|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Miss_Undastood Vice Captain
|
 Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 11:27 am
The camera went dark again after Matthias and Athena wrapped up their confessional. Given the day’s events and the impending Christmas holiday, the crew retreated from the Augustines’ property in favor of giving them peace and allowing them to enjoy Christmas Eve as a family. A gorgeous Alaskan sunrise was the next thing to grace the screen, heralding Christmas morning with another generic holiday tune as time lapsed footage took over. Athena came to the door during the early afternoon, cracking it open long enough to let the camera crew back in the house amidst the hustle and bustle of the children enjoying their presents and Alexis and Athena hustling in and out of the living room, arms heavy with gameday snacks before Grams bounded down the stairs and appeared, a vision of dark green, gold, and white with a large foam cheese wedge atop her head before depositing herself on the couch beside Paulie. Luke came down the stairs a few moments later in his Seahawks jersey with his stuffed Seahawk, Tony, in hand before plopping on the couch nearest the end that Matthias was sitting in the recliner.
“Christmas just isn’t Christmas without football. And you know what the best Christmas present of all is going to be?”
Alexis and Athena were entering the living room, one with arms full with a plate of chips and buffalo chicken dip and Chex Mix and the other not far behind with a plate of pullapart pizza bread. The two stopped in their tracks to exchange a worried glare before they broke the silence. They both knew how obnoxious their mom could get with her obsession with everything Green Bay and knew they were about to witness it firsthand.
“What’s that, Mom?”
“What’s that, Mom?”
“When the Packers drag the Seadoves straight to Hell.”
You could almost read the hurt in Luke’s face as he pouted at his grandmother’s display before digging into the chips and dip and returning to his seat.
“Grams, come on. Is that really necessary?”
“Hey, my team’s got four championships. How many have you guys got?”
Grams grinned so smug that it nearly split her face in two as she reclined into the couch cushions with a wedge of bread in one hand, taking a bite before she spoke again. Luke could be seen to shift uncomfortably in his seat as he glared at his grandmother before he finally had enough, his voice reaching an adorably angry pitch as he tossed Tony to the side and got to his feet with a stomp. Athena knew this spelled disaster judging by the look on her youngest’s face. If there was one person you didn’t argue the supremacy of the Seahawks with other than Mike… it was Luke.
“The Seahawks don’t suck! At least our season didn’t crash and burn because the quarterback has a collarbone made of paper!”
“Hey, hey, hey… Rodgers would’ve been just fine if that Vikings linebacker had left him alone.”
“And your backup quarterback choked worse than Eminem in 8 Mile. Your team hasn’t been the same since Holmgren left and you’re just bitter.”
“Oh, that’s cute. Are you even old enough to watch that movie yet? You’re not even old enough to remember Holmgren. Besides, you want to talk about choking, you might want to look at your own defense line.”
You could read the rage building in Luke’s face, his cheeks turning as red as his hair before he finally started shouting.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about! The Legion of Boom doesn’t suck!”
Luke’s voice warbled before he stormed out of the living room and up the stairs with Matthias fumbling out of his recliner and after his brother. Athena sighed in exasperation as she pinched the bridge of her nose before she got to her feet to go after her sons.
“Wow, Mom. d**k move, much?”
Athena disappeared out of the living room as the camera stayed to follow the festivities in the living room before the camera faded to black.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 8:24 pm
The camera found itself unwelcome again, the crew choosing to see itself out before the situation got out of hand. They had already witnessed too much of the lives Athena and Matthias lived behind closed doors, to the point it came as a shock that there was no want to stick their noses somewhere it didn’t belong for the first time in recent memory. The cameraman had quietly dismissed himself to the Augustines’ front yard as tensions flared over football, setting up his camera to film their quiet street as he stepped off to the side to smoke a cigarette when a nondescript taxi slowed to a halt at the mouth of the driveway and just... sat there. The camera perfectly captured the cameraman’s puzzled expression as the cigarette came to rest in the crook of the corner of his mouth and looked to the street, back to the front door, and back to the street again. He took a long draw before exhaling a cloud of smoke into the frigid Alaskan air, the debate going on in his over whether to greet whoever had just pulled up to the house or to warn the Augustines they had a visitor.
The screen flickered before the camera rejoined the Augustines inside their home, the door closed and the family unaware of what waited for them outside. Luke reluctantly returned to the living room as the second quarter wrapped up and the Seahawks were neck and neck with the Packers after Green Bay intercepted a particularly impressive pass and ran straight toward the end zone unencumbered by Seattle. He sulked as the game went to commercial, looking over his shoulder for his brother, who hadn’t been far behind when they decided to return to the living room. The reluctance to face his rabid Green Bay fan of a grandmother was etched all over the face of the young Landry and he was close to leaving when his brother walked into the room and made a point of walking in front of his grandmother during a commercial… just so she could see his Chicago Bears jersey.
“I think we can agree not to give my brother s**t about his team for the rest of the evening… right, Grams?”
Grams’ cheeks donned an awfully red hue as she struggled over her words before angrily nodding and waving a now impishly grinning Matthias out of the way. Matthias was almost to his recliner when he thought he heard the gentle thud of footfall on the steps outside before the methodical rap of knuckles on the door broke the festivities and a silence exploded throughout the door. Grams exchanged glances with Matthias before the silence swallowed the house whole again.
“I’ve got the door, Mom. Don’t worry.”
Matthias would have sat back down in his recliner but something at the back of his mind told him not to, to get to the door before his mother did. It’s like he could sense trouble on the wind and after the last few days they’d had, he wasn’t about to sit idly by and let his mother walk into another trap. The camera shifted again to the hallway as Athena beat her son to the door a second too soon, reached out to grasp the doorknob, and twisted. The seconds seemed to drag as they went by between the time she arrived at the door until it opened to reveal…
“Merry Christmas, Mom.”
A raven haired woman stood at the door that looked almost the spitting image of Athena, a half cocked smile splitting her face. The camera shifted to catch Athena’s reaction as recognition rippled across her features and contorted her features with emotion, her brow furrowing as she struggled to find her voice before she flung the door open and wrapped her arms around the daughter she hadn’t seen in too long. The two stood locked in an embrace as Athena buried her face in her daughter’s shoulder and simply wept. Matthias disappeared from the threshold for a moment before Grams’ excited voice could be heard shouting from inside before rushing through the door much like Athena had and joining the embrace. Matthias kept to the side as Alexis walked up, mindful of his presence after all the hurt and distance he’d caused by his own hand throughout the years before the three broke their embrace and Invidia stood before him. The two simply stared at each other before Matthias gave his little sister a bear hug, deciding to let their past die for the moment and be the siblings the two never really got to be. Grams stood off to the side with her arm around the shoulders of a misty eyed Athena, who struggled to break through her tears long enough to speak.
“’Vidi, how did you… how long have you… goddammit, I can’t speak.”
Athena stumbled over her words before she finally gave up, waving the air in front of her face with her hand as she tried to regain composure.
“Funny story, Mom. Not too long after we got off the phone, I got my travel agent on the phone to book tickets to Anchorage. It took some digging, I mean flights are murder anywhere around Christmas but we found one for Christmas Eve so from the Isles to Charlotte, from Charlotte to Atlanta, then hopped a couple more times in the Midwest and again on the West Coast before…”
Athena wrapped her arms around her daughter again and held on tight, like she was afraid she would get taken away from her.
“Mom, I’m not going anywhere, I promise. You can stop hugging me now.”
The two let out nervous chuckles before Athena ruefully let her daughter go but only so she could hold her at arm’s length and just look.
“I thought I was never going to see you again. Once the smoke cleared and they granted your father custody, I…”
“It’s Christmas, Mom. We don’t need to talk about that… Christmas is supposed to be happy.”
“I know, baby. I know. I just… God, I missed you.”
“Besides…”
Invidia shrugged herself free of her mother’s grasp before she stepped to the side, playfully punching her older brother in the arm.
“Somebody had to come out here and help you keep red-headed boy wonder in check.”
“Hey, hey, hey… I’d like to think I can keep myself in check, thank you.”
“Really now?”
Matthias furrowed his brow in playful anger before he cracked that signature grin of his and wrapped an arm around his sister’s shoulders.
“You’re right. She could probably use some extra help. Glad to have you home, sis.”
Invidia smiled ruefully as she hugged her brother back, glancing up to him like she wasn’t sure about this change in behavior before deciding to just roll with it.
“Listen, I’m all for the touching reunion but I’m not for heating half of Alaska. We can do the rest of our catching up inside.”
The gaggle gathered on the porch let out a chirp of laughter before filing into the Augustine home one by one, Matthias then Athena and Invidia before Grams pulled the door shut behind them. The camera remained focused on the door for what seemed like ages until the screen finally faded to black, the family being left to reunite and finish the Christmas holiday in peace.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Miss_Undastood Vice Captain
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Miss_Undastood Vice Captain
|
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2018 9:12 pm
The textured background of the confessional queued up again, warm hues of purple swirling behind the fire-haired woman who sat perched in the familiar plush chair before the camera. You could read the mixture of exhaustion and cheer in her face as she followed the crew behind the camera, watching their moves until her gaze rested on the producer who had just seated themselves opposite of her. Hushed conversation trickled through the speakers enough for to viewer to get the impression that this would be the last confessional.
“Well.”
Athena let a nervous chuckle slip through her lips as she tried to find her words again.
“It’s certainly been an interesting holiday; hasn’t it, Athena?”
“Yes, it has.”
“Any parting words?”
“Now you guys see what life after retirement is like, right?”
The producer and Athena both shared in a moment of laughter before Athena smiled and began to speak again.
“But really, this is my life. My son and I are working through our differences so I don’t want to pretend like we had a moment where everything was perfect and there’s never been any beef between us- there’s still a lot we have to process.”
“I bet that takes a weight off of your shoulders.”
“Of course. This isn’t your typical mother-son bond. We’ve lived our lives on this screen and there’s a lot we have to work through. Things he’s done, things I’ve done… we’re in a place we can work that out in peace, in private now.”
Silence.
“Don’t get me wrong. I think we’re both so used to having a camera over our shoulders that we forgot what it’s like to be normal. Mike finally put his foot down after seeing our fight and we both came to the consensus that we’ve got to set some boundaries- legally speaking, like I mentioned earlier- or else this peace isn’t going to last between the two of us… so there’s that, too.”
The producer cleared their throat before deciding to change the subject.
“So how are you and Invidia doing?”
“We’re… I don’t know what you want me to say. What do you expect when a parent hasn’t seen their child in… what, eight years? Luke doesn’t even know his older sister and even before that… God, it’s been a long time. Invidia and I talk just about every day now, either on the phone or she Skypes me from the Isles when we can find a good time or she texts me. I’m not a texting person but not because of the technology, it’s just not my style. Matthias has talked to her a couple times so that bridge is going to take a bit more work to repair because their past is a bit more complicated and there’s old wounds they’ve got to work on healing together. But at least we’re talking, right? I’m learning so much and catching up on moments we both missed out on. We’re trying to set up a time where she can come out to Seattle and stay for a couple weeks, around Easter or something like that so we can do some more catching up as a family. She can come to my house any time but I figured let’s wait until we’re all under one roof doing something together and that’s how we decided on Easter.”
Silence.“I’m going to have to clean her room up before she gets home or else I’m not going to be the cool mom anymore, am I?”
Athena chuckled to herself as she wiped happy tears away from the corners of her eyes.
“It’s so weird to be a normal family again.”
It grew quiet in the confessional again before Athena perked up with a rueful smile on her face and spoke again.
“But yeah, I think this is something I could get used to.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
