That was drama number one done and dusted. Drama number two came on Friday – my birthday. I hadn’t told Katy it was my birthday because we were new, and honestly, I didn’t really care about it. Somehow she’d found out, though, so that morning she’d woken me up by making me breakfast, then she’d given me my presents. We’d discussed our favorite cars one night while we were watching a movie, and I’d told her about my love for Vipers. So, for my birthday, she got me a t-shirt with a 2010 Viper SRT10 (in black because that was my dream car), a book that basically covered anything mechanical to do with a Viper, a keyring with the Dodge Viper emblem on it, a pair of pajama bottoms that had the mushroom from Mario Bros on them on them, and a book about Port Royal where Mom was from. She’d been worried I wouldn’t like it, but I loved every last bit of it.
That night we’d gone to my parents for another BBQ, this time it was my favorite meal my mom made: Jamaican escovitch snapper, rice and peas, bammy which was a flatbread, patties with ground beef in them, and she’d made a rum cake for dessert. These were all the things that the four of us asked for every year on our birthdays because they were so fucking great. The only thing that came close to it was the seafood you got at a restaurant called Gloria’s in Port Royal (not related to Mom) and a chain restaurant across Jamaica called Island Grill – we didn’t tell her that, though. All that Mom needed to know was that her food was the shit.
Mom had invited Katy’s family again, but this time only Major, her parents and Maude came because Ammon had gone to visit his friend in Colorado, and Aura was in Georgetown visiting one of hers, too. The night had gone well until Mom started reminiscing about the four of us – and to a parent, reminiscing means sharing the most embarrassing stories you can think of about your kids.
The one that made everyone laugh the hardest was the time she found a bra in Canon’s bed and thought he was hiding his “inner woman”. So, being the supportive mother that she is, she’d sat him down and started doing his makeup for him, and then added one of her wigs which was long and curly. After that, she’d decided that he suited fall colors better because they were warm and would bring out his eyes more. Amazingly, through all of this, Canon had sat still, wondering what the hell was going on, and because we all adored her, he let her get on with it in case she was sad about the fact she never had a daughter. Ironically, Mom had been thinking that she finally got a daughter, so she’d been close to tears with happiness.
When she’d made him sit down at dinner like that, all of us had been sitting staring at him while she was serving food onto our plates. Dad had asked what the hell was going on, Mom had explained which ended up in a food fight between us all because we called him a liar when he denied it, even though we knew the bra belonged to Jenny Briggs who he’d sneaked into his room two days previously.
Then she’d brought out the baby albums, and I’d lost the will to live and had gone inside to play with Elodie for a while. One of Mom’s wigs was a freaking awesome afro styled one that she hadn’t worn since 1989 (she claimed), and I’d put it on Elodie’s head to show everyone along with these huge sparkly chandelier earrings. The women had melted, and from there they’d taken her back to Mom’s dressing room (aka Bond’s old bedroom), tried every wig she owned on the baby, and then taken photos of her wearing them with a pair of Mom’s shoes.
As gratitude for my distraction technique, Dad had promised me half of Bond and Canon’s inheritance on top of my own. The best bit for me, though, was all the photos we now had of Elodie laughing, so into it that the few teeth she had were on display as she did it. And never once did she let go of her purple bear.
Going into work this morning hadn’t been fun, but I finished at four and Katy had finished at one, so it wasn’t technically a full day because we hadn’t started until ten. Katy hadn’t mentioned doing anything together tonight, so for the first time I had nothing to do – and I didn’t like it. I felt kind of lost without her.
At a red light, I pulled my phone out and looked for a song that had been on my mind since Maude had mentioned it. The one that Katy loved by Eric Clapton, My Father’s Eyes. Finding it, I hit play and listened to the beginning with Clapton playing the strings of his guitar perfectly and I could see why Paul got carried away with his air guitaring to it. For the next five minutes and twenty-three seconds (I checked how long the song was on the screen), I got sucked into it. By the time it was over, I was singing and air guitaring my ass off. Totally got how Paul got carried away with it, it would be an insult to the legend of Clapton not to do it.