Chapter 30: Doing Christmas Right This Time

December 20, 1982

Finals were over, and with that, so was the fall semester. I wished all of my dorm friends a very happy holiday, checked out of the residence hall for the month-long winter break, and drove back home. I left my band stuff – the keyboard and the guitar – at the Andrade residence. We'd had one more practice since the first one, and planned to play together several times during the winter break. Once again, my car would be logging major miles up and down the turnpike.

It was the Monday evening before Christmas. Following dinner, Dad and Mom had gone out to do some last-minute shopping. I'd finished my Christmas shopping, for everyone on my list, with the exception of one person: Julia. This was the one of greatest importance, and I was still bouncing around a few ideas in my head regarding what to give her.

That left me in the house with my two siblings; the three of us were lounging around in the living room. Seamus was reading a book. A couple of years ago, the very notion of him sitting quietly with his nose buried in a book would have been laughable. But he'd grown up quite a bit, and although he still had his occasional moments of childishness, he was pretty much a normal thirteen-year-old. And what kid that age doesn't have some infantile tendencies left over?

I got to talking with Eileen about the band, and about the upcoming holidays. There was one sticky matter to resolve, and it hadn't been discussed yet. But we couldn't postpone it any longer.

"We need to let Mom and Dad know about who's coming over for Christmas dinner," I said to her. "Dave, or Julia, or both, or neither?"

Eileen shifted uncomfortably in her chair. This was obviously something that was weighing on her mind.

"Dave's parents invited me over for Christmas Eve, and also for dinner on Christmas," she explained. "But I'd like him to come over here for awhile. I'm gonna be frank with you, Pat. I don't think he'll be comfortable with you around here."

"He's still holding that much of a grudge?"

"Yes," she said sadly. "I think he'll come around, especially if the band takes off. He's showing some signs, but he's not there yet."

"Here's my opinion, Eileen. I said before I'd be happy to meet with him and clear the air. But it sounds like he still isn't quite ready for that. And Christmas is not the time to force things on him. I'll be spending Christmas Eve up at Julia's, and staying overnight at her place. If you want, invite him over for awhile early in the afternoon on Christmas Day. Julia and I will take our time coming down here for dinner."

She grew even more pensive for a bit as she mulled it over. Finally, she nodded.

"That will work, I guess," she said, brightening up a bit. "But where do I have dinner? Here, or at Dave's house?"

"Both," I grinned.

"Both?"

"Yep. Tell Mom and Dad to get things ready a little early. Tell Dave's parents you'll be a little late. Everyone will understand, I promise. You'll just have to eat twice, that's all." The adult in me knew that many, many people handled Christmas in exactly this manner.

"That could work, I suppose," she said, her voice still full of uncertainty.

"Everything will be fine," I assured her. "You'll see."

"Maybe. But it still sucks that things have to be like this."

There it was. A tacit admission of what I'd feared most ... that my problems with Dave were a source of stress for Eileen. I had to reassure her somehow.

"It does suck, Eileen. And I feel bad for you, because I know that in some ways, I brought this on you."

"You don't have to blame yourself, Pat. It's certainly not all your fault."

"It isn't, I agree. Dave is being far too stubborn here, and so is Paul. But the fact of the matter is, if I hadn't gone apeshit that one time, you wouldn't be dealing with these things right now."

"You know," Eileen suddenly blurted out, "Paul is a big part of the problem here."

"How so?"

"If Dave was the only one who was angry at you, I'm sure he'd have forgiven you by now. But he and Paul kind of feed off each other. Together, they make the situation even worse."

"Hmm," I said thoughtfully, aware that there was no easy solution to that dilemma. "Eileen, I think I said this before, but it bears repeating. I want to let you know that I'm supportive of your relationship with Dave, in spite of the problems I'm having with him. Remember, he used to be a very, very good friend of mine. I know he's a good guy. He just has a bug up his ass right now that won't go away. Believe me, for your sake, I wish I could get him to forgive me. I'd be willing to pay him back for the drum set I ruined, if I thought that would help."

"If you made that offer," remarked Eileen, "he'd get even more offended. He'd accuse you of trying to buy back his friendship with money." She was right. I knew Dave well enough to know that his response would be exactly that.

"There's another angle to pursue here," I went on. "Doesn't he see that he's making it hard for you? If he loves you, he has to know that he's only adding to a burden that you don't deserve to bear."

"He told me," replied my sister, "that he realizes that you are my brother, and he doesn't want to come in between you and me. He'll make the adjustments he has to make. But he thinks you're entirely to blame here, and believes that the one who is placing the burden on me is you."

I ran my fingers through my hair in exasperation. "It's partly my fault, I agree. And I can accept my share of the blame. Why can't he accept some of it, too, and move on?"

Eileen just shrugged in response.

"The thing is, Eileen, he's been really good for you. I can see that. And you've been good for him, too. At that first practice, I hadn't seen him in a year, and I couldn't believe the positive change in him." I didn't even get into the alcohol issue; it seemed quite apparent that Dave and the liquor bottle were relative strangers these days. But my remark induced a wider smile from my sister than I'd seen at any point in this discussion.

"Thanks," she said dreamily. Then, unexpectedly, she turned the tables on me. "So tell me about you and Julia. To me, it looks like this is pretty serious. Am I correct?"

"Could be," I smiled vaguely.

"I like her. And I think I'd better get used to her being around on holidays," she said with a wink.

The all-too-quiet Seamus suddenly put down his book, grinning mischievously.

"Come on, you two," he exclaimed with a wicked laugh. "All this lovey-dovey relationship talk. Do you know how boring you both are?"

Eileen giggled. I picked up a couch pillow and flung it at my brother. That did it. The pillow came hurtling back at me, Eileen picked up another pillow, and the fight was on. And wouldn't you know it, Mom and Dad chose that moment to open the front door and step inside the house.

"We leave you three kids alone for a couple of hours, and look what happens," Mom said, wearing a decidedly bemused expression.

As for me, I was privately thankful that I even had a brother and sister to throw pillows at. I'd already lived one lifetime without them.

Christmas 1982

'Twas the night before Christmas, and I was there in the Osmanski residence, seated around the Christmas tree with Julia and her family. I'd gotten presents for Julia's parents, and her sister too; they'd given me gifts as well. Finally, it came down to just Julia and I in the gift-giving rotation. It sure looked as though she'd staged it so that we'd be giving each other our gifts last.

"I need to go into the other room to get your present, honey," she said to me with a laugh. "If I tried to wrap it, you'd know right away what it was."

"Sounds interesting," I said with a smile of anticipation. My curiosity was definitely piqued.

And then, she returned with the gift. A new electric guitar, of much higher quality (and, no doubt, more expensive) than the one I already had. I looked at her in astonishment.

"I love it," I stammered, "but can you afford something like this?"

"I can," she assured me; I didn't believe her for a second. "Don't worry about it. What do you think?"

"You're the best," I told her, giving her a big kiss. "I really wanted a better guitar, and now, I have one."

"So when will we get to see you play it?" asked Julia's dad. It was a strange remark, coming from him; Julia's parents gave off even less of a rock and roll vibe than my own parents.

"I need to practice a little and get better," I said with a smile. "But it will be soon, I promise."

Now, it was time to present my carefully chosen gift to my girlfriend. I handed her a small box.

"It's not as big as your gift, but that's not what's important," I smiled.

"How true," she agreed, as she tore off the wrapping paper and opened the box. Inside was a gold-plated heart-shaped pendant with an attached necklace. It was adorned with a single small ruby, which was Julia's birth stone. I'd splurged on her gift, spending a good chunk of my leftover money from my summer job. And after seeing what she'd given me, I was glad I'd done so.

"It's beautiful!" she exclaimed. She gazed at me adoringly, those big brown eyes becoming moist and dewy. She threw her arms around me, pressing her body up against mine, before telling me, "Do you know how special you make me feel?"

We shared a kiss that was relatively chaste, in consideration of the fact that Julia's parents had their eyes glued on us. Another sexless night followed, in separate bedrooms – this was getting to be old hat – before another long drive down the pike to my place early Christmas afternoon.

Eileen was the first to greet us as we entered the house, Julia's gifts for my family in tow, as well as my new guitar, which I wanted to show to everyone. After wishing us both Merry Christmas, my sister whispered, "That was close. Dave just left. I mean, less than five minutes ago."

"We have to do something about this," I sighed. "It's hard on everyone. But let's not allow it to ruin Christmas."

Julia and I, along with my two siblings, retreated to the family room while Mom and Dad got to work on this year's Christmas feast. Unexpectedly, the doorbell rang. I was closest to the front door, so I got up to answer it.

"Wonder who that could be?" I said, shrugging my shoulders. We weren't expecting any other Christmas visitors. But when I opened the door, I couldn't believe my eyes. There, standing on the front porch, with a box of homemade Christmas cookies in hand, was none other than a certain sweet-voiced Puerto Rican girl.

"Inez!" I exclaimed, holding the door to let her inside. "Did you really drive all the way down here?"

"Merry Christmas, Pat," she replied with a bright smile, giving me a hug. "Yes, I did. I just had brunch with Evie and her mom. But I figured, as long as I was in the area, I wanted to drop by and say hi to two of my bandmates. Evie gave me directions to your place."

"She could have come over, too," I commented right away, a little disappointed that she hadn't.