Rose slowly made her way through the milling crowd, searching for her family and friends. They had agreed to meet in front of the Rivera Library again, but so, it seemed, had several other groups, and between them and the crowd, her own group was hard to find.
Finally, she saw Jack leaving the library and heading towards a group standing near the steps, Lizzy on his hip and the baby on his shoulder. Hitching up her robe, she hurried toward him, arriving just as he set Lizzy down and handed Paul to his great-grandmother. Turning around, he saw her approaching and rushed to meet her.
Before Rose could say a word, Jack swept her up in his arms and kissed her soundly, unmindful of the people surrounding them. Grinning, Rose threw her arms around him and kissed him back, then laughed in delight as he swung her around.
"We did it!" he shouted, setting her down. "We finally made it through college!"
"Yes! After six years, we finally finished college!" Rose threw her arms up in the air, making a V for victory sign, before embracing Jack and kissing him again.
They finally rejoined their group, aware that the others were staring at them, Kathleen and David smiling proudly, Tommy rolling his eyes at their exuberance, and the two young children making faces.
As they walked up to the others, accepting their congratulations and posing for pictures, Daniel turned to Lizzy and whispered, "Yuck. I’m never gonna kiss a girl."
"Me, either," Lizzy agreed, then rushed toward her parents. "Mommy! You sounded pretty out there!"
Rose picked up her daughter and swung her high in the air, making her giggle. "Thank you, Busy Lizzy. I was starting to get worried I wouldn’t be able to find you."
Lizzy giggled some more. "Daddy had to change baby Paul’s diaper. He stinked."
"Stank, Lizzy. He stank."
"Yeah, he did! And I went with Daddy and baby Paul, and—Mommy! Did you know that boys look different from girls?"
Rose blushed, a little embarrassed by the child’s unknowing frankness. "Yes, Lizzy. I knew that."
"How’d you know? ‘Cause you’re Mommy?"
"Yes, ‘cause I’m Mommy."
Jack saved her from any more of Lizzy’s embarrassing remarks. "Busy Lizzy, would you me to take a picture of you and Mommy?"
"Okay. Can I wear Mommy’s hat?"
"Sure, Lizzy." Rose reached up to unpin her cap. "Here you go."
Lizzy grinned, putting the cap on her head askew, the tassel hanging in her eyes. "How come you got a different color paintbrush from Daddy’s, Mommy?" she asked, tugging on the tassel.
"It’s called a tassel, Lizzy. It’s because we studied different things."
Lizzy gave her a puzzled look. "But you both studied books."
"Yes, but books about different things. Daddy studied art and psychology—"
"What’s sigh—sick—psycho—"
"Psychology." Rose said the word slowly. "It’s studying people’s minds." She tapped Lizzy’s forehead.
"Oh. What did you study, Mommy?"
"Music and political science."
"What’s—oh, like protests."
"Yes, like protests. Mommy studied protests."
"And going to jail?"
Rose sighed. "Yes, that too. But not too much."
"Smile, you two." Jack lifted the camera, catching them both with wide grins on their faces, the tassel still hanging in Lizzy’s face.
Rose set Lizzy down and took off her robe, relieved to be out of the hot garment. "What’s say we go out to dinner?"
"Yeah!" Lizzy and Daniel squealed in unison.
"Where are we going?" Sophie asked, taking the cap and gown.
"I wanna go to McDonald’s!" Lizzy announced.
"No. Yuck! I wanna go to Burger King," Daniel protested.
"We’re going out for Italian food," Rose told them firmly.
"Aw, man!" Daniel whined. "What’s Italian food?"
Helga laughed, picking him up. "It’s good food, stuff like spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli, pizza—"
"Can I have pizza, Mommy?" Lizzy asked eagerly. She loved pizza.
"If they have it, Lizzy."
"Me, too," Daniel chorused. "I’m hungry."
"I think we’re all hungry," Jack told them, laughing. "Let’s go."
*****
Half an hour later, the group descended upon Antonio’s, a small Italian restaurant on University Avenue. Jack and Rose were glad that they’d made reservations, because their group of twelve took up almost a third of the space in the restaurant.
Rose leaned against Jack a bit tiredly as they walked into the restaurant. Jack put an arm around her.
"How are you doing?" he asked, concerned. She had only been released from the hospital that morning, and had been rushing about ever since.
"I’m fine. Just a bit tired."
"You think you can make it through dinner?"
Rose smiled up at him. "I can always make it through a good dinner." She paused, setting the baby in his carrier on a chair and sitting down next to him. "It was a wonderful graduation."
"Yeah. You sounded really good out there." Jack sat down next to her.
"Thanks. So did you. It’s just too bad Emmaline couldn’t make it. She sure sounded disappointed on the phone."
"Yeah, well, she’s trying to make it on her own, not that Uncle William would have given her money to come out here and see us. Minimum wage doesn’t exactly pay for travel, especially when you’re trying to go to college at the same time."
"I know." Although they both worked, and Jack’s job paid well over the minimum wage, they were both careful about money, and their vacations over the past couple of years had consisted of camping trips to the mountains in the summer and a few days spent with the Flemings in Palm Desert at Thanksgiving. Not that they didn’t enjoy these vacations, but they weren’t elaborate. There wouldn’t be time for a trip this summer, though, with Jack trying to put in extra hours so that he wouldn’t have to work as much the following school year.
"Mommy? Daddy? Aunt Mari says there’s pizza on the menu. Can I have some?"
Jack picked up a menu, looking at it. The pizzas came whole, in small, medium, or large.
"Do you still want pizza, Daniel?" he asked, looking at the small boy sitting next to Lizzy.
"Yeah."
"Okay. You two can split a small pizza, okay? If there’s anything left, you can take it home for tomorrow."
"Can’t we have our own?" Lizzy asked, not wanting to share with Daniel at the moment.
"That’s too much. You couldn’t eat it all."
"Yes, I could."
"I think your eyes are bigger than your stomach, Busy Lizzy. You can share a pizza with Daniel, and you can each have your own drink."
"Can I have 7-UP?" Lizzy asked hopefully. She was tired, and would have whined about not getting a whole pizza for herself, but she had learned that whining usually meant that she didn’t get anything she wanted.
Like many young children, Lizzy was attracted by the brightly colored pictures on containers of expensive food in the supermarket—and even more so if she’d seen a commercial for the item on television. Her parents didn’t let her watch much television, but she did watch Saturday morning cartoons and sometimes the news with her parents in the evening, and the advertisements often caught her attention more than the shows. When she asked her parents to buy her the brightly colored things she saw in the store, however, her requests were usually ignored—especially if she whined. The Dawsons had enough money, with a little extra on the side, but they wouldn’t have that if they bought all the expensive things that Lizzy wanted.
On rare occasions, for a special treat or if the item was on sale for a low price, they bought the things she wanted, but usually they purchased the inexpensive generic or store brands of items, or did without them, particularly things that they construed as being junk food. Lizzy had once whined to her mother that they were depriving her, but Rose had only laughed. She knew what deprivation was, and giving her child healthy food instead of junk food wasn’t it. Lizzy had learned, after a time, that whining and throwing tantrums not only didn’t work, but also often meant that she wasn’t allowed something that she usually got—like the chance to watch Sesame Street, or to eat ice cream after dinner on Sunday night. Her needs were always met, but she was still learning that she couldn’t have everything she wanted.
Jack looked at the menu, then nodded. "Okay, Lizzy. You can have 7-UP tonight."
"Thank you, Daddy. When can we eat? I’m hungry!"
"Soon, Lizzy. Okay?"
"Baby Paul’s already getting his dinner," Lizzy complained, watching as Rose unbuttoned her dress and put the baby to her breast, covered by a blanket.
"You’re a big girl, Lizzy," Rose told her. "You can wait a little while. See? Here comes the waitress now."
The waitress took their orders, leaving three baskets of breadsticks with the group. Daniel and Lizzy each took a breadstick, eating hungrily while they waited for their dinner.
"What are your plans after this?" David wanted to know.
"I’m going to grad school," Jack told him, putting a straw in Lizzy’s drink.
"What are you going to be studying?"
"I’m going for my Master’s degree in psychology at Cal State San Bernardino. It’s close to where I work and costs less than UCR, so that’ll make things easier."
"So they accepted you, then?" Rose asked. "It took them long enough."
"Yes, they did, finally. I was beginning to think they wouldn’t, and that I would have to take some time off and apply elsewhere."
"I don’t see why they wouldn’t have accepted you," Rose commented. "You managed to keep a 4.0 grade point average all through college, except for your second semester at Masline City College, and that doesn’t count, because everything was such a mess after the earthquake that people were excused for not finishing that semester there."
"Yes, but this is Cal State San Bernardino. Their red tape makes the legal system look uncomplicated."
Kathleen looked at him. "That is bad." Her work as a psychologist had guaranteed that she had to learn a lot about the law and red tape, things that she still kept up on, though she was now semi-retired.
"Are you sure you want to go there?" Tommy asked Jack, raising an eyebrow. Under pressure from Sophie, he had enrolled in a few classes there himself, and knew exactly what Jack was talking about.
"It’s as good a place as any, for now," Jack told him, "and it’s close to home and work."
"Where are you going to be living, now that you’ve graduated?" Sophie asked, taking a sip of wine.
"We’re renting an apartment in Riverside," Rose told her. "We’ll be moving there in about a week. I’ll be finishing my bookstore job at the end of June."
"Then what will you be doing?" Kathleen asked. "Grad school for you, too?"
Rose shook her head. "I’ve had enough of college, at least for now. I’m starting on my career."
"Have you found a job in your field?"
Rose shrugged. "In a manner of speaking. I’ve actually lined up a few jobs, combining music and politics, or just music. I’m going to be singing at this nightclub in San Bernardino three nights a week, including Saturdays, and I’ve been hired by the city of Riverside to sing at special events—I may cause trouble sometimes, but there’s quite a few people who like my music. As to the politics—well—there’s an environmental group that doing a series of documentaries, and they would like me to sing for them. Also, I found out about this new independent film company that’s trying to break into the art film market, and I auditioned for them. They just called me today. The director—there’s only one at the moment—wants to make a film of this obscure musical, and he cast me in a leading role. We start filming in August, over in Perris."
"That’s very impressive, especially for someone just out of college."
"Yes…well…I have friends in strange places, to paraphrase the song. I’m not getting rich, and I’m not getting famous, but I’m doing what I enjoy and I still have plenty of time for my family and even for my activism."
"Congratulations, Rose," Jack told her, giving her a hug. "You’ve earned it."
"I’ve tried, anyway. I couldn’t have done it without your help."
"Oh, I think you could have. You’ve got a lot of talent and determination. But thank you."
"I love you, Jack."
"I love you, too, Rose. In spite of everything—or maybe because of it—we’ve done just fine."
Rose smiled, squeezing his hand. The future looked bright.