When they all flooded back into the house, Jake and Jeremiah had to carry Maddie inside to keep her from chasing after Kendal so to “stomp a mud hole in his worthless ass”, as she kept screaming.
When the warm air from the house hit Jake’s face her knew something wasn’t right. After setting Maddie down, he reached up and touched his face there he had been punched and found that his jaw had been dislocated by a worthless piece of shit that he slapped his little sister. God, this is going to hurt, he thought when he put his jaw back in place, then went about playing ER doctor instead of neurologist. James needed a bandage for the cut above his left eye and Jeremiah’s nose needed to be reset because Maddie had broken it in the struggle to get to her piece of shit ex- boyfriend. Thankfully, the chill to their skin made resetting Jeremiah’s nose and Jake putting his jaw back in place relatively painless.
Every male in the Draiman family was still buzzing with adrenaline; even after the door was set up and propped into place until a repair man could get out to the house to replace it. David looked at Maddie once she had calmed enough to speak without screaming. When Jake comes in, I’ll have him look at her face. It looks like the spot where he slapped her is starting to bruise, he thought before speaking. “You, Madison, are a little firecracker. You’re this tiny little thing like you mother, and you did some SERIOUS damage. Where did you learn all that?” he asked.
“You know what Mom always says, Dad. ‘Dynamite comes in small packages’. She’s the one that taught me all that”, was her explanation.
David blinked at his daughter. “Ok. Who broke the front door?”
“Both of us. I pushed him through it after he slapped me. I’m sorry about not opening it first.”
“What I’d like to know is where he got off throwing that porcelain Kabuki figurine your father bought me in Japan a few years ago against a wall, let alone touching it”, Brie said as she busied herself making tea and coffee so that everyone could warm up and calm down. Her hands shook as she readied the teapot.
David took the teapot from his wife, put it on the stove, and pulled her into his arms. He knew how much those figurines meant to her. They had been a birthday present the year that Jake and Jordan had graduated from high school. He knew that geisha and kabuki fascinated the woman in his arms. He hadn’t paid a lot for them, but to his wife the porcelain figures were priceless. The figures were one of a kind from what David understood when he bought them. As he held her in his arms he felt her sob. Her heart was breaking. “Shh, baby. I know you’re upset”, he said, then looked at Maddie.”That little son of a bitch is lucky I decided not to find him and to take the purchase price of that figurine out of his ass.”
“I know, Daddy. I’m upset about the fact that he smashed the one that he did. That one was one of my favorites.”
“As long as he doesn’t show his face on this property again, then he can continue to breathe”, Jake said when he and Delilah came into the kitchen. “He shows his face here again and I’m going to forget that I took an oath to do no harm and I’m gonna break his neck. First, the breaks a priceless knick knack of Mom’s, then he slapped my little sister. Finally, he sucker punched me as I tried to keep her from beating his brains out with a shovel.”
“You don’t need to go to prison, love”, Delilah said.
“Technically, no one would have gone to prison or even been arrested tonight had he been shot or injured”, Jeremiah said as he removed the ice pack he’d been holding over his nose.
“How is that, ‘Miah?” Brie asked her son. Her hands were still shaking and a tear rolled down her cheek.
“The nationwide Make My Day laws that Great- aunt Gail signed into legislation during her first official term in office, also known as the Cartwright- Tuchman Acts of 2020. They state that when in the act of protecting family, property, or self, one can take whatever means needed to do so even if it leads to a death. To take wording directly from the bill itself, it states, ‘When acting upon the basic instincts to preserve self, family, and property, a person can take whatever means they deem necessary, even if such means lead to death’.”
David chuckled. “I’d forgotten about those acts.”
“Not a lot of people think about those acts anymore. Society has become so complacent that we now think of the old laws that no longer exist and let the archaic laws from before the Occupation dictate how they live.”
“When did you become a legal expert, Jeremiah?” Maddie asked her little brother.
“You know how medicine fascinated Jake when he was our age?” James asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well the law in all its many facets fascinates and intrigues us. We actually want to be like Mr. Sasser, the family attorney, and study all of the kinds of law. That way we’re not one trick ponies, as Uncle Matt would say.” That last part of the comment earned him a solemn nod.
David looked over at Malachai, who hadn’t said a word since they’d all come back in the house. “Is Logan in town?”
“Yeah. I think Uncle John and Aunt Kristen are up here visiting him and Dani for the holidays”, Malachai replied. “Why?”
“Call him and Caleb. I need to blow off some steam and you guys are the only band I know that can play Disturbed and do it right; other than the other members themselves and only one of them is in town.”
Jordan, still in the Living room, snorted a laugh. “Keep thinking that, Dad”, she called.
“What do you mean, Jordan?”
“What she means is that your brothers in Disturbed all seem to know when something big is about to happen in our family and they like to be here when the big announcement is made. The thing is though, I don’t think that there is any big news this year”, Malachai explained.
Jake cleared his throat. “Well, actually, Malachai, my dear older brother, there is news.”
“Oh?” he asked.
“I’m not going to announce it without the rest of the Draiman clan in the same room, so there are two choices: they all come in here, or we all go out into the living room.”
David made the decision for his family. “Everyone come in the Kitchen, please”, he announced as the tea kettle started to scream. He turned off the kettle and started steeping his wife a cup of chamomile tea as his children flooded into the room. “Jake, make your announcement.”
Jacob kissed his wife and pulled her a little closer to his side as he spoke. “Well, we were wanting to wait until tomorrow night at Sundown during gift exchange, but now’s as good a time as any. Isaiah, Miranda, and Elijah are going to have a cousin. Lilah and I are having a baby”, he said with a grin that had spread from ear to ear.
“How far along?” Jordan asked her twin brother and sister in law.
All Delilah was all smiles and a little choked up. She couldn’t speak. Jake answered. “About two months. She has a doctor’s appointment coming up soon.”
The quads were all ecstatic. “Congrats Jake!” the four of them said in unison. “Yay! Another niece or nephew to spoil!”
As the Draiman family celebrated a new addition, the door bell rang. David went to answer the door as silence fell over the family. The only sounds that were heard were the other members of Disturbed shouting, “Happy Holidays!” and David sighing, “Oy vey.”
---------------
When everyone had gathered in the living room, Jake and Delilah made their announcement. Everyone was excited for the happy young couple. John even looked at David and said, “Grandchild #4, huh? That’s an exciting prospect.”
“Yeah, what would make this holiday better is if one of my girls dropped the bombshell that she’s going to be a mother on us”, David replied with a grin.
“Actually”, Jordan said after exchanging a look with her twin and his wife, “I’m going to be a mother.”
Everyone in the room’s jaws collectively dropped but Jake and Delilah’s. “Explain, Jordan Hannah”, her mother said through the shock.
“Well, as the family knows, Sammi was cheating on me with a man. She called me earlier this evening to tell me that she was pregnant and to beg me to take her back. Of course, I told her that there wasn’t a chance in hell of getting back with me. She told me that she doesn’t want to the baby, so I’m going to adopt it.”
Shock turned to elation in the Draiman house as the entire Disturbed family congratulated Jordan on her decision. Her parents remained silent and looked at each other as everyone gave their congratulations and told her that they were happy and proud of her. When silence came over the room again, everyone looked at David and Brie. “What do you think of Jordan’s news, Mom and Dad?” Jessi asked.
David cleared his throat to speak. The Draiman family was on pin and needles as they waited for the head of the family to say his piece. “Mama, didn’t I just say that would make this holiday season a lot better?” he asked his wife.
“You sure did, Daddy”, she replied.
“Then what the fuck are our children so damn nervous about?” he asked with a laugh.
“I have NO idea”, she said as she burst into laughter after taking a sip of her tea. She was calming down and starting to get tired, but she didn’t want to run everyone off since they’d just arrived.
When he heard his wife yawn, he looked at his brothers. “I think everyone needs to head on back to their hotel rooms if they have one. I’m sorry, but this year we don’t have the room to put everyone up.” He looked around the room at his children. The adrenaline was wearing off rather quickly for every last one of the Draiman clan. “I think my family needs to head on to bed, guys. We’ve had a hell of an evening and the adrenaline is starting to fade.”
“We totally understand”, Dan said. “We’ll see everyone tomorrow for Christmas dinner/ the beginning of Hanukkah tomorrow evening.”
“Yeah, apparently it’s our turn this year to hold the big holiday feast, so we’ll see everyone tomorrow evening.” And as if there were some unspoken cue, all of the Draiman men that were married stood and offered their wives a hand to stand. Everyone knew that was the cue for them to either leave of head to bed themselves.
---------------
Christmas day brought yet another surprise to the Draiman household. After having breakfast that morning and Delilah giving everyone a Christmas gift though she knew there were all Jewish, there was a knock on the door. David and Brie were busy making dinner for that night and Jake and Delilah had both gone back to sleep. Though they were both tired, they didn’t go directly to sleep when they went to bed.
When the door bell rang, Maddie jumped to answer the door. The face on the other side of the door made her squeal in delight. “Uncle BEN!” she said and threw her arms around his neck.
“Hello, Miss Maddie”, Ben laughed and hugged his niece. Then, he got a glimpse of her cheek. “Who hit you and is your father here or in county awaiting a murder trial?”
“My ex- boyfriend and he’s here. If anyone almost got locked up last night, it was me. I went after him with a shovel.”
Ben’s jaw fell in surprise. “YOU went after him with a shovel? You’re a tiny little thing. As small as your mother. And you went after him with a shovel?”
She nodded. “And I shoved him through the door last night. The door that I just opened is a brand new one.”
Ben just laughed and shook his head. “Dang, Maddie. That’s pretty cool, I have to say. Now, are you going to let your old uncle in the house or are you going to make me stand here in the cold?”
Maddie laughed and stepped back. “Hey, Dad! We got company and you’ll never guess who it is!” she called out.
“If it’s any of your uncles from the band then I really didn’t want or need to know…” he started as he walked toward the living room. When he spotted his younger brother closing the front door to his home, he froze. “Ben? What the hell?”
“Well, Happy Hanukkah to you too, David”, Ben laughed.
“This is unexpected, but very welcome. I’m glad to see you. It’s been too long, brother.” David crossed the room and hugged his brother. “Come into the kitchen, Ben. We can have latkes and coffee”, he laughed.
“Sounds good”, Ben said with a shiver. He shrugged out of his coat and followed his brother into the kitchen.
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As Hanukkah started, Jake and Jordan told their Uncle Ben about their news. It brought a smile to Ben’s face to know that he was going to have more great nieces and/or nephews to play with and spoil rotten. He’d already been doing it with is nieces and nephews from a distance. Now, he got to start on the next generation of Draiman’s.
Ben lit the candle that night for the first night of Hanukkah at David’s request. It had been too many years since they’d spent a holiday together. So, Ben light the first candle of the festival using the servant that had been lit by David earlier that day when the Menorah had been set up. It would be this way for seven nights more.
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