Chapter 13

I left for Dartmouth the next morning, before either of my parents were up. The train left at 5am and I wasn't foolish enough to want to try driving all the way to Dartmouth. As well, I knew that my parents would be there for my graduation, and they would come prepared to have my accumulated scholastic detritus packed to take home with them, since I would be headed straight for England.

I thought of Rebecca the entire way and kept seeing her face in the glass of the rail car's window. We had been foolish, though I had protection, and we had tried to add to it with my pulling out, but we had only been partly successful with that part, and if the stories I heard could be believed, then we were either completely safe, or utterly doomed. I suspected it was somewhere between the two, but as Blackwood fell further behind it began to feel more and more like the former rather than the latter.

The last few months of my college years were not stressful, academically. I had completed my course work and had several classes in which I had theses to hand in, but these works were complete and I expected to graduate as a Bachelor of Arts, and probably with honors. My faculty adviser and the dean had been rather tight-lipped about that, but in my asking around it had not been unusual to find my fellows equally as ignorant of their fates. Two weeks before graduation day, we were each informed of our fates. I had managed Magna cum laude, which was more than I'd expected. The number of smiles I saw on various faces that morning were balanced it seemed by an equal number sporting small frowns, and several were sporting rather large ones.

I called home and informed my parents of the impending honor and they were quite effusive in their praise, but it did nothing to deter them from their unwavering goal of seeing me to the ship that would transport me to England. When they arrived, I had everything packed together and ready for them. It was not much, as I had not been an acquirer of things, as well as having sold off the better items to my classmates. My things had been much in demand once it had been learned that I was sailing for England immediately following the ceremony. I took pleasure in the thought that my parents would have little beyond a box of books and another of soiled clothing to take home with them to New Jersey.

I was hugged profusely, kissed by my mother and subjected to an achingly repetitious number of hearty back slaps from my father. The impending ceremony thankfully forced me away from them, and they were directing the large men hired to pack my belongings as I left. I hoped they did not think they got to pack the furniture as well, but if so, well, I would be in England after all, so they would have to deal with the Dean.