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As a surprise gift my not as older brother, who was currently
stationed in Washington, D.C., sent my mother and me airplane tickets
to join him and his family for Thanksgiving. Now with his second
wife and two daughters of his own, he wanted to have a full family
Thanksgiving to fill their new townhouse. He also roped in my eldest
brother and his wife to join us! While I had seen my not as older
brother off & on over the years when he'd visit my mother during
some of his leave time, I hadn't seen my eldest brother since leaving
New England over eight years earlier. Adding to my anticipation my
high school friend, Luke, had also moved to Washington, D.C., with
his longtime girl friend as he had taken up a job with the Library Of
Congress.
I knew my other high school friend, Van, had visited him from time to
time there and pulled out his old home phone number and gave his
family a call. I reached his mother and reintroduced myself to her
after all the years and then asked if I could have Van's current
phone number. She was willing and I was off to call Van. To my
surprise I immediately reached him and chatted with him briefly.
This was our first chat since his confessional phone call to me so
many years earlier. I told him the news of going to Washington and
asked him if he had Luke's current phone number and if perhaps he
might have the chance to come down to D.C. himself for a small
reunion. While he felt the whole idea was fun, he declined and said
he couldn't. And for that matter he didn't seem interested in
talking about his life either, but he was willing to give me Luke's
phone number and wished me the best of luck. I gave him my apartment
phone number should he ever want to call me sometime and catch up and
he said he might.
Calling Luke, he seemed happy by the news I'd be in town and
confirmed that we could meet and catch up on life, perhaps even
having dinner. I was thrilled and then realized I'd probably need to
pull out a bit of money from my checking account's line of credit to
afford side items during the trip. Not ideal, but given this once in
a lifetime circumstance I wasn't going to hesitate. As Irony would
have it, after a year since the antibiotics, I was back to my ideal
weight and my very balded head had sprouted a carpet of fresh hair so
when I saw Luke I wouldn't look that much different from the last
time he saw me eight years earlier.
Daina agreed to look in on my place while I was gone and get my mail
and she gave me a ride to my mother's where we picked her up on the
day of the flight. Daina dropped us off at the little local airport
and stayed with us until we boarded. The flight would connect with
Denver's Stapleton airport where we would then get on a direct flight
to D.C.. Even though we had an hour & a half layover in Denver,
as a side thought once we got off the small hop plane I suggested we
confirm the departure time of our next flight. It turned out it had
been canceled due to mechanical problems, but they would be able to
get us squeezed into an earlier flight that was leaving in ten
minutes. With a brief stop at a payphone to let my not as older
brother know we'd be early, we rushed to the gate number and boarded
the plane as the last passengers, ending up with separated seat
assignments.
When we arrived at D.C., he met us and we went to the baggage area to
retrieve our luggage only to find it hadn't made the flight given the
sudden change of plans, it was still in Denver awaiting assignment
to a future flight. The airline took my brother's address &
phone number and told us they'd deliver our bags once they arrived at
the airport. We were out of the building and onto the famous
'beltway' highway for the next hour or so until we reached my not as
older brother's new place. Along the way he pointed out various
beltway adjacent sites to us and even pulled off for a bit to drive
us around the Pentagon where he now served. As my eldest brother &
wife had arrived the day earlier, we were already prepped for a full
family dinner. I found out our tentative plan of events for the week
and then called Luke to let him know and better firm up our own visit
plans.
The first day our family spent unwinding from our flight and seeing
the local sights, visiting the local mall and returning to the
townhouse for Chinese take-out and to await the over a day delayed
delivery of our luggage. The next day was dedicated to visiting the
National Mall, seeing the various monuments and spending the
afternoon at the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum. Of all the
wings of the Smithsonian, I think they chose the Air & Space
Museum for me and I'm very thankful for it. The next day was
dedicated to the Thanksgiving meal itself, with a nighttime drive
back and around the capital to see it bathed in golden lights.
Friday was a routine day of visiting and each family member doing
various errand runs before we again gathered for a meal at an Italian
restaurant, and then me itching furiously from the apparent red
food coloring #3 in the sauce as we went out to see a movie. The
following day was a quick drive up to and around Baltimore before we
dropped off my eldest brother & his wife for their flight from
the Baltimore/Washington airport. Sunday we gathered our belongings
and were off to Dulles airport for our own flight home.
We didn't have any family conflict until Thanksgiving day
itself.
Asking my eldest brother about all that had changed in New England
since I had left I found out he now had a computer of his own, which
was novel to me as I had originally been the only family member with
a computer, and then I expressed surprise as well that our rural neck
of the woods now had cable television! ''WE AREN'T A BUNCH OF
BACKWARDS HICKS!'' my eldest brother snapped at me in reaction to my
surprise. I was stunned by this as, for me, New England hadn't
changed in my mind since I'd left it eight years earlier. I was
delighted by all this news, so I was shocked that he took offense at
my questions and tried to apologize.
Later in the afternoon, mother felt the need to bring up her
ceaseless retelling of the time she dislocated her knee and how she
was alone with me and I just stood there throwing rocks at her as she
lay helpless on the ground writhing in pain. A story which she
had first started telling in front of me soon after we moved to the
New England apartment in Nineteen Seventy-Five, she seemed compelled
to tell it to any new friend I might bring home. As I was too
young at the time to know for myself what had happened, I had come up
with the defense of pointing to the small brown birthmark on her
forehead and saying, ''That's where she got that bruise from,'' as my
only way of shielding myself from the story.
Given that she had a new audience to tell this story to, my not as
older brother's wife and two kids, she couldn't help herself and
told it again. As she did, I poised to give my follow-up comment but
when she finished I didn't have a chance as my not as other brother
burst out, ''That's not what happened!'' She had made the mistake
of telling the story in front of other family members who knew
better. He compared memories with my eldest brother about the
day: My not as older brother had been the one alone with my mother as
the rest of the family was away with our father in the Volkswagen
bus. This news made more sense to me as I knew my sister had been
the one taking care of me until she went to College. My not as older
brother had called the ambulance at my mother's request and the rest
of the family had arrived home just as the ambulance was loading
mother to take her to the hospital.
Mother was mute and paled as she realized the mistake she had made by
telling the story in front of my brothers. Not only had it
embarrassed her, perhaps bringing her own memory into question, but
I now knew for certain that she had been telling this story to all of
those friends of mine over the years just to poison me in their eyes,
and not because it was true. I had the proof that it
had been a false story and she wouldn't be able to tell it again in
front of me now knowing I had the truth. Mother just remained silent
for the next hour or so until we loaded up for the nighttime drive
around Washington D.C..
I visited with Luke midday early in the week, perhaps before the
family made to trip to the local shopping mall. He must have gotten
some time off from work to meet me as his girl friend was at work
herself at the time. We discussed life in general, and compelled by
years of habit during our high school time, I brought with me a box
of computer disks to show him my programs of the past few years in
Colorado. It turned out his plans to become an engineer hadn't
panned out. In fact all of my high school friends who had gotten
into the 'advanced placement program' I was barred from had all
intended to become engineers and all of them had washed out. With
some family working in the D.C. area, Luke had fallen into a small
job helping out with document preservation at the Library Of Congress
and was thinking of taking it up as his profession.
We met again for dinner the Saturday before I left and he and his
girlfriend took me out to eat. I noted my attempts to write for
television. They also knew someone who had been trying to sell
scripts to 'The Other Show' and it hadn't worked out either. I told
them of my years of health problems and surprise cure just a year
earlier, I didn't explain why it had taken so long for it to have
been addressed. I told them I was now getting back on my feet
and hoped to return to College to complete my degree. When I asked
about Van, they really didn't know what he was up to anymore. They
thought that he might have been looking into becoming a veterinarian
after his own college plans hadn't worked out, but they weren't sure
as Van had seemed to withdraw more and more over the years. At the
end of the meal they offered to pay and, given my tight finances, I
didn't protest too strongly and thanked them.
We parted promising to keep in touch. He soon moved to Texas for
a scholarship in document preservation and a few years later I lost
touch with him. When I got home, I would call Van for that
chance to better 'catch up', but after leaving a message on his
answering machine, he never called back. Given Luke's note about Van
withdrawing from his old friendships, I didn't call again and pry,
remembering my own times wanting to withdraw from friendships rather
than pass on bad news about my life.
On the flight home, this time I was seated right next to mother and
she reverted to her old compulsion to derisively dismiss and belittle
my two brothers' wives and my new nieces as she did with everyone she
met in her life. Having become sick of her doing this over the many
years since she took me from the family home to the New England
apartment, I asked her if that was all she had for her memories of
the trip: Nothing but negative bile and no happy times? This
befuddled her and while I had thought I might have to ask if there
was a free seat elsewhere in the plane I could take to avoid her for
the next few hours, to my thankful surprise mother kept her silence
for the rest of the flight.
When we arrived back in Colorado, then caught our connecting flight,
Daina picked us up at the airport and took mother home and then me.
She offered to take me out to dinner so I could bring her up to speed
on the trip. I agreed.
In less than two weeks, I would be reported dead.
