The Reluctant Entertainers

You are invited to a party given by: Elsie and Carol. This is no ordinary party. The goal of the party is not a flawless dinner party like the ones you are probably all used to and a lot of you went to one last week given by people who shall remain nameless, buy “yawn”. This party is a celebration of life with people we love and like. We will be telling stories, while enjoying the flavors of good food, wine, beer and all the other wonderful flavors which nurture our souls. The date is next weekend, on the 8th, the time is 8ish. Please RSVP or just show up. Look forward to seeing you all. 

“Holy crap! Elsie. I think that our friends drank too much wine at this party. Look at all the bottles on the table and outside on the patio.” Carol shouted to Elsie from the kitchen.

“I know what you mean. But, it was a fun party right?” 

“Yes, it was. It was one of the best ones that I have ever gone to and you know how I used to party back in the day.” Elsie replied.

“Your whole life was a party 20 years ago.” Carol laughed. She laughed so hard that she almost wet her pants.

“It’s not that funny.” Elsie said as she joined in laughing with Carol.

“Yeah, I know but those were the good old days as they say.”

“Elsie, did you see how Bob was dancing after a few beers?” 

“Yeah, to no music.” Carol laughed.

Bob was determined to enjoy himself at the party. He was divorced from his cheating wife, Karen and this was the first party he had been to in months. He was going to get himself off of the couch before he wore out the cushions and did something fun. He was tired of mopping around the small apartment he had to downsize to after the divorce. He was tired of looking at the four grimmly painted hospital white walls and he was definitely tired of watching Lifetime movies on a Saturday night. They were starting to creep him out just a little bit. He noticed that he had gotten a little paranoid when he visited his mom and thought for a brief second that he heard noises in her attic. Yes, it was time for him to start living again and Carol and Elsie’s party was just the ticket for that. He got dressed up in his  comfortable black slacks, a white button down casual shirt and put on his best dancing shoes. Oh, yes he intended to dance his feet off. 

“What kind of dance was Bob doing?” Elsie asked as she put some empty beer bottles in a paper bag. 

“I don’t know. I think something in between the robot and the jerk.” Carol laughed as she tried to do Bob’s dance.

“Yeah, you got it. It was that.” Elsie laughed as she cleared  some paper plates from the tables. 

“Next time we should play some dance music.” Carol joked.

“What about Nora? Did you see how hard she was flirting with Stanley?” Elsie said, throwing away the pink and blue streamers they had put over the drapes in the living room.

“Yeah, I thought that she knew Stan.” 

“She does, Carol. She met him at the Christmas party at work the year before last. She was with Troy back then and didn’t notice Stanley. But, she sure did notice him now.” 

“She sure did. Guess she is not with Troy anymore.” Elsie said, bagging up more beer bottles from the floor.

“Nope.”

Nora couldn’t wait to go to the party. She brought a new dress for the occasion. Troy dumped her three months ago. She told her friends that she dumped him but dumped was dumped. She was so looking forward to going out. For the last few months all she did was work, come home, eat, feed the dog and watch TV cuddled with the dog, Bernie, on her couch until they both fell asleep on the couch. The dress she got from her friend, Terry’s dress store across town. The drive was long but the dress was bound to turn a few heads and that is what she wanted. She wanted to look and feel good again. She curled her long straight hair and put on her little black dress and heels. She was ready to mingle. As soon as she got to the party she noticed Stan. He was standing in a corner of the room holding a beer and looking around. He looked like he needed a friend just as badly as she did. So, she put one foot in front of the other and did something she hadn’t done in a long time. She went over to Stan and made small talk and before you knew it they had been talking for an hour. That felt good. 

“I did love Nora’s dress. Didn’t she look fabulous in it?” Carol remarked.

“Yes, she did. If I looked that good in that dress I would be flirting too.” Elsie said laughing.

“Are you done with the kitchen?” Carol asked.

“Not hardly. Our friends sure know how to mess up a clean kitchen. I am putting the glasses in the dishwasher and after that I will wipe down the counters. Someone spilled wine on one of the counters.” Elsie answered.

“Oh, I think that was Levi.”

“Yeah, Levi was drinking a lot. Karen had to call him a ride share to get home.” Carol said as she headed towards the kitchen to help Elsie.

Levi looked at himself in the mirror all morning before the party. He wasn’t vain or anything like that; he just wanted to look his best. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to shave off his beard or keep it. His mom said it made him look distinguished. He thought it made him look old. He decided to shave it off and hope for the best.  The party started in ten minutes and he was not nearly ready. He had gone to the Winter’s party the weekend before and like this invitation said it was pretty boring. It was all he could do to stay awake. Henry and Jake were two of the most boring people he had ever met. They were nice people but just boring. Henry made the sandwiches that you cut off the crust before you eat them and they tasted like grass. He decided that he would only stay two hours, make some small talk with Henry and Jake and make an excuse to leave. He decided to say that he had to go pick up his kid from his ex-wife’s place for the night and had to leave early. He had a little too much to drink but that is the only way he got through that party without falling asleep standing up. As he waited for his ride, all he could think of was who plays Frank Sinatra at parties? He laughed as his ride pulled up and he happily got in and went home for the night. 

“Did you sweep the deck?” Carol asked, looking outside through the sliding door glass at Elsie.

“Doing that now. Wow! There are a lot of plastic cups out here. Did we even use plastic cups?” Carol said, bending down to collect the array of red and blue cups on the ground.

“At this point I don’t even know.” Elsie responded.

“Oh you know who brought the cups?” Carol asked.

“Who?”

“Daisy. The one who can’t drink out of glasses for fear of germs.” Elsie answered.

“That’s right. I should have known from last time.”

Daisy packed her big white purse with plastic cups that she purchased from the dollar store the day before the party. She smiled to herself and stuffed ten cups in her purse. She was prepared like always. She didn’t like germs and drinking from other people’s glasses she might get germs. She also stuffed in some plastic forks, just in case she ate something requiring some utensils and a few napkins. Although she liked her friends, Carol and Elsie, she didn’t like germs. She wondered how many people were going to be there. She had hoped that she wouldn’t see her ex, Charlie. She doubted that she would see him though since she had heard through the grapevine that he had married someone at his office six months after they broke up and he had supposedly had a baby last year. It was just as well she broke up with him because he didn’t understand about the germs. 

“I am so tired. I have cleaned the kitchen, bathroom, and the deck.” Carol said as she slumped on the couch.

“Hey, you did have some help.” Elsie said, plopping down beside her. 

“I know. Do you think that they all had fun?” Carol asked her friend.

“Well, if they didn’t I would be surprised judging from all the beer, wine and cups we cleaned up.” 

“I agree. I think that they had fun. Most of them needed this. Heck, we needed this.” Carol said, throwing a dirty napkin across the room hoping to hit the trash can.

“We really did after the year we had. And you know something?” Elsie said as she got up to throw the napkin Carol  threw across the room into the trash.

“You know that with this party I learned that you don’t have to move mountains to simply fall in love with life again and have some fun.” Elise continued.

“Amen to that. Now can you please get me a bottle of water if we have any? All this cleaning up has me parched.” Carol laughed as Elsie walked slowly to the kitchen rolling her eyes.