The Prodigal
Thirty-three
“CLOSER TOGETHER. Now everyone smile!” The flash went off and my mother had yet another picture of Wendy’s graduation, this time with Lissa, Melody, and me. The next picture was with Carma and Clarice. We were all glad the three-hour ceremony was over. Mom and Dad lined up on one side of Wendy with Lexi and Jack on the other and I took the next picture with Century Link Stadium in the background and the Sounder’s band playing nearby.
Finally, we all headed for Carmine’s.
Wendy had scarcely let go of my hand since she found her way out of the stadium. She was shaking like a leaf after nearly five hours pressed in the crowd of her classmates.
“I did it! I did it! I graduated!” she kept whispering.
Not only had she graduated, but President Girard had even mentioned her in his commencement address, not by name, but describing what she’d gone through to be a student. The big screen that usually showed Seahawks players on the field showed a picture of Wendy in the crowd. How did they ever pick her out in the sea of caps and gowns?
Carma had reserved a table for ten, but she kept jumping up to go check on things in the kitchen. None of us ordered. We just ate the food and drank the wine that she had set in front of us. Wendy had worked for Carma for four years.
“May I have everyone’s attention, please,” Wendy spoke up. We instantly fell silent. In fact, many patrons in the restaurant who knew Wendy paused to look at her. She’d just taken command of the audience. “I have an announcement to make. Tony, Melody, Lissa, please don’t think I’ve been hiding this from you. I just found out at the school celebration Wednesday and I wanted to surprise everyone at once tonight. I’ve been accepted by the graduate program in the School of Social Work and my advisor has indicated that I will continue to have a full ride scholarship. I’m going back to school for two more years.”
The whole restaurant burst out in applause.
“Wow! That’s wonderful, Wendy! I’m so proud of you,” I said.
“Carma, I hope you haven’t replaced me. I still need a job.”
“Wendy, you are like a daughter to me. You will have a job here whenever you need one. You can even have an office here like Clarice,” Carma laughed. Clarice didn’t have an office. She had a booth.
The party on Sunday was the most unusual graduation party I’ll ever attend. We had to get a special permit from the city. When Wendy told us what she wanted for a party, she got our full cooperation. When word got out there were grads from three colleges that joined with her and a mysterious gift of $3,000 arrived to help pay for it.
There’s a park right behind Pike Place Market, a well-known hangout for the homeless of Seattle. Invitations went out to the residents of all the homeless shelters and camps we could identify. At eleven o’clock, we moved tables into the park and Carma’s catering truck started unloading trays of lasagna, bread, paper plates, salad, and ice cream. At noon, grads in three different colors of caps and gowns started serving food to all the homeless who could get to the park. We served for three hours and fed over 500 people. Baristas from the local Starbucks across the street, showed up with urns of coffee and kept pouring all afternoon with us. Those of us who were family and friends of the grads, refilled the steamers and salad bowls, collected paper plates, and policed the grounds. Of course, a couple of city council people and a college president or two showed up along with the news crew, but this was all about the grads making the world a better place. A lot of people dropped off donations, which went into our fund to help the homeless. If people thought we were done when the mural was painted, they thought wrong. This was going to continue for a long time.
We attended various celebrations over the next week, including SCU’s commencement where we wished Amanda, Walt, Sonia, Thor, Bree, Justin, Eric, Tonya, Rachel, and June well. There were half a dozen parties, but our focus shifted. Lexi was staying at Jack’s house, which we all thought was cool. Mom and Dad took the extra bedroom downstairs and said it was easier to just stay than fly home and come back in two weeks. The boys were crazy with having three grandparents at their beck and call, though they hadn’t quite figured out if there was anything strange about Grandma Lexi staying with their Dad.
There was so much going on preparing for the wedding that you would think none of us would have time to be depressed, but life isn’t like that. It seemed there was always something we depended on Kate for, only she wasn’t there. Every question, even fixing coffee in the morning, was a reminder that she was missing. None of us had heard from her. Even the Trips.
I tried to keep my funk from showing by escaping to the gym every afternoon for a couple of hours. I’d become so aggressive on the court that without Lissa there to temper me, no one would play with me. Dad came over one day to watch me play a half-court game against myself. Yeah. Half-court. If the ball went past the short-line it was a point deducted. Once I lost fifty points I was done. It took two hours.
Dad had a guest pass to the club and came into the locker room to join me for my cool-down. We both relaxed, first with a good steam and then in the spa. We sat there in silence for a while before he spoke.
“You were brutal out there.”
“It’s how I work out my frustrations.”
“You have a lot of those lately.”
“Yeah. I don’t think I ever thanked you for getting me involved in racquetball. That’s how I got together with Melody and Lissa.”
“You’re not losing them, Tony.”
“I know, Dad. It’s just that with Kate gone, all four of us are hardly holding it together. Mel and Liss throw all their energy into the wedding. Wendy insists she’s responsible for meals and keeping the house spotless. I come here and beat the hell out of a blue ball. You know I broke one yesterday? I split it. I broke a fucking racquetball.”
“Tony…”
“Sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to cuss.”
“I don’t care about that. You’re a fucking mess.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Don’t give up, Tony. None of the rest of us are. We love her, too.”
“I blew it so bad, Dad. I didn’t even know. I didn’t know.”
“Did you know I left your mom, son?”
“Dad! No!”
“Not recently. You were a year old.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I wish I was. It was the worst two months of my life, followed by six that were even worse.”
“What…? Why did I never hear about this?”
“We put it behind us.”
“What happened? Why did you leave?”
“Something stupid. I got a job offer in a Lincoln suburb. Nearly double what I could get in Fremont. I was a hot commodity for a teacher. Everyone wanted a male for their problem classes. Your mother didn’t want to leave. I went anyway. I thought it was no big deal. I’d commute home every other weekend and eventually Deb would join me. It didn’t work that way. There was always something in the way of my getting back. It was six weeks before I came home. You and your mom weren’t there. My dad told me she was visiting a friend, and if I wasn’t going to be home, I couldn’t expect her to be waiting for me. I lasted two more weeks before I quit my job and moved home. It took your mom and me close to six months to heal from the wounds.”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because when she comes back, you’ll have to forgive her. That will be harder than having her gone.”
“The first time I met Melody and Lissa was in Tempe at Tony’s racquetball tournament. I knew there was something special about Lissa. Then Tony called Melody and Deb to introduce us to his family. I remember Tony saying he had three-way conferencing on his phone and I thought that must come in handy.” Everyone laughed. We were at the rehearsal dinner. We’d found a nice little Unitarian church on the Eastside. The minister was a lady who’d been in the newspaper doing weddings on the first day gay marriage was legal. We decided to have the rehearsal dinner and reception at a nearby hotel.
“What Deb and I discovered over the next few months was that our family had grown. Melody and Lissa are a part of us and we love you, ladies. Since I’m not the father of the bride—either of them—you might wonder why I get to make the first toast. Well, when Melody and Lissa are married on Thursday, I understand I’ll truly have two new daughters-in-law. Both of them have decided to take the last name of Ames,” Dad continued. There was a smattering of applause from the twenty of us at dinner. “Melody and Lissa, you are as much a part of our family as if you’d been born in Nebraska. You’ve both told Deb and me that you plan to be mothers of our grandchildren. We love you and we pray for your happiness every day.” Everyone raised their glasses.
They sat across the table from Wendy and me and we smiled at their public display of affection. Wendy squeezed my hand. There had been plenty of wine served with the meals of salmon and filet mignon. Everyone still had a full glass. I wasn’t sure how we’d managed to survive the past few weeks planning the wedding, but Sandra had stepped up after school was out to coordinate the whole event. She’d found this nice hotel and had arranged transportation for all of us so we didn’t have to worry about alcohol consumption. Jack and Lexi had given her a budget and she took over from there.
“The first time I saw Melly and Lissa together, they were naked,” Lexi said as an intro to her toast. “They were painted on a wall, bigger than life. I fainted.” How well I remembered that day. Lexi had shown up as a surprise and wanted to whitewash over the whole mural at PCAD. “When I recovered enough to walk, we went to a little café and I saw the two of them together in real life. I couldn’t believe how impossibly beautiful Lissa was or how happy they looked together—all three of them. I’m so proud to be mother-in-law to this family.” Well, we’d had some rocky times, but it was Lexi who hosted the party where Mel and Liss had openly declared to Lexi’s friends and neighbors that we were together. They’d presented me with my bracelet at that gathering.
“Every time I look at Melody and Lisa, I think, ‘These are my daughters.’ I’m so happy for you both and I love you so much. And I’m not leaving Tony or Wendy out of this. You are just as much my children-in-laws as Lissa is. I love you all.”
We clinked glasses again. Drank wine. They kissed. We had dessert. I probably drank a little too much wine. Wendy leaned to my ear.
“You need to make a toast, Tony. Everyone is still waiting.”
Oh. Shit! I didn’t even think of that. I wasn’t in any condition to make a lot of sense. On Thursday my wives were getting married. What was I supposed to say? I stood up a little shakily.
“Before we all pile in the bus and head home, I guess I’m supposed to make another toast,” I began. Everyone looked at me expectantly. “I consider both Melody and Lissa to be my wives. There are these silly state laws that don’t allow me to join in the marriage on Thursday, but that’s okay. I’m glad we have a law that allows us to celebrate Melody’s and Lissa’s love. I know the rest of us are part of that, too. Melody and Lissa, you’re each wearing a necklace that I gave you two years ago. I have this chain around my wrist that symbolizes the same thing. We are three hearts, forever linked together. I’m looking forward to a long life with both of you.” There was a touching of glasses and another kiss and everyone expected me to sit down. I should have. I didn’t.
“If I don’t say this now, it will probably come out at an inappropriate time. But we’ve all been avoiding mentioning one word tonight: Kate. You’ve welcomed Wendy and me into the lives of Melody and Lissa. You’ve acknowledged that we are all one family. But one family member has chosen not to be with us and that makes us all sad.” I saw the eyes of my lovers glistening. “I don’t want to leave us with sadness. I want us to have hope. I raise a toast to our family, strange as it is. To our parents. To our children, Damon and Drew, and their parents. Jack, thank you for being part of our family. To our extended family—Bree, Allison, Whitney, Amy, Sandra. You know we aren’t going to love you any less. And to our core family, represented this week in the marriage of Lissa and Melody. To Lissa. To Melody. To Wendy. To Tony. And to Kate. Let’s wrap ourselves in each other’s love and hope for the future.”
Lissa and Melody stood up and came around the table pulling Wendy up to stand with us. We shared kisses while our families saluted us with raised glasses.
The minister took it in good humor that we wanted a wedding on Thursday the 4th of July—especially when we volunteered to clean the church afterward so a custodian didn’t have to come in on a holiday. We had friends who thought we were crazy. About a hundred still showed up for the party. Sandra cued us when it was time for each of us to march up the aisle. Amy went to the right and Allison to the left. Then Bree and Whitney walked up. It was time for Wendy. She took my left arm and we began the slow, stately march down the aisle. So many familiar faces. Oke, Gypsy, and Ken came up from Oregon and the Trips drove back from Yellowstone for the wedding. I sighed. Wendy gripped my arm a little tighter. We separated and I stood to the right, traditionally the groom’s side. Wendy stood beside Whitney on the left. Melody had decided that since she popped the question, she got the right side of the aisle. But when Damon and Drew marched down the aisle, everyone stood. They took positions at either side of the first row of seats, next to Lexi on the right and Jack on the left.
The pianist upped the volume and Sandra and Walt opened the doors at the back of the sanctuary. There stood the most beautiful sight I’ve ever witnessed. Melody and Lissa wore matching dresses, Lissa in pale cream and Melody in blue. Melody made both dresses hers cut off the left shoulder and Lissa’s off the right so their bare shoulders were next to each other. The dresses fell in a form hugging sheath that left no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the femininity of these two beautiful women. As they walked forward, you could see the dresses were slit up the side to just above the knee giving a flash of their beautiful legs as they progressed up the aisle. They were so beautiful.
Allison sang. Oh my god! Her voice is more beautiful every time I hear it. I don’t know what the piece was. It was operatic and in Italian and everyone was crying. She did it without an accompaniment. The rafters of that little church rang.
My beautiful, beautiful wives married each other. I didn’t remember a word of the ceremony except to answer the one question the minister asked Wendy and I. “Do you consent to and bless the wedding of Melody and Lissa?” Lissa had insisted the words be in the ceremony so no one would have any doubt that we weren’t being left behind. When they kissed, they turned and kissed Wendy and me and then switched places and kissed us again. They turned to face the congregation.
“I want to present to you our newly married couple, Lissa and Melody Ames,” the minister said. They walked down the aisle.
I caught a movement in the lobby out of the corner of my eye as Lissa and Melody stopped to kiss our parents and Jack and the boys. A flash of purple, but it was gone before I could really see it. It couldn’t be, could it? Was she here? Wendy flinched because I gripped her hand so tightly. We walked down the aisle together behind our newly married wives. I was straining to see beyond the double doors. When we were finally in the lobby, I rushed outside and looked everywhere I could. I ran the whole distance around the church and through the parking lot screaming, “Kate! Kate!” Please be there. Please be there.
There was nothing.
I went back in to stand in the receiving line. Lissa looked at me.
“Are you okay, Tony?”
“Yeah. I had to go outside to shout.” I don’t think I fooled her.
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