful they would choose to sacrifice Important Work. Besides, for all I knew it might be tough to hitch a ride out of their Arctic Circle habitat.

  “You want me to call them?” I offered. “I can call Ryland too. That way you don’t have to explain the same story for the thousandth time.”

  “That’s tempting but no, it’s something I have to do. I’ll get to it, I promise.” She stood up. “I’m going to go jump in the shower. Then I have to go down to the warehouse for
a little while. Luckily I finished canning all the Christmas orders last week. They just need to be packaged up.”

  “I can do that for you.”

  She shrugged. “It will only take an hour or two and I’d like to get out of the house for a little while. Actually, I was hoping you’d volunteer to babysit.”

  “Even better.”

  Gemma tapped me on the shoulder in gratitude and ran off to get ready. I decided my first job as babysitter was to know the whereabouts of my charges so I did some investigating.

  Chloe was curled up in the parlor with a book and a blanket. Drew was upstairs in his bedroom playing a video game while in the room next door, Evan alternated between watching a cartoon and showing his action figures to Florence the cat. Gretel had been playing with her dolls but claimed they were tired and needed a break. She followed me downstairs and asked for a snack so I gave her a glass of milk and some of ‘Aunt Katty’s cookies’. I tried one. It was good. Tasted exactly like a recipe my grandmother used to make. Gretel fed cookies to a rather decrepit baby doll named Beansy and created a lot of crumbs.

  We were still eating cookies when Gemma breezed through to say goodbye. The warehouse she’d referred to was actually a room in the Maple Springs Community Center where she stored her prepared jams and jellies before mailing them out. Our grandparents had started the business many years ago after neighbors kept begging for their jars of mint rhubarb. Maple Springs Classics was now sold in regional stores and a website that I’d created and maintained now shipped orders all over the world.

  Gretel scuttled away while I cleaned up the dishes. I checked my watch and wondered how Katrina was faring at Annika’s. I knew they had a weird relationship but it couldn’t be all bad. Annika had always struck me as kindhearted, if a little nutty.

  I’d just reclaimed the armchair beside the fireplace when Gretel returned, clutching a colorful book.

  “Uncle Syler, can you read this to me?” She climbed into my lap and settled down with her book, certain that her request would be granted. Of course it would be granted.

  I checked out the title. “Princess Snowball. Sure, Gret. I’ve been meaning to read this.”

  My niece had already made herself comfortable by the time I started the first page.

  “Once upon a time, in a very tall castle of ice, lived a girl who wanted a best friend more than anything else in the world.”

  “You’re not doing the voice right,” Gretel informed me. “You need to do it how Mommy does it.”

  I raised my voice a few octaves before I resumed reading. Carrying on like a soprano kind of made my throat hurt but if that’s what Gretel wanted to hear then that’s how I’d keep reading.

  I was just getting to a climactic moment when Princess Snowball had to save her new best friend from a giant shark-like creature that lived beneath the ice when I noticed that my audience had faded. Gretel snored lightly against my chest and I closed the book, setting it down on my knee and wondering how I could extricate myself without disturbing her. Holding my breath, I lifted her in my arms and carried her over to the nearby sofa, taking care to tuck a blanket around her. Her eyelids fluttered.

  “Where’s Beansy?”

  “I don’t know. Did you leave her in the kitchen?”

  She frowned but didn’t open her eyes. “Go see.”

  I located the abandoned Beansy on a kitchen chair and returned her to her mistress, who happily curled an arm around the doll and resumed her nap.

  The other three kids were still serenely occupied so I finally dragged my suitcase to the one bedroom suite at the back of the house. It had been designed as a servant’s quarters and for a long time operated as Ryland’s room whenever he visited. By the time Gemma and I were dropped off here for a permanent stay, he’d already leapfrogged past high school and was enrolled at Harvard. Now that I was older I wished we had figured out how to be real brothers somewhere along the way but Ryland was a tough nut to crack. I guess I was too.

  The room had been remodeled years ago into a frilly guest room with lots of lace and flowered wallpaper but when I sat on the bed and squinted at the doorway I could almost see the girl who’d once crept through it with a dirty plan in mind.

  Nothing had ever been wilder than that night with Katrina.

  Ten years later and I’d never even tried to touch her again. I was going to wait until she asked me to. And she would. Real soon.

  But for now I had the memory of that night.

  That crazy, hot, inexplicable night.

  7

  THAT NIGHT, Part 1

  Syler

  I looked away when they kissed. Logically, I knew they’d be doing much more than that later on but my gag reflex had something to say about the idea.

  So instead of dry heaving into my mouth over the image of Russell Reese putting his hands all over my sister, I chose to look at the maid of honor instead.

  Katrina Feldman was wearing one of those dresses where the neckline plunged in a perfect V. There was probably some technical fashion word for it but in my head the only term for that pink summer dress was a Tit Teaser. Katrina could pull off the Tit Teaser look like no one’s business. The girl had a positively epic set and they’d been a fantasy of mine ever since I started to learn how much fun tits could be.

  Now if only she’d stop being hung up on the fact that I was her best friend’s younger brother.

  And it would also be cool if she’d forget for a few minutes that she couldn’t stand me.

  The bride and groom had wrapped up their make out session and were now parading down the aisle with the wedding party in tow. I smiled at Gemma because she was so happy that tears streamed down her cheeks. The douchebag on her arm, however, would be tough to get used to.

  Russ Reese was as stupidly cocky as ever, high fiving his buddies on the walk back up the aisle like he was still the star quarterback and had executed the game winning play.

  Katrina followed and I liked to see how she brushed off one of the jackass groomsmen when he tried to snake an arm around her waist. She turned her head and I thought I’d caught her eye until I realized she was focused on something just to my left.

  Not something. Someone.

  “Is the reception starting right away?” asked my brother and if I had a hundred dollars in my pocket I would have bet it all that he had taken no notice of Katrina’s hungry expression.

  Ryland liked girls for sure but only had time for ones who could prattle on about tectonic plates while riding his dick. Science was sex and sex was science and girls who didn’t know science didn’t get him hard. He was nice enough to Gemma’s friend because Ry was nauseatingly nice to all lesser mortals who crossed his path, but he showed more affection to Florence the world’s ugliest cat than he showed to Katrina.

  I used to find it hilarious the way Katrina panted after Ryland to no avail but I didn’t think it was so funny anymore. In fact I wished she’d pant after me for a change. At least she wouldn’t be wasting her time the way she was wasting it with Ryland the clueless science doofus.

  “Let’s just follow the crowd,” I said and nudged my brother to get him moving.

  We followed a herd of people from the Maple Springs Community Church to Magpie Park for the reception. The entire event had been cobbled together in about two weeks and people had all kinds of shotgun wedding assumptions but I overheard Gemma swear to our grandmother that she was definitely not pregnant, which was something I didn’t want to think about anyway. My guess was that Russell was taking advantage of the fact that my sister had temporarily lost her marbles and agreed to marry him so he figured he should get it done before common sense kicked in.

  The late August weather was muggy and not ideal for an outdoor reception but that didn’t stop people from gyrating to music once the DJ started playing such timeless classics as Brass Monkey and Bust a Move.

  I wasn’t in the mood to make an ass out of myself by twitching around in the grass so I picked a shady spot and pigged out
on a plate piled with smoked meat. Ryland hung around with me for a little while but then wandered off when he noticed his old chemistry teacher was here. They were currently over by the buffet table, geeking out over the finer points of periodic tables or whatever.

  No one was bothering me so I stayed where I was in the shade, watching all these people and thinking about how Maple Springs seemed like such a damn small place. In three weeks I’d be leaving for college. I couldn’t wait.

  Meanwhile, my sister was twirling around in the arms of her groom, her face glowing with happy laughter as she began her married life in tiny, dull Maple Springs. I didn’t understand. In high school she’d always talked about getting out of here. And she’d been off to a good start at her fancy Ivy League university. But one summer with Russell Reese and she was ready to chuck all her dreams and hang around upstate New York forever.

  I just didn’t get it. I didn’t get it at all.

  Once again Katrina caught my attention. She appeared to be trying to brush off the same groomsman who attempted to paw her in the church. He asked her a question and she shook her head, her loose black curls bouncing on her shoulders. The guy frowned, not a Maple Springs local but one of Russ’s college friends during his brief stint at UConn before he flunked out and had to come home.

  I decided to put my meat down and intervene.

  “Katrina!” I hadn’t meant to be loud but a hundred people turned to look at me waving around like an idiot. “I saved you a seat.”

  She stared at me, confused. Then she looked at College Boy, excused herself and headed my way with a wary expression.

  If I were a better guy I wouldn’t have noticed the way her tits bounced with every step but I wasn’t a better guy. I was me. So I did notice. If I stood up right now half of Maple Springs would get a load of just how much I’d noticed.

  “What do you want?” she demanded. There was a plate of cake in her hand.