Wednesdsy November 24th, 1987.
---- 10:56AM
"Duff! Cmon, we are already late enough to show up at my parents' house!"
We were home for Thanksgiving and had already spent time with duffs mom, brothers, and sisters - we were now onto my parents.
"It will be fine! They can wait, can't they?" Duff sorta ask, loading he luagge into the car.
"Are you crazy?" I turn and ask, "my brother, his wife, and 2 kids are there. My sister has been calling non-stop and annoyed with the time we've spent away - no! They can't duff."
He sighed, nodding, "Let's go then?"
....
We arrived, finally fucking arrived at my parents house.
"Fucking finally," I mumbled, hurring out of the car.
With my mom being sick, my brother having kids, and my sister and father growing older by the second, I had no time to waste.
"Jesus Christ," duff groaned, getting out of the car, "I'm fuckin' tall! It takes me a minute to get out of the damn car!"
"Well! grow shorter!"
He slammed the car door shut, looking baffled at what I just said, "What?"
"You heard me!" I snap, knocking on the door.
I heard shuffles coming from behind the door, the clicks.
"Rose!" My sister exclaimed, latching in for a hug, "I've missed you!"
"I've missed you katie!" I hug back tightly.
When she pulls back, she narrows her eyes at duff, "How the hell did he get taller?"
I look behind me to see Duff leaning on the pole smoking, only lifting his eyes up confused.
"What?"
My sister shrugs, "You look taller."
Duff shrugged, "You look shorter."
I see two little kids running towards the door, "Aunt Rose!"
I smiled at the two kids hugging my legs, "Hi jasper, hi ivy," I croch down to hug them.
My brother had two kids, twins, one little boy named jasper and one little girl named ivy, they were both 4 years old.
"How about we come inside?" My sister asks, holding the door open.
"Yea, it's kind of chilly out here," I nodded.
Jasper and ivy let go, running back inside, but before Duff could step inside, I stopped him.
"Put the cigarette out."
He looked at me, shocked, "Why?"
"There are two little kids and a sick mother in that damn house. Why else?"
He sighed, throwing it down and stopping on it, looking back up to me with a sassy look, "Better?"
"Yes, thank you."
I moved for him to come inside as he closed the door behind him, my sister leading us to where everyone was.
I saw my brother and his wife sitting on one couch, my mom in her recliner, and my dad in a seat right next to her. There was also a guy who looked around 18-19, sitting on the couch.
"Rose!" My mom smiled, opening her arms.
"Hi, momma!" I smiled, waking to her opened arms for a hug.
You could definitely tell she was sick - she was very pale and had a wrap over her head from where she was losing hair. She was very skinny.
"Rose," my dad cleared his throat, "No hug for the old man?"
I rolled my eyes at my dad, moving from my mom to my dad, hugging him tightly.
"I brought Duff, as requested," I smiled, motioning to duff.
"Duff! Come here!" My mom gestures, her arms as wide open, and they were for me.
He smiled and happily hugged my mom, having to bend over to actually reach her, though.
"No hug for the brother ethier?" My brother, Vincent, said.
"I have to hug mom and dad first, you know that Vincent," I rolled my eyes, walking over to hug him.
His wife, Anita, was right next to him. She was the sweetest person ever.
"Hey Anita," I smiled when I pulled back from my brother, bringing her into a hug.
"Hey Rose, how are ya?" She asked, hugging back back.
"I'm good! You?" I asked while pulling back.
She smiled, "I'm great!"
I nodded, standing up straight to see where Duff was, and of course, he was chatting it up with my dad.
"Katie," I cleared my throat, "who's that?"
The boy beside her looked up, and she sighed, "Well, this is Mark."
"New boyfriend?" I ask with a brow raised, but to my surprise, she nodded.
"Yea, he is," she smiled.
Duff stood by me, looking at Mark intensely, "he looks like he's in a glam band."
I hit Duff on his side, "Be nice!"
"No, I actually am, sorta," Mark slightly smiled, "we aren't totally hudge, but we are decently big– I guess."
Duff nodded, "what band?"
"Vinnie Vincent invasion! With the guy from kiss, you know?"
Duffs eyes went wide, "Hold on! Your mark Slaughter!"
Mark nodded, "yea! Actually."
My sister sighed, "Oh, this is just great," she walked over to me as Duff walked over to Mark.
"Just perfect," I sighed, watching Duff and Mark talk about band things.
"Hey, at least they get along?" My mom asks.
"Yea, you're right," I nodded, sitting down on the arm of the couch, "What's with this family and band boys?"
....
"Yep, I used to be in a band!" My dad smiled.
"A big band?" Duff asks.
It was after dinner. We were all sitting around in the living room. Me and Duff on a small two-person couch, my mom in her recliner, and my dad next to her. Ivy and jasper were playing on the floor, Mark and Katie, on a small two-person couch next to my dad and Anita and Vincent on the couch in front of them.
"Not like big big, but we did go around different states a bit," my dad shrugged.
"What states?" Mark asked.
"Well, we were from Seattle, so California, Arizona, Oregon, Nevada– just close states."
Duff and Mark seemed interested in what my dad was saying, but me and my siblings and I have heard the stories many times, so I didn't care to fully listen.
"That's awesome!" Duff exclaimed, "what was the name of the band?"
"The Hoffmans," my dad simply answered, "it was my brother's and i."
"I've heard of ya'll! My dad had old tickets collected," duff smiled.
"Yea! I think my friends mom has gone to see you guys before," Mark smiled along with duff.
"We were good looking– that's how I met their mom after all," my dad smiled, holding my mom's hand.
"Wait, how'd yall meet?" Mark asks.
Duff has heard the story before, I'm pretty sure of anyway.
"Well, we were performing in San Diego, where their mom was from– she came to the gig, and I saw her almost instantly– she gorgeous." My dad looks at her and smiles.
"I went up to her after we performed, and the rest is history."
"As you have three kids," my brother snickers, Anita hitting his arm.
"I saw its true love," Duff shrugged, "You have one beautiful daughter."
I smiled at his compliment, Mark nodded.
"You really do," he looks at Katie, who looks away and smiles.
"Shit, what am I? Chop liver?!" My brother gasped, putting his hands up in the air.
"Oh quit it, you're handsome too," Anita fixs his shirt, "just need a better style."
My mom laughed at them, "All my children are beautiful, and my grand babies."
"I have a question, though," Mark says, "what happened to the band?"
My dad sighed, "Well, the eldest John had his twins, then I had Vincent and so forth– everyone had kids."
"Oh– I guess it was fun while it lasted, ya know?" Duff asked.
My dad nodded, "it definitely was! I met their mom, my two brothers, and I got closer and made a lifetime, long friend!"
Mark looked at my dad, confused, "they aren't all your brothers?"
He shook his head, "Nope! Actually, I only have two brothers and a sister! The fourth member was Ray Hoffman."
"He wasn't related to you but just had the same last name as you?" Duff asked.
He nodded, "we were gonna be called the JR'S, but everyone would pronounce it 'juniors', so hoffmans instead."
"Why JR'S?" Anita asked, a bit interested.
"Well, my brothers and I names were Jerry, Jean, and John, and so the J was for our names, then Ray had an R." He explained.
My dad's name was Jerry.
"Seemed cool. What's your sister's name?" Duff asked, leaning against the arm of the couch.
"Jesscia, we all had J's!"
"Why didn't you name us like that?" Katie asked, leaning forward to see my dad better.
"Well, you should ask your mom that," he looks over to my mom.
"I don't like girl J names," my mom simply answered, "I could've done all V's, or R's, I's or K's, but KRV sounds cool."
"Rose was actually supposed to be named Violet," my dad shrugged.
"Hold on– why Violet?" I ask, looking at my mon and dad.
"Well, you wouldn't wanna know that, now." My mom laughed.
"Sure we do," I shrugged, "couldn't be that bad."
My mom laughed to herself, "Well, you were conceived in a field full of violets."
Duff laughed at what he said, Vincent and Mark too, but me, Katie, and Anita were shocked.
"Why.. why a flower field?"
"It was Halloween, I don't know," my mom shrugged, "just happened."
"So, why rose?" My sister asked, a little werided out by the reason.
"Well, your father had picked a rose after the fact, the single rose in the whole field." My mom smiled.
"My name brings back memories of goddamn sex?!" I exclaim.
My dad laughed, "Yes."
"Dear god." My eyes go wide, "I'm just a sex memeory reminder."
"Whats your full name?" Mark ask.
"Rosalyn Faye Hoffman."
"Your name isn't just rose?" He asks.
I shook my head, "Nope, my mom, thought Rose was too basic and short, so in her words, 'she spiced it up a little'."
"It's a pretty name," Duff commented, looking at me.
"Gotta give her props for it. It really is."
"How'd I get the name, katie?" My sister asks.
My mom and dad look at each other, "Well.."
....
"It's so weird that my parents based me and Katie's name as.." I look threw my draws, "well, sex."
Duff chuckled at me, "Your brother got lucky with that one."
"No, not really," I turn to face duff, "his middle name is after a poster that was above the bed."
"Huh?"
"His full name is Vincent presley hoffman."
Duff pauses for a minute, "There's no way.."
I nodded, knowing exactly what he was gonna say, "a poster of Elvis presley."
Duff's mouth dropped open, "nu-uh."
"Ah-huh! An Elvis presley poster above my mom's bed just sat there and watched."
Duff ran his hand up and down his face, processing what I had just told him as his eyes were wide open.
I turned back around to grab clothes as Duff took a second to chill.
"When we have kids, don't do that."
I've never spun in my heels so quickly in my life, my eyes going wide. "What?"
"Did I say when? I meant if, sorry," duff shrugged, turning around, "I'd name our kid grace or something like that."
"Our?"
He humed, "yea."
"You think we'd have kids together?"
He shrugged again, "yea, sorta, just a bit."
He acted so casual about it, like it was a normal thing– shocker, it's sorta not.
"Good to know.."
"When do you wanna go on the date?" He asks, turning back around to me.
He was standing on the side of my bed, I was standing in front of my dresser.
"Maybe saturday?"
He nodded, "Will that get in the way of anything?"
I shook my head, "katie leaves Sunday. Vincent lives down here and is just staying the night for Ivy and jasper, and we leave Sunday."
I heard a hard coughing sound. It was quite loud and very dry sounding.
I paused before he could speak, "Is that my mom?"
"What?"
I hurried to the door, opening it and listening closer, but I didn't know that Katie AND Vincent were doing it too.
"Is that mom?" Vincent asks as the coughing goes on, getting more concerning.
"It's mom," Katie nodded.
We all rushed out our rooms, going across the hall to my parents' room, the coughing continuing.
I twisted the door nobb, slowly opening the door.
As we peeked inside, we saw my mom in bed, a tissue to her mouth, coughing hard and dry.
"Mom?" Katie rang, walking up to my moms bed.
My mom grabbed Katie's hand, holding it as tight as she could.
I peared behind Katie, Vincent to the side of me, his eyes glazed with worry.
Her coughs slowed down, her chest rising up and down trying to catch itself.
"Mom, are you alright?" I ask, looking at her shaky body.
"I'm alright, hunny, I'm–" she takes a deep breath in, "I'm alright."
"Do you need water?" Vincent asks.
"No, thank you, sweetheart." She weakly smiled at him, rubbing his hand.
"Does that happen.. a lot?" Katie asks.
"Starting to."
Anything my mom did scared me. She could still walk, use the bathroom, and do simple tasks without total help.
But, she couldn't stand for more than a minute without collapsing, and her lungs were weasing for gulps of air.
"Do you want help cooking tomorrow?" I ask, but she shakes her head.
"Duff, Mark, and Anita already are gonna help me," she smiled.
"Mark?" Katie laughs.
"Duff?" I laughed.
"Anitia?" Vincent laughed.
"Yes, Duff, Mark, and Anita all wanted to help."
I smiled, "That's good, mom."
"Now, all you get some rest, we got some family coming tomorrow, lots of family."
She said sternly.
"Okay, okay, we will," Katie laughed, hugging my mom, "Goodnight mom."
My mom hugged her back, "Goodnight Katie."
I hugged her next, then Vincent, all saying 'goodnight' and 'I love you' to her, then back to our rooms.
When I got back into the room, Duff was laid out on the bed, looking close to falling asleep.
"You asked to help my mom with cooking tomorrow?" I laughed, getting into bed with him.
He humed, "mhm."
"Can you even cook?"
He shot his eyes open, "For your information," he laid on his side, "I can."
I kissed his forhead as I laid down, "mhm, I'll believe when I see it."
He rolled his eyes, wrapping his arm around me, "Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Duff."
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