Andy James, however, became more chatty, “So, what should I expect from your family?” he said with a grin.
Christina said, “Oh, Andy. Well, there will be music and food. Most probably, bickering and other… things… it’ll be socially awkward and inappropriate.”
Andy nodded and looked confused, “Okay” and when she didn’t elaborate, Riley sighed. He glanced at Christina in the rearview mirror and grinned then he looked back at the road. “I haven’t seen them altogether for a long time, but they’ll tease each until someone snaps or gets upset. It’s usually Jack or Christina.”
Christina went to deny it, but he shook his head. “You know it’s true. Then they’ll take sides. Christina will go with the one she thinks is being picked on, usually her father. Gabby and Johnny will form a team, and it’ll all turn pretty crazy from there. They’ll get even later with pranks and embarrassing each other in public. But if anyone else steps in – you know someone outside the family – then the Martins turn on them like a pack of wild beasts.” Andy looked both amused and worried.
Riley shrugged. “We may get lucky. They may try to control themselves because they have company, but don’t count on it. I’m hoping now they’re older and more mature, that there won’t be bloodshed. Christina here,” he pointed at her “and Johnny used to get into wrestling matches. Christina would usually win them.”
“No way,” Andy gasped, making Riley laugh.
“Oh yeah. Don’t let her fool you. In their younger days, her, Bonnie Howard and Mandy Robinson were the scourge of the neighborhood.”
Christina protested her innocence the rest of the way home, but the men teased her mercilessly. Riley gave Andy accounts of what she and her friends had done in their teens, refusing to stop even when she begged him to. For once, Riley didn’t feel any sense of irritation when he entered Shanwick and he was in good spirits.
He and Andy had even managed to cheer up Christina. Maybe, he thought, their luck would change when it came to the void of Shanwick and it would be okay? Unfortunately, it didn’t.
Chapter Twenty-three – Cabin Pressure
Christina, Shanwick, The Present, Saturday 13 October 2012
“Mrs. Gustafson, I apologize,” said Christina.
“For,” prompted her father.
“For being rude, using inappropriate language, and swearing on the Sabbath,” finished a reluctant Christina.
“Ditto,” said an insincere Riley. Christina glanced at Riley, who was looking sullen and pouty. His eyes were narrowed and he had his hands in his pockets with his shoulders hunched up.
Mrs. Gustafson gave a rictus grin baring her teeth to Dad and Riley. When her eyes fell on Christina, they narrowed. It was pretty clear whom Mrs. Gustafson decided was the instigator and it wasn’t Riley. Mrs. Gustafson had her gray hair in a bun and her eyes were like washed out denim. She was a large woman, tall, well-built and soft, where rolls of flesh connected her breasts and stomach.
The Martins had always lived next door to Mrs. Gustafson and she hadn’t changed very much, just become more washed out over the years, and meaner. Mrs. Gustafson had had a soft spot for Christina’s mother, tolerated her father, but couldn’t stand the children, reserving a particular dislike for Christina. The feeling was mutual.
As soon as Riley, Christina and Andy had arrived at the Martin home, Dad had insisted they apologize to Mrs. Gustafson for their bad behavior, which was, according to Dad, “the talk of the town.” Christina could imagine. The town did little else, but gossip. Why change the habit of a lifetime?
Both Riley and Christina protested, but Dad was insistent. Usually, Dad would cave, but this time he was determined and wouldn’t back down. Christina was pretty sure Tessa Marsh had had some influence on this. Dad looked desperate, nervous, and wouldn’t budge, so a reluctant Christina relented for the sake of her father, dragging an even more hesitant Riley with her.
They had been marched over to Mrs. Gustafson’s like school children, while Johnny, Andy, Gabby, Tessa and LiLi watched from the porch. Now the apology was done, Christina grabbed Riley’s hand and pulled him away. They left Dad and Mrs. Gustafson talking about the failings of the younger generation, and how they were so much better in their day.
From out of nowhere a huge black and white cat appeared, rubbing itself around Christina’s legs. She bent to pat it, but it bit her and she glared at it. She liked animals, but they’d never been allowed to have any as children because their mother said they were too busy.
Christina watched the brute stalk into Mrs. Gustafson’s property, flopping down on the porch and staring at her. She swore the damned thing was smiling and it gave her the creeps. For the first time in her living memory, Mrs. Gustafson looked at Christina without malice.
“Agh dat is Schubert. He has some emotional problems and cannot get on vith the others. He has da devil in him.”
Mrs. Gustafson belonged to the Shanwick Animal Rescue Group and her house, although well kept, usually homed a number of rescue cats. It was clear that Schubert was the king of the roost. He’d be king anywhere.
Christina revised her opinion. Perhaps Schubert was smarter than the average cat? She’d never got on well with others in Shanwick either. Or perhaps Schubert was reacting against his stupid name? Schubert? That thing should be called Maximus Brutus or Godzilla, not named after an Austrian composer.
Riley and Christina made their way back to the Martin house to find the others still waiting for them.
“What was that about?” Johnny grinned.
“Nothing,” snapped Christina.
“Looked like something to me,” smirked Gabby.
“Well, it wasn’t,” growled Christina.
“Ooooh touchy,” mocked Gabby.
“SHUT UP,” retorted Christina. No matter how much she wanted them to, some things never changed.
********************
Dinner – was – uncomfortable. Not only were there an audience, but also, a number of competing factors to be negotiated. The primary one being: her family was nuts. It had been a long time since they’d all been together in Shanwick, under the same roof, and the Martin children had reverted to jostling for position in the family hierarchy by baiting one another.
Then there was Dad, who, decided to impart the Martin family history to his captive guests to the horror of his children. He’d intoned on Johnny’s singing prowess and musical gifts, and was now onto other subjects of a more personal nature. It appeared Johnny wasn’t the only showman in the room. Dad had always liked to express himself to an audience as well, but unlike his son, he didn’t read a crowd very well. Right now, core members of his “crowd” wanted to strangle him.
“Johnny and Gabby take after their mother, but they all get their musical talent from my side of the family,” Dad intoned to Andy James. “Christina takes more after my side, except they all have their mother’s eyes.”
Christina had heard this story a thousand times and as much as she wished this would be the last, she knew that was a false hope. She was also acutely aware they had guests and her father’s form of entertainment, differed vastly to hers. Dad was an unintentional comic and had a tendency to make the most innocent comment an embarrassing double entendre.
They were all seated around a large table Tessa Marsh had borrowed from the church. Riley was on her left and Andy further away to the end of the table on the other side of Riley. Dad was in between Tessa and Johnny with LiLi seated beside him, and Gabby was beside Christina at the end of the table in her wheelchair. Dad was leaning across the table giving Andy James all the Martin family history and Christina wished he would just stop.
Andy was the first friend from her D.C. life that she had ever allowed to meet her family as a full complement. He would also probably be her last. She sometimes wished she’d allowed her roommate, Marie, to meet them all so she could give a psychological assessment afterwards. Her real fear is that Marie would declare them all insane, including Christina.
&
nbsp; Tessa Marsh had prepared a slow cooked chili, full of beef, and a vegetarian one for Gabby. Although Christina questioned the wisdom of cooking food with beans for a group that would be stuck under the same roof together, she wasn’t complaining. The food was delicious. There was cornbread, corn cakes, rice, salad and cinnamon rolls for dessert. If only Dad would stuff his mouth full so he couldn’t speak, thought Christina, everything would be perfect.
Christina had to admit, the house looked fantastic. She’d thanked Tessa for her help and Tessa looked at her with a sad smile. “Sometimes a place needs a woman’s touch, Christina. Your father has been alone for so long.”
She agreed. Even though a small part of her felt disloyal to her mother’s memory, she was glad her father and Tessa had found happiness together. Until now, her mother’s presence had always felt strong and over-powering – like she was there, but just out of reach.
Christina often wondered if her mother would be proud of her now. If the ledger was balanced and she’d made up for her mother’s disappointment in her? It had been one of Christina’s greatest regrets that her mother had died before she had a chance to redeem herself as an adult.
“My side of the family are taller,” continued an ever-increasingly embarrassing Dad, “and more well-built. Great lungs run in our family.”
Christina saw Riley shift in his seat and when she looked up at him, he had his eyes closed. He was hunched over, pinching the bridge of his nose and Christina could tell he wanted to roll around the floor laughing. She had been trying to stare her father out, to make him shut up, but he refused to be cowered.
“It’s why Christina has such a strong voice for a woman. She’s hard to define as a singer because she’s a soulful, mezzo/soprano with a tasteful vibrato, and a rich velvety tone. Her clarity of register… upper soprano to stratospheric falsetto is quite something and it’s all to do with lung capacity. You see great lung capacity is the friend of the instrument,” rambled Dad to Andy James, who was looking at her father with a poker face.
Johnny caught Christina’s eye and he smiled with a hint of mean. Turning to Dad, Johnny asked, “Is great lung capacity like a flux capacitor?” Dad looked at Johnny like he was insane, but Riley, Andy and Gabby were snickering in their seats.
“What? No. Why would you say that?” Dad snapped.
“Well,” said Johnny, “I just thought flux capacitor was a better term than ‘lung capacity’ because someone might think you’re talking about Christina’s boobs, Dad.” Christina glared at Johnny wishing him a thousand deaths as everyone, except for her and Dad, snickered.
“God-sake,” Dad muttered, shaking his head. “Bloody ridiculous.”
She knew it was mean, but it was so on. Leaning over to Johnny, Christina eyeballed her brother and smiled. “Hey Johnny, when Skynet finally takes over the world and the Terminators arrive, my flux capacitor will come in really handy, won’t it?”
Johnny’s eyes went huge and his face darkened. “That’s not funny, Christina.”
“Oh, I think it is,” she smiled.
“Is not,” Johnny snapped.
“Is funny, times infinity,” said Christina.
“Isn’t, infinity times 1,” quipped Johnny.
“That’s still infinity, Johnny,” sneered Christina.
“Shut up, Christina,” growled Johnny.
Brother and sister glared at each other from across the table without saying another word. Their stare-down was broken when Gabby giggled. “Why don’t you tell everyone what you’ve been doing in Seattle, Christina?”
She met her sister’s eyes that were dark and glinting. A little smile played around the corners of Gabby’s mouth, but her demeanor, to the casual observer, was one of innocence. Gabby batted her eyelids and then pointedly looked at Riley.
“Sure, Gabby,” Christina grinned. “But first, why don’t you tell Johnny what you’ve been purchasing with his credit card?”
Gabby’s eyes went wide and then she scowled, before recovering. “I, um,” Gabby said, but was interrupted by Johnny.
Staring at Gabby with a frown, he said, “What does she mean?”
Gabby shrugged. “I’ve bought lots of pop music and stuff, Johnny. You know like Carly Rae Jepson’s, “Call me maybe” and Justin Bieber. Stuff you won’t like.”
Johnny groaned. “On my card?”
Pffft, thought Christina, if he didn’t like that, she couldn’t wait to see his reaction when the porn came up on his next bill. The thought made her snort out loud, which brought attention back to her.
“I agree, Dina,” said Johnny with a smirk. “They suck.”
He knew full well Christina enjoyed pop music and she wasn’t going to be roped into his musical arrogance. Johnny’s comments were met with “true”, “seriously” and “word” from Riley, Andy, LiLi, and Dad. If there was one thing Christina disliked, it was snobbery and also, she actually liked “Call me maybe.”
“What’s wrong with happy pop music?” she retorted. “You’re just pretentious music snobs. Not everyone likes alt-rock, with angst ridden lyrics about broken hearts, horrible women and the end of the world you know.”
It was meant as a dig at Johnny, but to her surprise Riley, Dad and Johnny reacted with a “HEY.”
“I’m just saying,” Christina shrugged, “there’s a place for happy songs too.”
Johnny’s expression softened and he picked up LiLi’s hand, kissing it. “True, Dina. There is a place for happiness.” LiLi beamed at him and he placed his hands on her stomach, kissing her on the temple.
Dad clutched Tessa’s hand and they smiled at one another. Christina felt the chili turn in her stomach. She noticed Riley didn’t move to take her hand, so she ignored it, even though it irritated her.
“Have you picked out any names for the baby?” Tessa ventured, trying to steer the conversation back in a more pleasant direction.
“We’ve got some in mind,” said Johnny not taking his eyes off LiLi. “Haven’t we, babe?”
LiLi nodded and was about to speak when Dad interrupted. “If it’s a boy, the name will be Jonathan. All first-born Martin boys are called Jonathan – like you and me Johnny, and my father, and his father before him.”
Johnny frowned and LiLi looked at him for reassurance. “Well, Dad,” said Johnny, “It’s one of the options.”
Dad threw down his napkin. “One of the options? Tradition is important, Johnny. You were named Jonathan because you are the eldest son of the eldest son. Christina was named after both her grandmothers. My mother was Christine and Bettina was your mother’s, mother’s name, so we combined it.”
“Didn’t you want to call Christina, Yoko Ono, Dad?” Johnny asked.
“No,” said Dad, “I wanted Yoko as a middle name, but your mother wouldn’t hear of it. We agreed on Melody.” Christina was eternally grateful. School was hard enough without being saddled with Yoko for a middle name.
“I also wanted to call you Lennon, Johnny, but your mother insisted we maintain tradition.”
“Lennon is a pretty cool name,” grinned Johnny. It is, thought Christina, but imagine if he’d been Lennon and she’d been Yoko? It was too horrible to contemplate. What a bag of laughs that would have been?
“When Gabby came along, we named her after your mother and my grandmother. Gabriella Rose,” Dad beamed, “a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. I wanted to call her Marianne Faith, after Marianne Faithfull, but your mother wouldn’t go for that either.” Dad shook his head and frowned. “You see Marianne Faithfull had been a bit loose with Mick Jagger and some chocolate bars. Your mother thought it was too rude.”
As Riley, Johnny, and Andy made suppressed snorting noises through their noses, Gabby groaned, and cursed under her breath. Christina wanted the evening to end. It was exhausting.
She leaned over and grabbed a cinnamon roll saying to Tessa, “These are great.”
Tessa smiled widely and held Christina’s eyes, “Thank you, Christina. Would anyone else like
one?” Tessa shared the tray around and the rolls disappeared almost immediately.
Christina smiled a “thank you” at Tessa, who winked at her. For once, there was peaceful silence in the Martin household as everyone ate, but it didn’t last long. As the night wore on, Gabby suggested lighting the fire.
Dad thought that was a great idea and then his face changed. Glaring at Christina and Johnny he asked, “Did one of you two light the fire when I was gone?” Both looked confused and said, “no.”
“Well,” said Dad, “someone did. I found some burnt blue material with melted plastic. Accelerant was used – what kind of bloody idiot does that?” Dad shook his head. “Very dangerous when a house has just been freshly painted. I thought everyone knew that, but obviously not.”
Christina went still and didn’t react. She had actually forgotten she’d burnt her dress after her night with Riley and had never considered it might have been a fire risk. Instead she chased crumbs around the table with her fingers, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.
********************
Riley
“So, you’re from Italy?” Gabby smiled at LiLi.
“Yes, from Rimini,” LiLi smiled.
Gabby arched an eyebrow. “I’ve never been to Italy, but I’d love to go.”
“Is very beautiful,” LiLi beamed and her eyes went misty.
“It is,” Johnny grinned and stared lovingly at LiLi.
“Where did you meet?” Gabby asked.
LiLi looked at Johnny and smiled. “We meet after a concert through friends.”
“Oh,” said Gabby, “do we know them?”
LiLi looked to Riley helplessly and back at Gabby. “I not sure. I got a backstage pass and meet Johnny then. We been together ever since.”
Gabby had a dark gift for secrets and he was grateful LiLi was being diplomatic. The mutual friend had been Riley’s ex-girlfriend. He wasn’t sure if Gabby knew or if she was trolling.
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