Emotions. As far as I could see, the only thing they did was cause confusion in one's life. At least that's what I believed while I pulled up in front of Jennifer's house at 3:00 p.m. the next afternoon. While I certainly was no where near being "normal" in the emotion department, the nervousness I was experiencing from officially meeting Jennifer's parents forced me to admit that I had them, and I couldn't control them like I once had.
Thankfully Jennifer answered the door when I rang the bell, but her father was right there behind her, triggering a slight surge of nerves which caused me to slightly trip on the step coming in.
Embarrassment... Now that hadn't been an emotion I had considered having to control until after I had lurched forward at Jennifer and nearly bumped my head into hers. My embarrassment wasn't from the fact I had been clumsy, but from the way it could have appeared to have been... sexually motivated to her father.
Mr. Corrigan was very warm and friendly, however, and naturally had seen it exactly as it had been, as an accident. I appreciated his attempt at humor with his line, "falling for my daughter are you?" and so I gave him one of my empathic smiles for his trouble.
Wow. I instantly saw where Jennifer got her smile from. Not to mention her red hair. You can certainly see the resemblance between Jennifer and her father, especially when they're both smiling.
Suddenly, my babe radar made this huge bleep when Jennifer's sister walked into the entryway to see what all the fuss was about. No wonder Jennifer thought she was unattractive! Just one look at her sister and you just want to drool...
Lee and I were introduced, and while I was giving her the once over with my eyes, Lee's eyes gave me the once over too. Our eyes met for a few moments, and we discovered they were speaking the same language and both saying, "You're pretty hot. Care to fuck?"
But then we glanced at Jennifer, and we both felt a little ashamed of ourselves. Without having to say a word, we both agreed we were off limits to the other and basically tried to forget about it from that point on that night.
As we entered their living room, I felt as if I had walked into the shadow of a big dark storm cloud from the way Jennifer's mother seemed to darken everyone's mood. Mrs. Corrigan stood in the doorway leading to the kitchen with her arms crossed, a wooden spoon in her left hand, wearing an apron and tightlipped smile.
"Well, so this is the Tim I've been hearing so much about," she said, trying to sound friendly, yet not too friendly.
"Yes ma'am," I said respectfully, opening up every empathic sense I had to read her intentions, yet not wishing to know what she was thinking. "Thank you for inviting me for your Thanksgiving dinner."
"You're welcome," she said after a mild hesitation. "Would you like something to drink?"
"No, thank you," I responded, seeing she was responding well to my polite and well mannered replies. "I should be fine until dinner. I wouldn't want to spoil my appetite."
"Well then.. Dinner should be ready around five. Lee, could help your father bring the extra chair in here? I'm in the middle of making my pumpkin pies."
"Yes, mother," Lee said with a touch of annoyance in her voice. Jennifer and I just stood there until her mother went back to the kitchen and Lee and her father went back into the hall.
"She likes you," Jennifer said in a hushed yet excited voice.
"How can you tell?" I asked since I was still trying to sort out what my empathic senses were telling me.
Jennifer motioned me to sit on the couch, but then instead of sitting next to me on it, she sat down in the only chair in there.
"Well, for one, the only time we ever bring the good chair in here is when my Aunt or someone like that visits. Lee brings boyfriends to dinner all the time, and we've never brought the good chair in for them. They always had to sit on the floor or something..."
Jennifer temporarily lost herself in a memory of such an occasion, and after catching her smiling about it, I asked her what she had been thinking about.
"Oh, just this one boyfriend of Lee's... He couldn't do anything right. The first thing he did when he got here was kiss Lee on the lips in front of my mom and dad. During dinner, he kept trying to play footsy with Lee, but ended up kicking mom in the shin..."
She giggled, then said, "And then after dinner, he laid down on the couch to watch TV, then told my mom to find her own seat when she came out of the kitchen to join us. You should have seen his face when mom ran into the kitchen and came back with the butcher's knife."
I laughed, not because I found it funny, but because Jennifer was laughing too and she always laughed a lot longer if I laughed with her.
When Lee and their dad came in huffing with the recliner chair they had been sent to get, I instantly got up and helped them, then found myself having to take over for Lee when she just kind of let go and walked away.
"I could have helped you with it if I had known," I began while Mr. Corrigan collapsed in it to catch his breath.
"No.. You're the guest," he gasped. "We do this.. All the time.. Don't we pumpkin?"
"Yes daddy," she said with a grin.
I was about to ask what she was grinning about when she mouthed the words as her father spoke them.
"I think we'll just leave it in here for now on. No sense of putting it back just to move it again."
"Yes, daddy," Jennifer said again as I shared in her grin.
I sat back down on the couch, letting her dad keep the recliner when he offered, then was surprised to find Jennifer sitting down next to me.
Mr. Corrigan asked about the balloon rental and stuff, and I ended up talking about Midge before Mrs. Corrigan came out and turned the TV on. She flipped through the channels until she found one she liked, then turned around and studied us a moment before asking "Where's Lee?"
"She went to her room," Mr. Corrigan said carefully.
"Oh?" she said, sending out waves and waves of irritation. "And why did she do that?"
When no one answered, she huffed and then headed towards the hall, obviously heading for Lee's room.
Mr. Corrigan sighed, then got up saying, "I'll be right back," and followed her.
Suddenly there was a lot of shouting, and for a moment I thought something was terribly wrong from the way Jennifer had jumped to her feet. But then she just sat down on chair like she had before, and I suddenly understood what that was all about.
"You can't sit next to me on the couch when no one else is in here, can you?"
"Just when my mom or dad is in here with us," she admitted as the arguing continued.
"And you're not allowed to go to your room without permission?"
"That's not what they're arguing about," she sighed. "This happens all the time in this house. Lee and mom.. They just don't get along very well."
A door slams, then the arguing sputters out as they grow nearer, then the three of them walk into the room like nothing had happened at all. Well, that's not really true, but if I hadn't have know it had been them arguing, I would have sworn someone else had been back there doing all of the yelling.
We all watched the TV in silence for the next forty or so minutes, then a timer went off in the kitchen, and Mrs. Corrigan dutifully gets up without a hesitation and goes back to her kitchen to work.
"Sorry you had to listen to all that," Lee said from the other side of Jennifer.
"Uhm, no problem," I replied, finding that even though their mother had left the room, there was still a feeling of tension. I considered my options at diffusing the situation, then after scanning the local neighborhood for someone with a knack for witty comebacks, I ran it by her, then gave the appropriate witty response.
"At least if you guys ever have a fire, you won't have any problem raising the alarm."
After Mr. Corrigan's extended chuckle died out, I asked him, "So, do you referee all of the matches, or just the big ones?"
"Actually, I just stand there and make sure they don't start throwing things," he said.
"He's not joking, either," Lee said.
There was a stretch of silence, then Jennifer suddenly jumped to feet and said, "Oh! Tim, come and see my room! I want you to see.."
"Absolutely not!" her mother said from the doorway. "You know boys are not allowed in a girl's bedroom, no exceptions!"
"But mom..." Jennifer whined.
"You heard me.. NO!" Mrs. Corrigan exclaimed after hesitating from what I interpreted to be shock over Jennifer's simple whine.
Jennifer sat down next to me in a dejected huff, and I had to struggle against my desire to hold her to comfort her.
That was pretty much how the whole evening went too. Jennifer wouldn't tell me what it was she had wanted me to see, and after finding it just made her feel worse to ask her about it, I dropped it and didn't mention it again.
I felt like I was on trial or something, always being careful at what I said or did, and constantly having to hold myself back when I wanted to express my affection towards Jennifer in any way other than a smile.
I have to admit, however, that Mrs. Corrigan wasn't all that a bad of hostess. The meal was superb, and afterwards we all watched a rented movie with popcorn, and later we had some homemade ice cream that was like nothing I had ever had before.
When it was time for me to go, I was pretty worn out, and I could tell Jennifer was too. But when her mother suggested Jennifer could walk me out to my car, we both got very excited seeing it as her seal of approval for our relationship to continue.
I guess we must have put down our guards once we were outside and walking hand in hand to my car, going as slowly as we could without being too obvious about it. For once we finally reached my car, we told each other goodnight at least three times before it happened again...
Magic... That's what it always felt like whenever we found ourselves being pulled towards each other's lips. And when our lips met and our hands gently took hold of the other so we wouldn't fall apart, it was like there was nothing else in the universe but our kiss.
That universe was shattered moments later when her mother shrieked, "JennifER! Get your BUTT in here this MINUTE!"
Jennifer jerked herself away from me, then spent a few moments in complete confusion and indecision. Then her mother called her name out in a warning tone, and when Jennifer looked desperately at me, I gently said, "Go on. Everything will be all right. You'll see."
I drove home replaying the scene of Jennifer turning away from me as she began to sob, asking myself why I had just stood there until the front door had slammed shut without trying to defend out actions or anything.
Her mother had figured we had been purposely holding ourselves back while we were there, and had suggested Jennifer to walk us out knowing she would catch us in the act like that.
I couldn't understand why her mother would be so... Shit, I guess when it all comes down to it, she thought she was protecting her daughter from getting hurt, but to go to such extremes.. Well, let's just say I wasn't about to end it with Jennifer like her mother had ordered her to do.
Over that next week, Jennifer kept going back and forth between following her mother's orders and not, and since I couldn't pick her up and take her home, we really didn't spend that much time together at all that week since half of the time she avoided me.
The following Monday, I was just about ready to go and have it out with her mother when the most unexpected thing happened.
Jennifer's mother... died.