Jimmy roused from his easy chair. He rubbed his eyes, still half-asleep, as Rebecca, Frank, Eddie and Robbie barged into his warehouse. Each of them were carrying either pizzas, cake boxes or six-packs of beer. Already he was counting down the hours to when they'd leave.
"Jim-may!" Robbie shouted, "How's my favorite nephew?"
"I'm your only nephew." Jimmy took a beer from him and cracked it open, not awake enough yet for it to hit him that he hadn't seen the man since he was twenty-two years old. Time had this way of compacting sometimes, memories like worm holes that could take you from one instant to somewhere else light years away from it.
Robbie tore one off from the six-pack for himself and said, "Aw, quit the jaded act. Come on, time to wake up and start drinking."
Rebecca bent down and kissed his forehead, tidying his hair in a motherly way. "Happy Birthday, hon. I brought you something for later." She handed him a parcel neatly wrapped in white paper, tied with a red bow. It was heavy and bottle shaped.
Everyone stood in a semi-circle around Jimmy's chair, trying to make the dingy hovel look festive. The effect was similar to stringing Christmas lights across an alleyway in the midst of a garbage strike. Raising their beer cans, they joined in a chorus of "Cheers! Happy Birthday!"
"May every year be better than the last," Robbie said.
Jimmy raised his beer can with the enthusiasm of a corpse. While everyone gabbed, he zoned out, savoring the cool dark ale. His favorite, and he noticed everyone else was drinking the cheap stuff. That was nice of them. He thought he heard Jeannie's name come up and he tensed, catching Frank whispering to Robbie, "So to finish, the dumbfuck chickens out again and–"
"I can hear you, you know." Jimmy scowled. "I told you––I'd just lost my job."
"So? Now you two were in the same boat! Coulda commiserated together!"
Rebecca shushed Frank and opened up the top pizza box. Pepperoni and green peppers wafted into Jimmy's nostrils. His stomach rumbled. While serving slices on some paper plates and passing them and serviettes around, she said to him, "This year will be better, honey. I promise."
Jimmy tore off the crust to eat first; the rest of it still too hot to even pick at yet. He was in a mood to wallow. The beer had done it. So had the afternoon heat. Because it was his birthday, for once he could sink into that mire of self-pity like a comfortable bed. This was his first birthday without his mother around. A thirty-year-old orphan."Be hard for it to get worse," he said.
Someone knocked at the side entrance to the warehouse. Since it was his place, Jimmy got up and answered it. Boy, were those words spoken seconds too soon.
Jeannie was at his door. With some blond Adonis in a fancy black suit and shoes that probably cost more than Jimmy's whole wardrobe put together. He turned around and headed back to his chair mumbling, "Come on in."
They came in. Unfortunately a space ship didn't appear out of the sky at that critical moment to vaporize them.
His slice had cooled enough by now that he crammed half of it into his mouth to stop himself from saying anything more. He never could say the right thing around Jeannie anyway, but if he spoke now he ... nah, nothing he could say to her was worse than what she'd already heard, what'd made her not talk to him to begin with, private words. He'd keep his fool mouth shut. Not that she got easily offended or nothing, but she was as shy as a deer with an instinct to flee at the best of times.
Thank God uncle Robbie came to the rescue, whiskey bottle in one hand, his other on the door leading to the garage and saying, "Hey Jimmy, let's see that car of yours that you're working on. Heard you got yourself a Caddie."
"The body of one," Jimmy said, following him. Robbie would probably figure out pretty fast that he'd paid too much for it but unlike Frank he wouldn't harp on about it, probably wouldn't even mention it. He'd understand. So long as he could stay distracted thinking about cars, he could forget about Jeannie. Jeannie and that blond yuppie douchebag she'd just showed up with. Goddammit, he thought she had more tact and diplomacy than that. More sense!
Robbie patted his shoulder and gave him a knowing nod. If anyone could help him get through the next few hours, his old man's kid brother could. "Glad you're here," he said, "I really am. It's good to see you again."