Meeting Beryl

So I have met Son 2's girlfriend. I'll call her Beryl.

Yesterday the two of them (Son 2 and Beryl) undertook the long drive from where they are now living (together) to this neck of the woods, where I, and Son 1, and Wife, and Mother, and Brother + SIL all live within an hour or two of each other. For geographical reasons, my apartment was the first stop. So I cleaned the place (which was a benefit right there) and planned a bunch of food for them. They arrived in the evening: I cooked, we ate, and the conversation flowed freely. This morning I made breakfast. Then they drove off to spend Christmas Eve with Son 1 and Wife. They will be coming back some time tonight, because they left their stuff here and are sleeping here. But we didn't make a plan, and I don't know what to expect. Nor do I know whether they will have eaten dinner by the time they get here … though as it gets later, I assume the odds go up that they will be already well-fed.

Tomorrow we drive, all three of us, to Mother's place. Brother and SIL are already there helping to get things ready, and we'll have a Christmas gathering there.

Not only do I not know when to expect them back tonight, I don't know what kind of a day they will have had.

It turns out that Wife has already struck up a correspondence with Beryl. I don't have any idea what it's about or how it is going. I shouldn't feel like I am still in any kind of competition with Wife over anything, but I feel outmaneuvered all the same. 

Enough about me. What is Beryl like?

Well, on the basis of talking with her over dinner and breakfast … I can't tell a lot yet. She's very sweet. And it's obvious that she and Son 2 are very sweet on each other. She grew up in an altogether different part of the country, but has moved here because there are more jobs in her field. She and Son 2 met last year, when he had a temporary internship and they (along with some others) happened to be sharing a house. Only later, after he had moved away and gotten a full-time job did they start dating.

Yes, but what is she like?

She hasn't seen most of the movies that Son 2 has seen, so she is missing a lot of his standard reference points. But she has learned his conversational style, and several times he interrupted me to turn to her to say, "Now you see where I got that way of speaking." For her part, she reads 19th century romance and horror: the original Frankenstein, and The Moonstone, for example.

Yes, but what is she like?

I don't know more than that. I'll let you know when I do.

Meanwhile I just got a text that they are on their way, so it's time to put this away. Later, then ....