S.D. Youngren - Rowena 6 - Rowena Moves In.txt

by Rowena Moves In

  "Hi," she said, to Sammy and to the part of Chester that was poking out from under her desk. Rowena looked uneasily at the pile of hardware all over her workspace; she wasn't at all sure she wanted it there, but there didn't seem to be much she could do about it right now. "I brought you some food."

  From under Rowena's desk came a grunting noise that might possibly have been meant to convey "Thanks." Rowena, after a moment's hesitation, set the plate down on top of her file box. She gave one of the sodas to Sammy, who thanked her intelligibly and was about to say something more when Chester demanded he grab a cable poking over the top of the desk. "Got it," said Sammy, and Chester wriggled out from under the desk and plugged the cable into the back of the gizmo that sat where Rowena's organizer had been.

  "Well, that's it for the cables," Chester said. "Your very own home network. Pretty soon you'll wonder how you ever managed without one."

  "I'm afraid I don't quite understand," Rowena said. She was aware of her party, going on without a host or hostess, on the other side of the wall.

  "You're going to have a network. Your own computer, hooked up to his. You can do . . . all kinds of things." He gazed at the beige boxes invading Rowena's territory. "And these are real good machines. Sure, they're obsolete, but they're obsolete professional machines." Rowena wondered whether this meant he took them from work.

  "I'm done with the cables," he repeated, "but you can stay and watch, if you like." This apparently was directed at both of them. Regarding his handiwork with satisfaction, Chester picked up his plate and surveyed its contents. Rowena was suddenly not sure it passed muster as proper nerd food.

  "Thanks, Chester," Sammy was saying, "but we really should be getting back to the party, if that's all right."

  "I'm afraid we're being a little rude to the other guests," Rowena said.

  "Sure," said Chester. "Fine." And he went back to work; as Rowena paused at the door he was typing away and swearing happily.

  "Do we really need all that stuff?" Rowena asked Sammy in a low voice. "What are we going to do with it?"

  "From what I gather, we're going to conquer the world, Chester style." Sammy smiled. "If you'd rather not conquer the world, I expect we can find some way around it, though not tonight."

  "Not tonight." They were back in the party now. Rowena's mother still had Rosemary cornered. "I know if I had a son," she was saying, "I would want the best for him. And I would especially want--" Rowena fled for the kitchen before she had to hear any more.

  But things were not much better there. Sammy's friend Dean, whom Rowena had met only once before, stood leaning against the counter and quizzing Sunnie Daye and Maralynne.

  "That stuff never holds up to scientific inquiry," he said. "Never."

  Sunnie appeared to be trying hard not to show her exasperation. "If you'd just read that book I told you--"

  "If it's for real," he said, "and you can do it, I know where we can get a million bucks for a demonstration. Split with you, fifty-fifty."

  "I--I--"

  "She's not in it for the money," Maralynne said.

  "You don't have to keep your half." He raised his glass. "Whaddaya say?"

  Rowena turned and found Terese by the door, listening and smiling to herself. Behind her now, she could hear Sunnie making some general excuse, only to be drowned out by Maralynne, indignantly demanding to know what made Dean think he was so smart anyway, when he didn't even know his own moon sign; and was he absolutely sure he was born in June and not, say, late December? Rowena squeezed out past Terese, even though it meant possibly having to listen to her mother again. Anything but her sister and Sunnie Daye. She took a moment to look around her, then drifted off to where Mike stood with Claudia and Sammy's cousin Jean, the three of them talking and laughing together.

  "And then," Claudia was saying, as Rowena approached, "Aunt Babette called up my mother and said, `Would Claudia happen to have any old boyfriends she's not using any more?'"

  "Oh, no!" cried Jean, as all three of them laughed and laughed, Claudia trying hard to finish what she'd been saying.

  "`Preferably,'" Claudia gasped, "`preferably cute ones?'" She saw Rowena hesitating nearby and waved her closer. "And my mother--my mother said--she said, `Well, would you rather have the scumbag or the mooch?'" Claudia, beside herself, grabbed at Rowena's arm; when she could speak she said, "Isn't that true, Rowena?"

  "I'm not sure I want into this conversation," Rowena said, quite content to leave off the end of the story, which Claudia seemed to have forgotten; her mother, apparently without batting an eye, had requested the mooch.

  "But it happened."

  "It happened." Rowena looked at them all in turn. "Have you guys been talking about my mother the whole time?"

  "No, of course not," Claudia said. "What do you take us for?"

  "We were also talking about your sister," said Jean.

  "Sorry," added Mike.

  Rowena looked at him, then at the others, pondering her next remark. From the kitchen Maralynne, evidently exasperated beyond all endurance, cried, "You can't catch an angel in a test tube, stupid. They're angels."

  Rowena closed her eyes. "Excuse me," she said.

  In the kitchen she found her sister and Sunnie Daye making what appeared to be a sort of Last Stand. "There is none so blind as he who will not see." Sunnie Daye's prim voice, raised, was not so prim any more.

  "You know what they call it," said Dean, "when somebody sees things that aren't there?"

  "You think you're so smart just 'cause you went to college!" said Maralynne furiously. "Well, my sister went to college! So there!"

  Rowena stared at her. Dean stared at her. So did Terese, leaning now by the fridge. Rowena looked at Dean and Terese, and after a moment Dean and Terese looked at Rowena. "Smarties!" said Maralynne, in triumph. "And my boyfriend went to college too! And he said for me it would be a waste of time!"

  Rowena tried to think of something to say. She was saved by Sammy, who popped his head through the doorway and said, "Dean?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Chester's got the network rigged up and he wants to show `all the guys.' So if you're free . . ." And Sammy made a small beckoning movement with his head.

  "Chester went to college," Maralynne told him. He looked at her a moment, then at Rowena, who could only give a small shrug. She couldn't see Terese just now, but she could almost hear the storm of giggles building up inside her.

  "Free enough," Dean said. He looked over in Terese's direction. "They're all yours now," he said. "If you want 'em." And he and Sammy left.

  "Um, actually, Terese," Rowena said. "I wonder if you could help me bring out some more drinks?"

  "More drinks?" asked Terese, and the first of the giggles broke free. But she helped Rowena with the drinks, and did not go back into the kitchen afterwards. She was, in fact, standing right next to Rowena when Rowena's mother exclaimed, to a somewhat larger audience now, "You know, the first time I met Sammy, I just looked at him and thought, `My, what beautiful babies he and Rowena would have!' Can't you just see . . ."

  "Let's go check out this computer thing," Rowena told Terese. Terese nodded, as if afraid she would laugh if she spoke, and they went into the office, Jean's voice behind them inquiring politely, "So how many grandchildren do you want?"

  "So there's the file on this machine," Chester was saying. All the younger males from the party stood clustered around the computer on Rowena's desk. Rowena, from where she stood in the doorway, could make out a screenful of text; she couldn't tell what it was, but with Sammy there supervising, she wasn't worried. "Now," Chester went on, "over here--" and they all moved over to Sammy's desk, which sat just a bit farther along the wall than Rowena's, "--I'll bring up the Web browser, and we can . . . There we go . . ."

  Rowena was on the point of going herself when the screen went pink and the words GLAM CAM appeared across it.

  Rowena put her hands over her mouth. Much as she had heard about her sister's naughty Web site,
she had never seen it before. Now it was on display to half her party guests, at her party. She didn't even hear Chester's next comment, though she was dimly aware he said something; he clicked the mouse, clicked it again, and a picture of Maralynne appeared, beaming out at the world in a very small bikini.

  "This is from the archive, of course," Chester said. "I'm gonna hafta redo this part . . . Let's see; here's a good one." And he clicked again.

  Terese took her by the arm and led her away; they went into the bedroom this time, not back to her mother. "I don't believe it," Rowena said. "I mean, I do, but I don't." They were alone, except for Caesar, who sat curled on Sammy's pillow, watching them with his great round cat's eyes.

  "You know what your sister's like," said Terese, "and Chester. There's nothing going on in there that's really any news to you. And nothing is going to change on its account."

  "But--Sammy's friends. His relatives. This whole party--"

  "So it went downhill after Maralynne and your mom arrived. Everybody has squirrelly relatives. They're not that much of a reflection on you. Not really."

  "But--"

  "Listen. Who do you think is more important to Sammy, you or those friends of his?" She paused for an answer, but didn't get one. "And the main ones--his mom and Jean and Mike--they liked you already. Right?"

  Rowena looked at her, even smiled a little. "Yeah."

  "Right. So let's get back out there and outclass 'em all. Okay?"

  Rowena looked at her friend and laughed. "Okay," she said. She reached to scratch Caesar behind the ears, and he pushed his furry head against her hand.

  And back to the living room they went, greeted again by the voice of Rowena's mother. "And she doesn't have any allergies, either!"

  "Well," whispered Terese in her ear, "maybe just a couple."

  After the party, Sammy did his best to reassure her, using the same arguments Terese had, plus a few more. And she started hearing from other people.

  "I've got that nice Rosemary on our side now," Rowena's mother announced. "It's just a matter of time." She paused a moment, and then delivered her killer line. "What nice people," she said. "I'm so glad to see you marrying into such a nice family."

  "At least she approves," said Beth. "Imagine if she didn't."

  Jean also called. "Wow," she said. "I wasn't sure whether to believe all those stories of yours. I'll never doubt you again."

  "I wish I'd been able to spend more time with you, dear," Rosemary said. "But your mother did rather monopolize me. She was so eager. It was almost touching, in a way. She's not a sensible woman, but she does care about you."

  "For once I gotta wish your mom success," Claudia said. "Very nice people, Sammy and his lot. Great party. Lots of fun."

  "That party sucked," said Maralynne. "I'd expect that sort of thing out of Terese, but . . . Where'd Sammy find those jerks?"

  "So how's the Psychic Sun Daye?" Terese asked. "Not that I can really complain: a) I thought she was great fun, and b) I've got a date with Dean, for Friday night."

  "Wonderful; have a good time," Rowena said. "Mind if I don't tell my sister?" She was gratified, and slightly amazed, to find that everybody (except perhaps for Maralynne) seemed to be on her side. And then Mike came back, to visit.

  "You know how we sort of had a pesky-mother contest going?" he asked.

  "Um, yeah."

  "Well, I'm not actually conceding defeat just yet, mind you, but I think for the moment you're ahead on points."

  "Terrific," Rowena said.

  "And your sister." He grinned at her. "Also as advertised. I understand you know her boyfriend showed us her Web site?"

  "Yeah. How considerate of him."

  "Hey, all the really smutty parts were `under construction.' Rather like Maralynne herself, from the look of things." Rowena groaned.

  "She's no competition for you," Sammy said, not for the first time.

  "None," agreed Mike. And he gave her a look that was much more serious than usual, for him.

  "You know," he said, "I gotta hand it to you."

  "Me?"

  "To grow up in a family like yours and turn out the way you did. Remarkable."

  "Hear, hear," said Sammy.

  Rowena hadn't thought of it that way. Sammy came up to her and slipped his arm around her waist. "So," he said. "You made a good impression and you're allowed to live here with me and you're not going to worry about what anybody else thinks. Right?"

  Rowena smiled, and leaned up against him. "Right," she said