Losing Christmas

Won Honourable Mention in Round Seven of the 'So Emotional' Contest. Enjoy!


"So Jeffrey, why won’t you tell me what happened?"

"Well Miss..."

"Actually, it’s Doctor Attard, but feel free to call me Anita." I replied in the stillness that followed my new patient’s cautious start. I shot him a kind smile to try and put him at ease.

"Uh, okay then. Well, you see, last week mother called and asked to come over for Christmas-"

"Asked? No, no, no." His wife Leanne said while shaking her head. "She commanded it, she summoned herself upon us!"

"Well excuse me! My son clearly has the correct view of this situation Doctor." Beatriz responded with a cheerful smile.

The tension in the room heightened. It’s times like this that my job to mediate was necessary. I reminded the three adults in the room that interruptions disrupt the flow of our meeting and that it is not necessary. I directed this mostly towards Leanne but also shot a glance with a small, polite smile towards the older woman.
“Go on Jeff. It’s okay.” I reminded him when a silence began to brew.
 
"Alright." He, again, said hesitantly. "Well Leanne, obviously, didn't want my mom to come, but I pushed it and I pushed it." His voice was getting higher now. "And, oh this is all my fault! I should never have said anything!" He threw his face into his hands; he was wracked with self-hate.

Leanne reached out towards her husband in response to his anguish. Yet, before she could, his mother was there, hugging and comforting her son. Leanne looked at Beatriz with disgust evident in her eyes, while her man of a husband cried into his mommy's shoulder.

It was a struggle to make myself heard over the sobbing while appearing tranquil. "Please calm down Jeffrey, we are trying to fix this problem and it is important to not place any blame upon yourself."Jeff looked towards me, shook his head and I could see the tears start to slow. "Now," I said with a soft clap of my hands."Leanne, I'm going to ask you to explain the rest of the story but I would like to remind you that we are all human here-" I saw her eyes roll at that word but decided to ignore her hostility for the woman sitting to her left at this point."-and that hurtful words are not necessarily needed." I continued.

"Of course Anita." Her body language revealed her lie. She went on to express the stress that she feels at Christmas time, as well as the obstacle that she had tackled this year. “A seven kilogram turkey!” She exclaimed. “It took me hours to just prepare the damn thing! Not to mention the 5 hours it spent in the oven!” She looked around madly, staring at everyone with wide eyes.

"Okay then. I can see you put a lot of effort in." I nodded towards Leanne, showing her understanding.

"Yes, I did! Thank you! So, dinner was all set out, with our finest cutlery and everything. Now she-" Leanne glared over at Beatriz who was intently staring at a framed piece of artwork that hanged above my head. "She turns up 45 minutes late, walks into my kitchen and dumps this huge-"

"Only 10kg my dear." Beatriz interrupts.

"Go on Leanne." I quickly intervened.

"She puts this monster of a turkey down on the table, cuts it open and forces a slice onto everybody’s plate! She took away my whole night. She became the hostess and everybody liked her turkey better!" She finished with angry tears in her eyes, sounding like a toddler in the midst of a tantrum.

I reached over to give her a tissue that she took gladly.

“So, Leanne, is it only the fact that Beatriz became the hostess or your own previous detest for her that caused the fight to occur?”

“Well, I would say a bit of both, but mostly just the turkey thing. I know I’m not a 5 star chef but I do this every year and I can’t believe that my turkey was thrown in the bin because my family were stuffing their faces with her... beautiful turkey!” She started to sob so I place the tissue box precariously on the arm of her chair.

“Jeff, you have been very quiet, is there anything that you want to say? I mean, it doesn’t seem like this is your problem, why are you here?”

He looked up at me with pain in his eyes. “It’s my fault, that's why I should be here.” His low tone closed the subject.

“I guess it’s my turn now people.” Beatriz said, chuckling.

I nodded towards her as a way of saying: ‘Yes, go on.’

“Well, I never have been over to my sons for Christmas. It was something new, something to be joyous about. I wanted to do something special, to show my appreciation and when I thought about Leanne’s face when I walked through that door with a turkey in my, fragile arms, I honestly thought she would be happy. I didn’t think she thought herself good enough to do one on her own. I was bouncing off my seat at the thought of bringing food to our families.” She said with carefully practised tones of voice, and an obvious fake smile to Leanne and the room at a whole. Beatriz continued to stress how she just wanted it to be a surprise and the impatience she felt at seeing the shock on everybody’s faces. Her eyes were dazed, and her lips turned up into a smile as she explained this. She also briefly mentioned how she always loved cooking and couldn’t wait to feed a big group of people again.

“It doesn’t seem that you are sad or distressed at all Beatriz.” I questioned her apparent delight.

“Well of course I’m sad that me and my daughter-in-law fought. Especially when everybody was staring at us, but even when she took the knife out, all I felt was forgiveness for my son’s wife. I don’t think that Jeffy should have stopped her; I don’t believe she could hurt me. I love her as much as she loves me.” She produced a wide, teeth filled smile to turn to Leanne with, as well as a vindictive look hidden in her dark eyes. “I have so much forgiveness right now.” She turned back to stare at me with innocence lined on her face. “Yet, I still feel that satisfaction and tension in my stomach that the people back at the house are still enjoying my turkey. There’s sparks in my brain at the thought of that!” Her loud laugh echoed around the room.

I looked around, hiding my disbelief. ‘What a dysfunctional family’ I thought to myself. ‘Three different emotions that are so strong and they don’t seem to be hiding them at all, not even for the other’s sake. Especially the mother.’ Jeffrey still had tears dripping off the end of his pointed nose, and it looked like he was digging his fingernails into his arm. I let out a small sigh, if it was anyone’s fault; it would be the mother’s, not his. Leanne had anger as well as moisture filled in her blue eyes. Beatriz was the only one with a seemingly positive emotion. She was staring absentmindedly out the window, which she had done for most of the session, with a smile planted on her face. She had so much hate for her son’s wife that I could only suggest months of group therapy. She actually enjoyed ruining Leanne’s day.

“Ok. Here is what we are going to do.” Everybody’s eyes snapped back to me. “Beatriz I feel as if you need to apologise to Leanne.” I said without looking at her. “Leanne, you need to make sure that Jeff knows that this is not his fault, seeing as I cannot persuade him.” I said with a sweet smile on his name. “Leanne and Beatriz, you two need to have better communication. It may be awkward and uncomfortable at first but it would ensure that something like this, won’t happen again.”

There was a loud ding. Our hour was up. The three adults started to stand, as did I. They muttered their thank-you’s, not meeting my eyes. Then they turned, without any interaction with each other and walked straight out of my door, back to their lives. As I packed away my timer, chairs and notepad I thought about the chances of seeing them again at Easter.
I sighed at the thought of that. “Hopefully Leanne actually gets a strike in this time.”

--
1435 words.
I wrote this for the So Emotional contest. I attempted to include the three emotions of remorse, excitement and jealousy. Tell me how I went!