Saving Sumac

CHAPTER 2: CHRISTMAS QUAKE

Meadow was doing everything she could to help out. Only a few of the guests for her children’s party had shown. Most had called Dezzy or Ruby in the last week to say they’d had a change of plans, others just didn’t come. Sumac’s younger brother, Lief, was the only one who’d just come out and said it: Unless Meadow was absent, he wasn’t coming either. He was furious over Thanksgiving and didn’t want to see her face. She had only done what she had to do but there was no way to make her Ex’s family understand. So, she helped with the cleaning, cooking, and even carried in gifts – all while a few cousins did a fine job of making her nervous and self-conscious.

When Frea walked in with Sumac’s older, pot-smoking, sax-playing, bachelor brother, Meadow hoped she would finally have some friendly company. Phenom always seemed  indifferent to her dealings with his brother and had shown little concern over the aftermath of their separation twenty-one years ago. The smell the man brought in with him was like a fraser fir, fresh cut, times ten.  It would be great if she could get Phenom to smoke some of that festive GMO designer Christmas Tree herb with her... away from the kids.

“Merry Christmas, everyone,” Fraea said, hugging Ruby.

“Hey guys!” Desmond said, and left the sofa his grandfather, the 82-year old Baba, had claimed.  Spock lifted his nose and seemed to consider following, but a few strokes from the patriarch had the beagle’s head back down and tail slowly wagging.  “Uncle Phenom, I can smell you from here…What’d you do, stick a forest in your pocket?”

“Oh, that’s just the party favors.  It’s called “Tree Farm.”  Phenom gave Ruby a kiss as he swam through the kitchen, depositing a 12-pack of Saranac in the fridge, trying not to ding his saxophone-case. 

“I hope that you’ll give us a little holiday concert, Phenom,” Meadow said.

“What did you think I was planning to do with my sax?  Really…” was the man’s cold response.  The message was clear:  disdain and resentment were all the woman was likely to get from him. 

No one commented on the total lack of holiday cheer for Meadow, no one knew what to say.  Ruby felt a bit of shame that none of the family had snubbed her over the incident of her father’s reappearance. All the negativity had been directed at her mother.  But more than her shame was her pity for what she saw as a terrible injustice – her Mom was right, after all.  Wasn’t she?  What did her elders know? This secret that made them so hostile towards her mother? 

Meadow did her best to enjoy the party, she even sipped a little corn liquor one of the cousins had brought to spike the eggnog.  Ruby made a point of including her in conversations, and both her kids kept giving her assuring, affectionate touches to her hands and shoulders, hugging her often.  But Meadow’s conscience was eating up her joy and shitting guilt and self-doubt.  Was she right to abandon Sumac?  Had she just been waiting, searching for a way out of the rabbit hole he’d led her down?  She had made her choices for the right reasons, right?  Meadow wondered, unable to enjoy the party.

With the solstice only days past, the sun was already low in the sky by the time the few cousins and friends had said their farewells and stumbled to autopods loaded down by gifts and leftovers.  Baba had indulged in the nog and not missed tasting any of the dozen or so dishes, so he didn’t stir from his nap when the remaining family slipped into the back yard for some herbal festivities. 

Phenom had a glass pipe for the potent evergreen scented bud and handed Fraea a joint of – he promised – “dookie weed”.  Meadow hated smoking around her kids, didn’t like watching them smoke either, but it was a party, it was legal, and she had to ease her stress somehow.  Dezzy and Phenom, basically besties, settled on the edge of the old brick porch naturally, where Meadow awkwardly joined them in an Adirondack chair. Ruby and Fraea drifted around the fenced-in backyard as they tossed Spock’s ball.  Two separate conversations evolved, one on Phenom’s burgeoning new music lesson slash talent scouting idea he’d put into action while younger musicians had time away from school over the summer.  The cousin’s conversation was hushed, of a very different nature.