Chapter 30

Still Susan's story:

We had as much of a blow-out as this family EVER had.

When Grandma and Grandpa showed up, she walked right past Mom and wrapped me up in a big hug. "MY baby girl's getting married," she said. "That 'Jason' guy."

Jason had met my grandparents a few weekends before, so his face and name were familiar. Grandpa was kind of like Dad about Jason. He was impressed that Jason was a college grad and had a good job, but he was a little unnerved by Jason's age.

Of course, when Jason actually sat down with Grandpa and Dad and carried on a real conversation, a lot of Grandpa's nervousness went away. Dad told me later that Grandpa was impressed.

At that meeting, though, Grandma just smiled. Grandma's seen her share of my previous boyfriends and they were pretty much what you expect from high school boys. Most of 'em could fake being decent and polite for a little while in front of my family, you know.

But today. Today was different. Grandma had me in a hug and Grandpa was shaking Jason's hand and I was looking at Mom for letting the cat out of the bag. Silly me. I thought I'd make a Big Announcement, you, standing there in front of everybody, holding Jason's hand, but once MOM knew, I should've known better. I felt Grandma's tears on my cheek.

"Gramma," I said, "you're s'posed to be HAPPY!"

"I am happy, Susie!"

"Really?!?!?" I asked. "Gramma, he's really great!"

"I'm glad for you, honey," Grandma said. "Your momma sounds happy. I'm happy."

I suppose that Jason was doing okay. He was grinning at Grandpa. Grandpa is totally capable of saying some embarrassing things to my boyfriends. He asked one if he'd ever read books that didn't have pictures in them. I thought I was gonna just DIE that day, but like most of the guys from high school that one turned out to be a jerk and Grandpa was right.

Me and Gramma just untangled when Mom let Uncle Pete and Aunt Lucy in. Uncle Pete's first comment told me that Mom hadn't told them yet.

"What's going on here? Is somebody real sick?" He asked. Aunt Lucy was hovering at his side.

Right on their tails was Mom's sister, Aunt Mimi. Aunt Mimi was, as Mom put it, the 'wild one' of the family. She didn't look like SHE knew, either.

"You wanna tell 'em, or you want me to, Mom?" I asked.

"You need to, baby," Mom said.

"Jason," I yelled, "C'mere!"

He walked in, stood beside me, eyes cast downward. "Yes, Mistress?"

"Stop that!" I said, punching his arm. "This is my Uncle Pete, Dad's brother, and my Aunt Lucy, his wife. And this is Aunt Mimi, Mom's sister..."

"Younger sister," Aunt Mimi interrupted."

"Hush, Aunt Mimi! I'm on a roll here." I turned to Jason, put my arms around his, and said, "This is Jason Ellerbee, who is going to be my husband."

Aunt Mimi squealed in harmony with Aunt Lucy and I thought Uncle Pete was going to rip Jason's arm off shaking his hand.

Dad got the next hand-shaking and we all trooped out the back door onto the patio. Jason sat by me like we're supposed to be together. You know? We are.

Alan and Tina showed up, too, and Tina and I squealed together for the benefit of all gathered, and then I introduced her and Alan to my family. Forty year old Alan and seventeen year old Tina, THEY raised some eyebrows, but Alan and Tina make friends easily. They're just good people, Dad says.

In front of everybody, Alan reiterated his offer to strangle Jason. "I didn't bring 'im up here to lead your daughter astray," he said.

Dad laughed. "I don't think she's quite 'astray' yet, and there's some question as to who led who."

Alan smiled at me and told my dad, "You're probably right."

We were sitting around talking and laughing and I had a soda can on the arm of my chair when Aunt Mimi passed by. She managed to knock it over into my lap.

"I cain't believe I did that," she said. "I'm not even drinkin'!"

"That's okay," I said. "I'll just run upstairs and change!" I stood up after I blotted as much of the liquid out of my pants as I could, and Aunt Mimi followed me to my bedroom.

"I'm gonna jump in the shower or I'll be all sticky," I told her, and I disappeared into my little bathroom with a change of clothes. When I came out a few minutes later, she was sitting on the bed.

"So, are y'all doin' the nasty?" she asked me, giggling.

I was shocked. I mean, Aunt Mimi's kind of got a reputation, you know, but she's never asked me about any of that stuff.

"No," I said. "Certainly NOT!"

"Oh, come on, kiddo," Aunt Mimi said. "That's a good lookin' guy. You know..."

"We HAVEN'T!" I told her. "We'll manage until we get married."

"When's that, baby doll?" she asked me.

"The Saturday after graduation."

"That's not enough time to get your plans together, sweetie," Aunt Mimi said.

"We're not doing a big wedding. We want to be together."

"That's what I'm sayin'," she said. "Y'all can still ... you know ... even move in together. He's got an apartment, I heard. And do the big wedding in a few months."

"Aunt Mimi," I said. I was a little exasperated. "The wedding's about me and Jason being MARRIED. It means something to Mom and Dad. That's why it means something to me an' Jason. I don't need a five thousand dollar dress and a thousand dollar cake and six bridesmaids to do that. I need me and Jason and our families and friends before God."

"Well, I was going to have so much fun plannin' your wedding..."

"You know lots of people. One of 'em's bound to get married sooner or later." I sighed. "I don't mean to sound offensive, Aunt Mimi. It's just that I have Jason, and things went 'click' and it's going to happen. Okay?"

"Okay, sweetie," she said. She hugged me. "Let's go downstairs."

My Jason was standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me. We linked arms and went back into the fray.

The next day was back to school. Tina and I met in the hall before the first bell. Yeah, she checked to see if I had my engagement ring on. Of COURSE I had my ring on. And PEOPLE noticed it.

I got to explain WHO gave me the ring and like ANY girl who gets engaged in high school, you know, answering the question, "Uh ... Are you PREGNANT?" Honestly now, are things so screwed up that people think the only reason a girl wants to get married is to give her baby a daddy's name? Worse than that, how many of 'em just go ahead an' have a baby and DON'T get married because either the guy is a massive turd or they don't even KNOW who the daddy is.

Jason and I talked. Babies are serious business. Tina and I talked, too, and I know about Cindy and I know about my Mom and Dad and Jason and I know that WHEN we have kids (a couple, we agreed) we want to do our kids like Mom and Dad did me.

But back to school. I smile and tell everybody 'No, I'm not pregnant. I'm in love. There's a big difference." And I whip out my cellphone and show pictures of me and Jason.

"Uh, he's like, uh ... OLDER!" Ashley, one of my friends blurted.

"Duh..." I said. "You and I are in the same AP math class. You KNOW I understand numbers and all. Thankyouverymuch!"

Then she looked at Tina. Everybody knows about Tina now. Tina was smirking. Ashley swallowed visibly. I mean, it was almost like a sit-com scene. She saw Tina looking at her. "But I guess if it's the right person, age isn't that big a deal, huh?"

"Excellent recovery, Ash!" Tina laughed.

Ashley smiled. "Y'all know what I mean! That whole 'old guy chasing young girl thing."

"Uh-huh," I said. "Like, 'I'm dating a college guy!" Ashley had uttered those very words a few months back, and then WE had to support her when she got dumped on her butt.

"Jason's past college. He works with Alan," Tina said. "But I think he's going back to get his engineering degree with us in the fall."

"He doesn't have a college degree?" Ashley asked. Then we had to go through that whole thing about Jason's degree.

"So are you inviting me to to the wedding?"

"You betcha," I told her. "But it's not gonna be one of those 'big deal, princess for a day, Dad's in debt up to his ears' things."

That was a whole other conversation. It was still going on when the bell rang for home room. That colored conversations for the rest of the day. Yeah, a few of my school friends already knew Jason. When you go out to eat in a small town like ours, there are only a few places to go, so it's inevitable that we'd run into the school bunch. The news of our engagement rounded out the supposition, conjecture and rumor. My life just got a lot more interesting.

Before, I was a smart, geeky girl. I'm pretty enough, you know, but I have some pounds I don't really need. Still, I never had a problem with finding boys interested in me. It's just it didn't take very long for me not to be interested in THEM. I don't let myself be ruled by my own hormones, so I darned sure aren't gonna be ruled by THEIRS. What Grandpa said: "Books without pictures."

Now, with people knowing I'm engaged to be married and the guy's NOT somebody everybody knows because EVERYBODY in this town has been through THIS high school, that made for a whole different spectrum of conversation. 'Spectrum'. One of Tina's words. And she got it from Alan, no doubt.

And there's still that 'smart' thing. I'm number three in my graduating class. Tina's grades would put her at the top of the class if she'd have been here for four years, but she transferred in. Still, she'll be standing on the stage beside me as an honor student. That's the way it SHOULD be.

Mister Graham, our physics teacher remembered Jason's presentation on the plant tour we took. "That's your new fiance', Susan?"

"Yessir. That's the one."

"He seems to be pretty confident in his arena," Mister Graham said.

"He's one of those guys that people chase down to get him on their jobs," I said. "Smart."

He smiled. "He's getting the smart one, you know."

I smiled. It's nice to be recognized by people you respect. Mister Graham is one of the reasons I even THOUGHT of engineering. "Thank you," I said. Dad said that I'll remember some good teachers from school. Mister Graham will be one of them.

At the end of the school day, Tina and I and a group of friends walked to the parking lot to drive home. Yes, I was still smiling. Yes, I'm still happy. And yes, Jason is coming over after school and we're gonna look at my sad bit of homework and then watch a movie with Mom and Dad.

Alan's turn:

Despite the niggling feelings in my gut over the possibility that the whole Susan 'n' Jason thing could go off the tracks and hurt somebody, when Tina and I showed up at Susan's house, things were pretty happy.

I got to meet a few new people, Susan's maternal grandparents and her dad's brother and sister-in-law and her mom's sister Mimi, who struck me as being just a little bit predatory. I played the game long enough to know when I'm being measured. She did an inventory of me. Jason, too, if you want to know. I think Tina caught it, too, because she moved into 'possession' range any time Mimi was around.

We had a good time. I get the idea that Susan's not exactly unfamiliar with being the center of attention, but she very happily shared it with Jason. I was actually a bit proud of both of them, even though I had little to do with their personalities. After all, it happened on MY watch.

Mike and I and Jason and Grandpa and Uncle Pete argued at great length over the preparation of meat over a fire, but at the end of the event, we had some darned good steaks, helped clean up the mess and finally big good-bye and headed home.

Tina was snuggled in beside me as tightly as seatbelts allow. "That was one, huh, baby?"

"One what?" I asked.

"Aunt Mimi. One of those women you talked about."

I was right. I knew my Tina. I didn't marry her because she was slow. "I think so, sweetness. She did a total visual inventory when we walked in."

Giggle. "I can understand her interest. I brought the best-looking guy in the place."

"Flattery'll get you everything, little one," I said.

"Good!" she said. "I want everything. Probably doing a period in the next day or two."

We'd been through a few of these now. First couple of times, she was apologetic. I kept telling her that it was part of life and she was still entirely adorable and desirable and we got through them okay. Tina's emotions tended to swing a bit more during this time, from her normally stable demeanor, so I just tiptoed a tiny bit. I was interested in how the events in Susan's life would look through the filter of a hormonal Tina.

"I know what you're thinking," she said.

I chuckled. "Okay, what am I thinking?"

"You're thinking about that 'fifty percent of marriages end in divorce" line."

"I'm just a bit concerned that two good friends are..."

"That two good friends met and figured out that they match up and want to leap into life together."

"You need to stop being poetic," I said.

"Yeah, Alan Addison. I need to deal with cold, hard facts." She rubbed her cheek against my shoulder. "Nope. Love. And a certain amount of analysis on the part of at least ONE of the parties involved. And I'm sure that the OTHER party is of similar tendency."

"Analysis?" I asked.

"Yep. Susan and I have talked at length about it. She asked questions. Not just me. Her mom. And even Cindy."

I snorted. "Pre-nuptial advice from a fourteen year old."

"Who's the only level-headed genius I know, and who is so darned analytical sometimes that it's scary. All I'm saying is that it's not a spur of the moment, air-headed 'Mommy! He's CUTE! Can I marry 'im?' thing for Susan. She's a lot more sane than she looks. Or acts, sometimes." Giggle.

When you punctuate a statement like that with a giggle, you have to lend extra weight to it. "Okayyyy," I answered. "Really, she and Jason are the LEAST weird of the bunch."