Well, piss, Bob thought. This is more serious than I thought. Their parents must be about like those stuck-up fucks in the restaurant. “Sharon is right,” he said. “You have to declare your independence some time, and I’d suggest you do it before it gets set in concrete, or they’re going to run your lives all of theirs. That is not a recipe for a successful marriage, kids. I can tell you right now that you’re heading for trouble. Did you have to get married, too?”

“Well, not have to have to,” he girl said, her eyes downcast. “I mean, I’m not pregnant, or anything, but well, one night, we sort of, we, uh …”

“We got caught,” the guy sneered. “And they crammed it down our throats. We were planning on getting married after we graduated, but no, they said if we were going to be like that we couldn’t just live in sin. I thought they were as full of shit as they always are, but we weren’t given any choice if we were going to keep seeing each other.”

“Yeah, it was really nasty, but they intend to run our lives,” Dawn replied. “At least we get our own apartment in Ypsi.” Her voice grew darker. “Our folks picked it out for us, they’re paying for it.”

“OK, look,” Bob said. “Your grades, are they all right?”

“A’s and B’s, mostly,” Dale said. “Dawn’s are a little better than mine. Why do you ask?”

“Because I’m curious, and because I’m an administrator at Colorado State University,” Bob smiled. “I’m in purchasing, but not long before I came here we had a staff meeting and we had a big pitch about how student enrollment was down, and all the administrators had to do what they could to help beef it up. If you’ve got decent grades, you wouldn’t have any problem getting into CSU. It’s more expensive than going to a Michigan school, but I can get you a grant that would offset the out-of-state costs. You guys have scholarships that are being transferred, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Dawn said. “But it’s still money we don’t have.”

“It’s all money that you don’t have, that’s what student loans are for,” Bob told them. “How much are they actually giving you for college, anyway?”

“Not all that much,” Dale shrugged. “But every cent counts. We don’t want to go head over heels in debt.”

“Do you want to be head over heels in debt to a bank, or head over heels in debt to your parents?” he sneered. “I guarantee you that the bank is cheaper in the long run. Kids, when I was out of high school I joined the army to declare my independence, and they paid for college. If you’re that bad off, it’s an option that would be open to you, but I wouldn’t recommend the army right now unless you really want to be in the Middle East with a bunch of Islamic crazies running around setting off IEDs. I’ve been there and I know how that works. Look, if you want to come to CSU, remember my name, Bob Spheris. I’m in the purchasing department, but I’ll pull some strings for you.”

“But how can we do that?” Dawn frowned, almost in tears. “They expect us to go to Eastern, they even have the apartment set up and all.”

“Doesn’t mean you have to use it,” Bob said. “Go ahead, let them set it up, while you’re setting up for Colorado State without telling anyone. Then rent a U-Haul, load up and go. Leave them a note for when they come by the apartment to find out why you’re not answering the phone. Don’t tell them where you’re going until they’ve had time to get over their snit.”

“Bob is right,” Sharon agreed. “It’s better to nip it in the bud now than it is to let it drag on and then make it harder to break away. I had to go to Korea for two years to make my escape.”

“You know what the best thing about Colorado State is?” Bob added. “It’s not only that the job market is better there than it is in Michigan, it’s over a thousand miles from Michigan.”

Dale turned to Dawn and pulled her closer, if such a thing were possible. “You know, honey,” he said. “They’re making a lot of sense.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she said neutrally. “I’m still pissed at how our mothers crammed this whole thing down our throats. Do you think we can get the money back on the cruise? Maybe we could use the time and the money to go out to Colorado and set things up.”

“I don’t know,” Sharon said. “I’d almost be tempted to tell you to not skip the honeymoon. It’s important to you, to get to have a chance to have fun together before you settle down to the serious business of living together. If you can’t get the money back, then fine, go on the cruise. If you can, though, I’d tell you to go somewhere else. I mean, some place that’s not on your parent’s approved list, so to speak, just to tell yourselves that you’re adults, you are in charge of your own happiness, and you are not their playthings.”

“That sounds good, too,” Dale smiled. “I originally thought of going to Disney World, but no, that wasn’t an experience they approved of.”

“How long were you planning on being gone?” Sharon said with a barely concealed snicker that Bob knew her well enough to recognize.

“Two weeks,” Dawn said. “We’ve got a couple days before we leave on the cruise, we’re at least going to make a quickie stop at Disney World to say we’ve been there. I don’t know why they think it’s so damn bad. What would you suggest?”

“Well,” Sharon grinned. “What would you think of a nice, warm Caribbean beach, the surf crashing in, with lots of white sand that’s perfect for sunbathing, and in a place that would just absolutely send them up like a rocket ship?”

“The beach and all that sounds nice.” Dale grinned. “Sending them up like a rocket ship sounds better. In fact, sending them up in it on a one-way trip sounds better yet. You have something in mind, ma’am, I can see it on your face.”

“I’m Sharon,” she grinned. “Bob never got around to introducing me, but since we’re not married I guess it doesn’t matter. Yes, I do have a place in mind. If you have passports, which you have to for a cruise, and you can get your money back, grab an airliner for the island of St. Maartens, and get yourself a room in one of several hotels at a place called Orient Beach. It’s the off season down there right now, so the prices wouldn’t be too bad.”

“Ohhh,” Bob grinned. “Sharon, you are evil personified. Dale, Dawn, I have no idea what your parents are like or even who they are, but I’ll bet dollars to doughnut holes that you can set off at least one stroke or heart attack with that, most likely more.”

“Why?” Dawn said with a grin. “What’s so bad about that?”

“Nothing’s bad about it,” Sharon grinned. “In fact, if you’re in the slightest bit into it it’s a wonderful place. But the question is, how would your parents react to finding out that instead of taking the cruise that they’d crammed down your throats, that you spent your honeymoon at the Western Hemisphere’s largest and best known nude beach?”

“Nude beach?!?” Dawn just about exploded herself. “But I could never … we could never …” she sputtered, trying to find words.

“You don’t have to, that’s the beauty of it,” Sharon smiled. “What they think and what you do can be two different things. You can stay fully dressed if you wanted to, or go the full Monty if you want. Although, I would suggest that if I were in your position that I’d at least strip down and have one set of photos taken that show you totally in the buff. That would make a nice souvenir of your honeymoon, and a nuclear weapon when you drop them on your parents.”

“I’m with Bob,” Dale laughed, in fact, fighting the words out through the laughter that threatened to overwhelm him. “Sharon, you really are evil personified. What a wonderful idea! Honey, that would really show them in one photo that we don’t intend to let them run our lives.”

“We’d never hear the end of it,” Dawn sniffed, but still managing to fight off laughter herself. “Honey, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we got married in spite of everything, but I’m still pissed about the way it came about. That was pretty damned rude of them, and I should have said something but it was too hard to do at the time.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “But I didn’t want to risk losing you over their stupidity. I’d rather lose them right now than lose you. Let’s do it, and what’s more, let’s go all the way. Get some all-over tans and plenty of photos. We don’t have to spend the full time, we can head out to Colorado and get things set up there before we come back here. And let’s not sneak out, but tell them right up front what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”

“They’re going to shit bricks,” Dawn grinned. “But they deserve to shit bricks after what they did to us. Bob, Sharon, I’m so glad we met you. I think I was scared all along that they were going to screw up our marriage before it got started. God, I’m going to be so scared to strip down to nothing, but it’s nothing like how scared I’m going to be to face our parents. I think if I can find the courage to strip down at a nude beach, though, I can find the courage to face them down.”

“I told you,” Bob said. “You are responsible for your own happiness. If you’re going to be facing something you know is going to make you unhappy, then deal with it, don’t just let it drag you down. We have to face enough horseshit in this life to put up with something that’s not necessary.”

“You’re right,” Dawn said. “I don’t want to have to deal with them the way they seem to want us to deal with them. They’re going to just about disown us, though, especially our mothers. In the long run I don’t know how we can deal with that.”

“Are the two of you planning on having kids?” Sharon asked.

“Yeah, but not right away,” Dale said. “We want to get college out of the way first.”

“That’s probably the best idea,” Sharon said. “But that gives you the time to develop your own relationship. Then when the first grandchild comes along you’ll have a chance to heal things. There are not many women who can resist the lure of a grandchild.”

“Sharon,” Dale asked. “How do you know all this stuff, anyway?”

“I get around,” Sharon grinned. “That’s one of the benefits of age, after all.”

“Look,” Bob said. “I’m serious about this. If you come out to Colorado State, get in touch with me. I’ve got a few strings I can pull, and you’ll have a friend in Fort Collins.”

“Maybe two friends,” Sharon grinned. “I’m thinking about moving in with Bob out there, but we haven’t settled anything yet. If I do, we can be sort of surrogate parents to you, and maybe help you over the tough spots.”

“Jesus, I wish our parents had been half as understanding,” Dale said. “If you get right down to it, they didn’t want us to get married at all. They had someone else picked out for each of us, and we kind of fucked that up when we got together. And then we got caught. Sharon, Bob, it’s been one hell of a mess, but at least we’re married, and we haven’t had an arranged marriage with someone else crammed down our throats.”

“Right,” Dawn said sourly. “Although I expect to hear for the rest of my life when anything goes wrong that everything would have been all right if I’d just listened to them and married Burke.”

“All the more reason to declare your independence,” Bob said. “Gloria Potvin.”

“Gloria Potvin?” Sharon gasped. “That, well, I guess pig is a good word. Slob, maybe? Your folks were trying to set you up with her?”

“I wouldn’t say trying to set me up,” Bob said. “Pushing her at me real hard at least. Fortunately she saved my ass by getting pregnant by someone else and then marrying him. If she hadn’t married him, they’d have still been shoving her at me, baby or no baby. I still hear, ‘If you’d just listened to us about Gloria …’ and all that shit.” He turned to Dale and Dawn. “Sharon and I were just at our twenty-year class reunion. Gloria wasn’t in our class, she was a year behind us, but I ran into her on the street when I visited home a few years ago. She turned out just as bad as I thought she would. Worse. Like I said, Colorado is a thousand miles from Michigan, and I’m damn glad of it.” He let out a sigh and continued, “Look, if things go worse than you’re supposing, you may be lucky to get out of Michigan with your asses and the clothes on your backs. If that’s what happens, consider yourself lucky. Like I told you, I’ll be your friend and help you out where I can. All I had when I got out of the army sixteen years ago was a duffel bag full of clothes, a beat up old car, and the GI Bill. Maybe that’s why I’m willing to put myself out for you kids a little – I’ve been there, I’ve done that, I know what it’s like.”

“Thanks,” Dale said. “I really mean it. You don’t know how hard it’s been to just be the two of us and not feel like we had anyone on our side.”

“For sure,” Dawn agreed. “I wish we could have done it the way we wanted to, but at least it’s done. This whole thing has been an embarrassment at best.” She snuggled up next to her husband. “Dale, they’re right. If we’re going to enjoy ourselves we’re going to have to declare our independence. Are you still happy you married me?”

“Of course I am, honey,” he said. “I wish we could have done it on our schedule, but at least it’s done and that’ll end some of the issues.”

“God,” she said, tears coming to her face. “I wish I could be a virgin for you like I wanted. God damn them for that, too.”

“Honey, what’s done is done,” he said. “I don’t care about that, I’ve told you time and again. That’s another issue, and we’ll just have to live with it.”

Bob glanced at Sharon. Clearly, there was something else there that hadn’t come out yet. He could see from the look in her eyes that she agreed.

Sharon was the one to decide first to stick her neck out. “I suppose it would be nice to be a virgin on my wedding night,” she observed casually. “Of course, it’s not going to happen even if I were to get married. There’s something to be said for not having to deal with that issue on top of everything else on that momentous day.”

Dawn almost immediately broke down in tears, and shoved her face into her husband’s chest for comfort, while Dale looked daggers back across at Sharon. There could be no doubt that there was something there even deeper than Bob had thought.

“It’s not that, Sharon,” Dawn sobbed. “It’s not that I didn’t want to be a virgin on my wedding night, it’s that I wasn’t allowed to be.”

“Not allowed to be?” Sharon said gently but with obvious concern. “Dawn, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Dale just shook his head pointedly at Sharon, warning her not to take it further. It was obvious that this was an especially painful point. “Honey, it’s all right,” he said again. “That’s in the past now.”

“How can we be sure?” she sobbed. “I’m just scared that he’ll come for me again.”

Oh, shit, Bob thought, putting two and two together. He glanced across at Sharon, and could see that he could just about read her mind. If two and two made four, her parents, maybe their parents, had to be even worse assholes than he’d already thought. “Dawn,” he said. “It’s all right. Sharon and I shouldn’t pry.”

“Oh, no,” she sobbed. “It’s just … well … you’ve already helped us with so much … Bob, Sharon, I was raped.”

“Raped?” Sharon said gently. “Burke?”

Dawn just nodded weakly. “It was after we … we were caught,” she sobbed, clinging desperately to her husband. “We were … just making each other happy with our mouths … but we had to agree to get married.” She turned and sobbed into her husband some more, not quite able to get the words out.

Bob could see Dale give an “Oh, hell” look and shook his head again. “He thought that since she’d been promised to him that he should at least get something out of the deal. I don’t know if her folks were in on the deal or not. They might have been, they might have thought it was some way to get the two of them together after all.”

“Shit,” Bob shook his head. “Let me guess. Your parents are involved with the Disciples of the Savior, right? Deacons, maybe even preachers?”

“Why yes?” Dale replied. “How did you guess?”

“Takes one to know one. My father is a deacon, and I’ve never met a serious member of the Disciples of the Savior who isn’t a purebred asshole. I can tell stories, but now is not the time. Did you go to the police, Dawn?”

“N-n-n-no,” she sobbed. “My parents said they’d throw me out of the house for whoring myself to him. They’d have told the police that.”

“Dale,” Bob said. “Michigan is an on-demand issue state. Have you dealt with it?”

“No,” he said. “I’ve dreamed of it, but I don’t want to go to prison to even up what he did. Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord.”

“No,” Bob said flatly. “Take it from a son of a Disciples of the Savior deacon, vengeance is a dish best served cold. Better get your base established first before you deal with the issue.”

“I at least wanted to be able to give you my virginity,” Dawn sobbed. “But they even took that away from me.”

Sharon let out a long sigh. “Bob, Dale,” she said. “Go look at the moon. Go for a swim. Go bum a cigarette or something. I think this calls for girl talk. I really wish Eve were here, but she’s not, so I’ll have to fake it.”

“I don’t know that I should be away from her,” Dale protested.

“Maybe you’d better,” Sharon said. “Like I said, this calls for girl talk. Come on Dawn, you can cry on my shoulder for a few minutes.”

“Yeah, Dale,” Bob conceded. “I could really stand a cigarette right now.”

“I don’t smoke,” he said. “But right now seems like a good time to start.”

“You really don’t want to,” Bob said as he stood up, following Dale up the short flight of stairs. “Believe me, you don’t want to. But I can’t blame you. Mine are up in the room, but maybe I can find one to bum around here somewhere.” Taking Dale by the arm, he led them away from the hot tub, far enough away to be out of earshot, but not so far that the women were out of sight.

Bob looked around, saw someone smoking, and went over and asked for a cigarette and a light, explaining that his were up in his room. The heavy-set bearded guy told him sure thing, as smokers have to stick together these days, and handed him a cigarette and a small disposable lighter. Bob lit the cigarette, thanked him, and led Dale away a few feet, where they sat down on the edge of a planter. He took a long, deep drag on the cigarette, let the smoke out, and said, “Shit.” That seemed to sum the situation up succinctly.

“Jesus,” Dale said in a small voice. “I wanted to beat the shit out of him, but it didn’t seem like enough. You see why.”

“Yeah,” Bob said, taking another drag on the cigarette. “Fucking Disciples of the Savior. I guess that shit runs true. Like I said, secure your base, let it grow cold and maybe you can get away with it without getting caught. It also gives you time to come up with an airtight plan, that usually works better than a reaction in anger.”

“You sound like you really have a case with the Disciples of the Savior,” Dale observed – not critically, just as a comment.

“Yeah, I do,” Bob said. “Like I said, my old man is one but we’ve managed to patch things over somewhat so long as he stays the hell out of my life. My mother is one too, but she just goes along with him.” He took another drag on the cigarette and continued. “Look there was a girl in Sharon’s and my class, her dad was, still is, the local Disciples’ pastor. I don’t know the details but he tried to pull a deal like that on her. Well, bless her heart, she told him right exactly where to stick it, flew out to Nevada, and got a job in a whorehouse, just rub to it in.”

“That’s pretty desperate,” Dale said.

“Yeah, when Dawn used that ‘whore’ word in that context it really set me off,” Bob said. “I have to say that it worked out pretty well for her in the long run. She’s a multi-millionaire now, entirely self made, has her PhD and doesn’t have to have anyone run her life for her. When Dawn said that, well, that’s what I thought.”

“Maybe I ought to tell Dawn that story sometime,” he said.

“I don’t think you’ll have to, I think Sharon is probably telling it to her right now. Or something else, with Sharon you never know for sure.”

“Who was that Eve she mentioned?”

“Another classmate,” Bob sighed, taking another drag on the cigarette; it was getting down a little now as he had been working hard on it. “She’s a clinical psychologist and has experience with those kinds of issues. She had some issues of her own but at least her parents supported her rather than fighting her. God knows if I could have been as cool with what those issues of hers were, but that’s another story.”

“This has really torn Dawn up,” he said. “I was afraid it was going to come out again. I really wish I’d shot the son of a bitch.”

“Let it grow cold,” Bob advised. “Hey, I’m no expert, but I’ve had time to read more murder mysteries than you have. Give it two or three or five years, sneak into the area with a very cold gun, give him Excedrin headache number three five seven right between the eyes – hell, that’s an old joke, older than you are, so if you don’t know what I mean don’t worry about it – then clear the area and lose the piece a long ways away. There are a lot of unsolved cases out there, more than the cops will admit to, and that’s the basics of how most of them are done. But I will also tell you this: living well is the best revenge. People like that have a way of bringing their own vengeance on themselves. Maybe the Bible is right on that, but I can think of plenty of instances from the Old Testament where the aggrieved would have used a .357 if they’d had one available.”

“Yeah, you’re right on that,” he said. “I don’t want to see anyone else hurt, though.”

“Wrong,” Bob said. “You don’t want to see yourself or Dawn hurt any more. If you fixed it that way you could cause yourself more trouble for the both of you than you’re already in. Right now, it comes down to what I’ve been telling you. Declare your independence, clear the area, and get lost. We can’t make it impossible for you to be tracked down but we can make it hard. The fact that you never met us before tonight and have no visible connections to us is a big plus. By the way, right now you’ve got me so paranoid that I’d tell you to skip the cruise, whether you get your money back or not, and just disappear. If this Burke is as bad as you say, you might just find yourself taking a long swim off a short deck in the middle of the ocean.”

“You don’t think …”

“Hell no, I don’t know what to think, but I’m just wondering what bomb you kids are going to drop on us next. Maybe I’m just dramatizing, maybe I’ve read too goddamn many cheap novels. But you should always plan for the worst case and be happy if it doesn’t happen.”

“Do you think that’s what Sharon is telling Dawn?”

“I have no damn idea. Honestly, Dale, I hadn’t seen Sharon in twenty years until yesterday, I don’t know her that well, but I do know she’s one sharp lady even if she can be irritating as hell at times. You haven’t seen that part of her, but if you come out to Fort Collins and she’s there as well, you probably will sooner or later. But if I had to guess, she’s not talking about the same things we’ve been. Women’s minds run in different tracks than men’s. I don’t know much about women but I do know that. My guess is that she’s doing something to make Dawn feel better about herself, I don’t know. I’m telling you that Dawn is going to have to be protected, loved, and cherished if she’s to feel better about herself. Kid, I know you’re starting out on a tough row to hoe, but the two of you had better damn well handle it or you don’t deserve each other, anyway.” He glanced up to see Sharon and Dawn waving at them. “OK, kid,” he smiled. “Get your game face on, they want us back. My guess is that Sharon has managed to patch Humpty Dumpty back together again, for the moment anyway. You get to do it next time.”

“Hey, Bob,” Dale said slowly. “Whatever happens, thanks.”

“Don’t thank me,” Bob said as they turned back toward the hot tub. “I just gave you some free advice and it could well be worth just what you paid for it. Bottom line is that you’re responsible for your own happiness, and if you fuck it up you’ve got no one but yourself to blame.”

“Well, I’m just damn glad we ran into you and Sharon,” the younger man replied. “Like I said, you’re the first people we’ve come across who can see our side.”

“I don’t know if getting older makes you any wiser, but it at least gives you more chances to get around the block,” Bob laughed. “I wasn’t joking about coming out to Fort Collins. Just know that if you do you have a friend.”

“Thanks,” he said. “It’ll be good to have one.”

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