General Fiction posted January 21, 2025 | Chapters: | ...24 25 -26- 27... |
A Christmas party at the Kendricks'
A chapter in the book The Devil Fights Back
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 26
by Jim Wile
Background Three intrepid women team up to conquer medical challenges. |
Recap of Chapter 25: Fran gets a call from Dana, who describes the action she has taken to “stir the pot” and get Merra to do something that would be FBI-worthy of tapping his phone. Fran is not thrilled with what she has done by enlisting her friend Barry Degner to help in a ruse to inspire Merra into hiring Barry to attack Brian. She debates whether or not she can use the information so obtained to try to get a wiretap warrant, but, in the end, decides she will try.
Marie’s luggage arrives on Christmas Eve day, much to her surprise, and the family decides to exchange presents that night because they will all be busy preparing for a party on Christmas day. Everyone enjoys the presents they received, including Johnny with a toy banjo. Marie thinks about how this is the first Christmas in a long time when she either gave or received gifts, reflecting her growing closeness to her family.
Chapter 26
Marie
The caterers began arriving at noon to get set up for the party that would begin at 1:00. I decided to sample the wares at the bar. The bartender provided a nice variety of beer, wine, and spirits, as well as two types of punch—spiked and plain. None of that for me; just a simple martini, please, but the bartender talked me into dressing it up with some fruits and flavored spirits. Not bad, but not really necessary. Usually just an olive is fine.
I helped Julia get Johnny ready. He’d had an especially dirty diaper this morning, which, believe it or not, I changed, but he needed a bath before the party. We dressed him in a pair of red overalls and a green flannel shirt as a sign of the season. He then toddled into the family room and began playing with his new banjo. We heard him laughing at something and went in to find him looking up at the family’s cat, who had climbed up into the Christmas tree and was batting at an ornament. This cat and I aren’t exactly enemies, but she seems to want nothing to do with me, either on my previous visit here or this one. I guess she senses I’m not a cat person, and keeps her distance. That’s fine with me. Johnny loves her, though. Nadia, I think her name is, but he calls her Na-na. She’s very tolerant of him, too, and puts up with a lot of rough handling with only an occasional bop on his head.
Julia got her out of the tree, shooed her away, and picked up the pieces of a broken ornament. Johnny had been laughing so hard at the cat’s antics that he’d begun wheezing and coughing a little. It sounded like the beginning of an asthma attack, which Julia had informed me he occasionally has. She showed me how to use his nebulizer to calm things down.
The guests began arriving at 1:00. I was a bit overdressed for this crowd, who mostly wore denim jeans or overalls. A lot of plaid and flannel were present. Julia had changed into some denim overalls to match these folks.
A few of them carried instrument cases, including one for a string bass. Brian helped the one named Shannon, who I’d met before, make a couple of trips to her pickup truck to retrieve a set of drums. The “musicians” had arrived.
A few neighbors also arrived, as well as Patty Mattson’s boyfriend. There were perhaps 20 of us in all.
After introductions, I headed to the bar for another martini, this time with only an olive. The band leader named Willy joined me there.
“Hello, Miss Marie. Great to see you again,” he said and grabbed me in another bear hug. “Julia tells me you taught her most of what she knows about the violin. I’m hopin’ maybe you’ll join us in a number or two later on.”
“Well, maybe after I’ve had a few more of these,” I said, holding up my drink.
“I hear you, believe me. I started out in classical music many years ago and played in the Charlotte Symphony for a while. Trombone was my instrument. But then I also had a love for country music that my MeeMaw used to love. She was a singer. Then when bluegrass became popular, especially when Flatt and Scruggs began recordin’ it, that’s when I really found my niche in music. I know it’s not for everyone, but it has a way of growin’ on you.”
“Well, skin tags and warts have a way of growing on you too.”
He chuckled and repeated that it may not be for everyone, and there’s no arguing about taste. Well, I had plenty of argument there but decided to keep it to myself.
Brian’s sister and her husband then arrived and made a beeline for Johnny. Everyone was making quite a fuss over him, and he seemed to eat it up. He wasn’t a shy baby at all.
Is that a tinge of jealousy I was feeling? Perhaps he just likes everybody, and the way he seems to like me is nothing special.
When someone else pulled Johnny from her grasp, Fran spotted me and came over. “Hello, Marie. It’s nice to see you again. I guess it’s hard to keep away very long from that little cutie.”
“Nice to see you too, Fran. Yes, he certainly seems to be making quite a hit. I understand you’re keeping my son-in-law busy on some cloak-and-dagger secret project.”
“Yes, it’s amazing how devoted he is to it. It’s proven to be incredibly difficult, but he has a lot of fortitude. He’s a very impressive fellow, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I’ve slowly come to that realization, yes. He’s a good husband and father too and quite a stud, as he reminds everyone.”
Fran didn’t seem to know how to respond to this and just smiled vaguely. “Well, I hope you enjoy your stay. I’m sure you will with that darling grandson to be around.” She wandered off then.
The food was served buffet style, and people just came up and filled their plates whenever they felt like it. It was very informal. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I did have another drink. It was helping me enjoy myself a little among this bunch of rednecks Julia and Brian had invited to their party. God, I pictured her among a much more intelligent and refined group than this crowd.
After a sufficient number had “chowed down,” as one of these hicks put it, the musicians seemed to answer to a silent signal and headed to the center of the family room where they’d set up to play. They began to play that awful, twangy music. Julia mostly played fiddle, which is the name they give a violin when it plays said awful, twangy music, but she occasionally played the banjo along with the other banjo player.
I’d fortified myself with another couple of drinks just to get through this performance when the moment I was dreading came, and Julia asked me if I’d like to come up and play “fiddle” (God, I hated that word) in a couple of numbers she was sure I would know: “Turkey in the Straw” and “The Irish Washerwoman.” I knew them, of course. What violinist doesn’t? I tried refusing, but everyone in the band and the crowd implored me to join in, so, reluctantly, I made my way forward, staggering slightly.
I picked up Julia’s “fiddle,” and the band began to play. It went well enough, I guess, and I didn’t do anything too outlandish for “Turkey in the Straw,” but I got a little mischievous for “The Irish Washerwoman” and decided to begin speeding up. The band was taking it at a rather slow tempo, and as we continued to repeat the main theme, I began going faster and faster, leading the group along. After a while, I sped up so fast that they couldn’t keep up and gradually stopped playing. But I was really ripping now and kept going faster and faster until even I began fumbling the notes. The audience looked a little uncomfortable.
I turned to the band. “Sorry ‘bout that, folks. Forgot who I ‘uz playin’ with. Thought I ‘uz playin’ with real musicians there for a mint… a minuet. Hey, anyone for a minuet?” I launched into Bach’s Minuet in G Major at twice the natural pace. I was showing off and amusing myself, but Julia decided I’d had enough of stealing the show and stopped me.
“Mother,” she said quietly in my ear, “perhaps you’d like to take a seat in the audience now. Thanks for joining us, but I think we’ll get back to some bluegrass music.”
“Whassa matter? You no longer like to hear real music anymore?” I said curtly.
“Mother, please. Could you just go back and sit down now?”
At that point, Brian came forward and said to the crowd, “Let’s all give Marie a round of applause for her interesting contribution to the music.” He began applauding, and the audience joined in. He took the violin and bow from me and handed them to Julia, then escorted me back to my seat as the audience continued to clap.
He sat down beside me, probably to keep an eye on me, as the music resumed. I hopped right up and said, “I’m gettin’ another drink.”
Brian put his hand on my arm to stop me and said, “Don’t you think maybe you’ve had enough, Marie?”
“Oh, not nearly,” I said as I shook him off and headed to the bar.
We were finally down to the band’s last number, “The Devil Goes Down to Georgia,” which Julia said they end all their programs with. They called Brian up to do the vocals, and without him there to babysit me, I began really whooping it up and clapping along in an exaggerated fashion, shouting out, “Go Devil!” during the devil’s part Julia was playing and “Go Johnny!” during the Johnny part of the fiddling. I was getting a few funny looks from some of the other partygoers, but I didn’t care; I was finally enjoying myself. When it was over, I let out a few loud whistles with my thumb and forefinger affixed to my mouth. I kept whistling even after everyone else had stopped applauding.
Brian came back and gently removed my hand from my mouth. He said, “Marie, why don’t you come with me? I’ve got something interesting to show you.” He had to guide me along because I was very wobbly now. We headed through the kitchen and downstairs to his basement lab, and he held me firmly as we descended the stairs.
What he showed me was the picture I’d given to Julia of her performing during her childhood. He’d mounted it on the wall down there, and the glass over the picture was intact.
“I had a piece of glass of the right size in another picture, and I replaced it and hung it this morning. Looks great there, doesn’t it?”
I stared at it for a while. I pointed to one picture in particular. “Look at her there, Brian. Thas my favorite. Look how determin’ she looks. She was playin’ the Carmen Fantasy there, which is a very dif’cult piece even for a ‘dult, an’ she was jus’ nine there. God, she was amazin’!”
I began choking up. “How did I blow it so badly with her? She deserved better than me.” The tears started flowing then, and I became wracked with sobs. Brian took me in his arms and held me tightly as I sobbed and sobbed. “I’m so sorry now. I’m so sorry,” I kept saying as Brian continued to hold me and rub my back. “You are a good man, Brian. I’m so sorry I doubted you.”
He simply said, “That’s over with now, Marie. All done,” as he continued to hold me and rub my back.
It took me a long time to get it all out, but when the sobbing finally stopped, he handed me a pocket handkerchief (what young man carries a pocket handkerchief?) for me to dry my tears.
I let out a big sigh as I looked at him. “Thank you, Brian, for bein’ so unnerstandin’, but I think I’m goin’ to be sick. You said once you had a bathroom down here?”
He guided me quickly to it, and I went inside and closed the door. I spent the next 10 minutes on my knees with my head over the toilet bowl.
Recognized |
Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.
Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.
Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.
Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.
Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.
Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.
Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.
Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.
Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.
Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.
Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.
Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.
Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.
Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.
Alphonse: A Dip-addicted, homeless man who Brian and Julia met in rehab 17 years earlier.
Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.
Picture courtesy of Playground-v3
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