Aftermath

The capstone of a not-great week last week was — you guessed it — having to deal with a family gathering brought down by the adult equivalent to schoolyard bullying.

It started when I mentioned my really my really cool Wren fountain pen to the family. My mother was impressed with how well it wrote and the ingenious design. My father was intrigued by how it worked. One aunt in attendance agreed that there is nothing like having a nice pen for writing with. The other aunt…

”You know what you are? A nerd. A nerd in need of a pocket protector for his ‘special little pen’. You paid how much for that? Sounds like you got ripped off and should have bought a pack of Bic ballpoint pens and saved your money.”

I laughed it off, saying I normally wore t-shirts and pocket tees are not really in fashion anymore. She scowled at my deflection. Her comment was unnecessary and intended to be cruel, and the barbs took a bit of flesh, but failed to find purchase as far as she could see.

This has been going on for years, even before one of my other aunts passed away — the one usually the playground bully at family gatherings. I thought we’d be done with that when she passed away, but no.

I don’t know what has gotten into this aunt. It started about the time she was convinced that I had sold off some valuables from my grandfather’s house that I was living in at the time he had passed away. There were no valuables to steal, not that I looked very hard. But both her and her then-husband were in need of cash to supply their crack and/or cocaine habit at the time. The also accused me of stealing in a separate instance, until my firmly father reminded him he was not listed as a benefactor of the estate when I complained about his regular cornering me to ask where I hid “the loot”).

Since then, she insults me whenever she gets her ire up. Her ire was up yesterday afternoon.

Someone carries a 30-year grudge that was never justified in the first place. I won’t miss them when they are gone.

So, there you go folks. A rare explanation for yesterday’s post.