Epilogue

I just realized that I would like to add a last section to Yraid, my short story.  It would be interesting to imagine Judy and Ellen (Aggie's mom) meeting in the library one morning!

I also realize that I write about amazingly innocent people.  Two of the least innocent people in the stories are Lalitha and Sita, the Indian sisters.  Even they are quite innocent, but everyone else is even more innocent.  Aggie's mother, by implication, is a little more worldly-wise, but I've written so little about her that it's hard to tell.  (Frankly, I didn't imagine her in very much detail, except as a foil for Aggie.)

[From 'Yraid']

Judy proposed to Aggie, soon after Aggie had visited her in her condominium, to explain what had happened between her and Leslie's young man, Andy.  I'll let Aggie continue in her own voice!

Judy's words had sort of knocked me out, really.  I was just beginning to realize how much we meant to each other, and how badly Judy had been hurt by my sleeping with Andy, and what it meant when she put all that behind her, and said she wanted me, any way she could have me.  I had been living in a dream world, not thinking about how much I was worth, or she was worth to me.  Suddenly, it was all real, and I was trying to take it in, what it meant for her to be mine, and vice versa. 

I thought I should spend the night alone, and think about things, but Judy didn't want to let me out of her sight.  We compromised, and Judy set up her spare bedroom (can you imagine that?   She had a little suite for visitors!) and lent me a pair of pajamas, and after a light supper, we went to bed. 

In the morning, I woke up to find her spying on me through the open door!  I was beginning to realize that this was for real; this girl adored me.  The rest of the week, I slept with Judy, and we gradually began the intimacy that most people consider to be normal, I guess; the sort of thing that Leslie had showed me.  We were becoming lovers, a couple. 

The very next Saturday, I was pondering going to meet Mom, as I usually did. 

"What are you so worried about?" Judy asked quietly, as we were eating our bagels. 

"It's Saturday.  I usually go meet Mom at the library," I said. 

"Are you going to tell her?" Judy asked, with a smile.  I could tell she was a little uncomfortable, but, you know, I was beginning to realize that not a lot would faze her too much. 

"I don't know! ... Do you want me to tell her?" I asked.

She got up, and headed to her bedroom to change.  "I'm coming along!  Just to see," she said.  Most days, she hated when we had to part for the day, and she would make a joke of asking me to come in to work with her. 

I put on my usual blouse and skirt, and picked up a festive sweater.  We came out of our rooms sort of at the same time.  She was neatly dressed, and I'll tell you, I was proud of her.  She gave me a quick look of approval, and I just said: it's the holidays!  Of course it is, she replied, as she checked the weather forecast. 

Pretty soon, we were parking near the Library.  We arranged that she would be seated within eyeshot of where I would meet Mom. 

Mom was already there, as luck would have it, and she was staring at me with a glint in her eye. 

"I happened to meet your father, I just remembered, sometime last week. He said he went in to Rooster one day for lunch, and there you were with a young man.  A hunk, as he described your date, though I wouldn't trust his assessment.  So what's going on?  Are we to expect any news?"

I carefully sat, giving myself time to get my story straight.  I had a tiny smile on my face, because the news I was going to give my Mom was not exactly what she was hoping to get. 

"I've never seen you grinning like this before.   Something is clearly up!"

"Are you going to let me talk, or are you going to keep asking questions?"

"OK, I'll be quiet, then.  Spill!"  OMG, this was a whole new Mom interrogating me!

"Well, since you've been so anxious about my social life, I thought ..."

I was expecting her to become as cold as ice.  But no, she was quite excited!  "Do I get to meet him?"

"It's somebody you know, actually."

You should have seen her mouth hang open, because we never had a young guy in our social circle.  She looked puzzled.

"Dad did not say it was anyone he knew ..."

I thought it was better to nip this wild guessing in the bud.  I briefly raised my head to give a sign to Judy, whom Mom could not see clearly.  "It's a woman," I said softly. 

Mom's eyes opened wide.  She looked—what's the word?—flustered.  "Did you bring—her—with you?"

Just then Judy quietly walked up, and stood near our table, looking a bit nervous, and a bit amused.  Mom saw me look at her, and half rose from her seat, but I told Judy to sit, and Mom immediately echoed the invitation to sit. 

Mom recovered fast, I have to admit, though she couldn't have expected this would happen. 

"Oh, my goodness," she said.  "I don't know what to say!"

There was a long, awkward pause, during which all three of us tried to give the impression that we were not upset.  I really wasn't; it was just my mother, I guess. 

Mom began to gather her things together, and a smile struggled on to her face. 

"Does your father know?" she asked.  I replied no, sounding a lot more calm than I felt. 

"Mrs. Harper, I realize this must be a shock ..."

"Just a little!" said Mom, stumbling to her feet.  "Perhaps we ought to go somewhere where we can talk," said Mom.  Judy suggested the little park, round the corner, and we walked out of the Library and headed that way.  "Have you been seeing each other long?"

"Just a couple of months," Judy and I said together, and laughed.  Soon Mom and Judy were talking to each other, and I was studying them.  Mom was quite relaxed; Judy was just brilliant that way.  Good thing they knew each other already; that was half the battle.  It was awkward that Judy was a client, but just then they weren't concerned with that. 

Mom wanted to know how we had met, and I was ready for this.  "Just on the street," I said, and Judy laughed and agreed.  Mom looked shocked, but then she laughed, and I told her about Molly, and we talked about Judy's work, and soon the ice was quite broken.  The happiness of connecting with someone she knew and admired kept Mom smiling for quite a while. 

But soon, she remembered that this was the woman with whom her daughter was beginning a relationship, and I saw the moment she realized it.  She began to look thoughtful.  She had begun the day thinking that she was catching up on something my father already knew.  Now, it looked as though she was learning something quite different, which she might have to explain to her—former—husband when she met him. 

"So ... do you have plans to move in together? ... Or, have you already ... ?"

It was awkward, because I hadn't really moved in with Judy, though we did spend most of our time in her home, and of course, Molly was there. 

It took a while, but by the end of it I could tell that it was sinking in, into Mom's brain, that this was something that wasn't temporary, and that she'd have to adjust to it.  In retrospect, I think she had imagined that she would have a lot more time before she had to deal with this kind of thing.  Twenty years of my not having girlfriends or boyfriends had made her parenting skills stagnate. 

As we were planning to go our different ways, Judy stood, and said that she expected that we'd meet more often in the future.  Then she opened her arms inviting my mother into an embrace, and there was a brief pause, but my mother stepped in, and they hugged.  It was a long time since my mother had hugged anybody.  So I had to hug her too, and I had very mixed emotions after that hug.  (Judy scolded me afterwards: "You don't hug your Mom?  Well, you'd better start doing it now, Aggie.  Seriously.")

So that's how it went. 

The End.