Chapter 23

“No, you heard me right. He does not want her to come for the week-long thing anymore; well, at least for the near future. He says he’s afraid she will learn to resent him if he continues to insist on it. I mean her staying there as usual,” said Penelope.

“Jesus!” said Grant. “Was it something that Zoe said, did?”

“No, just the opposite. She’s been so nice these last couple of months that he figured we’d done something, coached her, to be nice and I guess it was so obvious that he just couldn’t not say anything.

“Then we got into a seriously ‘truthful’ discussion about everything to do with Zoey and them,” she said.

“And?” he said.

“He really appreciated my honesty, and in fact I think it was maybe the best thing I’ve done since the divorce as far as convincing him that I respected him. He seemed to actually feel good about Zoe staying with us. I wasn’t happy about it, and I let him know it, but he is adamant.

“Grant, we have to let him have this one. If you talk to him, let him know that he’s in the driver’s seat. We may disagree with him, and I do, but he needs to feel that he has some control or it’s going to get not good,” she said. “Anyway, what do you think?”

“Well, I think your right on two points,” he said. “One: I am going to talk to him. Two: I will let him have this one and let him know like you did, that I think he’s in the wrong. But also that he is indeed in the driver’s seat.”

“Good. But there is one little wrinkle in all of this,” she said.

“Yes, how Zoe sees things when we tell her she is off the hook as to having to stay with them. We have to be sure to assure her that she is not in some way at fault. We do not want that to be the case,” he said.

“And, just to be clear, he does want his end of the month weekend to remain in place,” she said. He was nodding.

“Yes, good,” he said. “Thanksgiving’s a week from Thursday. Whaddya think?” he said.

“We can ask. Maybe invite his friends too?” she said.

“Yes, let’s do it. You call Liz and Milton. I’ll talk to Lance,” he said.

“Yes, good,” she said. “And I think I’ll talk to Glory, not him about the invite. She’s a little more pragmatic than he is for all of his intelligence.”

“Good idea,” he said.

“Yes, I was invited, by the man himself,” said Lance.

“Hah, I haven’t even been invited,” I said, and I hadn’t.

“What’s that?” said Lance.

“Someone’s at the door,” I said. “Would you mind getting it?”

“No, of course not,” he said, as he rose to do so.

We’d been on our little patio. Even though it was mid-November it was warmish. Lance led the visitor out to me.

“Grant?” I said. I was surprised. I had an idea that I knew what he was there for. I was about to be proven right.

“Hmm, yes, I came to invite you to dinner on the holiday and to let you know that we were inviting your friends. But I get the feeling that you have already been so informed,” he said.

“Yes, just a few minutes ago, actually. So, we’re invited too. I got that right?” I said.

“Obviously. Like there was any chance that you wouldn’t be,” said Grant. I think Lance was smirking.

“Okay, we’ll be there. We’ll bring the pies,” I said.

“Okay, and we promise to eat them” said Grant. “Oh, and make one of them mince. Okay?”

“Well, I hope you’ll share,” said Lance.

“And just so you’ll know, Milt and Liz have been invited too. Penelope took care of them,” he said. I nodded.

“Good,” I said. “That will be nice.”

And then it was the fourth Thursday in November. And then it was dinner time, and there were nine of us counting baby Tina. And the seating. I was seated between my two daughters. My two wives, one of them an ex, were seated, as it happened, at opposite ends of the table; Glory of course was tending to Tina who was in a carrier next to her. Milt was seated next to Liz of course, and Grant and Lance to his left. Interesting set up I thought.

The conversation was light and mostly holidayish. I remembered a joke that Red Foxx once told in one of his Vegas shows; he did a lot of those. “If the pilgrims had been huntin’ bobcats instead of turkeys, we’d all have been eatin’ pussy instead of the bird.” Well, I thought it was funny, but no I did not share it because of the young people in the group.

And then there was the matter of Zoe. She talked to me kind of a lot. Mostly questions: why she was only coming to stay one weekend a month now, did I miss her, how was her half-sister doing and she did know what that was; a function of her mother’s coaching I figured; but it was an accurate description so there would be no complaints coming from me. I answered her, Zoe, mostly obliquely trying to make her feel that everything was okay; I think I succeeded.

We were all done eating and some of us were imbibing a little. I was drinking wine: some kind of good red stuff Grant had gotten hold of.

“So, having a good time?” he said, as we kicked back on his patio. Everyone else was still in the house at that particular moment.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I said, and I was. He nodded.

“Well, I’m glad. I know Penelope is hoping you do,” he said.

“Yes, well tell her the dinner was nice. The ham especially was super,” I said.

“She’ll be glad to hear it; she cooked it partly in beer believe it or not,” he said, smiling.

“So that’s the secret” I said. He shrugged.

“One of them, I guess,” he said.

“Hmm,” I said.

“Can I ask, the residency thing?” he said.

“It’s good the way we have it set up now. I do not want to be forcing her to do something that she doesn’t want to do,” I said.

“And, if she asks to do different; I mean in the future?” he said. I shrugged.

“Let me know and we’ll talk about it. But, Grant, do not be pressuring her because you think it’s something that I cannot live without. I love the kid and I do not want her to hate me for being an asshole. I mean it,” I said.

“No, I get it. No pressure, promise,” he said. “And I will let you know and we will talk if the occasion arises.”

“Good,” I said.

Milt and Lance joined us and they had had the foresight to bring the bottle of wine to refill our drinks.

“You guys having fun out here?” said Milton.

“Yes, but we were beginning to wonder if you two would think to bring the bottle,” said Grant. I am more than glad that we did not hope in vain.”

“Except to say hello, did you have even say one word to her?” said Glory.

“Penelope?” I said.

“Of course, Penelope,” said Glory.

“No, I don’t think I did. She was at the other end of the table from us and I really didn’t have anything to say to her, or her to me obviously,” I said.

“Hmm, you might want to rethink some things,” she said. “You do share a child together. That’s going to become more and more important as time goes by,” said my wife.