Journey, The (18 page)

She curled up in one end of the couch and drew a wool blanket over her legs. Despite the warmth that emanated from the fire, it was still cold in the drafty four-bedroom home. But she was glad to be here and glad that Robert had invited her to join his family for the holidays. He had done so minutes after she had returned from bowling on December 12 and, to her great surprise and relief, had done so without asking about her siblings. If Robert Land still had questions about his new lady friend, he had kept them to himself. Michelle pulled the blanket higher and allowed her mind to drift. She started to think again of warm Christmas memories when her host brought her back to the here and now.

"Shall I add another log to the fire? The big pear tree in back hasn't been producing. Perhaps it's time to give it a new purpose."

"You're making fun of me."

"Just a little," Robert said with a smile. "It is a bit cold. This house doesn't heat evenly. I can get another blanket if you'd like."

"You could. Or you could hand me that mug of cocoa and plant yourself next to me."

"I'll get the blanket."

Michelle grabbed Robert's sleeve and gave him a not-so-neighborly look.

"Your sense of humor, Mr. Land, needs work."

"I will add that to my list of New Year's resolutions."

Robert placed two mugs on an oak-and-glass coffee table.

"Where are the girls?" Michelle asked.

"I banished them to their rooms. I told them Santa would not underwrite their spring vacation in Cabo San Lucas if they stayed up past ten or continued harassing my guests. They filled me in on their escapade. It seems that both are more than a little remorseful."

Michelle laughed.

"Don't be too hard on them. They are great girls. They were only looking after you."

"Yes, they were. But, as I told them, I am capable of making grownup decisions."

"Yes, you are."

"I understand they brought up Linda," he said, his face turning serious.

"They did, and I'm glad they did. She must have been a remarkable woman. Why haven't you said much about her?"

Robert frowned and reached for his mug. He took a sip and stared at the fire for several seconds before putting down the drink and turning to his companion.

"I haven't said much about her because I don't think she's relevant to us."

Michelle grabbed his hand and stared into his eyes.

"She's very relevant to us. She was a big part of your life for many years and gave you two incredible daughters. She helped make you the man you are today, a man I love."

Michelle watched Robert sigh and turn away. He seemed irritated. It was clear that Linda Land had not been on his list of conversation topics for the evening. Michelle worried that she had crossed a line, but she did not retreat. She wanted this discussion.

"Very well. What would you like to know?"

"I'd like to know a little about her. What was she like? How did you meet? Did you get along? Was she a good mother? You may not think these things matter, but I do," Michelle said. She squeezed his hand. "I want you to share them with me."

Robert turned to face Michelle.

"I met Linda in the eleventh grade, shortly after she moved here from Colorado. She was very shy and did not make a lot of friends right away. She was the kind of girl who disappeared behind a book and kept to herself. But I noticed her the day she arrived on campus. She was very pretty and very smart. We had an English class together and when my grades started slipping, she offered to help me out. I asked her to winter homecoming that year and before I knew it I couldn't imagine my life without her."

Michelle nodded. She liked this woman already.

"From high school we went to Oregon. We graduated and married just as the Korean War came to an end. Linda was a teacher too and wanted to do some good in a larger city. We seriously considered Los Angeles, but the pull of home was strong and we came back here. She taught a few years, until Karen came along, and then gave it up all together. She said motherhood was her calling, not education, even though she did a damn good job at both."

"I can see a lot of her in the girls. She sounds amazing."

"She was. She turned everything she touched to gold – her students, her daughters, dinners, even the property. The backyard is her handiwork. She wanted to leave everything around her better than she found it. She succeeded, too, at least until she got sick."

"That must have been so hard," Michelle said.

"It was. It's one reason I really don't like to talk about her."

Michelle pulled his hand toward her face and kissed it.

"I think I have enough, Robert. I won't ask you about her again," she said. She looked at the fireplace. "I think it's neat that you still have her stocking up. The girls need that. Even though they are adults, they need the continuity. They need to know that their mother is with them at Christmas, if only in spirit."

"I agree," Robert said. "They need reminders of their mother, just as they need reminders that people move on even after the worst kind of loss. You have a stocking too."

"I do?"

"Santa dropped by a little early this evening. He entrusted me to do his bidding."

Robert reached over the side of the couch, retrieved a red felt Christmas stocking, and held it out for Michelle to see. An embroidered image of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer graced the front.

"Susan picked it out. If I'm not mistaken, it's the deer that slipped out of your sights."

Robert handed Michelle the stocking.

"Merry Christmas."

Michelle took the stocking and held it up.

"It's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you for including me in your Christmas."

She kissed Robert on the cheek. Michelle started to lay the stocking on the coffee table and take a sip of her cocoa when she noticed a slight bulge at the bottom of the sock.

"What's this? Did Santa forget something?"

Michelle reached into the stocking and pulled out a small velvet box. Just that quickly her stomach dropped and her satisfied smile vanished. She opened the box and stared at a gold band with three shimmering stones. Michelle took the ring out of the box and looked at Robert.

"Is this what I think it is?"

"It is. It's a reminder that people move on."

Robert gently took the ring from her shaking hand. He slipped it on the appropriate finger, grabbed both of her hands, and pulled her close.

"I love you, Michelle. I have from the moment I met you. Will you marry me?"

Michelle smiled and nodded as the first tear rolled down her cheek.

"Yes."

CHAPTER 32: SHELLY

Saturday, January 19, 1980

Shelly watched with great interest as the assistant retrieved a priceless artifact from a cardboard box and handed it to the auctioneer. She watched with even more interest as the master showman got the show on the road.

"What I have here, good people, is a ballad we all know and love," Scott Richardson said. "Your older sister played it, your aunt sang it at weddings, and your dog barked to its soothing sweet melodies. Now you can own this iconic recording in its original packaging for literally a song. Do I hear twenty-five cents?"

Scott held up Debbie Boone's "You Light up My Life" and scanned a room of fifty faces for a buyer. Six arms shot up.

"Do I hear fifty?"

Two arms dropped.

"Do I hear a dollar?"

One more fell.

Scott looked at his audience and held out the 45 like he was a model demonstrating a gas-fired barbecue on
The Price is Right
. He started to speak when a woman rushed through the crowd, gave him five dollars, snapped the record out of his hands, and ran out of the room.

"Sold to Mrs. Zimmerman," he said. "Thank you for your generous contribution to the Science Club. Years of listening pleasure await you."

Shelly smiled as she watched two of her favorite people raise money for a worthy cause. Science Club member Brian Johnson had first suggested the idea of collecting "timeless" records from the 1970s and auctioning them off before the "Welcome to the Eighties" dance at Unionville High School. Scott, the club president, then ran with it, approaching radio stations, private collectors, and music stores for hard-to-find albums and singles that would surely stimulate talk and lighten wallets.

Shelly liked seeing Brian and Scott together, just as she liked seeing her boyfriend put his considerable assets to good use. Scott could be pompous and condescending, not to mention selfish and controlling, but he could also be unsparingly generous with his time and turn on the charm when a situation called for it. She could see from the faces in the crowd that the audience was moved as much by the show as it was by bargain merchandise.

From the Partridge Family, Rick Dees, and Paul Anka, Brian and Scott moved to the Hues Corporation, the Osmonds, and the Captain and Tennille.
Song of Joy
, featuring "Muskrat Love," drew three dollars.
Heartbeat, It's a Lovebeat
, by the DeFranco Family, fetched five. Wayne Dennison, it seemed, had a soft spot for seventies pop. So did Billy Foster. When Scott held up the single "Billy Don't Be a Hero," by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, he zeroed in on the husky, baby-faced junior, who had quietly watched the auction from the front row.

"Billy . . . be a hero," Scott said. "Give this record a loving home."

Apparently embarrassed by all the attention, Billy Foster coughed up a buck. Within ten minutes, three others getting a personal pitch from Scott Richardson did the same.

As the bidding heated up and dozens of students, faculty, staff, and even parents circulated in and out of the carpeted music room, Shelly drifted toward a wall. She had already found her slice of musical heaven in the single "Spiders and Snakes," by Jim Stafford, and wanted to make space for others. She was about to reexamine her purchase when a familiar voice broke through the talking and laughter in the room.

"Buy anything good?"

Shelly turned to face Nick Bender, a smiling, smug-looking Nick Bender. Dressed in dark corduroy slacks and a white button-down shirt with rolled-up sleeves, he looked good. She tried to remember the last time she had seen him wearing something besides a motorcycle jacket.

"Hi, Nick," Shelly said. "I don't know if you consider this good, but my cousin Diana does. I'm going to send it to her for her birthday next month. She lives in Tacoma. She never forgave me for scratching her first copy in the seventh grade."

He laughed.

"I can see that. My sister loved that song too."

Nick looked at the auction table, where Scott and Brian were as busy as ever, and then back at Shelly, who was as engaged as a night watchman. He gazed at her for what seemed like an eternity before speaking again.

"You're looking good tonight."

"Thanks. You look nice too. I don't think I've ever seen you in dressy clothes."

"It's my new look. I call it civilized."

Shelly laughed as she cast a nervous glance toward the auctioneers. Talking with Nick twenty feet from Scott was probably not the wisest way to spend an idle moment, but it had an upside. She wanted the showman peddling pop hits to know that he did not have an absolute monopoly on her time.

"So how come I haven't seen you around?" Nick asked. "I never see you hanging out after school or even at Big Bill's. You used to go there all the time."

Shelly frowned and looked at the ground before lifting her head and meeting his glance.

"I've been spending a lot of time with Scott."

"I thought you two weren't getting along. That's the word around school."

"We haven't been getting along, but I'm not ready to give up on him."

"Why? He treats you like crap."

"He's not that way all the time, Nick, and you know it. In fact, he's been pretty great lately. We've done a lot of talking about our problems and I think we're finally working them out."

"That doesn't leave a lot of room for anyone else, does it?"

Shelly studied Nick again, this time more thoughtfully. He wasn't going away, and she wasn't at all sure that she
wanted
him to go away. She liked being pursued by someone who didn't take her for granted, someone who talked to her as an equal and appeared to put her interests on a par with his. But she didn't want to lead him on. If she was not yet ready to date other people, she should not give him the impression that she was.

"No, it doesn't."

Shelly started to speak but stopped when deafening guitar riffs emanating from the school's cafeteria, located directly across the hall, wafted into the music room. A band hired to play for the dance had launched into its first set of the night, luring several students out the door.

"I like you, Nick," Shelly said in a louder voice. "I do. I appreciate the interest too. But I really do want to work things out with Scott. You need to understand that."

Nick's smile dissolved into a frown. It was clear he had hoped for more.

"How about a dance then? That's all I ask."

Shelly gave him a hard stare.

"Did you hear a word I said?"

"One dance, Shelly. That's all. Then I'll get out of your hair."

Shelly glanced again at the auction table. She saw Brian grab albums and load them into a box and Scott count bills and scribble on a pad. They were wrapping up.

"I suppose there's no harm in one dance. They will be here a while. But just one dance," she said, holding up a finger. "I want to be done when Scott is done. Let's go now."

CHAPTER 33: MICHELLE

Saturday, January 19, 1980

Michelle knew she was getting old when she felt the need to cover her ears. Gone was the high school and college girl who went to heavy metal concerts from Seattle to San Francisco. In her place was a woman who preferred recitals to arena rock and string quartets to electric guitars, a woman who wore a shimmering new engagement ring. She placed her hands over her ears and tried to communicate to the man at her side, her fellow dance chaperone.