Apple Core

Twenty Three: Relatives

And about then I started actually realizing that Ralph was between life and death.

Allow me to explain: I had known he was there, and even seen it with my own eyes. But when the caffeine in the coffee kicked in, the shock kind of wore away, and it felt like I had just woken up from a long nightmare to see it come to life.

I saw him breathe so calmly just as I had done for the past several hours, while sipping my coffee. I didn't feel nervous about my relatives showing up because I had just stopped caring. All I wanted was for Ralph to wake up, or at least keep breathing. He had to. He just had to.

A doctor must have talked to my parents the night before when my head had been in the clouds, then another one when I was asleep, because they were busy discussing what those doctors had said. I didn't bother to enter the conversation. I didn't care anymore at all.

Then at nine, visitors started showing up, and they kept showing up consecutively for twelve hours straight.

First it was my Uncle Jeremey, my father's half-brother who was in his late twenties. He showed up at almost exactly nine, with his shy wife, Amy, and annoyingly naughty little daughter, Sara, who knocked over the plant in the corner, almost causing it to plummet on her head if Jeremy hadn't interfered in the last second. It wasn't long after that incident that they left.

Then it was my paternal grandmother and her second husband, George. "They were going to name you Greg, after your grandpa, you know." she told me, after my parents had explained who I was to her, just like they had to do with everyone else. I had to constantly remind myself that she wasn't the grandma who had said Ralph's famous quote. George didn't talk much, occasionally joining the conversation that my grandmother was usually leading, but I joined it far less.

They didn't stay much either, and by the time they exited to allow in the next party of people, it was only half past ten.

The next group of people were Jeremy's older sisters, Tracey and Lisa. Lisa, the older one, brought her whole family along: her husband, Dave, who had a narrow mustache so dangerously close to becoming Hitler's, and her children, Annie and Ed, who were older than Sara and angel-like compared to her.

Those stayed almost as much as the first two crowds, leaving at twenty past eleven. My mother had told me that her side of the family was always late, especially her youngest sibling, Rebecca. That left us welcoming in my parents' friends and neighbours. There was a woman, my parents' neighbour, with five kids, three of which she thankfully left at home, two of which were under five and kept crying. Then came five of my father's friends, who were very noisy, then three of my mother's, then a couple more neighbours, a few of which I kind of recognized, then another three of my mother's friends, then two more of my father's, and by then it was four in the afternoon, and my mother's side of the family started arriving.

First up was my Uncle Joeseph. He was the middle child, and he was divorced. His only daughter, a brunette teenager called Lauren, seemed very concerned about Ralph, even more than my grandmother was (since my grandma kept saying how 'it was just a scratch' and 'he was going to get better in no time', not really helping my mood much). Lauren kept going on about how she'd never had a close relative die before, except for her grandma and mine, Agatha, who died when she was two. When they got out, she looked, if possible, even more panicked than she had upon entering.

Next up came my Uncle Miachel, the eldest. His wife, Jennifer, was a loud woman who kept apologizing because her eldest daughter, Cara, couldn't come. They did, however, bring their two younger children: Alex, a typical teen who had his iPod plugged in on the highest volume, and had to be nudged every fifteen minutes by his parents to participate in conversation, and Agatha, who looked either twelve or thirteen, and spent almost the whole visit staring at Ralph.