Imposing Meanie

 

Her brother-in-law Julius had telephoned her in the morning, 
“I am coming to visit you for the rest of the day! “
Eva had not seen him for ages. She had never been fond of him.
He stood in the doorway, towering over her.
No thoughtfulness of presenting her with a bunch of flowers.
No bar of chocolate or small present for her little daughter.
Arrogant, as always, he soon made himself comfortable on the sofa.
Stretching his long legs in front of him, he surrounded himself
with the papers and magazines on the coffee table, querying:
“Anymore tea in the pot? “, after his third cup.
He moved close to her at the table, and ate with relish the chicken salad she had prepared. “I am rather partial to second helpings”, he said.
Looking at her, “I wish my wife, your sister, would be blond like you!” focusing his adventurous blue eyes searching her face.
He got up from the table and looked at himself very closely in the antique mirror on the wall. Eva noticed this narcissistic behaviour every time he had passed the mirror.
She was beginning to feel uncomfortable in his presence, and was hoping that his visit would be nearing its end.
Her husband had been on a business trip, and she was relieved when he arrived home.
“Hello, my dear chap! How are you? “ Julius said. “Have you eaten?  O good. Maybe you could drive me to the station. Eva and the little girl must also come to wave me goodbye!”
Having arrived on the platform, Julius presented Eva with a medium parcel. 
“This is for you!”   “Goodbye, goodbye!” and the train took him away.
Eva turned to her husband.
“I feel very guilty, silently accusing him of his meanness.
Look, Julius has made amends with this parting gift for us!”
Her husband asked her to open it then and there.
After unwrapping a lot of cardboard and paper, the gift was in view:
It was a signed, framed photograph of Julius!
Well, the next time Eva would not be at home, if he dared to invite himself again!
 
By the way, there will not be a next time, because Julius no longer belongs to the family.
He had an affair with a blond woman and his wife divorced him.
What an ugly, mean, miserly man!

 

©Copyright Erika Seetzen-Woods 2006