Chapter 87: Regrouping

July 11, 1981

“So, Steve, how was your vacation?” Dr. Stanton smiled as we walked back to her office.

“Good. Really good. Lots of surprises.”

“In terms of... ?”

“The itinerary, mostly.”

“Damn. I was hoping you’d say Angie.”

I laughed. “Angie’s Angie. There are surprises there but they’re more ... related to her. Not her being the surprise herself.”

“I’m curious!”

I sat, facing her. “Of course, you are. Your profession requires being curious.”

“I think so, yes. So, tell me about it.”

“Well, first, Dad made surprise stops, which gave us a day of sightseeing in New Orleans. Then we had another surprise trip to Spring Green, where Frank Lloyd Wright used to live and work, and then up into Michigan in the Upper Peninsula, where a friend of Dad’s from college lives. And we ended with an extra day in Chicago and saw a touring Broadway show, ‘Annie’.”

“That’s a lot of surprises indeed. And you said all good?”

“Those, yes. The one that relates to Angie is perhaps less so. My Aunt Helen — Mom’s brother Tim’s wife — is very conservative.”

“Your Mom’s brother married someone with the same name as hers? I think some analysts would have fun with that!”

“I refuse to speculate there.” She smiled back, laughing softly. “Anyway, I think my parents are conservative, but not bad, and they’re open to reason.”

“In some ways, yes. In other ways, they’re more flexible than many, I think. Though, of course, I only know your father second-hand.”

“I meant religiously — their denomination is towards the conservative end.”

“You say ‘their denomination’. Excluding yourself?”

“I think neither Angie nor I count as true believers. But we don’t reject it all, either. There’s a lot of good there, but a lot of things we both question.”

“Better than just rebelling to rebel. Which is extremely common.”

“I agree. There’s little point to simply opposing something for the sake of opposing it. Anyway ... Aunt Helen is extremely conservative and has problems with Angie.”

“Behavior? Dress? Attitude?”

“I can’t say I understand all of it, but I’ll explain. The whole thing started on the first day we visited. Aunt Helen invited ... actually, ordered ... Mom and Angie into the kitchen with her, insisted on Angie sitting in between her and Mom at lunch, and started grilling Angie about school. I got the impression she wasn’t happy.”

“Not happy? What’s not to be happy with?”

“We’ll get to that. My cousins invited me to go play golf with them. I don’t play, but it sounded fun and I see them so little. I invited Angie, specifically to get her out of the house, because otherwise it would have been just her and the adults and I think it might not have gone well. Later events bore that out, I think. Anyway, we left, went to play golf — none of us were any good at it — came back, and then immediately left for dinner by the hotel. Some of the conversation during golf was ... well, concerning.”

“How so?”

“My cousin Grant just finished his junior year at Wisconsin. The girl he’s dating, seriously I think, is a Chemistry major. He won’t bring her to visit.”

“Because of his mother?”

“Exactly. Apparently, women should not be majoring in Chemistry, or anything that might lead to a career or a decision to work outside the home until after the children are raised and gone.”

She blinked. “Really? That’s a pretty extreme stance.”

“That’s how Grant put it. Later, she pretty much said it directly, herself. I think she’d allow for a woman being a teacher — only if it was during the same hours her kids were in school.”

“This is not starting me out on the right foot in sympathizing with her.”

“I guessed. But I didn’t bring it up to prejudice you, it’s just important you know I had that context before we go on.”

She nodded. “Do go on.”

“I inadvertently eavesdropped on Aunt Helen and Aunt Colleen. By inadvertently, I was inside Aunt Helen’s house using a bathroom. They were talking just outside the window. I didn’t even know they were there until it was too late to not hear. After their conversation was over, I went to Mom and owned up to accidentally eavesdropping.”

Dr. Stanton nodded. “And?”

“Basically, her issues, as expressed to Aunt Colleen, are that Angie’s dress was, um ... improper. Since she’s wearing the same dress today, you won’t have to speculate. I’m sure she wants to talk about this, too. Though her experience is second-hand; Aunt Helen didn’t talk to her about any of this. So ... anyway, her dress was improper, she’s in a study group that includes boys, she’s thinking of competing with boys, she was drinking a beer — which she was; Dad gave us one each — and she went off with my three male cousins the day before and played golf.”

Dr. Stanton was shaking her head. “And this gets worse?”

“Unfortunately. After that set of arguments, with Aunt Colleen disagreeing, Aunt Helen pretty much said that, because Angie’s biological mother is ... who and what she is ... that Angie should be kept away from boys, and any other temptation, even more strictly.”

“Go on,” she said, sighing.

“About there I gave up and went off to tell Mom, so she’d know what was about to hit the fan. I felt conflicted. Telling tales about Aunt Helen is not good. However, neither would hearing that, knowing she was going to talk to Mom, and not warning Mom. She did indeed go talk to Mom, so I felt OK with that.”

“I can see both sides of that.”

“After Mom rejected her arguments, she badgered me. I ... may have quoted several pieces of scripture related to being judgmental. She got my goat by trying to insist on the word ‘mother’ for Sharon, but I stayed polite. I also urged her to drop it so as to not put her husband or my Grandma in a bad position.”

“What was the outcome?”

“She went away. Unhappy. She looked unhappy the rest of the day but didn’t directly confront Angie. Angie has heard some of it, but not all of it. Whatever my feelings are about Aunt Helen, she’s still family. There’s little point in telling tales that aren’t necessary to tell.”

“I can imagine if she’d confronted Angie, things would’ve gotten a lot worse.”

“Yeah, and a lot louder.”

“Angie only knows any of this secondhand?”

“That’s right. I mean, she saw Aunt Helen looking grumpy, she saw some of the attitude in the kitchen, but no, it’s all secondhand for her.”

“That’s probably for the best. I imagine you’re not looking forward to a return visit soon?”

“Next time the rules will have to be different. Angie would bite her head off, and deservedly so. That is, if Aunt Helen had anything left after Mom got done with her. It’s an uneasy truce, but we’re a thousand miles apart. I just didn’t want her husband or their mother put in the situation of having to take sides.”

She nodded. “Beyond that, it was a pleasant trip? No issues?”

“Nope. We loved it. Meaning all four of us — I know Mom and Dad did, too.”

“And, how were things with Angie? Sharing a room?”

I smiled. “We enjoyed that, too. And since I can guess the next question, no, we didn’t misbehave.”

She laughed. “By whose definition?”

“Pretty much any we’re concerned with. Ours, mine, hers, anything you’d be required to report.”

“Anything you’d consider ... edgy?”

“I’m pretty sure you know I won’t go into any specifics. Mom allowed us to share a room, and we didn’t abuse that privilege, end of subject. If we’d done anything you’d be required to report, that’d be a conundrum, right? You don’t want to report us, we don’t want to be reported. But since we didn’t, everyone’s in a good place.”

She sighed. “The problem is that I believe you’re telling the truth. But ‘behaving’ is a really broad standard. However, no one’s going to stop two teenagers who don’t want to behave from misbehaving, so, I’ll give you credit, especially considering the opportunities you had. Just watch it, OK? Something that seems like a good idea now might prove to be a giant mistake later.”

“I may have experienced things like that a few times.”

“I imagine so,” she laughed, smiling. “Everyone does. It’s just how big that ‘giant’ is that varies. I’ll drop it as long as you promise to tell me if something’s changed. Even if you don’t tell me what’s changed.”

“I’ll promise that, with the addendum that I can tell you the promise is off, if I need to, as long as it’s before I’d have to tell you something.”

She sighed. “I suppose that’s fair enough. And, honest.”

“Anything else you want to go over? And, how’s Candice doing?”

“That’s the only thing left to go over today. She’s continuing to do much better. She’ll be released in a few weeks and start school in the fall. I was waiting until after today, since I wasn’t sure which day you’d be back, but I’ll make sure she calls you.”

“Make sure it’s at night. We have driving school all this week, and in the following weeks I’ll be practicing driving or going to the library often.”

“I’ll make sure of that.”

I rose when she did. “Thanks, Steve. I enjoy meeting with you, and I know hearing from you will help with Angie. Just today, what you told me helps, since Angie didn’t hear most of it. And I agree that that’s a good thing.”

“I’m sure it is.”

We walked back out, and I gave Angie a quick hug on her way in. I sat down next to Mom.

“Good talk, honey?”

“Very good.”

“I’m glad.”

“Me, too.”

“Did you talk about Aunt Helen?”

“Of course.”

“Good. She needed to hear that before talking to Angie. Any news on Candice?”

“She’ll start school in the fall. We should hear from her soon.”

“That’s really good news.”

“The best!”

10:00pm

Angie slipped in, wearing her full pink PJ’s again.

“Change of attire, eh, sis?”

“I still like these. I just like the others more, most of the time.” We rubbed noses and she laid down next to me. “How was your meeting?”

“Pretty good. Yours?”

“Good. Did she tell you Candice is heading back to school?”

“Yes. And that we should expect a call soon.”

“I’m thrilled about that!”

“Me, too.”

“Did she nag you about ‘behaving’?”

“A bit. We agreed to not get too deep into it as long as we’re reporting that we’re behaving.”

“I think we got to that point. Grudgingly.”

I yawned. “I need to get some sleep before church and study group.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

“Not to mention Gene, for you.”

“I wasn’t going to mention that, considering a notable absence.”

I shrugged. “I’m hoping to hear from her soon. On the other hand, I hope she’s settling in well. And of the two, that’s more important. I’ll meet someone. I’m not in a rush.”