Kevin and I sat and ate are meals quietly for a little while. Then I said to Kevin, “Are you looking forward to going to Cape Cod with me?”
“I guess,” he said.
“What’s the matter? Getting cold feet?”
“Maybe…a little.”
“What’s the matter, buddy?”
“I don’t know…What’s everybody going to think of me?”
“Well, I think they are going think you’re a great guy.”
He smiled a bit at that then said, “Yeah,…thanks…but, you know, about the other stuff.”
“Oh, nobody needs to know about that,” then I added, “I spoke to my mom and dad about you.”
“What’d you tell them?” he asked, looking nervous.
“I wasn’t sure about, you know, what we’ve been doing and remember, my mom’s a pediatrician and my dad’s a psychiatrist, I wasn’t gossiping. I wan’t to see what they thought.”
“Oh…what did they say?”
“That it sounded unusual but if you were okay with it, they didn’t see any problem.”
“Unusual? They didn’t say weird did they?
“No,” I chuckled at this, “just unusual. They know you’ve had a stressful time and my dad said he’d heard of similar therapy being used, but in a different context.”
“Oh. I guess that’s okay.”
“You’re going to love them,” I said.
“Really? What are they like?”
“Mom and dad are the best,” I said, warming to the subject. “My mom’s a little like your mom, little but feisty,” I said and got out my Iphone to show him a picture of my mom and dad and me.
“She’s pretty, like you.” Kevin said, “but she looks kind of short.”
“She is, Dad calls her his wee leprechaun. I get my height from him.”
“You’re not that tall.” Kevin said.
“Neither’s Dad.” I laughed.
“He looks serious.”
“Yeah, he does in this picture. But he was actually clowning around in it. You can’t tell from the picture, but he’s got a great smile and is always cracking jokes. He’s also the kindest person I’ve ever met. You’ll really like both of them and they love kids.”
“Okay,”he smiled. “Who else is going to be there?”
“Well, all of my brothers and sisters and their families.”
“You’ve got six?”
“No, I’m one of six. Fifth of six I guess. There’s Aidan, we call him Danny, he’s the oldest and he’s the doctor who’s going to check out your sprains. He’s married to Michelle and they’ve got three children, all under seven years old.”
“You made a face when you mentioned Michelle. Don’t you like her?”
“You noticed, huh? No, not so much. She’s…difficult. I don’t want to prejudice you against her.”
“Right, who else?”
“Well next is Emmett, he and Abby have twins, a boy and a girl who are five years old and Abby’s expecting their third and fourth kids.”
“She’s pregnant with twins?”
“Yeah, it runs in the family. It’s a good thing Emmett’s an Ob/Gyn.”
“Yeah, I guess if you’re gonna have big families.”
Then there are my two sisters. “Tara is next, she’s a doctor too, but she’s staying at home to raise her sons. They are almost three. Here’s a picture from last Halloween? Aren’t they cute?”
“She married?”
“Oh yeah, of course, her husband is Scot. He’s a lawyer.”
“After her is Erin. She’s in law school. She’s only two years older than me.”
“She married?”
“No, but I think she’s getting serious, we’ll see. And then there’s Mikey. He’s the guy at Annapolis that you want to meet and he’s not married either.”
“So what’s that your mom and dad, plus the six of you, three spouses and seven kids, plus me that’s 17…big party.”
I laughed, “You don’t know the half of it. This is a reunion of my dad’s brothers and their families and he’s the oldest of seven boys. We’ve had over a hundred people at this thing.”
“Wow…I kind of wish I had a big family.”
“Well, for the week, you’re cousin Kevin. Mom and I talked, we’re going to say your one of the cousins from her side of the family. We’ve had some of them at the reunion before, but people on Dad’s side don’t really know mom’s side all that well. You’re going to call my mom Aunt Maggie and my dad Uncle Mike. As far as anyone is concerned you’re part of the family.”
Kevin smiled at this.
I looked him in the eye and said, “How old do you want to be next week?”
“Huh?” he asked puzzled.
“Well, look, nobody there is going to know who you are. We could say you’re your real age, 15 or we could say your 10 or 8 or 7. Who’d know? We could keep your little holiday from maturity going next week.”
“Gee, I don’t know. It’s an interesting idea.”
“Well, think about it.” I said as the waitress returned.
She looked at Kevin’s plate and my plate, we’d both finished about half of our very generous servings. She said to Kevin, “Wow, you’re a good eater!” and then to me, “Do you want to take the rest home with you?” She looked at me for the answer.
I said, “Yes please, you can put both together in the same plate. I think it’ll be nice for lunch tomorrow.”
“Definitely,” she said, “these dishes are really better the second day. Just be careful not to over do it when you heat it up.”
