"I never thought I'd have a son," He told me, "Who was only six years younger than me."
I laughed. "And I never thought I'd sit down and smoke a joint with my Dad either. But there you have it."
"There you have it." He repeated.
"What about Mom?" I asked next.
"What about her?" He said.
"Are you going to tell her all of this? Or would you like me to tell her?"
He took a deep breath. "What do you think?" He asked.
"To be honest Dad, I really don't know. I'm not sure Mom would care too much for the knowledge that her son is only three years younger than she is.
She especially wouldn't care for the part about the teenaged girls or Anita."
"Oh she knows about the teenaged girls." Dad assured me. "You didn't really think you were putting one over on anybody, did you?"
"No." I said. "I gradually came to the realization that my actions were not as secret as I thought they were. What I meant was that she wouldn't care for the knowledge that her thirty-two year old son was doing those things."
"You're probably right." He said. "And I imagine she had more than just a simple suspicion about Anita and you. She probably didn't want to face up to it, but I'm sure she had her suspicions."
I nodded, feeling shame and embarrassment at the thought that my mother knew about my sexual exploits.
"How about this?" Dad said. "Why don't we keep your secret between us for the time being. I don't see any good that could come of telling her and I can think of several bads that could come of it. If, at some point in the future, a reason to tell her develops then we'll sit down and have a talk with her."
"Sounds good Dad." I told him and then smiled. "Did Mom used to smoke pot with you back in college?"
He chuckled. "You know your Uncle Dave, Mom's brother?"
"Of course." I said.
"The Uncle Dave that is the conservative republican lobbyist for the insurance industry?"
"Yes."
Dad smiled. "He used to sell us the pot back in college. Pretty good shit for that time too."
I did not hear from Nina over the next two days. She didn't call me, come over, send a carrier pigeon, or send up smoke signals. I had no way of knowing if she was making any headway with her parents.
The Saturday afternoon before the start of school Tracy flew back to California. We all gave her hugs and she was admonished by my Mother to keep in touch. Dad and I had discussed Tracy and had seen no real reason to tell her that Dad was in on my secret. As her plane climbed into the sky she still thought she was alone in her knowledge of her brother's special difference.
First thing Monday morning, the first day of school of 1984, I took up position near the front of the school where Nina's mother dropped her off. It was snowing once again, a light flurry with little wind, and I stood unobtrusively near some parked cars, my hood pulled tightly over my head. Kids, dejected to be back at school so soon, walked to and fro providing me with camoflaugh. Ten minutes before class started Mrs. Blackmore pulled her car to the curb and Nina, dressed in the same down jacket she wore on the night of our first kiss, hopped out. She gave a half-hearted wave to her mother and began heading up the walkway where Richie Fairview and I had met so long ago.
When Mrs. Blackmore pulled away from the curb I broke into a run, catching up with Nina in less than ten seconds, just as she entered the quad.
"Nina." I called, feeling nervous at the reception I was going to receive. Was she mad at me? Had her parents talked her into abandoning me?
She turned at the sound of her name and I slowed to a walk, my eyes searching her face.
"Bill!" She said happily, rushing to me. She threw her arms around me and we embraced tightly, right there on the quad, right in front of hundreds of students. More than a few of them gave us some strange looks but I didn't care.
"Oh God Bill." She told me, kissing my cheek and hugging me tighter. "I missed you so much. I'm so sorry for what happened. I'm so embarrassed that my dad came over there."
"It's okay Nina." I told her. "I'm just glad you still like me."
"Of course I like you Bill. I love you. Nothing is going to change that."
"I thought your parents might have, you know, soured you against me."
She snorted. "They tried Bill, believe me. I got even more speeches and lectures about 'guys like you'. To tell you the truth, I've been fighting with both of them since that day. Things aren't cheery in the Blackmore house, let me tell you."
We finally broke our embrace and began walking towards the lockers. "So am I to assume," I asked, "That you weren't able to make much headway with them?"
"Not an inch." She told me. "I talked to them until I was blue in the face.
I told them that you're different now, that you've changed, that I'm in love with you, that you're in love with me, but they are completely irrational on the subject. They think you're Lucifer Himself. " She shook her head in puzzlement and frustration. "And I have no idea why they're acting like that. It is SO unlike them. They're usually the calmest, most understanding people."
"So what happens now?" I asked her. "Will we be able to see each other at all? Except for school that is?"
"They've grounded me Bill." She told me. "Grounded. Me! I've never been grounded in my life. I didn't even know they knew how to ground someone! But I'm not allowed to leave the house after school at all. For anything!"
"Hmm." I nodded. "That does present a problem."
"During one of our arguments," She went on. "I told them that they could keep me in the house until I graduated if they wanted but that wouldn't matter. I told them I'd be eighteen soon and heading off to college. Then I could see anybody I wanted!"
"And they said?"
"They said you'd lose interest in me by then so it didn't matter." She replied. "But if you hadn't, if I still tried to see you that they would not pay for any college outside of Spokane! And that they would only pay for that if I came home promptly each day." She shook her head. "Bill, that's absolutely nuts! I can't believe they'd say something like that. I can't go to college in Spokane! There's no medical school here!"
This last statement brought home just how strongly Mr. and Mrs. Blackmore felt about this subject. Like Nina had said, it was nuts. It was not the outpouring of a mind that was working a problem through rationally. Nina was their pride and joy, all that they lived for. To threaten to take away all that she hoped for just to keep her away from a certain boy, a certain boy that they'd once liked immensely, was mad.
"Nina?" I asked. "You said they developed this, uh, strong attitude about me right after you told them about my, uh, transgressions, right?"
"Right." She nodded.
"And they've never acted this strongly about anything before?"
"Never." She assured me. "This is completely wacko behavior for them."
We had reached Nina's locker and I stood behind her as she opened it and stowed some of her books inside. My mind was reeling with something that was right on the tip of it. Some explanation for this problem that was simply eluding me.
"What year did your parents get married?" I asked Nina as some vestige of it finally broke free.
"What year?" She asked.
"Yeah." I nodded.
"1951." She told me. "Why do you ask?"
"Your Dad told me once, back before he hated me anyway, that he and your mom were high school sweethearts."
"They were." She said. "They dated all through high school. And then Dad dropped out to go to the war. They got married when he got back."
"But the war ended in 1945 Nina." I reminded her. "What happened in the six years after?"
She shrugged. "They told me that they kind of broke apart for a while and then found each other again. They never really explained it any further than that. I never really asked. Why?"