RELATIVITY
The General Theory
I'm not much for family stuff. I seldom attend holiday parties and never go to reunions - hell, I'm seldom invited to any - and I wouldn't recognize most of my cousins if we were stuck in an elevator together. So when my sister called to tell me that Uncle Fix had died I never even thought of going to the funeral.
But my little brother - Uncle Fix's godson - called from Baton Rouge and wanted to go with me to the funeral. So here I am at two o'clock on a cold, gray Tuesday afternoon in mid-January among a crowd of unrecognized paternal relations at a funeral home in the suburbs. You know, try as I might, I still don't know why I'm here.
To help me get through the day, I have brought along a flask of Makers Mark, and with a half hour to go before the funeral, I have secured a spot in a nice corner where I can avoid those relatives I do know, while trying to guess who everybody else is... without having to ask my sister. My sister and my little brother are the only members of my generation I can identify for sure.
"Could I have a taste of that," an attractive woman about ten or so years my junior says as she steps in my direction, impatiently adding, when I stare in complete incomprehension, "The flask, Jack."
I unscrew the cap and pass the flask, while going through my mental check list of discreet questions I can ask to figure out which relative this is without having to admit my ignorance.
"I'm your cousin Margaret, Phil's fifth kid," she said after a big gulp of Makers. "But it's OK not to recognize me. It's kind of like a family game: 'Name all of Phil's twelve kids. . . in order.' Sometimes I'm not even sure I could get it right. Are you still editing and writing or whatever it is you do across the River?"
"Yes, that's what I do and where I do it. And you?"
Soon I am enjoying a comfortable few moments in the company of my cousin Margaret, whom I still can't remember for the life of me. I vaguely recall a cousin Peg or Meg or Peggy or something and those are all short for Margaret of course, but I still can't recall what Margaret or Peg or Meg looked like at any stage of life. At this stage of life, though, she looks pretty good. (All of Uncle Phil's daughters are great looking, and the sons movie star handsome in their jet black hair and blue eyes.)
Margaret, hmmmmmm: five-foot-six or so, trim figure, medium boobs, and of course that raven hair, shoulder length, and those indigo eyes behind expensive eyeglasses. Her makeup is light, and she is wearing a gray suede funeral-home-approved shift, low heels and a sneer. I think I like the sneer best. There is also that rock the size of a Rubic's Cube on her left hand.
She fills me in on what she is about: Public defender in the suburbs, married, no kids. Husband, a successful personal injury lawyer, pays all the bills. She spends her weekdays trying to keep teenage dopers out of jail - usually without much success. "System's fucked. 'All little piccannies go to jail.' That's the system. I work my ass off to keep these little reprobates out of jail. The police, the politicians, all the white folks hate me for doing too much for the punks, and the punks all hate me for not doing enough. And I can't blame them, I'd hate me, too. I should have kept that job at the car wash."
After a few more minutes of ruing the fall of the Western World, Margaret returns to suburbia and begins identifying other members of the family for me, complete with bits of gossip about each:
Her gay brother, our ex-con cousin-in-law, the would-be priest, and Uncle Pat's 23-year-old wife - "the boobs are fake." I recognize her eldest sister, Lisa, who has just arrived. Amazingly good looking at 47. Lisa is supposed to have had an affair with my little brother, sixteen years her junior, back when, but I don't know about that.
"Let's go outside," Margaret says. "I need to smoke. And I'll probably need some more of that liquid you have in your pocket."
In a few minutes we are sitting on a bench under a canopy, emptying my flash and discussing our siblings. The emphasis seems to be on Lisa and my brother. Margaret says the rumors are bullshit.
"You see," Margaret went on. "Lisa really wants to sleep with your brother. Always has. But there's that foolish taboo. That Ursuline thing. Protestant morals and Catholic guilt. They clash from all directions. Your brother never had those hang-ups. He just wanted to fuck my sister. Still does. Why do you think he's here?"
My turn: "I think Lisa is gorgeous, of course, but I've never thought of her in a sexual context. Does Lisa find my brother, her cousin, sexually attractive? Do you?"
"Lisa certainly does. Me, I don't think so. I like my cousins a bit more mature." (Is this a whiskey-inspired hint of some sort or just wishful thinking?)
She laughs at her own little joke, and I put my hand on her knee.
Before she can answer, some cousin or other looks out the door of the funeral home to announce that the priest has arrived, and the funeral Mass for Uncle Fix is about to begin. I finish the flask. Margaret never did light up a cigarette. She doesn't smoke.