Driving home from the airport, Lisa tried to keep the conversation light. She asked no direct questions about the past week. “Hope, how did that rewrite go that was causing you so much trouble?”
“I’m still working on that, Mom. I only have two days once I get back home to turn it in and I want it to be perfect. This is the first really big task my boss has assigned to me and I don’t want it to have any mistakes,” Hope replied. “I wanted to bring it along and work on it on the plane, but because this is a hush, hush project, my boss said he didn’t want anything removed from the office.”
“So you love your job then?” Lisa questioned.
“Yes, I do,” Hope responded with great confidence. “I never realized how rewarding it would feel to have others review my work and be pleased with it.”
Susan remained quiet as she drove home, listening to her sister ask innocent questions that kept the conversation safe, and hearing Hope begin to bubble with excitement as she answered the questions. As Susan pulled into the Thomas driveway, Hope said, “Mom, it feels good to be respected. I am actually beginning to feel like an adult, but enough about me. Am I going to meet this wonderful man you keep telling me about? Is your Ben coming for the holiday? ”
Lisa, beaming with pride, said, “Yes, Hope, Ben is here and I can’t wait for you to meet him.” Helping Hope with her luggage, Lisa quietly reviewed their hour-long conversation in the car. There was not one word of Michael and she wondered if that was good or bad. She studied Hope’s demeanor closely, wishing she knew her daughter better. Was this just a facade of happiness Hope was putting on? It bothered her that she did not know the little signals you pick up on when you know someone really well. But, she knew that would come in time.
Scott, Ben, Benny, and Harry came out of the house as soon as they heard the car turn into the driveway. “Let me get that suitcase, Hope,” Scott offered, while Ben made his way around the car to introduce himself to Hope. “Welcome to Atlanta, Hope. I’m Ben. Did you have a nice flight?”
Hope studied this gentle giant of a man smiling down at her, with his hand extended. “It’s nice to finally put a face to all of my mom’s stories about you, Ben. I guess you already know my mom is crazy in love with you, right?” Hope teased.
Ben’s face turned bright red as he pushed Benny forward, “This is my son, Benny.”
Stepping forward, Benny offered, “Let me take that garment bag for you, Hope. I’ll make sure it gets into your bedroom. By the way, Hope, I was just helping Mrs. Thomas set the dinner table and she placed you and me together. I guess they realize we are too old for the kid’s table, and too young for the real adult conversations.” Then embarrassed at saying she was not an adult, he added, “Well, at least I’m not old enough. I’m only seventeen, but I am closer in age to you than you are to any of the adults at the table. I will try not to bore you.”
“I doubt that you could bore me, Benny. I would be honored to have you as my table companion.” Then with a wink, Hope added, “Besides, then you can fill me in on the romance between our parents.”
“So you don’t mind that my dad loves your mom? Benny cautiously probed.”
“Not at all, I think it’s great. Lisa deserves someone special in her life after all she has gone through.” Then leaning in close, Hope probed, “Your dad is great, right, Benny?”
“He sure is,” smiled Benny, as Hope placed her arm around his shoulder and teased, “Looks like you and I might become related one of these days.”
Holding the front door open for her, he whispered, “Maybe sooner than you think, Hope.”
Benny carried the garment bag and suitcase upstairs and placed them in the bedroom saved for Hope. He couldn’t wait to tell his dad about their conversation. Benny rushed back downstairs, made his way over to his dad and waited patiently for an opportunity to whisper his news in his dad’s ear. “Dad, I don’t think Hope has a problem with you and Lisa. She teased me that she and I might end up brother and sister one of these days.”
Putting his arm around his son, Ben cautioned, “That’s great, son. At least that is one less thing to worry about, but I still need to decide if Lisa can handle that kind of distraction right now. You just keep your eyes and ears open. Between the two of us, we will know when the time is right.”
After everyone was introduced, Hope laughingly suggested, “I think I need everyone to wear name tags for the first twenty-four hours. Not only can’t I remember all your names, but keeping track of who belongs to who is going to be a real problem.”
Harry chimed in, “Hope, if you see anyone with red hair, they belong to me.”
“Got it, Harry,” Hope teased right back, “red hair goes with Harry and Carol Anne, right?”
“Right,” Scott interjected, “and all the other kids without red hair belong to Susan and me. That makes it real easy.”
Benny walked up next to Hope and offered, “Actually, Hope, it will take longer than twenty-four hours to get everyone’s name and relationship down.” Teasingly, Benny added, “Just do what I do, address all the adults as sir or ma’am and then start talking. They won’t realize you don’t know who they are; they will just think you are a well-bred, good ole’ southern child.”
Hope giggled, “That might work for you, Benny, you are a good ole’ southern child. I’m from southern California, remember?”
Holiday dinners around the Thomas table were always lively, but this year was proving to be exceptionally so. Harry, the hilarious, as he had been dubbed, now found himself the perfect cohort for his humor. As soon as Harry realized Ben’s susceptibility, he made it his mission to drive Ben into uproarious laughter, which, in turn, had everybody at the table unable to breathe. Once or twice, Ben excused himself in order to gain self-control. Once reseated, Harry needed only to cast a questioning look in Ben’s direction, and Ben would again dissolve into crippling laughter.
Mrs. Thomas allowed this to go on for quite awhile, until finally tapping her knife against her water glass, “I think that is quite enough, Harry. You are going to make Ben sick if you keep this up.”
Taking a submissive pose, Harry agreed to dial it down and asked, “So, Benny, I understand you were on your school’s wrestling team last year. Maybe you and I can spend an hour or so tomorrow over at my gym so I can see some of your moves. What do you think about that?”
Feeling uncomfortable, Benny said, “I’m not very good at it, Coach. I didn’t make the team this year.”
“That’s okay, Benny,” Harry said, noticing his discomfort. “We can just have some fun. You won’t be trying out for a position on my team so there is no pressure here.”
As the conversation turned to adult topics, Hope observed the demeanor of everyone at the table. Although Harry seemed to take the lead, no one dominated the discussion. Everyone seemed at ease to join in and share their opinion without being insulted or instructed as to why they were absolutely incorrect in their thinking.
The conversation slid from topic to topic with ease. Hope noticed that, unlike Michael’s dinner table, there were no prolonged diatribes of political significance where an assertive compliance was demanded.
As Hope watched this family having a pleasant mealtime discussion, she could not help but compare this with all the hundreds of dinner discussions she had endured around the Gundersol table. She thought of the endless reviewing of the Gundersol family history, their recounting, ad nauseam, every political victory ever achieved by a Gundersol. As tiresome as she found these diatribes to be, they were nothing compared to the hand-pounding tirades of Mr. Gundersol when he would begin his admonishments toward his son. “Failure is not acceptable, Michael,” he would shout. “A Gundersol must never lose to lesser men. With all of my money to back you, with the Gundersol name, the education you have been afforded, any failure will fall squarely on your shoulders.” Then Hope recalled the line Mr. Gundersol always ended with, “You are a Gundersol, Son, and don’t you ever forget it and don’t you ever let anyone else forget it either.”
Sitting here, listening to the light-hearted tête-à-tête from everyone, Hope dreaded the idea of sitting through one more dinner meal at the Gundersol table; let alone a lifetime of them.
Toward the end of dinner, Mr. Thomas tapped his glass for attention. “Hope, Ben, and Benny, we have a tradition in this house. Tomorrow evening is Christmas Eve. Caroline, my beautiful wife, will have Christmas Eve dinner ready to serve at four-thirty, after which we would all love to invite you three to join us at our Christmas Eve service at church. Then we come back here for dessert and an evening of watching our old home movies. We have done this for the past fifty years in our family and would love to have you join us.”
“We’d love to, Bill,” responded Ben with enthusiasm.
Hope chimed in behind him, “So would I, Mr. Thomas. That sounds like a sweet tradition and I’m looking forward to it.”
Ben squeezed Lisa’s hand under the tablecloth because he knew Hope’s response was exactly the one Lisa wanted. All evening, Lisa had kept her eyes on Hope, watching her banter back and forth with different members of the family. She observed her daughter’s ease as topics went from the profoundly silly to the profoundly serious. The only topics Hope did not join in were those touching the topic of faith. She did not appear to be offended, but rather uninformed and, therefore, ill at ease.
Often, Lisa would turn her gaze back to Ben and give him a huge smile and whisper, “I am so very happy. You are on my right, and my daughter is on my left.”
Just as Bill started to rise, signaling the dinner gathering was now over, Ben cleared his voice and asked, “Mr. Thomas, might I have everyone’s attention for just a moment?” Sliding his chair back a little so he could stand, Ben took Lisa’s hand in his. “As all of you well know, I love this woman with all my heart. So, before everyone who cherishes her as much as I do, I would like to ask…“Lisa Jane Miller, will you accept this ring as my eternal pledge to love you, protect you, honor you, and cherish you for the rest of our lives? Lisa, will you please marry me?”
No one at the table even waited for Lisa’s response because they all knew it was going to be, “Yes.” The cheers drowned out her yes but Ben heard it and that was enough. As Lisa stood there in Ben’s arms, in front of everyone, Susan and Gladys exchanged a glance and cried happy tears for her. Hope quickly offered her congratulations, then turned to Benny and said, “See, I told you we would soon be related, Benny.”