Relatives

Gearing up for the Big day.

Brenda sent out invitations to the Christmas Eve house tour. Daniel's Uncle Dean, and Aunt Milly said that they would come for a short visit, because they had to get back to work in the church. Mr. Griffin would be returning any day with his friend, Webster, and, of course, there would always be the possibility that the Society page would feature the Riverdale Park "eccentrics" once again. 

The bubble lights were on the tree in the shop window, but the general display was hidden by a curved canopy drape. Brenda hired artist Helene to help her once again in exchange for a Victorian tea set. Helene loaded the left window with a smaller tree, and as many toys as she could comfortably place in the area. 

A fake snow batting  sprinkled with glitter supported a Snowman who lit up at night. The toy train wasn't very big, but it would be turned on a few times a day when people stopped in to buy presents.

The pink and blue metal toy stoves were the latest rage, and there were real baking sets, Ginny dolls, Mama Dolls, Glamour dolls, and stuffed bears. Mannequin "Waters" was wearing a beret, smock, and standing with an artist easel, and palette. 

His "missing arm feature" was hidden behind the branches of the tree.  Shirley and Robert were 90% dressed, and the table that was holding fake food, along with elaborately wrapped presents was finished except for a fancy bottle of wine. She would ask Mr. Griffin if he had an old wine bottle she could borrow from 1875. If he didn't, he would know someone who did.

The shop phone rang as she was getting ready to go back to the house. A young female voice asked if Daniel was there and Brenda said that he was at work, but would probably be home soon. When she asked if she could relay a message, the woman slammed the phone down in her ear. Daniel would certainly be hearing about this.

Brenda did bring it up after dinner as they were decorating the house tree, and Daniel said that it may have been  cousin Caitlin, trying to weasel an invite to the Christmas gathering. She had called the agency earlier, too, while he was out on duty. 

Brenda said "nothing doing". on inviting her.  Bad manners she wouldn't tolerate, nor would she reward rudeness by allowing Caitlin into the house. She again asked Daniel to get Caitlin's birth date.  He said that he would get it from Aunt Milly.  Caitlin had told Uncle Dean that Baltimore bored her, and she wanted to spend the whole of Christmas week with him and Milly  in Scaggsville. They declined, sighting previous social engagements.

 Brenda didn't show any outward displeasure, but inwardly, she felt a little uneasy. Daniel had a strange effect on a lot of women, and he could be very aloof at times. It wasn't always easy to know what he was thinking, or even IF he was thinking. She gave him plenty of space, and love hoping that it would be enough to keep him around.

Her relationships with men had been mostly bad until she saw him for the first time. No doubt, a lot of other women had tried to nab "the man with the beautiful smile" in a variety of ways, but he was determined to have a good career. "Family stuff could wait." 

Brenda thought about the Blundons, and wondered how they handled the day to day interactions in varied relationships. She wished they were right there in the house, along with her parents to have a nice cozy chat. Daniel could go tuck himself into bed with his teddy bear for all she cared in that moment. 

She kissed him good night, and headed to her room. His eyes followed her all the way up the steps like a hurt puppy dog. She gave him a little smile, and kept going. Her biggest fear for the next two hours of insomnia, was having Caitlin show up, crash her party, or rain on her parade, and heaven forbid, strangle her bluebird of happiness, or worst of all, steal her lover.

C J. Marks