“Is that Marshall?” Dad’s voice carried through loud and clear, letting me know Mom had put me on speaker. “Are you winning the war?”
“Yet to be determined,” I said. “Hi, Dad.”
“Your mom tells me you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere while you wait for your car to get fixed. Are you okay for money? We can top your account up if you need more.”
Even as I rolled my eyes, I smiled. Trust Dad to worry about the financial aspect first. “I’m fine, Dad, but thank you for asking.”
“That’s what we’re here for, Marshall.”
“I know,” I said before I paused for half a second. “Um, can I ask you both something?”
“Of course, sweetheart,” Mom said, her interest obviously piqued.
Nibbling my bottom lip, I gave myself a moment before I asked, “Back when I was applying for colleges, did Anderson try to convince you that I should be sent to community college instead of going to college out of state?”
A fraught silence filled the line. I ran my fingers through my hair as I waited for a response.
When I began to wonder if the call had dropped out, Dad responded quietly and carefully, “We didn’t think it was fair to send only one of our children to college out of state. We thought they should each have a chance to spread their wings and find their own independence.”
I let my eyelids flutter closed and felt my shoulders slump. That was about as close to a confirmation as I was likely to get.
“And if that independence leads them in a different direction than they’d originally planned, then that’s okay,” Mom said just as carefully, with Dad grunting his agreement a moment later. “Life is nothing but a series of choices, Marshall. Sometimes those choices can be predictable and take you on the path you’d set yourself on. Other times, unpredictable opportunities can pop up that encourage you to go down a different path.”
I hummed my understanding.
“Has something unpredictable popped up?” Dad asked gently.
Wiggling my head from side to side while I sucked at my bottom lip, I wondered how to respond. Maybe it was best to just rip the band-aid off. “I’m not coming home. I’ve decided to stay in Rockdale.” I sucked in a deep breath. “At least for the next few months.”
Another silence fell between us before Mom eventually whooped with joy. “About damn time!”
I blinked. “What?” What was happening right now?
Dad chuckled. “We’d wondered if you would decide to do something different once you graduated. I owe your mom a date now.”
“Damn straight you do,” Mom said, her voice dancing with her obvious delight. “I won that bet fair and square.”
“What?” I repeated, blinking again but harder this time as resigned confusion filled me. “Youbeton me? On my future?!”
“Not like that,” Mom said soothingly. “And you didn’t know. We were very careful about making sure not to encourage you one way or the other.”
“I don’t know how to feel about this.” I stared blankly across the hallway at the beige wall, tracking a crack in the plaster down until it met the beige floor. I hadn’t realized how everything was so beige here in the hospital until I was consciously looking at them. “Does Anderson know about this bet of yours?”
“I don’t think so?” Mom asked, her voice lifting in question. I could easily imagine her looking at Dad to confirm one way or the other.
“No,” Dad agreed. “Although I won the bet about his future.”
“Because he came home,” I said, scratching my scalp, then pressing my thumb and forefinger into my eyes to relieve the headache I could feel teetering at the periphery of forming. Sometimes my parents were a lot to deal with.
“Your Dad was so sure he’d won this time too,” Mom responded cheekily, then turned her attention to Dad. “It’s not my fault you were convinced you’d won because he was on his way home. I told you anything could still happen. And look! Something did!”
“So,” I said, cutting in before Mom completely derailed the conversation. “You’re not mad? That I’m not coming home and working for you guys or Anderson?”
“Not at all,” Dad replied, confused. “Why would we be mad at you?”
“Anderson’s been blowing up my phone to make sure I drop everything to come back and start working for him.” I grimaced as I thought about the phone call that I’d had with him. “I just spoke with him and told him I wasn’t coming home, and he… uh… let’s say that he wasn’t exactly… happy… about the change in plans.”
“Did he, now?” Dad asked flatly, sounding completely unsurprised. “Well. Don’t worry about him, Marshall. We’ll handle him on this side.”
