Chapter 12: Making a Family

Brian is fond of saying, “Nothing is as easy as it is.” Things that looked simple on the surface were complicated. We were in love. We wanted to be together. We were adults with free will.

And we had children in high school. I had one getting married. We lived a hundred miles apart. We had communities and friends and complications and insecurities. We almost let them get the best of us until Bill and Crystal stepped in.

“You aren’t a secret from us,” Crystal said bluntly. “It’s almost impossible to keep a secret among three families with five parents and three children. Just looking at the three of you reminds me of the way I saw Jennifer, Courtney, and Brian looking at each other.” She sighed deeply.

“We accepted a long time ago that Jennifer and Courtney had become something more than best friends,” Bill continued for her. “So, we’re neither surprised nor shocked at your relationship. Not as much as when the girls added Brian. But even that ... I look around at our world and am amazed that anything we knew growing up still exists. This isn’t the world any of us expected to be living in.”

“So how can we help?” Crystal picked up. “We don’t want to push the kids into something, but it is pretty obvious that if they aren’t screwing each other yet, they will be as soon as we turn our backs.”

“They do have their agreement,” Hayden said. It was easier to defend the kids than our own desires. “I think they abide by it. Not that they don’t push the limits, but they don’t cross them.”

“Why do you suppose they changed the non-penetration clause to no skin-to-skin genital contact?” Crystal asked. “You know it had to be because someone had crossed that line and got scared. I agree, they abide by the letter of the agreement, but that still gives them a lot of leeway. I know what we did outside our clothes when we were dating.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Anna moaned. “I can’t just up and move to Mishawaka. It’s terrible to move kids in high school, even if they know others at the new school. And I would never do that to you two. Courtney and Jennifer are joined at the hip. I couldn’t take one without the other. I couldn’t leave one without the other.”

“I have an idea,” Bill said. We turned and paid attention while he poured us each another glass of wine. “I’ve heard reports of Brian’s culinary skills. I even got the tape of his demonstrations on The Homemakers’ Hour. Courtney came home from your last visit and just casually tossed off, ‘Dad, don’t you need an intern at the restaurant? Brian would be a good one.’ You can imagine my first thought at that suggestion. But maybe it makes sense. The school board circulated a flyer to all the local businesses seeking possibilities for a new Career Exploration Internship they are putting together that gives kids practical experience in areas they’d like to consider as a career and get school credit for it as well.”

“But Brian isn’t in this school district,” Hayden reminded them.

“Dwight Miller, our Superintendent of Schools, is a regular customer of ours. He commented to me last Friday night that it was too bad he couldn’t find anyone interested in restaurants as more than a waitress for their program. I think I could sell having an out-of-district student and still have credit granted.”

“Then Brian would have to live down here,” I said. “Uh...”

“With me,” Anna completed. “And surely you’d want to visit. Frequently.”

And that started the summer internship that brought Anna even closer to us. We got Betts married and drove a trailer full of furniture and wedding gifts out to Seattle but on the way back, we spent the last weekend of our vacation in a motel in Kokomo. It was no more than a stop to say hello to our son by the time we left on Sunday afternoon. And while Anna had two teen girls and a teen boy to ride herd on all summer, we had three teen girls staying with us and I think they got up to as much mischief as the kids in Kokomo.

We thought things had evened out a bit but fall and the new district school board lit a fuse and turned the school into a powder keg. And wouldn’t you know our son would be in the middle of the explosion. Surprisingly, so was little Cassie Clinton. That wasn’t the worst of the year, though. My son had a dozen girlfriends but none of them were quite like Hannah Gordon. Her father’s promised six years at the local church was changed to four years and Hannah moved away. We were all devastated.

Brian went back to Kokomo for a second summer’s internship and it was no longer a secret that we were spending frequent weekends there as well. Over the past year, if Anna wasn’t at our house for a weekend, we were at hers. But in the fall, we got the news of Hannah’s pregnancy, attempted suicide, and abortion. It had a profound effect on all the kids in the dating group. We could see the brakes come on in several relationships, even as they skidded toward sexual activity.

And I found out I was to become a grandmother.

“You will never address me as Grandma,” I lectured the gathering. Brian thought he’d be clever and start calling me Grandma when Betts announced she was pregnant. I glared at my son and the assorted teens gathered in the room. Then I turned to Anna. “Especially you!”

“Marilyn, why would I ever call my lover Grandma,” she whispered. She closed the distance between us and kissed me with such passion I melted on the spot. “Lover,” she whispered again. There were palpable sighs in the room.

“Marilyn-Mom, we love you and will always want you to be our Mom. That goes for you, too, Anna-Mom. And Papa-Hayden will never be called Grandpa by anyone but his grandchildren. We’ll figure out a way to make that work even when your grandchildren are our children,” Rose said. The room went silent. My mouth fell open. Anna clutched my hand and Hayden just stared wide-eyed.

“You’re uh ... too young to be thinking about that,” I said. “Please. Please be too young.”

“None of us are planning to have children anytime soon,” Jennifer laughed. “Mom, you should see your expression. I’ve never seen you so horrified.”

“None of us ... Well, we’re not there yet,” Samantha said. It was a pretty sure thing that if Jennifer and Courtney were visiting, Samantha was, too. “Mama-Marilyn, what happened to Hannah still scares all of us. We’re all turning seventeen this year and we still haven’t started having sex. I won’t guarantee that will last until eighteen but I’m not ready for a baby. We all promise to take every precaution.”

“Except abstinence,” Courtney whispered. What could we expect?

Betts had been married almost two years. I expected to be a grandmother within nine months. I don’t think it was from lack of trying but sometimes things take longer than they do. That’s another of Brian’s clever sayings. We’d already promised prom night undisturbed for him and Whitney so when Allen called to say Betts was in labor, Hayden and I were packed and ready to leave in an hour. Anna, bless her heart, must have broken all the speed limits to get to us soon thereafter. She drove us to Chicago and we kissed long and hard before Hayden and I went in to pick up our boarding passes.

We both had a drink early in the four-hour flight to Seattle, feeling extremely decadent. Dinner was a Seattle special of salmon poached on a bed of rice and we talked about how nice it would be to go on a long vacation with Anna.

“Her girls graduate this spring,” Hayden mused. “They are headed to IU in the fall. Do you think it would be too soon to ask her to move in with us?”

“I don’t think it would be soon enough,” I sighed. “I love you with all my heart, Hayden, but I love her with all my heart, too. Does that make sense at all?”

“It makes perfect sense to me. I never imagined that I could love anyone like I love you. I do, Marilyn. I love Anna like I love you. I’m just so thankful that you love each other, too.”

“Still ... I don’t think it would be a good idea to tell Betts right now. Certainly not while she is in labor.”

Betts’ labor was long but not particularly as hard as I remembered laboring to birth her had been. She didn’t even complain that much. Not like I expected from my daughter. And at six-ten a.m. she pushed out an absolutely beautiful baby girl. We were caught up in the joy and beauty of our granddaughter Madeline.

That lasted only until the next afternoon.

“Mama-Marilyn,” Allen said, coming into the nursery where I was rocking the newborn. “There’s an Anna on the phone and she says she needs to talk with you urgently.”

I panicked. I thrust Maddie into her father’s arms and ran for the kitchen. Hayden saw me and followed right behind. All I could think ... All I could imagine was that Brian had been in an accident. I was praying as I ran to the phone.

“Anna, is he okay?”

“Yes. Yes. It’s his friend. After the prom last night, Josh was beaten and Denise was murdered. Oh, Marilyn, I just got here and it’s chaos. The kids were all gathered at the hospital. Thank God, Jennifer thought to call me. I know Brian would have called, but he has his hands full comforting his friends. And I need to be here to comfort him, too.”

“Is he there? Let me speak to him.”

“I’ll have him call as soon as he gets back from the hospital.”

“Hayden is going to call the airport and get the first flight out. Oh, God! I can’t ... I can’t leave Betts with a newborn. Hayden will come. I need to be here. Please, Anna, do whatever you can to comfort my son.” I looked at Hayden and dropped my voice. “And our man when he gets there.”

“Call with the flight arrangements and I’ll pick him up at the airport. I love you, Marilyn. And I love Hayden. Please be safe.”

“We love you, sweetheart,” I whispered.

Those poor kids. They should be celebrating. I couldn’t even ask if they’d gone through with making love. I wasn’t sure how I’d ask that anyway, but I was sure we’d know in good time. Brian called later in the evening. Of course, we had to tell Allen and Betts and by extension, Allen’s sister and parents. I was so proud of Betts when she took the phone and instead of bubbling about her baby simply said, “I’m so sorry, Brian. I love you.”