What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas?
CHAPTER 1:
It was getting close to fall. This, was my favorite season of the year once upon a time. Now I hated it. I would never feel connected to my family in the same way again. A family that sweeps every issue under the rug will eventually become a broken family. Sooner or later a big blow up will occur. In my family, my father cheated on my mother constantly, and finally on Christmas Eve, my mom would put an end to their 15-year relationship. My younger siblings James and Jamie would tell me about things my dad did, but I just thought they had a wild imagination. I believed it until one day, I caught my dad in the act with a lady at the neighborhood park.
My mom had yelled that day and told me, "Go get your dad. I think he's outside. And tell him to hurry up because the food is ready and everyone is waiting on him".
, James told me that he had seen Dad at the park, so I ran because I was hungry. It was three houses down from us. I should have known that this was a sign for me to turn around, but I was just focusing on getting my dad to come home. When I opened the I was caught by surprise. I had never known my dad to be a cheater.
In a panic, I thought ," Should I tell my mother? Should I knock on the window? Did he already see me? Is anyone behind me"?
FLASHBACK:
This year was 2003 and I was in the 7th grade. The reason that Fall was my favorite season was because of the cool temperatures and football season; not to mention Christmas and Thanksgiving. Holidays were the best at our house because I was around my family, and more importantly, who doesn't love food and presents? I loved the smell of sweet potatoes and honey baked ham. I loved helping my mom and dad make the ham because I got to actually do something. My job was to dress the ham with the honey.Some times, I put too much honey and when my family would come over , they would know that it was me that put too much honey. We would rotate Christmas betweenmy aunt's house, my uncle's house, and our house; Thanksgiving was always at our house. My mom would cook the sides and the ham early Thanksgiving morning.
I was the oldest of six siblings My mom was named Desiree, she was 36, and my dad, age 44, was named Jared. My name was Jonathan and I had a twin brother named Jason. We were as different as night and day. I was a mama's boy and he shadowed my dad everywhere. In school, everyone knew we were twins, but we didn't have the same group of friends. He wanted to be a cool kid, while my mom forced me to keep my head in the books. She told us that when we were younger, she could never break us apart, and that we were stuck together like Siamese twins. My next sibling was another brother named Jeremy. He was two years younger than us, but we all stayed together! After Jeremy, there was another boy named James. James was the worst of the siblings and when he and Jeremy would get together, somehow, I would always get caught up in their situations. The second youngest sibling was our last brother named Julian. Julian looked up to me because the other siblings would pick on him and I would stick up for him. He later switched rooms with Jason to become my roommate. Because we were such a big family, the house had 5 bedrooms. We did not have any guest rooms, but my dad turned our second dining room into a guest room. Our last sibling was a sister named Jamie. Jamie was spoiled by all of our family because my grandparents thought my mom wouldn't have another girl. Jason and I were 12 years old, and Jeremy was 10. James was 9, Julian was 7, and Jamie was 4. Even though my parents treated all of their children the same the eldest still had the biggest responsibility. When one got in trouble, we all got a whooping. We had so many chores for Thanksgiving, we needed two days to complete them. Jason and I had to clean up the entire up stairs of our house.
We had 4 bedrooms upstairs, which were for my siblings and I. My parents loved us, but they needed their time together downstairs. We would all clean our rooms on Saturdays, so our rooms wouldn't get too dirty. The issue was the game room! Between the three younger kids, the game room was always dirty. There were cups, plates, chip bags, honey bun papers, and candy wrappers on the floor that me and Jason would have to clean up. Jeremy and James each had to sweep and mop the downstairs area. This job was the easiest of all. Julian's job was to watch our sister, sit down and watch a movie. His job was boring because they only watched cartoons. I was not interested! Jamie was a very easy kid and all she wanted to do was to watch TV and eat candy, hence the candy wrappers in the game room. Outside, Dad grilled the turkey and barbecued some of the ribs.
As we finished cleaning up, I went to the guest room to check on my grandpa. Grandpa lived with us because he was in the army and lost one of his legs. Mom and Dad have been together for 14 years, and my grandpa have been staying with us since before I was born. My grandmother died 3 years ago and she used to take care of him. Every once in awhile, I would step outside to help him and every time I would get a conversation about me keeping our rooms clean. I was not the only child nor was I responsible for everyone's rooms.
I walked into the room and jumped in the bed with my papa and asked him, "What's up Papa. Any buzz on the television"? Whenever we watched television he would always ask us that, so I flipped the script on him.
"This world is getting crazier and crazier by the day Son and by the time I'm dead and gone the world will be to pieces", he said with a strict face.
"Papa, how was the world when you were my age", I asked looking in his eyes.
He answered with a slight grin, "It was similar to what you all are experiencing right now. We had slavery and we had racism. We had inequality and high crime rates, but what differentiates my generation from you all's is the faith and hope we had in God".
"Grandpa we know who God is too! My mom makes us pray before we eat, before we go to sleep, and while we are away from her".
"Yeah John our family knows God and believes in his word, but the entire world has different way of viewing God than us".
From that moment on, I knew that my Pa was telling the truth. In this time of people being discriminated against and segregated, how will this generation survive the world. I focused on the news and I lay back under his arms. While we're watching television, my grandpa dozes off. He snores loud as a cow.
Jason and Jamie came in and said, "Mom made us lunch. Come eat". Jamie really did not say anything she just put her hands on her hips until I got out of the bed. Everyone was waiting for me at the table. We would never eat a big lunch on Thanksgiving Day because for dinner my mom made sure we would eat or else we could not play the game. Not only could we not play the game, but my mom would make us sit at the dinner table until everyone left, listening to their boring ass conversations. Thanksgiving dinner is supposed to start at seven fifteen, but we always tell my family six thirty. That way everyone is ready to eat at seven fifteen. My uncle always leads us in a prayer before we eat. We had 2 more hours until everyone would arrive. I walked into my papa's room to sneak and give him some cookies. He was not supposed to have them, so I would only give him a couple.
He used to preach to me and say, "John, we all will die of something. You do not want papa to die hungry do you"?
After I brought his cookies, I went upstairs to play with the rest of the Brady bunch. Jeremy and Jason were relaxing playing the game. Jamie and Julian were in their room playing with their Power Rangers, so I went to my room. Because I was up so early, I wanted to take a little nap before my cousins, aunt, and uncle got here. I turned the lights off, played some music, and got in my bed. The warm vibrato of Whitney Houston always relaxed me and made it easy for me to fall asleep. Before I knew it, I was dreaming of being on stage with Whitney Houston. She handed me the mic and walked off, the crowd was staring at me. I began to perform Bobby Brown, Every Little Step I Take, and the crowd went crazy. We switched from this song to My Perogative. I kept hearing them scream my name and I would dance harder and harder. Before I knew it, my vision started spinning and I woke up. I rolled over to look at the door, and sound slowly started to come to. All I could hear was my mom and dad arguing but I didn't know what about. My mom and dad did not argue much, well at least in front of us. But when they did, they stayed mad at each other for days and days. I just sat on my bed and listened to my CD player. My brothers and sister would look to Jason and I to stop them from arguing, so I got out of the bed to look for Jason. He was not upstairs.
As I went down the stairs, their arguing grew heavier and heavier. I can hear them arguing about "her and she that", but I had no idea of who the lady was. They heard me getting closer to the bottom of the stairs, they stopped arguing, and demanded me to get my siblings and I ready for dinner. I started back up the stairs and there was no more arguing. I could only hear the television in my grandfather's room. When I reached the top of the stairs my siblings stood oldest to youngest waiting for me to console them. Without Jason in sight, I proceeded to get us all ready. I put the youngest in the tub, then the middle two would help put the game up and get their outfits some sort of picked out. My mom came up stairs to bathe Jamie to make sure everyone's clothes were ironed and were the best clothes we could pick out. I went to my room, and picked out my outfit. Then I went to the other restroom in my papa's room and took my shower. .
