Chapter 28: Making a Date

Sunday, October 6, 1985

Jas and I got up in time to surprise Mom and Dad (and Angie and Paige) by making it to church in time for today’s service. We figured they would appreciate it.

It turned out I appreciated it quite a lot myself. I had no idea if I had somehow been at church on this Sunday in October in my first life. It seemed unlikely, but hardly impossible. It was also possible that Dr. Ott had partially repeated himself in previous sermons, or maybe things had simply shifted. In any case, today’s sermon contained a reasonable facsimile of the message I remembered him delivering in my first life.

As Dr. Ott put it, “In just a month’s time, there will be a contentious election in the City of Houston. Many of my peers at other places of worship have seen fit to endorse candidates or slates of candidates. For myself, I will not do that, and I wish they would not.

“It is not the place of the church, or any member of the clergy, to tell you who or what to vote for. We are here to care for you spiritually, which includes teaching morality, church doctrine, and the Word of God. Those may — indeed, should! — influence your decisions on how to vote, but those are your decisions!

“Make your own decisions by whatever criteria you choose. Our government is, by design, secular, and I approve of that. ‘Render onto Caesar that which is Caesar’s,’ the Bible teaches us, and it is a wise teaching. We do not want the government to tell us what to believe or how to worship, after all. A government whose leaders are beholden to members of the clergy, though, is a government that will be tempted to let those leaders unduly influence policy, and that is dangerous.

“I ask only that you take your vote seriously and consider your choices. The right to govern ourselves is something many people take for granted, but it was a hard-fought right. It is also something we can lose. Cherish it and keep it strong.”

Most people seemed approving, but that was nearly a given considering this was Dr. Ott. I suspected some people had wanted him to take a more direct stand in favor of their side. But, if the Dr. Ott of my first life had declined to do so, I imagined this one would be even more reticent. We hadn’t changed who he was, certainly — the analogous sermon a universe away proved that — but we had given him a bit more input, and that can matter.

We didn’t do anything big for lunch. Yesterday’s outing to Red Lobster had, perhaps, taken the place of the Warwick or something else.

That hardly mattered. It was the six of us gathered around the table, and that was special enough.

It amused me that I had, almost certainly, shared at least as many meals with Mom and Dad in the company of Jasmine as first-life me had shared with them in the company of my ex-wife over decades. If it was just meals at this house, that number would be even more lopsided in favor of Jasmine.

After lunch, we picked up Mel and Cammie from the Rileys’ house. There were hugs as they left, which seemed like a good sign.

“So, how was it?” Angie asked once we’d pulled away.

“It was ... surprisingly good,” Cammie said.

“It was!” Mel said. “I mean, we’re still just a bit jealous of y’all, but...”

“They’re getting there,” Cammie said. “None of it felt forced or weird or ... anything bad, really. They seemed happy to have me there. We followed the rules, but they weren’t checking up or anything.”

“At least, not that we could tell,” Mel said, giggling a bit.

“Well, yeah,” Cammie said.

“So Mama and Papa are off the hook?” Jas said with a grin.

“Maybe,” Cammie said, stretching the word out. “I’m not sure. Probably? It would be a bit insulting to refuse Alex and Carol’s hospitality. But, if Emily is there, either the two of us have to share the sofa-bed or I need to be at your parents’ house.”

“They’ll understand either way,” Jas said. “Really, it’s cool. I was mostly just teasing.”

“It’s really ... all sorts of trouble,” Mel said. “Good trouble, from my perspective, but ... I mean, Emily and the boys are serious. Okay, that’s obvious, but I think Mom and Dad weren’t really thinking of how that would go until fairly recently.”

Cammie said, “We’re pretty sure Emily — and the twins, but mostly Emily — read them the riot act over the summer. Politely, but still. They put it as ‘We talked with Emily, and she made us realize that we can’t just pretend there’s nothing unusual about their relationship, or think it’s just going to go away.’ They didn’t say that made them rethink things with us, but I’m pretty sure it was the subtext.”

“They’re not getting a traditional marriage for either of their sons nor their daughter,” Mel said. “But they can get marriages for all three. They just have to accept winding up with two daughters-in-law. Which is the same number they expected from the boys, I suppose, but we’re not getting there the usual way.”

Everyone chuckled at that.

“I think the only parents getting to the standard number of in-laws the way they might have expected are mine,” Jas said, giggling.

“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Paige said in a soft, soothing tone.

We all laughed even harder.

While checking the paper after dinner, I noticed that Tulane had managed a minor upset against Vanderbilt, winning 24-17. I had no idea how Tulane had done this year in my first life, though I thought ‘not very good’ was about right. Was the upset ‘expected?’ Or had Marshall made a difference?

We phoned to congratulate him, and it turned out Marshall had made a difference. He had gotten loose in the middle of the third quarter, sacking Vanderbilt’s quarterback, forcing a fumble, then returning that fumble for a touchdown. In a close game, that might have made all of the difference.

I hadn’t known Marshall at all in my first life. Had he gone to Tulane then? I was nearly certain he hadn’t played in the NFL, but it’s not like I’d memorized every team’s roster. There was nothing guaranteeing this Marshall would play in the NFL, either. One good game would hardly get him drafted!

Worth watching, but not something we could declare a ripple just yet. Marshall being friends with and mentored by Curtis — that was a ripple!

Monday, October 7, 1985

Paige heard back from Marco. A number of clubs had signed on to ‘Howdy is for Everyone!’ Most importantly, perhaps, the club that sponsored Howdy Week had itself gotten behind the idea. That would take care of much of the resistance that might have otherwise occured.

The various clubs were currently targeting the week of March 24-28, immediately after Spring Break. That would put it well away from ‘Howdy Week’ and give them plenty of time to make shirts. Several of the clubs were starting to work on advertising, and Paige and Angie had been encouraged to join in. They eagerly agreed.

We all headed off to take yearbook photos late in the day. Luckily for us, freshmen and sophomores were on the same days, so Candice was able to join the rest of us. Next year we would take photos on different days.

The girls teased me about wearing my kilt, but I opted out for this one. Perhaps senior year? I had no plans either way, but it could happen.

Tuesday, October 8, 1985

Cammie closed on the first house (based on the original list) today. That left the original second house. The bidding war was settling down and Cammie was nearly certain Camel would prevail. The other bidders had slowed things down quite a bit, but one had dropped out unexpectedly while the other seemed to be having cold feet. My guess was that they’d hoped for a bargain. Once they realized the other bidders weren’t giving up, they dragged their feet while trying to decide what to do.

We would find out soon enough. On the other hand, two were in the bag.

We didn’t go out to celebrate, but we did have some nice filets and a nice wine at home. It was still a big deal and still well worth celebrating!

Wednesday, October 9, 1985

Darla and I still hadn’t quite worked out the timing on another ‘real date.’ I was starting to suspect that might mean something. If it did, though, we had plenty of time to figure out what it meant.

In the absence of a real date, we were seeing ‘The Final Countdown’ together tomorrow night. Thanks to the membership class (last meeting tomorrow!), we would see the 9:45 showing of the movie. Darla and I would also be together on Friday night for Night Ranger and Cheap Trick and on Saturday night for the Presidents’ Endowed Scholar reception, but those were definitely not dates. ‘The Final Countdown’ wasn’t much of one, either, but it somewhat counted.

Since tonight’s movie outing wasn’t much of a date, we agreed to just meet for dinner at the MSC cafeteria at 8:30 or so. Since most of my housemates were going, we would sit by couples so that everyone could get some nice, cheap college mini-dates out of it all, at least.

Next weekend was worse, dating-wise. Darla was heading to Houston for the weekend for her father’s birthday, while we were going to Waco on Saturday for the Aggie game. After the game, we were heading to Austin to spend the night before a brief get-together with Michael on Sunday. We probably should have done better at visiting him, but he was busy, we were busy, and this was the best we could do before the A&M game (which would also unquestionably be a rushed visit on his part).

Things were only going to stay quiet on that front for so long. The clock was ticking on finding a President (or whatever Michael decided to call the position), and I was going to be in on at least an interview or two. I hoped to limit it to interviewing Michael’s favorite candidate, but we would see.

After that... well, the ice would be broken. At least, that was my guess. Once I was in on hiring, why not on the occasional major issue? And, from there, why not the IPO?

As Angie and I had said more than once, we sucked at keeping our heads down, staying quiet, and being silent partners. That seemed to be all to the good so far, but it might bring something crashing down on us.

On a whim, I stopped at Hullabaloo Cafe after my Political Science class. I wanted to see how Amy was doing and hoped maybe the middle of the afternoon might not be too busy.

It turned out to be a good guess. When I came in, I was the only one there aside from Amy.

She gave me a smile as I came in. Not the biggest or warmest smile, but this was Amy. I wasn’t actually expecting some big sunburst smile from her. It wouldn’t have gone with her look, anyway. She was still toning things down somewhat for work, but she had her purple eyeshadow and a black choker.

“Hi,” I said, smiling right back.

“Hello, Steve,” she said, still with that slight smile and using her full Wednesday Addams voice. “It is good to see you well. You are well?”

“I am,” I said, chuckling just a bit. Hopefully, it was clear I was laughing with her. “It is good to see you well, too. Assuming you are.”

She shrugged slightly.

“I ... am. It is ... it’s much better not rooming with Tiffany.”

She had the pronunciation of Tiffany down. Just the way I knew Tiffany had wanted it, but the mockery was front and center.

“I’m glad,” I said. “It’s been nice not having to deal with roommates I didn’t choose.”