Word: largesse

 

largesse

\ lahr-JES, LAHR-jis \  , noun;

1. generous bestowal of gifts.

2. the gift or gifts, as of money, so bestowed.

3. Obsolete.  generosity; liberality.

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Joe slumped down onto the nearest chair, which happened to be one of the least comfortable folding chairs in the place.  He didn’t care.  He was too grateful to be sitting.  The sounds of many small, running feet and the accompanying laughter and shouts wouldn’t let him have a proper rest though.  Heather, his wife, sat down next to him, equally worn out.

               “Whose idea was it to have twenty kids over for this thing?”  Joe asked.

               “We accepted because Nathan wouldn’t stop asking, remember?”  Heather replied. 

Their son’s seventh birthday party was large, to say the least.  Not only had they allowed him to invite twenty of his classmates—which he had told them were all his friends—but there were relatives to deal with as well.  The second category was not all bad though.  Some of the older cousins that still had some energy left were still doing their best to corral twenty seven year olds that had been loaded with cake, ice cream, and other assorted junk foods.  It was an uphill battle though, and the adults were losing ground by the minute as the hyperactive kids ran circles (literally in most cases) around them.

“Oh, right.”  Joe said, regretting that decision even more than when he had made it.

“Should we try again?”  Heather asked.

“Five minutes.  Let them run around a bit more.  Maybe they’ll have burned off some steam.”

“You’re kidding, right?”  Heather asked, looking at her husband with a deadpan glare. 

“Just a bit.  Still, you have to admit, five minutes sounds real good right now.”  Any amount of rest sounded good at that point.

“Ok, five minutes it is.” 

Several other worn out adults, both relatives and parents, came to join them, finding as much sanctuary as they could.  They all knew it was temporary, but it was something they needed.  Soon though, Joe and Heather nodded to each other.  Heather slowly got up out of the chair and headed over to the basement where the kids were playing.

She was instantly assailed by the noise of twenty kids all shouting at once.  The older cousins who tried to keep them in line looked at her hopefully.  She looked for something to get their attention, eventually finding it in the form of the TV which had been turned on at some point in a futile effort to maintain order.  Heather turned it off and the lack of background noise drew some attention.  Not all, but enough.

“Ok, it’s time for presents!”  She said, trying to act happy about it.” 

It was like a stamped.  Nathan was, of course, the first one up the stairs, blowing past his mother like a storm.  The others followed.  Heather thought she would be trampled by tiny feet as they roared past her.  Fortunately most of them moved around her, but a few did bump into her.  All in all, the announcement went better than she hoped.  She followed them up stairs to see what was happening.

               Nathan was already tearing into his first gift, one from a classmate—or his mother at any rate.  It was a small little RC car, but Nathan seemed to love it.  The next gift was similar, only in the form of a motorcycle.  The room seemed to fill with torn wrapping paper as Nathan devoured his many gifts.  Most of them were toys or books, but clothing was represented in considerable amount as well. 

“Here we are, you can open mine next.”  Said Vicky, one of Joe’s older sisters as she handed the boy her colorfully wrapped box.  Joe and Heather looked nervously at each other.  Vicky was quite well off, and loved to flaunt it by getting the most expensive things she could, playing it off as generosity. 

“Oh wow!”  Nathan cried out when he saw what was in the box.  It was the latest video game console, something that the boy’s parents had not wanted to see.  Not only had Vicky gotten the system, but a small library of (thankfully age appropriate) games.  The other kids ooo’d and aww’d when they saw what he had gotten.

“My, wasn’t that…nice of you.”  Heather said, looking at the gift giver. She eyed Joe, who returned the looked with an equally annoyed one.

He gave a subtle signal to his sister to speak with her in private while Heather managed to keep the unwrapping process going.  Vicky looked confused by the act, but followed anyway.

“Something wrong?”  She asked smugly.

“I thought I asked you not to get things like that.”  Joe said.

“Really?  I must not have gotten that e-mail.” 

“Seriously Vicky, we’re trying not to get Nathan hooked on video games, and you get him that thing?”

“Oh please, a few games every now and then won’t hurt the boy.  My kids play regularly and lead perfectly healthy lives.”

Joe blinked at that.  Her older son was nearly blind from playing all hours of the day and her younger son weighed as much as Joe did, even though the kid was barely four feet tall.  He desperately wanted to call his sister out on that one, but he was too polite to say anything.  At least while there was company around.  He would make sure to let her have it after the guests left though.  But, there were a still a few things he could say right then and there.

“We’ll take about that later.  But still, I know you got the e-mails.  You responded to them.  I specifically said no video games, and you agreed.”

“Did I?  Huh, I guess I did.  Well, if you want you can say it’s from Henry.  Will that do?”  Vicky’s husband was not the type to make decisions.  In fact, he was something of a fall guy for situations exactly like this one.  Vicky simply blamed him when she did something contrary to what others wanted her to.   Nobody but the two of them felt they had anything like a healthy relationship.

“You already said it was from you.  “  Joe said, crossing his arm.

“Ah, so I did.  Oh well.  You can’t exactly get rid of it now, can you?  Nathan would be so disappointed.”  She looked at her brother, her already smug smirk becoming even more so.  Joe couldn’t really counter that in any polite way.  Just then, Nathan came tearing into the room, clutching a new action figure like it was made of precious gems.

“Dad, dad, look what Tommy got me!”  He said excitedly, holding the still unopened box up.

“That’s great buddy.”  He said, giving his son a half hearted smile.  “We’ll talk about this later.”  He said much quieter to Vicky.

“Of course.”  She said.

Nathan grabbed his father’s hand and pulled him back out to the living room, more than ready to open the last few presents.  

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I'm sure every family has one person like this in them.  Maybe not quite this...exaggerated, but still there.