by Rowe, Brian
“Uhh, yeah… hi… sorry to bother you… but…”
“Not interested,” I said and slammed the door.
I grabbed my phone to start dialing Liesel when I felt a fist punch me in my lower back.
“Ass!” Kimber shouted. She pushed me aside and pulled the door back open. “Hi Tommy. Sorry about that.”
“Hi Kimber,” the boy said. He looked about Kimber’s age. “You look really pretty tonight.”
“Thanks. So do you.” She coughed. “I mean, you don’t look pretty. You just… look nice. I mean, handsome. Well… you know what I mean.”
I stood in awe watching the two young lovebirds, partly due to the sweetness of the occasion, but mostly due to the fact that my baby sister for the first time seemed to be the object of a boy’s affection.
“I got you a present,” the boy said. “I don’t know if you’ll like it, but—”
“I’ll love it,” Kimber said. “And here, I got something for you, too.”
My attention suddenly veered past the fourteen-year-old blond boy standing in the entryway, to the driveway, where I could see a figure appearing out of the darkness. Her long, flowing red hair, complete with a gorgeous green dress that matched her mesmerizing eye color, promised me that the next arrival to our house was definitely meant for me.
“Leese?” I shouted. “Is that you?”
I passed by my sister and her middle school boyfriend, and made my way out into the freezing cold.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said.
“That’s OK. Come on inside, it’s freezing out here.”
I wrapped my arm around Liesel’s shoulders and guided her into my sprawling, six-thousand-square-foot home, located up in the hills of Caughlin Ranch on the outskirts of Reno.
I passed Kimber just as she was waved to the departing Tommy. She had an infectious smile on her face, the kind I last saw when I surprised her at her nighttime recital last May.
I don’t believe it, I thought. My little sister’s in love.
---
My father clinked his knife against one of the water glasses and managed to get all nine occupants at the table to quiet down. He stood up and smiled at my mom, who was sitting to the left of him.
“Before we begin, I just wanted to thank you all for coming,” my dad said, his voice just barely louder than the Frank Sinatra holiday music blasting over the speakers, “and I wanted to thank my wife for making, once again, a delicious Christmas Eve dinner.”
Everyone at the table applauded my mom, who took a subtle bow from her chair and immediately sipped a glass of her expensive Zinfandel wine.
“I also wanted to welcome Margaret and Darlene to our table,” he said. “It’s been far too many years, Margaret. And we’re happy to see an addition to our family here with your lovely bride.”
The two ladies kissed, leaving my mom and grandmother Fay grinning, and my grandfather rolling his eyes.
“And most of all,” my dad said, turning his eyes toward me, “I wanted to say how lucky we are to have both my children here for Christmas. As you all know, we had a bit of a scare earlier this year, but we pulled through, and life, truly, has never been better.” He lifted his glass of wine into the air. “Here’s to my son, Cameron. Thanks for not leaving us.”
I could see my mom fighting back tears as everyone clinked their glasses together, my aunt Margaret waving at me from across the table, her partner Darlene seemingly confused, and Liesel trying to avoid eye contact with everyone at the table. Nobody knew, of course, that Liesel was the perpetrator of my initial illness. And nobody would ever know but me. My parents only knew that I woke up that warm June morning back to normal without any reasonable explanation, like the whole event had been nothing but a vicious nightmare. I of course told no one that Liesel had come to visit me that night in the hospital, using her magical powers to cure me of the life-threatening disease she had set upon me just two and a half months prior. Liesel was going to be around for a while, and I needed her on my family’s good side.
I readied myself to stand up to make my big speech, but my mom beat me to it. “And if I may,” she said. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She was clearly tearing up, and I watched as my dad pulled her hands down to his chest.
“It’s OK, honey,” he said.
“Cam, you’ll never know what that time was like for me,” my mom said, only connecting her eyes with mine sporadically. “That helpless, vulnerable feeling. It’s something I never want to experience again. But what really… you know… ripped me apart, was those last few days, when I had nothing left to do but say good-bye to you…”
God, what a morbid pre Christmas dinner conversation we’re having, I thought. It’s OK, everyone. I’m fine now. I’ll be fine for a long, long time.
My mom licked her lips and exhaled loudly. “Cameron, I am so, so thrilled that you are here with us, more handsome than ever… in love… happy...” She smiled at Liesel before turning back to me. “I couldn’t be more grateful. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
“And whatever you choose to do with your life,” she continued, “your father and I are here to support you. We feel like we’ve been given a second chance with you, and we’re not going to take it lightly.”
I nodded. OK, can we eat now?
“Here here!” my grandfather shouted, reaching for the honey glazed ham. My grandmother slapped his hand away and shook her head with disapproval.
“And on a lighter note,” my mom said, “before we begin, I also wanted to say one other thing… this time about Kimber.” She locked eyes with my sister. “Do you want me to tell them, or do you want to, honey?”
My sister started rocking her chair back and forth, like she wanted to start dancing to the music of Perry Como currently playing over our heads. She smiled big and nodded at my mom. “No, no. You can.”
“What is it?” my dad asked.
She better not be pregnant, I thought, taking Liesel’s right hand and turning toward my sister, who was once again happy as can be.
“Last September,” my mom continued, “Kimber applied for only one of two slots available in—get ready for this mouthful—the Silver State Strings Sensations Scholarship program.”
“I remember you telling me about that,” my dad said. “So what happened?”
“Can we start eating yet?” my grandpa yelled. My grandma slammed her hand over his mouth to let my mom finish.
My mom put her left hand on her hip and raised her glass of wine with her right. “Only two middle school students in all of Nevada were chosen to be a part of the violin recital next June, to be performed in front of the President of the United States himself, in Washington D.C.—”
“They picked me!” Kimber shouted.
That’s why she’s been in such a good mood. “Kimber?” I shouted. “That’s great! I’m so proud of you!”
“Yeah, that’s awesome,” Liesel added before looking at me. “Do you get to go to that?”
“I don’t know.” I turned to Mom. “Do I get to go?”
She smiled at everyone in the intimate setting. Elton John’s “Step into Christmas” started playing overhead. “They’re paying for ten round-trip tickets. We can all go!”
It was after that announcement that everyone at the table forgot about the freezing cold food in front of them and started applauding, kissing each other, smiling ear to ear.
Liesel might have been the most excited one of all. “Washington D.C.? I can’t believe it! I’ve never even been to the east coast!”
My mom took a seat and dumped some fruit on her plate. “How far have you traveled, Liesel?”
“I’ve only been to California and Nevada. Nowhere else.”
“Nowhere else?”
“It’s not that I haven’t wanted to travel more. I’ve just never had anyone to take me anywhere.”
Liesel took my arm and kissed me on my cheek. Everyone seemed to enjoy the rare PDA from me and L
iesel, except my grandfather.
“I’m eating,” he said. “And nobody can stop me.”
He started tearing his slab of ham apart like a ravenous mountain lion, and the rest of us followed suit. More details about Kimber’s upcoming show in D.C. were discussed, as well as how Margaret and Darlene met, and how my grandfather’s three-year case of shingles, which manifested itself painfully near his left eye, had finally started calming down in recent months.
“Who wants dessert?” my mom asked, nearly an hour after we had started eating dinner, and I knew my time for making the one final announcement of the evening was dwindling. “I’ve got two different kinds of pies, as well as my famous pumpkin cake. Eat every last crumb, because I don’t want to look at these things after tonight!”
She departed the room with my aunt Margaret for a minute, and then returned with an apple pie, a lemon meringue pie, and a pumpkin marble cake, the latter of which she set right in front of me.
The cream cheese frosted cake, surprisingly, had a candle lit in the center of it.
What the—
My mom started to sing the dreaded song, the one that would haunt me for the rest of my life. “Happy birthday to you…”
Everyone joined in, except for Liesel, who seemed as perplexed as I was.
Noooooo… noooooo… it’s not my birthday!
“…Happy birthday to you…”
I wanted to start throwing plates against the wall, silverware, drawers, cats, anything, to make it stop. My attention veered toward Liesel, who had her eyes closed, and her fingers pressed inside her ears. I decided to follow suit. It’s been nearly seven months, Liesel. Don’t break your non-magic steak streak now. Please. Please!
“…Happy birthday dear Darlene…”
I heard the last word pretty clearly through my echoing eardrums, and I peered across the table to see Darlene standing up, shaking her head, surprised as can be. “I can’t believe this. Oh my God, that’s so nice.”
“…Happy birthday to you!”
Darlene leaned over the table and blew out the candle. I watched as the smoke rose all the way up to the ceiling. I elbowed Liesel, signaling to her that she could come up for air.
“It’s OK,” I whispered. “That wasn’t meant for either of us.”
“What can I say?” Darlene shouted across the table. “It’s always been hard to have a Christmas Eve birthday. But I must say I wouldn’t want to spend it with anyone but all of you!”
Margaret smooched her beloved on the lips again, and now I could swear that on my life I’d seen the two lesbians kiss more in the last two hours than I’d seen my own parents kiss in my entire lifetime.
I turned to Liesel. She looked so luminous tonight, her green eyes sparkling, her dark red lips so inviting, my love for her growing each and every day. I was sure. I was certain.
The time is now.
My mom started serving slices of the pumpkin cake on paper plates when I clinked my knife a few times against my glass of water.
I stood up as my grandfather shouted, “No more speeches!” My grandmother slugged him in the chest.
My mom finished serving the dessert and sat back down in her seat. “What is it, Cameron?”
I now had all eyes in the room focused on me. Not even Liesel knew what I was about to say.
“This is a really good night,” I said. “I’m surrounded by people I love, who I deeply care about, and I’m so thankful that I got a second chance to live my life. As you all know, it’s been a bit of a rough road these last few months to get back to normal. What I went through… well… to call it traumatizing would be an understatement. I’ve now seen what I’m going to look like when I’m Grandpa’s age…” I looked at my grandfather, who was paying more attention to his pumpkin cake than my speech. “But I’ve managed to put the events of my senior year behind me, and move on. I know it might have been disappointing to some of you for me to delay my admission to Yale for a year, but I think I needed this extra time to figure out what I really wanted to do, and who I really wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”
I allowed the awkward silence to creep into the air. My mom and dad looked at each other with confusion, and Liesel looked up at me with great anticipation.
“What those painful two and a half months taught me was how much of a selfish jerk I’d been to so many people. And I needed Liesel here to show me the way. To show me the kind of guy I was capable of being, the kind of guy I was meant to be all along. I don’t know where I’d be today without her. She’s not only been the love of my life for the last seven months… she’s become my best friend.”
I took Liesel’s left hand, and I could see her eyes tearing up. She bit down on her lower lip and smiled. “Cameron…” she said.
I looked out at everyone at the table. Even my grandfather was finally paying attention to my speech. “I know this may seem sudden to many of you. I know I’m only eighteen years old, with many more years ahead of me. But unlike the rest of you, I’ve seen what the rest of my life holds for me. And I don’t want to live it… without my Liesel.”
Liesel looked afraid to take another breath as I pushed my chair against the table, and to the surprise of everyone, no more so than to my mom and dad, I got down on one knee and brought my gaze to the gorgeous young woman in front of me.
“Liesel Maupin…”
Both of her hands were set against her chest. I saw a tear fall down her left cheek as she leaned toward me.
I licked my lips, took a deep breath, and turned my head down toward the hardwood floor. I brought up a small black case and opened it. Inside was a beauty, a half carat diamond ring in white gold.
“…Would you marry me?”
Her mouth remained agape, but she didn’t say anything for a moment. Instead, the ground beneath us started to shake.
Uh oh. I shook my head, hoping Liesel would stop. Not now. Please, no.
The table started rumbling, and the glasses on top started tilting back and forth. Everyone, particularly my grandparents, looked about two seconds away from screaming at the top of their lungs.
“Yes! Yes! A hundred times, yes!”
And then, the shaking stopped.
“What the hell…” my dad said.
Two tears dropped down Liesel’s cheeks as she put her appropriate finger out and let me wrap the ring around it. She leaned forward even further, kissed me on the lips, and wrapped her arms around me. “Cameron, I love you… I love you so much…”
It wasn’t until I made my way back up to my feet that I noticed the lack of enthusiasm from others at the table—they all seemed to be in a daze from the momentary shaking, which everyone probably assumed was some brief earthquake, and not the simple result of Liesel becoming a bit overjoyed. Kimber was politely clapping, teary-eyed, and Darlene seemed happy for me. But my mom and dad looked in a daze, like I had just smacked them across their faces with a ping-pong mallet.
“This cake looks amazing, Mom,” I said, returning to my seat at the dinner table.
---
“They didn’t take it well, huh?”
“Not at all.”
“Well, at least you were able to deliver a blow that matched or exceeded that disease you had last spring.”
Wesley removed his sunglasses and fastened them to the top of his tight black shirt. My best friend since elementary school, he was tanner and leaner than ever. I hadn’t seen him since we bid each other adieu last August, with me staying in Reno as he departed for USC film school in Los Angeles. I couldn’t believe in four short months he had already changed his appearance to such a drastic degree. He didn’t look like Wesley anymore. He had lost his hippie dreadlocks, as well as that famous pair of brown pants he wore three-hundred-and-fifty-seven days out of the year. His tight black jeans, matched with the black shirt, made him look so Hollywood.
He grabbed his gingerbread latte and sat down across a small table from me, crossing his legs in a way that suggested he was a celebrity, or, a
t least, the most important person in this small coffee shop. “You look good, Cam.”
“So do you.”
“I mean, you look a whole lot better now than you did at the end of our senior year, that’s for sure!”
I didn’t try to laugh.
“Sorry,” he said. “Is it too soon to joke about everything that happened?”
I shrugged. “No, I mean, after all the time that’s passed it almost feels like it never did happen.”
He smiled. “Well that’s good, I guess. How’s your family doing?”
“They’re fine.”
“And Liesel?”
“She’s the greatest.”
Wesley tapped his already half-empty cup against the table and shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re getting married. Settling down already, huh?”
“I don’t really look at it as settling down. I look at it as starting afresh, a whole new life, with the person I love.”
“But we’re eighteen. You don’t want to have sex with anyone else the rest of your life?”
I cracked my knuckles and took a sip of my hot tea. “You’re one to talk. Please tell me, Wes, that you’ve finally gotten some.”
“You’ll be happy to know I have.”
“Good.”
“But you won’t want to know who to.”
I was stumped. Isn’t Wes the only person I know in L.A.? “Tell me you didn’t screw Paris Hilton.”
“Nope. Tried. She doesn’t go for hot geeks.”
I pondered. “Mary Kate Olsen?”
He shook his head. “I hooked up with Charisma.”
I thought my brain would explode. “Come again?”
“You heard me.”
“Uhh… how… what…”
“It’s a long story. She messaged me on Facebook. Wanted to make a good impression on me, since she’s trying to get her whole acting thing off the ground. Let’s just say I couldn’t keep my hands off her.”
I started massaging my forehead. “Wes, I dated Charisma for almost all of senior year, and she never gave it up for me. You’re telling me she gave it up for you in one day?”
“Gave it up? Cam, I hate to break it to you. The girl’s gotten around.”
I put my hands up in the air. I wanted to change the subject. “I don’t want to talk about Charisma.”