Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online

There is a large chain restaurant just off I-94 in Jackson, about halfway between Pontiac and Bradford. Scott had been in there once before, one time when he’d gotten hungry on the drive between the two; it was all right but not the kind of place he would have stopped for a quick burger and fries before getting back on the road.

Scott, Sonja, Bob and Gina had just settled in at a table, and told the hostess that there would be two more people joining them shortly when Scott’s parents showed up. “There you are,” Scott’s father said. “I’d say you hit the timing pretty good.”

“Did you have any trouble getting out of town without getting noticed?” Scott asked.

“No problem,” his father replied. “Sonja’s mother drove past the house just before we left. At least, I think it was her. But we just walked across the back yard and borrowed Lloyd’s car, so we weren’t noticed. We brought your stuff, by the way.”

“Well good,” Scott replied. “Look, let me introduce you. This is Sonja’s father, Bob, and her stepmother, Gina. Bob and Gina, these are my folks, Chuck and Barbara Tyler.”

They traded “pleased to meet you’s” and the like back and forth for a moment before Chuck got down to business: “Scott, what’s this all about?”

“That’s not an easy question to answer,” Scott replied. “In fact, Sonja and I kicked it around all the way from Pontiac and I’m still not sure of the way to tell you this.”

“It’s not simple,” Bob put in. “We know a bit about what Scott and Sonja had in mind when we left Pontiac, but I’m sure we don’t know all of it. Besides, it could have changed in the time it took to get here.”

“Only in detail,” Scott said. “Look, I don’t want to go into the background of the problem Sonja has with Zivah. We told you about it last week, and if that isn’t enough you should have gotten a dose of it today.”

“I only met her at the door,” Chuck said. “But she struck me as a woman that I wouldn’t want to have mad at me.”

“That was true when I met her a good many years ago,” Bob agreed, “and I’ve tried to avoid getting her mad at me for years. She always was a woman with her own agenda, if you know what I mean, and once she got an idea in her head it didn’t get brushed aside easily. If she’d been just a little more flexible back then, we wouldn’t be in this problem today. But still, she’s a pretty good person, and we had some good times back in the day. But her idealism got in the way of the reality of her life, and here we are, with the same problem of her idealism getting in the way of other people’s realities.”

“So have you thought of what you’re going to do about this?” Barbara asked.

“Well, we have an idea. To be honest, it was Gina’s idea, at least sort of,” Scott explained. “We think it ought to work, but there are things, well, Sonja and I want to be sure that all of you are signed off on it before we go ahead with it. This isn’t something we’ve decided to do, and it’s not a done deal, especially if someone has a real objection. What it comes down to is that we not only want to tell Zivah no, but show her. And we need to do it in a respectful way that isn’t going to have her mad at us for the rest of our lives.”

“That’s going to be a tough one, from what little I know of her,” Bob smiled. “So what’s your idea?”

Scott took a deep breath. The idea was still so new it was hard to contemplate, no matter how he felt about Sonja. “I haven’t met Zivah, but I think I know a lot about her from what Bob and Gina and Sonja tell me. Sonja doesn’t want to have to face her mother alone, because she thinks there’s a good chance her mother could overwhelm her with her plan, and besides, she doesn’t want to show disrespect to her and ruin things for the future. I think Sonja may be right on that.”

“It’s an awkward situation, all right,” Chuck nodded. “I realized that when you first told me about it.”

“No fooling,” Scott smiled. “So we think that we can’t allow a meeting to happen one on one. It’s going to have to be in front of other people who can back Sonja up.” Scott took another deep breath. Here it was, the bomb. Might as well drop it. “Most important among those other people would be her husband.”

“Husband?” Barbara replied with a gasp. “You don’t mean . . . ”

“Actually Mom, I do. We haven’t decided to go ahead with anything yet. While I’ve asked Sonja to marry me and she’s said yes, we decided that in this case everyone had to be on the same page.”

“Well, congratulations on the getting married,” Chuck said. “But, if I get you right, you’re talking pretty soon?”

“The sooner the better, if we decide to do it this way at all. The alternative is for Sonja and me to disappear somewhere until school starts, and we’re pretty sure that solves nothing. At best, it just puts the reckoning off for another day. On the other hand, if we hit Zivah with it right, we can do it firmly but gently, in a way that’s likely to stick.”

“Well, this all seems so sudden,” Barbara said. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes and no,” Sonja told her. “Get married, yes. We settled on that, and it’s been coming for a while. Earlier we’d more or less agreed to put it off till we’re out of school, but under the circumstances this offers the best potential for settling things with her without letting things get out of hand. But as Scott said, we need to have everyone at this table in agreement before we go ahead and do it. We won’t do it any other way.”

Barbara let out a sigh. “You’re saying pretty soon, then?”

“The sooner the better, before Zivah gets any more worked up about this than she already is,” Bob said flatly. “The longer the kids wait, the harder it’s going to be to pull it off.”

“Assuming we get the license tomorrow, we could do it Thursday,” Scott said. “Or, we could head down to Indiana where there’s no waiting period and do it tomorrow, but Sonja and I don’t think that’s the best way to do it. Sneaking around and getting married behind her back won’t have the impact of her being present at a formal ceremony.”

“You might have a point on that,” Chuck smiled. “Women do get, well, emotional and softened up at weddings, especially of their daughters.”

“To be honest, with Zivah, I’m not sure that’ll happen,” Bob grinned. “Her mind, well, it doesn’t work like most women’s. Like I said, she has her own agenda. But I’m guessing that she won’t make a scene at her daughter’s wedding.”

“I’m not sure how much I’d want to bet on it,” Sonja said. “But, well, if she makes a scene it ought to make me mad enough to not be willing to listen to her if she gets into a rant. But that’s a worst-case thing, I think.”

“You sound like you’re pretty well sold on the idea,” Barbara commented.

“To be honest, I’m not sure,” Sonja replied soberly. “This has all just come up in the last three hours, so I’m still pretty shocked with the idea myself. But the more I think about it, the more I think it has the best chance of working of anything else we’ve thought of in years of trying to come up with something. Add to that the fact that Scott and I want to get married sooner or later anyway, and I think it has a lot of potential.”

“Scott, what do you think?” Chuck asked. “I know you’ve sort of taken the lead in this discussion, but this is a hell of a big step, you know.”

“I know, and that’s why we’re trying to be careful about it in spite of the speed,” Scott replied. “Getting married, yes, no problem. On this schedule, well, that’s why we’re here. There are obvious problems, mostly hinging around the fact that we’re both still in school and not working. If we want to do well in school, we can’t be working full time either, or not even close to it. To be honest, that’s part of why we’re here, since if we all decide to do this, we’re going to need support from both sets of parents. We’re hopeful that we won’t need much, since we’ll be able to put dorm and dining hall fees toward a place to live and something to live on. But we really haven’t had the time to sit down and try to make a budget for it, other than what we talked about in the car on the way down here.”

“Gina and I talked about it in our car on the way down,” Bob put in, “and we’re willing to help where we can. Our contribution will be somewhat limited, but we can help a lot.”

“Bob, what do you and Gina think of this whole idea?” Barbara asked.

“There are some obvious downsides,” Gina said. “Mostly because of it coming down so quickly. In two years, I’d be thrilled. But at the same time, I don’t see a problem with sooner, at least so long as everyone is in agreement.”

“Well, in the end I guess it’s up to you kids,” Barbara replied. “I guess if you’re willing I can’t find much wrong with the idea. However, if you’re going to do it, I don’t want you sneaking around. If it’s going to be quick it won’t be much of a wedding, but I think it should be done as nicely as it can. I mean, a church, friends, and those kinds of things.”

“Right,” Scott agreed, “that’s about the way it’s going to have to be if we want it to have the right impression on Zivah.”

“And you’re looking at doing this on Thursday?” Chuck shook his head.

Scott glanced at Sonja, and her expression was all he needed to answer, “Yeah, I guess we are. Thursday evening, I guess”

“Well then,” Chuck sighed, “I guess we’ve got our work cut out for us. All of us.”

“No fooling,” Gina shook her head. “I guess you’re saying to go ahead with it then.”

“Yes,” Sonja confirmed.

“I’m up for it,” Scott agreed. “It may be a little quick, but there are enough reasons to do it, and it comes out in the end where I want it to be.”

“All right, that means there are going to have to be some decisions made quickly,” Chuck said. “The first question that comes to mind is, are you going to do it in Pontiac or Bradford?”

“Pontiac would be the right thing to do,” Bob pointed out. “But under the circumstances Bradford might be better. I don’t know when Zivah is going to be back to Pontiac, but it would be hard as hell to try to do everything under her nose.”

“That’s pretty obvious,” Sonja agreed. “I guess that means Bradford.”

“Could be worse,” Chuck agreed. “At least, being a florist in Bradford means that I have a pretty good touch on a lot of the details. That’s bound to make things go a little more smoothly. Would you expect a lot of people to be coming from Pontiac?”

“Not really, at least not on this short a notice,” Sonja shrugged. “If we do it in the evening there’s a couple kids I know from school who ought to be there. If I can get Mary Lou to be there as my maid of honor, it would be cool. I’d have to call her and ask, though.”

“Well, if we’re in Bradford, we could probably have some of the kids from the class there,” Scott added. “Andy probably would be up for best man, I know he’s home. Emily, Vicky, maybe some others.”

“I don’t know about Vicky,” Sonja giggled. “She’s going to be pretty disappointed in knowing she’s really missed her chance with you.”

“She’ll get over it,” Scott smiled. “Besides, this will fix that problem once and for all.”

“We need to have grandpa and grandma there,” Sonja said thoughtfully. “I mean, if they can come up from Florida.”

“They’d probably come,” Bob agreed. “In fact, while he’s retired, my dad is still a minister, and he might be up for doing the service, if it can be worked out. I know Zivah respects him quite a bit, and that makes her less likely to make a scene.”

“Good idea, Dad. That ought to work real well.”

“If we’re not talking a real big wedding, and I guess we’re not, we might be able to use the Methodist Church,” Chuck said thoughtfully.

“We’ve got a ton of details like that we need to work out,” Barbara said. “I guess we’d better work on them. What are you kids going to do till the wedding?”

“Good question,” Scott said. “It’s pretty obvious we’re going to pretty much have to stay away from both Bradford and Pontiac. Probably the logical thing to do would be for us to go up to East Lansing and look for an apartment. It will take time as there’ll be plenty of details to work, but we might be ahead of the fall rush a little.”

“If you’re going to do this Thursday, you’ll have to get your license application in Hawthorne tomorrow.”

“No big deal, we can drive down there, do it, and go back to East Lansing, or something.”

“I almost hate to bring this up,” Bob said. “But even with this done, maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea for you to have to spend much time around Zivah after the wedding. I think we can make this work by having the wedding like we’ve been talking about, but she’s not going to change her mind.”

“You’re probably right,” Sonja agreed, “but you know what? There’s no reason we couldn’t take off on a honeymoon. I mean, we’re already packed for it.”

“Out west, like we were talking about?” Scott asked.

“Why not?” she grinned. “So long as we get back in time to set up an apartment, wherever it is, we ought to be able to have three or four weeks. If Mom is still around, which I doubt, we’re going to be too busy getting set up for school and everything that we’re not going to have a lot of time to listen to her.”

“You’re probably right on that,” Bob nodded. “If she knows you’re going to be on your honeymoon and out of touch for several weeks, then she’ll probably be long back in Israel by the time you get back.”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” she smiled. “Look, I don’t want to cut off relations with her entirely, but having her expectations out of reach is something else. The one big thing I can see about this is that it leaves an out for the future, so maybe we can put things back together sometime.”

The whole discussion went on for a couple of hours, over dinner, dessert, and coffee. Finally they reached the point where there was nothing left to discuss, and both sets of parents had to start heading back. They wound up loading some of the things Barbara had packed for Scott into Sonja’s car, then they all waved good-bye.

“Holy crap,” Scott shook his head as they watched the parents drive out of the parking lot. “I can’t believe we did all that.”

“From everything I’ve ever heard, we got off easy,” Sonja sighed. “I mean, I know some girls who have had some big weddings, and they’re up to their necks in details for months ahead of time. They’ve just about gone nuts by the time the wedding actually comes off.”

“Sorry you’re not going to have a big wedding?”

“No, not in the slightest. Being married to you is going to be enough. Having my mother off my butt on this is just the frosting on the cake.”

“You know, in spite of all the hassle today has been, I think I feel pretty much the same way.”

“So what do we do now, husband-to-be?”

“Well, we need to think about getting out of here. I know we need to deal with stuff at school tomorrow, but that’s only about thirty miles or so up the road from here. I keep thinking that maybe we ought to head back to Hawthorne tonight, get a motel, then deal with that license stuff in the morning. When we get that done, it’s only about an hour or so back to East Lansing and we’d have the rest of the day there. It’d be better than having to do a round trip tomorrow.”

“I suppose that’s the smart thing to do,” she agreed. “We have a lot to do the next four days, and who knows how much trouble it’s going to be to find an apartment we like, especially this close to school starting.”

“It’ll be a pain in the butt, sure. But like a lot of things in this whole deal, it ought to be a worthwhile pain in the butt.”

“I’m glad you think so. I keep thinking we’ve all sort of stampeded each other in this, but I think it’s going to be worth the trouble. I suppose we ought to get on the road, rather than just standing here and talking about it.”

In a few minutes, they were back in Sonja’s car, heading for Hawthorne, this time with Scott driving. They rode along silently for a while before Sonja spoke up. “Scott,” she said. “We’re staying in a motel tonight, right?”

“I guess,” he said. “The motel situation in Hawthorne is a little on the slim side, I guess, but I can’t believe we’re not going to find something on a Sunday night.”

“Well, if we have to,” she sighed. “Look, I know I acted awful horny this morning, and I guess I was.”

“I was too,” he agreed. “There’s something about you that does it to me.”

“Scott, we were talking this morning, you know, way back when, that we were going to have a little fun tomorrow. Actually, I was hoping for more than a little fun.”

“Me too, Sonja.”

“This whole deal today has changed a lot,” she told him. “I’m not much less horny right now than I was this morning, although with everything that’s happened today, I’m not sure how much I’d be up for it, at least tonight.”

“It has been one of those days.”

“No fooling. And it’s changed my thinking a little. Scott, if you really want to do it tonight, I’m ready. But after all the trouble we’ve been through today to keep things above board, I keep wondering if you’d mind if we held off another few days.”

“Like till Thursday night?”

“Yes. I don’t think it really makes that much difference, but I think I’d feel like we weren’t sneaking around on our folks. In spite of the craziness of this whole damn thing, I think we need to be at least that up front about it. I mean, that was part of our reluctance to not take off on that trip out west, after all.”

“I don’t doubt you’re right,” he agreed. “I can hold off till Thursday night if you can. If it was going to be months, it might be a little different, but at least that way we can feel honest with ourselves.”

“Good, I’m glad you feel that way.”

“If we can get a motel room with separate beds, we don’t even have to sleep in the same bed,” he suggested. “That might help us keep from getting carried away, in spite of our best intentions.”

“I can live with that, at least till Thursday.”

“If you can, I can,” he smiled, “but Sonja, one thing.”

“What?”

“You got a preview of coming attractions this morning. Do I get one?”

“If you want one,” she laughed, “but you know, Scott, I think I’m going to like being your wife.”

For the next several days the drill was that Scott and Sonja didn’t call her home, since they had no idea if Zivah might be there. Instead, they mostly had to talk to her father at his office.

It was Wednesday morning before they learned from him that Zivah had gotten back to Pontiac the night before. “She didn’t say a lot about what she’d been doing,” Bob reported, “but you could tell she was pretty put out over the fact she couldn’t find you.”

“Scott’s dad said she’d been around town quite a bit looking for us,” Sonja replied.

“I’m sure she must have been,” he replied. “She was more than a little mad, and insisted that she wanted to talk to you. I mean, she’s dead sure you’ve been ducking her.”

“She would have had to figure that out sooner or later.”

“Oh, I think she figured that out when you managed to get away from her on Sunday. I think the only reason she came back was that she needed to get some clean clothes. I’m afraid we had to let the cat out of the bag a little bit.”

“You told her about what’s going to happen?”

“Not much. I told her I knew how to get in contact with you from time to time, and I’d work something out. Gina said she’s still around today, so I guess when I get home I’ll tell her that we’ve set up an appointment for Thursday evening, but that you insisted that Gina and the kids and I come along.”

“I’ll bet she wasn’t happy about that.”

“She didn’t come right out and say it, but I could sure tell it. I think you were right. She wants to get with you one on one and bully you into it. Well, she didn’t say that last part but it was no trick to tell what she was thinking.”

“Tell her she gets everyone, or no one, including me.”

“I will. I mean, it was hard to not tell her what we knew, but at least this way I’ll have the excuse that I had to wait to talk to you. So how are things coming on your end?”

“Pretty well,” Sonja replied. “We found an apartment we like and the rent isn’t too bad, but we can’t move in till the twentieth. There’s a grad student living there now, but he’ll be out by then.”

“That doesn’t leave you a lot of time, does it?”

“We’ll make it work,” she said. “It’s an unfurnished apartment, but we can get a lot of things we need from Scott’s folks.”

“Let me tell you from experience, you’re going to accumulate crap at a rate you never could believe. There’s going to be more than you can ever dream.”

“I suppose. Anyway, they can’t come up with everything. We’ve got a list for you and Gina, and we could slip it to you tomorrow night.”

“That’ll be fine. That’ll give Gina and I a month to pull together what we can. Hopefully it won’t be too bad.”

“It should work. Right at the moment Scott and I are targeting being back the Friday before, so maybe we can pick some of it up before we move in. Besides, we’re going to want to spend a little time with you to tell you how our trip went, if nothing more.”

“Sure, we’re going to want to see you. Is there anything else we can do for you?”

“Nothing more than what we’ve talked about already. Now that we know Mom is back in Pontiac, that means Scott and I can go back to Bradford and take care of what we need to do there. Just make sure you keep her at home. My guess is that we’ll be staying with Scott’s folks tonight, so if Mom gets a bug up her butt and decides to head for Bradford again, make sure you or Gina lets his folks know.”

“So long as she doesn’t head out before I get home, it shouldn’t be a problem. As far as that goes, I could call home in the next few minutes and tell her about the appointment being set up. That ought to pin her down, at least I hope.”

“Fine, but let me talk with Scott for a minute.” Sonja put the phone on her shoulder and turned to her husband-to-be. It was still a little unreal to think that in a day and a half she’d be married to him, but they’d both been so busy the last few days that reality had had little time to intrude on them. She explained what her father had told her, that Zivah was back in Pontiac, and they were clear to head back to Bradford.

“That’s good,” he replied. “There’s more stuff we could do here, but I see no reason we couldn’t head back down this afternoon. That would give us this evening and tomorrow to get done what we need to do there.”

“OK,” she replied, and turned to the phone again. “We probably won’t be heading down till this afternoon, so I think I’ll call and check in before we leave, just in case something goes wrong.”

“That’ll work,” her father replied. “Keep in touch.”

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