Chapter 35

Dana’s turn:

Why’s it gotta be me?

I’m back home after an overnighter. I walk in, DC comes sauntering up in the aloof cat manner as if to say ‘I hardly noticed you were gone, but since you’re back, sit down so I can climb up next to you.’

As is the norm, I have plenty of help making sure he doesn’t suffer deprivation in my absence. Somebody comes over to feed him and pay attention to him. Last few trips, that’s been Terri and Rachel and Vicki.

When I left this time, Terri was on her honeymoon. I thought that Rachel and Vicki would take care of the cat.

When I got home, the litter box was almost clean – a day’s worth of input. Food and water were near the top. So DC was recipient of proper care.

Oh, well. Ed’s due in later this evening. He didn’t want another night out of town either, so he was driving straight home.

I jumped into domestic mode. Hmmm. Bedspread. Did I leave it like that? I don’t usually arrange the pillows that way, but maybe I just wasn’t paying attention. I dumped my travel bag. Did a quick inventory. Between this little pile and what I left in the laundry hamper, I can justify a load of washing.

I went into the bathroom, gathering washcloths from the sink and shower, opened the hamper. Blue towel. Undies, mine and his. Two suits of scrubs, our substitute for pajamas. Another blue towel. And a brown towel.

Okay. That’s different. I don’t – definitely don’t – remember Ed nor I using a brown towel. Odd, too, is that it was stuffed down into the hamper a bit. We usually don’t stuff anything.

I pulled the towel out, holding it. The evidence was right there. Dried. I know what a wet spot looks like when it dries on a towel. After all, Ed and I have run that experiment a bunch of times.

So, then the question is who might’ve used our house for a tryst.

I can write off Terri and Jerry.

Nobody else but...

I put the wash on, headed over to the robotics lab. I know, it’s late in the day, but this bunch doesn’t keep regular hours

Rachel’s working with Vicki, one at a keyboard, the other watching a force gauge readout on the monitor.

“You’re BACK!” Vicki chirped.

“Yeah, just got in. Uh, thank you for taking care of DC.”

“I didn’t...” Vicki started.

“I did,” Rachel said.

Was that just a hint of wariness in her voice?

“What time’s Ed coming in?” she followed.

“Oh, I think he said about eight.”

“I might come over and talk.”

“Oh, okay. I’m just doing laundry ‘n stuff.”

Okay, THAT time there’s a definite look of wariness.

“Come on,” I said. “Happy to have you. Vicki?”

“Sorry. I have a tutoring session with Billy Hardesty. We’ll be at the kitchen table at the house.”

“How’s he coming?”

“Pretty good, actually. He’s plenty bright. Just that these days you can get out of high school and into college with barely any math skills. It was kind of a shock to him.”

“I bet it was. That ‘jock’ mentality. I saw it even in middle school.”

“I missed middle school.”

“I know,” I replied. “Interesting set of human interactions to observe. Detrimental to mental acuity.”

“I love the way you put it,” Vicki said.

“Lessons there, Vickster,” I smiled.

The remainder of the hour and a half I spent catching up on some integration ideas put forth by one of our real engineers and an intern. I think we have something to glean from them.

Finally I headed for the door. I noted that Rachel and Derek departed together, riding with Beck.

I drove myself home, being all lonesome for Ed. Got home, sat in our recliner, provided attention to the cat. Heard a knock on the door.

“If that’s you, Rachel, let yourself in.” Rachel’s got the code on her iPhone to get past the digital lock.

I heard the door open. Rachel came in, petted the cat.

Looked guilty.

“Shall we talk?” I said.

“Uh ... yeah, I suppose. About...”

“About a brown towel and the sticky parts thereon,” I said.

She cast her eyes downward.

“You coulda washed it and folded it and nobody’d be the wiser...”

“It was gonna come out sooner or later...”

“Literally,” I said.

She looked sad.

“I’m sorry. Not a joking matter, right? Right. Serious stuff, my little sister.”

“Okay,” she said. “I was gonna talk to you about it anyway...”

“I’m not so sure I wanna know, Rache.”

“I’m about to explode. Dana, it’s momentous. Who can I talk with?”

“Terri?”

“Not yet.”

“D’ya know how dangerous this is, Rachel?”

“I do. I really do. But we love each other...”

“And do you have any idea how many disasters happened around those words?”

“We’re not like that. We’re different.”

“I know you’re different in a lot of ways, but this is not exactly responsible behavior. I mean, I trusted you in my apartment to take care of DC, not turn it into a love nest for you and Derek.”

“I know.” Her head hung down. “But there was no way for us to get alone...”

“There was a reason for that. That spot on my towel...”

“You were a whole year older when you got married, Dana. You gotta know how we felt.”

“I do, Rache. But you’re in the middle of the community. Everybody knows about you and Derek and...”

“They know that for two years we haven’t ever deviated from our path. That’s OUR path. His and my path.”

“Everybody was kind of relying on your sense of decorum and sanity,” I said.

“Only goes so far. I mean, Terri and Jerry took off on their honeymoon. I’m the same age as Terri, so...”

“Derek’s fourteen. Jerry’s an adult.”

“I know. So we’re not supposed to have THOSE feelings. Like YOU didn’t.” Her gaze pierced me.

“Guilty. So where’s this going?”

“Don’t be the one to tell Mom or anybody...”

“Rachel, it’s hard NOT to. We all kinda collaborate to take care of you. All of you...”

“Then you have to think about if breaking this on Mom is good for me or not. Think about it.”

I was thinking. She watched my face. Smiled.

“Some people said it was supposed to hurt the first time.”

“My first time didn’t,” I said. “But I was kinda athletic, and...”

“Me too. And...” she grinned. “It really is GOOD.”

“You know that if you forget ONE pill...”

“I know. But we only did it once.”

“How’re you gonna tell your mom?”

“My mom has been telling me my whole life that I can come to her with anything.”

“I don’t think she was thinking of ‘me ‘n’ my fourteen-year-old boyfriend are having sex’.”

“Making love, Dana. I may NEVER have sex. I LOVE Derek.”

She had me with that one. I’ll never just ‘have sex’ either. Husband and wife, before we signed a document and did the official version. So I’m looking at Rachel and there’s not a lot of room to condemn her.

“But it’s a risk.”

“They can’t do anything to us. We’re the same age. I looked up the laws.”

“You’re good about researching,” I said.

“Well, this is important.”

“Now we have to worry about adults who might know of the situation and condone it,” I said. “Contributing to your delinquency.”

“Uh ... I need to talk to Judge Charlie, huh?”

“Don’t you start with me, Rachel. You and your parents and Tara and Aaron and Derek need to talk to Judge Charlie AFTER all of you have settled on the idea that you and Derek should be married.”

Rachel’s turn:

Hardest thing I have ever done in my life was walk in on Mom and say “Mom, we have to talk.”

Don’t you imagine the flood of things that broke loose in her mind?

Still, she’s Mom, the rock in my life and Dad’s, a keystone in 3Sigma, a sensible and level-headed adult.

“Should we do this in the living room, while I’m sitting?”

“That would be best.”

I imagine that she’s eliminating possibilities now, leaving...

She sat on the sofa. I sat in the loveseat that’s part of the living room furniture. My standard perch for evenings at home.

“Okay, Rachel, my beloved. What are we talking about?”

“Mom, you know that I have committed myself to Derek and he has committed himself to me.”

“Everybody knows. I thought it was a cute infatuation for the two of you, two years ago. I’ve accepted that it’s more serious...”

“Very serious, Mom.”

She’s Mom. She reads minds and facial expressions and probably pheromones in the air. “How serious?”

“Mom, Derek and I have made love.”

“All the way?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“When?”

“Yesterday.”

“Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”

“Scared, Mom. I know...”

She spread her arms for me. Hugged me hard. “Dear, dear Rachel,” she sighed. “I so much hoped you’d wait...”

“Mom, I’ve been in love with Derek just slightly less time than Terri’s loved Jerry. Derek and I ... I told you and Dad ... Derek’s the guy, the man, the...”

“So young...”

“I know, Mom. But to be a wife – a proper, devoted, committed wife. I’m ready. I know some...”

“Cindy,” she sighed. “I know. Cindy. I hated it. thought it was inappropriate. Exploitive. Just wrong...”

“Do you still think that?”

Mom shook her head. “No. Strange, maybe, but there’s nothing about Cindy that’s not strange in some way...”

“But always a good way, right?”

“Yes, I had to admit that to myself. But Rachel...”

“Love him, Mom.”

“He’s YOUR age...”

“I know. That’s just how it worked out. If he were Jerry’s age...”

I got hugged harder.

“I thought you’d be mad.”

“Disappointed, baby,” Mom said. “I am.”

“I’m ... Mom, I love him. He loves me.”

“You already said that.”

“It’s important. I didn’t want to disappoint you and Dad, but I really want to be everything to Derek.”

“You don’t have anything left to give him.”

“I do, Mom. Me. Like you ‘n’ Dad. Me and Derek.”

“I can’t even say that you don’t understand, Rachel. You can look around you.”

“I know, Mom. I see what works. You and Dad, you’re conventional. The next closest, I guess, is Susan and Jason or Mimi and Tommy. After that, it’s a big spread. Derek and I, we’re actually more like you and Dad.”