Variation on a Theme, Book 7
Copyright© 2026 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 23: Reconnecting
Wednesday, September 3, 1986
There were three letters in today’s Batt related to the article on Angie and Paige. One of them mocked the idea of two women getting married, claiming it was ‘ridiculous’ and ‘a joke.’ One of them was close to the ‘gays will burn!’ line. The third was supportive, saying it was a shame that this was news in the first place and wishing good fortune to the happy couple.
Were the negative writers threats? Maybe. We wouldn’t know until later, most likely.
With thoughts about Lynn hanging over me, it was a bit tricky focusing on my classes today. That said, I’d survived my classes with Jas melting down, with Cammie in dire need of help, while I was playing Frankenstein’s Monster, and while I was in the hospital recovering from my appendix trying to kill me. I could manage.
What I knew about Lynn didn’t amount to a lot. She was very smart, she loved the band The Cars, she probably had a lousy boyfriend, and she was interested in Democratic Theory. It wasn’t much to go on. The Cars was an easy in, except how would I bring it up? If I fumbled it, it would look like I was a crazy stalker type. They didn’t have a new album now, nor anything else to latch onto. And I wouldn’t be sitting outside class listening to music, not with Jas around.
That meant the class itself was the best line of approach. She would legitimately be exactly the sort of person who would fit into our study group. But how would we know that? It would depend on her being the sort of person who spoke up a lot in class. Was she? I didn’t know that. I didn’t know if I had been, either. But that me wasn’t this me.
I barely even noticed the occasional grumpy looks I received. Some, but my thoughts were mostly far away.
We got four more pieces of hate mail today. They joined the others in the safe. Sooner or later, we would have to move them somewhere else. That, or get a bigger safe. They’d left some room for expansion when we put the safe in, but not a lot.
Thursday, September 4, 1986
I continued to fret about Lynn off and on, all day, right up until class time. Lunch was a break from worrying about the problem. While we talked about Lynn a bit, we mostly discussed an upcoming concert. Huey Lewis and the News were playing G. Rollie White Coliseum on the 21st. Duane Eddy opening for Huey was a pretty nice bonus. We all wanted to go, and figured we would poll the others when we got home.
Jas and I got to Democratic Theory early, just in case, and sat outside the building, trying to not look too obvious about waiting for someone. We would always say we’d been waiting for Kip, certainly. He was already a friend. Or, at least, a friendly acquaintance.
In the end, none of it mattered. Lynn appeared, wearing an outfit that was much more muted, if only by comparison to the flaming orange she’d worn before. It bordered on something Amy would wear. She had a purple top, a black miniskirt, ankle-length black leather heel boots, and purple stockings.
As she approached, she looked at Jas and me a couple of times. Finally, she came over.
“You’re in Democratic Theory, right?”
“I am,” I said, offering my hand. “Steve Marshall.”
“Me, too. Jasmine Nguyen,” Jas said, smiling and offering her hand, too.
She shook hands with me, then with Jasmine.
“Lynn Hanson,” she said. Then she got a funny look on her face and said, “I know you! Both of you! ‘60 Minutes’, right?”
“That’s right!” Jas said.
“Which means your sister and her girlfriend were the ones in the Batt on Monday,” she said.
“Right again!” I said. “That’s her and Paige.”
She shook her head. “Never thought I’d meet someone who was on national TV. But, with Kip Corrington in our class, that’s three!”
I chuckled. “At least we were on TV for good reasons.”
“Harry — that’s my boyfriend — and I were surprised to see Aggies on TV,” she said. “I never figured I would be in a class with any of you! He’ll be surprised.”
“We’ll have to meet him,” Jas said.
“He’d like that, I’m sure,” Lynn said. “Well, probably. He’s not always the most social guy.”
“They can’t all be like Steve,” Jas said.
“I’m working on it,” Lynn said. “Some guys are ... fixer-uppers, you know?”
“I actually do,” Jas said, chuckling. “Some, it takes a while to get to where they should be. And some surprise you from day one.”
She gave me a grin. I was pretty sure she meant me in both cases. And she was right.
“This is cool!” Lynn said, smiling. “People who’ve kinda actually done politics! I’m impressed, anyway. Not my thing, really. I’m pretty quiet, even if I listen to loud music sometimes.”
“Quiet’s fine,” Jas said. “Some of our housemates are pretty quiet if you don’t know them. If you do ... not so quiet. And we love music, sometimes at loud volumes.”
I started to make a joke about that, then realized my joke was likely a year or two too soon. And the next two jokes I thought of were also too soon. ‘This goes to eleven’ went in a different direction, really, or I would have said that.
While I was figuring out what to actually say, Lynn said, “You have a house? That sounds really cool! We’re in an apartment over by the mall.”
“We’re just ... dunno. Half a mile from here?” Jas said. “Up a few blocks past the Dixie Chicken.”
“That’s such a cool area!” Lynn said. “I’m jealous!”
Jas beat me to it, which was good, I thought.
“You can come see for yourself,” she said. “We’re having a party this Saturday. Four or so. Let me get you a flyer.”
She started rummaging in her bag, then produced one and handed it over.
“I ... we probably could. If that’s okay, I mean. That Harry comes. If I can pry him out of the apartment, anyway.”
“We wouldn’t ask people not to bring their sweethearts,” Jas said, smiling. “We’d love to meet him.”
“I’ll work on him,” Lynn said. “Or, if I can’t bring him, I’ll get him to something else soon.”
“That works,” Jas said.
“Speaking of,” I said, figuring I might as well strike while the iron was hot. “We have study groups for every class. Are you interested?”
“I ... could probably use that, yeah,” Lynn said.
“If it helps, you’ll get to hang out with the other national TV guy. Kip’s already in the group,” I said.
“You know him?” Lynn said. “That’s really cool!”
“Not really well, yet. Two long-time friends of ours from high school are on the team. Andy Smith and Cal Preston. They introduced us,” Jas said.
“I recognize both names, anyway!” Lynn said. “Big fan. Big fan! Almost at the whole ‘maroon face paint’ level! I love football. Always have!”
“They’ll probably be at the party,” Jas said.
“I’ll have to go. It sounds like fun. Thanks!” Lynn said.
“Cool! We’ll get you the directions by the end of class,” Jas said.
As we headed in, Kip came up and said hi. Of course, we introduced him to Lynn, who managed to not gush over him anywhere near as much as she clearly wanted to.
Once we were seated, Jas whispered, “That went well!”
“Step one down, anyway,” I whispered back.
We enjoyed the class itself. It was very early in the semester, of course, but this was the class I remembered. We were starting with Herodotus, who was generally perceived (accurately, I thought) as ‘pro-democracy.’ That said, he also saw problems with it, and potential virtues in other systems.
These topics mattered to me, and more than I’d even realized when I signed up for this course. I had seen challenges to democracy before I died, and I wanted no part of it in this life. Could we shore things up now, long before things got bad? I wasn’t sure how, but it would matter.
As much as I wished education was the answer, it wasn’t. Not by itself. Herodotus himself had seen the limitations of democracy when the population wasn’t informed, involved, and skeptical. Plato would go further in opposing democracy, before Aristotle started repairing democracy’s image.
That was in the future, though. For now, I had both meaty class topics and an interesting personal situation to handle. One was ‘easy.’ Do the work, get the grade. The other? I simply did not know what to make of Lynn, except that the universe had, once again, tossed us a big curveball.
Everyone else wanted to join us for Huey Lewis.
Amy said, “He is not too loud, though the building may make it loud. I think I’ll enjoy it.”
Candice and Sherry were in, too. It would be nice to get all of us together for a show. We did some checking, and Darla and Hank wanted to go with us, but planned to have dinner separately. Hearing that, Candice and Sherry decided to have dinner separately as well.
Huey certainly wasn’t the pinnacle of rock stars for us. It was well worth the $15 for a concert that only required a walk across the campus, though.
The phone rang about eight. Cammie was the closest, so she answered it.
I looked over and watched the look on her face switch from confusion to a smirk.
“Steve?” she said, definitely smirking. “It’s for you.”
“Oh?” I said, getting up and heading over.
“Definitely!”
I picked it up. “Hello?”
“Steve!” Lexi said.
“Oh, my! Hello, Lexi! It’s been much too long!”
Jas grinned at me. So did Paige and Angie. Cammie and Mel stuck to a smirk. Amy, on the other hand, just looked confused. Jas headed over and started a whispered conversation with Amy.
“Much too long!” Lexi said. “You’re hard to track down! Not that I’d tried, which is my fault, but that happens.”
“It does, unfortunately. I should have tried, too,” I said.
She chuckled. “I heard you had that with Darla. Same campus, and it took you a while to get together.”
“Yeah, but it was worth the wait.”
“I heard that, too!”
“It’s really good to hear your voice,” I said. Looking over, Amy had joined the smirking.
“Yours, too! By the way, Linda says ‘hi’, too.”
“How’s she doing?”
“Great! She’s been kinda like Darla for me,” she said.
“You lost contact and then got together and had a great time together?”
“Um ... so. Not nearly as great a time as you had, from what I hear! Not that. Just ... here we are, both at UT, and nothing for over a year. Then, yesterday, I was walking into the Texas Union and literally ran into her.”
“I hope no one was injured!” I said.
I saw the concerned looks and quickly said, “She ran into Linda. Literally!”
Lexi giggled and said, “No one was injured. It was just funny.”
“Good! No injuries is better!”
“Much! Anyway, I dropped what I was doing, which was going to a boring class I could skip, and we just sat and talked for a couple of hours. You can guess whose name turned up.”
“Um ... Meg,” I said playfully.
“Actually, yes. But you know who I mean.”
“Well, my ego has an opinion.”
“Your ego is right! We both miss you. Her, platonically. She’s apparently been in a solid relationship with a guy for over a year,” she said. “Not just any guy, either. UT’s starting quarterback, Bret Stafford.”
“Cool! I hope he’s a good guy.”
“She says he’s ‘a total keeper.’”
“Happy for her!” I said.
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