“Note to self…,” I chuckled.
“Exactly! This is a really important moment in a woman’s life.”
“It’s pretty important for the man, too. Okay, here’s what I know… It isn’t much,” I cautioned.
“Stalling.”
“Right. Sorry. Here goes…”
* * *
Christy chattered happily as we unloaded everything back at camp. She even offered to cook dinner.
“Mom says I need to be more ‘domestic,’ whatever that means.” She paused and then sighed as her mood went from upbeat to pensive. “I don’t think she understands. That I don’t want to be like her, I mean. It’s so weird. She understands about me being on the pill and even us living together. Erin’s right, though. ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ But this is something else. It’s like she’s stuck in the past sometimes. Like, ‘a woman’s place is in the home.’”
“Really? She said that?”
“She didn’t actually say it, but what else could she mean? Only, I don’t want to be stuck at home.”
“Who said you have to be? Not me.”
“I know. You’ve always been very good about us deciding for ourselves. But I suppose I’m feeling guilty.”
“Why?”
“I… don’t know. And that bothers me more than anything.”
“Regular old Catholic guilt?”
“Maybe,” she conceded. “And maybe I’m just annoyed.”
“At what?”
“All this!” She gestured at the grocery chaos in the Retreat’s clubhouse.
“What about it?”
“Maybe I am ready to settle down. No, not like that,” she added quickly. “I still want to be a swinger. But… I want someplace permanent. I hated moving when I was little. My mom practically had to drag me out of the house at a new place.”
I nodded.
“Well, I’m sick of it! No, not camp. It’s fine. I know it’s only temporary, and we’re doing it for work. But when we’re married, I want a house with a yard and a pool and a studio. I want pets, too! Dogs. Big ones. And I don’t want to move every three years when your job changes.”
“We might have to,” I said as reasonably as I could.
“Not if you and Trip are successful.”
My eyebrows rose with surprise and a question.
“I really want you to succeed. Not only for you, but for us. I know I’m never going to have a real job, much less a career, but—”
“Of course you will. At least, you will if I have anything to say about it.”
“Thank you, Mr. Positive,” she said. “But… think about it. I know how hard it is to be an artist. I’ll never make a living at it. I certainly won’t be able to support myself. So I’ll probably end up teaching kindergarten. Or worse, art classes at the community center. Or I’ll be a stay-at-home mom, like Marianne. She loves it. But what if I’m like Lynne instead?”
I pulled her into my arms. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I know. Thank you. But that’s why I want you to do well. With Trip, I mean. I… know it’s only a dream, but I want to be a real artist, not a teacher or a sad nobody at the community center.”
I chuckled. “I can’t imagine you as a nobody.”
“Thank you. But that’s why you and Trip need to succeed. Then maybe I can have a real job. And we won’t have to move if you own the company.”
“You know,” I said after a moment, “this is why your father became an admiral.”
Christy frowned at the non sequitur. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that your parents probably had a similar conversation. Oh, say, thirty-five years ago. You’ll have to ask your mom.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“The reason your father’s successful. Sure, he’s smart and ambitious, but he couldn’t’ve done it without your mother. I think he realizes that.”
“Of course he does.”
“And you see the similarities?”
“What? Between them and us? Of course. But you’d be successful even without me.”
I snorted, polite but firm disbelief.
“You would,” she insisted.
“Probably. But only middling so. I need you if I want to be really successful. My designs are better with you. And I work harder. This is going to sound crazy, but I want to impress you.”
“Oh, Paul, you do! All the time.”
“Thank you. But still, it isn’t enough. Not for me, at least. And especially not when you say things like that, about a house and pool and pets. You’re right, I can give you all those things if Trip and I are successful.” I had a sudden thought and laughed. “Listen to me, talking like the patriarchy. I won’t ‘give’ you anything. You’ll earn it, just like your mother does. Like mine too, for that matter.”
“How?”
“Keep encouraging me. Keep telling me you want me— want us to be successful.” I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts. “Your mom told me it took your dad a while to figure out what she was doing, directing things and encouraging him from the background. Oh, I’m sure he listened to her, but maybe not at first.
“My parents are the same,” I continued. “I think that’s why my dad left the Navy. And it’s why he’s been successful with the airlines. My mom wants nice things and a nice life, especially for Erin and me, so she supports him, encourages him.
“But they’re from a different generation. Your parents too. They got married with the idea that the man would have a career and the woman would raise the family. It took them a while— Well, it took our fathers a while to figure out that our mothers were important too. Not to the family, but to their careers. You and I are different. And I know it, right from the beginning. You’re just as important as I am to our success.”
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“You’re welcome. But don’t start thinking our partnership is a one-way street, where you support me and my career. I support you and yours too. Heck, one day you might make more than me, and I’ll stay at home and raise the kids.”
She scoffed.
“It could happen. And if it does, I’ll be proud of you, proud of us. So keep encouraging me. But encourage yourself too, and listen when I do it. You will have a job. You will have a career. And you will be a somebody. Maybe not right away, but eventually.”
“If you say so.”
“I say so.”
She smiled and pressed her face to my chest. “I love you so much right now.”
“I love you too.” After a moment I chuckled at a predictable urge from the little head.
“Yes, please,” Christy said before I could ask.
* * *
I jogged to the main camp to say hello to Susan the next morning. She and my mom were having breakfast on the patio outside the master bedroom. They were talking and reading the newspaper like an old married couple, which they sort of were.
“Morning,” Susan said. “And welcome. We came by on Monday, but you weren’t there.”
“Yeah, sorry we didn’t call. We made an unscheduled detour to Knoxville.” I didn’t elaborate. “We got here yesterday but spent most of the afternoon in town. I thought I’d stop by this morning before I got busy and forgot.”
“Very nice of you.”
“Is Christy getting settled okay?” my mom asked.
“Yeah.” I told them about our trip to town and how she’d taken over the kitchen.
“Oh? So she decided to cook?”
“Don’t start, Mom, okay?”
Susan teased her gently, “No one’s good enough for your little boy?”
“Well, how did you feel when you met Dawn and Olivia?”
“It didn’t matter. They love my sons and make them happy.”
Mom frowned at the evasion.
“Besides, I liked them both from the beginning.”
“You did not! You thought Dawn was after Kirk’s money.”