Through Thick And Thin

Chapter 3

Amelia looked into the mirror and sighed loudly.

“I still don’t see why we should do this ridiculous party,” she said as she smoothed down her white sleeveless dress which blended perfectly with her fair caramel skin. “We already had a wake and everything.”

“The wake was for grandma’s friends and dad’s side of the family who victimize us for being black and for not being Jewish,” Amanda said as she fastened the clasp on her shoe strap. She looked up at her sister. “This party is what grandma wanted. She wanted us to celebrate her life rather than mourn her death.” She stood up and walked up to where Amelia was and gently pushed her away. “She did live a very long life after all. We shouldn’t be sad about her leaving this cruel world,” she added as she used a bobby pin to fix a few of her curls in place.

“Plus, today we get to sprinkle her ashes. Just the way she would have wanted,” Amelia said as she gathered her hair in her hand and began twirling it, slowly getting it into a loose bun.

“Exactly.” Amanda turned and looked at her. “We need to get downstairs. I’m sure the guys are already here.”

“Alright,” Amelia said taking a long deep breath. “How do I look?” she asked looking down at her dress.

“Only you would put a dress together in a couple of hours and still have it look this good,” Amanda said as she held her sister’s hands in hers and looked at the dress she had on. “It looks perfect, amazing even. Come on. We have to go now,” she said as she pulled her sister out of the bedroom.

“We should be getting ready at my place,” Amelia thought as they made their way downstairs. She always thought her sister’s place was a little too big. It was just her and Mark in a huge two story, three bedroom, four bathroom house. She was comfortable in her two bedroom apartment in downtown LA but according to Amanda, she needed to be in a property she could comfortably raise a family in. Amelia was not sure she was ready for such a big step. When Amanda first mentioned kids, Amelia was not sure whether she could stomach the idea of having a child at that point in her life. It was not just about the stretch marks and nine months of being bloated, it was also about the simple fact that a child was not like a pet. She could not just leave a child at a neighbor’s or simply leave him or her some food and water before she went off to work. It was different with a child. It was a whole lot of responsibility, responsibility she was just not ready for.

“Sorry we took so long,” Amelia said as they walked into the living room. “But Mandy here thought she had to take extra time with the curling iron.”

“And I am not sorry about it either,” Amanda said with a smile. Mark smiled at her and nodded.

“It did pay off,” he said as he gave her a kiss. Amelia made her way to where Chad was and he pulled her down to sit on his lap. He kissed her softly and held the side of her face as he pulled away.

“I didn’t want to say this out loud but you look so much hotter,” he whispered in her ear.

“You always know what to say,” she murmured before he kissed her again.

“Yo! Lovebirds, we need to get going. We are already late,” Mark said as he grabbed a bunch of keys from the counter and tossed them over to Chad. “You’re driving.”

“I guess I am,” Chad said as Amelia got up from his lap and he got up.

“Get grandma,” Amanda said as she looked at Amelia.

Amelia walked over to the mantel piece and picked up the silver urn. She was breathing heavily as everything suddenly came down on her. The reality of the situation at hand. She slowly ran her fingers on the urn and choked back a tear. It had been almost ten days since the funeral but she still felt her grandmother all around her. It was as if she never died. And even though she had been trying to be strong in the last few days, she still had a million and one questions. She had no idea how life would be after all the parties and wakes.

Amelia was relatively quiet, lost in her own world as they drove to Antonio’s Grill where the party was supposed to be held. To everyone else in the car, she might have been listening intently to the conversation in the car but in reality, she was having flashbacks. Flashbacks of her and her grandmother, flashbacks of her and her sister during the weekly family dinners. She smiled when she remembered one instance when her grandmother allowed her to make dinner even though she was not the best cook.

“Are you sure, grandma?” she had asked. “There is a very good chance I will be serving noodles.”

“You know so much more than you think,” Leila had said in a soft voice. “Once you made us those lovely baked potatoes and that other time you made us that Italian penne pasta? That was divine.”

“Oh please, the penne literally took twenty minutes. You take hours to put on the perfect dinner, grandma.”

“Well, that is because I can never really make up my mind when it comes to food. I make everything I can think of. It’s the Jew in me, I guess.”

“Well then, the Jew in you is very, very adventurous as far as food goes,” Amelia pointed out.

“And there is a little Jew in you too so as far as food goes, we will definitely be fine tonight.” Leila was smiling.

“You are Jewish. I am a black…Christian, I think,” she said frowning.

“You are biracial,” Leila said as she took her granddaughter’s hands in her own. “My Jewish blood still runs through those perfectly rebel veins.”

“Well, Tiger Woods is biracial but guess what, people know him as a black man…okay, African American. And anyway, have you ever heard of a black Jew?” she asked. But as soon as she said the words, she regretted it. She knew that her own words were going to come back to bite her in the ass in three, two…

“As a matter of fact I do. You have mentioned a musician…you said he does this hip-hop music.” Amelia knew almost immediately who her grandmother was talking about. “He has a strange name. Duck, Drip, Duke…” Amelia smiled.

“Drake,” she finally said saving her grandmother the torture.

“Oh yeah, him. You have always said he was Jewish,” Leila said as she placed a bowl of marinated steaks on the counter.

“I never said he was a practicing Jew,” Amelia said rolling her eyes. She looked at the steaks and shook her head. “Am I supposed to make that?” she asked and Leila nodded.

“There is no reason why you cannot make a perfectly delicious steak dinner.”

“This is a bad idea.”

“I will be in the living room. Remember, your sister is bringing her new boyfriend over so how do you say, bring your A-game?” Leila called out. Amelia looked at the steaks and shook her head. She didn’t know the first thing about fancy meals. The only food she had at her house was takeout and a whole lot of instant noodles. She had soup and maybe a bowl of chili every so often. She didn’t know what happened but what had started out to be a steak dinner ended up being a pizza and salad dinner. But what made the evening so memorable was the fact that the neighbor’s dog had scared the pizza delivery guy so much that somehow, the pizza had ended up on the roof.