“Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin mother and child, holy infant so tender and mild...”
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir welcomed us back to Tulsa, their harmonies blasting over the airport loudspeakers, occasionally obscured by announcements of flight delays due to inclement weather. I was feeling slightly stupid, as I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt like the rest of my family, while the everyone else in Tulsa International Airport was bundled in coats and hats. And I soon realized why: it was cold as the dickens.
My mother, upon observing the above, freaked out a little bit. “Walker!” she shouted above the din created by my five brothers and sisters. “It’s freezing! The kids are going to catch cold their first fifteen minutes back in Tulsa!”
“No they won’t,” my father assured her. “Jack or Susan can bring the car around. We’ll only be outside for a sec.” My aunt and uncle were picking us up, and, as if on cue, they spotted us and ran over, exclaiming how big we had gotten and all the rest of it.
Upon our arrival home, I ran into the house with my ten year old brother Zac at my heels. Throwing my stuff on the bottom bunk of the bunk beds I share with my older brother Ike, I heard my mother exclaim from the kitchen, “Oh! Faith left food! I swear, that woman knows me too well!”
Faith is my mother’s best friend, as well as the mother of my best friend, Abby. Who I missed like hell. It’s funny how you take a person’s good natured insults for granted until they’re not around to cut you down every day. Considering this fact, I called down the steps. “Dad, can I go over to Ab’s?”
My father appeared at the bottom of the staircase. “Geez, Tay, we just got home. How about unpacking first? Besides, Abby will be at the party, won’t she?”
The party. I had almost forgotten. My aunt and uncle had planned this huge welcome home bash thing for that night, which my parents had long been complaining about the timing of.
At the thought of the party, something occurred to me, and I groaned inwardly. Or so I thought. Apparently, my groan was very much outward, and it caused Ike to look up from the suitcase he was digging through.
“What’s your deal?” he asked.
“The party,” I answered. “Mom and Dad’s friends will all be there.”
“No kidding,” Isaac retorted. “Are you sure you’re only fourteen? You’re so perceptive.”
I shot my brother a dirty look. “What I’m saying,” I sneered, “Is that Mom and Dad’s friends are all going to be there. And probably with their children..” I emphasized this last word, in hopes that Ike would get the message. When he continued to look puzzled, I sighed. “Isaac,” I said again. “If our parents’ friends are invited, and Larkspurs are Mom and Dad’s friends, doesn’t that mean they’ll probably be there? With their children ?”
Now Ike got the message. “Ohhhh,” he said. “I get it. Reagan’s gonna be there. Jesus, Taylor, why didn’t you just say so, instead of forcing me to play twenty questions with you?” Without waiting for an answer, my brother continued to rifle through the gray bag sitting on the floor. “Where the hell is my green shirt?” he muttered to himself.
I flopped onto my bed. “Isaac!” I demanded. “What the hell am I going to do? Reagan Larkspur is going to be there.”
Ike smirked. “Wow,” he commented. “Taylor, ‘the cute one’, the little Don Juan himself, soliciting brotherly advice from me.” He pulled his green button down out of the bag with a flourish. “Aha!” he declared. “I knew it was in here.” Turning his attention to me, Isaac’s expression turned softer. “You still have feelings for her?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Keep in mind, she and I didn’t exactly part on the best of terms. We had that huge fight the night before we left, remember?”
Isaac laughed. “Oh, yeah, the one Abby got stuck in the middle of. That was funny.”
“Not for me.”
“Probably not for Abs, either,” Ike returned.
I nodded, remembering how my best friend had almost killed herself trying to slip out, and sighed. “Yeah. Gee, Ike, all this reminiscing sure is fun, but what the heck am I going to do?” I flung a bag into the closet, in a halfhearted attempt to clean up, and my sister Jessica barged in.
“Mom says we have to go,” she announced, and proceeded to turn around in a circle so that her magenta velvet party dress, which my mother had miraculously produced from out of nowhere, fanned out all around her. Ike and I had cleaned up, too, and looked decent, considering that we had been on a plane flying halfway across the country not hours before.
I tucked my longish blond hair behind my ears as the three of us walked into the living room, only to be plowed into by Mackie, my youngest brother, who was being chased by my sister Avery. I sighed. It was going to be a long night.
