Chapter 16: Binding

I caught up to Ginny in the parking lot. She was standing next to her parent's car, crying softly in the darkness. I walked up to her and pulled her into me, wrapping my arms around her.

"Ginny, please don't cry!" I whispered.

You're moving away, and I'll never see you again!" she sobbed.

"No!" I said. "I'm sure that's not what Mom meant!"

"Well what did she mean then?" she blubbered into my neck.

"I don't know!" I said, "Mom caught Dad and I both by surprise just like the rest of you. Neither of us have a clue what she's talking about!"

"Really?" she sniffled, looking up at me with those cartoon-soft, teary eyes.

"Yes, Blossom. Lets go back inside and find out what she really meant. Together," I kissed a tear from her cheek.

What a difference a day makes! Dinner at our house the next night included The Carson, McKesson and Parkin families. The chaos had been banished and the jovial camaraderie restored. Mom had gone all out with a classic Greek combination for dinner, Piroski, Salati Therini, Kotopoulo Lemonato and loukoumathes for dessert.

Okay, I didn't know what those words meant either, but according to Mom, we had Piroski appetizers, which were these neat little fried turnovers with ground beef and tomato sauce in the middle, Salati Therini was a Greek summer salad with tomato, onion, cucumber, green peppers, greek olives and Feta cheese, Kotopoulo Lemonato is a lemony, peppery baked chicken. The Loukoumathes are little puffs of deep fried dough, drizzled with honey and cinnamon, sort of like the Sopaipilllas you can get in Mexican restaurants.

It was delicious. There was applause!

Oh! You're wondering what happened to the chaos?

You'll remember perhaps when I mentioned how little challenge I felt my High School classes were giving me, and Mom's promise to 'Think on it'? It was that spark which lit the fuse which manifested itself as the explosion of chaos in the restaurant the evening before. Mom had found a solution to my problem, and with everything going on, she had forgotten to mention it. You can hardly blame her. World-hopping can be pretty distracting.

The solution, she had determined, was home schooling, and with the quiet behind-the-scenes efficiency which truly did make her the sea upon which the ship of McKesson sailed, she had researched the entire process, located and acquired the tools and materials needed, and was prepared, with my approval, to take over the education of David Alan McKesson as soon as I was ready. Since this educational endeavor was to take place under the very roof where we sat, I would not be abandoning Ginny, my cohorts in the Legion of the Doomed, my just freshly moved Grandparents or anyone else, except perhaps the adequate-for-most-folks staff of Bret Harte High School.

The wrinkle in this plan was the astonishing admission by Mrs. Parson that she had considered exactly the same sort of thing for Ginny, but that she didn't feel up to doing something like that on her own and so had dismissed the idea. It was true that Ginny was right up there in the brains category, and found the learning aspect of high school almost as disappointing as I did. Mrs. Parkin confessed to having covertly researching private schools.

The wrinkle lasted only as long as it took mom to ask Mrs. Parkin if she felt that the two of them could together handle educating the two of us. With the evidence of Mom's abilities as an organizer, and our reminder that she had certainly done a great job when she took on the task of teaching us to dance, the deal was sealed. Ginny Parkin, the love of my life, and I, were consigned to spending each and every moment of our High School educational together! There was of course the formality of shepherding Mrs. Parkin through the State home school certification process, but most of that leg work was already done, and adding another instructor and student was, Mom assured us, 'trivial'.

Due to the obvious depth of the relationship between Ginny and I, the growing closeness of our two families, and the new joint educational enterprise of the two Moms, I was told by Ginny's parents that they would prefer it if I began referring to them by their first names.

"Until such a time in the future when you might have the right to switch it to Mom and Dad," Mr's Parkin giggled. Excuse me, Mary giggled.

And Ginny's Dad was Paul.

I looked at Ginny and blinked. Blinked again, and then laughed out loud! It finally made sense.

The entire room looked at me like I'd grown a third eye. I laughed louder, holding up my hand while I waited to get my laughter under control.

"I'm sorry. Its just that when Ginny first introduced me to her brother Pete, I thought to myself that his parents didn't ever read comic books, or they would have never named him Peter Parkin." Everyone laughed except for Ginny's parents.

"But now I discover that they had another goal in mind entirely."

Mr. and Mrs. Parkin laughed a little nervously at that.

"Did you?" I asked, looking at them across the table.

"What?" They said together, although I think they both already knew what I was asking.

"Before Ginny was born, did you ever introduce yourselves as Peter, Paul and Mary?"

The "Oh My God!" From Ginny was almost drowned out by the laughter from everyone not named Parkin in the room.

"It only happened once." Paul said, "At church when we had him baptized, the Minister turned to the congregation and announced. "May I present to the congregation, Peter, Paul and Mary Parkin."

"Oh God!" This time from Mary. "The entire room burst into laughter and somebody in the back of the church hollered out 'Let's hear Puff the Magic Dragon!'" she buried her head in her arms on the table in embarrassment.

"Never again," Paul said. "We buried that phrase and even threw their records in the trash."

A moment later, into the relieved silence, Ginny's dad suddenly said "Wait, what was that about comic books?"

"Spiderman," I answered.

"Spiderman? Like the movie?" Mary asked.

"Spiderman's secret identity is Peter Parker." Ginny told them. "I thought you knew."