Wild Family Parts 2 and 3

[Carl Joneson72]

First, before I explain how our unusual family situation came about, let me tell you a bit about my parents. Mom and Dad are both 42 years old, they got married in their senior year in high school, and Mom had me when she was just barely 20. They've been together for 25 years, and had three more kids after me, the brother and twin sisters I mentioned earlier.

Dad is a dark/gray-haired 6'2" strapping hunk of a man, a former firefighter, who retired a few years ago (one of the benefits of having some family money is that he could retire early). Mom is a tall blonde (well, there's some Miss Clairol in it now, but it's still mostly natural blonde), about 5'10" and she has a nice shape. She's put on a few pounds over the years, but not nearly enough to be considered overweight, I hope my figure is half as good as hers when I'm her age!

Mom and Dad have kind of a wild side to them, I guess. On their first date, I'm told they went to a bar and Mom got into a catfight with a girl who was hitting on Dad, and knocked her out cold! Mom and Dad always were very physical people, they like to play ball, ride bikes, and neither ever had much hesitation about getting into a knock-down fight, either.

Our parents wanted their kids to be able to take care of themselves if they needed to, so Mom and Dad made sure they taught all four of us how to fight, and fight dirty when we needed to do it. Growing up I had practice fights with them both, and I never won (unless one of them let me), but I got pretty good at it.

In high school, I taught a couple of girls that I wasn't nearly as much of a pushover as they thought at first, including one who was six inches taller than me. I always tended to dress a bit on the feminine side, actually, and that plus my soft-spoken manner and shortness (I'm the family shrimp at 5'4") seemed to fool some of the school's 'tough kids' into thinking I was a pushover. It was kind of fun clearing that up for them, actually.

My younger brother Tom was a high school football player, and he also batted .280 on the baseball team. At 6'0", he had the family height but was built differently, lot's of muscle but it was packed into a thinner frame, he was more of a runner than a brick. When he was 16, he started dating a girl named Dena Travis, who had just moved to the town from away at that time.

Now, Dena was certainly a coup for my brother, no doubt about that! I still remember how all the guys were practically stepping on their tongues around her. She was barely 16, stood 5'7" and had this long red hair, and a cute little figure, and her attitude was bubbly and cheerful, she was always smiling or laughing about something. There was something so _nice_ about Dena that even the other girls, for all their jealousy, had a hard time not liking her.

Tom and Dena started dating not long after she moved to town, and soon became inseparable, it was clear that my little brother was in love. Naturally I got to meet Dena's family, which consisted of her single mother and older sister. Both were charming and friendly, but I soon concluded that they must have spoiled Dena rotten, because for all her niceness (and she was and if very nice), I noticed that she always got her way with her family.

Tom and Dena had been dating for about two months when tensions arose between Mom and Dena. It wasn't that she was mad at Dena, exactly. It was that Mom thought Tom was getting too serious too fast at his age, for one thing, and for another Mom was getting annoyed with Dena's attitude.

Dena was clearly used to getting her own way with her family, and now she casually extended that. She'd call Tom at supper time and suggest a movie or something, or make some plans that she wanted my brother for, and if he already had plans with us she expected him to cancel them. She wasn't haughty or bossy, just matter-of-factly expected people to conform to her wishes, as if that was the most natural thing in the world.

Over the course of a month or so this escalated, with Mom getting more and more annoyed by Dena's behavior. Dena, for her part, seemed oblivious to it. She got her drivers' license, and her mother bought her a brand new car, a little sporty red number. My theory about her being spoiled seemed confirmed, that car was nicer than the one her mother Janet drove herself!

Once Dena could drive and had a car, she and Tom saw even more of each other. It wasn't unusual for her to arrive at our place, scoop up Tom without notice, and head off to the movies or skating or wherever. This was really getting on Mom's nerves.

The crunch finally came one day when she had prepared a surprise party for Tom's 17th birthday. It was a summer Saturday, and he was working at the local grocery store as a bag boy, and got off work at noon. Mom was planning to have the party ready for him as soon as he got home. It was not long before noon when Dena dropped by.

It seemed she had decided to take Tom with her on a family trip to the lake, and when Mom (rather heatedly) commented that this would conflict with the plan for his birthday party, Dena did not change her mind.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that, Angela," she told my mother, still as nice and sweet as you could imagine, "but it's too late for me to change my plans now."

"Well, it's too late for me to call off the party, too," Mom snapped back. I got tense, I knew from experience with that tone of voice that my mother's volatile temper was reaching its boiling point. Dena's calling her by her first name 'Angela' without being invited to had always irritated her, today it was worse.

"You'll just have to make do without Tom today, it's his birthday and that only comes when it comes."

"No," Dena said, pleasantly but with a hint of steel in her sweet voice that I had never heard before, "Tom is coming with us to the lake, Angela. That isn't open for debate."

"Look, you little brat," Mom snapped. "Last I looked, Tom is still my son, and you're just a girl he's been dating for a bit. It's up to me whether he goes with you or not, and you'd better keep that in mind and watch your tone, too!"

"Angela," Dena said, "there's no reason to argue about this. I know you're used to having Tom around all the time, but you have to accept that he's growing up, he's not your little boy any more. I am sorry I didn't give you more notice, really I am. But Tom is coming with me, and that's final."

I can't describe that mood just then, I guess you had to be there. I was sitting at the kitchen table, watching them, and it felt like it feels in the summer when a sudden thunderstorm is about to break, that sense of sparky tension in the air. My mother was a good three inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than Dena, and it wasn't fat. She towered over my brother's girlfriend, and by all rights Dena should have looked intimidated, given that she was talking to a grown woman and her boyfriend's mother!

But she didn't. If anything, Dena looked a bit amused, and also sort of 'eye-rolly', in that teenaged way, as if my mother were just being silly. She still was completely friendly and seemed polite and nice as always, though there was a note in her voice that I had not heard before, sort of a 'don't argue' note.

"'That's final?!!'" my mom yelped. "You little-who do you think you are, anyway?! Just for that, I am forbidding you to see my son until further notice. You can drag your sassy little ass out of here right now, and I'll let you know when and IF it's OK for you to see or talk to Tom again!"

Dena showed no sign of moving. "Angela," she said, sounding oddly reasonable, "I'm trying to be nice about this, really I am. But it's not up to you whether I see Tom or not, or when, or under what circumstances. Tom gets off work at noon, and he's going with me to the lake. That's all there is to it, Angela."

"YOU LITTLE-Did you not just hear me tell you to get out of here! If you're not gone in the next 60 seconds, I'm calling your mother and letting her deal with you."

Dena just smiled tolerantly, and said, as if it ought to be obvious to everyone, "Angela, I'm sorry you're insisting on being so difficult about this. By all means, call my mother, she'll tell you that it's not up to her who I see or where I go any more than it up to you. What you have to understand is that it's for ME to decide, not you or her. Now, I'm not leaving until Tom gets here, and then we're going to the lake, and this discussion is over."

I had never seen ANYONE speak to my mother like that, the combination of her calm, reasonable tone and defiant words was surreal. Mom's faced turned red, and her eyes blazed. She'd never had a snotty teenager speak to her that way in her life, and not many adults, for that matter.

"Look, Dena, either you're moving your skinny ass right now or I'm moving it for you!"

"Angela," Dena said, from where she had just sat down on one of the red leather stools around the kitchen dining bar, "I just told you that this-"

Dena's words were cut off when Mom's hand connected to her face! Mom had slapped the teenager HARD, leaving a bright red mark on the left side of her face.

"ANGELA!" Dena snapped, "if you do that-"

SMACK!

The second blow landed on her face before Dena had quite finished standing up, and it was hard enough to throw her head sideways! Mom grabbed for Dena by the shoulders, and jerked her toward the kitchen door while I watched in wide-eyed amazement. I was sure Dena was about to get a lesson she'd never forget if she didn't leave right then.

Dena had clearly been caught by surprise when Mom got physical, but by the time they were halfway to the door, I saw her eyes suddenly narrow, and she jerked to a stop, and rammed an elbow backward, squarely into Mom's belly!

"OWW!" Mom squealed, and she keeled over for a moment. Dena whirled around and grabbed Mom by the hair, and jerked her head back. Mom was in 'fighting mode' now, though, and she drove her foot down on Dena's foot as hard as she could. Mom was wearing pumps and Dena flip-flops, so Dena promptly howled in pain!

Mom had the advantage and pressed it, driving a fit into Dena's belly that shoved her against the counter, and then catching her by her long red hair and dragging/shoving her toward the back door. A moment later Dena went sprawling down the back steps, and for a moment I thought the fight was over.

Boy was I ever wrong!

[MikeJV]

COOL, this looks like it'll be a great fight! I sure hope so, with lots of "dirty" fighting!

I think i know who'll win, but am gonna keep it quiet and findout.

MikeJV