Todd, the (young) man of the world, rolled his eyes. “That cannot be his name, Ma. You’re making it up.”
“Maybe, maybe not. I might be mistaken in thinking his name was Mordecai. It may have been Milton.”
Todd stalked out, highly insulted at not being taken seriously, but George always hung around, waiting for more of his mother’s stories.
George adored his mother, always had and always would, but he felt that as a loyal son he needed to curb her tendency for puns and bad jokes, especially when he knew for a fact that she’d told those same stories to his father back in the years before Allan left dentistry and returned to school to become an orthodontist, and tightening braces became his stock-in-trade.
“Way not funny, Mom. As I’m sure Dad told you once upon a time. And for that matter, it’s unseemly to mock your son’s profession. Plus your jokes would be a lot funnier if you didn’t laugh at them yourself before anyone else has a chance to respond to them. I might have laughed,” he went on, “if you’d given me the chance.”
“Oh, Georgie, don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud. Laugh now. Make me happy.”
“Ha ha,” George responded obediently. “Mom, I’m not coming home for Thanksgiving.”
Her voice lost some of its timbre of happiness; a stranger wouldn’t have noticed, but George, who was so attuned to his mother’s feelings, did. “Oh, what a shame. Do you have to work?”
“Yeah, I’m on call Saturday, so it would have been hard anyway, but it’s mostly that this girl invited me to have dinner with her family.”
“A girl?” The lightheartedness was back in her voice. “Someone new? Is she in school with you? Where did you meet her? When did you meet her? What’s her name?”
George answered her in order. “I met her a while ago, bowling. She grew up here, and her parents are professors. She’s still an undergrad, a junior. Her name’s Lizzie. We’ve been dating since January, I guess.”
“Since January?” Elaine was incredulous. “It’s October now. How come this is the first time I’ve heard about her?”
He imagined his mother sitting down at the kitchen table, winding the telephone cord around her wrist, and settling in for a long talk with her younger son. “Because I knew if I told you that you’d respond just like you’re doing. And besides, I can’t really tell how serious it is yet. I sort of wonder if she thinks it’s serious at all. Are you in the kitchen?” he went on, in an attempt to derail the next set of questions he was sure were coming. “Did I interrupt anything? How’s Todd doing? Still surfing away in Oz?”
“Don’t distract me,” she said, effectively closing off that avenue of verbal escape. “Have you thought about what you’re going to bring? What time do they eat?”
“Oh, Mom,” George groaned. “She just invited me. We haven’t gone into a time schedule or menu options.”
“Wine for sure,” Elaine went on, unheeding. “A couple of bottles, one each of red and white. How about if I send you a loaf of my cranberry bread, and maybe a zucchini or pumpkin bread too? It’s too bad I can’t send my wild-rice casserole. Would you make it, if I sent you the recipe?”
“Don’t send anything. I’m sure they’ll have enough food to feed me without any additions from the Goldrosen family. I’ll bring wine, though. How’s Dad? Is he home? I’d like to say hi to him too.”
“Oh, I wish you’d bring Lizzie home for Christmas, especially since Todd won’t be here. It’s been so long since we were all together. Do you think you might?”
“Probably not,” George said. “But I’ll see. Maybe I’ll ask her.”
“That would be wonderful if you would. I’d love to meet her.”
“Let me see how Thanksgiving goes, okay?”
“All right, but just remember that I’d be so happy if you brought her to Tulsa for Christmas. And if she asked you to spend Thanksgiving with her family, that’s surely a sign that she thinks it’s some sort of serious.”
“It’s hard to tell with Lizzie what’s serious and what isn’t,” George said a bit glumly. “Sort of like with you.”
Elaine laughed. “I’ll get your father.”
*?The Running Back?*
It was generally believed that Ranger was the best player on the team, but the running back Mickey Coppel had many supporters who thought that he should be considered numero uno. During Lizzie and Maverick’s junior year, Mickey was a wonder. There was no other word for it. He was a solidly built five feet ten inches and had an intuitive sense of what was happening on the rest of the field. Plus he was a devilishly fast runner who always seemed to be moving at top speed and yet could come up with another, faster gear when he needed it. His career rushing total was 11,232 yards, which made him the number seven high school running back ever, according to The National Federation of High Schools Record Book. Although he had an excellent college career playing for Florida State, his Ann Arbor fans always wished he’d stayed at home for college. He was drafted in the second round by the Buffalo Bills to back up Thurman Thomas, which was a mixed blessing. Because Thomas was one of those suck-it-up players when it came to playing hurt, Mickey never saw much playing time. On the other hand, he was on the team during the period they won four consecutive NFC titles and went on to lose four consecutive Super Bowls. After he retired from the Bills, Mickey had a great career as a color analyst on ESPN and was a familiar face to millions of football fans. But during his participation in the Great Game, Lizzie found his front teeth so prominent that it made kissing uncomfortable. Naturally he’d gotten them fixed once he hit the big time, and it was now difficult to imagine how he looked in high school.
*?The First Thanksgiving (with George)?*