Chapter 12: Home Is Where the Heart Is, Part II

June 1982, Milford, Ohio

Melanie, Kara, and I headed over to the Kara’s house to talk to her mom. I explained what Don Joseph had said and gave her the piece of paper with the phone number.

“How is this even possible, Steve?” Nancy Blanchard asked.

“I’ve been working for him for about five years, and I dated Joyce, who’s his granddaughter, for several of those years before Kara and I got together. He likes me and wanted to help, just as he did with the suit and the dresses.”

“And this is for real? A real job?”

“Yes. They’ll teach you what you need to know. It’s an entry-level payroll clerk job, something that someone who had just graduated from High School would get, but I think he bumped the salary for you because you’re, well, older than a High School girl,” I smiled.

She laughed, “Just a bit! How can I ever thank him?”

“Leave that to me, Mrs. Blanchard,” I said. “You just call and make arrangements to start work!”

She went to the phone and called Alex. When she hung up, she said that they had agreed she’d start the following Monday. She was excited and nervous, which didn’t surprise me, given that she’d never held a job before. I thought back to something that she’d once said about having made different choices. She had the chance to do that now. She was only in her late 30s and had a real chance to start over. A fleeting thought crossed my mind — would she meet someone and perhaps re-marry? That was an interesting thought, but one I wouldn’t share, even with Kara, at least until more time had passed.

“I’ve done so many new things in the past month,” Mrs. Blanchard said, “things I never had to think about before! Thanks again, Steve, for being here for us. Both you and your dad. I take it your mom still disapproves?”

“My mom disapproves of everything except my brother, as far as I can tell,” I said. “My sister manages to walk a fine line, but as long as she spends time with me, she’s going to have at least some trouble with my mom. It’s not so bad now that I’ve left home, but Stephanie has to be very careful. Fortunately, my dad more or less put his foot down about Stephanie being able to go out with Ed Krajick.”

“Your dad is a wonderful man! And his lawyer and accountant have been so helpful! It’s all been a bit confusing, but I’m starting to get a handle on how to do things that Alan always did for me.”

“We were going out to lunch,” I said. “Would you like to come out with us and celebrate the new job?”

“That’s a great idea, Mom!” Kara exclaimed happily. “Please, come to lunch with us.”

“Yes, Mrs. Blanchard, please come with us,” Melanie echoed.

She smiled and nodded. She got her purse, and the four of us headed to Frisch’s for lunch.

As we entered, I was welcomed by name by some of the employees. I greeted them and waved back.

“It seems like everyone who works here knows you, Steve!” Mrs. Blanchard said.

“Well, the older waitress has been here since I first started coming here regularly back in ninth grade. The younger one and the busboy are both going to be Seniors. They were Sophomores when I was a Senior, so I know them from school. There’s another older waitress who is here on the weekends that we know pretty well, too.”

“Small wonder, then!” she said, then softened her gaze and sighed, “Steve, I have to thank you again for allowing Kara to stay with me for the next year.”

I held up my hand, “Wait a minute! I didn’t ALLOW Kara to do that. She and I discussed it, she made a decision, and I support her decision. It’s what’s in her, and your, best interests. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but Kara’s not my property, nor am I in charge of her life. She and I are equal partners, Mrs. Blanchard.”

She frowned and was quiet for a moment, “I’m sorry, Steve. It’s just how I’m used to thinking.”

“I know,” I nodded. “And honestly, I think you need to change that way of thinking.”

She gave a wan smile, “Yes. Alan’s not here to do everything for me, is he?”

“No,” I said gently, “he’s not.”

Kara put her arm around her mom, “We can do this together, Mom.”

Teary-eyed, Mrs. Blanchard said, “You were always a free spirit, sweetie. I wasn’t. It’s so difficult.”

I wondered about that. In fact, I was sure that Nancy Blanchard, née Morton, HAD been a free spirit, but in the environment in which she was raised, and in which she found herself when she married, there had just been no way to express it, and in the end, she had chosen the safest route.

“Mrs. Blanchard, I don’t know that what you just said is accurate,” I said carefully. “I think you were a free spirit, but you just locked it away in exchange for safety, security, and love. After all, you did get things out of order, as you’ve called it.”

She blinked away the tears and smiled, “Yes, I did.”

“Out of order?” Melanie asked.

Kara giggled, “Steve and I got things out of order. I should have had the engagement ring and wedding band from Steve before, well, BEFORE. Out of order.”

“Oh!” Melanie giggled.

“Your father could never quite get over his guilt about that, Kara,” Mrs Blanchard said. “And I think that colored how he responded to your revelation. But even without that, he would have been upset. I don’t regret it. Like you, sweetie, I found the man I wanted to be with and he was the only one I ever even kissed in my life.”

“Really?” Melanie asked.

“Mel, back off a bit,” I said, doing my best to sound like Pete.

“It’s OK, Steve,” Mrs. Blanchard said. “Yes, Melanie. One man. I had my first kiss at seventeen, was engaged the day after I graduated, and we couldn’t wait until the wedding, which was only a few months later. But Alan was the only man I’ve ever kissed the way a woman kisses a man.”

“And Steve is the only man I’ve kissed that way,” Kara said.

That was true, I thought. Of course, my formerly innocent girlfriend had kissed Joyce the way lovers kiss, but there was no way I would ever reveal that to Kara’s mom!

We finished our lunches and Kara suggested that we take her mom shopping. I agreed, and we decided on Tri-County Mall because it had the largest selection of stores in the area, including Elder-Beerman, Pogues’s, Shillito’s, and of course, Sears, Roebuck and Company. We spent the afternoon shopping and Mrs. Blanchard bought several outfits for work, plus some new shoes and a few accessories. On the way back to the Blanchards’, we dropped Melanie at her house. When we arrived at Kara’s house, Mrs. Blanchard thanked me again and gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then Kara and I went to sit in the den while we waited for Joyce and Terry to arrive.

The doorbell rang and Kara got up to answer it. Rather than being Joyce and Terry, it was Susie and Johnny who were stopping in to check on Kara.

“Hi, Steve!” Susie said. “I saw your car outside! Did you have a good trip?”

“Hi, Susie! I did. Thanks for checking up on Kara while I was gone.”

“She’s my friend! Even Pastor Kent telling my parents I should stay away from here can’t keep me away. It seems as if you and your family are a,” she made air quotes, “‘bad influence’ on Kara and her mom.”

“One day, that pastor is going to say something to my face, and he’s going to regret it,” I said, fuming.

“My dad ignored him,” Susie said. “I think honestly that after everything that happened in the last year, Mom and Dad are going to find a new church. They just can’t deal with Pastor Kent at this point.”

“I believe it!” I said, shaking my head. “I just don’t get it, really.”

“My parents aren’t the only ones who have a problem with him, but the elder board is behind him and all those old men agree with him. His daughter doesn’t.”

“What?!” I asked, incredulous.

“Sandy is pretty upset at how her dad treated you. She really regrets what she did, all because she was upset about Josh Richards being with your friend, Mary Harrison. She said she apologized to you.”

“She did. It’s a bit late for that, because the damage was done, but I don’t carry any grudges. All carrying a grudge does is eat you up. I don’t even have a grudge against Pastor Kent. He’s entitled to his own opinion. Where we differ is when he tries to interfere in my life. That’s where I draw the line. If he leaves me, and the people I love, alone, he can go on preaching whatever perverted version of the Gospel he wants. It’s a free country.”

“Wow, Steve,” Johnny interjected. “I would expect you to be vehemently opposed to him.”

“I am. But he has as much right to his stupid opinions as I do to my stupid opinions,” I chuckled. “It’s just that my stupid opinions happen to be better than his!”

Everyone laughed. Susie and Johnny stayed until Joyce and Terry arrived, and we invited them to have dinner with us. Kara suggested the Chinese place on Beechmont that she and I had gone to the night we first made love, so we decided to go there. Terry’s car, a 1975 Buick Electra 225, was big enough for the six of us, so we piled into the car with Joyce sitting in back with me and Kara, and Susie sitting between Terry and Johnny.

“Damn, this car is big enough to put my car inside it and still have room left over!” I joked.

“It’s my dad’s old car,” Terry replied. “I bought it from him a few weeks ago. I have two brothers and a sister, all younger, and dad didn’t want a station wagon, so he bought this monster! When I graduated, he sold this one to me and he bought a Ford Thunderbird. It’s about two feet shorter than this car! And yours is about a foot shorter than that, I guess.”

“I think Pete’s Mustang would fit in the trunk of this car!” I joked.

“The back seat looks like it has LOTS of room,” Susie giggled.

“For three, even!” I teased, causing everyone to laugh.

The six of us had a great time at dinner. I was tempted to suggest heading to Melanie’s house to use the sauna, but I had no idea how Susie, Johnny, or Terry would react, so in the end we just went back to Kara’s house and spent some time taking and drinking tea and soft drinks. We said good night to our friends about 11:00pm. Joyce said she’d come by late on Tuesday afternoon. I told her to meet us at the Spencers’ and she said she’d see us there.

“What do you want to do now, Kara?” I asked.

“Just sleep in your arms. Let’s head back to Melanie’s. I’ll pack some fresh clothes.”

She went upstairs and was back in two minutes with her overnight bag re-packed. We headed back to the Spencers’ and slept cuddled together, as Kara had requested.

In the morning we went to my parents’ house so I could swim with Stephanie and the three of us could have breakfast with my dad. When we arrived, Stephanie was waiting, so we swam, and after showers, I made breakfast.

“Steve,” Stephanie said. “Bethany wanted to know if we could have lunch today — you, me, Kara, her, and Ed.”

“Sure. That’s fine with me. I need to call Kathy, too, because I think Kurt will be here soon, if he’s not here already.”

“He’ll be here next week, Snuggle Bear,” Kara said. “Kathy stopped in last week when she got back from visiting Kurt and his parents. Also, don’t forget to call Tracey today.”

“I won’t. We can call her after lunch.”

We agreed we’d go to the restaurant in Newtown near my dad’s office that had the fantastic hamburgers. Stephanie called Ed to let him know that we’d all meet there. When we finished cleaning up after breakfast, Kara and I headed back to her house to spend the morning with her mom.

Mrs. Blanchard had a friend visiting, and they were drinking coffee in the kitchen. They invited us to sit with them, so Kara and I got cups of coffee and joined them. Mrs. Blanchard’s friend, Mrs. Webber, was a member of the Free Church. They had known each other since High School.

“Hi, Mrs. Webber, it’s nice to meet you,” I said.

“Hello. Hi, Kara! Where are you coming from?”

“Breakfast. Steve cooks breakfast for his little sister every morning when he’s in town, just as he did when they were growing up. They swim, then he makes breakfast.”

“Well, that’s very nice!” Mrs. Webber said.

We chatted a bit more and then Kara and I went to sit in the den so we could have some time alone before it was time to head to lunch.

Around 10:00am, the doorbell rang and Kara answered it. She came back into the den with Sandy van der Meer.

“Hi, Steve,” Sandy said. “Did you have a nice trip to Europe?”

“I did. It’s good to be back with Kara again, though.”

“I’m sorry for all the trouble my dad caused the Blanchards.”

“He’s out of the picture now, so forget it. It’s water under the bridge.”

“Not for me. I have to live with him. I’m not supposed to be here, because this family was supposedly corrupted by your bad influence.”

“I REALLY don’t care what your dad thinks,” I said firmly.

“Neither do I at this point,” she replied. “I lost a bunch of friends because of everything that happened. I should never have told him about your party. I should have just danced with you and forgot everything he said.”

“You can’t go back and change the past,” I counseled. “All you can do is learn from what happened and move on.”

“Kara,” Sandy asked quietly, “if Steve had another party, would you let me dance with him?”

“If that’s what you want, it would be up to Steve.”

“I’m not sure if I’m having a party this Summer or not,” I said. “I’m mostly spending time with Kara, and then with other friends in small groups. I suppose I could do a July 4th party. What do you think, Kara?”

“Sure. Will it be OK with your dad?”

“I’m sure it will. We’ll invite the gang. Sandy, there are two conditions. The first is you have to go swimming with us. The second is that when we dance, it has to be a slow dance.”

“I suppose,” she said, seeming a bit nervous, “I don’t usually go swimming except during the ladies’ swim at the Y.”

“Be glad he didn’t make one of the conditions taking a group sauna, Sandy!” Kara giggled. “We do THAT naked!”

“Boys and girls together? And not just you two?” Sandy asked, blushing with her eyes wide.

“Of course boys and girls together!” Kara said in an impish tone. “And we’ve been in there with two different couples!”

“My dad would completely flip if he heard about that!” Sandy said, turning even redder.

“Sandy,” I said, chuckling, “your dad would flip if he knew ten percent of the things I’ve done. And speaking of your dad, how do you propose to come to this party? He surely won’t let you come to a party at my house!”

“I’ll tell him I’m going to the fireworks at East Fork with my friend Ruth and then spending the night at her house. She’ll cover for me!”

“What do you think, Kara?” I asked.

“It’s up to her. Her dad is nothing to us at this point.”

“Let me call my dad and ask him about the party,” I said.

I called and got approval from my dad for the party. I asked to talk to Stephanie and let her know it was OK to invite some friends. She said she’d start calling my friends as well. I asked her to include Anna along with the usual group. She said she’d make the calls and let me know. I hung up and remembered that I needed to call Tracey. She wasn’t home, so I left a message saying that Kara and I wanted to get together on Wednesday evening.