said, “your bundle of joy is still in diapers and can’t talk. Ten is a gruesome age. To Michael, everything is lame. Molly? Her word for the year is ‘boring,’ which even includes breakfast, I’ll have you know.”
“Actually,” Cindy said, staring into space, “breakfast is a bit boring if you think about it.”
“Not my blueberry pancakes made into animal shapes,” David said, seeming to have appeared out of nowhere.
“Hi, David,” Cindy said, smiling. “Sandra and I have been trying to solve the mystery of the so-called reunion, but Agatha Christies we are not. I’m going to be very disappointed if it’s something as boring—to quote your daughter—as a gathering of the ancient baseball team.”
“Ancient?” David said, his eyes widening. “How do you feel about country and western music, Ms. Morrison? I do believe you and Paul took line-dancing lessons last year if my memory serves. According to Molly that automatically qualifies you for Medicare.”
“I used to like your kids,” Cindy said, laughing, “but erase that. Jeez.”
“Sandra,” David said, turning to his wife, “are you ready for this? I was just talking to Clem Hunter. He and Madge are leaving for Europe next week.” He jiggled some keys at eye level. “He loaned us his car for the trip to Boston. A car that has air-conditioning that actually works every time you turn it on. How about that?”
“David,” Sandra said, her eyes as big as saucers, “Clem drives a Lexus. We can’t borrow a Lexus and take it into city traffic. What if it gets bumped or bent or something gruesome?”
“Whoa,” Cindy said. “Remember what you told your son, Sandra. Live wild. Take the Lexus.”
“Amen,” David said, nodding decisively. “We’re going in the Lexus. The station wagon has air that works when it’s in the mood and my clunker pickup doesn’t have air, or heat for that matter. Oh, by the way, I put my name on some goodies for dessert from this vast array of delicacies.”
“You did?” Sandra said. “Michael is picking out something even as we speak. What did you buy?”
“Some of your cupcakes.”
Cindy dissolved in a fit of laughter.
On the Friday afternoon before they left for Saunders, Sandra hired a teenage neighbor to take the twins to the city pool.
She was going to have one new dress, she decided. She couldn’t remember when she’d been so self-indulgent, but by the same token she couldn’t remember when she’d had David all to herself.
Whatever Professor Harrison wanted of David, it wouldn’t take up his time for twenty-four hours a day. And when bedtime came it would be just the two of them in the luscious hotel where David had made the reservations.
Her first thought had been to buy a seductive nightie, but she’d shifted mental gears and decided she’d rather have a special dress to wear to one of the romantic and just-the-two-of-them dinners they would share.
As Sandra browsed through a medium-priced store, she frowned.
She was counting so much on this trip putting the spark back into her and David’s marriage. She wanted him to look at her and realize he still loved her, tell her so with that love glowing in his eyes, erase from his mind the idea of leaving her when the twins were grown. She wanted him to make sweet, sweet love to her for hours, declaring his love and devotion over and over. She wanted to come home knowing they still had a forever together.
Sandra sighed as she took a hanger from a rack and held the dress at arm’s length to scrutinize it.
Or was it too late for any of that? she thought miserably. Would being back on the Saunders University campus just emphasize to David how close he had come to achieving his dreams of being a professional ball player and all that status would bring to his world? Dreams that had been shattered by her tearful announcement that she was pregnant. Would this trip do more damage to their marriage than good? God, what a depressing thought.
Sandra returned home without a new dress, her enthusiasm for the purchase completely erased by her chilling thoughts. She had a long, loud cry in the shower.
Even though the incredible Lexus now sat in their driveway, Sandra put her foot down about making the trip to Connecticut in the expensive car to meet her parents, who were going to take care of the twins during their week at sport camp.
“Absolutely not, David,” she said, planting her hands on her hips. “The kids think they’re starving two seconds after they fasten their seat belts. I’ll be a nervous wreck the whole time because I’ll be afraid they’ll spill something or get that butter-soft leather sticky or… No. No, no, no. We’re going in the wagon.”
“But…”
“No!”
David nodded. “I have a great idea. Let’s drive to Connecticut in the station wagon.”
“You’re a wise man, Mr. Westport.”
On Sunday they drove to the agreed-upon meeting place in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where they enjoyed lunch with Sandra’s parents.
“This whole reunion mystery is fascinating,” her mother said in the restaurant.
“Only because this Professor Harrison used the word reunion,” Sandra’s father said, “instead of saying he’d like to see a few of his favorite students again if possible. You women are making too much of this thing. Right, David?” He looked at his son-in-law. “Right?”
David shrugged. “I don’t know. There was a…oh, a strange tone to the letter from Professor Harrison. I should have brought the letter along so you could see what I mean. I’m afraid I’ll have to side with the ladies on this one. It is a tad mysterious.”
“Score one for us, darling,” Sandra’s mother said, patting her daughter’s hand.
“Professor Harrison brainwashed you when you were going there,” Michael said, in a deep voice. “You are under his control, Dad, and when he says a certain word you will be powerless. The time has come for you to carry out a secret assignment, which will result in pizza being delivered to our house three times a week free of charge for the next one hundred and fifty years. That is the mystery surrounding his demand to see you.”
Molly giggled.
“I understand,” David said, matching Michael’s deep tone. “I have only one question, Mighty Michael.”
“Speak.”
“What toppings are on the pizzas?”
“May I come live with you, Mother?” Sandra said.
“No, dear. I’m afraid whatever it is those two have might be catching. You may already be affected. Have you made out your will? I’d like to have the cute little garden gnome you have on the fire escape.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Sandra said, laughing. “This entire family is cuckoo.”
When Sandra and David drove out of the parking lot to the restaurant, Sandra
