Dinner Party, Part II

Posted on 11 Feb 2015 @ 1:00am by Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen & Lieutenant Olsam Mott

1,329 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: Wasabiya Sushi Cafe, Starbase 84
Timeline: MD9, 1920 hrs

[ON]

"Anya, calm down," protested Aksel, following his wife who was storming down the promenade.

"Calm down? Calm down!?" Anya was in a fit of rage. "My own daughter got married without telling me! And you saw how rude those Bolians were! Trying to compare our daughters, and marry off Jaana already! Can you imagine having them as inlaws!"

"I'm sure they're perfectly nice people once you get to know them. I mean, that Olsam fellow was obviously good enough for Tuula--"

"No, Aksel, they're insane! They're loud, obnoxious, rude, and the most gluttonous people I've ever met!" With that, Anya's redirected her rage onto a new target. "And you, Jaana, how could you not tell me that your sister got married! Tuula I can see doing something this impulsive, but you were always the responsible one! How could you not tell me that your own twin sister had married that... that... thing!"

"I didn't know about their marriage until after the fact." Jaana yelled back to her mother and walked a few steps in the opposite direction with her hands in her hair. This was so getting out of hand, she thought. Tears were starting to appear in the corner of her eyes. She didn't want this. What was supposed to be a small lie to help their friend had turned out in a huge disaster. Causing pain and humiliation to the people she loved. She looked in the lighting mounted to the ceiling to stop the tears from falling.

This couldn't go on anymore. She turned around after taking a deep breath and putting her emotions away. But when she saw her is and iti. Her mother all read of fury, breathing heavily and her father trying to calm her down. But looking closer at her father she could see the embarrassment and shame on his face. Then she decided that this had been enough. They had to know the truth. She loved her sister and admired what she would do to help her friends, but Jaana knew that Tuula had never intended for their parents to get hurt. She quickly glanced around to see if there weren't any Bolians that might have followed them before she spoke. "They aren't really married."

If Aksel and Anya's jaws weren't firmly attached, they would have hit the floor. Anya was the first to put her thoughts into words. "What do you mean, they're not even married?"

Jaana started to explain the whole situation. "Olsam is a good friend of Tuula and I don't really know the how, when and why but he desperately needed a wife to keep his family, and mostly his mother of his back."

"Why that little--" Anya was seething mad. "I'm going to go march right back in there and give her a piece of my mind, right in front of her so-called mother in law." She glared back at Jaana. "And don't think I've forgotten about you," she added menacingly before attempting to storm off but finding herself held in place by the wrist. "Aksel, let me go!"

"Anya, wait," interrupted the raging woman's husband, holding her by the wrist. "This Doctor Mott fellow... his friendship clearly means a lot to Tuula, right, Jaana?"

Jaana shrugged. With Tuula you could never know what she felt for someone, but given the fact that she never said a word after asking him as Tuula's date for the ball, she'd assumed Olsam did mean something to her sister. "Tuula is crazy, but she would never do something like this if their friendship didn't mean something to her."

"In that case," Anya sighed deeply and held her hand to her forehead for a moment, "I can't believe I'm doing this for her."

******************

"What makes you people think you can just get up in the middle of a meal like that, huh?"

"Yeah!"

"You should probably just divorce her right now, Olsam, clearly this isn't going to work. We're not going to have people in this family who behave like that."

"Please, my mother is a nice person. She's just... overwhelmed," Tuula tried to explain, defending her parents.

"Overwhelmed? What's that supposed to mean?" Olba asked.

It was at that moment that Anya and Aksel returned to the restaurant with Jaana in tow. Seeing the Bolians go silent and glare at her, Anya walked slowly to the table. "I trust I'm not too late for dessert," she said, watching the staff clean the plates and getting the attention of one of them. "Waiter, fetch me sixteen orders of your most exquisite dessert."

Olba's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What is this, some kind of negotiating tactic? March out of here in a huff and then come back like nothing happened?"

"It's an apology," replied Anya, retaking her seat across from the matriarch of the Motts. "I'm sorry. Tuula didn't tell me about her marriage," she said, turning towards Tuula for a quick glare. "To be honest, I didn't think she would ever settle down. But Jaana here told me how wonderful your son is and how important he is to Tuula." Anya also have Jaana a little glare as well for lying to her. "When I came to visit, I wasn't expecting to be meeting a dozen new inlays for the first time."

Glancing from side to side, Anya saw a dozen Bolians staring at her and Olba. They looked angry, as though they could tear her limb from limb right there. But they had to wait for a cue from their elders before they would do something as drastic as interrupt a meal. "If Olsam is good enough for Tuula's discerning tastes," she continued, glancing down at the orbitoclast for a split second, "then I'll be proud to have him as a son in law. And I'm happy to welcome his family into ours. Olba, I'm sorry I ruined our dinner, but could we at least have some family dessert, on me?"

Olba looked at her for a long moment, heightening the tension in the room. Finally, she relaxed and waved a hand at her end of the table, sending it into a flurry of activity. Most of them actually seemed relieved to be able to get back to the food; custom demanded they stop eating until the matter had been resolved, which was nothing short of torturous for most of the family. It helped that Anya was offering to pay for dessert, which led to the snapping of many blue fingers to summon the wait staff for dessert menus.

"Dessert will work," Olsam grinned, earning himself a swat from his mother.

"Yes, dessert will work," Olba repeated, scowling at her son for stealing her line. "We can use it to bond over how selfish and stupid our children are, and how much they seem to disrespect their parents." The older Bolian cut her eyes to look at Olsam and Tuula in turn, then smiled at Anya and winked.

Anya was relieved at the apparent acceptance of her peace offering. She would just have to worry about damage to her pocketbook later. "Oh, they just never seem to grow up, do they?"

Jaana walked to her sister after her mother seemed to have saved the dinner. She bent to her sisters ear and whispered, "They know! You owe us!" and headed back to her place on the table.

Perplexed, Tuula just nodded at Jaana, acknowledging her whisper. She would have a lot of explaining to do, and she didn't know why her parents decided to assist with the illusion, but for now the fact that she didn't have to continue lying to her parents was a relief. Olsam definitely owed the whole family big time for this one...

[OFF]

Lieutenant (J.G.) Jaana Voutilainen
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Olsam Mott, M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed