I am seated between Ava and Trudy. Teddy positioned himself at the far end of the Pink Lady dinette set as far away from his family as he could possibly be without being seated in Idyllwild.
“Well, it must at least feel like you two just sat down for Sunday dinner again together, right?” I continue undeterred.
“No, Ron,” Teddy says, taking too big a sip and rattling the ice in his glass. “What do you not understand? It feels nothing like that because our mama isn’t hiding in the kitchen drinking vodka from a Windex bottle, Trudy isn’t humiliating me and Daddy isn’t beating the shit out of me. We acted like the Waltons, but we were more like the Mansons.” He lifts his cocktail glass. “To family!”
Teddy leans back in his chair, waiting for a reaction from Trudy. She continues to eat, not looking up.
“Did your grandma ever share stories about growing up with me?” Teddy shifts in his chair and looks at the girl.
Ava refuses to open her mouth, either to eat or speak.
“I didn’t think so, but they went a little something like this,” Teddy continues. “I made dinner every Sunday while your grandma and our father were sitting in the living room belittling me and my mother. Eventually, your sweet, little grandma—the woman who, I’m sure, is the pillar of your community, deacon in the church and beacon of light for so many upstanding folk—would rile up our old man so much that he’d turn on me and beat the shit out of me. Finally, when he was full from dinner, satiated by a twelve-pack of Stroh’s and exhausted from beating the living daylights out of me, I’d run away crying. No one ever came looking for me. No one ever tried to help.”
Teddy stares at Ava. “Oh, and this is one of my favorite family stories! Once, I tried to kill myself after Daddy beat me up. Your grandmother came into the bathroom and found me. Seems I’d cut my wrists the wrong way and didn’t bleed out. Rookie mistake. So she bandaged me up and told me in the sweetest tone, ‘Wear long sleeves from now on, Teddy.’”
Ava’s jaw trembles. She looks at her grandma—horror etched on her face—as if a rabid coyote is racing toward her.
“Grandma?” Ava asks, her voice no longer that of a rebellious teen but of a scared girl. “That’s not true, is it?”
The table remains silent.
“Oh, it’s all true, sweetheart,” Teddy says to her.
“Teddy,” I say. “This isn’t the time or place.”
“It’sneverthe time or place, is it, Ron, to discuss something painful?” Teddy yells. “You know what I endured! I know what you endured! I’d think church on a Sunday would be the perfect time to exorcise our demons.” Teddy glares at me. “You act out this church fantasy every Sunday to pretend that you didn’t have the same exact childhood I did, as if you were the one who needed to pray for forgiveness and not the father whobeat the crap out of you every week after pretending to be the voice of God. We moved as far away from our childhood homes as possible to escape that hell, and now we’re old men who are still running, and I’m exhausted. God, I’m just so tired, Ron. Aren’t you? And you still say this isn’t the right time or place?” Teddy sets his glare on his sister. “This ismyhome, Trudy, and I want you and this white trash Barbie doll out of here after that jaw of yours finally gets tired of eatingourfood.”
Teddy stands suddenly, pushing his chair back so violently it flips backward onto the lawn, pink pirouetting across green.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he says in a polite tone, storming toward the house.
“Teddy,” I call, my tone somewhere between hostage negotiator and parent. “Where are you going?”
Teddy stops and turns.
“To book a hotel room and then get a few Tupperware containers so our guests can take their dessert to go.”
A light breeze skitters through the palm trees as Dean Martin croons “That’s Amore.”
Teddy disappears inside.
Barry actually looks up from his cell, and Sid keeps picking up his fork over and over again without taking a bite. He looks as if he’s been kidnapped and forced to appear on tape acting as if everything is normal.
Teddy warned me not to do this, even as payback for his earlier behavior. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps I overstepped.
“I know you, Ron,” Teddy said to me earlier when I was making dessert. “You just have to be the savior. You couldn’t save your family, so you think you can save mine. Well, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. You’ll think Trudy is sweet until she turns on you. My sister acts like Tammy Faye from the Church of Goodness and Light, but she’s really in disguise for the Westboro Baptist Church. She will destroy you, Ron. I’m sorry for not chipping in more. I’m sorry for not being moreappreciative of you. I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately. But I amnotsorry when I tell you that you are wrong for letting her stay in our home after all she’s done to me.”
I could tell he was about to say something more when Trudy came into the kitchen, and Teddy scurried to the patio.
“Well, we’re having pineapple upside-down cake,” I say in a too-high voice, pulling the top off the pan in the middle of the table. “Ooh, it’s still warm! Hopefully, this dessert will turn everyone’s mood upside down.”
Barry and Sid stare at me as if I’ve been possessed by the spirit of Dolly Parton.
I smile at them. Ava looks around the table, her eyes begging for help. She puts AirPods into her ears to silence the commotion. My heart breaks.
Teddy is wrong: If I can win a war against all the demons in my life, I can win this war, too.
I motion for Ava to remove her AirPods. “Aren’t you hungry?”
