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♪ This old house
and I are all alone ♪
♪ Lonely house ♪
♪ lonely me ♪
She browses through her ‘Apple Music’ and finds the perfect song to accompany her solitude. After Will has finally all moved out of the house, she plans on spending her weekend listening to sad songs, eating takeouts and drinking way too much wine. Sydney is supposed to spend this weekend with her dad and now she is all alone in this big house. The one they brought together a few years ago, dreaming of all the happy times to come in the future. Her depressing plan however gets interrupted when there is a knock on the door.
She opens the door and on the other side is Jen, who storms through the door as if she is on a mission.
“I don’t mean to barge in Andie, but I got such a good bottle of wine.” Jen breezes through the living room towards the kitchen.
“Hi, you are not-” Andie doesn’t get to finish her surprise greeting because Jen is on a roll. And they had learned a long time ago that if Jen was on a roll, you just gotta wait it out.
“I know it is good, because I stole it from Gale Leery’s last Christmas party. And not even from the open bar, I stole it from Mitch’s personal collection. And Chinese food, because what cheers anybody up more than Chinese food? Not this music, I’ll tell you that,” she complains, handing over the wine and going over to Andie’s phone still plugged-in to the home theatre system, scrolling through her ‘Apple Music’ and the depressing playlist she had playing.
Andie smiles to herself, this is absolutely the most Jen thing to do.
“Thank you.”
“You are playing Lonely House by Abby Lincoln”, Jen looks up from phone to glare at her for a moment and then continues her search for holy grail of feel-good music.
“I had Adele on earlier, so that was worse.” Her weak attempt to defend her choice.
“No, no, no, Adele is for sad times. We're gonna--we're gonna rock this party.” Jen says without looking up, still searching for better music, and meanwhile puts a Billy Joel on.
Andie realises what mission Jen is on. She surveys the food and picks up the wine bottle. Now she has never claimed to be a wine connoisseur, but this bottle looks really expensive. They all had heard the rumours about Mitch's private wine collection when they were teens. Over the years, the rumours got full blown into a legend and Mitch’s collection became something akin to the treasure cave from the Arabian Knights story of ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’. It quickly became a running joke in the family.
“This looks really nice.” She was still amazed at the expensive Jordan Cabernet.
“Yeah I just thought –“ Jen starts to say but gets cut off by another knock on the door.
Without waiting for an answer, Jack pokes his head in, carrying a bottle of wine and a bag of food herself. “Andie?”
“Oh my God!” was the only response she was capable of.
“Hi. I thought you might want some company.” Jack enters the house and starts walking to the kitchen as well.
Andie starts to think that maybe they planned this. “Did you call each other or…?”
But Jen says, “Great minds, great minds,” so Andie thinks it might just be a sweet coincidence after all. She is not complaining at all.
“I brought some Thai food,” Jack unceremoniously dumps the content of his bag on the island counter, “and a bottle of much cheaper wine than that,” he says, gesturing to the Cabernet still in Andie’s hand.
“Okay,” is all Andie can think to say.
“How did you even afford this at least 500 dollar wine working at that music studio?” Jack eyes Jen suspiciously. He was missing something here, he was sure.
“I can’t.” Jen throws a smirk his way before replying, “Guess from where I stole it?”
It takes few seconds for Jack’s brain to catch up.
“You gotta be kidding me.” He almost yells, astonished. “What are you saying here is, not only you found the ever-elusive Magellan’s treasure of wine, but you managed to snatch one bottle from it.”
“I have skills, baby. When are you guys ever gonna learn that?” Jen just pats his head, still searching for better music on the app.
“I am not even going to ask you about your whole ‘Uncharted’ adventure of wine stealing right now. Let the truth of it sink in me first.” He is still shaking his head.
“I am not even gonna tell you about that adventure. It makes for an excellent campfire story and I am gonna wait until you and Doug take us to camping. You promised the trip a year ago, now this story is another motivation.”
“Well, to listen to the story of the greatest heist of this century, I am sure even Officer Doug will take some time out of force” He chuckled at Jen, heading towards her. “And Billy Joel seriously? What is wrong with you guys?” He snatches the phone out of Jen’s hands, which she was going to hand him anyway. She couldn’t find anything on that cumbersome UI that will lift the mood around here.
Jack scrolls for few seconds before putting Britney Spears on. Jen just shakes her head; she should have known his definition of music is limited to this. She tries to snag the phone back but his almost a foot height advantage means her outstretched hands can’t reach his. She tries to step on his toes, but her tiny weight doesn’t affect the Neanderthal.
“There we go, that’s some feel good music. I vote for getting a little buzz on before we get into the carbs. Enjoy a little face numbing, what do you say?” Jack sniggers, holding his hand gripping the phone away from Jen.
Jen gives up.
“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. I will get the plates.” Andie laughs at their antics, moving to the other side of the island counter.
He watched as Andie went to the other side of counter to fetch some water. He turns to Jen and whispers, “Hey, Good job, you.”
“You are a good person.” Jen whispers back.
“You’re a better person than I thought you were.” Jack points the finger at her and then at himself.
“You’re a better brother than I ever could’ve imagined.”
“You’re a better person than –“
“You guys”, Andie smiles, amused by their conversation. “I’m right here.”
“Huh?” Jen plays dumb.
“What—" Jack sputters, following Jen’s lead, like he has done his whole life.
“We love you” Jen quickly replies to throw Andie off her scent.
They all sit down around the coffee table in living room. Jen and Jack take the couch. Andie takes the chair and opens the wine bottle.
“Even my dry cleaner asked me….” Apparently, it was bubbling so close to surface that Andie needs only a glass of wine to open up.
“Of course, the dry cleaner asked.” Jen lends her sympathetic ear.
“Why I had no shirts for my husband.”
“The dry cleaner knows all.”
“Oh, my God, I'm gonna have to tell everybody that I'm separated?” Andie’s face displays her shock, as if she can’t imagine the numerous conversations, she gotta have with friends and strangers now, telling everyone about her and Will.
“Oh, honey, you don't have to do anything you don't wanna do.” Jen speaks softly. But even she knows the nosy society members of this town will never stop intruding on their private lives.
“I don't want to. I don't--I don't wanna tell anybody else.” Andie’s voice falters.
“Don’t worry about the dry cleaners Andie. They are just in the business of dirty laundry.” Jack contributes with a little pun to lift her concerns.
Jen starts laughing at the joke, when under normal circumstances, she would have ripped Jack apart with the barrage of counter-puns.
Somehow it gets them at least a snort from Andie. But it doesn’t last long.
“You guys, I can't even look at Grams. And dad.”
“Why?”
“Its just – because I'm the black sheep.” Andie answers hesitantly.
“Of our ad hoc family?” Jen understands her. Andie nods slightly.
“Hey, look who you're talking to.” Jack is incredulous. “You remember me coming out to Dad, don’t you? I think that event put you forever behind in this undignified race to the blackest sheep of family.”
At this, Andie appears suitably chastised. “Okay not the black sheep. Maybe a grey sheep.”
“You're not even on the spectrum of black sheep.” Jen vehemently agrees with Jack. “Think of all the stuff that two of us have done to make Grams feel ashamed and embarrassed. You go marry an inept guitarist of a lowbrow rock band against Grams’ wish; only for him to run away and leave you 6 months pregnant with a girl and no job, forced to move back in her Grams’ house…”
“And you fall in love with someone who doesn’t want to acknowledge your love in public. Someone who loves his image in town more than himself” Jack chimes in.
“And then you talk to me about being a black sheep.” Jen finishes.
“Sorry guys, I didn’t mean it like that.” Andie quickly apologised. She knows. She knows none of their lives are perfect. At least she had her husband nearby. She had seen how Jen struggled with the baby. She had watched Jack fight with Doug and the society for his love.
“Its okay.” Jen rubs her shoulder. “We are just saying here, that this will pass too. He will realise his mistake about leaving you.”
“And if that doesn’t happen, my offer to kick his ass still stands” Jack has his own brand of assurance.
They hear the knock on the front door before the sound of its opening travels through air. They all looked expectantly at the corner of kitchen which leads to the hall.
And of course, he appears in front of them.
Chorus of heys and a random whistle, which she is sure Jen is the source of, erupts from the sitting area. He could see questions on their faces so he quickly interrupts their further inquisition.
“Hey, wait a minute!” he jokes as he spots Jen and Jack. “I know you told me not to come but I couldn’t leave you alone with these two,” he adds, kissing the top of Andie’s hair before sitting down on the armrest of her chair.
“I can’t believe you came Pacey.” She had never felt so lucky before.
“Everybody came on their own.” He adds.
“This is ridiculous.” Andie shakes her head.
“Unbelievable.” Adds another exclamation.
“Of course, I came.” He wraps an arm around her and squeezes her shoulder.
“Wait a minute, weren’t you and Joey on the vacation yesterday? You ruined your vacation for me.” She didn’t want that. She knows they had a little time to themselves these days and didn’t want her problems to cut into that.
“I mean our stay was over tonight anyway. And we did all the things we wanted to and coming home today meant we could avoid the Monday traffic in Boston.” Pacey, never the one to take a compliment, adds sheepishly.
“But you left Joey alone with the baby? She is going to kill you.” Jen says though her smile, without an iota of regret over possible future murder of Pacey.
“Actually” Pacey holds up a finger, “You daughter was very kind offering her services. So, Amy took Lily to Grams’ house and I think all our kids are there too.” Then he looked at Andie and smiled softly. “Jo really wanted to come Andie but she gets tired quickly nowadays; with that new drug regimen.”
“No, its okay.” Andie quickly insisted. “Please make sure you tell her its okay. Actually, I will go over to your house after work tomorrow. I want to hear all about the trip and we got a lot of other talking to do.”
“Yeah, I will join you too.” Jen adds happily, a little too enthusiastically, wine was starting to show its effect.
Pacey noticed her slurring. “Having a little party, are we?” He taunts Jen.
“We were just playing who's the blackest sheep of the family game.” Jen ignores his attempt to goad her.
“It is a ridiculous game.” Andie adds, still embarrassed about starting the topic itself.
“And you are not allowed to play.” Jack sneers at him from the couch.
“It's hard being Mr. perfect pants.” Jen adds sarcastically.
“Hold up a second here.” Pacey is hysterical. “Did you guys forgot about me being the original black sheep of not only the Witter family but this entire town itself. Have you guys forgot the things I did in high school?”
“Yeah, yeah” Jen dismisses him waving her hand. “Those are the ancient stories. You stopped being black sheep of anything ever since you kissed Joey.”
“Exactly. Apart from your patent smartass comments, you haven’t been a black sheep since you and Joey got together. Look at the life you two have built together. You have turned into this perfect caring guy who looks after all of us like a big brother or something.” Jack agreed with Jen wholeheartedly.
Pacey can see they were clearly drunk.
“Spot on Jackers.” They were taking turns to embarrass him, apparently. “You have always been there for all of us Pacey. Anytime one of us have a problem, you are the first one we call. So, you can blow the pipe of ‘Ba Ba black sheep’ all day, but I bet you are number one on the speed dial of Grams since a decade.”
“Not only Grams, Doug has consistently whined in my ears over the years about how Pacey has replaced him as their father’s favourite son a long time ago.” Jack used his turn effectively.
“Not only Mr. Witter Jack, even our dad called him before us last Christmas, when his car got stuck in the blizzard between Boston and Capeside.” Andie was not helping the situation here.
“But does the credit belongs to him? I think we all should be thanking Joey. Or maybe pulling her hair for turning him into this person Grams expects all of us to live up to.” Jen was on a roll again. This conversation was getting out of his hands now. He decided to reel it back in.
“Because he couldn’t reach you Jackers. And he didn’t want to disturb your meeting Andie. And I think on that note we should change the subject now.” Pacey put the stop their Praise Fest.
“How many bottles of wine away are we here anyway?” Pacey picks up the Cabernet from the floor and pours into a glass nearby. He empties the bottle into it, but it only fills the glass half full, much to his chagrin.
“Oh!” Jen is still buzzed.
“Who’s counting?” Jack mumbles at the same time.
“Oh, the auditor is here.” Andie snorts into her glass.
“No, no, I just might have to play a little catch-up here,” Pacey says, emptying the glass.
“Wait a minute! What wine is this?” Pacey is mesmerised by its taste and picks up the bottle again. “Is this the Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, 2003?” Pacey may not know many things in the world but he knows his alcohol. It is an essential knowledge if you want to run a restaurant chain on spanning across the east coast anyway.
Jen perked up at his praise and beamed at him. “Guess from where I acquire this thing?”
Pacey decides to take the guessing game all too seriously.
“Of course, you didn’t buy it. Not because you can’t afford it but you are just cheap, Lindley.” He hassles her and laughs as he got the expected reaction out of her. Donning his wine detective hat, he continues, “but this is not a gift either. No one in their right mind would spend 500 bucks on a wine and then not drink it themselves.”
“Unless they are in a wine-selling business.” Jack added his two cents.
“Right Jackers. But still Jen did not buy this from a store or a restaurant either.” He mulled over the facts presented before him and suddenly something clicked in his brain.
He looked at Jen wide-eyed. “Is this…..Is this from the Magellan’s treasure of wine?”
“That’s what I said” Jack was laughing now.
“Yep, Pacey and now you owe me 100 bucks.” Jen exclaims triumphantly. “See Andie, I not only managed to drink 500 bucks’ worth of wine, which I frankly did not know it was that expensive until Pacey told us; but now I get 100 bucks from him as I won the bet, we made more than 10 years ago.” She was smiling from ear to ear.
“But I don’t understand this.” Pacey still couldn’t believe it. “I practically grew up in that house. I had a head start. I looked everywhere for Mitch’s wine collection. I only ever heard about the stories from him. I noticed a bottle or two in his hands on occasion, but I never could find the source. That’s why I made that bet with you, years ago. Then I even added Jack, Joey and Doug into the bet.” Pacey became contemplative. “Even Jo couldn’t find it.”
“How did you even do it?” he really wanted to know.
“Oh No! She is not telling us. We are supposed to take her camping to hear that story because apparently it is a campfire story.” Jack adds dryly, not amused by her hiding the story, which he was sure would be pretty adventurous.
“Atta Boy.” Jen leaned back on couch and patted Jack’s head.
“We gotta take her camping Jack, we gotta hear the story.” Pacey urges Jack.
“Are you hungry, Pacey? We got so much food left. And Jack’s got a wine too. Although it would taste like a piss after drinking this wine” Jen really wanted to save her story; it seems.
“No thanks, Lindley. I already ate with Jo. Actually, the first part of our deal that allowed me to come here was to cook her a dinner – a dish she was trying to make me cook for her since weeks now.” Pacey chuckled as the memories of Joey whining at him at every possible free moment for that dish came to his mind.
“What dish? And when are we gonna get to taste it?” Jack ever the food aficionado asks eagerly.
“Chicken Biryani. Its an Indian dish her boss recommended her a while ago and ever since she has been on my coattails about it.”
“Sounds delicious.” Jack involuntarily licked his lips. Pacey could only laugh at this.
“What was the other part of the deal?” Andie asks innocently.
Pacey’s face lit up in a Cheshire grin like he was only waiting for this question and Jen knew immediately what it was. “Well Andie, she really wanted to try this new sex position she read in–“
“Stop that” Jen shrieks at him. “We don’t want a reminder of your boisterous sex life while we aren’t getting any.” She pointed fingers between herself and Andie.
“Speak for yourself”, Jack muttered under his breath, quickly locking his lips before Jen’s ire turn towards him.
Andie remained silent for a while, watching the bantering continue around her. She still could not believe them. They were all here, for her. She felt like she needed to thank them, while not using that phrase exactly.
“Guys, I can’t – I can’t believe that you’re all here, I can’t believe that you all – that each of you thought to come over here.” Words tumbled out of her mouth in a whirl of different emotions like amazement, happiness, and sadness.
“Of course, we did,” they all echo at the same time.
“But no, not of course.” Her squeaky voice made its way through her scratchy throat, tight with overwhelming love for this makeshift family, a band of misfits, that would always evoke in her. The family that was always there for her. Her vision was clouded with tears but she willed not to let them fall. They are here to cheer her. And they always do. Even when life punches her in her face, even when her husband leaves her and she has to suffer the whole weekend in solitary confinement away from her kid. Especially then.
“This is amazing. You guys are amazing.” She probably should thank them. But then she won’t hear the end of it. They wouldn’t accept that she needs to thank them for doing this. So, she has to settle for this. But amazing doesn’t even cover up the thing they are doing today, let alone what they did for past 2 decades of her life.
“We love you”, Jen held her hand and spoke softly at the same time - “Of course we are here”, Jack declared from across the coffee table, always speaking over Jen.
“Where else we would be”, Pacey squeezed her shoulder and smiled down at her from where he was sitting on the armrest. And she thought, he could be with Joey. He should be with Joey on the vacation in Vermont. They needed that vacation, especially considering the year they both went through. Andie wonders sometimes if she will ever be able to find a love like Joey and Pacey. The rest of the family teasingly calls their love, a ‘True Love’, behind their backs; and sometimes even to their face when they are being too cuddly in a group setting. But times like this, she knows its not a teasing, its just a fact. It is something they all have been guilty of being jealous of at one point or the other in their lives. Of course, they all had found love of their own or loves, depending on who you ask– but look at how it all turned out. An argument about a band tour broke Jen’s relationship. An issue of coming out to whole of Capeside once forced Jack and Doug apart. Although thankfully, they seemed to be doing good now. A simple kiss with a stranger managed to destroy her marriage with Will. But even a fatal cancer couldn’t separate Pacey and Joey. Life threw curveballs after curveballs at them, but they remained undeterred. From time to time, she draws her strength from them. They all do. She needs that strength now. She has to talk to Will soon. Not today or this week. Or even this month. But soon. This was too important to give up. She would not give up.
“Hey young lady, where did you go?” Pacey snapped his fingers in front of her gloomy eyes and she was brought back from her musings.
Jack recognised the look of longing and pain in her eyes.
“We're supposed to be cheering you up though, not cheering you down.” Jack tries a quip in an attempt to lift her spirits.
“You are cheering me up.” She shook her head as if to ward off any negative thoughts. “Having you all around always cheers me up.” She beamed back at Jack. His shoulders finally relaxed, for the first time since he entered the house, at seeing his sister smile like that.
“It feels like a cheer-down.”
“No” she insists. It’s the opposite actually and she can’t tell them in words how much this means for her.
Just as it feels like the atmosphere around them is overtly charged with emotions, music works its magic.
“Watch out you might get what you're after
Boom babies strange but not a stranger”
Burning down the house by Talking Heads starts blaring through her home theatre and Pacey grabs at the tension-relieving moment like a lifeline. He know he needs to divert them from serious topics tonight if they want to cheer her up. He straightens up at the sound of beat and starts his ‘feeling uncomfortable face’ routine.
Of course, Andie falls for it.
“Hey, are you feeling well?” Concern itched across her forehead.
“I don't know if it's this wine, but suddenly I'm not feeling so well.” He makes a show at grabbing his chest. “Can you feel my forehead?” Andie turns towards him worriedly and lifts her palm to his head, to check if he is warm or something.
Jen, always the most observant of bunch, picks up on what he is trying to do.
“You know what he's coming down with?” Jen smirks at Pacey, still holding Andie’s hands.
“Is he coming down with fever?” Andie grins when she slowly realises Pacey’s intentions too.
“Don’t worry Andie, I think our Dr. Bruce is turning into a hulk at the sound of Talking Heads.”
“Maybe you know where you are
Fightin' fire with fire”
Both Andie and Jack laugh at Pacey’s theatrics. He gets up slowly, shaking his whole body at the beats of music while walking up to speaker and turning up the music.
“Come on guys” Pacey sequels, slowly moon-walking towards the centre of the living room.
“That means I get to watch.” Andie knows what’s coming for her, but tries to get out of the dance anyway.
Jen and Jack stand up too and walk to her. “We can't let him do this by himself. He needs someone on floor to make him look less like a clown and more like a dancer” Jen tries pulling at her hand while Jack urges her to join the dance off too. Meanwhile, Pacey has started his chicken dance, which is a clear invitation for a dance-off.
“Come on Andie, lets show off that smartass how we McPhees roll.”
“This isn’t even my era…” Andie tries to protest, one last time, in vain.
“Talking heads is everyone's era” Jack exclaims over music and pulls her up. They both drag her to the floor where Pacey is already gearing up for his classic moves. Or at least what he calls them when all he does is flailing arms and legs, in her opinion.
“Come On Andie”, Jen shouts from behind Pacey; they had already started doing some weird dance routine they always do, which they claim to have perfected over the decade of dancing at random parties.
“Look at the fever. Let’s just follow them.” Jack practically drags her in the middle and starts showing off his own moves.
“Three hun-dred six-ty five de-grees
Burning down the house”
“Oh my God” shaking her head, Andie reluctantly joins them. With some prompt from Jen, she manages to swing her arms and legs enough to give an illusion of dancing.
This continues for few songs. Then somehow another 90s rock song comes through the speakers.
Pacey suddenly straightens up after one particular beat and they all know what’s coming now. A beat gets dropped in the song while Pacey drops on the floor, supported on his palms. Then he attempts his famous worm wave, the one he did at their Prom, years ago. But unfortunately for him and luckily for them, they all saved from the horror as his old middle-aged body is not at all cooperating him with the waves. And he ends up twisting his ankle, in a weird way. She can only laugh at him.
But Jack doesn’t seem to learn this lesson from Pacey and is not far behind. He attempts his usual Jazz Split – and pulls off pretty well to everyone’s surprise. But immediately after standing up he doubles over in pain and walks back to sit gingerly at the edge of couch. That is going to hurt for a while, Andie’s pretty sure.
And this is when they decide that they had enough of dancing; Pacey on the floor, Jack on the couch, even Jen sitting on chair looked tired.
And Andie thinks she is really lucky to be in this hodgepodge of a family. That these are the best people she has ever met. And she loves them so much. And she is thankful every day for them. Not that she is ever going to tell them. Because Jen and Joey know everything either way and Pacey and Jack’s heads are big enough already.