Holiday

"Where are you?"

"I'm right here," I told the phone.  Then I repented of my smartaleckyness and went to dinner.  I got there just in time to have a bottle of beer.  There were three generations of Lannings, three generations of Russian emigres, two ferrets, two birds (living), one bird (dead and stuffed), and me.  I watched one of the college boys carve the dead bird.  I sat between Pater and Puella Lanning, and we passed the platters anti-clockwise, mostly.  There were black and green olives.  There were three desserts.  I had two glasses of Pinot Grigio.

Puella allowed me to sit in the passenger seat when she drove around the block to check on the neighbor's cat.  She is a driver-in-training.  she didn't hit hardly anything and what there was, was small.

We cleaned up the dishes and the Russians left and Grandma went home and Aunt went to bed and the phone rang a few more times.  There was still a bit of wine left in the bottle, but I left.  Fast and quiet before anyone could slip me a platter of leftovers.