Dinner Party

by Michael Brent Jones

  Chapter 11

  Friday evening arrived and the hours flew by. David had still not arrived with Jenny. I called their house and even the hospital where my son worked, and they were nowhere to be found.

  The rain started to get to me and I began to worry; my mind started to race through scenarios. Not that I love my son different than I did when he was younger, but I felt just like I did when he was sixteen, and I stayed up past midnight waiting for him. On that occasion he still wasn’t home at close to one in the morning so I went looking for him.

  Apparently coming around a bend in the road he hadn’t had enough time to stop before getting stuck halfway over a tree that had fallen in the road. That same feeling now carried me into my truck and off I went to go find them. I did find them pulled off to the side of the road. It had been raining and it was muddy.

  I turned around on the road and pulling a tow rope out of my truck, attached one end to my truck and he attached the other to the front of his car. There was a bit of tire slipping and mud splattering but successfully I finally pulled him out onto the road. We then unhooked the ropes and all continued to my house.

  Back at the house he was soaking wet and muddy and so I got him some of my clothes and made them some warm tea. He told me that their tire had blown out and sent them off the road, that he fixed the tire and that everything seemed good, until the muddy slope pulled him in as he tried to get back on the road.

  I was still in father mode and didn’t notice I was losing track of time. Thankfully Jenny saved me saying something to her mother about how dad looked funny in grandpa’s clothes and she should take him home to get some new ones. I purposely didn’t look at the clock until they were in the car and driving down the road, but when I did notice the time I kind of panicked. It was a little over ten minutes to seven. The guests would be arriving any moment.

  “Jenny I don’t know what we are going to do, there’s nothing we can make in this amount of time.”

  “We could make some more tea.” I just stood there staring into the back of my eyelids with my hands on my face.

  “And we could make some toast,” she added cheerfully and very optimistic. I didn’t realize it till she started speaking again, but I guess I had started shaking my head at some point.

  “The best part of the party is still going to happen, before Will left he told me I would like who would be coming here today. He said they were good friends of his; I think he’s just good friends with everyone, but I am still excited to see who’s coming… I’m sure they didn’t come for the food… and I’ve never seen them mad or even anything but happy,” She said now more somberly.

  The guilt hit me hard. All of a sudden I was so embarrassed that I had even worried about it at all. I guess the previous dinner party had boasted my confidence and excitement, and I felt like I prepared for this party much better than any of the previous. It’s hard to not feel like a piece of the puzzle is missing, when one of the pieces that was in your hand crashes to the floor; that is until your eight and a half year old granddaughter points out that the whole picture is already complete.

  “Tea will be great! What flavor should we make them?”

  “Chamomile!” Jenny exclaimed brightening up instantly. I marveled at how readily she forgave. I realized there was no hesitancy in allowing herself to just instantly resume being happy. I decided to follow her example, but still felt I should apologize.

  “Sorry for worrying about the food, I don’t know why I reacted the way I did,” I apologized.

  “It’s okay Grandpa,” Jenny quickly replied.

  We put the bread in the oven and then like an assembly line we buttered and spread pomegranate jam on the toast. There was a knock at the door just as the tea pot sounded. Jenny ran to the door. “I got it,” she said and swung the door open.

  Benjamin Franklin just stood there with a big smile looking really surprised.

  “Jenny?” he asked.

  “Yes…” Jenny replied slightly confused.

  “Benny,” he said extending his hand, “it’s good to see you again.”

  “Again?” Jenny question, now even more confused.

  “It’s been a while; I’m not surprised you don’t remember me.” He said shutting the door. Just as it closed there was another knock, I came and shook his hand as Jenny opened the door to find Nikola Tesla and Abraham Lincoln standing there.

  “Why hello,” they said in unison and then looked at each other and laughed. They both put out their hands and smiled with a competitive air, to see whose hand Jenny would shake first.

  Myself included we were all surprised to see her turn her left hand upside down and shake both hands at once. Benny and I applauded at her genius. I didn’t see where he ultimately came from, but from in between the two I saw Josephus peek his head through.

  “You two are holding up the line, what’s going on here?”

  Jenny seemed a little startled, but when she saw his hat, (that to her looked like it was from India) she got excited. “My name’s Jenny what’s yours?” she said cutting in between Tesla and Lincoln to shake Josephus’s hand.

  “Flavius Josephus is the name, nice to meet you Jenny.”

  “Haven’t we already met?” Jenny asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “That’s what Benny said,” she replied.

  “Oh did he?” Flavius said with a somewhat stern look at Ben. “So much for only saying things we hope are repeated.”

  “I won’t tell,” Jenny lobbied.

  “So are we having the party on the doorstep or what?”

  I couldn’t see the face of who was speaking behind the other three.

  “Look whose holding up the line now!” Lincoln exclaimed.

  In the excitement as we were greeting each other, there was a bit of a hold up at the door. Tesla chuckled at Lincoln’s remark.

  I suppressed my own laugh to not also join in at the expense of Flavius Josephus, the much older one of the group.

  Lincoln and Tesla still loomed at the doorway. They were both so lanky I could almost see well enough around their skinny frames to recognize the man behind them.

  It wasn’t until the four of them shuffled in the doorway that I saw it was none other than Booker T Washington.

  “Alright we’ll all head in,” Josephus relinquished, cutting his conversation short.

  “I’m not mad, I was just wondering. I figured the old man was in charge,” Booker said and all eyes looked at me except Jenny.

  “Is that you?” Jenny asked Flavius.

  “Yes, I would be the old man he was referring to,” Flavius answered ever so slightly miffed.

  “How old are you?” Jenny asked.

  “Nineteen hundred twenty two,” was his reply.

  “Is that when you were born?”

  “No that’s how old I am.”

  “Wow that is old… ” Jenny said and Flavius nodded.

  “Where are you from?” she asked.

  “Jerusalem,” he replied.

  “Oh” Jenny said with a little bit of a sigh.

  “Disappointed?” Flavius asked.

  “I just thought you were from India… but I’m glad you’re here.”

  I interrupted the slight awkwardness, “I just realized that we should all sit in the living room to drink our tea and eat toast. I hope none of you are too hungry because we weren’t able to get a dinner made in time.”

  “Toast sounds great,” Tesla said.

  I pulled a few extra chairs from the kitchen to the living room. Right after I shut the door I heard a knock. Opening the door there was Ulysses S Grant, Robert E Lee and George Washington.

  It was the largest arrival at one party; it was good we were sitting in the family room, because there wouldn’t have been enough chairs at the table anyway. I welcomed them all to my home. I recognized each one, but because I supposed Jenny didn’t know any of them. I started with introductions.

  “
Starting around the circle to the right we have Booker T Washington. Jenny, you might be interested to know that he started the movement in the late 1800s to build schools to help African American children to be able to have an education. Next to him is Nikola Tesla, electricity extraordinaire, who invented the radio and alternating current in the 1890s.”

  “I know the next one, He’s George Washington,” Jenny piped in. “He’s on the American dollar,” I was impressed she knew.

  “I think the left side of my face is more photogenic, but what can you do right?” Washington said with a chuckle.

  “George Washington was the first president of the United States in 1789 and a great war hero. Wow we have a lot of presidents of the good ‘ol USA here in this humble English home. Abraham Lincoln was president in 1861, Ulysses S Grant was president in 1869. Robert E Lee was an American General in the 1860s. Titus Flavius Josephus was a historian close to the year one hundred AD. Do you know anything about who is next Jenny?”

  “Benny, who somehow already knows me.”

  “Benny here was a great inventor, and played a big role in the writing of the American Constitution,” I told her.

  “And on the American one hundred dollar bill, no big deal,” Benny said nonchalant and winked at Washington.

  Just then there was a knock on the door. I was very confused at first, and then my stomach started to turn. What if it was just someone stopping bye; a neighbor or my son David and his wife Marie?

  I walked over to the window and parting the curtains a little, I peeked through the window at the door step. No one was there. Baffled I went back to sit down, but figured I should probably open the door and double check. I opened the door to see Thomas Jefferson looking just as surprised as I was to see him.

  “Come in,” I said shaking my head.

  “Sorry for interrupting,” Jefferson apologized.

  “I’m glad you are here I was just shocked when I heard a knock on the door and then I looked through the window and saw no one at the doorstep; is there some weird thing about not being able to see people who have passed on through glass?”

  “Oh heavens no; I remembered right as I knocked on the door, that I had forgotten something, so I went back for it. I would have made it in time, but what I forgot to bring was where it should’ve been; you know how you always look first for something where you think you probably put it, instead of where you should have put it?” Jefferson explained.

  “I’m too old to risk putting something anywhere but where it should be. Even then, I still forget where things should be, so now I just start looking in random places,” I said agreeing with him.

  “I was going to send this with Flavius for Jenny, but then when I saw it was going to be tea in the parlor instead of dinner at the table, I hoped there would be a little extra space for another chair. He handed a little box to Jenny. She opened it immediately.

  “Wow, what a beautiful watch!” She exclaimed excitedly as she pulled it out by the chain and set the watch in her other hand; it was of beautiful workmanship, white gold with a white background and silver numbers and hands. “Thank you so much,” she said as she gave him a big hug.

  “And I brought some pie.” He handed me three boxes. Just smelling them I could tell there was an apple, boysenberry and a rhubarb pie.

  “Thank you” that’s very considerate of you.

  “I figured if I was going to crash a party, I might as well bring some pie to make up for it.” Jefferson said and then following me over to the kitchen to help me dish them up. Jenny beat us there and before I knew it, she was standing on the counter getting the plates out of the cupboard.

  “You could have come without the pies, but I’m not going to lie, I’m glad you did.” We both dished the pies onto the plates and Jenny delivered them.

  As we finish dishing up the pies and sat back down in the living room, Jenny set her pie aside to look at her new watch again. She was just mesmerized by the detail of not only the face of the watch, but also the cover; she flipped it open and then shut it smiling completely unaware that Jefferson was watching her out of the corner of his eye, while still talking to me.

  Everyone else was watching Jenny to see what Jefferson was waiting for. After about the tenth time opening and shutting it she froze, then turned it around to see the back. She read aloud the inscription that was in small print: To listen with Patience and Understanding is the Measure of our Love. “Wow,” is all she could say.

  “There’s something else on the inside of the cover.”

  She opened it and read: Personify Love.

  “Well I guess we can just start right into it,” I suggested. “Jenny Jefferson also contributed a lot to the writing of the American constitution. Now that we are all introduced. I welcome you all, and hope you enjoy the evening. I think we should start by expounding on what the inside cover says. Tom if you wouldn’t mind.”

  “Well it’s just that,” Jefferson started. “Every word appears in our mind as a composite of everything else we associate with it. We by default personify every word, because in each of our minds, when we think of a certain person, there is one word that is the biggest part of that composite image.

  If I said swimming, singing or story telling each word is personified by someone different in each of our minds. It is very important to not let hate, treachery or any negative thing be personified by anyone in our mind, also not to give any reason that we would personify them in someone else’s mind. Any space in our hearts we allow hate to occupy, is space that could be filled with love. There will come a time in every person’s life, when they realize they are woefully wanting in the love they have cultivated in their heart.

  How amazing to think of the contrary: that you personified love in someone’s mind. What better compliment could we ever hear, than for someone to say, that we are their personification of love? I think it’s something that is not too often said, but oh that it was, and more, that there were more reason to say it.

  My wish is that every person could wake up in the morning with a prayer, that they may have the courage, diligence and desire to love more truly, sincerely and objectively; that every night we reflect on what we may have represented by our thoughts, words and deeds,” Jefferson concluded.

  It was quiet for a few moments and then there was a knock at the door…