Devil In A White Dress

Fifty Nine

FAMILY OF LIES

Family dinner with the Summers was pure disaster and hell, not to mention it even being in the woods of Lake George Wild. It did come to the expectation of Mrs. Summers that this vacation was exactly as Kitty predicted. The actual get-together had been decided by Mr. Summers and Sam to begin on the coming Wednesday.

Timothy, being the only one with the four stomachs, selfishly grabbed a burger from the main plate as though he was on set of a commercial. All it took was the mighty hand of Mrs. Summers to slap the kid's hand off did he get a little taste of the power of a black woman.

"Ow. That hurt, ma," Timothy bellowed, giving her the puppy face thing.

Toby giggled and he sounded a lot like Muttley from the 60's Wacky Races cartoon.

"Good," Mrs. Summers shot back as she eyeballed him, "If we were at home, I'd have already smacked ya ass with the rolling pin, boy. Who'd like to share grace?"

"Oh, look at you. High and mighty already," Mr. Summers smirked at his wife, "Seems like you feel you're in charge of us every time we have a get-together. Has anyone noticed that?"

Brianna kept silent, so did Austin and Toby but Mr. daddy-in-distress was never discouraged. Not even at the sight of his youngest baby boy Timothy. His eyes bulging and mouthwatering while sniffing the aroma of the pile of burgers, hotdogs and chili before them.

Who amongst these oddballs would actually say grace?

None of them ever said grace before breakfast, lunch or dinner. None of them have ever had the decision that "from now on, I'm going to church to worship and give thanks to the Lord Almighty, because I'm a born sinner". Aunt Kitty was Jewish by the way. Uncle Sam hated dirt but never had the fancy for religion either. Mr. Summers slept on all Sundays. Church on Sundays would always be forgotten by Mrs. Summers.

And Austin and Brianna believed Sundays were meant for one thing only. More arguing.

"Who's gonna say grace, guys?", Mrs. Summers voiced out again.

Her husband glared at Kitty with malignant four-eyes. She ignored his discomforting attack by lighting her cigar for a smoke. She felt the day was becoming more boring than Sam's OCD.

"Apparently, no one in this family has learned a thing or two in praying," she grunted, "Hm. Such a shame. I guess we can always skip grace, can't we?"

"No," Mrs. Summers shot back, "We have to say grace before meals. It's mandatory. Honey. You're with me, right?"

"No one really gives a shit about grace," Mr. Summers smirked, "I think Timmy's stomach is hurling insults at all of us right now. Maybe we can skip that for now."

"Sam. You're with me, right?", Mrs. Summers wrapped her palm over the Jeffrey Dahmer-doppelganger's and whispered, "You're with me? We need to say grace?"

"Mom! No one wants to say GRACE! OKAY?!", Austin yelled very smoothly, making sure the velocity wasn't to the extreme. The boy knew the fury of a black woman when he saw it in his mother.

"PLEASE?", he added with a smile, but his mother was stunned emotionless.

"Oooh, someone's grown a backbone," Kitty giggled, "Way to stand up to your mother like that, Austin."

"I agree. Let's all eat now", Sam finalized. Everyone agreed.

"Devils," Mrs. Summers went on muttering to herself, "Y'all are devils."

Timothy already devoured three burgers before anybody began.

"Hey. Hey. Slowdown, boy," Mr. Summers warned him.