Alma Mater (34 page)

"You haven't told him."

"Oh, Jinx, he's so happy except for the fact that I wouldn't sleep
with him today. It's almost Christmas. I feel like a total shit."

"The longer you wait, the worse it gets, unless you're changing
your mind." Jinx swallowed a little of her drink.

"No, but come on, we're all out of here on Friday. It can wait. I know
you think I'm a wimp, but I'm not." She sighed. "Except it is harder than I
thought. I really do love him."

"Why can't you just marry him and keep Chris as your mistress?
He'll never know." A devilish gleam sparkled in Jinx's eyes.

"She'd never put up with it. Don't think I could do it. I couldn't lie
to him."

"You're lying to him now. Omission is a form of lie."

"Goddammit, Jinx, you're supposed to be my best friend. You're
not making this any easier."

"I am your best friend, and you're lying to him."

Vic was about as steamed as her hot chocolate
_;
then she cooled
down. "Can't we compromise and say I'm easing him down?"

"Don't you think he knows? Come on, you all went to bed
together."

"If a guy's getting good sex, it wouldn't begin to occur to him that you're also having great sex with a woman."

"I still think he knows," Jinx declared.

"Then why is he putting up with it?"

"Because he loves you, idiot. And like anyone in love, he can't al
low himself to think of losing the person that he loves. So maybe he
just thinks it's a fad."

"Haven't told Mom and Dad either. I've got to work up for the next

major emotional event. Details at eleven." Vic ruefully smiled.

"Yeah, the main
attraction starts
in three minutes." Jinx took a big

swallow. "How do you know you won't miss him when he's gone?"
"I will."

"Sex, too?"

She turned the cup around in her hands. "Maybe sometimes I'll
think of him like that, but what I'll miss is him."

"How do you know you won't pick up guys on the side? You know,
later on."

"No."

"Okay. Let's try another scenario. Suppose for some inexplicable
reason"—Jinx held up her hands palms outward, a pacifying gesture—
"you and Chris broke up. Would you go back to Charly?"

"No."

"Another man?"

"No. I'm not saying I wouldn't go to bed with another man. Look,
I'm discovering that I'm incredibly sexual, but he wouldn't be my first
choice."

"You'd look for another woman?"

"Yes."

Jinx drained her cup, setting it back on the table. "You won't have
to look far. People will always find you."

"Are you surprised at how I feel?"

"Not now. I was in the beginning, but if you believe this is your
path, I believe it, too. And I hope it all works out. I'm sorry for Charly,
but you are what you are."

"The person who has surprised me the most is Mignon. She knows.
She's actually kept her mouth shut. And she said to me over the week
end that she didn't want me to shut her out of my life. I nearly fell
over."

"She's incredibly smart."

"She is, but she's been such a pain in the ass for the last couple of
years I haven't noticed. She's grown up, sort of all at once. I don't re
member doing it that way. Guess I'm still growing up."

"I don't think it's supposed to stop."

"Sure has for Edward Wallace."

"Oh, that."

"Yolanda's living in the kitchen."

"God."

"You know, I had a thought while I was cleaning. It's a terrible, ter
rible thought, and I should have my face slapped."

"Oh?"

"It's Christmas. The Blessed Virgin Mother should have a
pretty new red satin dress, a glass of eggnog, a reindeer pin, and a
Santa hat."

"Don't you dare!"

_V

ic drove Chris to the Norfolk airport Friday morning. They
spent the hour-long trip planning their reunion.
They exchanged their gifts sitting in the car in the parking
lot. Each one promised not to open the other's present until Christmas
morning. The kissed, left the car, and made their way to the gate.
"Oh, honey, I don't want to go."

Vic hugged her. "Won't be too long before I'm right back here
picking you up, but I'll miss you. I hate being without you."

"Me, too." Chris wiped her eyes, sniffled a little, kissed Vic on the
cheek, and then hurried down the runway.

Vic watched from the huge windows until the silver airplane lifted
off. Chris would fly to Baltimore and from there catch a commuter
to York.

From Norfolk, Vic drove home. She motored along back roads,
through the hamlets festooned with Christmas decorations, everything
red, green, and gold. Elves cavorted on the lawns, Santa and his rein
deer appeared to land at county courthouses, churches put their creches
out front, and town squares boasted large trees draped with lights and
ornaments. She thought about the work total strangers had put into
these displays, and she was suddenly deeply grateful. Everywhere
around her people tried to make things beautiful, festive. And when it

wasn't Christmas, they cut lawns, trimmed fence lines, painted fences,
barns, and houses, and planted gardens of flowers and vegetables. She
was the beneficiary of this labor, if only for a fleeting moment.

She wanted to stop the Impala at the next courthouse, push through
the old double doors, and thank everyone. But instead she knew it was
time to contribute her own labor, great or small. It really was time to grow up.

Rather than making her feel solemn and sober, her sudden lack of
structure made her feel wonderful. College now seemed to her a holding pen. She had charged out of the pen. She'd make her way in the
world as best she could and do what she could for others.

One for all and all for one. Alexandre Dumas was right, she mused,
as she pulled into McKenna's, the sun high overhead. She planned
to ask Uncle Don what Bunny wanted for Christmas. Something to watch with her binoculars, probably.

She was no sooner out of her car when Hojo flew out of the dis
play and called to her, "Vic, come in here!"

Vic hurried in, pushed a little by the wind at her tail. "What?"

"You aren't gonna believe this. Come here." Hojo grabbed her by
the wrist, her tight sweater revealing breasts in perfect proportion to
the rest of her body. Hojo dragged her to the spotless garage area.
"Can you kicking believe it?"

In the garage sat a brand-new blue-and-silver three-quarter-ton
Dodge Ram truck. Welders were working on it, orange sparks flying
upward.

"What's going on?" Vic asked.

"Old man Wallace marched in here today, bought the truck, and
then paid for the modifications. He's putting in a ramp that won't hurt
his back to raise and lower . . . it's got a hydraulic lift, and you know
how expensive something like that can be, and then he had these thin
metal bars put across his back window, although I don't know why.
And he's putting on steel sides welded right onto the bed, can't ever re
move them."

"Kind of like a small hay wagon."

"He's throwing another five thousand dollars into this truck, and

honey, it ain't cheap to begin with—plus, plus, he's putting in a phone. A phone in his truck. He's going to have an aerial as long as a fishing
rod, swaying every time he goes over ten miles an hour."

"Guess he's going back into business. Retirement is killing him."
Vic wished that lovely truck were her Christmas present.

"Hell, no. He's doing it for Yolanda. She can walk up and down
the ramp. He says that if she wants to go for a spin, he'll take her."
"Holy cow." Vic laughed, winking.

"You got that right." Hojo laughed along with her. "Whe wants to
haul his cow around Surry County, what do I care? But you'd better believe that Georgia and Sissy will care, 'cause this rig costs as much as a
brand-new Cadillac. They'll kill him, I swear they will."

"That's a possibility."

"Not when I'm working. I don't want to clean up all that blood."
"Vic!" Bunny called from the doorway of the garage.

"She's like a tick," Hojo grunted. "I know she's your aunt and all,
but the last week it's like she's painted on the floors. And on my ass. I do my job. I earn my paycheck."

"Vic! I want to talk to you right this instant."

Hojo looked sympathetically at Vic. "Sounds like she's going to
tear you a new one."

"It kind of does, doesn't it?"

"Sony." Hojo slapped her five, low and inside.

"Thanks." Vic, head up, smiling, approached her aunt.

Bunny grasped Vic's elbow and pulled her into the narrow hallway
between Parts and Service. lust what are you doing, and why didn't
you tell me? You could have said something when you were here
yesterday. I am so upset with you I could spit."

"It didn't seem like the right time."

"It was." Bunny pressed her lips together.

"Not in front of Hojo and Georgia and—well, Aunt Bunny, I was worn out from telling Mom and Dad. I didn't mean any disrespect."

"I would have heard you out."

"I'm sorry."

"Sony? I'm sick. How could you do
such a foolish, stupid, childish

thing? And so close to graduation. I ought to hit you over the head
with my binoculars and knock some sense into you."

"Yes, ma'am."

"This is just killing your mother."

Vic flared up. "No, it's not. Come on, Aunt Bunny, don't make it worse than it is. Mom and I talked it through, and she may not be real
proud of me right this minute, but she's not wretched."

"She's damned upset!"

"You're more upset than she is."

"I am upset. I can't believe you'd be that dumb, to do it in the first
place—and then to get caught!"

"There's nothing I can do about it now."

"Well, you'll finish up somewhere else. That you can do. After that,
you'll be gone who knows where."

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to work."

She threw up one hand. "Oh, la! You'll be married in no time, and
who knows where you'll land."

"I don't want to land anywhere. I want to stay right here. I've
thought a lot about it. I love Surry County. I don't know if Mom has
talked to you, but I'd like to work in your nursery. I'd love to learn the
business from the ground up, forgive the pun. And .. . this is my
home."

"Your home is where your husband is."

"Aunt Bunny, my home is where I say it is." A flash of fire came from Vic.

This stopped Bunny for a minute. "The jobs aren't here, and men make more money than women."

"I don't give a damn. I'm living in Surry County."

"Vic, you surprise me sometimes. I believe you mean it."

"I do." Her anger ebbed, and she joked. "Maybe I'll set up a rival
dealership. Cadillacs. I can sell them to the Wallaces."

"The way they drive, you'd have steady customers."

Bunny's mood lightened. "Pushing metal . . . tough business. And I
have called every damn dealer in Virginia trying to get those two birds
Cadillacs cheap. I'm telling you . . . tough business."