A Weekend with the Cromwells

by Olivia Gaines

  A conversation was ongoing about planning an annual fishing and hunting trip. Mr. Cromwell spoke, “I am planning to retire next year. I would like to spend more time with the Cromwell men.”

  “It sounds like a good idea,” Thurston said.

  Lawrence was fighting hard to focus and collect his thoughts. “I don’t want to kill any animals! They aren’t bothering us!”

  Mr. Cromwell exhaled in exasperation, “Well, you can collect plants while we hunt.”

  It was still not sitting well with Lawrence until Johnathan reached over and touched his hand. “I’ll be there with you Uncle Lawrence... it will be okay.”

  Douglas was not going to be left out, so he chimed in, “Maybe you and Spiderman can get there first and save all the animals!”

  “Oh, dear Jesus,” Mr. Cromwell said. “I guess we can go fishing!”

  That didn’t seem to work for Lawrence either. “On a boat?” he asked. “In all that water...catching little fishes? The fishes aren’t bothering anybody either! Who are we to go and snatch them up out of their homes with phony promises with worms on hooks?”

  Mr. Cromwell dropped his head into his hands, mumbling to himself, “What in the hell...”

  Thurston burst into laughter, “Dad, we will find something that we can all do together. The boys are too young to hunt right now anyway.”

  “See this is why I don’t talk to him...” Mr. Cromwell said under his breath.

  The doorbell rang as Veronica, Thomas, and their two girls came down the stairs. Beatrice, who was in the kitchen checking on everything for breakfast, held the door between the dining room and kitchen open while the staff brought out the food for a breakfast buffet.

  “Good morning, everyone,” Beatrice said as plates were lined up on the beautiful wood serving table.

  While the family lined up to serve themselves bacon and eggs, Rodgers entered the dining room to announce the arrival of a special guest. “Mr. Cromwell, may I present to you Ms. Katie Thompkins and her caregiver, Ms. Audrey Jones.”

  Ms. Jones was a dour faced black woman with a purse on one arm and a bible under the other. She reminded Tae-Tay of the old school spinster who had been hired as a nanny to keep the children from getting too excited. It is probably why she was hire for Katie.

  Lawrence jumped up from the table, his eyes trying desperately to focus on his lady love, “Katie? What are you doing here?”

  Mr. Cromwell stood and walked over to the two ladies. “Thank you for coming. Please join us for breakfast.” For the first time, he took a good look at Katie. She was a very attractive woman with a smile that lit up the room.

  “Daddy, this is my Katie!” Lawrence said as he rushed to the woman’s side.

  By now, Tae-Tay was at Thurston’s side whispering in his ear, “What is up with this? Katie is a fox! Is your brother swinging it like that?”

  Thurston said from the corner of his mouth, “No kidding! She is a looker.”

  Katie stood at five feet eight with a bombshell figure, long dark wavy hair, beautiful full lips, but her eyes...something was off with her eyes and hands. She continuously opened and closed her hands. The right one was malformed and she held it at an odd angle.

  “Hel...lo... Law...rence,” she said slowly. “I am go...ing to live with you!” She said with a smile so radiant that Thurston’s heart skipped a beat.

  Tae-Tay and Veronica’s eyes were wide as they watched a beautiful scene unfold.

  “Daddy, is it true? Katie is going to live with me?” Lawrence asked.

  Mr. Cromwell, in all of his regal bearing, also was affected by the raw emotion coming from his son. “Lawrence, as I understand it, you and Katie are in love. We will make arrangements for your marriage and get you two set up in the carriage house. I want to make sure you are happy as a man.”

  Lawrence’s eyes were watery as they bounced about trying to focus in on his father’s face, and he asked incredulously, “You are going to let me marry my Katie?”

  “Yes, son, I mean, that is if she wants to marry you. Have you asked her?” Mr. Cromwell asked.

  He watched his son closely. Instead of the kid who tried to play baseball, but ran and dodged the ball each time it was thrown at him, before him now stood a man. Thurston Cromwell the III watched the son that it took nearly a year to teach how to swim simply because he loved the pleasure of floating on top of the water. Today, he watched a man process the realization that he would no longer live an empty life, but have a woman he could call his own.

  Lawrence’s eyes bandied about the room, blinking furiously as he tried to formulate his next thought. He held Katie’s hands as he looked at his father. “I can’t ask her to marry me...I don’t have a ring.”

  To everyone’s surprise, Beatrice stepped forward and presented her son with a small box and told him, “I think this will work perfectly, Lawrence.”

  He accepted the box, opening it slowly to find a rose shaped ring with a small pink diamond in the center. Lawrence, grinning from ear to ear, turned to face his soon-to-be wife, “Katie...it is as pretty as you are.”

  Slowly, he took to one knee, holding her left hand, and in front of his entire family, he asked Katie to be his wife.

  “Yes... Law...rence, I will be your wife,” she said slowly.

  Lawrence slipped the ring on her finger and then took Katie into his arms and kissed her so passionately even Thurston said, “Damn!”

  Lawrence heard his little brother and turned, his eyes scanning the room, trying to calibrate on his target and focus his words, “No swearing in front of the children, Thurston.”

  “Sorry,” Thurston mumbled.

  Lawrence pointed at Katie, his eyebrows arched as his eyes scanned and locked on Thurston. “See! My Katie has that big ole smile!”

  “She sure as hell does,” Thurston nodded his head as the two brothers shared a laugh on the private joke.

  Again, Lawrence shook his finger at him for the use of the bad word, “Thurston...the kids are listening!”

  Tae-Tay leaned in and whispered in his ear, “If you kissed me like that I would smile all the time too, Thurs...ton!”

  “You are so going to Hell for that one,” Thurston whispered as pulled her into his arms while he stared deeply into her eyes, tilted her backwards, and held her tightly as he kissed her hard and deep. His lips slanted over hers again and again, ending as abruptly as it started. Tae-Tay’s legs felt wobbly when he up righted her. Her husband’s eyes were elsewhere as Rodgers entered the room carrying a blanket.

  All of the kids groaned, whispering eeeww as they nibbled on bacon and eggs while they watched the show. Their attention was now focused on the blanket. Douglas especially when he saw it move.

  “Lawrence, I have a gift for you and Katie, an early wedding present,” Thurston told Lawrence as he released Tae-Tay. All eyes in the room stayed on him when he took the small bundle from Rodgers arms and presented it to his big brother. With ease and care, Lawrence pulled back the covers to reveal the contents of the swaddling. His breath caught. His eyes bounced in the direction of his love until they focused in on Katie.

  “Look Katie, it is a baby doggy!”

  Katie, equally pleased, stood close to her husband-to-be, her arm about his shoulder, eyeing the gift. “It is a ba...by! Law...rence, we have a ba...by!”

  She kissed his cheek while she rubbed the head of the yellow Lab puppy. “Law...rence, we will be a fa...mi...ly.”

  Mr. Cromwell gave Thurston the stink eye as he mouthed, “A puppy - really?”

  Thurston held up his fingers mouthing back, “Two birds- once stone.”

  Mr. Cromwell took it as a personal challenge of one-upmanship, turning to Lawrence. “Son, for your honeymoon, Ms. Jones will accompany you and Katie to Disneyworld.”

  Lawrence bounced up and down carefully with his little bundle of joy. “Katie we are going to Disneyworld!” Katie also was happy as she looked at her father-in-law. “Thank you...Sir!”

  Douglas, w
ho was still focused on Lawrence getting a puppy, was trying to get over to the dog, along with Harris. “Uncle Lawrence, what are you going to name it?”

  Suddenly Lawrence stopped as his eyes scanned the room, coming back to lock onto the warm ball in his arms. Slowly he unwrapped the blanket to turn the beautiful puppy over to examine it’s undercarriage. “It doesn’t have a ding-ding, so it is a girl. Katie, what should we name our baby?”

  “I don’t know Law...rence. You name her,” Katie said as she rubbed his arm. Douglas and Harris were giggling at Lawrence’s use of the word ding-ding.

  Lawrence’s eyes had remained focused on the pup in his arms, and he declared, “We shall call her Iris.”

  Beatrice moved closer to Thurston. “You do know I am going to have to remove all the rugs and chewable items from the carriage house...”

  “Yes, but his happiness, Mother, has no bearing on furniture and heirloom rugs,” Thurston told his mother. “Look at how she touches him...how she looks at him...in her eyes, he is her perfect man.”

  “Daddy!” Lawrence called out loud. “I love you! Thank you!”

  Thurston Cromwell the III, never one to show affection, watched the puppy run about the floor being chased by one grandchild after the other, each giggling as the puppy barked and chased and played. He took Lawrence into his arms and whispered in his oldest son’s ear, “I love you too. I hope this makes you happy.”

  “I am very happy, Daddy. I have a family of my own. But I’m still not going to kill any animals,” he said to his father. He mumbled under his breath as he turned his back to get the kids to stop running through the house, “...Or any fishes either...”

  Thurston looked at his wife and son. “Tae-Tay, Douglas, we need to hit the road pretty soon. Eat up so, we can get packed and loaded so we can get home.”

  “Awww Daddy! I want to play with the puppy,” he said.

  “Now, Douglas,” Thurston warned him with a much firmer voice than he normally used with the child. Pouting, Douglas came back to the table and accepted a pancake that Veronica put on his plate.

  Twenty minutes later, packed and ready to hit the road, Thurston said good bye to his brother and parents. Veronica would be moving in the brownstone soon and he would see her weekly. He asked, “Tae-Tay will you and Douglas wait for him at the bottom of the stairs?”

  What the hell am I doing? He asked himself as he climbed the stairs.

  At the top of staircase that he had walked up and down his entire life, for the first time he was going to do something he had never done. He called to his son as he threw his leg over the railing, adjusted his junk, and let go. He slid down the banister far faster than he had estimated, moving at a velocity that held no brakes. At the end of the banister he flew off and landed on the floor flat on his ass. He fell back on the thick Persian rug holding his stomach.

  Tae-Tay, nearly in shock from her husband’s actions, dropped her purse and ran to his side. “Oh my goodness, Thurston, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  Douglas was leaning over him as well when he started to laugh a gut busting guffaw as Thurston’s parents stood dumbfounded. “That was sooooo much fun!” Thurston yelled.

  “I told you, Daddy,” Douglas told him as he lay across his chest, laughing as well. Thurston’s hands rubbed his’s son’s small back as he placed a light kiss atop the child’s head.

  “You were right. I had to try it!” he laughed as he scrambled to get up off the floor. “I don’t know if I will do it again though.”

  “What am I going to do with the two of you?” Tae-Tay asked him as she pushed them both towards the door. “Mr. and Mrs. Cromwell, thank you for a wonderful weekend. Beatrice, I will call you during the week.” She kissed her mother-in-law on the cheek and moderately embraced her father-in-law. She had wanted to say goodbye to Lawrence, but he had disappeared with Katie while Ms. Jones looked high and low for the two.

  Beatrice stopped the overly excited woman. “Come in the dining room, Ms. Jones, and join me for tea and breakfast. They will resurface when they get hungry,” she told the woman whose eyes were still on the stairwell, worrying over where Katie may have gone. Wherever those two were hiding, the puppy was with them.

  Tae-Tay’s hands were full with her own two big boys as they climbed into the car, tooted the horn, and drove off towards Brooklyn.

  CHAPTER Nine

  Home Again...Home Again...Jiggity Jig

  The ride back to the city was quiet as both Tae-Tay and Thurston were embroiled in their own thoughts. Even Douglas remained quiet in the backseat, pouting over leaving and not being able to play with the puppy. Several times he made the comment really low, almost under his breath, that he should have gotten a puppy, too. Neither Thurston nor his mother was responding, which left Douglas in a sour mood all the way through Poughkeepsie.

  Tae-Tay was curious and said, “That was very nice...I mean what you did for your brother.”

  Thurston’s eyes remained on the road as he responded, “What makes you think I had anything to do with all of that?”

  “The puppy,” she told him as her hand rested on his thigh.

  He said nothing as he continued to drive. His mind hovered on potential campaign slogans, the causes he would champion, and how the hell he was going to win an election in the middle of a party firestorm.

  “Thurston, did you hear me?” Tae-Tay asked.

  “I did, Sweetheart, my mind is elsewhere; my apologies,” he said, giving her a quick sideways glance.

  “I’ll just bet it is! I saw that room your dad took you into last night. I’ve seen those kinds of rooms in movies where you make a deal with the Devil and you have to sign your name in your own blood!” Tae-Tay stared out the window as she waited to hear the bad news. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t happy for Lawrence and Katie. After her brother-in-law gave her a tour of the atrium and his outdoor garden, it was obvious he was lonely. He also spent a lot of time talking to those plants. Selfishly, she worried that the deal her husband made to make that all happen would result in her living a similar life, at home, talking to plants and a precocious five-year-old.

  Thurston was smiling. “You do have a flare for the dramatic, don’t you?”

  “I just want to know what giving Lawrence everything he wanted is going to cost us.” There. I said it out loud.

  “I promised to throw my hat in the ring tomorrow for the congressional seat,” he said.

  “That’s it? Is your father going to be your campaign manager? Do we have to move into Cromwell Manor? What is the part you aren’t saying?” She demanded, trying to keep the panic out of her voice.

  His fingers slipped into hers as he let go of the steering wheel with his right hand. “The part I am dreading is shopping for a Winnebago. Not only that, I have to get it wrapped with my face on it or something, which means we have to hire someone to drive it. I can’t, being on the road, giving speeches...”

  She could not help it. She started to laugh. “That is what you’re worried about?”

  He looked over at her. “Yeah, what did you think I was worried about?”

  Laughter invaded her answer. “Honestly, I was expecting something life altering. I mean, seriously, you managed to negotiate all of that for Lawrence by simply throwing your hat in the ring?”

  “You misunderstand, Tae-Tay. All I did was made it clear to my father that Lawrence was not a child but a grown man who wanted the same things that all men want,” he told her.

  “Thurston, seriously. You negotiated him a wife, a live-in caregiver, a puppy, and a trip to Disney World. May I ask why now and not before?”

  He took his eyes off the highway as he looked over at her and grinned. He gave her a wink. “I’ll tell you tonight in bed.”

  Douglas, who had been half-listening, leaned forward in his seat and asked, “Is a Win-be-nago some kind of puppy that we are getting?”

  Thurston was surprised at how nicely his BMW fit into the garage Thomas had added to the back of the brownstone
. He even installed a rotating turning pad for the vehicle to turn to face the alley versus backing out blindly. Maybe it should be a tour bus with a kitchen versus a Winnebago; that way the driver will have his own quarters.

  In the house, Tae-Tay had just gotten Douglas settled when her mother called. “Hey Tae, how are you doing?”

  It was the way Cookie asked it that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up. “I’m fine Momma. What’s going on? How are Palm Springs and Aunt Ethel?”

  “Girl, there are so many fine silver foxes down here that I nearly got whiplash my first night down at the bingo parlor,” Cookie told Tae-Tay. “Yesterday, I met a nice man who used be in real estate named Joe.”

  “I’m happy for you Momma,” she said into the line.

  “How is my Douglas? I miss his little bad ass. I found a melted ice cream cone in the back of my closet. I kept wondering why I could never get rid of those damned roaches and ants,” Cookie said.

  “I hope you shook out and sprayed everything before you moved,” Tae-Tay told her.

  “Nope. I did one of your numbers. I took three days’ worth of clothes and my good underwear. Anything else, I will have to buy,” Cookie told her.

  There it is... That’s why she called. She wants money.

  “Do you need me to send some money to you, Momma?”

  The long pause that followed was why the hairs on Tae-Tay’s neck were standing up like she had sixty volts of electricity flowing through her veins.

  “Tae...” Cookie said.

  Again, the long damned pause. Just spit it out so I can say no.

  “Leviticus gets out this week,” she told her daughter.