Bitter pill to swallow part 2

She has issues

Ginny watched her brother calmly eat his apple and frowned.

“You don’t seem at all surprised,” she said.

“Why should I be?” Paul replied.

“Well…did you hear what I said? Greta told Pop that we can’t wait for him to die so we can have all his money.” 

“My hearing is excellent,” he said, taking a last bite and tossing the apple core into the compost bucket under the sink. He then washed his hands, picked up his guitar and sat back down. 

He started strumming and then said, “Told you she has issues. She talks about you behind your back all the time.”

Ginny gasped. “She does? You never told me that!”

“You never asked.”

Ginny’s mouth fell open. “What…what …that’s not the kinda thing anyone asks!” she shrieked. “Oh, by the way, does such and such talk about me behind my back?”

“It would make things easier,” Paul said, matter-of-fact, as he played a familiar Beatles tune in an unfamiliar way.

Ginny listened for a bit and liked it very much, but then she shook her head impatiently. “Well? What does she say about me?”

“Hmm, the best one was that you have no opinion of your own. You just agree with whatever Ned says. she thinks you're little more than milquetoast,” he said derisively.

“She really said that?” Ginny said.

“Oh, sure, but I wouldn’t allow it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I told her she had it all wrong. Anyone who has a brain and sees you and Ned interact for more than a minute can see you’re totally in tune with each other. I told her it’s not that you don’t have an opinion but that you and Ned have the same opinion."

"I'm surprised you do," she said, looking at her brother in awe.

"For Pete’s sake, you barely have to talk and you know what the other is thinking. You finish each other’s sentences. Just a look and…” He suddenly started laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“Oh, Greta...she just hates that I contradict her and I do it all the time. I may be the only one who does. She’s such a bully."

"Uh, what does that have to do with..."

"Well, you should have seen the look on Greta’s face when I told her all that. Like she was eating lemons dipped in turpentine. It was hilarious!”

Ginny, however, didn’t find anything to laugh about. All this time she thought she had a confidant in Greta or at the very least a friend. What a fool she had been!

“I never said that, what she told Pop. You know how Ned is. Practical and logical. He was telling them…Stan mostly but Greta was there too…”

“Sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong, as usual,” Paul muttered, irritated.

“I guess. Ned told them that he explained to Pop that the IRS would snatch half of his money upon his death. Pop blew a gasket when he heard how much the IRS would steal from him.  He said, ‘A death tax on top of all the other ways they taxed that money already? Los Ladrones!’ He yelled for a half hour and called them a few other choice words. Totally livid.”

“I can imagine,” Paul said. "The IRS is completely out of control."

“He explained to Pop… this was the last time we were there, last Christmas… he told him some ways he could use to keep as much of it as possible, like he should start dividing his money and giving it away as gifts. I mean, he knows he’s got to give it away to someone anyway, so he may as well give some now so he won’t get penalized with the inheritance tax.”

“I like calling it what it really is, the death tax, just like he said.”

“Ned told Pop he should give you some now, since you could use it to buy a new car and maybe get a nice little house. I hope you don’t mind he told him that,” she said a bit anxiously.

Paul shrugged. “I don’t care, but I don’t want his money and he won’t give it anyway.  Not without loads of strings attached and I don’t like strings.”

Ginny sighed. Her brother and father never really did get along. “Anyway, Pop either didn’t understand what Ned was explaining or is procrastinating.”

“It’s a family trait.”

 “Not understanding money matters or procrastinating?” she asked, a bit of a smile finally showing up.

He laughed. “Both I’d say!”

“So, you believe me that I never said I want Pop dead so I could have all his money?”

“Of course I do! You’re no money grubber. What? You think I’m gonna believe anything coming out of Greta’s jealousy?”

“Jealousy? Why would you say she’s jealous?”

“Come on! Just look at you. You lead a charmed life,” he said.

Ginny blinked stupidly. “I do?”

He laughed at her. “Okay, maybe not charmed. I mean you did almost die a couple of times and…”

“What?” she said, totally thrown.

“When you got your appendix taken out. I overheard Mom talking to… what was that lady’s name? Remember Aunt Sohpie’s friend, that really smart old lady? I think she was Cuban.”

“Dolores?”

“Yeah, that’s her! She had been translating what the doctor said for Mom. She said you almost died. Weird, huh? In this day and age, almost dying from an appendix is unheard of. Of course, you were only twelve at the time.”

“I had no idea,” Ginny said, her eyes wide in shock.

“But you knew you could’ve died giving birth.”

“Oh, that wasn’t even close. It was just a routine c-section.”

“No c-section is routine and it probably caused the autism. And Lonny was way premature and he almost did die. They were tough babies for you. Ned was scared to death he would lose you, too. I was there, so I know.”

She rolled her eyes.  “You’re exaggerating!”

“No, I'm not. You had that fire in the house, too, and lost most of your stuff.”

“This is your idea of a charmed life?”

“No,” he said, laughing. “It’s that no matter what bad things come your way, you still manage to be happy and fine with it. You have a great attitude. You and Ned stay together, you even grow closer through stuff that usually, at least nowadays, breaks families up. And you never fight.”

“Of course we do!”

“Not nearly as much as normal people,” he said.

“So, now we’re abnormal?” she shouted.

“Definitely Abby Normal.  I love that movie. I should go look for it,” he said.

Ginny rolled her eyes.  Leave it to her nutty brother to go off on a tangent. “So, you’re saying Greta is jealous because Ned and I are still together? But she’s still with Stan. That can’t be it.”

“But she fights constantly with him. She fights with everybody, but that’s another story. She knows you and Ned are deliriously still lovey-dovey after all these years and she can’t stand it. You should be as miserable as she is. She doesn’t have the same outlook as you, either, or the same inner peace and she knows it. I told you, she has issues.”

“And what are these issues?”

“Heck if I know. I just know she’s one of those miserables—you know, the French revolution types. She’s never happy. So she tries to spread misery to all around her. I guess that’s supposed to make her feel better, but don’t ask me how.”

“That’s exactly what Mom told me,” Ginny said.

“That’s why I tell her nothing or very little. She’ll only twist it around and use it to slander you. Think I’d ever tell her my roommate is female? Hell no! She’ll just turn it into something sleazy. Who needs that?”

Ginny stared at her brother in awe. “You’ve opened my eyes, Paulie. Thanks. Have any advice? What I should do about Pop?”

Paul shrugged. “Let him stew in it for now. He’ll get over it in time and then it’ll be as if it never happened.”

Ginny made a face. “You really think that’ll work?”

He grinned. “Let’s put it this way, Pop has issues of his own and only he can deal with them. Nothing we can do about that. He’ll have to get over it and if he doesn’t, well, Pop still can’t take it with him. I’m hoping he leaves all his money to the church. We all know they never have enough golden challises. Did I tell you….”

Ginny smiled as she half listened to Paul’s favorite rant, religious hypocrisy. Perhaps he was right. Things would just blow over with nary a word spoken about it. It usually happened in this issue-filled family. 

As for Greta, God would have to deal with her. It simply wasn’t Ginny’s place nor desire to deal with her devious aunt. 

Perhaps—and this gave Ginny a chuckle—God could have Beelzebub handle Greta.  They were kindred spirits of sorts and only the likes of him should be able to do something with her…unless, of course, Beelzebub has issues too!