The Soiree

Dede was hosting her infamous Saturday soiree in her spacious back garden for the first time in what seemed like forever, due to covid. Dede was glad to return to some form of normality, of which the virus had taken away.

The soiree was born because of covid. Usually the ‘gang’, which consisted of six best friends, and Dede, would have met up in their favourite coffee shop, ‘Mollies’, every Wednesday for lunch. As well as that, some of the infamous ‘gang’ would have met for coffee together in smaller groups throughout the week. ‘Mollies’ a small, family-owned café closed its shutters for the last time after the second lockdown. The group were distraught, and Dede offered her garden for them to meet up, comfortable in the knowledge that they could be socially distant. The ‘gang’ were so thrilled that they bought Dede a firepit exclusively for the occasion.

Even though it was May and the sun had found its voice, Dede retrieved the firepit from the coal bunker, where it was housed, as the evening had the possibility of getting cooler. She filled it with sticks, fire lighters and wooden blocks she had stolen from her elderly mother, just in case it was needed. She looked at her watch, it was 14:45, fifteen minutes before the ‘gang’ were to assemble.

Dede was amazing at hosting events, even if just for her friends. She had a six-foot foldable table ready to be loaded up with cocktail sausages, chicken wings, veggie spring rolls and cheese puffs, all of which were in the oven. She had made her famous variety of sandwiches, that always went down a treat, they were covered in cling film in the fridge. ‘Would you check on the food please love?’ Dede shouted into the kitchen to her son, Kevin. ‘Of course, I will mammy,’ he answered.

Kevin was as camp as Christmas and extremely excited to see everyone. He hadn’t been home for months, due to covid, and for the first time in his life he was nervous to see this group of ladies, owing to the fact he had been stuck to his apartment down the country with his partner Patrick. As the food was browning, Kevin moved into the garden to help Dede with the mismatched chairs. Together they put them out, Kevin making sure they were two meters apart and that there were ashtrays beside two of them. Once satisfied, they both returned to the kitchen.

‘Is Leo coming?’ Kevin asked curiously referring to Dede’s friend’s grandson. ‘Yes,’ Dede answered delightedly. Everyone in the group were very fond of Leo, Dede in particular. ‘I’d better put out some Lego so,’ Kevin said gesturing towards the big, clear, plastic box where all of his childhood Lego lived exclusively for Leo to play with. Kevin didn’t want to put it all out because it was so hard to tidy up. He was a big child himself, and knew that the boisterous, imaginative four-year-old loved to play with it whenever he had come over in the past. He put out the obligatory superheroes and enough prebuilt and loose Lego to spark his active imagination.

Once Leo was looked after, Kevin returned to the kitchen. ‘You wouldn’t fill the bucket with ice for me love, would ya?’ Dede asked as she removed the well browned food from the oven. Kevin had never seen the bucket in question before.

‘Where is it?’ he asked as he opened the press with the Tupperware presuming it was a wine cooling bucket. ‘It’s in the shed love.’ Kevin did a double take at his mother, disgust on his face. He had a hatred towards the brick walled, tin roofed building that resided in the very end of the garden. He heard the word shed and almost had a panic attack. Kevin associated the structure with spiders, and he was petrified of spiders. The blood drained from his face and is heart jumped into his mouth. ‘It’s where?’ he asked once more trying not to vomit. ‘The shed,’ Dede replied, and looked at the pale freckled face in front of her.

Dede had forgotten about his shed eversion which started after he took the lawnmower out for her the previous year and about twenty massive spiders ran out from underneath it. Well Kevin said it was twenty which probably meant two or three as he tended to exaggerate quite a bit.

It wasn’t until Dede had retrieved the large black bucket, the type you could transport coal in, that Kevin realised why she had asked him to get it. it was huge, well humongous according to Kevin. He rushed up the garden and tentatively went to take it off her hands, but she wouldn’t let him, ‘I need to wash it first,’ Dede exclaimed. She got the garden hose to the masses of spider webs inside the bucket, trying to do it without Kevin seeing, she didn’t want a trip to A&E to ruin the glorious day.

‘Are there spiders in it?’ asked a petrified Kevin from afar. ‘No,’ Dede lied, ‘just a bit of dirt!’ Kevin wasn’t buying it, but he was not willing to inspect the bucket either. Once clean, both inside and out, Dede handed him the handle of the ‘wine cooler’. Because he had seen Dede clean it, he knew it had to be safe.

Kevin brought the bucket into the kitchen as Dede opened the side gate, it was three o clock, soiree time! Kevin was struggling with the ice, ‘um, mammy,’ he said biting his bottom lip. ‘What love,’ she replied and walked over to him. He had emptied the two ice cube trays from the top of the freezer, and they hadn’t even covered the bottom of the epic wine cooler.

Dede started laughing, something which confused Kevin. ‘The ice is in the chest freezer,’ she giggled. Kevin opened the chest freezer and, true enough, found five big bags of frozen cubes of water. He was about to put in all five when, just in the nick of time, Dede let him know to only fill it halfway. He looked at her quizzically. ‘We need room for the wine!’ Dede giggled. Kevin stood there confused, the cogs of his mind turning, when finally, he got it, ‘there needs to be room for all the wine!’ he mimicked Dede, badly. He carried the heavy bucket and placed it under the table out of the sun.

Dede went upstairs to apply sunscreen, when suddenly, out of nowhere appeared Remy, a white and tan Jack Russell who made a beeline for Kevin. Kevin jumped out of his skin but was delighted to see the little guy. Remy knew that because he was so special, he got a biscuit upon arrival. Kevin on the other hand didn’t. Remy sat in front of the press that housed his biscuits salivating. He loved the sour cream tuc biscuits. Kevin had to shout up to Dede as to what biscuits were Remy’s, to no reply.

Kevin returned to the little mite and got such a dirty look from him because he was waiting patiently for his biscuit and Kevin hadn’t given it to him straight away. Remy and Kevin were usually great pals, so Kevin opened the biscuit press. He asked the elderly dog, ‘which ones are yours?’ The doe eyed canine just licked his nose in reply. Kevin decided to take out two different biscuits and allow Remy pick one. He retrieved a custard cream and a digestive biscuit from their corresponding packets and, on his honkers, held both out. Remy gladly took the custard cream and brought it out to the garden where he ate it on the freshly mown grass.

As Kevin began to fill the enormous table with tin foil covered treats, he heard a voice behind him saying ‘hello’. It was Mary from up the road. Mary was both an incredibly good friend and Remy’s mom. She saw her little darling wiping his mouth on the grass and presumed he had been looked after. Mary, who Kevin hadn’t seen in       far too long, handed him a tall mound of freshly made sausage rolls encompassed in tin foil. He struggled to find somewhere for them on the busy table.

Dede, who was retrieving a glass of wine from one of the many bottles in the fridge, greeted Mary with a smile. ‘Hello,’ was shouted from the side of the house once more, this time from a little voice, followed by the little cheeky grin of Leo, peeking around the corner. ‘Nana, nana I told you Dede was back!’ the little voice shouted back to nana who was following him.

Leo was delighted to see Dede. He associated Dede’s house with fun. ‘Can I’ve a hug Leo?’ Dede asked, but Leo refused, ‘we can’t hug because of covid!’ his tiny voice said, and he was dead right.

There were a few more after arriving, all of whom had their own wine. It dawned on Kevin why the bucket was so big as he retrieved all the bottles that filled it, keeping it under the table. He smiled to himself.

As the mismatched chairs filled up, Leo went up to Kevin, a man he wasn’t very familiar with, and asked him if he wanted to play. Kevin obliged and followed the little mite into the house where he led him to the Lego. ‘Oh wow,’ Leo said excitedly, ‘a fire truck and a police car!’ Kevin added to the excitement by pointing out all of the superheroes.

As the afternoon turned to evening, the soiree in full swing, Dede looked in on Leo to see if he wanted a drink. He had only kept Kevin’s captive for fifteen minutes before Kevin set him a challenge. He asked him to build a big, tall building that had both a jail and a house for the superheroes, both the goodies and the baddies. The child, in his element, showed Dede what he had come up with and he showed her all of the features the building had. She was impressed.

When the sun started to disappear, Dede asked the gang if they wanted her to light the fire pit. They all looked at their watches in amazement of the time, it was half seven. They collectively decided not to light it as they all had to get home. With all the food and wine gone, and Leos’s challenge complete, the soiree reached its end. Nana told Leo they were going to go, and to Dede’s amusement he was distraught, ‘but I’m still playing!’ he moaned.

Upon hearing Leo’s distress, Kevin approached him and told him that he can come back and play more the next time. Hearing it from Kevin and not nana made all the difference. Leo got up off the laminated wooden floor and whispered something in Kevin’s ear with a quizzical look on his face. Nana heard Kevin say, ‘well spiderman lives here and he would be incredibly sad if he had to leave his friends!’ Nana knew then what Leo had whispered; she knew he had asked if he could take spiderman home. With her hand outstretched she told Leo that they had to go. The child started to cry and said that he wanted to stay with Dede and Kevin. Kevin was touched that he was enjoying himself so much, and although he wasn’t willing to part with the spiderman minifigure, he offered Leo a construction minifigure with a walkie talkie in his hand. He placed another walkie talkie into spiderman’s hand. ‘You can take this one with you Leo,’ Kevin said and explained how the walkie talkie meant the other minifigure could talk to spiderman from his house. Leo rubbed his eyes and was intrigued by the proposition. He considered it carefully and then smiled giving Kevin spiderman and taking the construction minifigure.

Everyone now moving, insisted on helping Dede with the tidy up. It only took five minutes to make the garden presentable again. The mismatched chairs were stacked to the side of the garden, the table and wine bucket back in the shed from whence they came. Just as quickly as the ‘gang’ assembled they disassembled, each going in different directions. Some walking home, others getting collected. Nana and Leo were the last to leave, Leo giving the thumbs up to Kevin as he went. Kevin smiled at him and closed the gate as he was being buckled into pops car.

Kevin found Dede in the kitchen wiping down the surfaces and hugged her from behind. ‘Another successful soiree!’ she smiled and patted his arm.