Chapter 13

Tommy’s turn:

After work Monday, my Mimi’s off with Kim and Nikki and Kara getting fitted for a wedding dress. I’m told that it’s a ‘good luck’ dress, worn by Kim at her wedding, then Kara at hers. And they’re getting it fitted to the sleek form of my Mimi.

While I imagine the happy laughter going on with that bunch, my knuckles are white, gripping the control yoke of a forty-odd year-old trainer airplane under the watchful eye of Cindy, my BIG boss, wearing one of her many hats – flight instructor.

“It doesn’t require straining, Tommy,” her voice says in my headset. “You know where you’re at in the flight regimen, so you know what you’re going to need the airplane to do. Just make it do that.”

‘That’ was slow flight. Nose pointed up, engine adding a lift vector to the lift of the little airplane’s wings, the control response all mushy, and occasionally there was the anemic bleat of the stall warning.

“You’re doing just fine. It’s not REALLY slow flight if the stall warning doesn’t beep a little. Now let’s do a left turn. Watch your altitude.”

I started the turn, saw the altimeter start winding downward, applied back pressure to the controls, the stall horn went full time and...

“You didn’t have a lot of excess power to turn with. What happened to your lift vector?”

“Split part of it off for the turn.”

“Try holding altitude...”

And we rolled hard to the right as we stalled. I can do stall recovery, so I did. Nose down. Add power.

“Very GOOD! Now let’s get back up to three thousand and do it again, but this time, add the power you need to maintain altitude.”

Finally, the lesson at the practice area ended. She watched me do several practice landings, touch and goes, and then we put the little airplane away.

“A Wednesday session?” she asked.

“Can we?”

She did that little half-smirk of hers. “I thought you’d be caught up in the rush to your wedding...”

“Mimi’s seen my suit and pronounced it acceptable. I offered to get a tux and a purple cummerbund. She threatened me bodily harm. Said that the flower girls will provide all the color we need. I heard about ‘Pepto-Bismol pink’.”

“And Bot-bot with a bow tie,” she giggled. “You sure we’re not gonna freak your parents out?”

“Only in a good way.”

“Grandma Desai’s catering the reception. She’s gonna do a light touch on the Indian food, sweets, mostly, and heavy on Billy-Bob’s barbecue.”

“I leave those decisions in Mimi’s hands.”

“Mimi’s a good one, Tommy. Seriously. She and I have talked. I wanna get her into college before you get the girl all pregnant...” she held her hand out. “Logbook.”

I handed it over. She opened it, made notations and signed for today’s instruction.

“You’re close to solo. Couple more lessons,” she said.

“Thanks. That’ll be the second best thing to happen next week,” I said.

“I’m sure that you and Mimi can figure out the first.”

I couldn’t say anything. Speech center shut down.

She giggled at me. “You’re turning RED!”

“Cindy, you look like you’re fourteen and I could get arrested for talking to you...”

“Thank you,” she laughed. “Dan still loves me even though I’m an older woman now...”

I helped her push the little plane back into its hangar, then rode with her to Nikki’s house to pick up my mate.

The idea that I’m learning to fly is exciting. It pales, though, beside the vision that I meet when I get to Nikki’s.

I’m met at the door. “Come in,” Nikki said. “She’s getting dressed. We have the dress fixed up. Kim and I just brought it back from the seamstress today.”

“You can’t see it!” Mimi said, yelling up the hallway. “That’s bad luck!”

“Oh, crap,” I said. “I’ve seen the videos of Kara ‘n’ Bert’s wedding. Same dress.”

“Not exactly,” Nikki retorted. “Mimi gets some changes. Makes it hers. I’m glad she’s close to the same size.” Her eyes brightened. “She’s one of us, you know...”

“One of you?” I asked.

“Yeah. Did you ever read that Stephen King novel, ‘The Stand‘?”

I shook my head.

“Apocalyptic novel. Plague wipes out most of the human race. The rest are drawn ... The good are drawn together...”

“And you think Mimi’s one?”

“I’m certain of it. Her path was different getting here. Everybody’s path is different. But she’s here and she’s one of us and YOU have to recognize that fact.”

“You know,” I said, “There are many places where that statement would have me being very apprehensive, but this place, here, isn’t among them.”

“It’s a good place, Tommy,” she said.

“Yes, and we LIKE Mimi, so see that she’s taken care of in a proper manner,” Kim chirped.

“Only for the rest of my life,” I replied. I looked to see my Mimi coming into the room.

She’s not a bit bashful about kissing me in front of this bunch. We leave amid knowing looks.

In the car, she’s happy and talkative.

“I have sisters,” she said. “Like I just got enveloped in all this.”

“That’s what Nikki was telling me,” I said. “You’re part of the group and I need to make sure to treat you accordingly.”

“You just keep doing what you are doing, buddy boy,” she said. “When I was little, I got treated like a little girl, loved by her parents. That sort of came unraveled when Dad died and I never got it back together, what with Mom changing, and then Mister James and I never quite formed a decent relationship. I didn’t have ties to anybody, Tommy. Then YOU came along...”

“One dark and stormy night,” I said, “Just like in the stories...”

“But you brought me into something that’s bigger than us, baby. Don’t get me wrong. With you, I could be that pioneer woman standing before her homestead, children beside her, husband and provider before her, against the world. But this ... You see it too, don’t you?”

“I do. By myself, though, I didn’t feel like I was – could be – really a part of it. Has something to do with family.”

“Extended family. Tribe. An island ... all kinds of sociological stuff,” she said. “Condensed right down to ‘Mimi loves Tommy’.”

“Tommy loves Mimi just as hard...” I said, NOT meaning the double entendre that my happy partner latched onto immediately.

“I LIKE hard,” she said. “You gave me that, Tommy. Made me a whole woman ... fulfilled.”

“Oh, I know some girls on campus that would run colors if they heard you say that...”

“Yeah, they’re out there. But I think that what WE do is adulthood. What they do is that grade-school ‘boys are ICKY’ crap.” She smiled. “And you need ME to be part of the Community. You marry into it. I’m a necessity. You’re an accessory.”

“How totally sexist,” I laughed.

“Laugh. But it’s true.”

“It probably is. This place is an odd matriarchy. And I don’t mind being a minor accessory as long as you keep me...”

“I’ll keep you. You’re very useful,” she smiled.

That’s something I’ve been watching – the growing confidence and self-assuredness of Mimi since she’s been here. It took a big leap after her meltdown and subsequent conversation with Mizz Donna, and I really LIKE this version of Mimi. I don’t have to ‘protect’ so much as ‘partner’.

Partnered our way back to our apartment. She had questions about my flying lesson progress.

“When are you gonna start?” I asked.

“I dunno. Are wives in your world supposed to do that kind of thing, or am I, like, s’posed to stay in the kitchen, barefoot an’ pregnant?”

“I know you’ve talked with Cindy about it,” I said.

“Cindy’s fun to talk with about a lot of things,” Mimi said. “All of ‘em are, but Cindy’s just a little bit more forward. She pressures me, Tommy.”

“Pressures you?”

“Schooling. Says not to waste my intellect.”

“You make the choice, baby. Some of those girls just dove headfirst into a volcano and came out smelling like lilacs. You and I have talked about that. You want to go to school, we’ll make it happen at YOUR pace.”

“That’s just it. I really don’t know what my pace is. High school dropout, but Cindy and the gang have kinda asked and tested and, well, you know that stupid GED thing ... I could’ve done THAT in the eighth grade. So I really don’t know...”

“Let’s get ourselves married and honeymooned and then work it all out...”

“Yeah. Are we REALLY gonna go off somewhere?”

“We have a week. Anywhere...”

Giggle. “If you had your pilot’s license, we could go further...”

“Princess,” I said, “If you think this is the ONLY honeymoon we have together...”

A day later ... Mimi calls me at WORK. “Go talk to Cindy and Johanna...”

“Huh?”

“How about a week in a mountain retreat in Montana? Honeymoon enough?”

“How?” I blurted.

“Go talk to Cindy and Johanna.”

“Okay, princess.”

I hunt down Cindy on the other side of the robotics lab. “Mimi says I need to talk with you and Johanna...”

“Yeah, you do,” she said. “What kind of plans did you have for a honeymoon?”

“It’s all kind of a rush. We’re mostly winging it.”

Johanna smiled. “Since you mention ‘wings’, I have a proposal...”

“I’m listening.” I mean, these two, it’s likely to be something completely off the wall, but chances are against it being lethal or illegal.

Cindy grinned. “I got a brand new airplane. It’s ‘ours’ contingent on it being used to transport the male heir to Solheim Limited to meet his grandparents.”

Johanna picked up the thread. “Said grandparents live in Montana. Dad bought out a guy who was building a little cozy mountain retreat. Three cabins. They live in one. Big enough for me and Stoney and Little Stoney and the grandparents to have a week together without homicide...”

Cindy tittered. “Her dad’s the biggest Viking berserker you’ll ever meet.”

“Anyway,” Johanna continued, “we fly YOU and your new wife, me and my husband and baby, and Cindy gets to drag Dan 1.0 along because a week away from him just ain’t happening, and YOU and Mimi get a cabin to yourselves. We’ll provide food, either you dine with us, or you dine with Dan ‘n’ Cindy, or you stay in your cabin and live on love and peanut butter sandwiches...”