SF Chapter 41: Coal Digger
After a few hours recovering on the deck, drinking coconut water and resting while appreciating the ocean view, Daniel went to his father's house, where the family dinner would take place.
Daniel was talking with Gloria while his father had already turned on the TV to watch his team's preseason game, the Raiders.
"So your brothers and Jake aren't coming?" Gloria asked.
He nodded. "Jake got sick, but it's nothing serious. Charlie and Alan are still recovering from last night's partying."
Just then, the doorbell rang and Jay immediately went to answer it. "Hi, hi, hi, hi! How ya doin'?"
Alex, Luke, and Haley came in, followed by their parents.
"Hey, Gramps."
"Hello, Jay."
"Hi, Phil. Good to see ya."
Claire glanced at her father. "Let me guess. Game's on?"
"Just started."
"Hi, Jay."
"Come on in, Leonard," he said, looking at his former nephew. "I see you brought your partner."
"No, no, no," Leonard awkwardly denied. "He's my roommate, my friend," he clarified. "We're hetero!"
"Not that being gay is a bad thing," he quickly added when he saw that Mitchell and Cam had also just arrived as well.
"Hey, guys," Daniel greeted as he came over to see who had arrived.
"I also brought Sheldon along, just to get him out of the house a little," Leonard explained, referring to why he'd brought his friend to the family dinner.
Sheldon turned to his friend. "Excuse me, I do leave the house. Penny, Daniel, and I went to the supermarket."
"Whoa, that was days ago," Dani exclaimed, a bit surprised. "Still not apologizing to your boss to go back to work?"
The tall physicist snorted. "I'm not apologizing for telling the truth. And I'm working on other, more prominent, experiments…"
"A luminous fish?" his roommate scoffed.
"That was a secret!" Sheldon made a face. "It's a billion-dollar idea!" he whispered, turning to Daniel.
"Sure, it is... But I'd buy one."
Jay announced to everyone, "Okay, everybody, the food's in there. The drinks are in there." He gestured with his hand, already heading back toward the couch to watch the game. "I'll be in here."
"Hold on, Jay." Phil leaned against the table. "I think we should address the elephant in the room."
He then motioned to the two boys. "Luke, Manny. Bring it in. Come on. Huddle up."
"Now in light of what happened last night, do you have any feelings you'd like to express?"
Daniel moved closer to his sister. "What happened?"
She replied, "After the two of them got back from Disneyland yesterday, there was some kind of argument, and when we went to check, Luke was sitting on top of Manny."
"Eh," her brother shrugged, as if it were just a normal kids' fight.
And Phil continued, with the two boys moving closer to him, "I think this is the proper forum-"
"For God's sakes," Jay interrupted, stepping in behind them. "All right, both of you. Now, in this family, do we kick and punch each other, or do we love each other?"
Manny and Luke replied together, "Love each other."
"That's right." Jay gave both of them a tap on the head. "I'll be in the den." He went back to the couch.
"I don't get it, Leonard," Sheldon remarked to his roommate, as they had already moved toward the corner of the house. "Your uncle did the opposite of what he said."
Leonard simply ignored Sheldon's lack of understanding of human behavior.
Now in the kitchen, Claire set down the glass container she was holding. "So, I brought dessert."
"Okay. Thank you." Gloria gave a strained smile. "I made pie too."
"You can never have too many pies, right?" Claire commented with a hint of irony.
Sensing the tense mood, Phil stepped in. "Okay, whoa. Whoa. Everybody takes a deep breath." He demonstrated it himself. "Let's think about getting real."
"Phil, no," his wife warned.
But Gloria retorted, "Why 'Phil, no'? What is Phil doing?"
"I'm just gonna say it." Phil continued. "There's tension between you two. Bam. It's out there."
"I'm gonna kill you," Claire muttered under her breath.
"I sense it too," Daniel whispered very close to his sister's face. "I can feel your anger. It gives you focus-" he said, using a different voice.
But Claire immediately put him in a headlock with one arm.
"I think Phil's right, and I think we should talk about it," Gloria said more honestly, still with her hand on her hip.
She confessed. "The truth? I sometimes feel like you don't like me."
"Wow. Powerful, powerful stuff," Phil commented, receiving a glare from his wife.
Claire took a deep breath, let go of her brother, and looked at her father's wife. "Gloria, I don't know why you think I don't like you."
The Latin mom replied. "Sometimes when you see me, you make that face."
"What face?"
"Like this." Gloria lifted her chin a few degrees and puckered her lips.
"I do not make a face like that."
Mitchell, who had just come into the kitchen, saw Gloria and remarked, "Oh, my God. That is so Claire," as he continued toward the refrigerator.
"Mitchell!" his sister snapped at him.
Meanwhile, Daniel made the same face and put a hand on his hip. "Did you see that, Phil? I hear she did…" he mimicked his sister.
Phil burst out loud.
The two zebras kept laughing, with absolutely no sense of danger.
Claire was looking murderous, but Gloria went on, "It's not just the face. From the beginning, I feel like Manny and I are not welcome in this family."
"That is so crazy," Claire remarked.
"No, it's not so crazy. It's how I feel."
"Hey, that's not fair!" Daniel exclaimed indignantly. "I was welcoming from day one!"
[Gloria commentary]
"Jess (yes), Danielito was the most welcoming of all," Gloria revealed with her thick accent, sitting on the living room couch.
"When Jay introduced me to his youngest son, he looked at me with a very suspicious face for a moment, then immediately turned to his father and said,"
"'Marry her! MARRY HER!' he repeated a few times to Jay". She laughed, finishing the story.
[Commentary ends]
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