Families Parties

“Mom is going to be there because she won’t let Ned come without her since Lynn is coming with dad. I hope today goes pretty good and everyone involved better behavior themselves for the sake of the holiday and to be a good example for Ned.” Pausing to let the hopefully thought sink into her brother, Stuart and pray with the other part of her mind that everything would go smooth today at the family Christmas Party. She went over her list of the presents that she was bringing to the party to see if she had forgot someone and hopefully everyone would like the presents she got for them.

They arrived at the party minutes later and could hear voices being raised inside the house which made the brother and sister roll their eyes at how this party was going the normal pace. It sounded like dear old dad was yelling about something missing and he knew who took it. As they stood there, another car pulled up behind them and just by the looks of the car they knew who was going to be in the car. Ned and Paula, his mother, the other woman in a triangle which includes Dad and his new wife got out of the car to stand at the curb while listening to the voices yelling inside the house. Paula winced as she heard her ex-husband screaming from the upper level to anyone that would listen on the lower level.

“It is missing and I know without a second doubt who is responsibility for its missing stance.” The level of the party was loud and Trish wasn’t too happy to go inside to greet the other family member friendly like they hadn’t heard anything. Knocking on the door, they stood there waiting for someone to answer the door which judging by the length they had already being standing there, no one could either hear them knocking or no one was near enough to let them in or a third choice was that they didn’t care to answer the door. Should they just go inside and pretend that someone else let them in? Should they wait outside while they knock again, pretending they had just arrived and never hear about anything missing?

They were about to open the door and proceed inside when the door slowly creaked open. A pair of brown eyes peeked out which looked eerie on its own, but Trish knew those brown eyes from growing up was her cousin, Eli. “Come on cousin! Dad is screaming about some shirt missing that he wanted to wear today and Lynn is up there trying to calm him down. He insists that someone took his shirt and Lynn said she put it in the laundry because there was a stain on it. Don’t you just love this family?” Laughingly, he led the group of people inside to be greeted by the other people in the family and to eventually meet Lynn, their dad’s new wife of two months. No one knew how Paula was going to meet the woman that replaced her with Dad. No one was too excited about the two women meet because all the rest of the family could see them fighting over Dad?

Lynn came down the steps shaking her head over how one man could have temper tantrums at his age. She was laughing to herself as she thought she had the rest of her life to hear her husband have temper tantrums like a spoiled little child. Her nerves were already stretched to their wits end on meeting Ned’s mother, Paula or was it Norma? She never could remember what Ned said her mother’s name was and she was hoping that this party would run smoothly even the meeting of her husband’s ex-wife who would probably hate her for taking her husband away from her. Even if they didn’t meet until the other two were divorced and living in their own houses. She wished people would believe her whenever she tried to tell someone that.

Wondering which one she was, she stood there looking over the people that had come to her husband’s house, their home was how she always got corrected by her husband. He had bought the house next to hers and they had met one day in the back yard when she was relaxing on her hammock when his dog had taking one jump onto her stomach. She had felt like a ton of horse landed on her making the hammock break in two and both of them landed on the ground with her on the bottom. Anger had surged their her body as she tried unsuccessfully to get the dog off of her and she wanted to breath normally instead of feeling she was never going to catch a breath again.

Paula stood there looking for her ex-husband wife and chuckled to herself at how they were going to feel when they actually meet each other.  Ned had been in their wedding as one of the groomsmen and she had to admit that it was a beautiful wedding. She had always wondered about the fact that the bride hadn’t removed her veil, so she wasn’t too sure what she looked like. Someone had explained to her that it was something to do with her religion which stated that a bride doesn’t reveal her face to the other parts of her wedding party or to her friends or families members that they had invited.  She liked her white wedding dress which was an old fashion style with plenty of buttons going down the back of her dress.

She was standing behind some woman that had her hair style in a fashion more suited for a younger woman with a braid falling down her back almost reaching to her waist. “Excuse me, I am trying to see the new bride of my ex-husband who wouldn’t or couldn’t remove her veil at their wedding. Could you move to one side or the other, so I can see what she looks like?” The woman that was standing in front of her side stepped two steps and Paula wondered why the rest of the group were looking at the two of them as if they were waiting to see how one of them re-action to the other that was standing close.

Paula watched as the other woman turned around while putting her hands on her hips and said softly, “I am your ex-husband new wife.” Her mouth dropped opened as she saw who it was and they both exclaimed at the same time, “It’s you!” The two old friends gave each other a big bear hug that told everyone they hadn’t seen each other in many, many years and were happy to see each other.

The story of the friendship came out slowly at the party and it went like the following: Paula and Lynn had gone to school together while dating was hard between them. Lynn was popular at school and could date anyone that she wanted. Her looks were short of stunning with shoulder length blond hair and blue eyes that would melt any man’s cold heart toward her. Paula was average looks with smarts that were way above her looks. She was always on the Honor Roll and was in the Advance Class without having a problem in answering the questions. Somehow, they were friends and when Paula got tired of dating someone, she would ask Lynn to make moves on him. It was usually after the guy wouldn’t take a hint that she didn’t want to date him anymore.

At the party, they became instant friends and they could be seen pointing at the man who could feel both the shoes of ex-husband and new husband.  They would point at him and laugh as if they were sharing some secret about him. Everyone pitied him because they knew he was going to the butt of their jokes or gossip about what to expect was going to happen.