Ruth eyed the food suspiciously. "Still refusing to eat meat, I see." She clucked her tongue in disapproval and surveyed the family. "No wonder you all look like twigs."
"We do not look like twigs," Rose said, fighting to keep her voice level. "And there is nothing wrong with not eating meat."
"Well, I just don't understand what made you decide it would be a good idea to raise these children on nothing but leaves and seeds." She shot Jack an unfriendly look. "Though I have an idea of where the idea came from."
He smiled widely in response. He was not going to be sucked into her game, not this year. He would be the mature adult he was the rest of the year—excluding the Sundays she sometimes dropped in—and stay quiet unless he had something nice to say. It was the same resolution he made every year.
"Well, I like this," Cal said, spearing a hunk of tofu with his fork. "I don't know what you're complaining about."
"Thank you," Jack said. "It's nice to know someone appreciates my efforts."
"Normally I don't even like vegetables—or tofu, whatever it is, but there's something about yours...I don't know what it is, but if I ate here every day I could be a vegetarian."
Jack smiled, a real smile this time. Since his life had started going downhill, Cal had become an almost okay person to have around. Sometimes. "So, how are things?" Jack asked him.
"Looking up," Cal said brightly. "I just might get to move out of my sister's basement soon, so there's one in the plus column. And I think I might have found a way to make some money until my book gets published."
"You wrote a book?" Rose asked. "What's it about?"
"It's a sort of an inspirational thing. It's all about the obstacles in my life and how I overcame them and what I learned. It's pretty profound stuff," he said excitedly.
"What obstacles? You were a multi-millionaire until you lost it all in a pyramid scheme," Janis said scornfully.
"Janis!" Kurt hissed.
"It's true!"
"Oh, no, we can talk about it," Cal said. "My therapist says I'm supposed to talk about these things."
"Mom could help you get your book published," Kurt said. He looked over at Rose. "Couldn't you?"
Rose froze, a forkful of sunflower seed kernels halfway to her mouth. "I don't think my publisher would be interested in it, actually—unless…do you talk about socialism?"
"About how much I don't like it."
"No, that won't do. What about feminism?"
"You say that word a lot, but I still don't know what you're talking about."
Rose looked pained. "Do you talk about anything besides how fun it was to be rich and how much you miss it?"
"Um…not really, no."
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
"Oh, grandma," Kurt said. "Did you know mom's latest book just won a prize?"
"At least she can do something well," Ruth said. "Though how anyone can read what she writes I do not know." She looked across Jack to Rose. "I just don't understand why you don't write about pleasanter things."
Rose tensed. Jack could see the vein in her neck beginning to pop out. I should have made less food, he thought frantically. It wouldn't take so long to eat if there were less food. I wonder if there's some way I can hurry them up? He looked at Janis, who was staring at her plate and eating normally. Kurt looked like he was in pain, but he had plastered a smile on his face and was forcing food into his mouth. Ruth was picking at her food and looking at it as if she expected it to attack her at any moment. Rose had stopped eating and was glaring at her mother. Only Cal looked truly happy, and he seemed completely oblivious to what was going on.
"What would you suggest?" Rose asked tersely. "Would you prefer it if I ignored reality?"
"You could focus on a happier reality. It's no wonder you can barely eat. You're stressing yourself out."
Rose took a deep breath. She opened her mouth to say something else, but decided against it. Kurt saw his chance. "And Dad's getting another exhibit," he said, trying desperately to get Ruth to say something nice to at least one of them.
"He's not filling it with obscene pictures of your mother, is he? Because it wouldn't surprise me if he was," Ruth said.
Jack gripped his fork tightly. He wondered how long it would take for anyone to notice if Ruth went missing. "No, I'm not," he said, barely moving his mouth. "They're landscapes."
"Whatever you want to call it," Ruth said dismissively.
"Did I tell you about Janis?" Kurt said, making one last attempt. "People are really starting to get excited about her singing."
"Yes, well, with the music you young people like these days, that doesn't surprise me. You know, when I was young, there were standards, but not anymore." She shook her head dramatically.
"And when was that again?" Janis asked.
"Rose, I don't know why you didn't teach that girl better manners," Ruth said. "Perhaps if you'd spent more time with her when she was young or given her a stable home life—" She glared at Jack. "—she would have turned out better."
"There is nothing wrong with the way we've raised our children," Rose said tensely. "They've both turned out wonderfully."
"Well, one of them has, though how he's managed it without a decent male role model—" Another glare in Jack's direction "—I'll never know."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Jack snapped, his resolution forgotten.
"I think you know what it means."
Kurt buried his face in his hands. All his best efforts were failing miserably.
"Oh, no, I want you to tell me," Jack said, quietly angry. "Was I supposed to end up like him?" He gestured toward Cal, who paused in his eating.
"Hey," he said, sounding hurt. "What have I done to you lately?"
"Sorry, man. You're just an example."
"Oh…okay." Cal went back to eating. "But you know, I do have a new way to make money," he said, sounding pleased with himself.
"Let's hear it," Jack said, welcoming any distractions.
"I'm going to learn how to count cards."
Jack looked at Ruth pointedly. "How can you still say he's better than me?"
The End.