Chapter 21

The lunch rush was winding down and Vicky had a chance to go to the bathroom and get something to drink. She saw two police cars pull into the parking lot and recognized one of them as Terry’s. When he came in he was accompanied by a younger cop, with a military style haircut. Terry smiled and waved.

She took two glasses of water to their booth and set them down.

“This is my girlfriend,” said Terry, to the other man. He looked at Vicky. “Believe it or not, he’s never eaten here.”

“Well, welcome to The Ladybird. What can I get you two to drink?”

“I hear Bobby had an accident this morning,” said Terry, casually.

“Yes. He had a seizure and hit his head on something. I think it was the table. He bled a lot and they had to take him to the hospital in an ambulance. It scared me half to death but the doctor says he’s okay.”

“My compatriot, here ran into him and Mai Li as she was taking him home.”

“Really?”

“Yes. He stopped them for a minor traffic infraction and when he saw both of them were covered in blood he got a little excited.”

“Oh no,” moaned Vicky.

“I thought I’d bagged a couple of murderers,” said Officer Shepherd. He grinned. “I think I upset your son.”

“He put handcuffs on Mai Li,” said Terry.

“Oh no!”

“I took them back off,” said Shepherd, sounding injured.

“Anyway, we got them safely to the house and they’ll have a story to tell you when you get home.”

“It won’t be until six or seven,” said Vicky. “I have to work late. I took two hours off to go to the hospital this morning.”

“We need to go on another date soon,” said Terry.

“Why’s that?” she asked, arching one eyebrow.

“I miss you,” he said.

“I know what you miss,” she said. “Now, are you going to order or not? I have things to do.”

“You sure she’s not your wife?” joked Officer Shepherd. “She sounds like your wife.” He grinned at his jest.

“Give it time,” said Terry. “I’m working on her.”

Vicky was stunned. His earlier confession about how he felt about her had not included any reference to taking their relationship to the next level. Bobby’s question about whether or not she was going to marry Terry had caught her by surprise, and now this slammed into her gut. She felt panic, but then realized that was just residual angst over Roger. He was the only husband she’d ever had and what she remembered most, sadly, was the very last part of that marriage.

“I’ll just get you coffee while you look at the menu,” she said.

She walked away on knees that weren’t as steady as they had been.

It was turning out to be a very interesting day.

“I’ll do that. You need to rest,” said Mai Li. They had both changed clothes and Bobby was trying to clean up all the blood on the kitchen floor.

“I feel fine,” he said. “Mom will freak out if she comes home and sees this.”

“Bobby, please,” begged Mai Li. “The last thing we need is for you to have another seizure.”

“I’m not fragile!” he snapped. “Okay, so I had a seizure. They’ve happened before and they’ll probably happen again. I’m going to have them for the rest of my life. I can still function, though!”

“Yes, you can,” she said, calming her voice. He was getting excited, which wasn’t good for him in the current situation. “We’ll clean it up together and then we’ll both go to bed ... together.”

He looked up at her. They had only slept apart two nights, but it felt like it had been a month. Part of him longed to be in bed with her again and that helped him calm down.

It took them an hour to scrub the floor clean and put away the cleaning supplies. Bobby had used an old T shirt to scrub the floor and he just threw it in the trash when they were finished.

She led him to his bedroom and they stood, facing each other.

“You’ll stay here with me?” he queried.

“Yes,” she said.

“Can we be naked?” he asked. His voice was tense.

“Yes,” she said.

They took off their clothes slowly and got into bed.

Both sighed as they scooted close enough to embrace.

“I love you,” he said.

“That’s good, because I love you too,” she replied.

They kissed, tentatively, at first, but then passion flared in both of them, releasing tension that had plagued both for two days.

He got hard, but they didn’t make love.

Instead they just hugged and kissed until Mai Li told him to be quiet and close his eyes.

He fell asleep.

Mai Li did not.

Instead she lay and contemplated her future.

It didn’t seem nearly as dark as it had.

Half an hour later she dozed off, too.

When Bobby woke up Mai Li was lying half on top of him. One of her arms and legs were across his body. Her mouth was on his shoulder and she had drooled a little bit, there.

He breathed in, taking in her scent, and realized the most important thing now was to make sure he got to breathe her in every day from now on. He knew she didn’t want to get married, but that was okay, as long as she stayed there. She had said things would work out. She had said she could still work while she was pregnant. His trust fund would keep paying her salary and they’d get by. And maybe she’d change her mind about getting married.

What he needed to focus on was his GED. He had passed two modules. He only had two left and then he could maybe start at one of the several technical and vocational schools in town, or maybe even at KU. He had no idea what he wanted to do, in terms of employment. He just knew he needed to get a job. Maybe then Mai Li would look at marriage differently.

He felt the urge to pee and slowly wiggled out from under her. She muttered, but didn’t wake up. He went to the toilet and, when he returned, he just looked at her lying there. She was so beautiful, but for once he didn’t get a boner. Did her naked body contain his baby?

It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she stay there, with him.

He pulled on some clothes and went to the kitchen to work on Social Studies.

He was still at it, an hour later, when Mai Li came into the room, also dressed.

“How do you feel?” she asked.

He looked up.

“As long as we’re together, I feel fine.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, softly.

“Then I’m fine. Now, go away. I’m on a roll on my social studies module. It’s harder than the others and I need to concentrate. You are very distracting.”

“Well excu-ew-ewwwse me,” she said. “I’ll go be distracting somewhere else.”

“We’ll sleep together tonight ... right?” he prompted.

“Ask me after you’ve finished studying,” she said. “I don’t want my answer to distract you.”

“That’s a yes, right?” he guessed. “Will we make love?”

“Bobby! You’re supposed to be thinking about social studies!” she chided.

“I am,” he said. “I’m reading about the mating habits of the Kreung tribe in Cambodia. Did you know that when a girl comes of age there, her parents build her a little hut where she can have sex with as many guys as it takes for her to find one she wants to marry?”

“I did not know that,” said Mai Li.

“Do you think they do that in Vietnam, too?” he asked. “They’re neighbors.”

“I don’t know. I was raised in America,” she said.

“Right. Thank goodness.”

“I’m not going to start fucking every guy I see to try to find a husband,” she said. “If I ever get married it will probably be to you.”

“Really?” He perked up.

“Calm down, Romeo,” she said. “We have a lot to talk about before anything like that happens.”

“I’m ready to talk now,” he said.

“You just get back to the whatever-it-is tribe in Cambodia,” she said.

“You might actually think about marrying me?” he asked, a pleading note in his voice.

“If I say I’ll think about it, will you study?” she said, stridently. “Not soon, mind you, but maybe some day?”

“Yes!” he said.

“Then I’ll think about it. Okay?”

“Yes!” he said again.

She walked away, but the happiness he expressed in that one, simple word made butterflies flutter in her belly.

Bobby went back to the computer. Mai Li wandered, more or less, around the house.

Now she was the distracted one in the house.

Mai Li did think about marriage, while Bobby peered at the computer and tapped keys. She watched him do that for a while, from a distance, pretending to read her book, but her eyes flicked from him to the book, where they scanned the same paragraph over and over.

Marriage seemed like a very foreign and puzzling concept to her. It was something so routine in the world around her that she’d always taken it for granted. She had never really tried to put herself into a situation like that. Trying to do so now seemed bewildering. Her whole life seemed bewildering, all of a sudden. Her denial that she might be pregnant had faded. She knew, somehow, that she was, in fact, going to have a baby. According to her calendar, her period wasn’t due until next Thursday, exactly one week from today. She was sure it would not arrive, though.

That was unsettling enough, but now, as she tried to imagine being married, she felt helpless. She remembered seeing the cockpit of a jumbo jet liner in a picture one time. She had been amazed that anybody could make sense out of all those buttons and switches and levers and could actually fly one of those planes. That’s what marriage seemed like in her mind; that picture, where she had no idea how anything worked or what to do to get the plane off the ground.

She loved Bobby. That was the rock upon which she sat as the seas of change swirled around her. And she knew he loved her. But doubts still assailed her. He was so young, so inexperienced in life. Was what he felt real love or just lust and a crazy strong crush on the woman he’d lost his virginity to?

Her laptop was on the dining room table. She abandoned the book and sat down with her back to Bobby so he wouldn’t be a distraction to her. She opened her computer.

She had a lot to learn about what pregnancy was going to be like.

And after that she’d read up on how to be a Mom.

Vicky managed to get through the rest of her work day by rote. She greeted customers and took their orders. She didn’t screw up those orders and her tips were the same as any other day, but her mind wasn’t on the diner.

Among other things she remembered sitting in a chair, alone in the house. Roger had abandoned her and his son. She had been thinking about how much Bobby had lost. He was out of the woods, physically, at that point and the doctors all said he’d live. But he was in a coma and every day that passed was another day of his young life where he missed out on something. One of the things her tortured mind had thought about was how Bobby had never had a serious girlfriend. He had been to a few school dances, but hadn’t been allowed to date. Now, it seemed like he’d never get to do that; never have a girlfriend. She had been in despair about a lot of things, only one of which was how he’d never get married and never have children.

Now, years later, all that had changed. He had made a remarkable recovery and he had a girlfriend. Not only that, but his girlfriend was pregnant. Suddenly, there was the potential for a woman to become her daughter-in-law.

She tried to imagine Bobby and Mai Li as kids, dating back when Bobby would have been allowed to date. She couldn’t do it. He would have been sixteen and Mai Li would have been what ... twenty-one? She gave a little barking laugh that made a customer glance up at her, but she wasn’t aware of it. In her mind she created a little fantasy in which Bobby brought home a 21-year-old woman and proudly announced, “This is Mai Li. She’s Vietnamese and I’m dating her. She’s my girlfriend!”

“What’s so funny?” asked Lou, the cook.

“What?”

“You’re grinning like the Cheshire cat,” he said.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about something.”

She got back to work but for the rest of the day she thought about how something had to be done. He might not be fifteen, but these were still choppy waters. The idea of having Mai Li for a daughter-in-law was almost comfortable. She was a sharp girl and Vicky knew she’d be a great mother. It was Bobby who was the unknown part of the puzzle. He was smart, too, but smart didn’t count for a lot in trying to make a marriage work. He was still emotionally volatile. In many ways he really was that sixteen-year-old boy with a twenty-one-year-old girlfriend.

If they did tie the knot he’d need a lot of help along the way. As his mother she knew she’d try to help him, but would he be open to that?

By the time she got in her car to go home only one thing had really gelled in her mind.

These two boats could not be allowed to keep drifting. They needed to be steered, even if not in the same direction.

Otherwise one or both of them would run aground and things would be ruined as badly as when her own marriage got destroyed.

In a non-intuitive way, studying for his GED provided a safe haven for Bobby that he wanted to stay in for the rest of the day. Mai Li had said she’d think about marrying him. That gave him hope. He knew he shouldn’t bug her about it, or ask her if she had thought about it. Something in his upbringing informed him to let her bring it up, even if he was impatient. Digging into his two remaining GED modules gave him something to do to help him be patient.

He glanced over at Mai Li’s back as she surfed the net. He had no idea what was so interesting, but it didn’t matter.

When his mother walked in the door and he got up to hug her he was stiff from sitting so long.

“How is my injured little bird?” she asked, squeezing him.

“I need to spend some time in the pool,” he said, as he stretched tight muscles. “I’ve been sitting too long and I’m all stiff.”

“Have either of you two done anything about supper?” asked Vicky.

“Too busy,” said Bobby. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry,” she said. “It will take me an hour to rustle something up. Will that be long enough for you to do what you want to do in the pool?”

“Sure,” he said. “I just need to get my muscles working and loosened up.”

“What is Mai Li doing?” asked Vicky, who was a little surprised that Mai Li hadn’t acknowledged her arrival.

“Beats me,” said Bobby. “I’ve been doing GED and she’s been surfing the net all afternoon.”

He let go of his mother and went to stand behind Mai Li, putting his hands on her shoulders. The stress in their relationship manifested as a concern, on his part, that she might not welcome his touch just then.

She leaned back and rolled her head on her neck.

“I need to teach you how to do some massage,” she said.

He squeezed with his fingers and she purred.

“I’m going to get in the pool to loosen up,” he said. “I’m stiff from sitting too long. Mom said supper will be ready in an hour. Do you want to supervise me?”

“I’ll watch you but I don’t want to get my hair wet,” she said. “Maybe after supper we can soak in it without the current going.”

“That sounds nice,” he said. “Okay. I’m going to go change.”

Mai Li got up and went out the back door onto the deck of the pool. Nobody had thought to get any porch furniture yet, so the faded, lawn chair Bobby had used was her only option. There were a few leaves floating on the surface of the water and she thought about what maintenance would be needed as fall approached. The big cover for the pool was still stowed in its protective cubby. It took two people to deploy it and then fold it back up, so they didn’t do that routinely, other than the time the Covington people had showed them how it worked. When the leaves started falling in earnest they’d have to go to the trouble of using the cover.

Bobby came out and jumped in the pool, splashing the deck and her, but not too badly. She watched as he went to the control panel and started the pump working on low. With his arms out, he started walking, slowly, leaning into the gentle current.

It seemed peaceful and the silence between them was comfortable.

‘He could be my husband,’ she thought to herself. ‘We could be together like this for years and years.’

She still couldn’t imagine all the details of what that might be like.

But the thought of it didn’t seem like a feral animal with sharp teeth anymore.

At supper nobody seemed to want to talk, much. There were the almost obligatory questions about how the day had gone, but Bobby’s seizure and the trip to the hospital were mentioned only in passing, when Bobby told the story of how Mai Li had been handcuffed as a suspected murderer. After that it was quiet. Mai Li and Bobby were both comfortable, or at least tolerant of the dearth of conversation, but Vicky’s patience flagged.

“You said something about teaching Bobby how to massage you,” she said, at one point, looking at Mai Li. “And I remember you said you would teach me some massage techniques I could use on Terry.”

“Sure. You want to do that after supper?”

“Yes,” said Vicky.

“You can practice on me,” Bobby offered.

“How will I know if I’m doing it right?” asked Vicky. “Wouldn’t it be better if I tried it on the teacher?”

“I’ll know,” said Bobby.

Vicky thought about how Mai Li had said he got erections during her massages.

“What if I do it so well that ... um ... problems develop?” she asked.

“Problems?”

Mai Li got it first and giggled.

Bobby stared at her and she lifted one hand to make a very small, short series of movements mimicking jerking off.

“What’s the big deal?” he asked. “Both of you said it’s normal.”

“Normal for when she’s touching you, but not so much if it’s me,” said Vicky, smiling.

“Whatever,” said Bobby. “I was just trying to help.”

“I am, too,” said Vicky, who wasn’t thinking only about massage. Her comment took in everything that was happening in their little family.

“You can both practice on me,” said Mai Li.

“Okay,” said Bobby and his mother, together.

In Western civilization, conversations between parents and their children concerning sex are not standard. That said, what is fairly common is for both the parent and the child to be uncomfortable when the subject is brought up. In earlier years a discussion about “The birds and the bees” was literally how many parents approached the subject. Mommy was the flower and Daddy was the bee. Pollination happened and a baby came along. When the twentieth century rolled around, though, the sophistication level of children had risen. Their level of knowledge might still be lacking, but the subject of sex was something all kids had a glimmering about. Another change was that kids were not as tolerant of being “educated” by their parents in the ways of sexual relationships. It wasn’t “cool” to listen to “The birds and the bees” speech any longer. As a result, parents tried to foist off their responsibility to schools and “sex education” classes, but those were hamstrung by that population of parents (or school board members) who, for various reasons, didn’t want their kids to learn about sex. It’s easy to say “Abstinence until marriage!” if you’re not the one having to abstain.

Long story short, there came a time where very few parents actually sat down and talked about sex and sexual relationships with their children. Vicky and Bobby had been no different, in that respect, before his accident.

Now, however, with all the changes in both his and her lives, things had changed and the self-imposed taboo about discussing things sexual was frayed to the point that something had to give. In this case it “gave” when Vicky wanted to learn about massage.

“Take off your clothes and lie on the table, face down,” Mai Li instructed Vicky. “I’ll demonstrate on you and then you can try it on me.”

“Do I really need to be naked?” asked Vicky, glancing at her son.

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