Fun & Games

It was a good week with Hammerhead and Jeep Boy, which was fantastic for me to experience since two weeks ago, there was a Hammerhead incident that left me thinking about long, extended vacations (or, more accurately, sabbaticals) for stepmothers, to places like Paris, for periods of time such as four years, and/or when the stepson in question turns 18. I might tell you all about that some day. But not today.

Anyway, this week, it was a good week. The boys both wanted to be around us, and we all went to a friend's Sunday brunch birthday party together, along with our dear friend Cut The Bullshit, whom the boys adore and who adds an element of irreverent fun wherever she goes. We were surprised the boys wanted to come to the brunch, because we knew it would be a sedate affair, which turned out to be a vast underestimation of the actual level of energy and social stimulation we experienced. On the way home, we laughed and teased and celebrated with the conviviality of survivors of a close call. And caught up in this, the boys suggested we play a family game of Monopoly after dinner.

However, between this warm fuzziness and the Monopoly game, an "accident" occurred. I was going out to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner, and Hammerhead was coming along for the ride. In the driveway, while he was waiting for me to find my purse/keys, etc, he looked up and noticed that Jeep Boy's bedroom window was open. According to the official report, what happened next was that he called out "Jeep Boy!" and when Jeep Boy appeared at the window, Hammerhead threw a few large pieces of mulch up and hit him in the face with it. Jeep Boy laughed and said, "Hey! Stay right there!" and for some reason, Hammerhead obeyed. Which is why, when Jeep Boy returned to the window with a Titleist golf ball and threw it at Hammerhead's head, it so quickly and easily found its target, with such a clear, loud, and satisfying accompanying popping sound.

So anyway, when I came out to the driveway what I saw was Hammerhead leaning against the car weeping silently, and Jeep Boy running out of the house behind me with a zip lock bag full of ice, saying, "I didn't really mean to hurt him." After Hammerhead accepted the zip lock bag and they both brought me up-to-date, and after I felt the impressive goose egg forming on my younger stepson's noggin and remarked that it was quite a doozy, we all went our respective ways, with alarmingly little friction. It was a though we all--each of us--knew our roles and responsibilities: Hammerhead had started it, so he knew he wasn't an innocent victim. Jeep Boy had overreacted and actually hurt his brother, so he knew he'd gone too far and should at least prepare an ice pack as a show of compassion. And I knew I was the stepmother, not the mother, so I just felt the bump and verified that it was big and probably did hurt. No lectures, no scolding, no judgment, no blame. Good.

So about Monopoly: Perfect Man fell asleep on the couch after dinner, so it was the three of us for the game. Which was hysterical. Jeep Boy has this new “sassy teenager” patois that’s really cute—funny voices, sarcastic asides. Which he used to full effect to chide Hammerhead, the self-appointed Monopoly Tsar, mercilessly. Hammerhead takes this particular game very seriously, and has his own ideas of certain variations of rules that should be followed (most of which border on the ludicrous, as do his Monopoly manners in general). Basically, he's an insufferable control freak. When we’d roll the dice he'd move our tokens for us, when we landed on Chance or Community Chest he’d pick up the card for us and read it to us. He couldn’t help himself, it was too funny. And those ridiculous rules: if you roll snake eyes, you have to pay a fine? if you roll doubles more than three times, you have to pay a fine? Whatever! Jeep Boy and I were laughing our heads off, and refused to honor any of them, and Hammerhead became surly and indignant.

At one point, Hammerhead was in dire financial straits, and asked Jeep Boy to trade certain properties for other certain properties. Jeep Boy laughed and said "No way!"

"Oh, come on, Tiger Woods," I said. "Make the trade. You owe him one."

He laughed and said, "Okay," and then went on for a few minutes about how neatly and perfectly the golf ball had hit, and the surprising resonance of the popping sound it made, and even Hammerhead laughed.

A few minutes later, after Hammerhead had tried out another one of his ridiculous secret rules and we both laughed him down, Jeep Boy rolled a seven, and I said, “Jeep Boy, when you roll a seven, you have to give Hammerhead all your money.” And we all had a good long laugh.

It was really a fun weekend for me; it seems we all have found a new comfortable place to enjoy each other, and it’s working. I’m really happy about that, and trying to just appreciate it while it lasts.

(I creamed them both, by the way. But not until 11:00--yikes.)