And Terri? She’s blissful. Tired, sure, but a happy young mother with a healthy baby and a husband who loves her, which was all she ever really wanted.
There’s no August beach vacation that year, of course. No Dogtown by the Sea, those days are over. Danny misses them, misses those hot lazy days when they were all still friends.
Before we started killing each other, he thinks.
Every week or so they drive to see Marty to let him see Ian, and the funny thing is Marty is a doting granddad.
He loves the baby.
Sure, now, Danny thinks.
Anyway, they take Marty over to Dave’s Dock for his fish-and-chips but mostly Marty he just wants to hold Ian, and Danny notices his father’s appetite isn’t so good anymore and he’s losing weight.
Sometimes on those visits Danny and Terri walk down the beach, past the house that Pasco has sold, and they each think about old times （Christ, Danny thinks, has it only been a year?） but they don’t say anything to each other about it because it’s too painful. Once or twice they drop by the Spindrift and have a burger out on the deck with Ian asleep in the car seat at their ankles, but it isn’t as much fun being there as it used to be.
Life changes, Danny thinks, it just does.
You move on.
Or try to, anyway.
September becomes October, then Thanksgiving comes and goes and Christmas decorations start to go up.
Christmas is subdued that year.
For one thing, it’s around the anniversary of Pat’s death, so no one feels very festive. For another, money is tight. Even with the boosts they do, more money is going out than coming in, so there isn’t a lot to spare for big parties, even if anyone felt like it.
John throws a half-assed Christmas Eve party at the Gloc—a deli spread and cookies—with Jimmy Mac playing Santa Claus, but it turns into a sodden, sullenly drunk evening, with most people, including Danny, going home early and the rest getting shitfaced, angry and bitter.
Danny, Terri, and Ian go over to the Murphys’ house on Christmas Day, but it’s a sad affair, with John as quiet as a stone and Catherine still half out of it on pills, a full year after Pat’s death.
Sheila is there with Johnny, trying to put a brave face on it, but her presence only emphasizes Pat’s absence, and Danny sees her on the edge of tears a few times. Liam and Pam went down to Greenwich to be with her family, which is a relief to Danny.
Cassie is there, stone-cold sober and clean. She went to a meeting that morning and also the night before because holidays are rough on addicts and alcoholics.
They all exchange presents, eat the ham, fall asleep in chairs in front of the television, and then Danny and Terri say their goodbyes and drive down to see Marty, who refused to leave his house to go to the Murphys’。
“It was like we weren’t even there,” Terri says in the car. “They barely paid any attention to Ian, except Cassie.”
Christmas with Marty is a barrel of monkeys.
He and Ned had honored the occasion by cracking open two Swanson Hungry-Man turkey dinners to go with their Bushmills and then settled down in front of some bowl game they didn’t give a shit about.
But Marty pretends to be pleased with the new flannel shirt Danny gives him, while Ned is genuinely touched by the pair of leather gloves that Terri bought for him.
“How does Ian like Christmas?” Marty asks.
“He’s six months old,” Danny says. “He doesn’t know Christmas.”
“He knows,” Terri says. “He’s liking it.”
“Was Santa good to him?” Marty asks.
“Yeah, he got him a car,” Danny says.
Jesus Christ.
When they get home, Terri asks, “You don’t want to call your mother, wish her a merry Christmas?”
“No, I don’t.”
Terri, being Terri, calls her. Stands right there in front of Danny, who’s pretending to ignore her, and calls Madeleine in Las Vegas. Wishes her merry Christmas and holds Ian up to the receiver to make baby noises for her.
Then Danny hears her say, “Yeah, he’s here. He wants to say hello.”
She holds the phone up to Danny with a look that says if he’s even thinking about getting laid sometime in the next five years he’d better take it.
Danny takes the phone. “Hello.”
“Merry Christmas, Danny.”
“Yeah, you too.”
“Well, okay.”
“Okay.”
He hands the phone back to Terri, who talks for another minute and then hangs up. “Was that so bad?”
“Yes.”