Chapter 149: Home Again

Monday, June 18, 1984

Jas, Angie, Paige, and I met Cammie and Mel at Rico’s for lunch. Of course, we started out with hugs. And, of course, both of them wanted to hear all about our adventures.

We didn’t mention the Mickey Mouse ears. That would wait for Nationals.

Cammie said that the jackhammering was supposed to be done today, after which — most likely — the basement would sit for a week or so until the plumbing could be done. After that, they would pour the new concrete and everything else could proceed.

They weren’t going to knock out the coal chute until later, because that required putting in a proper door, which relied on the concrete and waterproofing being finished. The door was a weakness in the waterproofing and needed proper drainage, after all.

Mel and Cammie had firmly decided against the basement. Right now, they wanted either the second floor or attic, depending on whether we went with an attic bathroom and whether the attic ceilings worked for them. Both of them were short enough that it should work.

They liked the idea of all of the light the attic should have, with windows with views in every direction. The basement wasn’t going to be gloomy, but it certainly wouldn’t have anywhere near the natural light that the attic would.

I think the rest of us all liked that. Cammie was obviously an ‘insider,’ and Mel probably would be. Candice and Sherry would be a bit less so, and the basement might be great for them. It would be even better for someone(s) we really didn’t know.

Speaking of which, it was obvious to me that we were going to have to talk more to Mel, probably tomorrow. She clearly had some questions, based on some looks she gave us and some comments she didn’t make, after looking like she was going to. It was obvious there was extensive remodeling, and that wasn’t a surprise. The surprise was how much input we had in the remodeling process. If I’d been in her position, I’d have had the same questions.

The best time to discuss this would be tomorrow, I thought, so I made a mental note to bring it up.

Cammie told us that she’d tentatively found two therapists in College Station that Jane thought were good. She would have an initial meeting with each of them, but not until after Nationals. Mel was very supportive of her talking to someone. I thought things were fine now, but Mel could see the long-term benefit of getting ahead of any issues now.

We made plans to meet at the house tomorrow (likely early afternoon) and have dinner together there. The kitchen was functional enough even with the old appliances. New ones would definitely be better, and we would get to that, but it’d be nice to cook in the house. After all, we’d be eating out throughout the weekend, either on our own or eating whatever Nationals provided.

The afternoon was mostly consumed with totally mundane things. For instance, we all had laundry to do, even with what we’d done on the trip. We also needed to double-check that we were completely ready for Nationals.

Angie had performed her cutting for us a few times on the trip, but I was pretty sure that at least our first CX round would involve shaking off at least a bit of rust. The thing is, everyone would be in the same boat, at least to some extent. All of the states’ tournaments were done over a month ago.

A few teams might have put together some mock rounds with teammates or even frenemies, but I doubted that would’ve helped us. We just wouldn’t have that much rust to shake off.

I gave Kathleen Carson a call mid-afternoon. She had the draft plans ready and her schedule was open. We scheduled a 2pm meeting. If anything delayed us, we’d call and let her know. She wanted to meet at the house, and I agreed with that. If there were questions or changes, having the house there for a reference would be better.

Candice was my next call. Fortunately, she was home. Even more fortunately, lunch Monday would work for her and Sherry. We wanted to get together before hitting the road, and Monday night was Angie’s birthday dinner.

We planned a brief meeting with Jane on Tuesday, but only a brief one. In order for the family trip timing to work out properly, hitting the road Tuesday afternoon was a good idea. We wouldn’t make it out of Texas, probably, but that was still progress.

I gave Michael Dell a quick call, too. All was well on the BIOS front, and there was no sign of trouble coming from IBM. Indeed, he’d had no contact at all with them. Sales were great, the systems were apparently quite reliable, and word of mouth was spreading.

He only had vague numbers, but promised better ones in early July, and much better ones at the end of July, just as I’d expected. At this point, I was happy as long as Michael was happy.

Mom and Dad were thrilled to have us there for dinner again. It was much less of a big deal today, but that’s how it should be. They were learning to be empty-nesters, and we were (re)learning how to live away from home.

Still, we would be home regularly, and that was important. Just as important was that we built relationships that allowed us to be easily comfortable with each other when we came home.

Unsurprisingly, Angie crawled into my bed around eleven, just as I was getting ready to go to bed myself.

“Still boycotting my bed,” she said. “This was the longest for us since Northwestern, which was way too damn long!”

I nodded. “Different, though.”

She giggled. “Totally different. Paige and I are ... it’s ... fuck. It’s really awesome! I mean, I lived with Max, so it’s not new, but Paige is...”

She stopped and glared at me. “I see that look! Yes, saying Paige is not Max has a bunch of obvious comments, which are all true, but I mean emotionally!”

“Which is also obvious.”

“It wasn’t to me, really. Or ... it was, but it wasn’t, too? Carrie and I had prison rules. We really couldn’t just share a bed. Plus, the beds were small. Anyway, it’s ... how do I know if sleeping with someone is just ... sleeping with someone? Except that sleeping with you was totally different, and we weren’t doing anything.”

She hesitated, then went on, saying, “Anyway, it’s totally different and I love it! But that doesn’t mean I won’t crave some nights with my big brother.”

I nodded and said, “You’re different than my ex-wife, meaning just in terms of physically going to sleep together. Jas is different from her, too. Both of you are different from each other, as well, but less different than either of you is from my ex. But, then, I’m very different, too. Being much thinner and in better shape is probably part of why I’m not overheating, which I always did before.”

“Yeah. I mean, I was in good shape, mostly, but... better shape now. Yes, it matters.”

“And, of course, emotionally you and Jas are extremely different from my ex-wife, but that really also is less clear than I’m pretending that it was. She wasn’t my ex-wife when we slept together, and we didn’t sleep together well even when it was the first blush of a new relationship. There was always that necessary separation to keep us from overheating, waking each other, elbowing each other, and so on and so forth.”

Angie nodded. “Saying ‘different world, different rules’ is too simple, but also still true. Things are really just different here. I struggled with who I was for a lot of that first year, and especially until I found out you were in the same boat. Was I really thirty-one-year-old ex-con Angie? Was I really fourteen-year-old teenage Angie? Both? Neither? Who was I supposed to be? Eventually, I just stopped worrying and started being ‘just me,’ which is partly a way of saying ‘both.’”

“Me, too, of course. At some point, we had to just be ourselves. Being anything else was exhausting.”

“And, speaking of exhausting...”

I chuckled. “I could sleep.”

“Me, too. Busy day tomorrow.”

“Busier day the day after.”

“Well, yeah. I think it’s going to be fun, really,” she said.

“Me, too. Lagniappe, but a big one.”

“Really big!”

We snuggled up close, rubbed noses, then kissed softly.

“Always and forever,” she said. “Even if we don’t say it as often.”

“Forever and always,” I said. “No matter when we say it.”

As usual, we were quickly asleep.

Tuesday, June 19, 1984

We had breakfast with Mom, but hit the road around ten and were at the house in College Station just a bit after noon.

Along the way, we talked about Mel. It was going to take some fancy explaining to not outright lie to her but get across a version of the truth that she would accept. All of us agreed that it was still too early to give her the whole truth, though it really did seem to be more of a matter of time than a question of whether we would or not.

The explanation we finally agreed upon built off the rent-to-own claim. The owner wanted to remodel the building in a way that led to the highest chance of long-term payoff. We were financially interested, knowledgeable tenants who wanted the same thing. Our input would likely be valuable, and we also might not want the place if they didn’t work on it the way we wanted.