Rosa visits her grandparents.

Rosa was glad when she returned from visiting her grandparents in winter

“Whose idea was this anyway?” asked a shivering Julia.

“Rosa’s!” shouted everyone except of course, Rosa. The Blau family stood on a snow covered Atlantic City boardwalk.

“Yes Rosa, why did you make us come here in the middle of January?” Timmy being the skinniest of the lot tried to hide behind his father, the most corpulent of the lot, but failed miserably. Elizabeth, who had agreed to tag along in the hope of teaching Rosa a lesson about photographs of snow and actually being in the middle of the snow, watched Jeremy begin to move sideways closer to her.

“I can keep you warm,” he whispered to Elizabeth who lashed out with her wing sending him flying through the snow and ending up on the beach. “This is just like home!” he replied grinning from ear to ear. “You need to do that more often.” He looked at a fuming and shivering Elizabeth.

“You forget,” she began walking up to Rosa and taking her by the wing, “you forget that North Carolina is a concealed carry state. I can buy a firearm, and it won’t end up very pretty for you.” The rest including Rosa was glad for the temporary diversion.

“How dare you say that to your cousin!” shouted Sybil across the frozen boardwalk.

“Please remind your cousin,” replied an annoyed Elizabeth, “that he’s a cousin and therefore unfit for matrimony.”

“What’s matrimony?” asked Rosa.

“Nothing you’re interested in right now. Come on Rosa, let’s go and greet you grandparents. I see them in the window of the Trump Casino.”

“What’s a?” began Rosa before Jeremy, who had recovered shouted out, “anyone got some money? I feel lucky today!”

“Grandpa! Grandma!” shouted Rosa letting go of Elizabeth’s wing and running through the snow towards her grandparents, as they opened their wings to swallow her up. “I didn’t know it was so cold here,” she continued colliding with her grandparents, knocking the wind out of them.

“Yes, very cold. That’s why I’ve been trying to tell your grandmother we need to move to Florida.”

“I think your grandfather is right,” replied her grandmother removing Rosa from her husband’s wings and wrapping her up in her own.

“Anyone hungry?” asked George, but no one answered. They were too busy watching Jeremy walk over to a very pretty sandpiper who was leafing through some postcards.

“Good riddance!” shouted Elizabeth, “I hope she shoots him.”

“No, I don’t think so,” replied Sybil watching her cousin hug the pretty little sandpiper, “that’s Genevieve. She was an old flame of his.”

“Talking about flames,” interrupted Elizabeth.

“Elizabeth!” shouted Sybil, “don’t wish your family the worst!”

“No, no, cousin,” replied Elizabeth sounding a little alarmed, “no I’m not talking about Jeremy going up in flames, though that wouldn’t be a bad idea. But the house over there is in flames.”

The rest of the group laughed. “You’ve been way from New Jersey too long,” replied the grandfather. “That’s Vinny’s Sausages and Steaks. They barbecue their steaks and sausages. They are really good. Would you like to try some for lunch guys? You must be starving after that long flight.”

“Yes,” replied Sybil, “it was long much longer than usual. The airspace over Washington DC is restricted now. So, we had to fly over the ocean and then come in land that way.”

“I guess,” replied the grandfather not really interested as his stomach was growling. “Yes, let’s get some sausages and steaks. It’s my treat. I just won some money at the casino. The only problem is that nowadays they don’t pay you in dollars. They pay you in bit coin, so it’s on my iPhone. I have no idea how to get to it.”

“I’ll show you,” replied Julia, “it’s a snap.” And with that, they all walked up to Vinny’s and stood in a long line shivering but got warmer the closer they got to the stand.

“Hey Vinny!” shouted the grandfather.

“Hello Kenny!” shouted the chicken hawk, “who’s these guys?”

“My family. They flew down from North Carolina.”

“North Carolina,” Vinny repeated. “My family has a house down there, but I don’t know where. They don’t invite me. Anyways what can I get for yous guys?”

“Are the sausages pork?” asked Timmy.

“No young man,” Vinny replied. “Chicken sausages, ha, ha, ha! We get too many Jews here. You know the type, Orthodox by day, Reform by night.”

“What does that mean?” Timmy was confused.

“What it means young man, is that after sundown they eat pork. But during the day they only eat chicken. I’m not open after sundown, so I must have chicken.”

“Why not beef?” moaned Rosa suddenly deciding that visiting her grandparents in the middle of winter wasn’t one of her best suggestions. “Can we eat and leave?” she asked. “Great idea!” replied Elizabeth, “and let’s not tell Jeremy.”

“You brought Jeremy with you?” asked Vinny sounding excited, “where’s he at?”

“Over there,” Elizabeth pointed to two sandpipers near the ice cream stand.

“Ha, ha, ha,” laughed Vinny, “he’s back with Genevieve I see. She was really mad at him for leaving her behind, you know. Maybe they’ll get back together again. I always thought they were a good match for each other.”

“What a great idea,” Elizabeth was gleeful. “Wait here for me,” and then she stopped. “I’ll have a filet minion,” she shouted.

“No go,” replied Vinny shouting after her, “we only have London broil.”

“That’ll do,” she shouted back. “I love London.”

Vinny looked at Rosa’s grandfather. “Ignore her,” he replied, “she’s never been to London.” Vinny laughed and served everyone. He was delighted to accept bit coin from Julia.

“Ok guys, let’s eat up and leave,” said Rosa.

“Oh, this is good, isn’t it?” said George eating fast. “Let’s all leave soon and leave Elizabeth behind as well.”

“No daddy,” replied Rosa, “who will give me my word of the day if we leave her behind.”

“Too late anyway,” said Julia in between bites, “here she comes.”

Rosa’s grandparents were sad to see their family leave so soon, but they understood. “As soon as I tie up my business dealings here, I think your grandmother and I are going to fly down to Clearwater in Florida. But don’t worry, we will stop by your place on the way down.”

As soon as lunch was over, there were several hugs and kisses to go around and then quietly the Blau family took to the skies knocking the last bits of snow off their feet soaring into cold blue yonder. They were easing back when they found a thermal which they knew would take them down to Maryland before they would have to ditch it and fly over the ocean. But as their mood began to warm up together with their bodies, they heard a familiar voice behind them. It as Jeremy. He caught up with Sybil, Elizabeth was in front with George.

“Why didn’t you guys tell me you were leaving,” he shouted, “I never got to eat lunch.”

“Your problem!” shouted Elizabeth grinning from ear to ear, “maybe you’ll lose power and crash and burn in Washington DC.”

“You’re mean,” replied Jeremy and Elizabeth shrugged her wings.

“I learnt it from you. Burn, baby burn.”

And with that, the Blau family picked up speed leaving a starving Jeremy to catch up.