Chapter 29

Terri’s turn:

Private session this afternoon with Dad and Tina and Judge Charlie and Mizz Helen.

And Jerry. MY Jerry. Looking good, because every girl wants a good-looking husband, at least those that still WANT husbands. There’s a lot of feeling to the contrary out there these days.

We met in our living room. As in the house I will be leaving behind. Tonight’s my last night there as a child.

It wasn’t even a little bit suspenseful. Everybody in the room recognized why we were there. Judge Charlie’s talked with us twice in the last week.

“Darlin’,” he’d said to me, “you are too smart to think that what steps we’re about to take are not serious and permanent.”

“Yessir, I know,” I said. “Dad, Tina ... Cindy ... so many people tell me the same thing. This is meant to be. I know that the calendar says fourteen, sir. As it did with Cindy...”

I caught his little chuckle over the phone. “Cindy ... yes, she’s the one that shows people that just on the other side of ‘normal’ is ‘possible’ and that those who dare, can find happiness.”

“I’m going to do this, then, Terri Addison. I talked with your Jerry before I called you.”

So that puts us in the living room. Jerry doesn’t HAVE to be there. This is about me. But he’s there. Papers are laid out on the table. Signatures are affixed. Then those papers are driven to the office. Mizz Beck’s a notary. And then copies are hand-carried to the courthouse and Jerry and I are in possession of a marriage license.

This is all done before Jerry’s family shows up. I guess they’ve accepted the inevitable. They’re nice people. His dad reminds me of MY dad. His mom reminds me of Mom on her better days.

She and I have talked after we got past the ‘You’re seriously gonna marry at fourteen?’ and ‘to MY son?’ the answers being, of course, ‘yes ma’am’ and ‘it’s HIS idea as much as mine.’

There’s been a LOT of talking, some of it, shall we say, ‘of intimate nature’.

Tina. “Baby, lots of things you might’ve heard from your peers...”

“Tina, you know my peers...”

“Okay, from people outside your inner circle...”

“Some of the kids at the home-school group, then...”

“Yeah. They might not be operating with complete knowledge.”

“Don’t I know ... One of ‘em’s preggers. Thought you couldn’t get pregnant if the girl was on top.”

“We got you on the Pill, baby ... You know what it means to miss...”

“Yes, ma’am. Not gonna happen. But the other stuff ... First time...”

“Was with your dad.”

“Did it hurt?”

“Like pulling a stray hair. But I sorta ... before.”

I smiled. “Great minds think alike. But suppose I’m not ... normal...”

“Doctor says you’re completely normal, baby...”

“I mean, about doing things...”

“You mean, if you don’t LIKE it?”

“Maybe HE won’t ... I mean, I’m flat...”

“Yeah, and how big were MY tits before the pregnancy?”

“Uh, not very...”

Talking with Tina and her sisters was informative.

Cindy said, “Terri, I know you’re not stupid, but there’s a lot of misinformation. Porn...”

I exaggerated a gasp. “You KNOW about porn?”

“I had a discussion with Dan, all in the interests of research. Lots of that stuff is pure crap. It’s played for an audience, and they do things that just don’t make sense. Dan and I ... Terri, let me tell you the truth, okay?”

“I would hope you would, being my mentor on life, the universe and everything.”

She got that grin. “You gotta be YOU, even now.”

“You know how I value your help. So you were saying...”

“I didn’t KNOW anything. Nothing that I couldn’t figure out from the sounds goin’ on at the other end of the little trailer Mom had us livin’ in. She certainly wasn’t anyone I could talk to about stuff. I knew I wanted Dan. I knew that when we were close, my body reacted. I knew as much as you can figure out watching modern movies and TV, and I knew that I was supposed to end up in bed with him and I determined that after that point, well, they have that phrase, “Let nature take its course” and that’s what I went on. I learned it all with Dan...”

“Really?”

“Yes,” she said. “From kissing all the way to ... everything we can think of. And I worried because I heard stories about it hurting and about it bein’ something that you endured so you’d get taken to the movies and to dinner and whatever. Terri...”

“Yes?”

“All that was wrong. I loved the guy. We were meant to be. I learned with Dan. And I look at Jerry and I think that you got YOUR version.”

“I think so. He fits the patterns.”

“But you get to say. What. When. How. Slow. Fast. Harder. Softer. Tell him. Communicate.”

“Wow!”

“Well,” she said, “mechanically speaking, people can generally figure out that ‘Tab A – Slot B’ part. But it’s ... Your whole body. HIS whole body.”

“You just made me break a sweat, Cindy Sue.”

And my future mother-in-law:

“What’s Jerry find attractive about you? I know you’ve talked about it.”

I gazed at her. “He finds me reasonably attractive to look at.”

“If he said that, then my child is mentally challenged. You’re undeniably cute. Pretty.”

“Thank you. He says that, too. And he likes my intellect.”

“Your intellect is that part of you that I have trouble understanding, dear.”

I sighed a little. “Nobody does. Dad’s pretty smart. I think Mom is, my natural mom, but you know about her issues. Tina’s smart, but her part in this is encouragement and nurture. I’ve talked with Doctor Stanton – he’s Auburn’s staff psychologist – and he has no clue. It’s a gift, so I accept it and I am terribly blessed that your son likes it.”

“‘Loves it’ is how he describes...”

“I know. Mizz Stengall, I really do love ‘im.”

“I’ve accepted that, and I have to accept the idea that I raised – we, his dad and I – raised a good son, that you’re a sign that he’s honorable. I worried. I saw some of his previous girlfriends...”

I know about some of them, so her statement’s no shock. “I know some of the stories. And I know a few who’ve tried since he and I became a thing.”

“Oh, he told me some of those stories. I think of what I know of them and what I know of you, where you come from, where you might be going, and I think my son made an excellent, if a bit unusual and difficult choice.”

I think I’ll be a good daughter-in-law.

One thing we won’t be worrying about is how we’re gonna put a roof over our heads and food on the table.

I have a seven figure, for lack of a better term, ‘bank account’. Dad’s signatory to that trust fund. I have a working bank account, of course, and there’s, again, for lack of a better term, an allowance. I’ve got credit cards – those silly ones that you replenish funds into from time to time, just so I always have a little money available for walking around.

My future husband’s not quite in the same league, but he’s been accumulating a hefty bit from salary and bonuses as well.

Subject of conversation – family finances.

“You kinda know the reality, don’t you, baby?” I asked him.

“I do. I wasn’t raised a poor kid. I’m an engineer. I never figured on starving. Dad’s good with his own investments and he’s taking care of mine,” Jerry said. “We won’t starve.”

“I’m not worrying about us starving.”

And there’s the inevitable question of where we’re gonna live. Mister Bill and Mizz Donna’s house got started just a bit after our townhouse. Ours is finished. It’s furnished, right down to pots and pans in the kitchen, linens in the closet, a lot of our clothes have been moved in. Yes, Jerry and I have been in and out of the place. He’s been soundly kissed in every room, and I personally have determined that only the greatest of self-control kept us from committing a felony because we’ve fitted out a bedroom with a very satisfactory mattress.

Tina just shakes her head. “Wedding day.”

“I know ... But all the evidence points to the fact that I have a normal libido.”

“You’re thirteen.”

“Almost fourteen.” First, because she’s been dealing with ‘almost’ ever since we’ve met, and second, it’s true. Tomorrow.

“I’ve talked with your sisters who married young. I’m the ONLY one brave enough to schedule a trip to a honeymoon destination.”

We’re flying off in OUR plane to an airport really close to Gulf Shores, we’re getting a rental car, and we’ve got a condo for a WEEK! We think it’s quite sane, actually. A whole week!

There’s precious little time for talking at this stage, though. In the ‘normal’ progression of the contemporary normal courtship to wedding path, tonight would be the rehearsal dinner.

Two things. We ain’t normal. And there’s nothing to rehearse.

One last conversation I need to tell you about.

Dad got the phone call. He told me about it.

“You asked the pastor to preside at your marriage?”

“Yessir.”

“He called me, asked if you were as serious as you told him.”

“He said he would talk to you and Tina...”

“He did.”

“And...”

“Said you dragged up the story of King David and Abishag...”

“I did. Told ‘im that Jerry’s a little YOUNG for his side of the story, but that I’m probably right in the arena for Abishag.”