The Snowblower Bandit And Other Stories

This Thing Called Life

An Easter story.

I woke up early today to go for my run. As usual, everyone was still sleeping. What wasn't usual was that when I got back there was a light on in the living room. It was only 5:30, so I thought something might be wrong.

For those of you new to my story, I've been happily sequestered at my girlfriend's family's rural vineyard for weeks. I feel like I live here now. I guess I do for the foreseeable future. They've been excessively welcoming to me. Anyway, I went inside to see what was up.

I found her mom in the living room with a collection of hearts and letters she made on her Cricut (a machine that cuts patterns out of flat vinyl sheets). She was putting them on their living room window.

When I walked in she said, "Darn you and your never sleeping in!"

"I'm sorry," I said reflexively. I grew up with a family that always made me feel guilty for being awake while they were asleep.

She looked at my face and said, "Oh Annie, I didn't mean it like that! I just wanted to finish your Easter surprise before you came back, so I started as soon as I heard you leave for your run."

"Easter Surprise?"

"Yeah. For you and CeeCee. I'm sure she told you about how we didn't exactly make her feel good about coming out." She looked a little apologetic.

When CeeCee came out, it involved breaking up with her boyfriend of a few years. He was like a part of the family since he was also her brother's best friend. For a year she just didn't date, and lived with her brother, ex, and mom, blaming her and her homosexuality for hurting him, as if it was her fault for choosing to be gay over dating such a "nice young man."

Mind you, they aren't bad people, but she had done such a good job of faking happiness with him for fear of upsetting a whole family worth of relationships, that her announcement was totally unexpected. So, instead of finally feeling free to be herself, she experienced a kind of "soft" ostracization. When we started dating, things started to change with her family.

"Yeah, she told me about it. She's not mad at you or anything."

Her mom looked relieved. "That's good. She certainly could be. Anyway, with everything going on, I just wanted to do something to make sure CeeCee knows how much I love her and want her to be happy, and for you to know how welcome you are here. Anyway, now that it's done it seems kind of corny to me, but I meant well."

"What is it?" I asked. She looked embarrassed, but stepped away from the window and drew back the curtain.

In multi-colored vinyl were the words, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life," and three rows of seven hearts, using the colors of the rainbow, underneath. It was backwards to me, but meant for the rest of the world to see.

She looked like she wanted to apologize. "I guess it seems silly now that I look at it. I just couldn't think of how to show..."

She stopped because I was crying. Not a cute 'omg I'm overcome with emotion' cry, mind you. This was a full blown 'why doesn't my own family try this hard' kind of snotty bawling.

The poor woman was caught completely off guard and after a few seconds walked over to hug me. The more I blathered about more or less being the freak of my family and constantly being reminded that I was an outlier, and about how they hadn't made me feel missed as much as I missed them, or at all for that matter, the harder she squeezed me. I don't think she had ANY idea what to say.

I tried to make sure she knew how much I appreciated her gesture, and that I didn't think it was silly at all. Finally, after my wave of emotion passed, I felt really stupid for having a breakdown in front of my girlfriend's mom.

She gave me a kiss on the head and said, "We've been so amazed at how much CeeCee was getting out of being in a relationship with you, I don't think we paid enough attention to what you needed." We heard some movement in the kitchen. She smiled at me. "Sounds like Papi is up. You better go have coffee with him, or he'll start searching the house for you."

I tried to apologize for my outburst, but she wouldn't hear of it. She just said, "I'm glad you liked your Easter present, Annie."