Chapter 113: ‘Birthday Season’

Sunday, April 15, 1984

Angie and Paige arrived before we left for church. The larger group meant that we had to take either my car or Angie’s, and Dad was slightly better with me driving than with her. That wasn’t entirely unfair, as I had decades more experience driving, considering Angie had really only had about eight years in her first go-round. Of course, he could hardly know that.

I’d forgotten that it was Palm Sunday — maybe not that much of a surprise, given everything else going on — but the palm fronds along the walkway were an immediate reminder. They’d done this for as long as I could remember, and it certainly reminded one of the significance of the day.

It also reminded me that, for the first time since coming back, we would miss Easter services. The day had a special resonance for Angie and me, and I thought perhaps it might be something Jas and Paige would feel, too. Oh, it didn’t line up with our experiences, and it certainly didn’t mean that Christ had done what we’d done, but we were proof that life could continue and flourish after death (or what we truly believed in our hearts to have been death, anyway).

We could likely observe Easter in our own way during the trip. Perhaps we would. I had no idea how Cammie, for instance, might feel about it — her views on religion might be a bit unsettled right now! — but undoubtedly some members of the team would want to at least acknowledge one of the most important holidays of the Christian calendar.

Jasmine and Paige seemed to enjoy the service. They nodded along, paid lots of attention to Dr. Ott, sang the hymns with the rest of us, and so forth. I had no idea if Jas had been to any Protestant service before (except for Christmas Eve, anyway, and that was a bit different). Paige’s family was nominally Presbyterian, so she certainly had.

Jas drew some attention simply for being who she was. I’d seen very, very few Asians here, and she certainly stood out that way. That said, people seemed quite respectful, just curious.

After the service, we greeted Dr. Ott, then a few of the people in the church that we, or Mom and Dad, knew fairly well. I introduced Jasmine as my girlfriend, which garnered still more attention, but it was positive, at least in my opinion.

Unlike the usual, we skipped lunch today, instead taking Mom and Dad home and then grabbing fast food. We had two missions today. The first was to a furniture store. We’d picked one relatively near home, well known for both quality and value.

As we drove, an idea took hold. It made sense to me, so I pulled Angie aside when we got to the furniture store, and she agreed.

Instead of Angie purchasing a bed as long-term purchase for herself, we instead decided that I would give Angie back the bed I was using now. It had significant sentimental value to her, after all.

Jasmine and I were instead shopping for a new king-sized bed. In practice, that meant Jasmine was shopping — unless she picked something absolutely hideous, I’d go with it without question.

I explained the plan to Jasmine, and the look on her face was priceless.

“We’re ... you’re...” she said, then bounced on her toes. “I love this plan! Angie, are you sure you don’t want a new bed?”

Angie shook her head. “That one was Daddy Frank’s. And, once, my mother’s, of course, but ... well ... that’s ... I’m good with that.”

Paige nodded. “It means a lot to me, too. I really wish I’d gotten to meet Frank. And ... I mean ... family, right?”

She was actually sniffling a bit by the end. I imagined Angie and Paige had discussed Paige’s potential future mother-in-law. Paige had much less to forgive, perhaps, but often it’s harder to forgive someone who hurt someone you love than someone who hurt you.

Angie wasn’t off the hook. We decided to purchase a queen-sized bed as well, this one as either a guest bed or perhaps as a gift to Cammie and Mel. Oh, they’d try to pay us back, and we might let them. Maybe.

Jas and Angie started shopping. It took Angie only about half an hour to pronounce one particular queen-sized bed frame ‘perfect,’ and Jasmine found a king-sized bed frame that spoke to her.

It spoke to me, too, and not just because it suited Jas. It looked eerily like a bed frame a friend of mine had had long ago. Integrated nightstands, shelves, and storage, lighting, the works. I’d always liked it, and now Jas had independently picked its near-twin.

Jas cheered when I liked it. I picked her up and swung her around a bit, which got some smiles from other shoppers.

Angie and Jas picked out the mattresses and box springs they wanted and signed off. All of them would be delivered today — or, at least, that was the promise. They’d likely make it.

Cammie would have to do some sheet shopping! Jas and I would ask her to get a king-sized set. Gene’s house could use an extra bed for the next couple of months.

Our second mission was to check out a place about ten miles away, near Katy, that rented RVs. There were several places around Houston that did — though not nearly as many as one would’ve found in decades to come — and I hoped that we might find one we liked.

The girls were all very curious. None of us had traveled in an RV before, and neither Jas nor Paige had ever set foot in one. Angie and I had, while on car shopping trips with parents, and I’d been inside two RVs owned by friends during my first life.

As we drove into the parking lot, the girls all oohed and ahhed at the various options. I knew enough to know that things would be nicer in the future, with more bells and whistles, but these were perfectly fine.

We parked and got out, and were rapidly approached by a salesman, who identified himself as Barry Collins. The first order of business was obviously the question of whether they would rent to us at all.

At first, the answer was a clear no. Eighteen was too young. However, when I mentioned American Express, and a willingness to purchase additional insurance coverage, he decided he needed to check with his boss.

That sent Barry off to the office. Meanwhile, we poked our heads into one of the larger Winnebago models, the door of which was standing open.

“Oh! This is nice!” Jas said, going ahead and climbing in.

“I would be terrified to drive it,” Paige said. “This thing is insane! Can we drive this with a regular license?”

“I checked that,” I said. “As long as it’s below a certain weight, we can drive it with a normal license. Above that, I’d have to move up from Class C to Class B, which doesn’t seem that hard.”

“I’d give it a shot,” Angie said. “This ... appeals to me.”

Jas giggled. “Actually, I would, too, if I could try it somewhere very easy first.”

“Nuh-uh!” Paige said. “I’m sitting this one out!”

She plopped into one of the dinette seats.

“This is my speed, right here.”

I checked a placard on the door.

“Yeah, this one is under the weight limit. We could tow a car along with this and be within the law.”

“Why would we...?” Jas said, then stopped. “Oh! I get it! You might not want to drive this monster to the grocery store.”

Angie nodded. “Parking this at most strip centers would be a bitch!”

“I don’t know how well I’d do backing it up with a towed vehicle,” I said. “But ... planning. Don’t get into the situation and all’s well.”

“We’re screwed!” Paige said.

Jas threw a throw pillow at her.

“We’ll be fine!” Jas said, giggling.

I tried the driver’s seat. It felt fine to me. Angie, however, would have to significantly adjust it, and Jas would need even more adjustment.

“Yeah, maybe I don’t want to drive this!” Jas said, feet several inches away from the pedals.

“It adjusts,” Angie said.

“Yeah, but then I’d be looking through the instrument panel,” Jas said.

We all looked around, opening cabinets, checking out the bedroom (which got high marks from everyone), and the sofa bed (fairly high marks from Angie and Paige, who would almost certainly use that, it being narrower).

The kitchen and refrigerator were deemed ‘adequate’ by all three girls. On the other hand, they deemed the bathroom ‘argument central,’ but everyone agreed that we could share one bathroom and not kill each other.

Not even Angie and Paige would try to share the shower, though they did concede that the attempt might be fun.

The consensus was that something like this would be great, if we could afford it (that got a snicker from everyone) and if they’d let us rent it. None of us suggested just buying it. We could, but that would cross the line from frivolous to crazy.

Renting could be justified on the grounds that we would be saving money not staying in motels, cooking our own meals, and so forth. Much of that was a smokescreen — the fuel costs would be high, for instance — but it would give us a viable argument as to why we were doing this.

Barry came back after a bit. It turned out that, yes, they would rent to an eighteen-year-old provided we used American Express (and American Express themselves were amenable to the charges, which they would be) — or another card with a sufficiently high limit — and carried enough insurance to make sure they’d be fine if the vehicle was damaged.

As someone who pretty much never took the extra coverage when renting a car, it was slightly annoying, but I could see their point. This was a far more expensive vehicle than most passenger vehicles, and it was also a very big target. It made perfect sense that they wanted to be compensated if the crazy kids wrecked it!

We’d be fine. As much as I liked the idea of owning one, the question would be how often we’d have a summer like this one in the near future. Perhaps in the next couple of years, but perhaps not. Certainly, by the time the Dell money came in, we would likely all be much too busy to take a month off and just travel the country.

Best enjoy it while we had the time. There would undoubtedly be many, many great vacations in our future, but they wouldn’t be month-long. The next few years were the best chances to do that.

We browsed around the lot, but most of the other vehicles felt cramped compared to the huge Winnebago. We didn’t try everything, though, and I spotted a couple of others in the distance that might have worked.

That said, their rental price for the Winnebago wasn’t at all out of line, and we could certainly afford it. Why not? Even with the behemoth, we’d have less room than at some motels, after all. Trying to fit into an even smaller space for a month was a recipe for contention.

We talked with Barry about timetables. He said they tended to book up in late May. As long as we reserved it before then, we were almost certain to get one of the large ones. Wait past then, and they might be gone, and we’d be looking at something smaller.

That worked for us. In only a week, Paige and I would both be over eighteen. Angie could drive it at seventeen, of course, but they wanted two eighteen-year-olds on the agreement.

Barry was flummoxed when we asked if they’d rent to the LLC instead of us as individuals. He zipped off again, and returned ten minutes later, saying they would actually prefer that. I wasn’t sure of the details, but the gist was that we’d get a slightly better rate and insurance terms if this was a ‘corporate’ rental rather than a ‘personal’ rental.

Worked for me!

We talked it over on the drive to Study Group. Everyone was sold, pretty much. We agreed to stay quiet about it. Saying we were planning to tour the country was one thing; saying we were going to do it in a big RV was quite another.

Normally, this would have been a fairly light Study Group meeting, but many of us would miss a day and a half of school this week and a day of school next week, too. With next week being exam week, we needed to be busy getting ready.

As promised, Mel, Morty, and Mark were back. It amused me that ‘grounded forever’ had lasted under two weeks. Admittedly, grounding lost some of its reasonableness when you were eighteen and the only thing you’d done wrong was hide your (or your sister’s) sexuality from your parents (not that they would have phrased it that way).

Cammie and Mel were, of course, inseparable for the rest of Study Group. I don’t think they stopped holding hands the entire time until the very end, when Cammie and Mel both hugged everyone and made a point of telling each of us how important our friendship had been to them. I was certain we would be doing the same thing in a month or so, and probably taking the entire time to do it, but this was different, even if it also wasn’t different.

When Mel got to me, she put her arms around my neck, looked up, and softly said, “I’m never going to be able to adequately thank you, you know.”

I smiled and shook my head. “You already have, Mel. I understand how you feel. You know how I feel. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t help Cammie. Or you, or anyone, but I’ve guessed for a long time that, if one of us needed it, it’d be her.”