The evening, autumn air pushing against their emotion-charged bodies felt right, somehow. Probably just a matter of cooling off their reddening faces, but even considering that, this had the distinct feeling of an experience not one of them would ever forget as long as they lived.
“Also helps if you’re not a felon,” quipped Leo.
The two turned to him with faltering expressions for a moment.
Then Leo chuckled heartily. “That’s called a joke. You know about those, right, Curtis?”
Curtis’s smile lifted. “Ha, ha. Don’t you worry; we stay safe on this campus.”
Ah, so that’s why you’ve barely left it in all this time, Leonard thought, but wisely restrained himself from saying aloud.
What was Leonard feeling right now? He wasn’t sure himself.
“I’d invite you in,” said Maxine, “but they’re not allowing visitors at the moment. I know…”
She was so restrained and level-headed. It baffled Leonard. He remembered a girl who had thrown a tray of food out her window three years ago, refusing to eat anything for two days out of anger for Leonard’s unwillingness to provide funds for a new dress for Homecoming. He remembered Maxine frowning at everybody she met and being more likely to spout a snide joke than a sincere compliment. None of those things he ever held against Maxine; losing her mother wasn’t easy for her. That sort of event sent ripples down through the rest of one’s life.
But it was as if she were over it completely, now. Never before had she shown such consideration for them and enthusiasm in conversation. It was beautiful, but in an almost unsettling way, barely recognizable, like reuniting with a shaggy dog after it’s been shaved and groomed to perfection. Her eyes stayed open wide rather than the half-shut habit he seemed to remember (and that Julia had perfected in recent months.)
“W-was there something stopping you from visiting our hotel room instead?” he asked, thoughts forming slowly.
Ugh. That sentence sounded wrong as soon as he said it. Now he was the rude one.
But Curtis answered with a gracious tone. “Maxine has to help out with the tour guide for a few tours before yours tomorrow morning. Tour Week’s been going on for five days now, so she hasn’t been sleeping super well.”
“Ah,” Leonard said with an understanding nod, although his sidelong gaze met Essie’s for a just a split second, enough for them to know what they were both thinking: He knows that because she’s told him, right?
But he coughed and looked at Maxine to add, “Well, it’s so great to see you after so long, sweetheart. Uh…it sounds like you’re having a great time here.”
Essie smiled with protruding cheeks and dangling earrings. “We’re hoping that Julia will, too.”
Maxine’s face lit up, and she put her hands on Julia’s shoulders. “Oh! I wish you could come see my dorm tonight. You’ll have to come tomorrow afternoon. The tour in the morning won’t even cover it all.”
With Maxine’s attention turned to Julia, Leonard sucked in a breath and fought to keep up his spirits. Julia blossomed with enthusiasm, but Maxine’s fervor seemed to emanate that and determination too.
“Sounds lit,” said Julia, showing teeth.
Leo’s eyes flitted up to Curtis behind Max and he met the young man’s lively, smirking gaze. After an instant of meeting stares, however, he changed his mind: it wasn’t lively. The smirk was a dead thing hung loosely over a real face Curtis didn’t want the family to see. Leonard couldn’t help but drop his high-effort smile in response, lowering his brow. The boy stopped rolling his head and instead held it steady with military sturdiness and eyes that spoke something. Something strange.
He wasn’t sure exactly what Curtis’s game was, but he was almost certain it had something to do with controlling his daughter—sexually, most likely (at the very least).
He felt a sharp stab of disdain.
Then the moment was over; Curtis turned his attention to Julia and started asking her what she was hoping to study in school and whether she was considering attending any other universities.
“Something with science, I guess,” shrugged Julia.
Curtis nodded and grinned. “Ooh, you’re gonna be the next big thing in the science world! I can see it.”
“Ha, ha. What does ‘next big thing in the science world’ even mean?”
“I dunno. You’re the science lover.”
Whatever look that Leonard thought he’d seen was gone without a trace.
He stared off into the night horizon for a moment and wrinkled his nose, annoyed at himself. He was being the overprotective dad—again. That was probably the only real legitimate grievance Maxine had ever had with her father: his excessive vetting of the two boyfriends she had had throughout her high school years. With her so apparently mature after two years of college, it seemed like the only trouble that might arise in their relationship now would be that which Leonard brought himself through negatively judging his daughter’s boyfriend after first meeting him for just five minutes.
Give him a little longer than that.
“Oh, Max…I gotta ask. Have you seen Phil?” Julia asked.
“Phil?”
“Phil Jensen, my friend from school?” She bit her lip.
“Oh, yeah! Yeah. No, I remember him. I have seen him around.” She squinted her eyes and pursed her lips. “I think I heard he was out of town for work. It might have been summer sales or something. I can’t remember.”
Curtis’s eyes flitted to Maxine.
Julia threw up her hands. “What the hell? Why doesn’t he say that to me?”
Essie chided her. “Julia…”
She grunted and gave a long, irate sigh.
“Well, I guess it’s about that time,” Curtis said. He briefly explained the details of the coming tour—how they would meet at the Fermin Center at 10:00 am sharp, be ready to try some of the uncommonly good cafeteria food for lunch afterward, and get to see all of the buildings in such-and-such order, and receive materials with information about majors and classes and extracurricular programs and the like.
Once he finished, Leonard nodded. “Sounds great. Curtis, it was good to meet you. Looking forward to tomorrow.”
“Yeah, it’s been a pleasure,” Curtis said. “Julia, you seem like a sharp person. You’ll ace the application, no sweat.”
She was still huffing due to the whole “Phil” debacle, but she gave him a shy smile from underneath her sweep of hair and said, “Um, thanks.”
The family all said their goodbyes to Maxine.
“Bye, guys! See you tomorrow,” she replied with gleaming white teeth underneath her bright lips. She and Curtis waved as they started back to the dorms, while the family returned to the car.
-Julia-
They got in and Dad started the engine. Julia still felt that wave of strange energy in her body, and she wondered whether it would last the whole trip.
She realized they weren’t moving.
“What’s the hold up?” she asked. She leaned forward from the back seat and watched what Leo and Essie were watching: Maxine parting from Curtis as she went to a women’s dorm and he onward to one of the men’s buildings.
Julia chortled. “Oh, gosh. You really do watch us like hawks.”
Essie looked at her with low eyelids and cocked her head. “Mm-hmm.”
“You realize she’s nineteen years old, right?” Julia said with a frown as she leaned back and buckled her seatbelt.
“You’ll understand someday,” said Leonard as he put the car in reverse.
She halted. You have no idea, she thought, pushing down uncomfortable thoughts.
She shook her head and looked out the window, keeping her eyes pinned on those dorms as they drove away. That reunion was so brief, and yet it was electric. Maxine… She couldn’t believe she had just seen Maxine again.
And…and she had felt so good too. She sniffed and smiled. Beanbag. She chuckled deeply; she had completely forgotten about that nickname. It didn’t feel like it belonged to her anymore.
With a sudden start she pulled out her cell phone and sent off a rapid-fire text to Tammy.
* I just saw her…
Tammy replied, !! Was it cool? Is she weird?
* It was…weird how cool she was.
* Wow. That’s awesome
* Yeah. It was really cool.
* You sure?
* Haha yes, it’s just like I said. It’s so weird.
Last I saw her was a lot different
* Is that good?
She sat still for a moment, her gaze lingering on the shrinking University as thoughts ran through her mind. She smiled.
-Essie-
They went to bed quickly that evening. Or at least, got in bed quickly. There was much to talk about. The hotel room was dark except for an orange lamp on the bedside table beside Essie, and the shuttered windows let in the tiniest slivers of moonlight.
Essie was on her stomach, arms crossed and smiling widely. “She looked so nice, I can’t believe it!” she said.
“Yeah.” Leo was on his back and lying still.
“And Curtis, he was…he was nice,” she said, trying to find the words. With such a short meeting, it was difficult to say any more than that. “What did you think of Curtis?”
“I…I don’t…” he started, faltering. His eyes were pinned to the ceiling.
From the cot in the corner of the room Julia said, “Dad thinks Curtis is a hooligan.” Then she laughed girlishly, teasingly.
Leo didn’t laugh. “We’ll get to know him better tomorrow.”
Essie sighed and smiled. He was trying to be a better father. That was good.
Life was good.
She rolled over and touched his shoulder. “I’m so happy,” she said.
“You’re keeping Julia up, you know,” he said with a put-on grin.
“No I’m not,” she chuckled. “She’s still on her phone.”
“He really meant himself,” said Julia. “He’s just using me as an excuse.”
He sighed, but didn’t refute her.
Essie scrunched up closer to him. “I don’t care. I still love you.”
“If you love me, let me sleep.”
“I will! I just…I can’t believe what we just saw. It was so… so…”
“Validating?” he suggested, finally turning his neck towards her a bit.
She nodded. “Yes. Our daughter…oh, she’s doing so well.”
He laughed softly, almost inaudibly. “Yeah. She is.”
There it was. Essie could read discomfort on Leonard’s face like it was a billboard. “Something…wrong?” she said quietly.
“No, it’s just…” He sighed and stared up at the ceiling again. “Hard to process.”
She gave a hmm and guessed what he was thinking. “Leave the past in the past, Leo.” She reached over to turn off the bedside lamp and then pulled the blankets up over her and laid back, ready to slumber. “We need to focus on the future, so we can be there for our daughters.”
After a pause he responded. “You’re right.”
With a comforting smile she said, “Good night, honey.”
“Night.”
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