-15-
...continued from Part I
"Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, I can turn around right now, next exit, and we can..."
"Lynn, hush honey, just hush, okay?"
My heart was beating at three times its normal rate, it seemed. The closer we got to the off-ramp to my parents' farm road, the faster it seemed to beat. I was nervous; I was scared, I was about to pee my pants.
I had tried to find every excuse in the world not to make this drive, not to make this visit, to dump my baggage on my family.
"Lynn, baby, it'll be okay, it will, you'll see. No matter how they feel about us, it won't change how
we
feel about us; in the end, baby, that's all that matters."
She was right, and I knew it; if it all goes to hell in a hand basket, I thought as I took my exit, we will still love each other, we will still be with each other.
That's a powerful force to hold in your heart.
~
"...and that pretty much sums it all up. We'll be leaving in a couple of days for the drive south," I heard myself say to the stunned members of my family, sitting at the large dinner table.
Once again, I had caused a dome of silence to descend into the dining room of my parents' home.
Once again, I had successfully caused the 'open-mouth' syndrome to befall my family.
And then, Jan became Jan.
"I just knew it! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it," she gloated to the world, "I knew she was a lesbo! Well, let me tell you something, Missy, you and your so-called girlfriend..."
"Jan, Shut UP!" my dad said, his voice louder than I've heard in forever.
"You will not insult a guest in my home, ever; do you understand me, Jan?"
"Yes, daddy," Jan's face as red as a beet with embarrassment.
"Alice, please forgive my ill-mannered middle child; she's always had a mouth that engaged before her brain did," my father smilingly said, addressing himself to Alice, and to me, I supposed.
Looking at me, now, his smile didn't waiver and he made sure all at the table could see that.
"Princess, is your business in good hands? Are you really comfortable with this arrangement you've made with Teri?"
He thought Teri was a good choice, it turned out; he'd known her and Betts better than my other employees and he liked Teri, a lot.
"Yeah, daddy, I'm very comfortable with the decisions I've made."
Nodding his head a bit, he turned to face Alice, his smile as pleasant as ever.
"Alice, do you really love my daughter?"
"Yes sir, I do," Alice said, looking him straight in the eye.
Nodding a bit more, he stood, opened his arms to Alice, saying, "Welcome to our family, Alice, welcome to our home," hugging her tight to his tall, lanky farmer's frame.
Reaching over with his long arm, he drew me into the hug as well, the floodgates to my tear ducts having just burst open.
~
"See, silly, I told you it'd be all right," Ali was saying to me as we waved goodbye to my family driving away, towards the Interstate.
"Yeah, you did, and I've learned a lesson; I'll listen to your wise counsel with greater respect," glancing at her quickly as I drove us back to the city.
"That's my girl," she smilingly said.
"Say it again," I asked her.
"What?"
"What you just said."
"That's my girl?"
"Yeah, that; I like hearing it," smiling at her as I merged us onto the highway.
Well, I did!
Nat came with us to pick up the truck that we'd use to haul my stuff, and drove my vehicle back to the condo.
It was a smaller truck; new, twenty-two feet long, and more than enough to suit my needs.
Nat helped us load up the boxes that Ali and I had packed, sorted, marked, and all of the other crappy stuff you have to do when moving. I hadn't done this in six years and had forgotten how much I hated moving.
Between the wine and the joints, however, the three of us made short work of loading; all we had to do was throw our travel bags into the back of the truck, and head on down the highway, the next morning.
I told Nat to go and get her fine ass cleaned up and dressed for dinner, and that Ali and I would pick her up in an hour.
We took Nat to dinner at a very nice restaurant across the river, and it was so worth the drive. The meal and wine were superb and we lingered over our after-dinner drinks, enjoying the moment, none of us wanting to say goodbye.
"Oh, by the way Nat," I said, as I brought out a piece of paper and pen, "I'm signing over the title to my car to you. You just bought my car for a dollar," signing the title in the appropriate places.
Nat's been driving her POS (piece of shit) forever and Department Head or not, teachers are horribly underpaid and under-appreciated; teachers, cops and firemen. At least, that's my view. She needed a new car but didn't have the funds quite yet.
My car was less than a year old and she had already agreed to 'watch over' my place; watering the plants, checking on it every couple of days, picking up my mail. I had put in a change of address but stuff always leaks through.
All of the above, plus the help she was to Ali and I during Betts' funeral and all, well, why couldn't I help her a bit? I could afford it better than she could.
Ali agreed when I told her of my plan and praised me for my 'good soul'.
Don't know about that, but it was something I could do, so I did.
"Oh Lynn, are you serious?" Nat said, looking between Ali and me, tears welling in her eyes.
"Yep, I am, and it's all yours. But, if my plants die, I'll hunt you down, do you hear me?" in a faux-menacing tone.
She thanked me, kissed me, and cried a bit.
It was embarrassing, but in a good way, ya' know?
~
Driving towards the rising sun the next morning, I had a mix of emotions; happiness at my new adventure, tinged with a bit of sadness at leaving the state of my birth, a bit of trepidation at this new turn of events, but never a doubt that I was doing the right thing.
Crossing over the river, Ali smiled and offered the following thought:
"You've lived near the Mississippi River most of your life, as I have, only at different ends; you've lived up here, near the headwaters and I've lived down there, near its delta."
"All those years, all that time and there was a connection between us the whole time; The Mississippi River connected us and we didn't know it."
"But, we know it now," I said, driving into Wisconsin, leaving the Twin Cities behind us in the rearview mirror.
