Monday 11 June 2012

Dennis Raveley - chapter 17

'What?' Dennis says, surprised as ever.
'You heard me, I may be smart, but not so smart as to track down a potential long-lost brother. That's my prodigal kid sister's interest.' Jerry shrugs and rubs his hands, 'I wish my vio is here with me, I can really use some Mark Isham to clam down, I still have a bit of adrenaline in me, I think I'm going to go outside and shoot at some trees to get rid of it.' He makes a motion to get up.
'Wait, what are you saying? I don't understand.' Dennis puts on his bewildered facial expression, he gets up too from his chair.
'I'm not so acquainted with my sister's ploy either, she just told me to expect a guest she sent for and then you came along, it takes a fool not to recognize your resemblance to me, a greater fool to not recognize the attitude. I didn't know you until I saw you at the Spacescrapper.' Jerry says, quite nonchalantly. 'I expect they will arrive here in...about now.'
Kenny jumps into view from the corridor at the far side of the living room, a rifle aimed shoulder level at Jerry and Dennis, shouting, 'Hands up!'
Jerry raises his hand and joins them at the back of his head, not surprised. 'Ah, perfect timing.'
'The door was kicked in!' Kenny exclaimed, lowering the rifle to his side.
'Yes, I did forget to ask Raymond for the keys, and better put, yes, he did forget to give it to me.' Jerry says, indicating that it is not his fault. 'Plus, entering through the window is completely below me.' Kenny's expression is a mixture between relief and rapidly blooming annoyance. Jerry begins to laugh, as Karla enters with Addy leaned against her.
'You,' Karla says, pointing at Dennis, 'go outside and bring the chair in.' She commands. As Dennis turns towards the door to fulfill this order, Karla calls out after him, 'And the rest of the bags too!'
Dennis complies and goes outside to retrieve Addy's wheelchair, puzzled and feeling unimportant, as he had been all his life, mostly.
When he returns, sitting in the wheelchair itself with the two duffel bags stacked on him and wheeling into the living room, Kenny is urgently communicating with Addy in sign language, Jerry walks over to retrieve the bag with his viola in it, and Karla yells for Dennis to get out of the wheelchair.
Jerry unearths the viola and bowl from his bag, tunes it, and begins to play a light melody in flats.
'Will you stop that, now is not the time for fiddle music.' Karla shakes her head, telling Jerry.
'Alright, fine! I'll go in the other room.' Jerry leaves for the bedroom door.
'Not now! You're part of this too!' Karla says.
Thoroughly annoyed, Jerry puts down his instrument. 'If by this family map that Herman went through all that trouble dying to send us we happen to not be related, I'll violate and stab you personally with my bowl.' Jerry says curtly with a touch of humor; Karla does not find this funny.
'It's called a family tree.' Karla adds, giving Jerry a defiant look.
'In all the differences between me and Raymond, you're certainly one thing that we both share a common opinion on.' Jerry begins to say, 'On of these days...'
'I have the tree here! Shall we proceed?' Kenny says, loudly. The argument comes to an end.
'In this family, Ken-Ken, throwing insults at cousins is I believe a tradition.' Jerry retorts, but nobody adds anything to that. Jerry and Dennis join Karla and Addy at the table, as Kenny unfolds a large, yellowed sheet of paper. The paper takes up the entire surface of the table, it is a family tree of seven generations of the Wyatt family, the name written in cursive at the top left-hand corner.
'So only Addy has seen this up til now?' Jerry asks, letting out a whistle.
'Yes, and Herman claimed it is completely accurate.' Karla says.
'Look, all our names are down in the seventh row, and look at that, if it isn't Dennis!' Jerry points to the name in between the boxes containing the names Jerry and Adelaide, sure enough, there is Dennis' name, it is unboxed. Below Jerry's name, in smaller fonts is the name Jerome in brackets, followed by a question mark. 'Well look at that, even I don't know if my name condensed or given.' Jerry continues to scan the bottom portion page, he speaks again, 'Wait a minute, it says here I'm your brother,' He looks at Dennis, who can offer no consolation or explanation himself. Their and Addy's lines are stemed from Harold and Irene, not Raymond and Chelsea's parents Karen and Gregory.
'You're not Karen and Gregory's children either,' Karla notes, and then she notices another peculiarity, 'And where's Kenny?'
Addy silently pointed to the right-hand edge of the page, Kenny's name is there, it is boxed, but not connected with any of the other names of the family tree.
'You're adopted?' Jerry asks, puzzled.
Kenny is speechless too.
Addy tugs Kenny's shirt, he looks at her and asks, 'Did Herman really say this is legitimate?'
Addy speaks in sign language. Karla translates, 'It is, but it's supposed to be unfinished.'



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