Time Warp: Happy Anti-Christmas [Sean, Josh]

[Tomer Berelowitz]

Dec 12, 2009. The second night of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah was a much quieter holiday than Christmas, but Tomer's mom loved parties and any excuse to get together with friends and loved ones. It was not unusual for the Berelowitzes to host dinner parties or visit friends on all eight days (the children either sent to bed early or the visits kept with bedtimes on school nights). But today was a Saturday, and after going to synagogue in the morning they were going to host his mom's side for dinner. There was scurrying around to do last minute cleaning, picking up the dessert, and making everyone presentable. Chicken roasting in the oven perfumed the large apartment, and Tomer had to be told twice to get his nose out of his book and move it, mister.

The girls wore pretty dresses. Rivka's had a full skirt that spun out when she twirled, and she was so delighted with this that Talia was beginning to regret the purchase. Tomer... did not look too different from when he went to school, except that he wore dress pants instead of jeans and had a tie on under his sweater. Because no one wanted to hear it all again, none of them wore green or red, and the blinds had been tilted to allow in the twilight but not the overly obvious not-Hanukkah decorations on the streets.

The guests were all prompt, and as usual, the girls ran to greet everyone and Tomer hung back, peering out from behind his father. Soon everyone was in the living room with drinks and conversation, the adults seated and the children enticed with a dreidel and instead of the usual bowl of mixed nuts, a large bag of Starburst. One of Tomer's favorites. Rivka's too, and she squealed when she saw them. Tomer was not going to let this bit of bribery keep him from the next chapter of Artemis Fowl, but a Look from his dad and a firm hand on his back steered him toward his sisters. Abby had already divided up the candy (into enough piles to include him, the traitor), and Rivka pointedly took a cherry square from his bowl and placed it with everyone else's in the center. Grudgingly, Tomer sat, feeling the familiar flutter in his stomach.

After a few rounds, Abby looked up at the adults. "Someone come play, it's hard with just three!"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean was fifty-two years old, but he doubted that there were many other people who could play pretend as well as he and Josh could. It had been two weeks since Josh had visited for Thanksgiving, two weeks since their last foray into the gray space that existed between friendship and deeper connection, the result of their amorphous boundaries. They hadn’t discussed it, of course, because Josh never wanted to discuss it.

Two weeks later, Sean had come down to New York to visit Josh and his family for the Chanukah holidays, and they behaved as though nothing had happened. Just as they always did.

Part of knowing a family for as long as Sean had known the Bernsteins was the ability to belong without actually belonging. He wasn’t Jewish, he had no interest in becoming Jewish, but he was familiar with the customs, and he earned an invitation to every single holiday and event, irrespective of whether he could attend. The telepath passed between the different subdivisions of the Bernstein clan, going wherever Josh went when he visited for any occasion.

This had brought him to the Berelowitz apartment, home of Talia (whom he had known since she was in middle school), her husband (he had attended their wedding), and their three children (whom he had watched grow up).

He had given his greetings and begun mingling with the adults, complete with a glass of wine in hand, when Abby called for adult assistance. Sean had no illusions that they wanted him specifically; he was just a body. However, he could be a body, he liked the children, and how could he pass up Starbursts?

After excusing himself, he brought himself and his wine over to where the children were playing. With a wide smile on his lips, he asked, “Someone summoned me?”

[Tomer Berelowitz]

In the five or so turns, Tomer was losing, and an orange Starburst was tucked into his cheek. Vivy tended to have the best luck with the dreidel, but Abby had managed to get both gimel and hei, or take all and take half. Tomer didn't mind, it was just a game, and moreover, one he was used to losing. Back before Noah and Jeremiah had become too old or dignified or whatever for dreidel, they'd both had the same sort of knack as Rivka.

When Sean came over to join them, the girls cheered, and Tomer managed a smile. He liked Uncle Josh's friend a great deal. The man had never pushed him into conversation and didn't tease like some of the other adults did when he was pulled out of hiding. The children knew Sean was a telepath too, but since he rarely said anything that brought attention to it they didn't think much about it. Tomer had once wondered if his thoughts were boring to listen to, but he hadn't had the nerve to ask in case the answer was yes.

Abby put together a pile of Starbursts for Sean and after everyone had put a piece in the middle, handed the dreidel to him.

"Does your school have ice skating?" Vivy asked Sean, eyes bright. The three of them had just gone the afternoon before. "Tomer's really good at it. He doesn't fall."

"I only skate in a line," he murmured, stacking his Starbursts in a pyramid. "You fall because you try all that stuff you see on TV."

"Mom says if I keep trying to do a triple axel she's gonna make me wear a helmet," she said gleefully. At ten, Vivy was the family daredevil and safety gear turned ordinary things into adventures. "Bee skates even better than Tomer," she added. "She can even skate backwards and she owns her own hockey skates." Rivka grinned, and Tomer knew what was coming. "Bee is Tomer's girlfriend."

"Shin, Viv." Tomer took a candy from his sister's pile and pocketed it. Rivka laughed.

"Guys." But Abby was smiling too. As Vivy took her turn, she asked Sean, "Has anything fun happened at your school?"

It was kind of like Hogwarts mixed with Sky High. Unlike a lot of people who were familiar with the X-Men, Tomer didn't equate Hammel with Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning, because classroom scenes or not, he didn't think of Xavier's as a real school. As in, a place where failing history would matter.

Pyramid finished, Tomer began to stack them one atop the others to see how tall he could go before they fell. Unlike his sisters, he hadn't looked up at their guest player past his first glance, though he was listening. He sometimes felt guilty about this sort of behavior. It was unfriendly and not very nice, but it was this or fake having to go to the bathroom and hiding under Abby's bed.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh delighted in parties and family gatherings. Although he had spent the travel time with Sean complaining about the inescapable Christmas decorations festooning the outside world these had died on his lips as they had entered his sister's domain, replaced instead by greetings. Like Sean he had quickly found himself with a glass of wine, and then had peeled off to discuss court politics with David.

He enjoyed his brother in law's company; Talia had chosen well.

But soon enough Dwvid, as host, was required to turn his attention elsewhere. Josh raised his glass to his lips as he searched the apartment for someone else to talk to. His gaze landed on his nieces and nephew, who, it appeared, were playing dreidels with Sean. Deciding that one could never go wrong with one's best friend (except in certain circumstances which were never to be discussed) he meandered over.

"I suppose there isn't room for one more," he observed, claiming a spot on the nearest available chair. "Who's winning?"

He flashed a smile in Sean's direction; watching them play reminded him of his own childhood, and the excitement of parties and presents. He always looked forward to Hanukkah, and the eight days of sheer holiday joy that surrounded them in the modern Jewish family.

Further, he remembered the first time he had brought Sean with him to a family Hanukkah party, and teaching his best friend how to play. How long ago that seemed now! They had both been so young and inexperienced, and now...now they were middle aged professionals. Where had the time gone?

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean took the proffered pile of Starbursts, glancing at the distribution of flavors for a moment. Starbursts were a constant, a candy that didn’t experiment with its flavors, and thus it was easy for the telepath to memorize which child enjoyed which flavor the most. That always played a role in how he gambled when children were involved.

After putting in a strawberry Starburst, he reached for the dreidel and, with a flick of his wrist, gave it a good spin. The telepath was a skilled card player, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to handily win games of poker and pinochle. He didn’t quite have the same ability with certain other games of luck, which was why it came as no surprise to him that the dreidel landed with nun face up. A neutral outcome, where he took nothing from the pot nor did he contribute additional Starbursts. Instead, he passed the dreidel to the next person.

“We don’t have ice skating,” he replied to Rivka. “The school doesn’t have a rink, and the water doesn’t freeze enough to let anyone ice skate.” In fact, teachers were on alert to make sure that nobody tried anything that foolish, even with the presence of cryokinetics on campus.

The telepath didn’t latch onto the word girlfriend, although he did latch onto the topic of the girl’s presence in Tomer’s life. “Is Bee in your class, Tomer?”

At the question, Sean lifted his hands, spreading them in a gesture that functioned in lieu of a shrug. “That depends on what you mean by fun.”

Josh’s presence behind him caused the telepath to shift back a bit. “You and I can join together as a team,” he offered. It was common for them to be teammates in any game that allowed them to do so, and he was always happy to spend the time with his best friend.

[Tomer Berelowitz]

Tomer enjoyed Starbursts for that very reason, the constant flavors. There was no substituting, no surprises, and new flavors were kept to different packs like the Tropical or Sour. The net said the single time Starburst had changed its flavor line up, Tomer had not yet been born. So he was content. Tomer favored strawberry and lemon, eating them together to make a sort of strawberry lemonade flavor. Abby liked cherry best, and Rivka had no preference, though Tomer knew she liked eating the orange ones when she was feeling upset because they were a 'happy flavor', whatever that meant. He was eating one now and it was doing nothing to combat the twisting in his stomach.

Vivy promptly got gimel on her turn and collected the pot, and Tomer got shin.

“We don’t have ice skating. The school doesn’t have a rink, and the water doesn’t freeze enough to let anyone ice skate.”

Tomer was surprised by this, as he figured any school that far north that got that much winter would have a rink. But Vivy looked scandalized. "No skating? Oh my gosh. What do you do in the winter then?"

“Is Bee in your class, Tomer?”

"Not this year. We were last year." His stack of Starbursts fell over, with a few falling into the pot. Tomer didn't take them back. If he went out he could stop playing. Maybe. Abby was watching him like a hawk.

Bee and Tomer had been best friends since kindergarten. They had lengthy discussions about everything from kissing to the point of believing in God to whether having curly hair was overly different from having straight hair. And they read books together; their current selection was the Narnia series. Bee's family would come over for lunch next Friday, and later in the month the Berelowitzes would visit them to see their tree and decorations.

“That depends on what you mean by fun.”

Twirling the dreidel, Abby got nun and passed it on. She smiled and shrugged. "Oh, like our school did a canned food drive and the class who brought in the most got ice cream. And theirs-" she nodded to her younger siblings "-had a fair with a raffle."

The girls both grinned at the new arrival. "Uncle Josh!" And Rivka added, "Abby's winning. But we just started." Vivy could get rather competitive with the dreidel.

Tomer looked up as well, with smile on one end of his mouth. Uncle Josh interested Tomer as both a namesake and someone he was occasionally compared to by his mother, but someone he regarded with a certain amount of caution, as Uncle Josh could be as loud and clueless as Talia as well. Tomer couldn't see the resemblance either, though his mom (and dad) assured him it was there.

"Here, you should have more if you're playing together." Abby, ever fair, poured out more Starbursts from the bag into Sean's pile.

Vivy spun and got gimel again, and just as she was emptying the pot their mother called. The girls had wanted to help fry the latkes this year, and it was time. Rivka generously shoved her pile into her brother's and both girls left.

Traitors, Tomer thought again. He looked at Sean and Uncle Josh. After a bit of a pause, he said, "Am I playing against both of you together still?"

[Joshua Bernstein]

"A team it is," Josh agreed, placing his glass on an end table before dragging his chair across the carpet in order to settle closer to Sean. If he was going to participate he ought to remain near, after all.

"Whose turn..." Josh began as Abby turned her attention to the pot, but he was interrupted by his sister calling the girls away. That left himself and Sean against Tomer, which hardly seemed fair.

"We can start the game over," he offered in response to his nephew's query as he fetched his glass. He enjoyed teaming up with Sean, but with two of the previous players n longer involves there was no reason not to wipe the slate clean.

"Or we can pocket all the candy while nobody else is looking. We don't know what happened to it."

Blue eyes twinkled mischievously, belying any attempts at seriousness. Josh wasn't a good liar, regardless, so even if they had attempted to hide all the candy he would have been found out the moment he was questioned.

He inhaled deeply in appreciation of the smells wafting from the kitchen. His sister and nieces were certainly contributing to his waistline tonight. "Your mother has outdone herself again," he declared, sipping his wine and glancing over the pile of starbursts waiting to be redistributed by dreidel. Regardless of whether they began again or picked up where the previous group had left off this would be fun.

"So Tomer," he began, unaware of any of the previous conversation and hoping to elicit some conversation out of his taciturn nephew. "How is school? Do you have any assignments over the break?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

The question of what anyone did in Vermont during the winter was a valid one. Sean received it from children and adults alike, and his answer largely remained the same. “People go sledding or skiing; skiing is very popular outside of the school. There are a lot of indoor activities, where it’s warmer. And the students have a big annual snowball fight.” That occurred right before the winter break, and the students often had a good time with it. Sean was a bit old to participate, since he couldn’t dodge easily, and he was such a large target.

He nodded as Tomer described Bee’s class situation, and then he asked, “Is she nice?” A question that was concerned more with friendship than with any concept of childhood romance.

“We do have parties sometimes. And the students get to go on a week-long camping trip each autumn.” However, before he could describe more of life at Hammel, Talia called the girls away. He waved them off, and then turned towards his friend and Tomer.

“I think starting over is fair. Uncle Josh and I can team up another time.” Such as at a pinochle or poker party, whenever the adults decided they wanted to relax a bit and gamble.

To Josh, he remarked, “If we’re to steal candy, I’d prefer to take the chocolate gelt.”

[Tomer Berelowitz]

“People go sledding or skiing; skiing is very popular outside of the school. There are a lot of indoor activities, where it’s warmer. And the students have a big annual snowball fight.”

Why there was no skating was mysterious, but Tomer thought maybe Sean didn't like skating. If he didn't like doing it, he wouldn't know about it. Vivy's eyes shined at the idea of a school-wide snowball fight, and Tomer had an academic interest himself. As the victim of more than one malicious snowball to the head, being given an opportunity to throw back would not be unpleasant.

"I bet you could make a snowman every day," Vivy said, and that made her siblings smile. The times the Berelowitzes had made the long drive to Pittsburgh to see David's parents for Hanukkah, they'd all enjoyed filling the small yard with snowmen.

The question of whether Bee was nice made Tomer smile again, though he had to think carefully about his answer, to find something to say about her that wouldn't be further fuel for the whole girlfriend argument. "She's very nice," he said finally. "She's smart, and she's good at sports, and she likes to read."

Tomer thought Bee was pretty, too, but he wasn't going to say that. Besides, it wasn't the sort of pretty that boys said about girls they liked, just a factual sort of pretty. Bee had a cheerful smile, long dark blond hair, and somehow managed to keep her clothes in order when she was tomboying around with him and Vivy or playing kickball at recess. Even Tomer's mom said Bee was going to be a heartbreaker when she was older.

"Camping? And snowball fighting. I wanna go to your school," Vivy laughed. She was still grinning when she and Abby left in a swirl of skirts to fry the latkes.

Tomer nodded when the other two were up for starting over and pulled the candy into a pile to redistribute. When everyone had a dozen pieces, he handed the dreidel over to Sean, since he was a guest of a guest, even though he was pretty much family.

"Or we can pocket all the candy while nobody else is looking. We don't know what happened to it."

Sometimes knowing Uncle Josh was a lawyer was a little frightening. Tomer knew he was teasing, but he also knew his mom would not hesitate to turn her brother's pockets inside out the way she did her children's. But - "If you win you can keep it. And you'll probably win."

Uncle Josh trying to discretely pocket all the candy would not work. Uncle Josh saying he won it all playing dreidel with Tomer, sadly enough, would.

“If we’re to steal candy, I’d prefer to take the chocolate gelt.”

Though it wasn't said to him, Tomer felt the need to break the bad news regarding the coins sprinkled over the tables. It was partially his fault. "There isn't chocolate in them. They're plastic. Me and Vivy left some chocolate ones in our pockets last year and they went through the wash."

He smiled apologetically. "There's chocolate for dessert though."

When it was his turn, Tomer got shin again and tossed a cherry candy into the pot.

"So Tomer. How is school? Do you have any assignments over the break?"

That was a loaded question, though his uncle had no way of knowing it. Reluctantly, he said, "We're supposed to interview an old person and make them tell a story about something they did when they were our age." Tomer looked at Uncle Josh with an expression that gave some indication of how things had gone once certain people had found out about the assignment. "Mom said I should ask you."

'Ask' meaning 'begged' and 'offered actual money'. "I told her," he said, "that you're not old. Or... old enough. My teacher said a grandparent would work." Tomer rolled his eyes, but he was half smiling too. "Mom says I'm not any fun."

Knowing Sean had a younger sister too, he looked at them both and asked, "Is Vivy going to be like this when she grows up?"

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh raised an eyebrow at the revelation that his sister had suggested Tomer interview him for his school project. "She did, did she?" He asked, carelessly spinning the dreidel that had been passed to him. He narrowed his eyes as he glanced in the direction of the kitchen.

"I'll have to talk to her about that. I'm not that old. I'm not even old enough to be a member of the AARP yet."

Although he was getting close.

His gaze dropped from the kitchen to the dreidel. "Ah, hei." He commented before counting out half the pile of starbursts. Once the candies were safely in his pile he returned to the topic of the school assignment.

"But I suppose I can be old for the purpose of your interview. It was a long time ago that I was your age. That does make me sound like an old person.."

He handed the dreidel to Sean as he added, "I think dad...your grandfather Bobby...was your age when he came to America."

But his father was slipping mentally. The sharp man who had moved to another country without any family and learned a new language, eventually becoming a successful stockbroker, was now easily confused and frustrated. And even before his comprehension had begun to deteriorate he had rarely discussed his childhood, and then only reluctantly.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean was aware of skating – he liked it fine, although he hadn’t gone skating in years. However, he was also aware of physics and safety concerns. The pond on Hammel campus didn’t ice over well enough; the lake also was very hit-or-miss, which meant that ice skating was a rarer pleasure. That was fine, as there were many alternate winter activities available.

The telepath smiled as Tomer described his friend, Bee. “Those are good qualities to have in a friend,” he remarked. “Your Uncle Josh isn’t one for sports, but he matches everything else on that list, and he’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”

Sean intended that as encouragement. Also to demonstrate that he had no intention to tease or to pry.

When it was his turn to spin the dreidel, the telepath gave a particularly long one. When it finally settled, he had managed to get nun again, as this was not a game that was in his favor. Thus, Sean passed the dreidel back to Tomer.

Unfortunately, Kathleen was not a stick by which any sibling relationships could be measured. The telepath considered his sister, and their relationship, to be a special case. In fact, Kathleen had very little in common with Talia, aside from a happy marriage and loving their child(ren). To Tomer, he remarked, “Everyone’s different, regardless of gender. Vivy is going to grow up and mature in a few years, and then we’ll see where her personality is.”

Sean reached out to pat his friend on the shoulder, offering silent encouragement. He knew that Bobby Bernstein’s mental decline hit the entire family hard, but particularly Josh. Since he couldn’t heal him, all he could do was offer support in small ways.

Regarding the assignment, he remarked, “Speak for yourself.” Sean was old enough to join the AARP, because they had obscenely low age markers for joining. To Tomer, he asked, “Do you have elders from Temple you could interview?”

[Tomer Berelowitz]

“Those are good qualities to have in a friend. Your Uncle Josh isn’t one for sports, but he matches everything else on that list, and he’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”

Tomer smiled back. It made him feel better about Uncle Josh sometimes, that he had a friend like Sean. If he had misgivings about his uncle, he had none about Sean, and if someone like Josh could be best friends with someone as reserved as the doctor, it gave Tomer hope that someday he'd have a much better relationship with his mother. "Bee's my very best friend too."

Some years later Tomer would hear about the so-called 'friendzone' and immediately dismiss it.

“Everyone’s different, regardless of gender. Vivy is going to grow up and mature in a few years, and then we’ll see where her personality is.”

Unfortunately, it was all too easy for Tomer to envision Vivy egging her children on to play little jokes on him, and if not her then Abby. Most likely both of them. But in this case turnabout would be fair play, and it wasn't like he didn't have ammunition of his own. "Hopefully she won't have kids for a long time," he murmured.

"She did, did she?"

"Yes." Tomer's tone of voice said that if Uncle Josh wanted to kill his sister a little that it was perfectly fine with him. He didn't know what the AARP was, but gathered it was something for old people.

"But I suppose I can be old for the purpose of your interview. It was a long time ago that I was your age. That does make me sound like an old person.. I think dad... your grandfather Bobby... was your age when he came to America."

"...Really?" That would certainly make for a good story, but talking with Grandpa Bobby was already rather difficult and Tomer didn't want to upset him. Talking with Grandma Charlie was also hard for him, but for the same reasons he didn't quite get along with his mother. Except that Grandma seemed to have all the qualities that got between Tomer and Talia times five, though she was the only one of the family who proclaimed loudly and often that Tomer was 'just like my Matt'.

“Do you have elders from Temple you could interview?”

"I was going to talk to Grandpa Tomer," he said, spinning the dreidel. "But we don't know if they're coming up. Grandma has a cold." And then he explained, "Part of the report is a picture of me with whoever I interview. If Grandpa doesn't come up, Bee said I could interview her great aunt. She's visiting."

Tomer got shin for what had to be the sixth time since the game started and tossed a lemon into the pot. He supposed he could interview Uncle Josh, but this was a party or whatever and not a place to do homework. And his mom would get way too much entertainment out of it. Besides, how old was his uncle? He was older than Tomer's Mom, but he certainly didn't look it. And Tomer wasn't going to ask. It wasn't polite. All he knew for sure was that it wasn't old enough for the assignment.

The scent of fried potato overlapped the smell of the chicken in the oven, but Tomer knew the latkes would keep in a hot covered dish till dinner. He could've gone over to help too, but he had an aversion to cooking in hot oil. And was aware of the irony.

Thinking of food reminded Tomer of a question he'd been meaning to ask his uncle for some time, but either hadn't had the nerve or the privacy. But he had both now, so he said, "What kind of cheese is pimento cheese?"

[Joshua Bernstein]

While Sean and Tomer discussed the similarities and differences of sisters Josh finished his wine. He didn't think it was entirely fair to compare Talia to Kathleen, not least because he actually got along with his sister; whatever affectionately exasperating poking she might engage in.

However much he wished that the Neville siblings might reconcile, this wasn't a topic he wanted to discuss in depth with Tomer. Or any family member, for that matter, given the nature of some of Kathleen's judgments.

The frown that had accompanied the talk of sisters melted into a smile at the compliment paid him. "Does cycling not count, or would I have to don spandex and enter races?"

The only conceivable circumstance under which he might wear spandex was in the event of a costume party; otherwise he was afraid he might traumatize one too many people.

"But what sports does your friend play?"

He stood to refill his wine glass, but David was passing by at that moment and offered to so this for him as the host, and so he sat back down. "I hope that your grandparents are able to make it." Josh offered, watching his nephew spin. Then it was his turn, and he flicked his wrist, causing the toy to spin dizzyingly just long enough for him to exclaim, "I'm going to beat both of you, just watch." before the dreidel stopped, shin side up. He gave a melodramatic sigh as he tossed a candy into the middle, though this turned into a laugh as he passed the dreidel to Sean.

"Pride goeth before the fall, I suppose."

The question regarding one of his favorite foods morphed his expression from rueful to entertained. "It's not a type of cheese, it's a snack made with cheese. I prefer it made from cheddar, but some people use processed cheeses. It's cheese and mayo and pimentos...those are the little red peppers that are stuffed into green olives."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean understood the uncertainty, as well as the difficulty with traveling when one was elderly. “I hope that your grandparents are able to make it up here,” he said. “Where is Bee’s great aunt from?”

“It has to be a recent photograph?” Sean supposed he could understand the purpose of that exercise, although he found it rather limiting. He didn’t know the precise family situations of anyone who attended Tomer’s school, but he was familiar with the family and regional diversity of Hammel students. He considered it limiting to demand that type of evidence, because it ruled out the potential for telephone interviews, which were beneficial to those with more scattered family and social circles.

Then again, nobody had placed Sean in charge of this particular assignment.

“I said you aren’t one for sports, which is true. Cycling for transportation isn’t a sport; it isn’t even athleticism.” It was practical, which was another matter entirely. “You don’t like playing sports, and you don’t care for watching them either,” the telepath reminded his friend, as though that required a reminder. Sean cared for sports more than Josh did, in that he actually watched some on television, and that he had teams about which he cared.

He contemplated refilling his wine glass as well, but he decided against it for the moment. Given that he and Josh were surrounded by the younger man’s family, it was better to remain on his toes. Such slipups could occur with friends but not in front of family members when his friend wished to remain in the closet.

“You should explain to him how someone born and bred in Manhattan started eating pimento cheese in the first place,” the telepath remarked, as he took the dreidel and gave it a spin. The dreidel wobbled a bit before landing on hei, which was Sean’s most fortuitous spin of the night. Sean reached out and began to slide candies from the pot into his pile, careful not to take more than the half that was allotted to him. He never took more than his fair share in any given situation.

Once he had taken half the pot, the telepath handed the dreidel over to Tomer again.

[Tomer Berelowitz]

"I hope so too. Bee's great aunt is from North Carolina. I've met her before. She likes to come to the city for the holidays to see all the... to-do." Which was how Aunt Melly termed it. Bee's aunt came ostensibly for the excitement, but also to help out with watching the children and giving her grandnephew and his wife a break so they could enjoy themselves. She'd also been trying to get Tomer to call her 'Aunt Melly' since he was eight, which he was still too embarrassed to do. "And yeah, it has to be a picture of me and whoever I interview."

“I said you aren’t one for sports, which is true. Cycling for transportation isn’t a sport; it isn’t even athleticism. You don’t like playing sports, and you don’t care for watching them either.”

Something about this struck Tomer as funny, maybe it was how his uncle protested when the truth was so different. He looked down and away from the two men and snorted a laugh. Still smiling when he returned his attention to the game and conversation, he said, "Bee likes hockey, basketball, baseball, dodge ball, soccer... it might be easier to say which sports she doesn't do. She doesn't like softball though. She says the ball is too big and doesn't like pitching underhand and says they should just let girls into Little League and quit whining."

Tomer agreed with that, not just because it would be fair, but because Bee was an excellent baseball player and in a few years she'd age out of the informal teams she was allowed on now.

The explanation for pimento cheese was... vaguely gross. Cheese and mayo? Mixed together? People ate that? Well. There was that kid at his school who sometimes brought peanut butter and mayo. Tomer's face was thoughtful, if a bit skeptical. When Sean spoke, Tomer thought about it... and nope, he couldn't remember ever hearing about or seeing pimento cheese in restaurants or at stores. "Where's it from?"