Variation on a Theme, Book 6
Copyright© 2024 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 140: Getting on the Radar
Saturday, May 17, 1986
We met Amy at the dorm at nine, loaded up her stuff, brought it to the house, and got her moved in. She would be visiting her parents for nearly two weeks. That was unusually long for her, but she felt like they would appreciate the time.
While we were moving boxes, Amy said, “As we discussed, they will think I’ve improved. And that’s because I have improved. Giving them some extra time will help.”
“That sounds great!” Jas said.
“It does,” I said.
Amy smiled and said, “They have never doubted that I will be successful. For all that we don’t understand each other, they know how smart I am, and they felt confident that I would get my degree. For them — for the entire family — that will be a major milestone. Degrees are very uncommon. But I think they have always felt that I would be alone. Not even in the romance sense, but more broadly. Few or no friends. Maybe people I work with, but not real co-workers. That will be the real change.”
“And, like you said, it’s true,” I said. “That’s what’s actually happened.”
She nodded quickly.
“They will realize that. I am ... I do not think I am a good liar. Especially not with people who know me.”
Jas grinned and nodded. She said, “I am a good liar, but Mama and Papa will usually know anyway.”
“There you go!” Amy said, grinning.
Once we had her settled, we figured out how to stay in touch. Amy already knew the pager code, and we encouraged her to page us whenever she needed to. On the other end, we set up a code just like the one Dad used. If the main phone line rang once, there was a short pause, and then it started ringing again, that was her signal to answer. It might work, and it might not, but it would let most people who wanted to leave messages get to our machine while letting us call her (at least potentially).
Al would be moving in later today to watch things until Cammie, Mel, and Amy returned. He already had a key and didn’t need any help, so that was set.
We loaded up my car with our luggage around noon. Everyone was bringing enough clothes for a week or so (more, since we would do laundry), including a few nicer outfits. Jas and I would definitely be back in College Station before the New York trip, if only briefly, while Angie and Paige might not be.
Amy rode with us as far as the bus station. She had only a half-hour wait until her bus was scheduled to depart. We parted with hugs and promises to talk soon.
Cammie and Mel were also heading down, bringing Candice and Sherry with them. It was the same with them. Candice and Sherry were coming back for summer school, along with Cammie and Mel.
For both couples, part of the issue was not being able to sleep together in Houston. All three sets of parents still weren’t allowing that. They could, of course, borrow a room at Jasmine’s house, but that was almost beside the point. They weren’t going to sleep there, and that was more important than just fooling around.
Jas and I would certainly want the chance to make love after a few days at most, but sleeping together was much more of a priority, and we could do that at both houses. That meant we still had no particular reason to take advantage of Mom’s rule change. We might well never actually do that.
If there was an amusing irony, it was that, within a few years or so, it might be actually more likely that Mom and Dad would stay at our house than us at theirs. This might well be the last truly ‘modest’ house we would live in. Even Warren Buffett, whose house was sometimes described as ‘modest,’ lived in what counted as a mansion for most people. A small one, but not a McMansion. He had plenty of room, albeit far less than someone like Michael or Bill would have. Or Sting, probably.
We didn’t want space for no reason, but there were reasons to have it. Guest rooms (or guest houses) were one. Nannies, maids, and security people were also good reasons. How big was a question for later, and it might change over time, but I imagined we would go from eight people in a roughly 3,000 square foot house (counting the basement, which most real estate listings wouldn’t) to two people (plus staff) in a 4,000 or more square foot house.
This wasn’t part of today’s conversation, of course. We had a year or two to go on that one, probably. Today’s would be amusing enough.
We talked through it on the way down. Everyone agreed: the parents would be fine. Amazed, but fine. This one was well foreshadowed, after all. Many of the future ones were, too.
Not all of them, but many.
We made it to Mom and Dad’s around two. As we’d generally expected, they had lunch waiting for us. We weren’t staying here tonight. That was part of the compromise with the very short trip. An afternoon with Mom and Dad, then an evening with the other parents.
Our lunch conversation was about classes and the Omaha trip, pretty much. Angie and Paige talked about the Seiler family vacation as well.
We had results back from most of our finals. All A’s, as expected. We would find out the rest in due course.
After lunch, we moved to the living room. Angie gave me a grin, I grinned back, and we were on.
“So...” I said. “This time, we have a very different conversation topic.”
Dad and Mom both chuckled, and Mom said, “I win!”
“I thought they would have something,” Dad said.
“Not as much as I did!” Mom said, grinning.
“This is directly related to something you already know about, though,” I said.
“Oh?” Mom said.
“It all starts with the CBS producer at the Rose Parade. Penny Dryer,” Angie said.
“She got back to you?” Mom said. “That sounded like quite something!”
“Wellllll...” Angie said. “She did, but this isn’t that. She’d also said she wanted to get someone else at CBS interested in us. We think finding a good news topic is a feather in her cap.”
“And you’re a good news topic?” Mom said. “Actually ... of course you are! The proposal, but more than that. Prom and ... well, everything.”
“We got a call from a Mark Blodgett,” I said. “I would tell you to sit down, but you already are, so ... he’s a segment producer for ‘60 Minutes’.”
“No!” Dad said, gasping a bit.
“Oh, my!” Mom said, simultaneously.
“They’re doing a show on ‘The Changing Face of Gay Rights’, or something like that. Apparently some of us, plus some of our friends, are newsworthy,” Angie said, giggling.
“Even someone like me, who shouldn’t be overly newsworthy,” I said, chuckling.
“Reagan,” Angie said.
She had a point, and we all knew it.
“I ... I’m stunned, and I was certain I wasn’t going to be stunned this time!” Dad said. “‘60 Minutes’! That’s the big time for news shows!”
“Our friends Anne and Natalie are also going to be on, because of PROMISE,” Angie said. “Maybe Lizzie and Janet. And our friend Marco Roberts, who was the president of Gay Student Services.”
“Before you took over,” Mom said, chuckling.
“He’s moving on,” Angie said, nodding. “But he was there for the lawsuit, and that makes him newsworthy.”
“Curtis will probably get a mention,” I said. “Baker v Wade should factor into one of the segments. One will be AIDS and related matters, so we don’t fit there. One is about how things are changing in general, and I could see Baker v Wade, GSS, and maybe PROMISE there. The last is more or less a ‘The New Generation’ thing. Marco and PROMISE could fit there, too, and proms and such definitely will.”
Dad shook his head.
“It sounds like a fascinating program. I think many people don’t realize how much things are changing. It doesn’t feel fast, to me, but that’s maybe because we’re so close to matters. But, really, it’s pretty fast. Though the civil rights movement was pretty fast, too, after it really got going.”
“Does this mean you have to go somewhere?” Mom said.
Angie chuckled and nodded.
“Luckily, yes! We’re going to be going up to New York in early June. We’ll do interviews for a day or two. Then CBS will let us go for about a week, and we’ll go visit friends in the Northeast. Massachusetts and Connecticut, at least. I imagine we’ll do plenty of other sightseeing, too. If they want additional material or need to redo anything, we’ll be back after that. And then, on July 15th, we’ll go to the concert we already mentioned. After that, we’re coming back within a few days. We want some time back here before my birthday and the family trip.”
“That’s quite something!” Dad said. “I’ve only been to New York twice.”
“And I’ve only been once,” Mom said.
“Not at all, for me, which you know,” I said, with Angie nodding along.
Paige said, “Me, neither.”
“Once, but I was very little,” Jas said. “I don’t remember it.”
“So, pretty much, all new,” Angie said, chuckling. “We’ve been to Massachusetts, at least. We didn’t really see a lot, though.”
“Too busy with the tournament!” I said, chuckling. “The airport was nice.”
Everyone chuckled at that, and those who had been there nodded along.
“And that’s mostly it for the Northeast,” I said. “New ground!”
“We’ll be looking forward to pictures,” Mom said.
“And to seeing you on TV!” Dad said.
“They think it’ll air late in the month. We might be up north by the time it airs,” I said.
“Mother and the Professor will want to watch,” Dad said. “It’ll make their day!”
Mom burst out laughing.
“Ryan watches it regularly,” she said. “Tim, sometimes, but Ryan almost always does. They’ll flip! Oh ... goodness. Poor Helen!”
There was a definite air of schadenfreude in Mom’s tone, and it got us all chuckling along with her. Poor Helen, indeed! Not only was her niece a lesbian, but that niece was going to be on national TV with her fiancée, and their engagement would be national news and covered positively.
The hilarity just grew as my thoughts went back to the first time Angie and Aunt Helen had met, and I laughed a bit more loudly.
“It just occurred to me — Aunt Helen was, at one point, worried about how things would work out for Angie. You know — all of that angst on the first trip,” I said.
Angie was already starting to giggle, and Mom looked very amused, too. For that matter, Dad was grinning quite a bit.
I continued, saying, “I’m sure she’ll be thrilled that Angie has turned out just fine. Highly successful, a straight-A student, perfectly well-adjusted, with a terrific fiancée and positive attention from the national press.”
Mom snorted very loudly and said, “I think, if Helen had known that back in 1981, she might have exploded on the spot! Or ... goodness! I don’t even know. It’s just so ironic,” she said, almost unable to continue from laughing.
When she got herself more together, she said, “Her whole problem ... or, well, a lot of it ... was keeping Angie from being around boys too much! Oh, my! In retrospect, she probably wishes we’d sent Angie to an all-boys school!”
That got everyone laughing loudly. It was true enough, though! As bad as Angie ‘doing things’ with boys might have seemed to Aunt Helen in 1981, her ‘doing things’ with girls was much, much more of a problem, it appeared.
Paige surprised everyone — or maybe not.
“We’ll have to tone it down at the family get-together,” she said, definitely getting surprised looks from Angie, Jas, and Dad. I had a guess where she was going, and I think Mom did, too.
“Just because ... we don’t want anyone to think we’re laying a trap for her. If she behaves, I can behave. And, if I can behave, everyone else had better be able to! This is a place where we can firmly stick to the high road. She has no power over us except the power we give her. And I like the rest of the family! Heck, we — all four of us! — want Kim to be a flower girl. One of the second cousins on my end might work for a ringbearer, and there might be two flower girls, but Kim is adorable and the right age. It’ll be awesome!”
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