9.11 - 35. Chapter 35

September 10, 2001

“What?” JJ demanded rudely as he answered his phone.

“I want to know what your plans for today are,” I replied in a firm way.

“I just got in last night, so I thought I’d sleep in. It’s not working, for some reason,” he said, being a smartass.

“If you’d called me when you got in last night, we could have worked this out, and I wouldn’t be bothering you now,” I said in a patronizing way. “So what are you doing today?”

“I figured I’d go shopping or something like that this afternoon,” he said.

“Fine,” I said, even though I was disappointed. I’d have to cancel my plans with Gary. “I’m going to Columbia with Grand this morning. He’s guest lecturing.”

“Have fun. Call me when you get back,” he said, and hung up. I turned to Grand. “Someone is cranky this morning.”

He chuckled. “I have been the victim of jet lag many times in my life. I do much better with it now than when I was JJ’s age.”

“Something to look forward to when I get old and things stop working,” I said. He gave me a dubious look, and then reviewed his notes, even as the limo drove slowly uptown in morning traffic.

“We’re almost there,” the driver prompted, Grand’s cue to put his notes away. The car pulled up to the campus and dropped us off. Grand grabbed his satchel bag and strode confidently toward a building.

“No riot this time,” I joked to him.

“There does not appear to be,” he noted. “It is a remarkably quiet and peaceful time in our history.”

“People are all about making money, not about carrying signs and yelling,” I teased, even though it was true.

“I am better prepared for a riot this time,” he joked. I looked at him questioningly. “Last time, Jeff and I were carrying boxes of materials, and weighted down. Now all I have is this,” he said, tapping his bag. “And you.”

“I can be handy,” I joked.

“If there’s a young man who requires seduction,” he replied.

“I seem to be surrounded by all these gay guys who never had sex when they were younger,” I observed. “I’m betting you racked up some serious numbers back in the day.”

He got embarrassed by that, which I chalked up as a win for me. “I was not celibate,” he allowed.

I laughed. “You look great now. I’ll bet when you were younger, you were smokin’ hot.”

“Thank you,” he said curtly, to try and end my commentary on his sex life.

“Let me know if you see a dude you want me to do,” I said with a leer. He gave me a frustrated look, and then walked into a large building. We were greeted by a really cute guy who had that Bohemian look, the one that made him look like he was a smart heroin addict.

“Professor Crampton?” he asked. Grand nodded. “I’m Justin Brice. I work for Professor Morrissey. I’m here to help you however I can.” I managed to avoid laughing at his double entendre.

“This is my grandson, Will.” I shook the guy’s hand, grimacing at his spongy grip, but raised my eyebrows slightly to flirt anyway. It made him uncomfortable, which was totally cute.

“Nice to meet you,” he said, then turned his attention back to Grand. I thought it was funny that he wasn’t interested in me at all, but he was pretty into Grand. “Let me show you where to set up.”

We went into a big lecture hall, and up to the podium, where the computer was already up and running. Grand popped his flash drive into the USB port, loaded up his presentation, flipped through the first few slides, and seemed a bit confused.

“What’s wrong?” Justin asked.

“Nothing,” Grand said. “It was easier to set up than usual.”

“I tried to get everything ready for you,” Justin said, but in a flirtatious way.

“And you have done a remarkably good job,” he said. He jotted a few things down on his notes, and then turned back to Justin. “Where is the nearest restroom?”

“Let me show you,” Justin said.

“I’ll hang out and guard your stuff,” I said. They walked off, chattering away. The lecture wasn’t supposed to start for another hour, so I hung out and looked over Grand’s notes, noticing that he’d been gone a long time. After half an hour had elapsed, I took a pen and inserted a note in his opening line. It originally read: “I’d like to thank Professor Morrissey for inviting me back to Columbia, and I’d like to thank Justin Brice for his help in setting up today.” I drew a line after the period pointing to the margin where I wrote: “and for giving me an amazing morning orgasm in the bathroom.” I giggled, then put everything back just like it was. I snagged a seat in front, and got a pad of paper and pen out to look like I was a student, and to doodle with.

Grand came back about fifteen minutes before the presentation and was mobbed by faculty members who came by to greet him. I stayed in my seat, but made sure he knew where I was so I could help him out if he needed assistance. I felt a thump as someone sat next to me, and turned to face its new occupant, a very handsome guy with hair so blond it was almost white. “Anyone sitting here?” he asked, probably because I was staring.

“You,” I said, and smiled.

He chuckled. “I didn’t think I’d make it on time. Fucking subway was packed today.”

“You’ve got five minutes to spare,” I said.

“I didn’t want to miss this,” he said. “The last time he was here, it was legendary.”

“You mean back in 1968?” I asked.

“Yeah. This place was fucking crazy then.” It was hard to imagine, since things were so calm now.

“You a history major?” I asked.

“No,” he shook his head. “Econ. But I love history.”

“So you’re here just for the hell of it?” I asked.

He gave me a weird look. “Duh.”

I shrugged. “I figured you had to be here, for a class or something.”

“Those people sit in the back,” he joked. “What about you? What are you majoring in?”

“I don’t know,” I said, which was true, sort of.

“Everyone, please have a seat,” an older professor said, preparing to get things underway.

He shrugged. “You’ll figure it out.”

“Probably,” I agreed.

The old professor stood at the podium more purposefully this time, and began introducing Grand. He talked about his educational background, with degrees from Harvard and Princeton, and about his academic career, with positions at Northwestern and Stanford. He listed some of his publications, presumably the more illustrious ones, and talked about various conferences he’d talked at. The whole thing was very long and very impressive. I remembered when Grand had done the opening of the amphitheater this summer, and how he’d forced them to truncate his intro. This is what he was trying to avoid. I looked over and saw him get uncomfortable, because he didn’t want to seem too vain. “Dude, he’s blushing. Cute,” the dude next to me said.

“Totally,” I agreed, stifling a laugh. I wondered if Grand would talk this guy into fucking him too.

Grand took the stage and I was totally focused. He was such a good speaker, and even though there had to be over three hundred people in this auditorium, he was so good at connecting with the audience he had them firmly in his grip. I loved watching him in action like this. He started to read his introduction. “I’d like to thank Professor Morrissey for inviting me back to Columbia, and I’d like to thank Justin Brice for his help in setting up today.” He paused as he looked at my note, blushed furiously, and looked over at me. It was all I could do not to laugh my ass off. “And I am suddenly reminded that I need to introduce my own assistant, my grandson, Will Schluter.” He gestured to me, and I sort of halfway stood up, while everyone clapped for Justin, Professor Morrissey, and me.

“You gonna tell him I said he was cute?” the dude next to me asked. I held back a giggle.

“You want me to?” I asked. After that, I focused on Grand’s talk. He spoke mostly about 1968, talking about his prior visit here, and on the situation that he witnessed. He used that as an excuse to frame the civil rights movement, and to talk about race relations in the country. He also used it to segue into talks on the Vietnam War.

His talk on Vietnam was fascinating, as he talked about the way it was sold to the people as a part of the war against Communism, when in reality it was a civil war, designed to prop up the uneven social order. “While it was a tragic war, a pointless war, I am hoping that the lessons we learned will make it worthwhile in the end.”

“What lessons do you think we learned?” the guy next to me asked, interrupting Grand’s talk. The other professors glared at him, outraged, but Grand gave him a gentle smile.

“Now that is an excellent question. I will share my opinion with you. I think that getting into a war is easy, but getting out is hard, so it is important to have a good exit strategy. We saw that effectively demonstrated during the recent Gulf War. I think that war is the most horrible thing man can do, so if it is to be engaged in, the reasons must be just, and they must be transparent. War is not something that should be sold to the people, it is something that must be so compelling that the people demand it. And finally, I think that we should never risk our own troops in a civil war where we align firmly with one side. It’s kind of like a divorce, where at the end, both the spouses end up hating the attorneys.” That got a chuckle. “In that situation, we are the equivalent of the attorneys.”

Grand got back on track seamlessly, but now that the dude next to me had interrupted, others did as well, and Grand’s lecture evolved from a lecture into a discussion. It was masterful. “I hope I didn’t piss him off,” the dude next to me said.

“No,” I whispered back. “Look how awesome this talk has become, all because you took the risk and asked a question.”

He smiled at me, then tore a piece of paper out of his notebook and wrote on it, then surreptitiously passed it to me. “Wanna come to a party tonight?”

“Maybe,” I wrote. “Details?” I pushed the paper back to him.

He wrote down the address, his cell phone number, and 9:00pm. I responded by giving him my cell phone number. He jotted down something else and passed it back to me. “There will be a lot of gay guys there.”

I smiled, took out another piece of paper, and wrote “Good. I’ll fit right in,” and handed it back to him, remembering to write down my phone number for him again, so he could keep that piece of paper. He looked at me, raised an eyebrow flirtatiously, and then programmed my number into his cell phone. When Grand was done, the applause was loud, and then he was mobbed at the podium.

“I’m Alan, by the way,” the dude next to me said.

“Will, but you already knew that,” I said. “Can I bring my brothers?”

“Sure,” he said.

“They’re not gay,” I said.

“Dude, there will be all kinds of people there, but I didn’t want you to freak out if you saw two dudes making out,” he said.

“Turned on, but not freaked out,” I joked.

“I need to get up to talk to him,” he said, referring to Grand.

“That’s something I can help you with,” I said. I dragged him past all the others up to Grand and introduced him. “This is Alan. He invited me to a party later.”

“Nice to meet you,” Grand said to Alan, then turned to me. “Try not to corrupt his friends.”

“That’s why he invited me,” I said playfully. Alan had to take off for another class, but asked me again to come to the party. Grand and I managed to get ourselves out of there in half an hour, which I thought was pretty impressive.

“I was nervous that you may have scribbled in additional notes in my presentation,” he said to me dourly.

“It’s hard to fit bathroom sex into civil wars,” I said. He blushed, and ignored me.

By the time we got back to the hotel, JJ was ready to go, which was kind of a surprise. He was usually running late unless he was going to a skating event. We wandered up and down Fifth Avenue, shopping at several stores along the way, while he told me all about his latest competition. “I’m sorry I couldn’t go see you.”

“S’OK,” he said in his casual way.

“This ceremony came up, and I couldn’t miss any more school.”

“I get it,” he said, blowing off my explanation.

We took a break to get some food, and managed to snag a nice quiet table. “You doing OK?” I asked him seriously.

“Yeah,” he said dismissively. I just looked at him, demanding more. “I’m getting over it, OK?” He was referring to his former coach molesting him, the thing I’d been worried about.

“Good,” I said with a smile. “Every once in a while I need to hear you say you’re dealing with it, so I don’t worry.”

“Be careful. If you spend all your time worrying about me, you’ll turn into Dad, and start treating me like he treats you,” he snapped.

“Whatever.”

“He’s such a pain in the ass,” JJ groused, referring to our dad. “It’s like he can’t control your life, so now he’s all into my shit. He tried with Darius, but got shut down pretty fast.”

“I’ll bet,” I said, laughing at Dad trying to get any personal info out of Darius. “If the price for having him out of your business is letting him get all into my life, you’re fucked.”

“Thanks,” he said sarcastically. “Even Stef is sick of his shit.”

“Then why doesn’t he come home?” I asked.

“Because he has to grovel to you and Grand, and he doesn’t want to do that,” JJ said, as if that made complete sense.

“What’s with these people who can’t admit when they fuck up?”

“They have pride,” he said. Of course he’d understand them, since he was like that too.

“Sounds like pride can make you lonely.”

He thought about that. “Maybe,” he finally agreed. We paid our bill and did more shopping. I bought some of those G-string underwear I’d seen guys dancing in at the bar in Chicago, and in Rome last year. “What are you getting those for?” JJ asked, full of disdain.

“I don’t know, but I’ll probably use them to piss Dad off,” I joked. He shook his head, even as he laughed.

It was good to spend time with JJ and to bond with him to the degree that he’d let me, but our shopping was truncated when his phone rang. “We have to get back to the hotel. They landed, and they’re on their way there,” he said, annoyed. I thought it was interesting that they called JJ and not me.

“That’s cool,” I said, and we lugged our shit out to the car for the brief ride back to the hotel. Grand had booked a big suite with two bedrooms, one of which I’d appropriated. I’d offered to switch to a regular room when everyone got here, but he told me to stay put. JJ and I took his shit to his room, and then I went up to my room with my packages and dropped them on the bed. I took a quick shower, more to refresh myself than because I was dirty, then went out into the main area to find everyone assembled.

“Hey!” Robbie said pleasantly, and gave me a big hug. “I heard you were all cerebral this morning.”

“I went to some boring lecture,” I said, getting a frown from Grand, “then I went shopping with JJ.”

“S’up,” Darius said, and gave me a man-hug, one of his warmest forms of greeting.

“Got invited to a party tonight. Wanna go?”

“What kind of lame-ass party would you be invited to?” he joked.

“Cute guy from Columbia asked me,” I said.

“We’ll see,” he said. Dad stood off to the side with Stef, both of them giving me rather dour looks, but I took a page out of Darius’ manual and completely ignored them.

“I received a call from Wade not too long ago,” Grand said. “He, Matt, Tiffany, Nana, and Riley are all coming up tomorrow for the ceremony.”

“Awesome!” I said.

“So here’s the plan for tomorrow,” Darius said, firmly taking charge. “I talked to Mom this morning, and she wants us in the ceremony.” He gestured to me and JJ.

“She decided that now?” JJ asked, seriously annoyed.

“Yeah. Hank thought that all of Mom’s sons should be up there with her,” Darius said, with a tone in his voice warning JJ not to be an asshole about this. “We’re already wearing tuxes, so it’s not a big deal.”

“Not to you,” JJ said in a snit. He was still pissed off at Mom for blowing him off after she got out of the hospital.

Darius ignored him. “The ceremony isn’t until nighttime.”

“At 9:11,” I interjected, getting a chuckle from JJ for their corniness.

“Right,” Darius said, shooting me a warning look. “But they want to do a rehearsal before then. That happens tomorrow morning at 9:00. We’re supposed to be there early, at 8:30.”

“In the morning,” JJ grumbled, and shook his head.

“In the morning,” Darius confirmed. “So in the morning, the three of us and Pop are going to go over to the place where they’re getting hitched,” Darius said. “I think that’s in the South Tower. In the meantime, Dad and Stef have to go to some lame ass conference in the North Tower. We all get back together for lunch, then meet Mom and Hank for dinner before the ceremony.”

“I’m not going to some rehearsal at nine in the morning,” JJ said, totally rebelling.

“Yeah, you are,” Darius said, squaring off with him.

“Fuck off,” JJ said.

“You can be a little bitch to everyone else, but not to me,” Darius said, and moved toward JJ in a threatening way.

“Blow me,” JJ said. That was pretty odd, since JJ usually backed down when Darius got pissed off.

“I’ll do it,” I joked, to bring some levity to the situation. It had the effect of short-circuiting Darius’ anger, and freaking JJ out. Dad looked annoyed at me being slutty, at least from what I saw of his expression. I was avoiding looking directly at him. “I’ve got an idea.”

“What?” Darius demanded, pissed off at me for getting involved.

“You and I will go to the rehearsal tomorrow morning, and JJ can skip it, then I can fill him in on what he’s supposed to do tomorrow night when we’re hanging out in the afternoon,” I said. I was actually more worried that JJ would totally rebel and refuse to be in the ceremony at all, so this was my way of getting around that.

“That will work as long as JJ’s not a total douche tomorrow night,” Darius said.

JJ gave him a hateful look, and then turned to me. “I can do that.”

“What are you doing tomorrow morning?” I asked Grand.

“I am meeting with some people at New York University,” he said.

“Tonight we’re going over to Mom’s house for dinner,” Darius said, throwing that out. “We get there by 6:30, so we meet here at 6:00, then leave at 6:15.” He made sure to get an acknowledgment of agreement from all of us.

“So we should be done in time to go to that party later?” I asked him.

“Probably,” he agreed.

“What party?” Dad asked. We ignored him.

“I’m taking a nap,” JJ announced, and walked out of the room, and back to his own.

“You’re going to a party in New York City?” Dad asked again, only he asked so loudly I couldn’t ignore him.

“It’s either that, or hit up the gay bars. Darius doesn’t like those,” I said.

“No shit,” Darius said. “Last time I went to one I almost jacked a dude for grabbing my ass.”

“You did not expect that?” Stef joked. It was the first thing he’d said since he’d gotten here, which was so unlike him.

“Well yeah, when you look as good as this, you expect it,” Darius said, being cocky and cracking us up. “Look, a sly grab is one thing, but when it’s a full blown grip and squeeze, that’s bullshit.”

“There will be gay guys at this one too,” I said. “I’ll try to guard your ass.”

“I can take care of myself,” he said, being cocky.

“Is Ella coming to the ceremony tomorrow?” Stef asked. He waited for Darius to answer, but he said nothing.

“No,” Robbie said.

“I have a nap to take,” I announced.

“I would like to speak with you before you do,” Stef said. I just looked at him, while tension in the room soared.

“So speak,” I said.

“I am wondering if you think it is out of line for us to worry about you, and your libertine ways,” he said.

“I do,” I said firmly. “Only it’s not really about worrying, it’s about control. Doesn’t matter either way, you’re still out of line.”

“It is not about control,” Dad asserted.

“Whatever,” I said, really pissing him off.

“Are you going to do this again?” Darius asked Dad, seriously annoyed. “Is that what you’re planning to do? You guys are going to fight during this whole trip?”

“I’m not fighting with anyone,” I told him. “My life is set up pretty much how I want it, and I’m cruising along. And it’s not going to change.”

“You’re awfully confident,” Dad said, a veiled threat in his tone.

“I am,” I said. “Have you talked to your attorney about this?”

“I’m not planning to sue you,” he snapped.

“Then I don’t see how things are going to change,” I said matter-of-factly.

“Emancipation can be revoked,” he said firmly.

“Can it?” I asked sarcastically. “What for?”

He looked confused, and I got then that he hadn’t talked to his lawyer, just like I hadn’t talked to mine. We’d spent all this time posturing, assuming that we knew what the law said, when we hadn’t had a clue. “If the court grants it, they can take it away.”

“You made a big deal about this, tossed all kinds of threats at me, and damaged ties that I have with other family members who idiotically listened to you,” I said, glaring at Stef. “You claim you care about me, but you totally destroyed our relationship, which shows how much bullshit that is. So now it pretty much is all I can do just to muster the energy to be in the same room with you.” I paused to get my anger under wraps. “That’s why I know it was about control, because if you really gave a shit about me, you never would have driven me away.”

“I’m worried that you’ll keep on doing stupid shit until you get hurt,” he said emphatically. “You’re going to be fifteen years old this weekend, and now you’re going to another college party, this time in New York City!”

“Worry all you want. I don’t give a shit. I’m legally an adult, and there’s not a goddamn thing you can do to me. All you can do is keep being toxic, and keep driving wedges between people.” I got a look from Grand that reminded me my voice was getting loud. “Call your lawyer, and get a fucking clue. You can’t do shit to me. Once it’s done, it’s done.”

He could tell I wasn’t lying, and I could tell I’d thrown a big wrench in his plans. “We’ll see,” he said, to try to save face.

“We will. In the meantime, you can focus on trying to run Darius’ life. You’ll have better luck.”

“As if,” Darius said. “I’m taking a nap. You people fucking wear me out.” He walked out of the door, closing it loudly after him.

“You’ve done such a great job of showing everyone how much you care, and how much you love them,” I said to Dad snidely. “Look how much they want to be around you. I’ll bet they all flock home to have dinners with you at night, and I’ll bet they do everything they can to free up time to hang out with you.” He said nothing. “Do I have that wrong?” He still said nothing. “I didn’t think so.”

“I hope you guys all get this out of your systems before tonight,” Robbie warned.

I zeroed in on Stef. “How long are you going to pout in Malibu like a fucking second grader?”

“I do not appreciate your tone,” he said angrily.

“You should be groveling, if not to me than to Grand, asking him to forgive you for being such an ass, but you’re just as bad as Marie. You can’t stand the humiliation of admitting what a stupid mistake you made, so instead you sulk and make everyone else miserable.”

“I think that you could treat me better, and with more respect, based on all that I have done for you. I am always there for you, and I have always had your back, and you treat me like this, lash out at me like this. It is inexcusable,” Stef said, with all kinds of emotions flying out of his tall thin body, the strongest ones being general outrage and anger.

“I agree,” I said. “You have done a lot for me, in the past. You have had my back, in the past. You have always been there, in the past. And in the past, I treated you with respect, put you up on a pedestal, and damn near worshiped the ground you walked on. Tell me how that has anything to do with now.”

“You forget favors that people do for you that quickly?” he asked acidly. I don’t think I’d ever seen him this mad before. But there was no way I was backing down on this, and I wasn’t doing it for me, I was doing it more for Grand. Stef needed to get a clue.

“You’re ranting and raving at me for basically doing what you do, or would have done, if you were me. Isn’t imitation the highest form of flattery?” I shook my head at both Dad and Stef. “You two are bitter old men.”

“Old!?” Stef asked, completely outraged. I saw Robbie trying to hide his smirk.

“I’m going to take that nap now. That gives Dad a chance to call his lawyer and find out how fucked he really is, and it gives you a chance to try and find your soul,” I said to Stef. I walked into my room and slammed the door behind me, then put my ear against it to listen to what they said.

“I’ll see you all at 6:00,” I heard Robbie say, and then he left. No one else said anything, but I heard a door close, then I heard Dad and Stef talking, even as they were leaving; only I couldn’t discern what they were saying. I collapsed on the bed and slept soundly until an hour before we had to leave. Darius was right. They wore me out too.

I got up and got ready by 5:45, and even though I could have gone out into the living area of the suite, I stayed in my room. I figured that I would avoid everyone to the degree possible. When I finally walked out into the suite at 6:00 sharp, I was surprised to find only Stef waiting. “Where is everyone?” I asked. “Darius is going to be pissed off if we’re late.” I added that last sentence as a joke, making Stef smile.

“He is quite organized. At times,” he said, making me laugh. “Your father and Robbie opted to go over to your mother’s house early. Darius and JJ went with JP, as they were going to do a bit of shopping on the way.”

“Shopping?” That was surprising, since Darius didn’t like to shop, and JJ and I had done a lot of that this afternoon.

“They wanted to get something for your mother and Hank,” he explained. He saw the worried look on my face and put my fears to rest. “They said they would get something from all three of you.”

“That was nice,” I said. “So it’s just you and me?” I asked, and gave him a friendly look.

“I hope that does not upset you?” he asked.

“Not at all. Let’s go,” I said. We took the elevator down to the front, where a limo was waiting for us. “This hotel is pretty nice.”

“We picked it more for its convenient location than its attributes, but it has been a pleasant surprise,” he said. He got on the phone and told the driver to drive around, making sure to arrive at Mom’s house at 6:30, and then turned back to me. “I do not want to fight with you.”

“OK,” I said simply. I didn’t want to fight with him either. He looked at me, and started laughing, because my answer was so succinct. “You want to argue about not arguing, or you want to hear about my life at Menlo?”

“I am sorry,” he said to me sincerely. I wasn’t sure what he was sorry for, but I just took it as a global apology.

“Me too,” I said, in the same spirit, chiding myself for being so rude to him. I turned to face him and gave him a big hug, one that we held for a long time. I pulled away from him finally, and wiped the tears off his cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said. We sat there for a bit, just enjoying being in the same space and not really arguing. “Now tell me all about Menlo,” he said, cracking me up.

I told him all about Erik and the pictures of the warts, and the attempt to convince everyone that I had them. I told him about Ferris’ note, and I told him about John, and how we’d become tight again. “And there’s this cute young freshman dude who I think is crushing on me.”

“I did not realize you were going through so much at school,” he said sympathetically.

“Mr. Schluter, we’re here, and it’s 6:30,” the driver said over the intercom.

“We are going to be a little late,” he said to the driver, then turned back to me. “Tell me about this freshman.” I spent a few minutes talking to him about Cam and all his little gestures, and then we finally got out of the car and went inside.

We knocked, and then entered, as seemed appropriate since it was my mother’s house. There were two people busy cooking in the kitchen, so I led Stef up to the roof, where we found everyone sitting around, and they all looked pissed off at each other.

“Hello,” Stef said cheerfully, going into his social mode. “I absolutely love your home. It is fabulous!”

Mom forced a smile. “Thank you. Your suggestions were very helpful.”

“Hey there!” Hank said, and gave Stef a big hug, then gave him big smacking kisses on each cheek. I caught Darius’ eyes and we smirked at each other. After we got settled, things calmed down, and everyone was very civil. I didn’t know what had pissed them off, but they all hid it pretty well. We hung around after dinner until 9:30, then Darius and I bailed to go to the party. JJ opted not to join us and decided to return to the hotel with the rest of the family.