Variation on a Theme, Book 7
Copyright© 2026 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 21: Boomerang
Saturday, August 30, 1986
We slept late. Or, rather, we woke up, enjoyed the bed again, and then snoozed a bit.
It turned out that Angie and Paige liked their bed almost as much as we did, so we didn’t meet for breakfast until ten-thirty. Everyone was hungry, but conversation was lively, both about the party and about our plans and hopes for the fall.
Amy was in a very good place, I thought. She was grateful for, and appreciative of, the changes in her life, but didn’t fall over herself thanking us for our part in them. For my part, I would have done what I’d done if we had remained ‘just friends.’ It almost certainly wouldn’t have made as much of a difference if we had, though. Amy had needed to see that people could love her, not just like her. I did, and so did Jasmine. Now, Angie and Paige were on record as loving her, too. As a friend, but that mattered just as much.
We took advantage of late checkout just to hang out, talk, and be lazy, so we didn’t hit the road until one. That got us back to College Station a little after three. We dropped Amy off at her dorm, which was jam-packed with people doing last-minute move-ins, and then headed back to the house.
Cammie and Mel were happy to hear about our adventures, and also happy for Amy. They loved her, too, in their own way. Thanks to living with her for the first half of the summer, not just the second half, they were closer to her than Angie and Paige were. They just hadn’t quite said it yet.
We spent an hour or so going over plans for our party next Saturday. Paige and Mel wound up making a pretty nice invitation on the Mac, and we printed a bunch of copies on our printer. Desktop publishing was handy! Not as nice as email invitations would be one day, but this was still a huge improvement.
Today’s mail contained our invitations for the annual President’s Endowed Scholar reception. As they had last year, it would be in the evening after a football game. In this case, it was the game versus Texas Tech on October 5th. Tech could be tough, but they weren’t expected to be particularly strong this season. With the next game away, their best other option would have been Baylor on the 19th. Baylor was a much higher risk of a loss, though.
As with last year, Angie’s, Jasmine’s, Paige’s, and my donors were attending. Mel’s was not, and Cammie’s was deceased. Candice’s donor was also attending, as he had last year.
I imagined Cammie would spend nearly all of her time with Karl Klienfelder, Jas’s donor, anyway. Jas liked him well enough, but Cammie had a real connection with him, and they were certain to talk real estate.
Remembering last year’s reception, held after the UH game, reminded me that we should get in touch with Calvin and Megan. We didn’t talk to them very often, and that should probably change. I doubted we would talk weekly, but monthly might be reasonable. I didn’t want to lose touch with either of them.
Amy phoned about five-thirty and said, “There’s a ... thing ... here. I might need to stay at the house. Um ... for a while. If that’s okay.”
“Of course, it’s okay!” I said. “What’s up?”
“It’ll be better if I explain it to all of you at once.”
“That’s fine, then. We could come get you?”
“It’s terribly crowded here,” she said. “And I think the walk will calm me down.”
“Then we’ll see you in a bit!” I said. “Come over for dinner?”
I looked into the kitchen, where Mel and Paige were busy cooking. Both of them smiled and nodded.
“Dinner sounds wonderful! I will be there in a bit,” Amy said.
After we hung up, I checked with the others. As expected, no one had the slightest problem with Amy staying here for a while.
Amy arrived around six, hugging each of us in turn and kissing Jas and me.
Cammie said. “Join us for dinner?”
“I would love to!” Amy said. “I have ... there is ... I need to explain.”
“Sounds like something’s wrong,” Mel said, sounding concerned. “I hope it’s not bad for you.”
“No. Or, yes, but ... also no. Not exactly. It is not complicated, but to explain, I need to explain all of it.”
“Dinner, then!” Mel said. “It’s almost ready.”
She and Paige had collaborated on a lasagna. They’d tried something new — not soaking the noodles, but counting on the steam to soften them. It had worked for me years ago (aka the 2010s), and I expected it to work for them, too.
Once we were seated, with lasagna, veggies, and glasses of wine, Amy said, “Here is what is happening. They have too many freshmen. Or, perhaps, too many upperclassmen. Freshmen are being put temporarily into study rooms. One, sometimes two, in a tiny space.”
“That’s awful!” Mel said.
“They are offering incentives. The cost of the dorm room, plus five percent, as a subsidy for our finding other housing, for those of us with scholarships. For those who do not have scholarships, a refund of their meal plan cost while remaining eligible for meals,” Amy said.
“That’s generous!” Angie said.
“Meg is thinking of taking the offer. She can move in with a friend. Most likely, she will actually live with her boyfriend, though her parents may not know that. But she doesn’t want to leave me at loose ends.”
“I think we would...” Jas said.
Amy shook her head and said, “Before you offer anything, I would prefer to give you the information and let you discuss it tonight. There should be no pressure. We have already discussed my living here next year. So, I know, in principle, you are open to it. But this is a difference, and I do not want to put pressure on you.”
I couldn’t fault Amy’s logic, but this felt a bit like ‘old Amy’ to me. Relationship decisions are seldom things you can set aside without consequence. If we turned her down, it would change things. That created pressure. She was doing the right thing, but the idea of it being a pressure-free decision didn’t hold water.
Cammie said, “I — we, I think — appreciate that.”
Everyone nodded.
“Is tomorrow soon enough?” she finished.
“Definitely!” Amy said. “Meg will be there tonight. And, of course, I would be fine if she were not. It is after she moves out that I would get an unknown roommate. She might be wonderful, but she might not.”
We talked a bit more over dinner, but it didn’t add much, so the conversation quickly moved on to our upcoming classes.
When we were done, Jas said, “We’ll drive you back to the dorm. I insist.”
“Well, if you insist...” Amy said, grinning.
In the car, Jas said, “We’ll figure it out. I agree, though. Unless you want to try things with a random roommate...”
“A year ago, I would have. Meg was largely an unknown. Now? It might be fun. It might not. I am very different, but I do not know if I would have the patience for a Tiffany. It was one thing when I did not know myself as well. It would be another matter if I felt she was wrong, and I needed to decide whether to argue or not.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” I said, nodding.
“With all of you, if I think you are wrong, I can simply argue,” Amy said, grinning a bit. “That does not happen often! Still, it is different arguing with friends. Or, at least, with friends who are good at arguing.”
Jas giggled, then said, “Some better than others!”
“Guilty!” I said.
“I meant Cammie,” Jas said, then giggled a bit more.
“She is very good at arguing,” Amy said, smirking now.
We parked at the dorm. Even now, at nine, it was very crowded, and some parents were still helping carry things in.
“Church tomorrow? And we’ll decide by then?” Jas asked.
“I would like that,” Amy said.
“We’ll pick you up,” I said.
“I will see you in the morning, then!” Amy said. She hugged and kissed each of us, then headed into the dorm.
As we left, Jas said, “I see the risks, but you know I’m a ‘yes’ on her moving in.”
“I feel the same way. But we definitely need to talk about it.”
“Do you think she sees it? Meaning that there is a big secret?”
“Probably. She’s got less exposure to it than, say, Cammie did, or Jess, but likely enough,” I said.
“If she asks? Acknowledge there’s something but ask for time? Like with Cammie?”
“Most likely we acknowledge it, try to convey the weight of it, and let her decide if she wants to know,” I said.
“It kinda sucks. I want her to know, but I also agree it’s early. Also ... we should probably table this. Everyone else will want to talk.”
“I agree.”
When we got home, that was pretty much exactly what happened. We went back and forth on it for a bit. No one felt like a ‘no,’ but there was a lot of caution expressed.
Angie might have summed it up the best when she said, “I really like Amy. Really like her! Heck, I love her, though not that way. Yet? Maybe. She’s good people, and I want her to know. But I don’t know how her mind works, and that’s a concern. The thing is, I don’t know how Jess’s mind works, sometimes, and I love Jess and am happy she knows. Partly because of her relationship with me, admittedly, but still!”
She giggled a bit, then added, “I think what I’m saying is: we have to be ready for it to come up even as early as tomorrow. That doesn’t mean we tell her the minute it does. Didn’t happen with Cammie or with Jess. But ... if questions are asked, we offer an explanation and let her decide when, because anything else is probably not going to work.”
Cammie said, “For me, that was partly not wanting to screw up our dynamic. I waffle back and forth as to whether it would have. Right now, I think it wouldn’t have. But there’s little point in really deciding, since I’m happy about how it all worked out.”
“Yeah,” Angie said. “If it comes up, it probably depends on how it comes up. If it’s her asking out of the blue, maybe we see if she’s willing to be put off with an acknowledgment that there’s something to be put off from. Now, if she’s not willing, that might well say she shouldn’t know at all, as sucky as that is. But if she is, we do that. On the other hand, if it’s like Jas or Jess, and circumstances have made it damn obvious there’s a secret, then we bow to the universe and go with it.”
“I think you should only know if you need to know,” Cammie said. “I needed to. Mel needed to know mostly because of me, but still.”
“I did,” Mel said. “Because otherwise I would’ve been left out of so many conversations, and it would just wear on things.”
“Which is probably true of Amy!” Cammie said. “But my point is: it’s a joy to know, and I’m extremely glad I do, but it’s also a weight we’ll always carry. Say the wrong thing, and bad things happen to people I love. You can’t go back to the way things were before, either. We know things about life and death, and souls, and all of that. Maybe only vague things, but just knowing death is not the end is enormous. I want her to know that, but I don’t want her to have to know it unless she knows what she’s taking on.”
“What she said,” Mel said. “I worry a bit about saying the wrong thing. And I sometimes wonder why Steve and Angie aren’t nuts.”
“Who says we’re not?” Angie said, grinning. “Partly it’s because we’re sloppy. We say the wrong thing. Usually, it’s around all of you, but it’s happened with other people. Jess, for instance, when she was ‘other people.’ So far, it hasn’t cost us — that we know of! — but that could be meaningless. I made a silly throw-away joke with Steve before we’d figured each other out. Doesn’t matter, because he knew it. But if Steve had been normal, I’d be biting my nails wondering if, one day, he would call me up and say, ‘Why were you making a joke in 1980 that wasn’t a thing until 1990?’ Or whenever it was. Hell, we figured each other out because I said absolutely the wrong thing and it turned out to be totally the right thing. If he hadn’t been ‘in the club,’ I would be so, so terribly busted in a few years.”
Paige giggled and said, “You are wonderfully ‘busted,’ fiancée.”
Her eyes went up and down, looking at Angie’s chest. Everyone laughed, and some tension we hadn’t even known was there let up a bit.
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