Chapter 188

“Odd how the daily imperatives persist even in the face of collective disaster.”
—Dan Simmons, Hyperion

THERE WAS A SUBTLE CHANGE in school Tuesday. Things seemed to be off a little. Physics was still boring. Ms. Pixler was still cool and handed back my monologue without a comment. I memorized more Latin words. I sat in the back of the orchestra room with my viola da gamba between my knees and played my part. I met my girlfriends for lunch. Brittany and Cindy cuddled next to me at the table as we ate and Beca told them of our time in DC. I learned how to compute a fixed declining depreciated balance versus a double declining depreciated balance in Excel and when to use each. Might be useful sometime. And I listened to Mr. Richards lecture about the role of the Supreme Court in recasting constitutional interpretation of law in the light of a changing society.

Cindy and I worked on the program we’d record in a week for our patrons after school and spent a little time kissing instead of practicing. She ran out to meet her brother after basketball practice to get a lift home. I sat in the practice room and continued to play my guitar trying to figure out what was different. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Hey, love,” I said when Em answered her phone. “I’m not going to be home right away, so don’t wait dinner for me if you guys are ready to sit down and eat.”

“What’s up, J?”

“I think I’m going to go visit Mom and Dad for a while. You know, just get a nice parental hug and try to ground myself,” I said.

“I had dinner with them last night,” Em said. “You know, they miss having us at home.”

“Yeah. I miss seeing them every day. Things have been a little crazy with the travel and everything. I’ll see you all in a little while. ‘K?”

“Be a good son, little brother. I love you.”

I fired up the truck and drove the familiar route to our neighborhood. The new house was progressing. It looked almost like a normal house in the neighborhood. The siding had been installed before snow came and the crews could work inside on all the finishing things. When they worked. It still seemed like they were taking their sweet time. It had been nine months and my parents were still renting Nan’s house. No one seemed in a hurry to get the new house finished and moved into.

Mom’s car was in Nan’s garage and Dad’s van was parked in the drive. I parked on the street and approached the house, a little uncertain if I should knock or just open the door and call out to them. I finally chose the latter and went in through the open garage.

“Mom? Dad? I thought I’d stop by for a bit. You here?”

“Jakey! Come into the kitchen. We’re just getting dinner ready.” We?

I went into the kitchen and found Mom and Dad both working at dinner prep. Onions were frying on the stove. That always made the house smell comfortable—like there would be good food on the table soon. Dad had his sleeves up and was washing lettuce in the sink. And Pey was sitting at the kitchen table doing her home ... I shook my head. It was a little girl, but definitely not Peyton. Stupid ass. Do you think your sister rose from the dead to have dinner with Mom and Dad?

“Hello, son,” Dad said, turning to give me a one-armed hug. “Uh ... This is Minh Than. Minh this is our son, Jacob.” The little girl stood next to the table and bowed to me.

“Ja-cob,” she said carefully.

“It’s nice to meet you, Minh,” I answered. Disorientation was sweeping around me. I steadied myself with my hand on the back of a chair. “Dad?”

“Son, the school called and asked if we could help out a little. Minh’s parents were in an accident and can’t take care of their children. There are four of them and CPS couldn’t find a single family to take them all. Since it is temporary, we agreed to shelter Minh for a while. She got here yesterday,” Dad said.

“You didn’t just adopt her?”

“No, but how could we let a child suffer when we have room and could help?” Mom said. “We get together with her siblings after school every day so they don’t feel isolated from each other. I’m sure when the Thans recover from their accident, the family will all be reunited.”

“It was a shock but I’m glad you are helping out,” I said.

“We’re not trying to replace your sister, son,” Dad whispered. “We could never.”

“I know, Dad. I’m sorry.” I gave him another hug and then went to sit opposite Minh and glanced at her homework. “I just got back from DC last night. I needed to come home for a while and get my head on straight.”

“What’s bothering you, son?” Dad asked. He slid into the seat next to Minh and she pointed her homework paper toward him. “What’s this number, Minh?” he asked.

“Seven?”

“You need to make sure the teacher can read the number clearly.” He took her pencil and drew the number on a scrap of paper. Minh bit her lip and copied the number. Dad nodded. It was sweet.

“Um ... Things seemed off today. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like, all of a sudden, I don’t belong there. You know? The classes are the same as they were last week but I’m thinking they’re really pointless.”

“What did you do in DC?”

“Well ... I proposed to Rachel, Livy, and Desi, I guess. But we’ve been talking about that for weeks. We’d have done it while we were all together on tour but we just weren’t able to get the rings together. You’ve got the first weekend of April on your calendar, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course we do!” Mom said. “I’m not going to miss both my son’s and my daughter’s wedding. We have our plane reservations already.”

“That’s wonderful, Mom.” I hesitated for a minute. “Beca and I spent some time meeting with the new Director of the OCS and with their deputation team management. They want us to up the number of programs we’re doing before we join the service. It’s almost like we’re already part of the service and school and everything else is secondary now.”

“That would explain why things felt off in school,” Dad said. “You’ve already checked out. Are you sure you don’t want to enlist now and not wait?”

“You mean drop out?” I stopped to think about it. No, that didn’t make sense. “No. They don’t want me until Cindy can join and she can’t do that until she’s seventeen.”

“Are Betty and Mark going to agree?”

“They agreed to let her join the partnership,” I said. I didn’t explain that a person given permission to join a plural domestic partnership was automatically granted emancipation. If she wanted to join the service after that, it was her decision. I was sure Mark knew and probably Betty, too, but they might not have put all the pieces together.

“So, what is really different now?” Dad asked.

“I don’t know. I guess that even the teachers know I’m only there because I can’t start with the National School yet, like Desi did. You should see her, Mom. She’s really blossoming there already.”

“Desiree would thrive in that environment. I think she made the right decision. You know Riko and Riley have one of the Than children, too?”

“I had no idea,” I said.

“Mmmhmm. When the emergency came up this weekend, the school called the parents of your pod. There’s a little girl living in Rachel’s room and a boy is rooming with Donnie Dayton.”

“You mean, the school just called our parents? How insane is that?”

“You might not be famous, yet, but the school administration knows all about you. And they know we’ve all been supportive and are helping. I guess they figured we were the kind of people who would pitch in.”

“We really changed everyone, didn’t we?” I breathed.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say you changed who we are,” Dad said. “You just got us to a place where we could be who we are.”

27 January 2022

I’ve sort of figured out my problem. I mean, it’s not really that much of a problem, just this uncomfortable feeling I have at school. Thanks again to my girlfriends’ coaching. What would I do without them? They were all over for Wednesday night study group, so there were eight of us. We Skyped the others. And when we quit studying and talking, no one went home. Everybody stayed the night. I don’t think Beca plans to go home except to visit now. Brittany and Sophie have started to move things over. Cindy packs a bigger bag now and leaves everything in the closet. I think we’re moving in together.

And that’s part of what the school deal is. We’ve all been close since we were freshmen, but I glance down at the simple ring I’m wearing and realize I’ve committed my life to these girls. And they are wearing their rings with the same pride I am. We’re getting married. People can see the difference.

The other part is that we all have careers planned. A lot of our classmates are drifting. They haven’t selected a college for pre-enrollment. They haven’t really thought about a career or anything else. They see the next two years as relieving them of responsibility so they don’t need to make any decisions. ‘Senioritis’ as the teachers refer to it has already kicked in and we have four more months of school to go. There are a lot of parties and it looks like they last all weekend.