Everybody's Aunt Judith

Chapter 60
The phone rang in the morning just as Simmy was pouring a cup of coffee.
"It's me, who are you!"
There was silence on the other end of the line and Simmy sighed.
"Hello?" The voice sounded hesitant.
Simmy laughed gregariously, "I love answering the phone that way. People never know what to say. Is that you, J.P.?"
"Yes," the voice sounded slightly brusque and irritated. "What's for breakfast?"
"Harvest loaf and 'Rubena' apples, and coffee," Simmy stated simply.
"We'll all be there in twenty minutes," J.P. hung up after that threat.
"I suppose I should have told him that the apples are soft and probably not very edible anymore," Simmy's face mirrored an 'oops' moue.
Half and hour later, the Crew arrived and Simmy pointed to the coffee and harvest loaf and added a warning about the apples. This edict had the loaf pan emptied in a hurry.
J.P. followed Simmy into the back yard where the leaves created a golden yellow carpet to walk on.
J.P. was holding the book, 'Judith' by N. L Saloff- Astakhoff.
"So, what did you think about the book?"
"Too heavy for the film."
"Do you want to write it in as an 'Aunt Judith.' The woman no one ever mentions because she became a Yeshua follower." Simmy held her fingers to her lips and gasped for effect.
J.P. squinted his eyes and tried to keep his mind open. "Do you have an Aunt Judith?"
"Absolutely! 'Judith' was among the top 50 most popular names between 1940 and 1960, in the United States. That fits in perfectly with your movie and... she was a wife of Esau. That should honour your Jewish heritage seeing as that is chronicled in the first book of Moses."
"The man who sold his birthright isn't exactly our crowning moment." J.P. squinted.
"Every family has a symbolic 'Aunt Judith' that is kept hidden away, not talked about much."
"Do you have an 'Aunt Judith?'"
"Quite literally!"
"What is her 'indiscretion,'" J.P. mimed quotation marks as he spoke in a Sherlock hushed tone.
"Well," Simmy lowered her voice and looked around surreptitiously for effect, "her husband baptized their own children."
"Is he a minister?" J.P. asked.
"Not a real one," Simmy laughed.
"What does that mean?" J.P. was confused.
"That's all my folks will say about it, even now. It's an unspoken heresy," Simmy spoke in a deep, mysterious tone. "One of my pastors, who had his Doctorate, by the way, thought I should baptize my son because I had been the most influential in his life of faith."
"Did you do it?"
"No!," Simmy exclaimed. "I was way too worried about what my parents would think."
"That's why we're working on this film together. Your parents, my parents... add a little more lace on the black cap of your sect but underneath... not so different, huh?" J.P. spoke candidly.
"I can actually see how that can work into the film. When we do scenes with Richard and Lucy's children, we'll have an inquisitive daughter asking all the risque questions that challenge the family traditions."
Simmy nodded, "That will be extremely authentic for this day and age. Shall we say the daughter is an 'Esther Petrack?' That scene about the Sabbath has the whole internet twittering."
J.P. laughed, "We're still making headlines with our religious struggles, aren't we?"
"Everybody has them, J.P. Even your daughter, E.P.?" Simmy wrinkled her nose in 'Oy' fashion and a 'how far do you want to go with this in the film?' eyebrow questioning.