I didn’t have a chance to do a damn thing about it. I was just trying to sit up and grab for my pants when the door burst open and Suzie barged in, followed by my mother and father. Suzie’s eyes opened wide and her jaw hit the floor. My mother just screamed and dragged my sister back out of the room. The door slammed shut, but I could hear Bradley laughing loudly across the hallway.
“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, BRADLEY!” I yelled as I climbed to my feet and grabbed my pants. He just laughed louder.
Marilyn had actually fallen asleep, and was rolling over. “What’s going on?”
“My family just barged in and saw us lying here.”
Marilyn stared at me for a second as I pulled my pants on and pulled up the zipper. I damn near caught my dick in the zipper, which would have been a great way to culminate the afternoon. “You mean…”
“I mean, Suzie and my parents know all about that little mole in the small of your back,” I answered.
Marilyn just gabbled in panic at that, so I tossed her the sundress she had started out wearing this morning, and she scrambled to her feet and pulled it on. I grabbed a tee shirt and pulled it on. Out in the hallway, Dad was calming my mother down, and Joe was still laughing. “I am going to kill Joe,” I told Marilyn.
“I’ll help!”
We made ourselves as decent as possible in the little time we had, and I straightened out the bed clothes. Then I looked at Marilyn and shook my head in disbelief, and opened the door to the landing. My family was staring at me with different expressions on their faces. Suzie was giggling and laughing at us. My father had a resigned and embarrassed look. And my mother was red faced and furious.
I remember that when our first daughter Alison was born, the nurse looked at her and then said, ‘She looks just like you.’, referring to me. All three of us kids take after Mom, quite strongly. Instead, Marilyn and I looked at our daughter, red faced and crying and generally yelling up a storm, and then we grinned at each other, and I replied, ‘No, she looks just like my mother!’
“Carling! How dare you!” She glanced at Marilyn and decided to not say much more, since that would be taking our troubles out of the house.
I just shook my head. “Hey, Mom, you barged in on us, not the other way around. We ain’t apologizing for anything.”
She huffed, “Well, I never!” and glanced at my father, who was trying to study the ceiling.
I couldn’t help it. I said, “Well, you had three kids, so I suspect you actually did.” That set Suzie to outright laughter and both my parents turned beet red. Marilyn punched me from behind.
Change the topic. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s your graduation! Where else would we be?” she answered.
I just stared at them for a few seconds. Yes, it was graduation, and I had invited Suzie to come up. The plan was for her to fly up and I would pick her up. Then we would bring her back when we drove down, and drop her off in Lutherville. I was going to drive the panel van and Marilyn was going to drive my Impala. Then we would continue on to Lawton, Oklahoma. Afterwards, once I was settled in, I would put Marilyn back on a plane to Albany, where she could catch a cab over to Kegs and pick up her car and go back to Utica. I had this all worked out with Dad.
Neither of us counted on Mom, who decided to come up anyway. I hadn’t seen her or Dad in two years, not since the first summer I did basic and we went out to dinner that one night. Suzie had visited with Marilyn last summer, before our breakup, but I hadn’t seen her in a couple of years, either. I hadn’t seen Hamilton since I had busted his jaw three years ago. “We? Where’s Hamilton?” I asked.
“He couldn’t make it. He wasn’t feeling very good.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. I turned to Marilyn. “An old jaw injury, I bet.” Mom gasped, Suzie giggled, and Dad told me to settle down. I just rolled my eyes. “Where are you staying?” I asked. The original plan was to have Suzie stay in the frat house with us, in one of the empty rooms.
“We’re staying up in Glens Falls. It was the closest place with an empty room,” my father said.
I wasn’t surprised. There were at least two other graduations this weekend, and despite being the state capital and one of the largest cities in the state, Albany wouldn’t have enough hotel rooms available. At least 20,000 people had probably descended on the area. I just nodded. “Well, Suzie can stay here with us. That way you won’t all be crammed into one motel room.” Suzie looked relieved at that, although Mom was obviously worried about the influence a fraternity would have on her underage daughter. That was crazy, since Suzie was much better behaved than I ever was, now or then!
“What are your plans?” I asked.
Dad answered, “We were planning on having dinner with you. Know anyplace we can get into?”
“Good luck with that,” I replied. “Listen, I have reservations at a couple of places, for tomorrow and Saturday, but you’re going to have to scrounge for breakfast and lunch. I was planning on feeding Suzie here at the house. I can make us all omelets for dinner.”
Mom looked like she wanted to protest. She obviously had visions of the great matriarch of the family going out to dinner, but forget about a decent place tonight. Dad quickly agreed with this plan and said so.
“Great. You guys go downstairs and we’ll get cleaned up. We’ll meet you downstairs in half an hour.” Mom glanced through the door to the bed we had been frolicking on, and then turned red, and turned around and headed downstairs, Dad and Suzie in her wake.
Marilyn and I grabbed our toilet kits and towels, and I opened the door to my old room. Joe was grinning broadly at us, so I flipped him off, and we went down the hallway to the bathroom, while he laughed behind us. We locked ourselves in the bathroom and took quick showers, but there wasn’t any romance involved. We had neither time nor inclination. I had shaved that morning, so afterwards we just wrapped the towels around ourselves and ran back to the room, and then put on clean clothes.
My family was waiting in the formal room. Mom was sitting primly in an armchair, hoping not to touch anything that might contaminate her, while my father and Suzie were wandering around looking at the portraits on the wall. My father looked at one, and when he saw us enter, he asked, “You were your fraternity president?”
I nodded. “Chancellor, but it’s the same thing.”
“Huh,” he said, nodding to himself.
“You had a dog?” asked Suzie. Trust her to focus on the important stuff.
I glanced at the portraits. In a couple of them Jefferson had been prominently displayed. Hell, he was smarter than most of us. “That’s Jefferson. He moved out last year, but yeah, we had a dog.”
“What happened to him?”
“One of the brothers adopted him when he moved out.” I headed towards the kitchen. “Hungry?”
Along the way we passed a few of the other graduating seniors, and I had to introduce them to my family. A couple of the guys started immediately hitting on Suzie. Well, she had grown up, a lot, since I had last seen her. Now she was Mom’s height, about 5’9", a slim and leggy brunette who looked older than her not quite sixteen years.
“Hey, ever hear the phrase 15 will get you 20?” I asked. Dad chuckled, Suzie flirted, and Mom tried to shield her. The guys sloughed this off and followed us to the kitchen.
“What’s for dinner?” asked Bradley, coming in with them.
“Nothing for you!” responded Marilyn, shaking her fist at him.