Chapter 55: Spending a Splendid Summer

Orville showed up early on Saturday morning. He apologized for missing our Friday workout, saying that he had skipped work because of the rain. I told him about Mr. Sterling's visit, and he was very impressed that the school would send a coach to visit players during the summer. We went to the local high school field and practiced teaming up to stop the run. I told him that I was looking forward to playing behind Russell again. Josh listened to us talk, nodding his head like he understood everything we said.

When Orville dropped us off he said he would see us on Monday morning for our run. But instead of driving out of the neighborhood, he drove around the park and onto one of the side streets. I mumbled 'trouble, ' under my breath, but didn't say anything to Josh about Orville taking the street that led to Paula's house. I wondered if she was the reason he was late for our workout the previous Wednesday. Oh well, I had my own problems.

I told Josh to dress nicely for his date that night and went in the house. It was 11:30. I needed to decide whether to call my mother then or wait until after lunch. I would always wonder if it would have been better if I had waited until after lunch to call. She cried and carried on for the first five minutes. She reminded me that she had lost both of her children in the past eight months. What had she done to deserve this? I told her that she had not lost either of her children; we had simply moved on. I stated my case simply, telling her what Suzanne had said. "It comes down to a matter of convenience. Every place we turn there are obstacles. Changing my name legally will simplify everything. Take my driver's license..."

"You're going to drive?" She interrupted me.

"I'm sixteen, Mom. I want to learn to drive, but I can't get my driver's permit under one name and..."

"Have someone bring the papers. I'll sign," she said.

She was crying again when we ended the call. I went upstairs and lay down on my bed. Suzanne called for me to come to lunch and I said I wasn't hungry. Damn it, I thought. I forgot to ask my mother if she gave my letter to Becky.

It had been prearranged that Peter, Josh and I would go together to pick up the Baldwin sisters. I don't know whose idea it was, but Jessica is the one that reminded us to dress nicely and be respectful to their parents. We shook hands with Mr. Baldwin and stood around, nervously waiting for the girls to come downstairs. Their parents beamed with pride when the sisters appeared, looking lovely in summer dresses and sandals. They cautioned Jessica to drive carefully and for us not stay out too late.

Mrs. Baldwin came outside to supervise the seating arrangements in the car, insisting that three of us sit in the front and three in the back. Jeannie lost out and had to sit in the front seat with Jessica and me. But when Cindy volunteered to sit on Peter's lap, Jessica stopped the car a block from the Baldwin home and let Jeannie move to the back seat. Cindy happily climbed onto Peter's lap and Jeannie took her place next to Josh. Being alone in the front seat with Jessica made me feel older, somehow, than the 'teenagers, ' in the back seat. We talked quietly while Cindy, Jeannie and Peter bellowed uproariously and Josh watched, probably in awe of being in the company of an 'older woman.'

None of us wanted to see Three Men and a Baby. I suggested that we go to the ice cream shop where we had been a few times the summer before. The others were happy to go along with my idea, except Josh. He was somewhat dubious about missing the movie because of what his mother would say. What Josh would tell his mother became the main topic of conversation. For the next two hours we amused ourselves by preparing Josh to fool Mrs. Ford into thinking he had actually seen the movie. The shop was not crowded so there was no pressure from the management for us to make space for paying customers until the movie let out.

None of us had read a synopsis of the movie. Jessica got us started by stating the plot, as she imagined it. She thought that, based on the title of the movie and the posters we had seen, there were three bachelors who were taking care of a baby.

Jessica got us all involved in expanding upon the scenario that she had presented; asking questions about why the three bachelors were caring for the baby, what the circumstance was that placed the baby with them and even the sex of the kid. We had so much fun with the game that we forgot about what the consequences would be if Mrs. Ford didn't believe Josh. When the movie crowd began to arrive we vacated our table to make room for the newcomers.

We arrived back at the Baldwin house earlier than expected. I gave Jessica a peck on the lips and thanked her for driving us to the movie. Josh was nervous, but had the presence of mind to thank Jeannie for going with him. We all agreed that it had been a fun night, only Jessica and I expressing concern that Josh would be able to convince his mother that he had seen the movie. Josh and I said goodnight to our dates and they went inside, leaving Cindy at the front steps with Peter.

Alice called to say that she and Brenda were spending a week with her parents. They came to the Oldham home and we hung out around the pool Sunday afternoon, catching up with the past year. Alice looked thinner than I remembered. She admitted that law school was a lot tougher than she thought it would be, but she was determined to make it through. I don't think the little girl remembered me but she pretended she did and we soon became reacquainted. When Alice heard about my summer activities she lamented that we would not have much time to spend together. I protested, getting her to agree to meet me the following evening.

The next morning both Orville and Josh were floating on a cloud. I thought I knew what had Orville in a dreamy state. I suspected he had spent the weekend sampling Paula's wares. Josh, I learned had deceived his mother into believing he had seen the movie, but that was not the main reason he was flying high. He was anxious to tell both Orville and me what Jeannie had said when they parted, a sentence that Josh quoted repeatedly, "I had a good time." I was happy to leave my two lovesick running mates and go to the office.

Later, at the tennis courts, Peter and the Baldwin sisters were anxious to hear Josh's account of how he had answered his mother's questions about the movie. I had heard it that morning and knew that Mrs. Ford was actually more interested in how Josh had conducted himself with his female companion and very little had been said about the movie. But I let Josh prattle on about how he had deceived her, going so far as to say that his mother wanted to know if the baby was a little girl or a little boy. I couldn't take any more.

"Did your mother want to know if you held hands with Jeannie?" I asked, making Josh stop talking and turn somber, unable to continue his embellished tale about how he had fooled his mother into thinking that we had gone to the movie. We were relieved that she had not discovered the truth and we agreed that making up our own plot for a movie that we had not seen was so much fun that we would do it again.

That evening in the middle cottage Alice confessed concern that law school was consuming so much of her time that she was missing a critical part of Brenda's development. She said that she wanted to be held and told that she was a good mother, even if I didn't believe what I was telling her. "I'm more concerned about what it's doing to you than Brenda's development," I said, making her pull back and look at me.

"What could you possibly mean by that?" She asked, sounding alarmed, but disbelieving.

"You're too thin. You're face is drawn and I see lines in your forehead that I don't remember from before. I think you're worrying too much about Brenda. She'll be fine. It's you that I worry about."

"You're so sweet," she said and attempted to discredit my belief for the next two hours. She talked about her classes and described the professors who placed unachievable demands upon their students. She poured out her concerns and I sympathized with her for two hour. When I walked her home we kissed and she thanked me for being considerate. "Friday night, I'll listen to you. I want to hear everything," she said.

True to her word, Alice held me and asked me to tell her everything. As it happened, my first letter from Becky had arrived that day and Alice was the only one I wanted to share it with. Watching her reach for her purse, find a pair of thin, metal-rimmed glasses and put them on, gave me distressing assurance that I had been right; the workload was affecting her physically.

Saturday July 18, 1987

Dear Sammy,

Your Mom gave me the letter. I can't describe the feeling it gave me to read your words. It was delicious and painful at the same time, delicious to know that they were your thoughts, painful to know that we are so far apart. Reading your letter made my heart flutter and my chest tight.

Do you really miss me as much as I miss you? You couldn't. It's impossible.

I'm sorry that my mom hung up on you. There was nothing that I could do about it. You know how she treats me when I kick and scream. She says I'm acting childish and confines me to my room.

Do you remember the night we were walking home from a basketball game and it was so cold that we could see our breath? I told you that it represented our time together, fleeting, like our breath disappearing into the dark night. You said that I was wrong, that our breath was still there, that we just could not see it. You said that was how it is with us; that we would always be there for one another even if we couldn't see each other. That's what I remember most vividly about you. Like our breath in the night air, I know that you are there. I can't see you, but I can feel you.

Please write again. Write mushy stuff, even if you don't mean it.

Your girlfriend is still waiting for clearance.

Becky

P.S. You can put your plane in my hanger anytime.

Alice removed her glasses and handed the letter back to me. "I want to hear everything about her," she said.

I started with the burr and how it changed my life. I skipped over Gina and Priscilla, wanting to use my time in Alice's arms to describe Becky and what we had together. I told Alice about the football games and how exhilarating it had been to hear the crowd cheering for Apple. I told her about the evenings we spent together studying and how manipulative Becky had been in getting me to appear in the play.

Alice held me as I described the day Ned came to bring me back home and how disheartened I had been when none of my friends came to watch us drive away. We were on the way to Alice's house by the time I got to the adoption. I told her about Suzanne's involvement and the letter to my mother.

"You're going to be fine, Sammy Oldham," Alice said as we parted. We promised to write to each other, both knowing that busy schedules would make letters nearly impossible to fit in. She and Brenda were leaving the next day and we knew it would be a long time before we would be together again. "You're going to be fine, too," I said, hoping that my prediction would prove to me true.

The next night Josh got his first kiss from a girl. The pattern was set. The six of us had decided that we preferred to spend our Saturday nights in the ice cream shop, formulating wild and creative plots to movies than to sitting in a dark theater and watching it on the screen.

Oh, I suppose Cindy and Jeannie would have preferred to hold hands with their dates, but Jessica was very influential. With Jessica as our leader, we speculated about plot, motive and how the movie ended. She kept us on our toes, calling upon each of us to contribute to the actor's dialog and the scenes that we were inventing.

I kept wondering when Josh's mother would discover that our elaborate schemes to fool her were fabrications. Did she notice the changes that were taking place in her son? Did he ever slip and refer to Jeannie as his girlfriend? What did she think of her little boy? What did she think of me for letting him experience the wonderful feel that an older 'woman' could give him?

We often got together on Sunday afternoons at the Baldwin pool. We would huddle and whisper amongst ourselves, asking if Josh thought his mother suspected anything. He would shake his head and smile. Jessica and I began to wonder if we were really fooling Mrs. Ford. What if she saw through our ruse?