Chapter 5

“This turkey, Swiss, and onion sandwich is pretty sweet!” I complimented Sally and Kelly now.

“Why, thank you, good sir! I think that the Vidalias probably help with the sweetness part,” Sally winked at me.

“As does the other ingredient,” Kelly added.

“Which is?” I wondered now.

“Love, of course!” Kelly blew a kiss at me.

“Yep, love!” Sally beamed at me as she poured me a beer.

“Can I have one of those, too?” Bella licked her lips, being rather thirsty all of the sudden.

“Naturally,” I opened a bottle of my finest brew and poured it into a glass for my fiancee now.

“Beer for everyone of age, of course! Sorry, kids! You’re a bit young for this. It’s strictly lemonade for you,” I grinned.

“That’s okay ... lemonade tastes better, anyway. I’ve tried beer. Didn’t like the taste at all,” Eric confessed.

“Is that a fact?” Megan asked her son, “where did you get your hands on beer?”

“Your old boss gave me some ... he didn’t tell me why, but it was yucky and I ran off to spit it out. I never want anything more to do with that stuff ever again!” Eric made a rather disgusted face, “he wasn’t there when I got back for some reason. I never found out why Mr. Stanfield gave me beer to drink.”

“Pedo!” Mary coughed.

“Sicko!” Lyle grimaced, “sounds like a creep!”

“Yeah, that’s got real Chris Hansen, ‘have a seat,’ energy there. You’re lucky, kid. You got out of there unmolested. Next time, don’t accept drinks from strangers, okay? Most grown-ups who offer booze to kids are up to no good,” I warned my nephew.

“Listen to your Uncle Frank, honey. He knows what he’s talking about there,” Megan backed me up, of course, even as I poured her some beer as well, “thank you, bro. I’m profoundly glad that I left said firm if my supervisor had those kinds of designs on my son. To think that I thought of him as a mentor and an uncle, almost. A total breach of trust there. I’ll never look at Marvin W. Stanfield the same way again.”

We all tossed back plenty of drinks, but kept it to buzz level rather than hammered, since there were youngsters around. We didn’t want to get so wasted that loose lips sank ships, among other things. Luckily, none of us had to drive, especially since Mark disclosed the nature of his errand by using a quarter bag and passing a bong around to all of the adults. Evidently, it was a weed run, which certainly helped soothe some feathers ruffled by Eric’s revelation that Megan’s boss was a predator.

“So ... how about the wedding date ... tentative due to COVID, of course,” Megan asked me now.

“How about ... Midsummer’s Day ... July 1st? Call me a Shakespearean, but I love the imagery of that. After all, the course of our true love never ran smoothly, either, did it?” I proposed while noticing that Megan texted someone at the moment.

“Sounds romantic enough for me, at least! I love Shakespeare, too, and not just the obvious plays like Romeo and Juliet. King Lear is another favorite of mine, particularly given its fierce emphasis on candor in relationships versus flattery,” Bella lit up as she realized that we had just set a wedding date ... she was actually engaged for the first time in her life!

“That’s a rather profound take on King Lear. I like it. Yes, one daughter was punished for telling her father the truth rather than embellishing her affections like her sisters. For my own part, the proper love of daughters toward their father is more than enough for me,” I assured my twins, who rushed to hug me again while I kissed their foreheads.

“Awww!” Mary reacted as she took some quick snapshots of my daughters embracing their Daddy, “if only that could happen for Lyle and me. If only.”

“Well, don’t give up hope. It’s never hopeless until they put you guys six feet under. Speaking of which, whatever happened to Peter Krause? Frank, you’re in the industry. Do you know?” Mark turned to me.

“He married Lauren Graham? Seriously, he’s been busy, perhaps a bit more under the radar compared to some, but he’s kept it up. The one I always wonder about is Gretchen Mol. What the hell ever happened to her?” I shook my head.

“Yeah, well, I loved Michael C. Hall in Dexter better than in Six Feet Under, but it wasn’t a bad role for him. David Fisher, that is. Dexter is just a more interesting one,” Martin declared with a wink for Mark.

“Oh, wait ... Boardwalk Empire ... that’s what happened to Gretchen Mol ... damn, I forgot for a moment. Maybe I’m going senile!’ I chuckled at my own brain fart there.

“Great show ... Steve Buscemi is the bomb!” Megan asserted.

“You got that right, sis!” I high-fived my sister while Sally and Kelly laughed at us.

“Movie time again? This time for the whole family again?” Bella suggested.

“I’ll go for that. How about ... the Princess Bride? That’s a classic, I think,” I proposed.

“Works for me!” Eric shouted, sounding almost like Hunter.

“And me!” Carrie and Charlotte blushed as they spoke in unison by accident.

“Thank you, Uncle Frank!” Sansa hugged me very tightly right then.

My niece was apparently very into movies of that kind. It wasn’t surprising. It had pirates, a princess, a scabby, evil prince, a wisecracking criminal mastermind, a giant, a drunk Spanish swordsman bent on revenge, medieval stuff in general, a wizard, his cranky wife, and some very funny moments. It fit, I thought. Name a girl after a fantasy character ... you’ll get a girl obsessed with medieval fantasy films.