Variation on a Theme, Book 7
Copyright© 2026 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 16: A Difference in Universes
Sunday, August 10, 1986
We spent much of Saturday goofing off. It felt nice to have a quiet weekend with few plans. Today, we went to church, and then made the usual round of calls. No one had all that much to talk about, but it was good to catch up.
One of those calls was to Lizzie and Janet. They were back, and promised to show off lots of honeymoon photos when they had a chance. For the most part, it sounded as if their honeymoon had been fun. There had been moments, though. They’d had to request a change of seating at dinner because one couple at their original table had clearly been uncomfortable with a lesbian couple. And they’d gotten dirty looks twice while out playing tourist.
Still, nothing bad had happened, and they’d gotten approving looks — and comments — as well. Both of them said it had been a lot of fun, and that was what really mattered.
Grandmother and Professor Berman spent a bit of time talking about the house. Professor Berman said, “To me, this is marvelous! I would not have expected otherwise. Looking at myself, I wonder if I would have spent that amount of money as wisely at your age. I have said it before, and I will say it now — I believe you are all headed for great things, and it is a joy to see.”
Later in the call, after he handed the phone to her, Grandmother said, “I remember seeing pictures of your house. It is very impressive! And Sam had great things to say about your investments as well. It does my heart good to know that my grandchildren will be secure.”
They had also received the wedding photos and were, in Grandmother’s phrasing, ‘tickled pink.’ She said she’d never heard of a man following a woman, but that it made sense in this case, and she was glad I could honor Lizzie in that way. Professor Berman said much the same thing. Grandmother was emotional about the kilt, as well. If anything, she might have been even more emotional than Dad was. I was the only ‘outside’ adopted Marshall anywhere near us in the family tree (well, as far as anyone but a few people knew, considering Angie’s parentage), and my embracing the Johnstone heritage mattered to Grandmother.
I think both of them were, at least a bit, imagining Angie and Paige in the place of Janet and Lizzie. While I didn’t know for certain, it seemed unlikely that Grandmother had been involved with a lesbian wedding before, and only a bit more likely that Professor Berman had. Angie’s would be their first, and it mattered enormously that they both loved Paige and supported Angie marrying her.
After talking to them for a while, I finally got through to Dave Mayrink. He and Caroline had been visiting her family. It sounded like things were getting serious, and I said as much. After a bit of hemming and hawing, he said he would likely propose at Christmastime. Having proposed on New Year’s Day, I completely understood the appeal. He joked that he didn’t expect his proposal to land him on national TV. Most likely, he was right about that!
After the calls, we talked about our own weddings a bit, and how to make progress with them. Next Friday was our last day of summer school. We tentatively planned to return to Houston on Saturday and stay there for a bit under a week. We would figure out which providers (catering, flowers, videography, and so forth) we wanted for our wedding and sign contracts. Cammie and Mel planned to do the same thing, likely at the same time.
This might be a bit early, but only a bit. Weddings need a lot of lead time, and some of the people we needed were already booking up for next summer. We didn’t want to have to go with second-best. Or third-best, or whatever.
Amy was going to take a bus trip to visit her parents. I was still trying to figure out when I would meet them. A&M was playing SMU in Dallas on November 1st, and we would probably attend. That would be a good opportunity, most likely.
That left the house empty, save for Al. Given the purchase offer, the car, and the letters — at least some of which we tentatively thought were connected — it made sense to have someone watching over it.
Monday, August 11, 1986
I gave Alice a call over lunch. Amy, for now, was described as ‘just a friend.’ That might well change. If Amy was going to work at P.C.’s Limited, we might have to file paperwork acknowledging the relationship and pledging to follow the rules. I would need to promise not to intervene on her behalf — whether directly or indirectly — while she would have to acknowledge there was no quid pro quo. Anything that affected her specifically would require me to recuse myself from the board vote and discussion. That shouldn’t apply to general discussions of compensation, though.
For the moment, there was no problem with ‘a friend of mine’ talking generally with members of the engineering team, even if that friend happened to mention that she knew a member of the board of directors. Acknowledging the relationship but being careful to avoid influence was the right answer. I didn’t expect Amy to mention it, but it was better to know it would be acceptable if she did. Amy was very good at self-editing, so it likely wouldn’t be an issue.
Tuesday, August 12, 1986
Kelly Peterson left a message. Her profile of Angie and Paige, entitled ‘Marriage Proposal Lands Aggie Couple on “60 Minutes”’, was up to the point where she was soliciting reviews. For now, there would be no separate profile of me, but I was quoted a few times in the piece.
Angie made sure a copy got to P.C.’s Limited. While she wasn’t a director, she was — technically, at least — an employee. That, and my being quoted, made it worth checking with them. We also faxed a copy to CBS.
The article was quite positive, and we all thought Kelly had done a great job with it. It wasn’t going to come out until the September 1st issue of the Batt.
Angie raised a really interesting question about that September 1st edition.
“Why is there a September 1st edition? Why isn’t that Labor Day?”
“Um...” I said. “Well, A&M has classes on Labor Day, traditionally. But Labor Day is the 8th, right?”
“Yeah, but ... oh! This is a universe difference!”
That got everyone’s attention. Fortunately, ‘everyone’ didn’t include Amy. She wasn’t home yet.
“What do you mean?” Cammie asked.
“Labor Day is the first Monday in September,” Angie said.
“First Monday after the first Sunday,” Cammie said. “That’s the rule.”
“But it wasn’t in my first life. I have vivid memories of three-day weekends starting in August and ending on the first,” Angie said.
“Um ... weird?” I said. “I mean, not weird that you remember that, or that it was the rule. But it’s an odd place for a difference.”
“I know, right?” Angie said. “This came up in 1980. At the time, I couldn’t exactly ask you. And then it slipped my mind until now.”
“First year it’ll matter,” Mel said, nodding. “I remember that 1980 Labor Day really well! That was pretty awesome, even if Andy and I were just pretending.”
“You weren’t really pretending,” Cammie said. “You and Andy were really close. Just ... not physically.”
“Fair enough!” Mel said. “And I like that better. But the physical part mattered. It’s why I dropped out of the group.”
“Only to return, triumphantly,” Cammie said, grinning.
“Thanks, in large part, to big brother,” Angie said.
“Which, in turn, is partly thanks to Susan and Kimmie,” I said.
“They definitely had a part in it. Hard for Mike, or anyone else, to balk when his sister was gay,” Angie said.
“We lucked out so much with Rita,” Mel said. “She’s awesome! I know you’re keeping up with her, Steve. We are, too. And with Susan and Kimmie.”
“I’m glad Mike is still with Trish,” Angie said. “It makes that whole sad, awkward mess a lot more reasonable.”
“Me, too,” I said. “I’m well into ‘forgive and forget’ on that. It hardly matters now, and I hope they’re good for each other.”
We reminisced a bit more, then called Laura. Laura’s first-life experience matched Angie’s, and she was surprised that mine was the same as it was here. She, too, had noted it, but it just hadn’t come up thus far.
Wednesday, August 13, 1986
We had our last summer meeting of the Poly Sci Privateers tonight. After several hours of studying for the final, we all felt prepared and that a meeting tomorrow night would be unnecessary.
Both Peter and Susanne were visiting their parents next week. We had considered, but rejected, having a party on the 30th. Instead, we were going to have one on the 6th of September, welcoming everyone to the new semester. It would be too hard to reach some of the various study group members in time for the 30th, and some of the late returnees would be busy moving that day. We would be back on campus by the 25th, but we had a house here, making us highly unusual.
Thursday, August 14, 1986
We received sad news in the mail. There would be no Broadway series this year. Apparently, they simply couldn’t get good dates for most of the shows they’d planned. They were doing ‘Romeo and Juliet’ on Valentine’s Day, and we would purchase single-show tickets for that. Everyone wanted to go, including Amy, who was happy to consider it a three-person date.
If there was good news, it was that the hate mail had died off. We hadn’t received any this week. Perhaps the frenzy was over, at least for now. We could certainly hope!
Jas and I made a chocolate birthday cake for Amy while she was at work. Dinner was homemade pizza, which she appreciated as well. After dinner, we all sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her, ate cake, and gave her a few small gifts. From me, a Chernabog paperweight I’d found at Disneyland. From Jas, a pair of poison apple earrings, also from Disneyland. Cammie and Mel had gotten her a set of purple hair ties, and Angie and Paige gave her a pair of purple and black striped stockings.
Amy hugged everyone, crying and looking about as emotional as she ever looked.
“This is, without any question, my best birthday ever,” she said, sniffling a bit. “I am overwhelmed! I did not know what it would be like to celebrate my birthday with so many special people. Thank you so much, all of you!”
Friday, August 15, 1986
Our final was what I expected. All of us felt we’d done well and should get yet another A. I liked Dr. Halloran and hoped I would have another class with him.
We said goodbye to new friends, then headed home. Most of us spent a fair bit of time packing. Amy was doing more packing than the rest of us, since she was moving back into the dorm on Monday the 25th, with us here to help.
However, she planned to leave a fair number of things in the house. Some of her possessions could stay here, ready for sleepovers or whatever. She was going to bring down some more things from her parents’ house on this trip, with the intent of being more fully moved down to College Station.
It seemed unthinkable that things could blow up with her so much that we wouldn’t let her keep things in the house. We could hit an impasse that ruled out a deeper romantic connection, certainly, though I wasn’t sure what that would look like. But she would have to be persona non grata for us not to store some things. We had plenty of storage space, after all.
Maxine left us another message. It just said to call her back. We did, and she said the buyer had been complaining about the delay and threatening to withdraw the offer. According to her, even though messing with them was enjoyable, the level of pressure they were putting on her was becoming tedious, especially with there being no chance of any commission. She wanted an answer by next Wednesday.
We promised to move things along soon. I wasn’t sure how we were going to do it, though. Most likely, we would just decline the offer. Would that lead to an escalation? No one knew, and we were all worried about it. Al would likely get a lot of business from us, and we were starting to wonder if Al was enough. If they knew he was a cop, that might deter a lot of things. Injuring a cop would be bad. But if they didn’t know he was a cop, who knew what might happen?
Saturday, August 16, 1986
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