Chapter Three

Mona supplied her own feast and was already preparing it the way she knew people preferred. Just another sign that this wasn't her first time dropping in unannounced. And being married for twenty-three years to Alrik's best friend, she was fully aware of the dangers running out of food would bring. Calypso and Mona had already prepared cucumber raspberry salad, a medium-sized basket of cream cheese balls, acorn squash and sweet potato soup, cinnamon muffins, fried honey cakes, chocolate-almond bites, eggnog cookies, spiced chocolate pretzels, eggnog bread pudding, and soft mead that Mona had kept a secret. She kept a ladle in hand to stop Alrik from drinking it all. Calypso took out the honey butter hams she'd spent most of the week cooking and the men were at her feet begging, almost drooling.

 

She firmly told them to go away and placed the three hams, one by one, on the tables Raven brought from the RV. Taking some pity on them Calypso let them at the cookies, warning that they didn't want to see Grandma Norma if there were no sugar cookies left. Alrik and Raven both cried out, indignant, that they would never dare. Calypso just narrowed her eyes and walked away.

"The nerve" muttered Raven, chomping on a chocolate chip cookie.

"Women" Alrik snorted, "Always assuming the worst about us".

The night was beginning to drag on when suddenly there were a series of horn blasts.

"Who could that possibly be?" Mona said with fake surprise.

Looking through the window Raven, who happened to be closest, saw Corey's dark blue mustang parked behind Calypso's jeep. He announced who it was and everyone laughed at Calypso's reaction. Corey was notorious for flirting with Calypso despite her many rejections. He swore it was only in good fun, but more than one person thought that was a cover.

"Why don't you give him a chance? It's the holidays after all" Alrik said with a smirk.

Calypso just shook her head, not even feeding into the discussion this time. It always ended the same.
 "Oooh! He has more food" Raven noted with wonder.

That took Alrik's attention and moved him to open the door for Corey.

"How's it going guys? Auntie? Cal?" he asked smiling.

Mona, Raven, and Alrik welcomed him happily. Calypso managed a small smile. Corey uncovered the tray in his head and swept it under Alrik's nose, which wasn't hard for him to do since he wasn't much shorter.

"That's specifically for you buddy" he laughed.

It was a glazed ham covered in orange marmalade with cream cheese, surrounded by whole prunes and apple halves.

"Put it over here on the table, he can have it later" Mona said, pointing with her ladle.

 

As Corey walked to the small dining room, Calypso silently judged what he was wearing. A casual tan t-shirt, khaki shorts, and white sneakers was a nice outfit and he was on a fast track to following in Mona's footsteps, but he was nineteen and Calypso was twenty-six. Regardless of what anyone said, she didn't think they were a good match. Corey took a deep whiff of the spread and tried sneaking one of the cream cheese balls, but Mona pinched him until he dropped it.

“But it smells so good! Do we have wait for Grandma Norma?” he whined.

“Of course we do. Now away from the food, and don’t let me catch you over here again” Mona warned.

Calypso couldn’t help a laugh, but she tried muffling it. Corey stuck out his tongue at her, and then walked outside where Alrik and Raven had a card game going. With glasses of eggnog and a plate of cookies in the middle.

“It’s like Santa gone horribly wrong” Mona whispered, coming to stand next to Calypso.

“How did they even manage to do that without us hearing?” she wondered.

Mona threw up her hands, saying, “Is that really important? They didn’t break anything”.

Calypso nodded reluctantly, she didn’t want to jinx anything but it was unusual that being quiet didn’t mean they were up to no good.

“I guess not. Let’s cover up the food and…decorate the log or something. It’ll pass the time until the old ladies come” she said laughing.

Mona made a shushing noise and looked towards the door. She playfully slapped Calypso on the arm, and then dragged her into the kitchen.

 

Around nine ‘o’ clock the phone on the wall rang and Mona jumped up to answer it. She said hello and exchanged small talk, every now and then a sour look crossed her face which suggested Vera was on the phone, and then her face lit up. Calypso knew Grandma Norma had somehow wrestled the phone from Raven’s mother. After a few minutes of catch up, Mona hung up and phone. She turned with an expectant look on her phone.

“I’ll be damned. I love your grandma, but I don’t think I can last an hour with Vera” Calypso said with a grunt.

“Well, you’ll have to spend the night with her” Mona spoke with her hands on her hips.

“I’ll take my chances in a motel” Calypso replied darkly.

Giving up Mona called, “Corey! Go get your grandmother from the airport”.

Corey whined and complained, but Mona pointed once at the door and he gave in. Dragging his feet all the way to the door he shot over his shoulder, “If I only come back with one, don’t be surprised”.

“Take the child locks off and speed around corners” suggested Calypso as Corey left.

Mona threw a towel at her and said, “Stop encouraging him”.

Calypso just shrugged.

“I don’t even know why you invited her” Mona said, sitting down.

“I didn’t invite any of you” Calypso laughed.

 

They decorated the Yule log by loosely by gluing cinnamon sticks where branches would be, and then loosely tying a ribbon around them. Calypso placed pinecones and berries in a way that the ribbon weaved between them.

“It’s almost a shame it’s going to get burned” Calypso said with a pout.

Mona held it up gently and said, “Well, you can place it over the nonexistent fireplace”.

Calypso looked at her, eyebrow raised.

“What? I can get Raven to build you a shelf” Mona said with a shrug.

Calypso snorted and said, “Yes, and then I can hire a contractor to rebuild my wall”.

Mona laughed and placed the log back on the table, careful not to knock over any candles.

“He hasn’t done so much damage this year. Everything’s… mostly intact” she replied with a smirk.

Calypso rolled her eyes and muttered, “It’s a Christmas miracle”.

Immediately after she said that they heard a crash outside. Neither of the wanted to look, but raucous laughter made them curious. Mona looked first and placed her hand over her mouth. Calypso looked over to see Raven laying on top of a now broken low table, the plate of cookies saved by Alrik. Who was sitting on the ground beside him with, cookies in one hand and eggnog in the other.

“There can’t be that much alcohol in eggnog?” Calypso asked, dumbfounded.

 

Mona jumped up and ran to check the fridge. Her grimace said everything and Calypso considered her chances in a fight with two drunk men. Guessing her thoughts, Mona shook her head but she was sympathetic. She mouthed “Just let it go”. Mona did her best to get Raven in a sitting position, then struggled to sit him back on his stool.

“I can’t believe you two” she said, shaking her head.

“We’re only buzzed” Raven replied with a slight slur.

Alrik made a few attempts to stand, and said, “Yeah, we haven’t even touched the mead”.

Mona narrowed her eyes.

“You better not have” she muttered.

Alrik and Raven just laughed, earning Raven another hit.

 

Soon after Corey returned with Grandma Norma and Grandma Vera, he looked unbelievably tired. He carried in their bags while they sat on the couch. Mona shared hugs with her grandmother and a quick one with Grandma Vera.

“Take out the turkey, Corey, let it defrost” Grandma Vera ordered.

“Oh, there’s no need. There’s plenty as it is” Mona said kindly.

“Nonsense! There’s always room for more” came Alrik’s response from the backyard.

Mona grimaced and but tried to keep a friendly smile on her face.

“We’ll leave it out just in case” said Grandma Vera.

She had a hard face, a sharp nose and thin lips she kept pressed in a tight line. Her copper hair was tied a bun, but Calypso had seen old pictures and knew Vera once had bright orange hair that fell almost to her waist. Grandma Vera had a straw hat on her head, not a surprise since she was an avid gardener but there was no reason to wear it now.  She sat on the far end of the couch while Grandma Norma and Mona said next to each other talking. Grandma Norma was wearing a black wool sweater with a snowman on the front, her large purse open beside her to show the latest knitting project she was working on. She was always smiling and quiet, and still had a headful of grey hair that she wore in a bob. Grandma Norma had kind, light brown eyes where Grandma Norma had unforgiving green eyes. Complete opposites, Calypso didn’t know how Mona dealt with both of them. And she actually felt sorry for Corey, all on his own against Grandma Vera for an hour. Calypso almost shuddered.