Just The Six of Us

Jewel walked up the short path to the old family home in Durham, NC she had recently bought. Her parents owned the home in the early ‘60s and she, just like the rest of her brothers and sisters, had been born there. Two stories and four bedrooms, dad had sold the home for a fraction of what it was worth because he thought the house and store combo a few blocks away would lead to easy money. But he and mom weren’t that business savvy and even those were sold.

But this was the first house they’d lived in. It was a nice house with a couple of acres for a backyard for the kids to play. It was a decent neighborhood. She’d probably rent it out eventually, but for now she had moved in so the sibs could have their reunion. They were beginning to head off in different directions now that most of them had finally finished college. And the possibility they wouldn’t get together often stuck in her heart and mind like balls of acid burning away at her. They’d been so close in their early years, having been through so much together.

Entering the house, she smiled at the memory of the furniture that used to fill the living room, complete with upright piano. Her grandparents, who passed a few years after she was born, used to sit and play that piano during holidays and for her early days preparing for pre-school plays. The playing of the piano also helped lull Anthony, born a couple of years after her, to sleep. Anthony and the others, never really got to know granda and grammy. After almost 30 years, she still thought it was the influence of her grandparents playing that piano and encouraging her to entertain others that led to her striving to be an actress. Though she’d never had a major role on the screen or on stage, she still felt her dream had come true, all because of them.

She entered the nearby bedroom that was once the sanctuary of the twins. Sarah and Michael, 4th and 5th in the sibfam, though mom never admitted who was first, spent hours on end together in this room. They weren’t anti-social, they just seemed to have a natural connection with one another, developing their own shorthand way of communicating. Michael, more than any of them, knows when Sarah needs help as opposed to her not wanting help when the Cerebral Palsy starts to become more than annoying muscle tightness and Michael is the only one Sarah will let touch her when she has coordination difficulties. You’d think this would give him more focus on what he wants to do with his life, being more empathic about the needs of those with physical disabilities. In his early 30s, he still seems unclear as to what direction he wants his life to take. Sarah has argued with him on more than one occasion about it, but he still seems rudderless. At least he doesn’t seem to have developed an alcohol or drug problem like dad did.

The other bedroom downstairs was Anthony’s and Jamie’s, though Anthony spent most of his early school years at the school for the blind in Raleigh. Anthony was the second oldest, but even he admits that living at the school for most of the week while coming home during the weekend didn’t do much for his family bonding. Add to that mom and dad weren’t exactly easy to connect with either, Anthony would seem to develop closer relationships to the kids at school. What was really bad was the anger issues Anthony went through while at school. It was hard for Jewel, let alone any of the others, to help him through those issues. Even he couldn’t find a rational reason to be angry sometimes, but talking to anyone was more difficult because they never really got close. Sharing a bedroom, Jamie tried to make a connection more than anyone, but Anthony seemed to prefer dealing with his feelings alone, even if he knew he was failing at it.

Jamie spent a lot of time playing basketball and baseball with the neighbor kids, and his side of the room was covered in sport memorabilia. He even got Anthony to play some basketball from time to time despite Anthony’s nearsightedness. Between that and playing video games at the mall arcade, Jamie did his best to try to get Anthony to open up. But it wasn’t as successful as he’d hoped. Nevertheless, he felt he’d had some impact on Anthony from time to time and hoped the anger management issues would never turn to physical responses against others, let alone himself.

Jewel hesitated before leaving the bedroom, thinking of Jamie and his work at the fire department over the past few years. Jamie was the only one of them to take on such a dangerous yet important job. She knew he loved his job and the things he did to help others, not always with a great outcome, but he always tried his best. None of them ever questioned whether he should keep doing the job because of the dangers involved, nor did they question his choices in who he might have to save or not save. He’d long ago said he felt insulted by those philosophical questions that were used to press a point for personal or political agendas. It was offensive to him to imply that making one choice was right while another was wrong. He’d known enough first responders who had to make the hard decisions and then had to live with that choice.

Going upstairs, she came to her old bedroom, which was hers alone for seven years until the baby of the family, Cena, was born. At first, Cena’s crib had been in her parent’s bedroom. It wasn’t ideal, and certainly not what many of the parenting books recommended, but it was a pretty full house. Eventually, though, as Cena had outgrown her crib, she was moved into Jewel’s room. As Cena reached the age of 4, however, it was noticed that Cena was losing her eyesight. Jewel became more protective of Cena, especially since their bedroom was at the top of the stairs. It was fortunate that they had their own bathroom lowering the risk of Cena falling down the stairs at night. Cena would eventually attend the school for the blind as well. But her experience at home was much better than Anthony’s. No one could tie down the difference exactly. Despite both Cena and Anthony being seen by the family only on the weekends for most of the school year, Cena bonded with the family much better and, though she could be frustrated and get angry, she did not stay angry for long periods, choosing to face what frustrated and angered her as a challenge, making her much happier when she had defeated her challenge.

Despite being totally blind, Cena had high ambitions, even as a young child. Math and science classes at school weren’t really a challenge. And she had Jewel read her own textbooks, sometimes far beyond what even Jewel was learning or could comprehend. The school wouldn’t move Cena forward, but that didn’t stop her from learning more and more. The most frustrating part to Cena was that because the technology of the time was so limited for what they had at home, she had to rely on Jewel and the others to obtain and read information to her. It still baffles Jewel that her totally blind sister has such a strong grasp of astronomy, what Jewel thinks of as a very visual science. Between Cena and Anthony, learning computer science had become a major focus during the mid ‘80s. Anthony going the direction of computer programming in clinical research, while Cena focused on Assistive Technology for computers, with the hope of encouraging such technology in the space program. Long had she wanted to be the first totally blind astronomer and astronaut. Jewel knew Cena wasn’t jerking her chain when she talked about this, especially after the Challenger explosion. Cena took it really hard, worried that the space program might never recover. But Cena still focused on the hope of someday going to space.

The sibfam started arriving several hours later. They’d been having this close family reunion for ten years now. And no matter where they were, they always made time to get together. Even Anthony popped in, though he always had the outward appearance of it being nothing but an. But he always came and he always participated in the catching up conversations. Jewel talked about her roles as an extra on several small stages and even in a couple of TV shows. Nothing panned out but, as always, she was hopeful. Anthony was still a programmer analyst at a high profile clinical research organization and that’s where he wanted to be, never going higher in the work force, which would take him away from the programming. He gripes to Cena about the lack of quality Assistive Technology for the visually impaired and she gripes back that the tech companies don’t seem to want to put it high on their to-do lists. Hopefully, they’ll get around to it in the next few decades.

Cena, has continued to write scientific papers both on astronomy and Assistive Technology, the former of which have been published and cited by several well-known astronomers, the latter of which have pretty much faded into the background since it doesn’t seem to be a high priority for the general Information Technology crowd. Sarah’s newest fantasy novel hit the best seller list on several internet review sites specializing in fantasy books, but hasn’t caught the big literature critic’s eyes yet. It’s only her third book, as she points out, so she’s still hopeful. The Cerebral Palsy doesn’t seem to be affecting her as much as it used to, and no one mentions “how much better” she seems to be, something they’d learned from Michael. Michael still works at a bike shop, loving to test ride some of the newer bikes, but it’s not a career. At least he’s happy with what he’s doing.

And Jamie is about to make his big move, transferring to New York to take a job there in Manhattan. Living and working in what he sees as his favorite city in the world, after only visiting it three times in his life. He knows the family will always be worried about him, especially being so far away and in a dangerous job.

The weekend is filled with family memories, future reunions, and life. Even Anthony, with his preference of being alone, has found some form of introvert happiness. As the time draws near for the reunion to come to an end, they gather together in the living room. Jewel steps forward and holds out a check to Jamie. They’ve pulled together money to make things a little easier early on after moving to NY just in case. $20,000 should help get Jamie moved, pay for first year rent, or at least the first half of the year, and pay for utilities and and food for a few months. Hugging each of them, Jamie accepts the check.

They each share a final few words of love to one another. As they prepare to leave, Jewel brings out her little black notebook, her autograph book. She has used this to collect autographs from famous actors she has worked with and other members of the production. The first few pages, however, are devoted to family reunions though, as the family are of the most importance to her. She looks down at the book after they have all left, tears in her eyes, one of which falls upon Jamie’s signature. Above the signature, is the date of the reunion: January 15th, 2001.