Chapter 56: Proper Relationships

February 21, 1991, Chicago, Illinois

“Hi, Sweetheart!” I said, greeting Bethany at the door.

“Uncle Steve!” Nicholas exclaimed.

I took him from his mom and he hugged me tightly.

“Is Jesse with his moms?” Bethany asked.

“Yes. They won’t bring him back over tonight so you and Nicholas can surprise him in the morning.”

“Perfect!”

“How was the drive up?”

“The same as usual. Just a bit of traffic in Northern Indiana. Otherwise, smooth sailing. It was driving the other direction that was a bit exciting once.”

“A bit?”

“Let’s get Nicholas settled and we can talk more.”

My wives, Elyse, and Abbie all greeted Bethany, and then we took Nicholas upstairs and got him settled in the crib in the guest room, then went back down to the great room.

“How did your tests go?” she asked.

“Nothing remarkable,” I said. “Jess read the full medical report, so she could give you as much detail as you want. The bottom line is just to see the psychiatrist a few more times, and then monitor my mood swings.”

“Jessica, we’ll talk before I go home, if that’s OK?”

“Sure! Tiger, I assume it’s OK to share everything?”

“With Bethany? I don’t think there’s anything she doesn’t already know!”

“Steve, could we use the sauna?” Bethany asked. “I’m a bit stiff from the ride.”

“Sure,” I said.

Ten minutes later my wives, Elyse, Bethany, and I were relaxing in the sauna as it filled with steam.

“How is your practice going?” Jessica asked after we’d sat in silence for nearly ten minutes.

“Quite well,” Bethany said. “I have a full client load and I’m working with a rape crisis center and an agency which helps battered and abused women. And I’m working on my book.”

That was the one she’d started just before the fateful trip to Guam.

“Is it directed at therapists or at rape survivors?” Jessica asked.

“Rape survivors. I don’t really feel that writing clinical books is what I want to do with my life.”

“Let me know when it’s published. Unfortunately, we see rape victims in the ER very often. It would be nice to have something to give them.”

“If the hospital won’t fund it, I will,” I said.

“We could use a specialized rape crisis counselor, too,” Jessica said with a grin.

“I don’t have that kind of money at this point! But I wonder if you might talk to Jeri Lundgren about it. She’s been looking for ways to redirect the Lundgren Family Foundation from what she calls ‘silly left-wing activities’. You would have to write up a proposal.”

“I could help you do that,” Bethany said. “If it has a chance of happening.”

“One of you would have to talk to Jeri. She’s on the board, so you never know.”

“That’s quite the change from what you told me about her,” Bethany said.

I chuckled, “You can thank Ben Jackson, a lawyer in California who is probably our best customer, for that. He suggested she accept the board position and then gently redirect things. And when her mom and dad retire or die, she takes over, replaces the board with people she likes, and hires people to run things.”

“So she’s plotting a coup?”

“I guess you could call it that,” I said. “She’s not sure she wants to go through with it, because she’d have to spend time raising money, but she certainly could replace the board and redirect the foundation to things she supports.”

“When you say ‘silly left-wing activities’, what do you mean?” Bethany asked.

“Opposing nuclear power, pushing for what all of us would call socialist policies, animal rights, that kind of thing. Don’t get me wrong, they also support the arts, but Jeri wants to see them direct their work away from politics and stick purely to funding the arts and sciences, and supporting worthy charitable causes.”

“So her parents are progressive and she’s a Republican?”

“She’s closer to libertarian, but she’s not as radical about eliminating all government as I am!”

“Who is?” Bethany laughed. “I mean, besides most of your close friends!”

“Pete?” I chuckled.

“He’s the token Democrat in the bunch!”

“Nah, we have Sam and Alex Saunders, from the restaurant where we have breakfast at on alternate Saturdays, Penny’s parents, and a few others. And there are the apolitical types like Abbie and Henry.”

“Ed’s a Democrat,” Bethany added. “But southern Ohio rural Democrats mostly voted for Reagan. I guess given where he works now, him being a Democrat is a good thing.”

“The hospital is pretty Democratic,” Jessica said. “Most doctors are conservative, but they’re also supportive of what I’d call center-left social policies. They stop short at socialized medicine, but they see a need for government funding of research, healthcare for the poor, and things like that.”

“Jeri thinks most of that should be funded by private donations, which is why she wants to redirect the foundation to be more like what her grandparents did with it. They focused on what we would have called ‘charity’ services back when they started. Jeri’s mom redirected it into political advocacy. And it turns out, that’s what Jeri actually hates about it. Well, that and all the phony ‘high society’ people she had to deal with.”

“Is she still seeing Howard Pointe?”

“He moved in with her. As he put it, he’s more than happy to be a ‘kept’ man!”

The girls all laughed.

“Jake is in the same boat, so to speak!” Bethany said. “I saw them last week. He was in Ohio on leave and he, Joyce, and the kids came to see me. How’s your friend Aimee?”

“I received a letter that was completely devoid of any interesting content, which didn’t surprise me. I’ve talked to Patrick a few times. She’s in harm’s way in the Gulf. Fortunately, the Iraqis don’t have any navy to speak of, and no precision guided missiles.”

“Is anyone else you know over there?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” I said. “But some of those ROTC guys I helped over the years are certainly out with the fleet. Where they are, I have no clue. And given that the Russians are staying out of this, my friends in the Red Army only have the collapse of the USSR to worry about.”

“Is Dmitry back in Russia now?”

“Yes. His old unit is slowly relocating out of Germany, but he’s been assigned to a new unit in Moscow. He just took command of a regiment in the 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division last week. They’re based in Moscow. That lets him be with Tanya and Larisa pretty much full time. He was getting tired of shuttling between Moscow and East Germany.”

“Did you make your plans for your trip?”

“Yes. Everything is coming together. Katt and Mikael will absolutely be in Stockholm when I’m there. They’ll take the train down from Östersund. And Kristian and Karin live about ten minutes from her parents. Torbjörn and Elizabeth will come up for one day. Tina and her sambo are going to try to make it, but they don’t know their work schedules this far in advance.”

“Sambo?” Bethany asked.

“That literally means someone you live with, but more like Kara and me, I suppose.”

“Karin has a son, right?”

“Yes, Kjell. He’s about Birgit’s age.”

“Before I forget, what’s the plan for Jesse’s party?”

“A family party tomorrow night at dinner, and then he’s having his friends over for lunch on Saturday. Last I checked, everyone will be here. The parents are going to hang out in the great room while the kids are all in the sunroom. Jennifer, Josie, Abbie, and April are going to manage the party.”

“Sounds great! I think I’m ready for a shower and bed.”

“That sounds good to me!” Kara said. “Especially the bed part!”

February 22, 1991, Chicago, Illinois

“Nicholas?!” Jesse exclaimed happily.

“Happy Birf’day, Jesse!” Nicholas said.

“Happy Birthday, Jesse,” I added.

“How did you get here?” Jesse said, ignoring me, as I’d expected he would.

“Mama car!” Nicholas replied.

“I have a party tomorrow? Are you coming?”

“Yes, he’ll be there,” Bethany said. “I thought you guys might like to play together today.”

“Yes!” Jesse said.

“Let’s get you some breakfast,” Josie said to him.

“Where’s Jen?” Bethany asked.

“Heading to her last day at Tellabs. The traffic has become so bad she has to leave by 6:10am to get there by 8:00am. She starts her new job in the Loop on Monday. She’s cutting more than two hours of commute from her day.”

“I can drive to Indianapolis from Milford in the time it takes Jen to get to work!” Bethany exclaimed.

“That’s Chicago for you,” I said. “The smart folks in the ‘burbs who work in the city take Metra.”

“Nicholas!” Birgit exclaimed, coming into the kitchen with Abbie.

She went over to him and kissed him, then came to sit in my lap for breakfast as she often did.

“How’s your commute up to Evanston?” Bethany asked Josie.

“It’s not bad, really. Metra Electric to the Loop and then the L to Evanston. It beats the hell out of driving, though it’s not so bad going up LSD and Sheridan if I have to drive for some reason. It’s not all that much longer than when you commuted to Loyola.”

“Bethany, I need to get to the office,” I said. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

“I can work on my book, if I can borrow your computer.”

“There’s a relatively new Macintosh IIci and a Dell ‘486 running Windows in my study. You’ll probably want the Mac, because I suspect you’ve been using your Mac for this?”

“Yes.”

“Feel free to spend as much time there as you need,” I said. “There are blank disks in the top-right drawer of my desk, and the printer is connected to the Mac, though I can move it if you need me to.”

“Thanks!”

I kissed her cheek and then kissed Kara goodbye. I went to say goodbye to the kids, then headed to the office. The day went by quickly, and just before 6:00pm I shut things down and headed to the hospital to meet Jessica. We walked home and right after we changed into comfortable clothes, we went to the dining room for Jesse’s family birthday dinner.

“Did you have a good day today, Jesse?” I asked.

“Yes! Nicholas and I played. And with my brothers, too!”

“What did your sisters do?” I asked.

“Played with Abbie.”

“Boys versus girls?” I asked Abbie.

“The boys were getting wild and Birgit decided she and Stephie would play with her dollhouse while the boys played,” Abbie said.

“Did you get much writing done?” I asked Bethany.

“I did! It’s amazing how much you can get done if you lock yourself in a room and turn up the music!” she laughed.

“The boys were that bad?” I asked.

“Not bad; just noisy. They were having fun.”

After we ate, we sang to Jesse, and he blew out the five candles on his devil’s food cake with chocolate fudge icing. We served everyone cake and ice cream, and when we’d finished our dessert, Jesse opened his presents.

February 23, 1991, Chicago, Illinois

“Did you talk to Jesse about Francesca and Kristin?” I asked Jennifer just before Jesse’s friends were due to arrive.

“Yes. As you predicted, he said you have lots of girls you kiss.”

“And he doesn’t see the problem, does he?”

“Clearly not!” Jennifer laughed. “Like father, like son!”

“Hopefully you can prevent the all-out cat fight at the party,” I said.

“That’s the thing. It won’t be Jesse who starts it. He’ll hug Kristin, and at this point, even if it’s totally innocent, Francesca will lose it.”

“I’d say their days are numbered. How is he going to handle Francesca deciding not to be his friend? That day IS coming.”

“It is. He’ll be upset, but he’ll get over it. He’s only five!”

“Maybe he’ll meet a girl in Sweden or Russia,” I laughed.

“How about Larisa Grigoryev? Now there’s something that would make your friend Vanya’s day!”

I chuckled, “It would. He’s still a bit disappointed that Tanya and I couldn’t figure out a way forward together.”

“You with just one woman? For the rest of your life? I don’t see it.”

“And Jesse? Somehow I doubt he’s going to find too many girls that are interested in sharing. I sure as heck had a hard time doing that. In the end, really, only Jessica and Kara could share the way I needed them to, and be OK with me being with others. Elyse and Abbie are different.”

“True. That said, you wouldn’t be where you are without Elyse. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened had you come to Chicago completely alone. Whatever happens in your life, you need to keep her close.”

“You know she plans to move to the suburbs with the kids when they get older.”

“I know. Personally, I think it’s a bad idea, but she really wants her two kids to go to school in a smaller, suburban community like we all grew up in. You really need her close to you.”

“She has to do what’s right for her and what she thinks is right for Matthew and Michael. Just as you and Josie have to do what’s right for the two of you and for Jesse.”

“But they’re all your boys!”

“Yes, but I didn’t marry you or Elyse, so in a sense, I gave up some amount of say in how they’re raised. I have no right to insist that Elyse, or you and Josie for that matter, live here. I count myself lucky that all of you have been here for as long as you have.”

“Don’t worry about Josie and me. We’re staying put. In fact, I think Josie would put a hit out on you if you decided to sell the house! She loves living here. Me? I love it, but I’ll live wherever you live, so long as you’ll have me.”

“Which is forever. It may not have turned out the way I wanted it to back in High School, but we’re together, we have Jesse, and we love each other. What more could I want?”

Jennifer smirked, “I can think of at least one thing!”

I grinned, “Name the time and place, Jen! I’ll be there!”

“Even after all the other girls, you still want me?”

“I’ve never stopped wanting you. I was ready to commit to you, remember?”

“I wonder how happy you would have been with the restrictions I would have put on you.”

“Think about where we were at that point,” I said. “But we’re playing the ‘What if?’ game, and it’s my fault for bringing it up.”

“It’s OK. I think we’re both happy now, and we did end up together, just not the way we thought we would.”

“And we have Jesse. I wouldn’t trade either of those things for the world.”

“Me, either.”

“Do you think this thing with Kristin and Francesca is going to blow up today?”

“I encouraged Jesse to behave, but I think that’s about as likely to succeed as me encouraging YOU to behave back in the day!”

“True. He’s very much of a ‘let the chips fall where they may’ kid. He does his thing and lets everyone else worry about how they feel about it.”

“You know the problems that arise from that!”

“I do. And Jesse has to learn them. Maybe learning them at a younger age will help.”

“I sure as hell hope so!” Jennifer declared. “I do NOT need a second round of ‘Steve Adams drama’ in a pint-size package!”

“Too late!” I chuckled. “You should have thought about that BEFORE we had Jesse!”

The doorbell rang and Jennifer went to answer it. She came back a minute later with Peter and Nicky.