PRESENT TENSE
Chapter Eighty-One
Saturday, March 11, 2006
One and a half years had passed. The
"family" living in the old house had thrived, each person going about
their lives. The babies, Daniel and Lizzy, had grown strong and healthy. Daniel
was two years old, a happy, laughing toddler who believed the house and
everyone in it belonged to him. Lizzy, at one and a half, worshipped her
"cousin", toddling awkwardly after him, much to Daniel’s dismay.
Neither child had learned how not to get on each other’s nerves, so one adult
or another was always picking them up and separating them. Within a short time,
the toddlers would be playing contentedly again, the incident forgotten.
But change was inevitable. The house, which
had been the perfect size for four adults, soon seemed to be too small with the
addition of two small children. Arguments over petty things became more common,
though the group still remained friends.
Helga was the first to leave, taking Daniel
with her. In February of 2006, she married a colleague, Bill Hampton, and moved
back to Los Angeles. The others were sorry to see her go, but she had finally
gotten over Fabrizio’s death and found love again. Helga wanted a home and
family of her own, though she always kept in close contact with her old
friends.
In spite of these changes, Jack, Rose, and
Tommy were still content to share the house. Lizzy moped miserably for a few
days after Helga left with Daniel, missing her playmate, but with the
resilience of young children everywhere, she soon found new things to think
about.
Jack and Rose had grown even closer since the
birth of their child. Unlike some couples, who found child-rearing a strain on
their relationship, they had strengthened the bonds between them by raising
their daughter together. Lizzy adored both of them.
Things had gone smoothly for them since Lizzy
was born, except for one rough patch the previous autumn. The pharmacy that
Jack usually got his prescriptions filled at had undergone a change of
management, and the new management was none too honest. For certain drugs, such
as Prozac, the pharmacists were encouraged to mix the real medication with
placebos to reduce the pharmacy’s costs. Attributing his growing misery to the
stress of college and work, Jack hadn’t realized what was going on for two
months. When he finally came to point that the depression was unbearable, he
had enlisted the help of his doctor in finding out what was wrong. When several
complaints were filed against the pharmacy, the problem became clear. He had
switched pharmacies, and was back to normal by Christmas.
Rose had been at his side the entire time,
trying to soothe his bad temper and sullen behavior. She’d had a good idea of
what was wrong, even when Jack had insisted that it was only stress. When he’d
come to the point when it was no longer bearable, it had been Rose who he had
turned to first, more comfortable talking to her than anyone else. When Rose
had learned of what the pharmacy had been doing, she had insisted that he, too,
file a complaint, though he wanted to put the whole incident behind him. In the
end, she had been proven right, when the courts forced the pharmacy to pay a
five thousand dollar settlement to each of the complainants, and then had shut
it down. Jack had put the money into a special account for college, for whoever
in the family might need it.
*****
Jack came through the front door, whistling
to himself as he sorted through the mail. From the living room, he could hear
the sound of Rose’s guitar—a gift from him for Christmas of 2004—and Lizzy
attempting to sing along, though her vocabulary was still small. Rose was
undoubtedly practicing for another performance at the college, something she
had become very involved in since she had returned to school following Lizzy’s
birth and decided to major in music and political science.
He walked into the living room and stood
listening for a minute as she sang along with her guitar playing, a old Civil
War song of which she was fond. Rose had continued her interest in folk music,
developing her own singing style that was popular with fans of such music in
Masline. She had even been asked to play at a city festival in January, her
first paid singing job.
Rose looked up when she saw him, setting the
guitar aside. He applauded lightly, drawing a smile from Rose, who was proud of
finally getting him to like her kind of music.
Lizzy toddled up to them as he sat on the
couch beside her, holding up her arms to be picked up. Jack scooped her up and
set her between them, giving her a brightly colored piece of junk mail to play
with.
"So, what have we got today?" Rose
asked, leaning across Lizzy to take a look.
"Bills, junk mail, your paycheck from
the college..." He handed it to her. Rose had gone to work in the college bookstore
soon after returning to school, eventually working her way up to half-time. It
didn’t pay as well as her old job at the mental health clinic had, but it
allowed her time for classes and child-rearing. She was sometimes able to bring
Lizzy with her when the baby-sitter was sick, an added advantage.
Rose opened the envelope as Jack sorted
through the rest of the mail, setting aside Tommy’s mail. When he came to the
bottom of the stack, his eyes widened.
"What? What is it?" Rose asked,
seeing his expression. She leaned forward to see what it was.
There were two thick envelopes from the
University of California, Riverside, where they had both applied to go after
they graduated from Masline City College in June. She snatched the one with her
name on it, crossing her fingers. She hoped that both of them had made it in.
They both wanted to continue their educations, and they wouldn’t stand being
separated while in school.
Jack had set his aside and picked up the last
envelope—which held his lawyer’s return address. For the past year and a half,
he had been trying to get his records sealed from the time before he turned
eighteen. The old felony conviction still stood in his way, though he hadn’t
been in trouble in seven years. Almost afraid to see what the letter said, he
opened it—and then leaped from the couch with a whoop at the letter’s contents.
"What? What happened?" Rose was
thoroughly mystified. Lizzy giggled, staring at him dancing around the living
room.
Jack pulled Rose to her feet and danced her
around. She squealed with laughter, snatching the letter from him.
"I take it this is good news?" she
asked, scanning the letter. Her eyes widened when she saw what it contained.
"Jack! Your record has been cleared! How in the world—"
Jack picked her up and spun her around,
laughing with joy. "I never expected this! I hoped to get my records
sealed, to keep people from finding them, but this is even better! I’ve been
cleared! I’m not an ex-felon anymore!"
"This is wonderful! It won’t stand in
your way anymore! This just goes to show that some people can change."
Jack pulled her into his arms and kissed her,
not breaking the kiss until a tiny hand tugged at his pant leg, and an equally
tiny voice inquired, "Daddy? Mama?"
They scooped Lizzy up between them, hugging
her and each other. Lizzy grinned, not sure what was going on, but delighted
all the same.
They finally sat down again, setting Lizzy
between them. Looking at each other supportively, they each opened their
envelopes from UCR and looked through them.
Rose hugged Jack, her eyes sparkling. "I
made it in!" she exclaimed, waving her acceptance letter. "And
they’ve offered me work in the bookstore, too. A double major at a university—I
hope I can handle all that."
"Me, too." Jack grinned, showing
her his letter. "I got in, too."
"Yes!" Rose threw her hands over
her head and clapped them together. "We did it! I knew we could!"
"And with partial scholarship, at least
for me," Jack added, showing her another paper. "Did you get a
scholarship?"
Rose checked, then shook her head.
"No...but we should be able to afford it anyway. We’ve got some money saved,
and I’ll be working...and we can take out student loans if we need to."
"And we can take turns watching Lizzy,
so we won’t need a sitter."
"Mari is going there, too, as a grad
student in Botany. She might help. You know how she likes Lizzy."
"You mean she finally learned the
difference between Jimsonweed and chamomile?"
"Jack..." Rose shook her head
reprovingly. Jack had never been able to resist teasing Mari about that when
she had come to visit.
"Yeah, I know...don’t tease her. She has
dangerous knowledge. But," he added, unable to resist, "if she tried
to poison me with Jimsonweed, it would probably be—"
"You never quit, do you?" Rose
shook her head, trying not to laugh. It was rude to laugh at people, but she
didn’t think Mari was ever going to live the Jimsonweed incident down.
"Do you think we can stand anymore
excitement today?" she asked, setting the papers aside. She grinned,
looking at him. "Let’s go out to celebrate."
"Sounds good. Where do you want to
go?"
"I keem," Lizzy interjected, voting
for her favorite food. She recognized the word celebration, and hoped that it
would mean a treat for her.
"Someplace where Lizzy can come,"
Rose said, picking the little girl up and hugging her. "Do you want ice
cream, Lizzy?"
"Yeah!" Lizzy’s eyes lit up.
"Well, let’s go, then." Jack took
Lizzy from Rose, heading down the hall to get her ready to go out. Rose joined
arms with him, dancing their way down the hall.