“Holidays
are tough. Leastways that’s what the modern image is, you know?” I said.
“What
do you mean?”
“That
it’s dysfunctional. People get together to supposedly have a good time, but
there are fights or just nothing ever works out. It can never be Norman
Rockwell, so it might as well be a sitcom of disasters.”
“You’re just going to skip over the
talk about sex, aren’t you?”
“Who’s telling this? Me. And I
covered the important part, so we’re moving on.”
“I shall make sure our next film
revue has lots of suggestive material in it.”
“That’s a trap. You’re trying to
make me comment about the sexual content of Vampire
Sorority Vixens.”
Nikki shrugged, but couldn’t keep
the smile from her lips.
“Not happening. Back to the story.”
“And
it can’t be. Don’t know what old Norman was looking at for inspiration, but people
are people. And I’m sure I’m going to have some rough patches with my family.
It’s inevitable because we’re different people. But we’re also going to have
fun. I’m going to get to toss a football with my brother, play board games with
the whole family, talk to Dad about his favorite teams, and make sure I’m out
of the house while Ma’s making pies.
“It
used to be harder. When we all lived in Boston. But now we’ve all realized that
we don’t get to see each other much, and that we can make the most of it. My
brother might even try to jump me to prove he’s still better than me and can
make me cry uncle. He can be a real sneaky jerk, like attacking while I watch
cartoons.”
“You still watch cartoons?”
“Sure. Better than the rest of TV.”
“You have a point, there.”