Under The Mistletoe
From, The Risk Of Getting Hurt: Poems & Stories
The house you grew up in creaked and moaned upon your arrival through the front door. Now nearing its eighth decade, the split level, black and White House on the small hill was still standing after all of your family dramas and what they put it through. A mannequin head through the glass of the oven, sleigh rides down the front stairs, a fist fight between your brothers over the girl next door which ended in a trip to the hospital, a hole punched in the bathroom wall when your eldest brother got caught smoking pot and his punishment was to have his car keys to his brand new truck taken away, and the burn marks on your bedroom wall from when you thought you put out the cigarette you were sneaking, went to bed and it started a large fire where the flames licked the ceiling. The fire department was called, the entire house was evacuated and you were so busted.
The twin beds in your old bedroom downstairs are still in use and so are their bedspreads from nineteen sixty-three. Your room is now acting as a makeshift storage unit. There is a dusty, Spin bike, two television sets, boxes marked, Give Away, and a bag of all of your stuffed animals you dragged around as a kid. Memories flood your heart and you can not help but feel nostalgic. The beds are shaky, smelled like age, mildew and were saturated with the past. The sheets were dotted with balls of lint, dust? Next door, your parents room looked the same only now there were bags and boxes everywhere. They were getting rid of old clothes to The Salvation Army. Your Mom is ninety years old, looks fifty and still gets around like a twenty year old. Your dad retired a long time ago. He was one of the shrewdest professors at the university in the English department. He has his PhD in Literature and is currently writing a children’s book about a family that belongs to a traveling circus. The book is titled; Wonder The Magnificent. The main character is a Black, sixteen year old girl who is a Magician and a sword swallower with a traveling Carnival.
You and Anne were staying downstairs away from everyone and close to the eighty inch plasma so you two could watch a basketball game on ESPN. The old house you grew up in smelled of old memories from forty years ago. The moment you walked across its threshold and walked inside 2701 Trafalgar Square and were with the family you felt the ache of nostalgia. You also can feel the pain of regret creeping up on you. Regret of telling your parents that you hated them when a squabble erupted into an inferno over curfew times, regret of backing over the family cat because you were in a hurry to escape to a party, and regret for not saying, “I love you” enough to your mom, dad and siblings. You took their lives for granted and realized that none of them would live forever when your oldest sister died of a sudden heart attack at seventeen.
You arrived early for the Christmas holiday being celebrated at mom and dads with your partner, Anne. You are more nervous than she is, to have her there. How will your mom react? How will your dad react? Will your brothers and sisters take it easy on you or give you hell? Right now everyone thinks that Anne is a good friend from college that you have over the years reunited with and couldn’t be with her family, so she is tagging along with you.
What everyone doesn’t know is that the two of you got married at a private ceremony on the beach in an all inclusive wedding package that took place three weeks ago in the Bahamas. It only cost two grand and you and Anne wore matching strapless, princess cut, ball gown wedding dresses with matching tiaras. The two of you are wearing rose gold wedding bands on your ring fingers, but you two are also wearing other rings to camouflage them from being obvious.
You and Anne agreed to stay until the day after Christmas. The only person in the family you trusted with your secret was your younger brother, Samuel. He was of a different generation and just had a different thought process about same sex marriage and about the world. He arrives after you and the two of you caught up on the back porch swing with Anne in the middle. All of you were smoking the yellow hashish he smuggled in on his latest excursion to Europe.
Hours pass fast and conversations are swift with pleasantries but after a few cups of your middle sister, Gina’s husband’s “Secret Knockout” eggnog made with Covasier, bourbon and dark Rum; conversations get louder and all five of your brothers and sisters loosened up and really started to tell each other how they felt about things that occurred in the past.
Nervous, you pulled Anne into the upstairs bathroom, locked the door and you two made out with each other in the massive jacuzzi hot tub.
Anne looks at you and smiles. “Do you want me to go down on you?” She whispers.
Just the mere thought of her tongue skills had you quickly unbuttoning, and unzipping your pants. Anne grabbed your pants and pulled them down to your ankles. Then she came up and kissed you. Her top and bra are off. You feel her bare c cup breasts brush against your hands and you pinch her round, pink nipples.
Anne lowers your underwear and rubs a hand between your legs. You are already wet and she smiles as she lowers herself, her face and positions her tongue over you; kissing, licking and sucking. She knows what she’s doing and her skills are better than any man you’ve been with.
You wiggle and writhe from her powerful touch and can feel a sensual electricity course through your body as she begins to lap her tongue over your swollen genitals. You can feel a sexual power build as you reach down and play with her tits. Their look and their weight in your hand feels good and you know you can make her come from just teasing her nipples. You caress them and roll them in between your fingers. She arches her back and moans. The vibrations from her moaning course between your legs and move you closer to orgasm.
You loop your legs around her strong, dancer’s shoulders, keep your eyes closed, put both hands on her head and bring her mouth deeper in between your legs where if your clitoris stands, begging for her attention. Anne gave it to you hard and fast like your ex husband then she amplified your pleasure with an alternative, soft sexual bliss.
There was a knock on the door just as you were coming. You stifled your moans in the palm of your hand and the two of you froze. On the other side of the door is your judgmental second oldest brother and he let you know that the Christmas Eve family dinner is about to begin. Every year was the same. You didn’t want to go. You did want to go. Just like this year only, you want your family to meet Anne, and you don’t want them to meet Anne. This is what we do for love. These acts that you are about to endure with your family will somehow get its claws in you and shift how you see things, when all is through.
Soon the family would open Christmas presents by the tree and then the offerings of wedding anniversary presents to your parents for their seventieth, would follow. Even as adults, you and your siblings are still trying to outdo one another in the gift department. You don’t think you went too crazy this year with a gift for them to go on a two week Alaskan cruise.
Christmas Eve dinner that your parents insisted on cooking was delicious and over the top as usual. Your restaurant owner, Michelin starred chef parents whipped up a gastronomic feast for every sense. A great part of going to mom and dads for Christmas was the food. Dad made the Spanakopita. It was amazing. Mom was in charge of the meat. They served turkey, roast, and laskan, fresh caught salmon. Dad made all of the sides and together that made their usual five handmade different desserts for the kids. You get homemade blueberry donuts. The youngest gets a pineapple upside down cake. The third born gets Cannoli with homemade pistachio gelato. The second born gets snickerdoodles, and the eldest of them all received Heath bar, walnut, and caramel brownies. All desserts were shared and eaten before the night entered its next phase of present opening which was so long that smokers needed cigarette breaks.
Hopefully everyone got what they wanted. Your parents went a little overboard with their annual Christmas monetary gift this year. You usually receive a five-thousand dollar check and one, open use round trip airfare ticket. This year your parents pulled you and Anne into their bedroom and handed you a check for ten grand and two, open round trip rockets. One for you and one for Anne. Then they both gave Anne a big hug and said, “Congratulations. Welcome to the family.”
“How did you know?” You asked, stunned.
“We always knew but we’re just giving you space and time to tell us.”
“Come.” Your dad says, “Let’s get a Christmas photo of the two of you under the mistletoe.”
After you take photos with Anne and the family, the two of you are in the kitchen refreshing your drinks when a heated argument breaks out in the living room.
“Are you sure you want to be a part of this?” You ask Anne as the two of you listen from the kitchen to the argument between your family members escalating over the correct way to hang toilet paper; over or under. You pour two glasses of bourbon and she adds ice cubes.
“Are you kidding?” She smiled. “This is amazing. I’m an only child. I have never had a Christmas like this before.”
You are surprised. “So, you’re having a good time?”
“I am having a great time.” Anne smiled and kissed you on the cheek. Then she took herself out to the family debate and became a part of Team Over. You followed her and joined your brother and sister on Team Under. While debating Anne winked at you and for the first time in your life, you felt right. Your secret was out and nobody fussed about it. You were with the woman you loved. You felt complete. You felt comfortable in your own skin.