Disagreeable Relations (Otherwise Untitled)
#220 of Short Stories
An otter makes clear what family she intends to keep.
~ The holiday meal-table was a lengthy sprawl of all sorts of entrees and side dishes, surrounded in every place by an otter of the family, with only the exceptions of the lone Synth sitting a head taller than everyone else and the glucose wafer contents of the bowl he'd brought from home to rest before him. His eyes kept the most blank expression of uncertainty and panic that he could muster as a fragrant silence hung heavily in the air.
~ Her own glare not breaking from being directed at him, Aunt Ketch simply repeated herself as though her intial statement and its meaning hadn't been clear, "A proper member married into the family wouldn't be turning down the fish salad."
~ An arm of brown stocky fur stretched out across the Synth's chest as his wife's anger tessellated into a firm sentence, "He's in my family, by my choice and marriage. If you'd like there to be any questions, it's if any of you still are."