Chapter 26

Jack escorted Melissa towards the community house for Thanksgiving Dinner. There were twenty cars parked up and down the street in front of the house. There were a lot of strange cars in the neighborhood that day. Almost every occupied house had a strange car parked in front of it and Jack was pretty sure that he knew the reason why. He sighed and said, “This is not going to be a good day for a lot of people.”

The reminder of people facing bad days reminded Melissa of Jack’s roommate. She asked, “How is Abby?”

“She’s in pretty bad shape. She just sits there and stares off into the distance. She doesn’t talk to anyone,” Jack answered worried about Abby. The concern he felt was evident in his voice.

“Is she working?” Melissa asked knowing that this was not the time to miss work. Companies were letting people go over the flimsiest excuse. People were getting rid of employees who had worked for years in order to hire family members. Stories were circulating about people getting fired for missing work because they attended a funeral. The world was becoming a pretty cutthroat place to live.

“Yes. In fact she’s at work now,” Jack answered.

Melissa said, “Spending Thanksgiving at the Taco Emporium has to be pretty depressing. I imagine she is feeling pretty miserable about now.”

“I know,” Jack said. “She’s also been helping to clean up the house next to mine for a little extra money.”

“That should help her finances a little,” Melissa said.

Jack opened the door of the community house for Melissa. The small house was packed with people. Jack paused at the door and dropped some money into the collection jar that was by the door noticing that it was nearly full of money. Melissa said, “Wow. There’s a bunch of people here.”

“And you were afraid that you’d be intruding,” Jack said winking at her.

“Not anymore,” Melissa said. Once she had learned that Melissa didn’t have any family in the area, Frau Shultz had insisted that she come over for Thanksgiving.

Jack said, “My parents should be here soon.”

“Let’s see. We already have the wedding dress and now I’m going to meet your parents. I’m sure that Frau Shultz is pleased with how things are progressing,” Melissa said with a smile. Poor Jack had not really recovered from having discovered the wedding dress that first morning when she had come over there. He had dropped like a rock on seeing it there. She was going to have to be careful in reeling him in.

“Let’s not even joke about that,” Jack said flinching. He noticed that Frau Shultz was making a beeline straight towards them. He said, “Here comes Frau Shultz.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Melissa said patting Jack on the arm. She smiled at the elderly woman and said, “Guten Tag.”

With the German language flying hot and heavy, Jack left the two women to chat and looked around the room. The smell of food hung heavy in the air. It would be at least an hour before they were ready to eat. He always felt that the smell of Thanksgiving dinner cooking was essential to making the holiday special. While this was supposed to be a festive occasion, the atmosphere in the small house was less than happy. He was passing by Bev when he heard her son announce, “You’re moving in with us.”

Bev glared at the middle aged man and replied, “Like hell I will.”

“Mother, you are getting old,” her son said as if he was talking to a young child.

Bev stood up straight at hearing the condescending tone of voice. She was ready to light into him and give him a piece of her mind. Feeling sure that Bev could use a little support, Jack went over to her and asked, “Bev, is everything all right, here?”

“For the moment,” Bev answered giving her son a dark look.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Jack.”

“Don’t butt in where you aren’t wanted,” the man said getting tired of the interruptions. He had wanted to talk to his mother alone and the huge crowd here made that impossible. Every time he brought up the subject of having her move in with his family someone showed up and interrupted.

Wanting to slap her son silly, Bev said, “Jack, let me introduce you to my rude and obnoxious son, Harry.”

“Nice to meet you, Harry,” Jack said. He was about to mention that Bev had nice things to say about him, but considering the introduction he thought that would not be wise.

Giving Jack a dark look, Harry said, “I was talking to my mother. Now if you don’t mind, run along.”

When Bev grabbed his arm so that he wouldn’t leave, Jack asked, “How’s the turkey coming?”

“It should be done in a little while. I was going to check on it, but Liz said she would do that for me,” Bev answered. Liz had recognized that Harry would have followed her over the house and really cranked up the pressure on her. Cutting her son out of the conversation, she asked, “Have your parents arrived yet?”

“Not yet. I expect them any time now,” Jack answered glancing back at the front door.

Harry interrupted, “We haven’t finished our discussion.”

“Yes we have,” Bev replied. Looking him in the eye, she said, “I’m not moving out of my house. I’m not going to live with you.”

“Mother! You don’t understand,” Harry said. There was an edge of desperation in his voice.

“I do understand. You’re looking to me to help you out financially now that your wife has lost her job. I can’t do that,” Bev said. She wasn’t going to give away all of her money and become a plant that sat in a room all day long.

“Don’t be that way. Look, the girls have agreed to share a room so that you’ll have a room all to yourself. It will be great, you’ll be surrounded by your family and we’ll take care of you,” Harry said. He wasn’t going to say that the girls weren’t all that happy about sharing a room.

“No.”

Fred came over and said, “Hello, Bev. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine, Fred. I’m glad that you could make it,” Bev said giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. Harry glared at Fred on seeing that little demonstration of intimacy.

Fred leaned over to Jack and said, “You can go help Claire.”

“Thanks,” Jack said heading over to where Claire was facing a middle-aged woman who appeared to be a little angry.

“Jack,” Claire said as soon as he was within calling distance.

“Hello, Claire. How are you doing?” Jack asked sauntering over as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He checked out the woman with Claire and could see the family resemblance. It struck him that Claire might have been an attractive woman was she was younger.

“I’m doing fine,” Claire said relieved to have a little support.

“Mother, we were talking about something important. Can you just pay attention to me for a minute?”

“Jack. This is my daughter, Denise. Denise, this is Jack,” Claire said.

“Hello, Denise. Are you enjoying Thanksgiving?” Jack asked acting as if this was just another little discussion at a party.

“I was talking to my mother,” Denise said looking around to see where her husband had gone. He hadn’t wanted to be involved in this discussion and had disappeared into the crowd at the first opportunity.

“Thanksgivings are great family holidays. We get to take a moment to thank God for the good things that have happened to us and to appreciate our family,” Jack said smiling at her.

“Speaking of family, I would like to talk to my mother,” Denise said pointedly. She had been trying for two hours to get her mother alone where they could talk without half a dozen people getting in the way.

“Jack, I can’t believe how many people showed up,” Claire said gesturing to the crowd in the room. There were loud angry voices originating from different areas of the house.

“I know. It is amazing,” Jack said. He didn’t think they could squeeze another two people into the house.

“Why don’t you talk to Denise for a minute? I’ll be right back,” Claire said. She moved away before her daughter had a chance to react.

Left face to face with basically a total stranger, Jack asked, “So, how are things?”

“Shitty,” Denise said and stormed away.

“That went well,” Jack said. Hearing some shouting from the area near the television, he headed off to help diffuse the tensions. Johnny and his father were standing toe to toe. It looked to Jack like it was about to get violent. Gail was standing beside Johnny looking upset. Jack went over to the trio and said, “Hello, Johnny. How’s it going?”

“My dad is being an asshole,” Johnny answered without looking at Jack. He glanced at Gail and said, “Sorry Grandma for the language.”

“You’re right. He’s being an asshole,” Gail said.

“What’s the matter?” Jack asked seeing that Johnny’s father looked like he was about to hit Johnny.

“He wants me to move to a retirement home,” Gail answered.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Jack said.

“I’d have to give up the support of a whole community of people, Johnny would have to move out, and I’d lose a fortune trying to sell my house in this market,” Gail said.

“You do have a point,” Jack said.

“I know, but my son doesn’t seem to understand that,” Gail answered.

“I can have you declared incompetent,” her son said.

“Over my dead body,” Johnny growled stepping up to his father and poking him in the chest with a finger.

Trying to keep his anger in check, Johnny’s father said, “Son, you don’t understand how bad things are. We just want to get Mom situated while she can afford it.”

“Fuck you,” Gail said giving him the finger and marching off.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard her use those words, before,” Jack said staring at Gail’s retreating back.

“Way to go, Dad,” Johnny said sarcastically. He turned and followed Gail through the crowded room.

Jack looked at the man and asked, “Are you having a good Thanksgiving?”

“Fuck you,” the man said before storming off.

Having overheard part of the exchange, Melissa came over to Jack and said, “Fun party you invited me to.”

“Sorry about that,” Jack said shrugging his shoulders.

“At least you warned me,” Melissa said. She had broken up one argument already. She had seen Jack break up two intense discussions and figured there would be more before the day was over.

Looking at the tight angry faces in the room, he said, “Everyone was afraid that it was going to be ugly today. I’m sorry to see that they were right.”

“People are scared,” Melissa said. The atmosphere in the house was very uncomfortable. Even the people who weren’t fighting were tense.

“I know,” Jack said. There were a lot of scared people in the country. He wondered what would happen when things got even worse.

Melissa said, “Tomorrow is Black Friday.”

“That sounds ominous,” Jack said.

“It isn’t,” Melissa said wondering if Jack knew what it was.

“I know. It just sounds like some kind of disaster about to happen,” Jack said.

“Do you know why they call it Black Friday?” Melissa asked.

“No. All I know is that a lot of stores have sales that day,” Jack answered.

Melissa said, “That is the day that most retailers go from running at a loss for the year to running at a profit. I’ve got a feeling that isn’t going to happen this year.”