Chapter 141: Old Friends and New Places

Friday, June 24, 1983

We slept until nine, then headed over to the house for breakfast.

All of the adults were up, though I didn’t think they’d been up for all that long. We got some breakfast (Millie had cooked up quite a spread) and settled in to hang out and talk.

Along the way, we were convinced to do our third run-though of our musical numbers. Millie and Andrew both liked them. I was pretty sure she’d liked ‘Brigadoon’ more, but we had twice as many singers now, so we won on quantity, anyway.

Millie asked if Jasmine and I were dating, and we went over the basic story, including giving Angie credit for setting us up. Angie took a bow.

A bit later, Andrew asked a question I’d been ready for. “That was your school I saw written up in the Wall Street Journal, wasn’t it?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“The one where the two girls went to Prom together?” Millie said.

“Yes, Mom.”

“I knew it was your school! That would have caused some kind of trouble in my day, but good for them, I say!” Millie said.

That was a relief.

“Do you know them?” Andrew said.

“I’m guessing that, if you and Dad had gotten to talk last night, you’d know the answer,” I said.

Dad had the good grace to look slightly bashful.

“Yes, we all know them,” I said. “Angie and I are pretty close friends with them.”

“Steve the most,” Angie said, “because he’s been in Debate longer, plus in Student Council.”

“And Paige and I both took Debate this year, so even if we hadn’t known them well, now we do,” Jasmine said, with Paige nodding in agreement.

“How did that happen, exactly?” Andrew said. “I mean ... it working out.”

“Lizzie ran for Student Council last year,” I said, “Some people tried to be jerks about it, but things worked out well. That got a lot of people to realize they didn’t really hate her. Then we had a productive year in Student Council, and Janet and Lizzie won a lot of Debate rounds, and ... well. Enough people liked them that they felt it was worth trying to go to Prom.”

“A bunch of people got together and made sure they were welcome,” Angie said.

“I think that’s pretty amazing!” Andrew said. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been that close to something that got written up in the papers.”

“Steve got interviewed for the local paper,” Dad said. “Well, the AP picked it up, too, but I don’t know how far it went.”

“And Steve was on television. Along with a bunch of other kids, too, but he got the most coverage. Well, except for Lizzie and Janet, I mean!” Mom said.

“I expected they might go,” I said. “We all did. We didn’t expect it to get to be such a big story.”

“It’s been really amazing,” Angie said. “The national Debate tournament went on last weekend. Lizzie and Janet did really well and so did some other friends of ours. One of the events is Extemporaneous Speaking, which is usually about current events. Our friend who does Extemp said he got our Prom as a topic not once but twice. Once was in the finals. Hilarious, but also just ... amazing.”

Andrew and Millie both chuckled.

“That must have been quite something!” Millie said.

Andrew shifted the topic to college choices. He was slightly dismayed to hear that none of us were all that interested in either Michigan or Wisconsin, but said he was holding out hope.

We hung out until lunch, which turned out to be roasted chicken and farm-fresh vegetables. First-life me might well have made a face at it, knowing him. I hadn’t liked any vegetable that hadn’t spent time in a can until I was in my mid-twenties. This me was happy, and so were the girls.

Millie promised a casserole for dinner, which had Angie and me happy. I’m pretty sure that Jas and Paige picked up on our anticipation.

After lunch, the adults settled in to chat, while we headed out and took advantage of Andrew’s canoe. We didn’t go nearly as far, but we took turns paddling out and around, then coming back. We walked along the shore to the point where we watched the sun rise, but everyone decided we could skip it this time. I noted that it’s a tradition at Northwestern (well, at the Summer Institute, anyway) to stay up all night and watch the sun rise over the lake at least once during the summer.

Paige grinned. “I know just how we could pass the time!”

Angie made a face. “Sand gets everywhere!”

“It’d be fun!”

“Yes, and then I’d be irritated in bad places to be irritated for weeks.”

“Picky, picky.”

Jas made a face. “I think I’d rather avoid extra sand in those places.”

“Bring blankets!”

“We’ll see,” I said. “It sounds like a good place to get caught, to me.”

“That, too,” Angie said. “And we do not want to get caught.”

“We could do it our last night there,” Paige said.

“Well ... we’ll see,” Angie said.

We headed back around six. It hadn’t felt like we’d done that much, but I was tired. Canoeing worked muscles that I don’t usually use. I could see that the girls were probably feeling it, too.

Dinner was one of Millie’s amazing casseroles. This one was almost the same as lunch, but also completely different. Roast chicken mixed with vegetables and cheese and sour cream and quite a few spices and ... I don’t even know what else might have been in it.

It was terrific, as were Millie’s rolls and the blackberry cobbler she made for dessert.

Angie mentioned ‘Harvey’ at one point, so we had to talk about that a bit. It turned out to be one of Millie’s very favorite movies. She was a big Jimmy Stewart fan and that one was a particular favorite.

I told the story of Charles bringing ‘Harvey’ as his date to the dance. That had both of them laughing quite a bit.

Around eight, after the cobbler and ice cream, we headed back to the cabin. Andrew and Dad were settling in for what I expected to be a very late night, and Millie and Mom were in the kitchen, trading recipes and talking meals, though I thought kids and school and other things were mixed in quite a bit.

We had a quiet night. Well ... Uno isn’t all that quiet, at least not when we’re playing it, but still.

We hit the beds around eleven and were asleep shortly thereafter.

Saturday, June 25, 1983

As we were getting dressed, I hugged Angie from behind. “Happy Birthday, little sis!”

Paige growled, “What? I missed saying it first? Bad girlfriend! Bad!”

Angie giggled. “It’s the thought that counts.”

Paige pulled out a present. “Presents count, too.”

Angie started to open it.

Paige said, “Wait! That one ... oh, fuck it. I’m forgetting who’s here.”

Angie giggled, then opened it. I’m pretty sure she was expecting something risqué. Who wouldn’t, with that setup?

Instead, it turned out to be two very nice thin gold chains with half of a heart on each. One had a filigree P engraved on it, and one an A.

Angie blushed a little. “From that store? Of course.”

Paige nodded. “I went back.”

Angie pulled Paige into a kiss.

“I love it, and I love you. Good girlfriend! Good!”

Paige blushed even more than Angie had. A bit shyly (especially for Paige), she said, “I’m glad you like it.”

“I love it. I really do!”

They took turns putting the appropriate necklace (Paige with the ‘A’, Angie with the ‘P’, of course) on each other.

Jas smiled, handing over a card and a box which turned out to hold an engraved Cross pen that said ‘AAM’ on it. “For your CX rounds. Not as special as Paige’s, but...”

“I love it!” Angie said, hugging Jasmine.

I gave Angie my present — a pair of shoes I knew she’d wanted. She could have bought them herself, now, but it’s the thought that counts, after all.

We were dressed and at the house by nine. Millie seemed to be the only one up. She already had breakfast made.

“I think Andrew and Sam were up until all hours,” she said. “You might not see them for a bit.”

Angie said, “I’m glad they got to catch up.”

“Me, too,” Millie said. “They’re always like this when they get together. I’m sorry Sam had to leave Michigan. Andrew hated it. But, then, he wouldn’t have Helen if he’d stayed, which means most of you would likely never have met each other.”

Jas and Paige looked a bit startled, then blushed. It’s hard to realize that much of your world depends on something that happened to someone else nearly forty years ago. If Dad’s father’s heart had held out two more years, everything would be different.

Of course, that’s always the case. If a couple had had sex on a different night, or even at a different time, people you know would be completely different. Little changes in all sorts of places can have enormous impacts.

Only Angie and I had the perspective to really think that perhaps the two of us were in this universe precisely because Dad had met Mom, and because other people had met the right other people, and so forth, and so on. Perhaps the universe moved us around purposefully to one where Angie could join our family at the right time and place.

We would probably never know, and it could all be a coincidence, but we could at least ask the question, even if the universe hadn’t shown any interest in answering us.

Mom emerged around nine-thirty, wishing Angie Happy Birthday right away, while Dad and Andrew didn’t appear until perhaps eleven.

Dad shook his head. “I never stay up that late!”

“It was a good time for an exception,” Mom said, smiling.

“Yes, but I wanted to be going by now!”

“Are we on a schedule?” Mom said.

“Well ... no. Nothing we can’t change.”

“There you go. You could only talk to Andrew last night. I’m glad you were able to.”

“Me, too!”