Chapter 155: On The Road Again

Wednesday, June 27, 1984

We hit the road about nine. Jas picked up Paige and came to our house, where we hooked up the Subaru to the RV. Mom came out to give us all hugs and say farewell until Saturday.

Our first leg was very, very short — just up to Jane’s office. There was just barely room to park the RV there, but Angie and I wanted to head in and quickly sign a new agreement with her, making us the patients of record. The new agreement would end the old one with Mom.

That took us all of ten minutes. We saw Jane only briefly, but had time to exchange hugs and promise to catch up soon. The big news was from Nationals, and Jane congratulated us about that. The rest wasn’t all that big. We might — probably would! — have some news from the family trip, but that was in the future.

Angie and Jas explained last night to Paige during the drive. As expected, Paige’s attitude was that she was very happy for Jas and me, and also quite hopeful lightning might strike in her and Angie’s direction.

There were more than a few oinks heard.

We arrived at the house around eleven. Our meeting with Glenn and Katrina wasn’t until one, so we had time for a relatively leisurely lunch with Cammie at the Grapevine. Mel wasn’t up here right now, and was probably not going to come back up for a couple of weeks.

Once we’d gotten the hugs out of the way, Cammie said, “It’s really good to see you! I mean, it’s only been a few days, and it was longer before, but I missed you!”

“We missed you, too,” I said, with Angie, Paige, and Jas echoing me.

“I’m still kinda floating,” she said, giggling a bit. “Not many people to talk to about it, and ... I mean ... we won! It seems more real than ToC. Maybe because Nationals was a thing from the start, while we didn’t really know about ToC until halfway through sophomore year.”

“I know, right?!” Paige said, grinning. “I never seriously thought I could do that well. You could,” she added, giggling a bit. “You always felt like ... like you were all ‘smart’ and ‘driven’ and stuff. I was crazy Paige, the wild girl. Nationals? Me?”

Jas nodded. “Not quite, but kinda, for me. It took Carole and some real familiarity with the material to make it even a real dream.”

Angie nodded, too. “I’m still more than a bit in shock. I mean, most of it is because ... you know ... now I know that it was always there and I just pissed it away. It took ... none of you, and also all of you ... to change that. I wasn’t gonna be the same me, but ... well. Big brother gave me a few kicks in the butt, and then I fell in with the rest of you and started seeing the possibilities. Which is funny, because first-life me would’ve been all snide and condescending about Debate and Drama and nerds. Good lord, was she wrong!”

Everyone got up and hugged Angie. She really seemed just fine, but it was one of those hugging moments. And ... maybe she wasn’t as fine as she seemed.

After we’d sat down, I said, “I’m in somewhat the same boat. I was serious enough about Debate in my first go-round, but I wasn’t me. Angie gets credit, but so does Cammie, and so do both of you, but obviously especially Jas.”

Paige grinned and nodded.

“I didn’t set out to win Nationals. I didn’t even really set out to win State. That was ... just...”

Cammie picked it up. “It seemed so distant at first. Like, okay — and no offense, Paige —”

Paige smiled and nodded.

“There was Ted, and then there were us mortals. It wasn’t until we started really kicking ass at tournaments that I thought, ‘Wait, why not us? What do these other schools have that we don’t have?’ And then it became, ‘Look at all this stuff we have that they don’t!’ But, yeah, State? Getting there was gonna be nice, the highlight of the year. And then somewhere along the line we started realizing we could win, and ... well. Still. It’s still ... I’m just ... well, I’ll settle down soon enough.”

“Enjoy it!” Angie said. “It was a ton of work. All of us put in an incredible number of hours, worked our asses off, and got the breaks.”

“Didn’t work,” Paige said.

“Huh?” Angie said, looking confused.

“Your ass is still there, and magnificent.”

Angie blushed, while Jas and Cammie giggled.

“She ... has a point!” Cammie said.

“We’re telling Mel!” Paige and Jas said in a singsong chant.

“Mel agrees with me. And that we can look.”

“Good,” Angie said. “That way if I stumble out of my room and go to breakfast just wearing panties I won’t feel like I’m causing trouble.”

“Your boobs could cause trouble,” Paige said, grinning.

Angie giggled and blushed again. “I meant panties and a shirt.”

“Well, then, you should’ve said that,” Cammie said, winking.

“This is going to be interesting,” I said.

“Yeah. Only half of the girls are interested in you, while all of the girls are interested in all of the girls,” Cammie said, giggling.

“I’m interested in all of the girls, but only to a ... point ... with some of you,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows.

“Pig!” Cammie said, grinning.

“Oink!” I said.

“Oink!” Angie said, grinning.

Pretty soon all of us sounded like pigs.

Which was a bit embarrassing, since the waitress picked that moment to show up with our dinners.

After we’d recovered, and the blushes had died down, Jas said, “Any other news, Cammie?”

Cammie bit her lip. “My therapist appointments are next week. I’m pretty nervous about the whole thing, but ... well. Based on that, I’ll either pick one or the other or move on if they both feel ‘off.’ I’m not going to rush this. All of you are right — I need to talk to someone. I just have to be careful — there are some crappy therapists out there who’d put the blame on my being gay, or even make that some sort of shared blame thing.”

I thought about it for a second, then said, “There’s a student organization called ‘Gay Student Services’ on campus. They’re not official yet, and I don’t know how to get in touch with them, but maybe one of them would know something?”

“First, how do you know about them?” Cammie said, smirking. “And, second, I think I’ve got this, but if both therapists crap out, then I’ll see if I can get in touch with them.”

“There’s this court case...” I said, smiling.

Cammie giggled. “Got it. Don’t tell me! Let me be surprised!”

“I will do that,” I said, grinning.

“That’s mostly it. I’ve been watching the papers, but haven’t seen any good candidate houses. Maxine Fletcher hasn’t found anything yet, either. I met her for lunch one day. She’s pretty cool! I can see why you liked her,” Cammie said.

“She is,” Jas said. “I’ll be happy to work with her again.”

“Me, too!” Angie said.

Paige nodded along.

“I would, too, but that goes without saying, given all of them,” I said.

They all giggled. It was true enough.

We headed back to the house after lunch and did a walk-through ahead of Katrina and Glenn’s visit.

First, we peeked into the basement, which had been completely transformed. The floor was clean, smooth concrete. All of the new plumbing connections were in place (so we’d better not change the basement plans, at least in terms of plumbing!), the new sump was done, all of the drains were in place, and the little concrete lip which would be the base for the walls was obvious. The electric, phone, and cable connections would come down from the ceiling, so those hadn’t had to be put in yet.

The coal chute, however, was unchanged. They would unblock it once the woodwork was in place for a door frame. There was little point in leaving an open hole leading into the house.

The best part, of course, was that all of the mold smell was gone, hopefully never to return. There certainly was no sign of water leaks, but it’d been a dry summer and the concrete was new. The proof would come when rain returned to the area, likely later in the summer.

There was nothing different on the other floors, but it helped to put everything fresh in our minds. That way we’d be less likely to overlook some potential issue just because we’d forgotten about it.

There was a knock at the front door promptly at one. When I opened the door, Katrina came in first, shaking hands with me and then the girls. Glenn followed right along.

Instead of sitting down, we did a walkthrough, with Katrina showing us the blueprints for each floor as we got there (covering the attic work while we were on the second floor). Everything was well-thought-out, and it looked like it was going to be a terrific house for us.

No one had any changes, so we all signed off and that was that. The whole thing took half an hour.

Cammie had the authority to make changes, but she would only if we told her to. What I’d heard about remodels was that there were always changes. Sometimes they were minor, sometimes not so much, but the odds of getting from here to completion without changes were extremely low.

They promised to disrupt Cammie’s life as little as possible, and I was pretty sure they would keep to that.

We were on the road by two, heading up Highway Six a short distance. We’d already heard the longstanding Texas A&M saying: ‘Highway Six Runs Both Ways.’ While this is literally true — it goes north to Waco (where one can turn right and head to Dallas / Fort Worth up IH-35) and south to Hempstead (where one can turn left and head to Houston on US 290) — the saying means that one can leave A&M (presumably if they don’t like it) and take Highway 6 back to their original home.

As with any of those statements (like ‘America: Love It or Leave It’), it’s often used to put down those who love something but want to make it better. With A&M’s reputation for tradition, it would be especially important to push for change in constructive and creative ways that honored (and played to) traditions.

It’s not that change was impossible. Change was, in fact, inevitable. It had already happened in very big ways. It’s just that change was scary and one had to expect pushback.