Chapter 4: Mother

Yuba City is a quiet place, far from Corvallis. In the distance you can hear the rice poking up through the mud, and if you lay quietly in the lawn you'd hear the dandelions groan as they stretch up toward the sun. Old timers swear that they used to be able to hear the grass grow when they were kids, but most people there discount that.

Yes sir, Yuba City is quiet.

Maybe that's why Emily could hear the ringing all the way from her garden. "Marc, can you get the phone?" she called.

Her husband replied "Not really, I'm up to my elbows in transmission parts. Besides, I don't hear anything." Of course, Hank Junior playing on the AM band may have had something to do with that, but Marc Robinson was known to occasionally have selective hearing as well.

"Never mind," she said. She dropped her hoe and sprinted 50 yards to the back door. Puffing (Emily was not a gazelle), she picked up the phone. "Hello? Robinson residence, Emily speaking" she panted.

A concerned young lady's voice came across the wire, "Mom! Are you OK?"

Irritated at being so out of shape and irritated that her daughter had noticed, she snapped "Yes, I'm fine. What do you want?"

Jenny, taken a little aback, replied "Well, mom, I just needed to talk to you about something that has come up. If this isn't a good time...."

"No, no, this is a fine time. I just had to run across the lawn to get the phone, that's all. One of these days we're going to spring for a wireless phone. Just let me get a glass of water and sit down." She put the phone down, got a glass from the cabinet above the sink, and filled it with water.

Jenny was rehearsing her subject matter in her mind again, and feeling really stupid. But who else to talk to? She'd feel more foolish going over this with anyone her own age, because they all seemed so nonchalant about relationships. She definitely needed the advice of an older woman, and who better than her mom? Well, maybe she should have called Aunt Tilly... but no, if a girl couldn't talk to her mom about these things, what was a mom for? Besides, Aunt Tilly had a habit of bringing up embarrassing things at inopportune times, and mom could be trusted to keep it quiet.

Sitting down, Mrs. Robinson picked up the phone. "OK Jenny, I'm sat. What's up? This must not be about the Cobra, because you wouldn't be asking me for advice about that." At some level Emily had always resented the closeness Jenny shared with her dad, a closeness which Emily hadn't been able to match since early in their marriage. The car was a symbol of that to everyone in the family. Emily would have denied it at a conscious level, of course.

"No mom, it's not about my baby. It's about, that is, I want to talk to you about a guy."

Emily sat up a little straighter. Jenny had never, in her entire life, talked to her mother about her relationships with the opposing sex. When a daughter is 25 and suddenly wants to talk about some strange man, her mother does tend to pay attention.

"Anyone I know?" Emily said, keeping her voice even. She was a very controlled individual.

"No, no, an engineer from work. His name is Steve, Steve Mitsunami."

"Steve-Steve? Sounds like a UN President or something."

"Mom, his name is Steve Mitsunami. I stumbled over the first name a bit."

"Oh. What is he like?"

"Very nice, mom, a great Ultimate Frisbee player and almost as good at pool as I am."

"Well, that says a lot. Is he Mormon?"

"No, mom, he isn't. But he's not a drunk, wouldn't think of using drugs, and leads as moral a life as anyone I know... except, that's what I want to talk to you about."

"What?"

"His moral life, mom. Well, not his morality, but Michelle's."

"Michelle! That tramp? Isn't she the floozy with the 'open marriage' you told me about? What has she got to do with your dream boy, or should I ask what has he got to do with her?"

"You cut right to the chase, don't you? Well, Steve asked me out once, and we had a splendid evening. It has been a long time since I've enjoyed myself so much, mom. All we did is go out to dinner, but the anticipation, the preparation, the conversation were all delightful. I've never had such a good time with a guy before. I think he's really special, and he thinks I'm special too."

"So what has Mrs. Hotpants got to do with any of this?"

"Mom, you shouldn't be so negative. Hah! I can't believe I said that. Michelle noticed that Steve hasn't been around for a while for her to flirt with, and when she has seen him he hasn't taken much notice of her. If there is one thing Michelle can't stand, it's not being noticed. Besides, I think she has it in for me. She knows I don't particularly approve of her in general, and I think she's taking this opportunity to needle me in the most serious way she can, by thrashing my fragile relationship with Steve."

Emily said, "From what you've told me about her before, I can believe everything you've said so far. Do you want advice on how to keep her away?"

Jenny replied, sadly, "I think it's too late for that now mom." She described the events at the pool hall, minimizing the alcoholic haze and maximizing Michelle's scheming wickedness.

"Did he take her home?"

"I don't know, mom. I haven't seen him for two days. What does it matter? He was totally under her influence, and didn't help me a bit in our confrontation."

"Oh, I see. And you'd like some advice on what to do next?"

"Basically, yes. For some reason this just isn't a relationship I want to walk away from, even though he's been an ass over Michelle."

Now, Jenny and her mom had never discussed a period in her parent's lives (when Jenny was 5), a time when they'd almost divorced. Emily had started working again after Jenny entered kindergarten, and Marc, though trying to be "liberated", didn't like it. He'd had a brief affair with a floozy, Emily had found out, and she'd come home and started packing her bags. Only Marc's arrival, the ensuing hour long, angry shouting match, and the sudden realization that no one had picked up Jenny and school had been out for almost an hour made Emily stay home that day. Later on, after discussing it in bed, they'd decided Marc was a twit, that divorce was not something God wanted for them, and that Jenny needed them to stay together. Marc swore off his mistress and Emily stayed. Their relationship had eventually healed over, but a lingering distance had set in that had never been eliminated. Emily had realized long ago that the distance wasn't caused only by Marc's error, and she knew that her single minded devotion to getting her career rolling again had established the initial rift.

All of this flashed through Mrs. Robinson's mind as she thought about what to say next. It also flashed through Jenny's mind; she and her father had discussed it long ago.

"Well, Jenny, you've managed to get yourself into something of a pickle here. Are you sure you wouldn't rather just keep looking for a nice Mormon boy?" Emily said hopefully, stalling for time as much as anything.

"I've considered that mom, but something keeps me from taking that route. I don't know, somehow he's, he's special to me, in a way that makes no logical sense but is there all the same. I mean, I know some nice boys who'd fit the bill, and they'd probably be happy to go out with me, but there's something missing in my life that only Steve seems to be able to fill. He thrills me from my head to my toes and back again... but that sounds like something from a very tacky old movie, doesn't it" Jenny finished lamely.

"I suppose, but then I was raised on those tacky old movies so I think I know what you mean. But look, Jenny, if the guy doesn't return your affection, you are really setting yourself up for some serious misery here, you know that don't you? Sure you do, you are a big girl, you've seen the world. Look, painful as it is, you've got to let him go. Otherwise, you'll spend the rest of your life wondering when he's going to pull the rug on you again. Dump him."

"Mom! I can't just dump him, it isn't that easy. In the first place, we were never really formally connected in any way, it was just my impressions of our feelings that leads me to think we were near something very good. And in the second place, I don't feel like I'll ever find such a great relationship again. Steve is worth putting up a fight for. And in the third place, I just can't stand to see that witch win such a straightforward battle with me. If I played the game the way she does, I'd slaughter her."

"Well, I hope you won't stoop to that Jenny! Michelle doesn't share our beliefs, obviously, and if you play the game her way you'll have to live that way the rest of your life."

"Good point."

Warming to the subject, Emily went on. "But I see your point of view better, I think. So lets suppose, just for a second, that Steve is Mr. Right, the gallant (if errant) knight, and that he's worth putting up a fight for. How are you going to do that? As you say, you haven't a shred of formality, of legal requirement, to stand on. Are you really sure about his feelings for you?"

"I have dated a few men, mom. Yes, I'm pretty sure he was tumbling head over heels."

"Well, then, consider this. Men get afraid when they find themselves in that state. Michelle's timing is probably honed to perfection from constant practice. She may have no particular vendetta against you, maybe she just watches for men falling like a stone for someone and steps in when they bounce."

"Huh? I'm not getting this, mom."

"Well, let me spell it out then. Steve may have experienced cold feet. If it is his first time to really love someone else, to really think that someone else may be more important than himself, the whole feeling may be so foreign to him that he became afraid of it. Michelle just scooped him up at the right moment."

Startled, Jenny considered this. "Well, I suppose you might have something there. Kind of an inverse rebound. But what should I do about it?"

"Dump him. Men subject to rebounds aren't worth the effort....."

"OK, mom, I'll think about it. But I really don't know if that is the right answer."

"Well, that's what I'd do. Listen, you are still kind of young, you have a good chance of meeting another Mr. Right, assuming that such a beast actually exists. Let this one go before he tears you up, before you get really hurt. You'll have plenty of chances to get torn up in life anyway; don't go asking for them. Ask someone more your own age, maybe a little older, and see if they don't agree with me. Women have come a long way since you were born Jenny, you don't need to depend on a man to make you happy."

Oh boy, here comes the Pat Schroeder speech. Time to change the subject. "Well, thanks mom, for the advice. I'll work on it. How's dad?" And the conversation moved on to more prosaic family matters. Jenny knew, even though she couldn't get it across to her mother, that she wasn't ready to give up on Steve quite yet. But her mom had convinced her that she needed to understand that "feeling" more completely before plunging into this. And the suggestion about talking to someone more her own age might indeed be a good one. Maybe her boss? She and Nancy had struck up a good relationship in very short order, and Jenny found her advice to be sound. Maybe Nancy could give her some insight.

One way or another, Michelle wasn't going to get out of this unscathed.