Chapter 32

After I drove Emily home, we both went inside to see how the house cleaning had turned out. All four of the cleaning ladies were still hard at work, but I found Gary and Kitty sitting in the family room, watching television, and enjoying bowls of ice cream.

I had a difficult time not laughing out loud at them both. I also wondered, if my intervention had really helped any of them. All of the downstairs was finished, and the women were finishing up the last of the upstairs bedrooms.

Emily was busy talking with Kitty about our success in placing vending machines, and Kitty was telling her how pleased she was with the way the cleaning women had done such a thorough cleaning of the house. I sat down next to Gary, and asked him how things were going.

"Are you and Emily back together again?"

"No. We're friends still though."

"You guys should make up, Kenny. She's been a real bear around here since forever. She makes it miserable for the rest of us."

"Em told me that you were pretty upset about our break up. She said you've been keeping in touch with that girl you met out in California too. Hard to see much future when a girl lives so far away from you."

"We write some. I might visit her after she gets back home from her school. It's only four hundred and some miles. I could take a bus there if they'd let me. I'd like to see her again. She was nice. I felt comfortable talking to her."

Kitty had come over and was standing in front of where Gary and I were sitting. I looked up, and she was smiling at me.

"Thank you for coming up with a way for us to be able to afford to have help with the house. Emily has been telling me how successful your sales trip was. She said you made a thousand dollars with only two sales calls. That is very impressive. Is this vending placement business something that anyone can do, or do you have to be trained for it?"

"We usually train the vending sales people, but I guess I'm a special case. My parents always encourage me to participate in all parts of their business. I had already spoken to both the airport managers while I was waiting to fly out of their airports. It isn't always as easy to get in to see the owners, or the people in charge, the ones who need to make the decisions, and sign our contracts."

"I was thinking about doing something to help out with our finances, now that the children are almost grown."

"I'm sure I could get my Dad to hire you, if you wanted a job. What kind of experience do you have?"

"I've never worked outside the home, but, I'm very capable of doing so, given an opportunity. I was thinking of something I could do part time, during the summer, and later, while the children were in school. I wouldn't expect to make too much at first."

"Do you think you might like to open new locations for our vending machines in this area? It wouldn't take long for you to learn how to do it, and there isn't too much competition in these rural areas. Maybe you could service the accounts too? I could show you how to do that. It doesn't take that long to learn either."

"I'd need to ask Jerry, but, it might help our situation some, until his book finally gets published. Can I let you know in a week or so?"

"Sure, you know how to get in touch with me. I'll be home more after Tuesday."

"Did you and Emily have another fight? She left for her room, without saying anything to you."

"Not a fight, just some carryover from what we've been going through. It hasn't been easy for us to get used to not being together, at least not together like we were before."

"I know. She has told me about some of the problems. I told her she would find it much easier if she stopped trying to push you into areas you didn't want to go."

"She isn't able to do that, Kitty, but it isn't just her. We both are pretty headstrong, and we both need to get our own way. Our next battle was always just a few words away. Some things just aren't meant to be. We're coming to terms with that, but it isn't something you can adjust to overnight. It will take us awhile, maybe a long while. I've got to get home. Tell Em goodbye for me, and tell her I'm sorry."

I was home for about fifteen minutes before my phone rang, it was Emily.

"You're not sorry. Don't tell my mother you're sorry when you aren't."

"I should know if I'm sorry or not. If I said I'm sorry, it's because I am. At least I didn't leave without trying to say goodbye."

"Don't give my mother a job, Kenny. My father made this mess, and he has to be the one to fix it."

"Okay, but she could do the job I figured out for her. She has the time to do it too. What does she do all day in that big house? I know it isn't cleaning." Emily giggled. I was making progress.

"I'm asking you not to hire her."

"Okay, I won't. You could do the job too, you know? You'd be good at it, and it would give you something to do over the summer. I'm sure you could make enough to buy all your school clothes, and to pay for your own auto insurance and gas for your car. It might be good for you to find out what working is like."

"I work already in school. The summer isn't for working, it's to rest up for when school starts up again. I already told you my dad wasn't going to let me keep the car."

"You don't want the job then? I told you the car was your problem, not mine. Don't bring it back here."

"No, I don't want the job. Don't tell me what to do about the car anymore either. I'll do what I decide. Besides, I'm through with you after Tuesday, so I don't have to listen anymore to what you tell me."

"All right, but I don't remember you listening to what I told you that much anyway. I listen to you though, and I heard what you said. I won't bother you if you really mean it. You can call me if you ever change your mind, and you want to be friends again."

"I won't change my mind this time. If I need to come over to see Joyce, or your mother, don't try to speak to me. Don't even say hello."

"Aren't you carrying this a little past what is normal? How about if I just nod at you? Would that be all right?"

"You can nod, but don't expect me to nod back. I'm done with you. Don't call me, and don't come to see me."

Dad and Joyce took off from work early just to be at my graduation. Jane and Grace were there, and so were Gerta and Hans. All of them bought me graduation presents. Mama had taken the whole day off from the golf academy. She was a lot more excited about my graduation than I was.

I was awarded the school prize for mathematics, so I was called up in front of everyone to accept the award. It was a small medallion in a box with the school's name and Latin motto on one side, and the word, 'Mathematics', and the date, '1986', on the other side.

I was leaving the stage to go back down the stairs, to sit back in my place, when I noticed Emily standing up in the back of the auditorium. I pretended not to notice her, but I got a lump in my throat that she had decided to come watch me graduate on her own like that.

At home, we had a big celebration dinner. Gerta had made a lot of my favorite foods, and we all had wine with dinner. Mama had given me the deed to the building that Marie and Grace's restaurant was located in, as her graduation present to me. Dad had purchased me flying lessons, and said he and I would pick out a plane together, once I had my pilot's license.

He said he wanted to make it easier for me to bring my dirty laundry home on weekends, after I was in college. Mama was worried about me learning to fly, but Dad told her he wished he had learned to fly when he was younger. He said it would have given him a lot more opportunities to look over potentially profitable investments. Mama stopped protesting when Dad told her that private planes had a better safety record than automobiles, when compared over the same distances covered.

Hans and Gerta had bought me a four day golf vacation in Hawaii, including airfare, hotel, and green fees. It was for right after Christmas, and would have me back home before New Years.

The party broke up before seven. I'd mentioned to Mama that I'd told Emily I'd drop by, over at her house, because her father wanted to speak with me. She looked at me funny when I'd told her that, but she didn't ask any questions. I wasn't looking forward to the meeting with Mr. Carstairs, but I figured I had done enough, against his wishes, to give him the right to yell at me, and to tell me again that he didn't like me.

When I rang their bell, right before seven thirty, Emily came to answer the door. I stood there, looking at her, and then I nodded at her.

"You can talk to me today, act natural around me when my parents are around."

"Thank you for coming to watch me graduate."

"You didn't tell me you were getting a prize."

"No one knows until they announce the winners. It wasn't that big a deal anyway."

"My dad's in his office. We better get this over with. He and my mom have been fighting since he got back home."

We came to his office, and Emily knocked softly on his door.

"Come in." Emily opened the door, and Mr. Carstairs was seated at his desk. "You may leave, Emily. Come in Ken, thank you for coming." I walked into the room, and he indicated a chair behind his desk. If I sat in it, I'd be facing his back. I stayed standing.

"Did you have a good flight back?"

"It was long, but I was so busy scribbling out my ideas and fleshing out new pages, that it went quite quickly. My connection required a three hour layover in New York, but even that proved positive, as it gave me an opportunity to speak, at length, with my editor. She's very excited with what I've sent in thus far. In all, I'd say it was a good trip home."

"Emily has told me that your research went well, and that you're pleased with the book's new direction."

"Extremely pleased. Unless I'm badly mistaken, this book will be my best effort to date. I'm hoping for really big things with this one. My editor referred to it as a 'breakthough' book. I've always felt that I've been something of a success as a writer, but I've never had a book that was a run away best seller. This could be that for me."

"I'm happy for you. I really hope it turns out to be all that you're wishing for."

"Yes. Thank you. Which, of course, brings us back to the reason I asked Emily to invite you over here tonight. I'm given to understand that today was your high school graduation. Congratulations on that. I also have been told that you will be attending Notre Dame in the fall. Excellent school, top rate. Again, I must congratulate you."

"Thank you."

"There are, however, several other matters that I find disturbing, and, frankly, irritating. The money you insisted that Mrs. Carstairs take from you, and that damned car you gave to Emily. I thought I'd made myself quite clear about not taking further loans from you?"

"Yes, sir. You did make your preference known to me. Unfortunately, I found out that the money you accepted as a loan from me, wasn't going to be adequate to meet your family's needs. We all thought you would be engaged in a longer period of research. Your wife returned the money, once she found out you were able to complete your research a lot sooner than anyone had anticipated."

"What about that automobile? That is a valuable car."

"I bought a new one, and I didn't need the old one anymore."

"You could have traded it in when you bought the new one. That is what most of us do."

"It was mine to do with as I wished, and I wished to gift your daughter with it. She had her license, but no automobile to drive. She has been assisting our family with a project we are involved in, and her having her own transportation was a large help to us. She is far more effective in assisting us now."

"I am also informed that you and Emily are no longer romantically involved."

"I can't speak for Emily in that regard, but I am still romantically involved. Perhaps not too successfully, but I still consider myself involved."

"My wife has been telling me what I need to do, Ken. This is a new behavior, one she has never felt the need to exhibit over the course of our long and, mostly, successful marriage. It is, moreover, a behavior I do not particularly care for."

"Marriage is a partnership. I'm surprised that her behavior is new to you. At my house, my mother makes her wishes known to my father with great frequency and regularity. I doubt a single day passes without her telling him, in some detail, what she wants and expects."