Variation on a Theme, Book 7
Copyright© 2026 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 4: Goblins
Saturday, July 12, 1986
The morning paper brought more drama into our lives. Minor drama, perhaps, but drama.
Phyllis Schlafly had an opinion column today, and it directly referenced things I’d said. She wrote, ‘The claim is made that we should welcome others who are different, as long as they are people of goodwill. But those who claim deviant sexual practices are acceptable are, by definition, not people of goodwill. Normalizing sinful behavior encourages sin.’
A paragraph later, she wrote, ‘I agree with President Reagan that things should be a crime for everyone or for no one. The mistake was to make these acts legal for anyone. They are deviant, and that is true whether the participants are homosexuals or heterosexuals.’
A later paragraph added a new dimension to the drama. She wrote, ‘“60 Minutes” recently featured two women who claim to be engaged and to be planning a wedding. There is no such thing. Gay people cannot marry. Even if the government were to claim they could, they could not, because marriage is in the eyes of God, not in the eyes of man. Making such claims, though, undermines society. There is nothing preventing them from living together — though, perhaps, there should be, since unmarried cohabitation has coincided with a widespread decline in morality — but a claim of marriage lends their relationship a legitimacy it should never have.’
Did this mean the phones might ring? I was, apparently, ‘news’ again. Or, at least, I might be. Phyllis was targeting her remarks at President Reagan, not at me, but Reagan was following my lead (something that would have sounded absolutely ridiculous just a few years ago).
I was betting against it. That said, if Ms. Schlafly were to find out about Lizzie and Janet’s wedding, I wouldn’t bet against that army of protesters. And, since she clearly knew about Angie and Paige, none of us were betting against her somehow figuring out our wedding plans and sending that army to our wedding.
That might be amusing, though. Lizzie and Janet were already committed to a fight in the future. They looked increasingly likely to get law degrees and then focus on some part of gay-rights law or another. We were, too, but our fight (even Angie and Paige’s) was different, currently. If Phyllis Schlafly picked a fight with us, though, she would be expecting us to be ‘normal people,’ not rich-people-to-be. It would be amusing if she gave us a very public reason to commit even more resources to opposing her views.
We went out to lunch at the Hullabaloo Cafe. Trev wasn’t here this summer, so we instead met Amy’s new colleague, Bob McAdams. She had said was a pretty good guy, and he came off well now. Amy introduced us as her housemates, so none of us tipped our hand on there being anything more to our relationship. It was none of Bob’s business unless Amy made it part of his business.
Trev would be back in the fall, but Bob would also be taking shifts. Amy would still be working here, but slightly less than she had been. That was partly because of the increasing workload of her class schedule. It might also have been because she was increasingly involved with us, but she hadn’t said so and I didn’t ask.
Not yet, anyway. That might be a topic for a future conversation. We would see.
We talked with Candice when we got home. She and Sherry decided to join us for ‘Labyrinth’. Once we made plans for the movie, we talked for a while. She and Sherry were enjoying summer classes and still loved the house.
They weren’t really part of the core group, but shouldn’t necessarily be less a part of it than someone like Dave Mayrink. I think all of us were a bit worried about growing apart. Things like this should help.
Going to ‘Labyrinth’ pointed out one problem we might face fairly often. When the six of us had gone out, we still fit in my car. Seven didn’t work, though, much less nine. Cammie and Mel decided to take Angie and Paige. That worked just fine, and let Jas and me talk some more with Candice and Sherry. They weren’t close to Cammie and Mel, either, nor Amy, but had seen them more than us.
Once we got there, though, we got seats just a bit apart (it was a quadruple date, after all) and settled in to watch.
‘Labyrinth’ was certainly a movie that fit our little group. A Jim Henson movie with a script written by Terry Jones (a Monty Python alum), and with David Bowie in an over-the-top role that fit him perfectly. And so on, and so forth.
It was hardly a perfect movie, but it didn’t have to be one. Everyone loved it, and that’s all that mattered.
While I didn’t expect it, I hoped it might do a bit better in this universe. If I remembered correctly, it had been considered something of a flop at first, and Jim Henson had gone into a bit of a funk following its lukewarm-at-best reception.
For that matter, could we — and should we — do something to prevent Jim from dying an early and quite preventable death? I couldn’t quite remember when he had died, but it had been much too young. What I could remember was that it was due to his downplaying what seemed like a minor illness until it turned into a major problem. ‘Watch out for colds!’ was lousy advice, but something might be done.
Or not. Perhaps his fate was already set. We might not think of any way to intervene meaningfully, either. Angie and Laura might know something that would help, though.
That ‘should we’ mattered, too. So many people died too early. It likely wasn’t our job to be guardian angels for all of them, and each intervention was a risk. How much risk was too much?
For the Unabomber, the risk appeared low, so we intervened. Thus far, it seemed like the risk from Curtis, or Challenger, had been low, and the payoff had been high. But our string of successes didn’t guarantee continued good fortune.
Once we got home and were hanging out in the living room (minus Candice and Sherry, who pled tiredness when we got home), Angie asked everyone what their favorite part was.
Cammie said, “Okay. This is predictable, I know, but it’s the line ‘You have no power over me.’ You know why that matters.”
Everyone agreed. We did.
Mel said, “What she said, and for the same reason. If there were ever a goblin or two trying to steal a child’s future...”
Cammie actually chuckled at that and said, “Okay! That might be stretching the point a bit, love.”
“It fits!” Mel said.
“It does, but ... you know,” Cammie said.
Both of them chuckled.
“I’m going with ‘Magic Dance’,” Paige said.
Then she giggled and snorted, grinned, and said, “Not really! It was ... so. I like the song, but I was mostly joking about David Bowie’s codpiece. Really, I think my favorite part is Sarah figuring the whole thing out. Which ... fine. That’s maybe predictable, too, but...”
Angie hugged her and said, “Predictable, but cool. I like everyone’s choices, but I think I’ll go with everyone welcoming Hoggle back. Maybe it’s Sharon, but I’m kinda a sucker for second chances.”
Everyone nodded. There was subtext there we couldn’t share with Amy, but it worked as it was.
Jas said, “I’ll be the stereotypical drama kid. I’m going with it being a musical. An odd musical, but still a musical.”
I looked at Amy, but she smiled and waved her hand, so I went ahead and spoke, saying, “Makes sense to me. For me, I think it’s Sarah’s immediate regret. People do dumb things. Mistakes happen. It’s how you respond to them that matters.”
“That feels like it fits me,” Amy said, smiling.
“It fits everyone,” Angie said. “Believe me!”
“Oh, hell yes!” Paige said. “I have years of dumb things in my past.”
“Got more than a few myself,” Jas said.
“Me, too!” Cammie said.
“Oh, definitely!” Mel said.
Amy paused, then said, “I think that is part of why I enjoy your company. Many people wouldn’t be so up front about having made mistakes.”
“And they would be worse off for it,” Angie said. “Besides, we’re admitting them to you, not just some random person. That’s different.”
“Very different!” Cammie said.
Amy said, “My favorite part, I think, is Jareth watching their celebration. He is clearly not done with either Sarah or Toby, but what exactly is his goal? He is quite contradictory about it. ‘Fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave?’ An interesting relationship that would be, to say the least. I do not think he understands love, nor perhaps slavery, but it is likely because he is also something of a lost soul.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Angie said. “Meaning, that phrase makes no sense, but he thinks it makes sense. And he thinks it will make sense to Sarah. Perhaps it does, at that.”
“It seems fitting that it’s the end,” I said. “Each of us is driven to ask the question, ‘What happens next?’ We may approach it in different ways, but none of us is content to be done. There’s always a ‘next.’ Taking breaks is good, but they become their own adventures.”
“A reason I am not with my parents this summer,” Amy said. “That would be a break without an adventure. This is so much better!”
Everyone agreed with that. It was, indeed.
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