They all laugh.
“Phoebe used to dream of being an orphan,” Gary explains.
“Gary wants someone to beat the crap out of him,” Phoebe adds.
“I’ll have you know this explains nothing,” Jim says.
Phoebe takes another sip of her drink. “Oh, okay, I think I am tasting the battlefields now.”
“See?” Gary says. “It’s like just the tiniest note at the very end.”
Jim gives up on them and turns to Juice. “So how are you doing, my beautiful niece?”
Marla puts down her phone with a deep sigh.
“You on the right side of the law now?” Gary asks Marla, putting his hand around her neck, giving her a faux massage. It looks like an apology for being short earlier. “Don’t want any fugitives on this boat.”
“I know you’re making fun of me, so I refuse to answer that,” Marla says.
Sitting side by side, Phoebe can see that Marla and Gary look very similar. They both have dark brown hair, dark eyes. Long, angular faces they have inherited from their father, whose face is so long, he looks somewhat like a pelican at the bow. But Gary is a little soft where Marla is hard. Phoebe wonders if this is what losing his wife has done to him. If it has rounded out his edges. Or maybe it’s just the beers over the years that Marla likely refused, filling out his shoulders and his face.
“You think you’ll get to an age where your brother stops making fun of you, but no,” Marla says to Phoebe, “it will never happen. I’m forty-two and I am ready to accept this now.”
Then she offers a long list of all the things Gary did over the years to ruin her life, and yet, Gary is still the Golden Boy in their father’s eyes.
“No,” Gary says. “Roy is the Golden Boy.”
“Is Roy your brother?” Phoebe asks.
“Cousin,” Marla says.
“You talking about Roy?” Gary’s father shouts through the wind.
“See?” Gary says. “It’s like catnip to him. He can’t get enough of Roy.”
“Roy’s a goddamned hero,” Gary’s father says to Phoebe. “The only hero we have in the Smith family.”
“Every time,” Gary and Marla say in unison and then laugh. Laughing changes Marla’s entire face. She becomes soft like Gary.
“What did Roy do?” Phoebe asks.
“He was a sniper in Iraq,” Gary’s father says.
“Then Roy wrote a memoir about it,” Gary says.
“And someone turned it into a movie,” Marla adds.
“Phenomenal film,” Gary’s father declares to Phoebe. “Jude Law.”
“It wasn’t Jude Law,” Marla corrects. “Jude Law is like fifty now.”
“You’re thinking of that movie where Jude Law played a Russian sniper,” Gary adds.
“I know who Jude Law is,” Gary’s father says.
“Okay, fine, whatever. The point is, Dad watches it at least once a year and then immediately calls us to say that Roy is the only true hero in the family,” Gary says.
“I mean, I went to law school for you, Dad!” Marla says.
“I thought you went to be a feminist?” Gary’s father asks.
She elbows him. “That, too,” Marla says. “But honestly, what was the point of going to law school if your dad doesn’t respect it?”
“Oh, stop it. You’re the goddamned mayor!” Gary’s father says. “Of course I’m proud of you.”
Marla sips on her drink.
“Anyway, that’s Roy,” Gary says, and they all laugh.
“Roy got really wasted last night, huh?” Marla says.
“Speaking of,” Jim says, and hands Gary a beer, because yes, yes, there are only so many Vacations in a Cup he can have, and then the two men start telling everybody about the actual vacation they went on before the pandemic.
“A cross-country road trip we all took together after,” Jim says and then trails off. He takes a sip of beer and then a sip of Muscle Milk.
“We went camping in the Wind River Range out in Wyoming,” Gary says.
“Taught this one how to fish, huh?” Jim says, and elbows Juice. “And remember when that bunny got eaten right in front of us?”
