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.
"I'll tell you later.", commented Joe to the other guys.
I just shook my head and smiled. "You guys hungry, too?" Everyone nodded and said they were hungry. "Okay, this is my last meal as the Master Chef. Tonight we're doing omelets. Go set a couple of tables and tell everybody to get their butts in gear and put in their orders." I shooed my brethren out, as my family looked on mystified. I looked over at them. "I'm also one of the house cooks on Sundays, one of the better ones, if I do say so myself, and one of the house specialties is the famous Three Egg Omelet. Marilyn helps me, sometimes."
"You cook?", exclaimed Suzie.
"The way to a woman's heart is through her stomach.", I misquoted.
"Is that what you were doing earlier? Cooking?", she giggled. Dad snorted and Mom stewed at that.
"Never you mind what we were doing!" Marilyn and I went into the pantry and dug out the eggs, milk, and some cheese and ham. By the time I had a couple of small pans on the stove and a small mixing bowl on the counter, Joe was back.
"I got orders for six omelets, and I couldn't find everybody, so there might be more.", he told me.
"Great. In reward for that stunt earlier, you just got elected as the dishwasher. Congratulations!"
Joe just laughed at that. "So who's the Master Chef next year going to be?", he asked.
"Not sure, but I suspect Smitty gets the title. You have to admit, he makes a burgundy and mushroom chicken to die for! I stole his recipe."
Dad asked what we were talking about, and the guys explained the Master Chef vote. He looked at me and said, quietly, "Fraternity president and head cook? It's like I don't know you at all." What was there to say to him? He was right; he didn't know me at all anymore. I just shrugged.
Suzie helped Marilyn, while my folks stood back and watched. They were both excellent cooks - I learned from the best! - and watched their eldest son whip up a bunch of omelets. Hamilton was hopeless in the kitchen. The cooking gene must have been recessive in his case. It was probably hiding behind the normal gene, itself damn near invisible.
The first two omelets went to Suzie and Marilyn, and the next two went to my folks. After that I ran the rest of the brothers in succession, and ended up with another eight before I got to mine. By that time, Marilyn and my family were done, so they sat while I worked on mine. Suzie was asking Marilyn about the frat house, and about where she would stay. I had the answer for that. I swallowed the bite I was working on and said, "My old room from last year."
"It's empty?", asked Marilyn. When I nodded, she turned back to Suzie. "Carl and Joe stayed there for two years. The owners have gone home for the summer."