“This is my wife, Trish. The Good Lord overwhelms her on occasion. I find it best to just ignore it,” Dad advised Hank.
Hank smiled at Mom.
She stared at him a beat and then her eyes rol ed back into her head.
“The Lord our Savior heard my prayers,” she told the inside of her eyebal s.
“Mom!” I cried, sounding uppity.
Her eyes rol ed back to normal and then she bugged them out at me. “What?” Mom said, sounding just as uppity as me. “He’s cute.”
This was not happening. None of it. It was just not happening.
I turned to Hank. “You can kil me now. Just take out your gun and shoot me. It’s okay. I give you permission.” Hank looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. He pul ed me to him with an arm around my neck.
“Sweet Jesus! Sweet, sweet Jesus!” Mom cal ed to the Savior, caught up in the divine intervention that was Hank and me.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Stop cal ing Jesus, Mom.
Hank’s gonna think you’re weird,” I snapped.
“She is weird,” Dad said.
“I’m not weird,” Mom returned.
“Trish, you’re a f**kin’ nut. Always were,” Uncle Tex boomed, cal ing our attention to him for the first time then he turned to Hank. “It runs on our side of the family.” That’s when it hit me.
Mom and Uncle Tex in the same room. Mom and Uncle Tex in the same room after years and years of not talking to or seeing each other.
I looked between them. Then I looked again.
Then my eyes fil ed with tears.
“Mom,” I muttered, staring at her.
Her eyes fil ed with tears too.
“I know,” she muttered back.
I walked out from Hank’s arm, hugged my Mom then turned my head to Uncle Tex.
“Get over here,” I ordered, my voice shaky with tears.
“Good f**king Lord. I wish Sweet Jesus would come and save me now,” Uncle Tex said.
“Get over here!” I demanded.
He came over and his big arms went around us.
“Happy?” he said over our heads as we repositioned ourselves to include him in the hug.
I looked up at him. “Yeah,” I whispered.
He was looking down at me and his eyes flickered. He waited a beat and then he kissed the top of my head. When he was done, he kissed the top of Mom’s. She and I looked at each other and burst into fresh tears.
“Jesus f**king Christ,” Tex groaned.
We ignored him.