Chapter 140: Avoiding Subjects

Tuesday, June 21, 1983

We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Mom and Dad went over yesterday evening again a bit, which was fine with all of us.

I gave Mikayla’s hotel a call. I didn’t get her, but left her a message about where we’d be, and told her we could probably meet mid-morning tomorrow.

Dad gave us a choice after breakfast. Science and Industry, the Art Institute, the Shedd Aquarium, or the Field Museum of Natural History. Angie was obviously torn, and I was, too. In the end, we all agreed on the Field Museum.

For one thing, while it wouldn’t be my first trip there, it would be my first trip there with Mom and Dad in any life. Somehow we’d just never gone there, and I didn’t know why. For Angie, it was a new destination, and Paige and Jasmine liked the sound of all of them.

It helped that Northwestern was offering a trip to the Art Institute. While two trips to the Art Institute would still not be enough, and I was somewhat worried that the Northwestern trip might be over-chaperoned (which would make it more of a slog and less of a romp), it still meant we’d see it.

All four of us loved the Field Museum. Mom and Dad left us to our own devices from when we got there (around ten) until we met for lunch at one. That was hardly a surprise.

The surprise was in the afternoon when the six of us stuck together. Paige and Angie held hands more than once, and ... no one cared. Same logic as always: girls can do what guys can’t, that way. Jas and I held hands, too, of course, and so did Mom and Dad.

We had fun, and it was easy to see us as family, perhaps, one day.

It was also a reminder that, in the over twenty years that I’d been married to my ex-wife, including the many years with kids, we’d never — not once — gone to a museum with Mom and Dad. I was increasingly having some trouble recognizing ‘myself’ in that version of ‘me’. Hadn’t he ... hadn’t I ... noticed? Did I not understand that this meant something? How could he... I ... have been so... clueless?

That ‘me’ was, of course, a part of ‘me’ now, but... he wasn’t me. I’d grown and changed and become more different than I’d dared hope when I got the chance to try again.

I thought Angie was perhaps on my wavelength enough to pick up some of my thoughts, from the occasional looks she gave me. It’d be a while before we could talk them through, though.

I stepped away from lunch briefly to call Meg, but didn’t get her. I didn’t want to call any later than eight at night, and we just weren’t getting back to our hotels early enough.

Mom and Dad didn’t need to be talked into dim sum this time. Indeed, Dad questioned why we hadn’t had it in Houston. Angie helpfully pointed out that I knew right where to go for it. Perhaps we had another restaurant destination in our future.

Everyone had a great time. I had a suspicion that Dad had done some reading. He seemed quite a bit more knowledgeable about what was what and which things he and Mom liked. I was still in charge of ordering, though, and I knew what everyone would eat, so everything vanished.

Paige was the one exception. Salads hadn’t come up during our trip in Houston. She pointed at one of the salads on a whim and, of course, received it. After a few bites, she pointed at a little cream-colored blob.

“What’s that?” she said.

“Chicken foot,” I said.

She stared at it. “Really?”

“Really. That dish is called ‘chicken foot salad.’”

“I...”

She tried a nibble, and then another nibble. Then she set the blob aside.

“Well ... the salad is good,” she said, grinning.

She left a little pile of white blobs. I suspected the salad itself was good.

I couldn’t share the story, but I’d made a bigger mistake once in my first life, trying the beef tripe. The taste wasn’t a problem. The problem was that beef tripe is very, very, very chewy. I suspected it was chewy in the way a tire would be chewy.

At least Paige was able to eat most of hers. After several minutes of chewing, I’d given up on mine and moved on.

We made it back to the hotel around nine. That was very late for Dad and Mom, and they were showing it, with several yawns. Dad had been just fine driving the car, but we could all see the fatigue hit once we were safely at the hotel.

“Well, kids,” he said, “We have a long drive tomorrow, so I think it’s past my bedtime.”

“And mine!” Mom said.

“When are we meeting?” Angie said.

“Um ... would eight be too early?”

We all shook our heads.

“Eight is fine,” Angie said.

“Eight, then, and we’ll head up north. I’m guessing you all guessed that.”

“I was pretty sure,” I said.

“Looking forward to it,” Angie said.

Mom chuckled just a bit. “I’m sure you are.”

“I’ve enjoyed most of our trips to Wisconsin,” Angie said, grinning a little. “This one will hopefully be fun, too.”

“Hopefully!” Mom said.

We rode upstairs together, dropping Mom and Dad off at their floor and heading to ours.

As we headed into our rooms, Angie said, “Bed? It is late.”

“Bed sounds good,” Paige said. “Eventually, sleep.”

Jas giggled. “That’s about where I was.”

“A girl’s day is never done,” Angie said, grinning.

“C’mon!” Paige said, tugging on Angie’s wrist.

Jas and I headed into our room, meeting in a kiss as soon as the door was closed. From there, we quickly lost our clothes but slowed things down to allow quick trips to the bathroom.

After that ... well, we might be a little short on sleep tomorrow. Who knew?

Another trip to the bathroom, and then we headed to bed to sleep. At that point, I spotted the message light. As I’d expected, it was from Mikayla. She said to call her after eight tomorrow, and she could be at the apartment anytime tomorrow morning.

Once I’d listened to it, I snuggled right up with Jas.

“So, what do you think about tomorrow?” Jas said.

“My bet is that we’ll see Mikayla and that’ll probably be it here. We might meet Grandma tomorrow. Then there’ll be a family reunion on Thursday, where you’ll meet a bunch of aunts and uncles and cousins...”

“Including the infamous Aunt Helen.”

“Including her,” I said, chuckling. “That’s my guess. That’d give us Friday and Saturday at Andrew’s place. I’m not sure we’re going there, but I bet we will.”

“It sounds awesome.”

“Angie loves it, and I do, too.”

“I will, too, I’m sure of it.”

We kissed warmly.

“Night, Steve. I love you.”

“I love you, Jas.”

“Sleep well.”

“Sweet dreams.”

We snuggled up and drifted off.

Wednesday, June 22, 1983

We had breakfast just after eight. After breakfast, I got Mikayla on the phone and we made a plan to meet at her apartment around ten. We loaded the Suburban (which was much easier with most of our bags at Uncle Robert’s) and were on the road by nine-thirty.

Dad drove us through the Northwestern campus. It was Jas and Paige’s first look at it, and they were very curious. I pointed out a few things, trying to make sure it sounded like I knew them from maps and that I wasn’t very sure of something. Things like the dorms the boys and girls would stay in, the library, and a few other interesting locations I should be able to know.

On the next street after the dorm where I was sure I’d be staying, Dad took a left, then went several blocks. We found Mikayla standing in front of a little apartment building with ten units.

Dad parked and we all headed over. I re-introduced Mom and Dad to Mikayla, and then we headed to the second floor to see her apartment. It was technically a one-bedroom, but it might as well have been a studio, except with a wall across the bedroom area. It wasn’t that much different from one I’d had at Purdue, really. It’d obviously come furnished, and everything seemed clean and in good shape.

While we were looking around, Mikayla passed me a key and whispered, “Take care of the place.”

I whispered back, “Thanks! We will!”

Most of the sadness around Mikayla was gone. We’d said our farewell, and this didn’t really change that. Perhaps it was simply that, physically, she was already ‘gone.’ We were, after all, standing in her new home.

We headed back to campus, then headed north. The road we were on went right past the Baha’i Temple. I could see that Angie was waiting for it, and waiting for Paige’s reaction.

Paige delivered, staring at it and saying, “What is that? It’s beautiful!”

Angie said, “It’s the Baha’i Temple. It’s really cool!”

Dad just parked without anyone needing to say anything else, and we got out and walked around for half an hour or so. It really is a wonderful, peaceful place, and I’d have loved to go just sit here a bit while taking a break, but it was a bit far from campus for that, especially without a bike. I’d have loved to have had Rollerblades to get around, but that was a few years in the future.

Oh well. We’d see. Perhaps there would be a way.

We got back on the road and, soon after, were on the freeway heading towards Wisconsin. We stopped for lunch, as before, in Madison, and Jas and Paige wanted a quick look at the campus. I’m sure that’s what Dad had intended.

We were back on the road around two and made it to our motel in Stevens Point just before four. Dad checked us in, and we put our bags in the rooms and took advantage of the bathrooms, but that was it. As before, we had connecting rooms, while Mom and Dad were down the hall a bit.

By four-thirty, we were pulling up to Grandma’s house. They must have called, because she obviously knew we were coming, appearing at the door right away.

“Well, hello, Helen! And Sam! And Steve, and Angie, and you will have to introduce me to your friends!”

“Hello, Ma!” Mom called, smiling and heading up the steps, hugging Grandma.

Soon we’d all been hugged, and settled into Grandma’s ... cozy ... living room. Angie, Paige, Jas, and I sat on the floor. There just wasn’t enough seating for seven people in here, and I wondered again how it must have felt when it was Grandma and Grandpa plus three teenagers in this house. As before, I guessed it would probably have felt just fine. Expectations were completely different then, after all.

“So!” Grandma said. “Introductions, please! I caught all your names, but that’s about it. And I certainly have heard about Jasmine, but it’s different meeting all of you.”

I smiled. “Jasmine and I have been dating for over a year and a half. She’s really smart, and a great actress, and...”

“Don’t let him snow you!” Jas said, smiling. “Steve’s really smart, and he’s a terrific actor, too!”

“So?” I said. “We fit well together.”

“We do,” Jas said, then nodded to Angie. I’m not sure why it would be obvious to anyone else that Angie should be the one to introduce Paige, but ... well, it was obvious to us.

“Paige is also in theater with us,” Angie said, “and is really smart and a terrific actress.”

“I am not really smart! I hold my own, that’s all. You are really smart!” Paige said, grinning. “I’ll go with terrific actress, though.”

“Three words,” Angie said. “National Merit Semifinalist.”

“Well, heck, if that’s the yardstick, we’re all really smart,” Paige said.

Grandma chuckled. “That’s what I hear, anyway. I mean, that you are all very smart. I have always thought Helen was much smarter than she let on.”

Mom blushed. “Ma, I didn’t ... I mean ... it was different...”

“It was. And you were still quite sharp. You got the best of your brothers quite a few times, and Ryan was a challenge, that way.”

Mom kept blushing and stayed quiet.

Grandma chuckled and said, “I heard you all performed ‘The Sound of Music’. That’s a favorite of mine. Would you sing something from it?”

We all looked at each other, then nodded.

“Um ... we didn’t have any songs together, exactly, in any show,” Angie said, “except ones where we need more people to sing them at all. But I think this’ll work.”

She leaned in and whispered to all of us, and she was right. It’d work well.

“I’ll start,” Angie said. “I played the Mother Abbess as my main role, so...”

She launched into ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’ and, as in the show, knocked it out of the park. At least, I thought so. Grandma clapped, and so did the rest of us.

Paige and I went next. “I played Rolf...” I said.

“And I understudied Liesl,” Paige said. “So, we never performed this together...”

“Except in rehearsals,” I said.

“Except in rehearsals,” Paige, said, nodding.

We had a lot of fun with ‘Sixteen Going on Seventeen’. I’m not sure if it’s possible to not have fun with that song, especially when you’ve just been sixteen going on seventeen.

Again, we got a hearty round of applause.

Jas went last, of course, and chose ‘My Favorite Things’.

One more round of applause, and we were done.

“I’ll bet they ask you to do this again tomorrow!” Grandma said, smiling. “You are all so talented! I wish I could have seen the show, but it’s much too far for me to travel.”

I nodded, again finding myself wishing for video recorders. Sony had a Beta one for consumers coming out, so ... maybe. Or ... there would be VHS and 8mm soon, I thought. Maybe we could get one. Steffie would love one, I was certain of that. Come to think of it, Meg would love one, too. Practice would be much more effective if people could actually see what they were doing. The two of them could share, after all.

“Thank you for singing for me. I was surprised that Sam and Helen would bring you, but then when I found out you were going to be in Chicago in a week anyway, it made more sense.”

Dad nodded. “That’s how I thought about it. It was just nice, all around.”

“Both of my boys got married right out of high school, of course,” Grandma said, chuckling. “Now, Helen ... I wasn’t sure if she would ever figure things out.”

“Ma!” Mom said, blushing, but chuckling, too. “I had things figured out.”

“Did you? Because I think you said you were perfectly fine on your own, and then when Sam came along...”

Mom blushed a bit more. “Well ... that’s different...”

She gave Dad’s hand a squeeze, and he squeezed back.

Grandma chucked. “I enjoy teasing both of you. Tim’s Helen is too hard to tease.”

“I ... can imagine,” Mom said.

“Speaking of which, you two...” she said, looking at Jas and me, “ ... probably already know this, but I suspect you’ll want to play down being boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“That seemed like the better option,” I said.

“She got herself in a tizzy at Grant’s wedding,” Grandma said. “Sydney is a wonderful girl, but all I heard was Helen complaining that she was too much for her boy. It didn’t help that Daniel brought a new girlfriend.”

“I didn’t hear any of this!” Mom said.