Home For The Holidays

The kids had their fill, so they were content to stay in the living room with their presents. The four adults joined their now resurrected father in the dining room as he brought out the carvings from the turkey as Kim helped put out all the sides, including the stuffing that Malcolm had asked about. The first few minutes of the meal were eerily quiet, as they all sat there and munched on their food. Finally the old man broke the silence as he wanted to interact with his children.

"The weather looks pretty miserable out there." He said to them, "You're all welcome to stay here for the night or however long it takes for things to clear up. We don't want anyone to get hurt trying to get out of Dodge."

"Well," Malcolm staid between bites, "It would have been easier on everyone if you faked your death around Easter. The weather would have been nicer and your resurrection would have been more symbolic."

"Malcolm," Kim said under her breath, "I thought you were going to be polite."

"Oh, this is polite," Malcolm replied, "Wait until the kids are in bed and I take the gloves off after a few glasses of scotch."

"All this anger," Artie said as he looked at his son, "What did I ever do to deserve this kind of hostility?"

"Nothing," Malcolm answered, "And that was the problem. You were never here."

"So you would rather we be poor and without stuff just so I'd be home from work more often?" Artie asked, "I had work to do and I did my best to support all of you. I was trying to be a responsible person."

"Being responsible means being there." David said as he chimed in. "You could have tried to find a middle ground; what I've learned is that there's always a middle ground. You don't have to pick between two extremes."

"So two wrongs make a right?" Artie then countered, "If it was so bad for me to be away all the time, what's your excuse?"

"Did it ever occur to you that we had our own plans for the holidays?" Malcolm answered as there was a hint of bitterness in is voice.

"You mean besides the usual holiday fare?" Artie countered.

"I had a date." Dick replied as he finally spoke up.

"You did?" Artie said as he was excited, "With whom?"

"Jane Lewis." Dick replied, waiting for the response.

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"Really?" Kim called out with a shocked face.

"The actress?" Davie asked, somewhat surprised.

"Nice." Malcolm said as he nodded before taking more stuffing.

"Not anymore," Dick replied as he looked back to his father, "Once she finds out that you're still alive, she's going to assume I came here to avoid going out with her and I might not get another chance."

"I was supposed to remove a cancerous tumor from an eleven year old girl." David said as he found Dick's reasons trivial in comparison. "While I am sure the doctor who went ahead and did it was competent enough, I would have preferred to have taken care of her myself to be sure everything went right."

"I'm sorry David," Artie said quietly to David.

"That's not the half of it," Malcolm said as he was starting to warm up, "If David's hospital finds out you're not dead, they could accuse David of faking it with you so he could get the holidays off. In many companies, that's a fireable offense."

"He could?" Artie replied as he had no idea.

"Let's not get carried away," David said with a grin, "I might get a reprimand but they're not foolish enough to let me go over something like this. They wouldn't want to risk losing me to another hospital."

"Watch it there, sport." Malcolm said as he patted his shoulder, "Anymore of that talk and your ego will be almost as big as Dick's."

"Is that even possible?" David asked.

"Not likely," Dick said as he had a good laugh at his own expense.

"I'm sorry Dad," Kim then said as she chimed in, "I didn't have anything important to do, besides watch the kids. I didn't mean to stay away, life just got in the way a lot and I didn't want to take the kids away from their father during the holidays."

"A dad who wants to be with his kids? What a concept, eh Artie?" Malcolm said as it was delivered with the subtly of a sledge hammer to the skull.

"And what about you?" Artie replied as he turned to Malcolm, "What's your excuse? Did you have a date? Lives to save? Or did I keep you from an appointment with a word processor and a bottle of scotch?"

Malcolm looked back at the old man before tossing his napkin onto the table. "Fuck you, Artie."

"Malcolm!" Kimmy said with a stern look that resembled his mother.

"Leave it to you to ruin a perfectly good funeral." Malcolm said with disgust as he stood up to leave, "Next time do us all a favor and actually die."

Everyone watched in stunned silence and watched as he left the dining room.

"If that's holding back," David said as he looked back at everyone else, "I'd hate to be in the line of fire when he actually cuts loose!"