Smiling Wrong Part I
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Original composition by Tatienne Richard exclusively for My Fiction. If you’re reading this elsewhere it has been stolen from the platform.
January was leaning over Gulliver’s shoulder as he sat at the dining table with Kaylee finishing her homework. She kissed his cheek, “look at you mastering dad stuff already.”
He turned his head a fraction and smiled at her, “it’s grade two math, January.”
“Are you kidding? I struggle with it.”
“Me too,” Kaylee nodded. “Mom said I might need a job like her where I work with my hands.”
“Oh, I have a job lined up for you for that,” Gulliver said earning a punch to the arm from January
A knock on the door made his shoulders tense under her embrace and she squeezed him, “t’s going to be okay. I’ve got your back.”
“I know.” He rose from the table. Can you help Kaylee put her books away?”
“Dad, am I sleeping with you and mom tonight?”
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< Smiling Wrong Part I
“Yes, if you wish.”
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T
“We’ll see. I kind of am tired of sleeping with other people. I might want that big bed over there all to myself.”
“You can sleep wherever you want in this suite, my darling girl.” He kissed the top of her head.
“If I’m going to sleep in the other room, I’ll put my bookbag there.” Kaylee was stuffing her homework haphazardly into the bag. “Oh, there’s a note too from my teacher. She said my lunch was not nutritious enough.”
They’d had a lunch catered by the hotel and January frowned. “I’ll take a look.”
Gulliver was standing at the door as if dreading answering it and then he pulled it open. She watched his posture and his countenance and knew he was steeling himself. A woman and man stepped into the room and immediately she knew where Gulliver got his looks. While she thought he looked somewhat like his grandfather the vision of him standing next to his father was striking.
Both with dark hair and dark eyes and the same builds, though Gulliver was about two inches in height over him, they were very clearly father and son. His father had grey hair at the temples and deep laugh lines at the corner of his eyes.
His mother was petite, January considered maybe even too thin
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17:14
< Smiling Wrong Part I
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as her collar bones protruded under her very slender neck. Her eyes were tired, shadowed and while she wore make–up which seemed expertly applied, January could tell this woman was jet lagged and exhausted.
“Come in,” Gulliver commented and bent to kiss his mother’s cheek warmly. He then let his father pull him into a tight hug.
“Where is Thisbe and Glenn?”
“They will be here shortly. Glenn and Mitsos were working on some homework. We just finished helping Kaylee with hers.”
“Right, Kaylee. The child your wife hid from you.” The older man shot January a sideways glare.
“Enough,” Gulliver shut his father down sharply. “You will not come into our space and start in on my wife. I own the fault of my lost time with Kaylee, not January and one single word to her out of line and I’ll not give a second thought to throwing you out on your backside.”
“Gulliver,” his mother patted his hand, “no need to get uptight. We’ll behave.” She smiled at January benignly.
Kaylee slipped back into the room and ignored the gasps of the older people to slip her hand into her mother’s.
“Wow, she looks like Mitsos.” Gulliver’s mother whispered with
wide eyes.
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17:14
< Smiling Wrong Part I
“If we ever doubted Mitsos was Glenn’s we can’t now.”
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“Jesus Christ, Dad. Nobody doubled Mitsos was Glenn’s. He’s Thisbe’s double and Thisbe is exactly what Glenn would look like if he was a woman.”
“It was a joke,” the older man frowned at him.
“One in very poor taste,” Gulliver retorted. He motioned to January and Kaylee to join him. “January, Kaylee, these are my parents. Bette and Avner Crane. Mom, Dad, this is my wife, January and our daughter Kaylee”
“It’s very nice to meet you,” January shook Bette’s hand and then Avner’s with a smile.
“Dad,” Kaylee leaned her head sideways, “is that what you’re going to look like when you’re old?”
January bit her lips together as Gulliver snickered at the question.
“I’m guessing yes but not until I’m really old. My father is almost as old as my grandfather.‘
“I am not!” Avner growled. “I’m only in my late fifties!”
“Late fifties?” Kaylee was wide–eyed, “that’s so old.”
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< Smiling Wrong Part I
“That is very rude,” Avner complained to Kaylee.
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“I just say it like I see it,” Kaylee shrugged and looked at her mother, “can I go play on my tablet until Mitsos gets here?”
“Don’t you want to get to know us better?”
“Not really,” Kaylee shrugged. “You don’t smile right. You do it here,” she pointed to her mouth, “but it’s not here,” she pointed to her cheeks, “or here,” she pointed at her eyes. “My Nana always tells me you can tell if a person is happy if their eyes and cheeks smile.” Kaylee looked at her mother, “I miss Nana. I haven’t seen her since Saturday.”
“She misses you too. I told her we’d call her before bed
tonight and she and Papa are going to pick you up after school tomorrow because your dad and I are going to go look at the new house with the inspector.”
“What new house?” Avner frowned. “Aren’t you going back to the house in New York?”
“No.” Gulliver shook his head. “January’s work and Kaylee’s school is here in Vermont and we’re staying here.”
“But why?”
He cocked his head at his father but before Gulliver could speak January cut him off.
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“Because it is what is right for our family and what we need. Kaylee’s friends and community are here, and I have a store with employees who rely on me. Gulliver and I already discussed this and it our decision for our family.”
“And what about your work for Crane Engineering?” Avner folded his arms over his chest angrily.
“I can get to New York within an hour by chopper. If I have meetings that I can’t attend remotely, I will fly in. We’re putting in a landing pad in the town which I got approval with the zoning because I agreed to let the town and the neighboring ones use it for hospital transport and I’m paying for it entirely. I’m also building a residence for Glenn and Mitsos which will have a cottage on it for Thisbe and one for guests.”
“Unbelievable.”
