Enantiodromia

Ⓣwo Ⓨears Ⓛater

"Jodi! Happy Thanksgiving, Dear!" my mom said, wrapping her arms around my waist. She pulls my face down and gives me kiss on the cheek.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Mama Aza." Rupert says from behind me. My mom walks over to him and squeezes him in a hug. I walk into the living room and look around. Aunts and uncles, cousins and siblings, nieces and nephews: they all stood around laughing and talking.

"Ruby, lookie! Aunt Jude is here!" two toddlers suddenly engulf me in a hug. I pick up Ruby and blow a raspberry on her cheek, and ruffling her raven-colored hair.

"Me next! Me next!" the second sister squealed. I picked up Ilene and blew a raspberry on her cheek as well.

"Look how big you girls have gotten!" I coo at them. Ruby instantly begins telling me about how Ilene cut her hair, last week. I laugh along while the two girls act out how they gave each other their own haircut.

Ilene and Ruby are twins but not by the same parents. My sister and her husband had Ruby just a year after they were married and a month later my sister was begging to have another baby. So they adopted Ilene. Ilene happened to have the same birthday as Ruby and they're completely alike. Well, other than Ilene has blonde hair and Ruby has black hair.

"Girls, why don't you go play outside with Aunt Raine." A voice says from beside me. I look up and see my sister, Joan, and her husband, Graham.

"I missed you so much!" I squeal and wrap my arms around her neck. Graham excuses himself and walks towards Rupert, introducing himself.

"So how have you been?" she asks me, grabbing a wine glass from the table and handing it to me. I take it from her and take a sip.

"I've been really good. How about you? How's your new job working out?" I ask. She tells me it's been good and begins catching me up on the girls.

The room is filled with chatter of everyone catching up on the past couple months. After Joan decides to go find Graham, I excuse myself to help Dad finish cooking.

"Judith! Is that you, honey?" my dad yells through the smoke that covered the kitchen.

"Dad? What's burning?" I ask him. He shrugs. I sigh and open the oven to a flaming and over cooked turkey. I grab oven-mittens and pull out the charred mess.

"Who was cooking the turkey in the oven?" I ask Dad.
"Well Lorraine put it in the oven to keep it warm until you got here. I didn't know she cut the oven on." He replied, laughing slightly.

I look through the small window to the living room. Rupert was sitting on the floor playing dolls with Ruby, while Ilene was putting his hair in a ponytail. He was focused on braiding the dolls hair, trying to mimic Ruby's chubby, little fingers.

"You know, some people think when you're staring at them that you're actually stalking them?" a deep voice says from the doorway. I turn just in time to catch Dad whack Marcus on the head.

"Watch yourself, boy." Dad says and continues to stir some type of sauce. Marcus walks over to me and gives me a hug.

"The baby brother gets jealous, Dad. He's upset he can't keep a relationship like everyone else in the family." I say in a mocking tone of voice. Marcus scoffs at me.

"Have you seen Lorraine?" I ask Marcus. He doesn't hear me and grabs a piece of toast straight from the toaster. Dad slaps his hand, but Marcus still shoves the toast in his mouth. Dad turns towards me with a sigh.

"She's outside with her boyfriend. They should be on the dock." he says before turning back to Marcus. I unlock the back door and slide it open.

"Boy, if you grab another piece of toast before washing your hands I swear I will-" Dad begins yelling but I close the door quickly behind me. I see Lorraine sitting with her boyfriend on the edge of the dock.