Variation on a Theme, Book 7
Copyright© 2026 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 25: Sharing Complications
Sunday, September 7, 1986
After church, we had the usual calls. And, also, the unusual calls.
The first unusual call was simply leaving a message for Jane telling her we wanted to talk on the phone when it was convenient for her. Either Angie or I would do — we didn’t necessarily need to both be available, nor to speak to her separately. We asked her to let us know a good time.
The second was to Laura. Her reaction was fairly predictable.
“What the hell?” she said. “You found two people from your pasts, and they’re actually one person? What are the odds here?”
“Super-low!” Angie said.
Laura chuckled, saying, “I can’t remember a Carrie, Lynn, or Carolyn of particular import in Asshole Steve’s orbit. Doesn’t mean she wasn’t there, though! He had affairs I knew nothing about. A lot of them! And I knew nearly nothing about Bitch Angie’s sex life. Or, honestly, most of her friends. Asshole Steve had some horrible friends, like I said long ago. But those were guys. Leeches and jerks, pretty much. I can’t remember any notable female friends.”
“So we’re drawing a blank,” I said.
“Pretty much,” Laura said. “Which is fine. This can be just about you two.”
“It can,” Angie said.
“While I’ve got you — we’re all happy for Jessica, right?” Laura said.
“Definitely!” I said.
“Absolutely!” Angie agreed.
“Good. I’m nervous, but it’s a good nervous,” Laura said. “She said you might visit in December.”
“That’s the plan,” I said.
“Not sure if I can swing a trip to England,” Laura said.
“If you can, it would be fun,” Angie said.
“I’ll see. I think it would be, too. And ... starting to do more things is on my list. I’m very glad you invited me to that concert. And, more importantly, hanging out before and after it.”
“We’re really glad you came!” Angie said.
“Also, I find it almost hilarious that you’ve got another case of events forcing a disclosure. At least I’m not the only one who made that happen!” Laura said, chuckling.
“I didn’t have to get hit by a truck this time, either!” I said.
“It’s funny now! It really is,” Laura said, giggling a bit. “At the time, I didn’t know what to think. None of it made sense, but ... as mad as I was, I really didn’t want you to get hurt. I was very relieved that you weren’t.”
“The same for you,” I said. “Well, except for the ankle.”
She chuckled softly. “Eh. In 20/20 hindsight, that might have been a plus. Having to slow down was probably a good thing. I hated it at the time, except ... I was a trifle paranoid. Carrying a club around was also a good thing, even if I never used it.”
“You threatened to!” I said.
“I did!” she said.
We said our goodbyes and moved on. Laura not knowing Lynn (or Carrie, but we’d agreed to mostly say ‘Lynn’ unless a comment was specific to Carrie) was probably a good thing. The situation was complicated enough without Laura’s throwing in another twist.
We got a call at three. It turned out to be Jess, who started the call by yawning at us. Angie and I took it in my bedroom, using the speakerphone. Jas and Paige listened in. Amy was at work, so we didn’t need to worry about making her feel left out.
“Sorry!” she said, still in her British accent. “Late here!”
“That’s okay,” I said.
“Also, apologies on the accent. My character speaks this way. It’s easier for me to just stick with it,” she said.
“It’s adorable!” Angie said.
“It really is,” I said.
“So ... a friend tells me you have a bit of a sticky wicket,” she said.
“Inconceivably sticky!” I said.
Jess snorted at that. I could picture her rolling her eyes at me.
Angie giggled, and said, “That sounds British! Yes, we do. Quite possibly, it’ll add one to the club.”
“One I want to meet!” Jess said. “Can’t wait! Anyway, that’s freaky. I know nearly nothing about Lynn and only a tiny bit about Carrie, but ... it sounds like changes are in order.”
“We’re working on it!” Angie said.
“Best of luck with it,” Jess said.
“Thanks!” Angie and I said together.
“I’ll keep in touch. I’m going to hang out with one of my fellow actors for a bit. Then it’s off to sleep,” Jess said.
“Love you, friend!” I said.
“Love you!” Angie said.
“Love you, friends!” Jess said, then hung up.
Angie turned to me and said, “She sounds good.”
“She really does.”
“I’m just thrilled for her! Part of me wants to do that — be ‘a star of stage and screen.’ But everything pales in comparison to math right now. Even the business side. I want to figure out Tom’s stuff, but math is ... it’s just beautiful.”
“I’m glad, Sis. It’s pretty amazing, really.”
She giggled and said, “It’s insane! I’ll always wonder if I had this talent before. It doesn’t matter, though. My first life is necessary to this one existing. I’m happy it happened, even the sucky parts.”
“Ditto. Very much so.”
We hugged, then rejoined the others.
The night was quiet, for the most part. Jas and I briefly discussed both of us spending the night with Amy. She thought it should be just me, since I was the one with secrets swirling around me. I really couldn’t disagree with that.
Amy was quite happy to be asked to the bedroom, and we wasted no time in getting to kissing and stripping.
When she was halfway undressed, she said, “This ... the questions ... it turns out they change nothing. I still love you very much. And I still am very happy we can do things like this.”
“I love you very much, too. And I’m very glad we can.”
She hugged me again, then accepted my help with removing her shoes.
“It is good to know that,” she said, starting to swap out her collar and cuffs.
We wound up in bed shortly thereafter. It took quite a while before we came up for breath. After a bit of time in the bathroom, we snuggled up and turned out the lights.
“I am thinking things through,” she said. “It ... I must be certain I want what comes with answers.”
“I understand that,” I said. “We ... if anyone’s had their arm twisted, it’s Mel. She knows because...”
“Because it would not be right to make Cammie keep secrets from her wife,” Amy said. “We talked about that.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“It is a perfect reason. And Mel is happy to know,” she said.
She shifted, then said, “I am nearly certain I will ask. But this deserves serious thought, and I will give it that.”
“That makes sense.”
“I had ... another thought. It is ... it’s not connected. At all. It has just come into my head.”
“I’m curious,” I said.
“If you would like, I think I would like to join you on your trip to New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I have traveled very little, and this does not feel like it will be an expensive trip.”
“That sounds great! I’ll check with the others, but I can’t imagine anyone not wanting you to come along.”
“Partly, it is ... the people you are meeting matter to you, and it would also be nice to meet them. I have heard a great deal about Marshall and Sandra. And about Curtis and Marsha.”
It went unspoken, but I could hear her saying, ‘If you’re willing to introduce me to them, anyway.’ Amy was in no way insecure, but she was someone who would make sure of things before trying to insert herself further into our circle of friends.
“I’m sure they would love to meet you! That sounds great.”
“Angie and Paige clearly love New Orleans. I would like to see it. Seeing the world through your eyes has been wonderful, but I think it is a good time for me to start seeing a bit more of it through my own eyes, too.”
“That makes sense,” I said, hugging her. “You are becoming a different person, and I know you want to travel.”
“I do, and traveling is a skill one learns, not just a thing one does. This is a good way to start, I think.”
“We’ll help, of course.”
“Of course!”
We kissed a bit more, then snuggled up.
Monday, September 8, 1986
Today was Labor Day (Angie’s complaints notwithstanding), but A&M didn’t stop for Labor Day. So, here we were, going to classes. They were, by and large, quiet, with a lot of people missing. No doubt they’d taken advantage of the long weekend to be with friends or family. It made us feel a bit better about ditching classes on Friday. We wouldn’t be missing any more time than most of the others, anyway.
Despite it being a rather rainy day, it felt somewhat like ‘the calm before the storm.’ I’d likely used that phrase dozens of times, but that’s because we’d had more than our share of storms. Still, Lynn herself wasn’t in the picture today, and that was the big event for right now.
Lynn probably didn’t even know there was a storm. If she did, it might upset a lot of things. She’d seen Angie faint, but had apparently accepted the idea of it just being mistaken identity. Angie had been around Lynn later in the party and hadn’t fainted again, so it should feel like Angie was over it.
The Batt had two more letters about Angie and Paige. In both cases, the letter-writers essentially said ‘shame on you’ to last week’s naysayers. What amused us most was one author’s use of ‘Howdy is for everyone’ to express their feeling that we should support fellow Aggies regardless of their differences. I was pretty sure the letter’s author didn’t know Paige herself was the source of the slogan.
In more mundane news, Mel hooked back up with Cepheid Variable as one of their projectionists. They didn’t need her this week, but would likely want her some of the time. Everyone wanted to go to their showing of ‘The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension’ on Thursday, though. It wouldn’t be new to any of us — especially not me — but that was fine. It was a fun movie, and a chance for another triple date.
Jane paged me around noon, as we were at lunch. Angie’s pager went off right after mine did.
I phoned her back. I got her receptionist, who asked us to call at five. That sounded good, so we made the appointment.
We made it home in plenty of time. At five, Angie and I were both at the speakerphone. The others gave us plenty of room. Therapist calls are, by their nature, rather private. Our being on the phone together made sense here, but mostly we didn’t even hear each other’s discussions with Jane.
I dialed at five, and Jane answered immediately.
“Hello?” she said.
“Hey, Jane!” I said.
“Hi!” Angie said.
“Steve! Angie! Good to hear from you! It’s been too long.”
“It has!” I said. “We really should have made an appointment in August, but there wasn’t anything really big.”
“Which means there is now,” Jane said.
“Um ... yeah,” Angie said. “Just a bit.”
“Definitely,” I said.
“Goodness! That makes it sound personal for both of you,” she said.
“It is. In a truly fascinating way,” I said.
“Go!” she said.
“This starts with a girl named Lynn. There’s a reason you’ve never heard about her. She’s from my first life. We were good friends in college. Not close friends, but ... good. My closest female friend as an undergraduate,” I said.
“Don’t let him minimize it!” Angie said. “She’s the undergrad Laura.”
“She is not!” I said. “I never took Lynn on anything that looked like a date. At all. The closest thing to a date would be her taking me to a gay bar. After her wedding. With friends of hers, and friends of mine.”