\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 It was Christmas and there we all were, gathered in our living room. My brother Bill, thirteen, knelt near the Christmas tree, with a hopeful look on his face. Dad sat on the couch, engaged in what appeared to be friendly conversation with our Mom and her new husband, Bob. There was my Grandmother\u2019s sister, Aunt Edith, my favorite because she was always so loving and cheerful\u2014-she could have easily passed for Mrs. Santa Claus. Then there was, of course, Marnie, our maternal Grandmother, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner as she always had for as long as I could remember, but just never in our house, the house my brother and I and our Dad lived in. Christmas had always been held at Marnie\u2019s. But not this time, for some reason that was never explained. There was also my Grandmother\u2019s other sister, Aunt Gertrude, and I\u2019ll get to her very soon. And there was me, eleven years old.
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 In the living room there was a Christmas tree, decorated by Bill and me, with a few presents scattered around it. Other little seasonal things, like paper angels and popcorn strings, candles and cut out snowflakes, were positioned about the room, small things just adequate to the task of creating an atmosphere of joy.\u00a0 We had never had Christmas at our house before, so we didn\u2019t have a box we could pull down from the attic full of holiday stuff.
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Everybody was talking, lightly and cheerfully, adults with cocktails, Bill and me mostly listening, wondering when we were going to get to the presents, and doing our best to filter out a confusing tension filling the room. And then suddenly, a loud crashing sound came from the kitchen. We heard Marnie say, \u201cOh, Gertrude, look what you\u2019ve done!\u201d You see, just before this crash took place, we could hear Marnie trying to get her sister to stop helping her and get her out of the kitchen, because, I later learned, Gertrude was notorious in our family for getting drunk at every family gathering she had ever attended. That is why she had been banned for years, up until now. Apparently, because her husband had died the previous year, she was all alone and terribly lonesome, and because of that Marnie took pity on Gertrude and broke the family rule, inviting her this one time, having obtained an inviolable oath that she wouldn\u2019t get drunk.
Well, now there was a large casserole dish of scalloped potatoes shattered on the kitchen floor, which apparently Gertrude had dropped. And it was at that point that something snapped inside my mother. Maybe it had something to do with having to cope with her two husbands in the same room, or the awkward atmosphere provoked by this season of wishful thinking. But, whatever the reason, Mom shot up from her chair, loudly exhaling a terrifying gust of rage, and stormed into the kitchen and grabbed Gertrude by the hair, yanking her violently out of the kitchen. Pulling Gertrude across the foyer, passing the living room, we all watched in stunned silence as Mom dragged Aunt Gertrude down the hallway and into the bathroom, where she unceremoniously, and still raging, with Gertrude shrieking and gasping in pain, threw Gertrude into the bathtub. Then, as if that weren\u2019t enough, Mom ran back to the kitchen and grabbed a very large bowl of string beans and bacon bits, and then ran back to the bathroom and dumped the entire contents of that bowl onto Gertrude\u2019s head.
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Mom then left the bathroom and charged down the hallway toward the front door. Nobody in the living room had yet said anything. Dad just looked down shaking his head, then got up and walked out of the living room and down the hallway to his bedroom, kicking a hole in a closet door on his way. It was rare if ever, to see Dad get angry. And Bob, I\u2019ll never forget this, just sat there on the couch, smirking and chuckling to himself like an idiot. Seeing him enjoy watching our family dissolve, I knew I was right to hate him and hate him forever.
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Aunt Edith sat on the big stuffed chair in horror at what she was seeing, uttering little painful pleadings, \u201cOh no, oh no, oh no.\u201d Bill still knelt by the Christmas tree, silent, eyes full of hurt.
\u00a0 \u00a0 From the kitchen we could hear Marnie, saying, \u201cJoanie, Joanie!\u201d as she stepped out of the kitchen into the foyer, nearly colliding with Mom heading for the front door. Whereupon Mom slammed both of her palms violently into Marnie\u2019s chest, sending her reeling off both feet and flat onto her back. I was right there, just feet away, an invisible witness.
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Without saying a word, Mom left through the front door, as Marnie pulled herself up off the floor. It only took me a moment to shake off what I had just seen and run after her. She was already at the far end of the driveway when I yelled, \u201cMom!\u201d She stopped and turned back to me and said, \u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhere are you going?\u201d I asked. \u201cI\u2019m going to your Grandmother\u2019s house.\u201d She turned around and continued her march into the dark, disappearing night. And as scared as I was, for her as well as myself, I thought she was magnificent.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 It was Christmas and there we all were, gathered in our living room. My brother Bill, thirteen, knelt near the Christmas tree, with a hopeful look on his face. Dad sat on the couch, engaged in what appeared to be friendly conversation with our Mom and her new husband, Bob. There was my … <\/p>\n