Chapter 10

The nicest clothes I currently had were my suit pants and dress shirt. I decided to wear those after finding out that they had been freshened and pressed for me while I was in the shower. I would have worn the jacket that went with the pants, but it was nowhere to be found.

We got to church and found pews to accommodate the Emersons and McKenzies. For some reason Tara and Sandy were saving a spot on the other side of me. I asked them about it.

“It’s for our girlfriend.” Tara told me matter-of-factly.

There were a number of eight and nine year old girls waving at Tara and Sandy, so I started asking. “Which one is she? Her? What about her? That one?”

I was just teasing them, but it was obvious they were serious.

Sandy leaned over Tara, “Not our girlfriend, dummy,” she indicated herself and her sister, “Our girlfriend.” This time I was included in the gesture along with the two of them.

“Oh.” I had an idea who they meant, and I was not at all displeased.

I was reading the bulletin to pass time when there was a disturbance at the far right end of our pew. I took an elbow to the ribs as Tara, sitting on my left, tried to grab my attention, “Here she comes.”

I leaned down, “I know. I’m playing it cool.”

That set the two of them giggling and earned them a glare from their mother. I simply sat there, staring straight ahead until feminine fingers caught mine and intertwined with them. I gave the hand a squeeze and got one in return.

Dad caught up to me after the service, letting me know that he would be returning to the Emerson’s but that I had a command performance at the Black’s.

I simply nodded, “Mandy’s already invited me.”

“Well then, maybe we’ll see you this afternoon.”

“Maybe. If not, I’ll see you this evening. We’re still leaving tomorrow, right?”

Dad agreed. We wanted to get back on the road. Something about house guests stinking after three days.

I caught a ride with Mandy’s family and it wasn’t long before we were at their house. I was accosted by Mrs. Swift when we got there.

“Tim, I had a talk with Amanda this morning after collecting her from your arms. She’s quite taken with you, and I want to make sure there are no misunderstandings. Do you think you and your dad will be staying around here, or coming back to settle here after the summer?”

I thought hard about that. I liked the people, and I would dearly love to have a relationship with Mandy, but this just didn’t feel like home to me. I had to be honest.

“I don’t know, Ma’am, but I highly doubt it. This is a great place and you will always be my friends, but there’s just something that tells me to keep moving on, if you know what I mean.”

She nodded, “I know what you mean. Just please don’t hurt my granddaughter.”

“I’ll do everything I can to keep that from happening.” I promised.

We had a nice Sunday lunch, spending a lot of time around the table. The family had strategically placed Mandy across from me to keep the touching and mooning over each other at a minimum. It was only partially successful. I have no idea what I ate, or how many courses there were. I remember Mandy being impressed that there was so little left over after a family meal.

The parents gave us up for a lost cause almost immediately following our repast, allowing us to spend some alone time together. It was while we were sitting comfortably with each other in their family room that I brought up the elephant in the room.

“Dad and I are leaving tomorrow.”

That sucked the air from Mandy’s lungs.

“Will you be back?” She knew the score going into this, but the fact that she simply accepted what had to be, made my heart ache for her.

“I don’t know.” And there it was – the bald acknowledgment that I couldn’t say if there was a future for us. “Your grandmother asked me if I thought we would come back and settle here. I had to tell her that it didn’t feel like home to me, and we’d have to keep searching.”

Mandy was crying softly at my words. I raised her chin up so I could look her in the eyes. “It doesn’t feel like home here, Mandy, except for you. You feel like home to me, but neither of us is at a point that we can make such a commitment to each other.”

I couldn’t hold her gaze, letting my eyes wander the room as I thought about how to soften the blow. “Dad and I still need each other. In many ways, we’re still dealing with the loss of Mom, although this summer has done a lot to rebuild our relationship and help us move on.”

Mandy heard what was unsaid, asking me to tell her about Mom and this last year. I spent an hour on that sofa with her, unburdening myself, painting a picture of who we had been as a family and how we had been devastated by the diagnosis. I told her of how Dad and I were learning to become a different kind of family this summer with the long distance help of my uncle, aunt and grandparents, and the love of friends such as she and her relatives.

She had started out simply holding me as I told my tale, and now she moved in even closer, taking my face in her delicate hands and kissing it, removing the tears I hadn’t noticed.

It was too much. I had to leave now, before I would never want to leave again.

“Thank you, Mandy. Thank you for a wonderful experience, and for being even more than I knew I desired. I’m going to always remember my first date, first dance, and my first real kiss with a girlfriend.” I gently disengaged myself from a girl who held a piece of my heart.

I walked to the doorway, finding Mrs. Swift waiting just on the other side of it in the hall. She held a finger to her lips as I approached her, and bade me turn around with her other hand. My last glimpse of Amanda Black, which I would have missed otherwise, was of a self-possessed young woman, smiling at me through her tears.

I smiled back and left the Black residence in the company of Mrs. Swift, headed to the Emerson’s and my last evening in Chicago.

It was only a fifteen minute ride – the silence between us made it much longer than that. Mrs. Swift’s driver pulled us around in front of the Emerson’s, but there must have been some sort of signal between he and his employer, as he didn’t get out to open her door for her. We sat for a moment.

“Tim, you did a good thing for my granddaughter this weekend. I couldn’t have asked for a better first suitor than you.” An unseen signal caused her door to open for her, I got out the other side.

She took my arm as we walked toward the house, escorting me toward the kitchen where we could hear sounds of domesticity.

It was there that Tara and Sandy found us, proceeding by sheer force of personalities to clear away the melancholy that had been threatening me. They dragged me into their living room to play some games with them, and I went willingly. Supper found me much cheered up.

“She changed her relationship status. That must mean she’s your girlfriend,” Tara was bouncing up and down in excitement at her news.

Sandy gave her a sharp look, “Our girlfriend.”

“Oh, right. Our girlfriend.”

I smiled. It was Mandy’s way of letting me know that she felt for me the same as I felt for her. I hadn’t given her the opportunity to respond back at the house, but she still found a way. Perhaps an online social presence wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. I still had a month of vacation left to consider that.

Mrs. Swift called her driver around nine and left us after making sure that both Dad and I knew we were welcome in Chicago any time we wanted to stop by, and that we’d always have a place to stay. It touched us, reminding us that friendship surpassed time and distance. After Tara and Sandy went to bed, I sat with the adults around the kitchen table and listened in on their conversation, content to be part of a family larger now than it had been when we started our journey this summer.

Morning came far too quickly. I was in the middle of repacking all my now clean clothing into the back packs and day bags they normally occupied. Mrs. Emerson caught up to me, holding a garment bag that was new.

“Here, be sure to take your dress clothes with you.”

I unzipped the bag to find the suit pants, dress shirt and shoes all neatly hung or stowed as needed. “We seem to be missing something.”

“Mandy told me to tell you that she’s keeping the jacket. I’ll have a new one made, and we’ll find a way to ship it to you on the road.” Mrs. Emerson’s eyes sparkled as she relayed that news.

I found I had two little helpers willing to carry my bags out to the Tahoe. We got everything situated then headed inside for breakfast at the kitchen table. We walked in on the end of a conversation.

“So you’ll get the plans to me in September?” Bill was excited to start his new project, and he was pestering Dad.

“I’ll work with you when we have a chance to stop on the road this next month, and make sure they meet your specifications so we can finalize them in September,” Dad promised him.

They were sitting down together at the table, drinking coffee and eating a fair portion of my bacon. Since they appeared to have already started, the rest of us took our positions, were properly thankful, and got busy joining them. Together, we demolished that meal, finishing with coffee or juice depending on the age of the drinker.

The twins were sent off to clean up, having been given permission to go outside afterwards to play. I took advantage of the respite to hit the restroom, removing bacon grease from face and fingers. When I returned, it looked like Dad was the cat that ate the canary.

“What’s going on?” I didn’t like the wheedling looks I was getting from Mrs. Emerson.

“Your father promised that if you agreed, we could see the infamous ‘second video’ that you two have hinted at.” She turned her feminine wiles on me, “Please, pretty please.”