Not So Different, yet as Different as Can Possibly Be

14-Home for the Holidays

That night they sat at the table for dinner. It was a savory beef stew with thick broth, and Gnella legitimately enjoyed it. She wouldn't let Yndethel's parents know that, of course, she would just enjoy it in silence. Yndethel's cooking skills had come from his mother it would seem.

"Can you pass the salt?" she asked.

Yndethel's mother, Thalista, took the salt shaker and passed it down. "Yes, you may have the salt. A please would be appreciated next time."

Yndethel nearly choked on his stew. "Mom!"

"Well it would," his father added. Féathril dipped his spoon in his soup. "She's your wife, and she should have manners."

"Dad!"

Gnella salted her stew, and purposefully slurped it. "I do, I just didn't use them because I thought I was welcome here, with my husband's own family. But nope, my inlaws are manner lawyers."

"That is highly disrespectful," Thalista told her in a dark tone.

"That's because I don't respect you," Gnella replied with a smile.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Get begging."

Yndethel looked down at his stew. This sort of thing never happened when they visited her parents. They thought he was the best thing since sliced bread, and he loved to see them. He always helped make dinner there, and even though Gnella's sister was by far a better cook than him, she always appreciated the help.

Come to think of it, he liked it better at their place more than he liked it here. He knew Gnella did too, they only came every other year because that's what his parents wanted. Why did his parents have to be so mean to her?

The three of them had been bickering the whole time he had been thinking, and they showed no signs if slowing down.

"And so's your dad!" Gnella shouted, pointing a finger at Thalista.

"Please stop," Yndethel groaned.

"Thank you," Féathril added. Finally, his son would control his wife.

"No, not her, you two!" he shouted.

Thalista put her hand on her chest. "Us?"

"Yes, you! Every time we visit, every time you talk to her, you have this, this malice towards her. She's my wife! And you treat her like she's, she's, a pest! Why?"

"You could have gotten better," she told him coldly.

Gnella closed her eyes and hung her head a bit. Here we go.

"Honey!?" Fèathril gasped.

Thalista put her hand on her husband's shoulder. "No, no, he needs to hear this. Yndethel, you are a fine young man. You are handsome, kind, and hard working. You could have married any woman, and you married this, this. . ."

"Goblin?" Gnella added, lifting her head to make eye contact. She crossed her arms. "You can say it, you can say goblin. It's not a bad word."