I'm Not Dead

Chapter Twenty

Rebekka took Michael aside and yelled at him. So that was taken care of. Once Laura and I got back to the living room, we sat down and answered questions from the family. Some were easy, and Laura was happy to answer, like what we were going to name them. Others were harder, like one from her uncle: "You will stick around, right?"

I swallowed hard, looked at Laura, and answered: "It's my child too. Of course I'm going to help raise it."

"How far along are you?" One of her older cousins asked.

"Fourteen, almost fifteen weeks."

"Are you going to get married?" one of her younger cousins asked, wide-eyed and smiling.

The crowd laughed, and Laura looked at me. "I don't know. Elliot?"

"I don't know, either."

Laura smiled. "Uh, due in early June. Won't know the gender for another week or so. We've already painted the nursery. I'm going to continue school as long as I can. Um..." She looked at me. "I think that covers most of it. We already went over the names and everything."

"Yep."

"I miss coffee."

Rebekka came into the living room with Michael. "Are you guys ready to get going? It's getting late."

"Bekka you ready to be a grandmother?" Ruth asked, chuckling a little.

Rebekka shook her head. "Hell no. But I'll deal. Come on you two, Brad's waiting."

Laura hugged everyone goodbye. Beck pulled me aside. "You treat my granddaughter well."

I swallowed hard. "Yes, sir."

He clapped a hand on my back. "Welcome to the family."

Christmas morning I pulled myself out of bed and went downstairs to the kitchen. I poured myself a hot cup of coffee and sat down on the couch. Mom had already got a fire going in the fireplace and a cup of honey colored tea was sitting on the table beside her chair.

The Christmas tree was decorated with blues and silvers, as it always is. Our personal ornaments—ones I've made in elementary school—hang on strings of thin tinsel on the opposite wall. Four stockings are hanging on the mantle, one for my mother and father and myself, the fourth just for symmetry.

Mom comes downstairs dragging Dad behind her. He sits down on the couch and Mom hands him his coffee. I've finished mine at this point.

"Merry Christmas." Mom says, poking the fire.

She sits down in her chair and sips on her tea. "Elliot, will you pass out the gifts?"

I stand and look at the five or six boxes under the tree. I hand Dad his two, one from me and the other from Mom. And Mom hers, the one from Dad and the one from me. And I take my three and sit down.

"You start, Elliot."

I unwrap the first which I obviously a CD. It is, and I smile and thank Dad. I don't tell him that it's an album by a band I've never listened to. I think he mixed up the titles.

Mom opens hers from Dad, blushes, and doesn't show me. "Thank you," she says and sets the box aside.

Dad opens his gift from me. I don't even remember what I got him, and I'm pretty sure I just put my name on it.

Once all the gifts are opened and the wrapping paper is cleaned up, Mom finishes her tea and goes upstairs to get dressed. Next she'll make dinner. Dad will watch TV. I will go to Theo's house we he, Gen, and I all planned on getting hammered.