Page 65 of Until Now
They had to be in on it because it would seem strange to exclude such important people in our lives. Age doesn’t factor into us enjoying their company at all. By the looks on James and Dean’s faces, they think they’re cleverly hiding what they know is going to happen. They keep looking at me and then Dominique. Shit. I better do it now.
‘My God, that’s it! I’m stuffed!” Wes says. “Here, take Becca,” he says, passing her to July.
Bing returns from his fake bathroom visit and retakes his seat. Hopefully, he got the real job done, dressing the dogs.
I catch his eye and his nod. Oh hell, here we go. Standing, I get everyone’s attention.
“Okay, it’s game time!”
The guests respond appropriately with clapping and whistles.
“Oh, yes! Should we play Pictionary?” Dominique says. “Or maybe we could do karaoke!”
“Yeah! Let’s do that one!” Dean says, disregarding what he knows is about to happen.
July sends a wordless warning with one pointed look at her son. If I had to interpret, I’d say it meant ‘shut the fuck up.’ He quickly does that and looks away.
“Bing, get the Zoom calls going, please.”
He gets up and sets up his iPad facing the table.
“Who’s going to be on Zoom? Your parents?” Dominique asks.
“And yours!” I say, trying to sound natural about the whole thing.
“What? I’m so excited!”
“I thought it would be nice to include our entire families in at least one game. I had to come up with something everyone could participate in,” I lie.
The faces appear. First, my parents, and then after a few beats, Sabine and her mom and dad.
Dominique gets up and goes to the screen, throwing a kiss to her family and then mine.
“Hello everybody! Oh, I’m so happy Maxen thought of this. I miss you all!”
The entire table exchanges their holiday hellos. It seems like it’s taking so fucking long, but it's my nerves doing the thinking.
“I have a new game!” I say, interrupting the greetings. “And the winner gets abigprize!”
The only genuinely innocent person takes the bait.
“Oh, yay!” Dominque says, clapping. “Honey! You are so much fun! You bought a prize? So cool!”
The rest of the guests respond with what they consider appropriate expressions. Some are better at it than others. My brothers and Dominique’s are underplaying their enthusiasm. Wes and July are a little too excited. James and Dean are elbowing each other. I’m surrounded by actors of different calibers playing their parts.
“I came up with it, so I’m not going to be guessing.”
“What? Want to play something else?” July says her first line perfectly.
“No, no. Next round, someone else can come up with the clues.”
Dominique’s eyes light up. “Clues?”
Opening the buffet’s drawer, I take out the stack of cards with letters on them.
“Okay, can the Zoom contingency see?”
All five voices answer,yes.
