Alma Mater

by Rita Mae Brown

  Vic patted her back again. "There's nothing to be sorry about. It's all settled."

  Bunny asked the obvious question. "Just what the hell is going on?" "I'm pregnant," Chris simply stated, drying her eyes.

  R. J., puzzled, tried to soothe Chris. "These things happen, dear—we'll help you. But what does this have to do with Vic and Charly?" "Charly is the father," Vic calmly explained.

  "I told you men were shits!" Bunny fumed. "I'll kill him, too." Then she turned on Chris. "How could you betray your friend like that? And this whole family, which has only shown you hospitality?"

  "Aunt Bunny, stop. It's not like that." Vic's voice was like ice.

  As she had never spoken in such a tone to her aunt, it guaranteed

  silence. But only for a moment. Bunny couldn't stop herself.

  "What else could it be? They both betrayed you!" Bunny practi-

  cally shrieked.

  "No, they didn't."

  R. J., very quietly, suggested, "Perhaps you can enlighten us." Mignon got out of the wing chair to stand next to Vic. She didn't

  know what was coming, but she knew she wanted to back her sister. Vic stood up, too, but kept a hand on Chris's shoulder. "It was a

  twist of fate."

  "In my limited experience," Bunny sarcastically said, "pregnancy is not caused by a twist of fate."

  "In this case, it was." Vic breathed in again and then exhaled. "We all went to bed together. No one betrayed anyone."

  "Wow." Mignon's eyes grew as big as the Christmas balls.

  "You all?" Bunny was trying to compute this, but her mind was muddled.

  "Charly, Chris, and myself."

  "Victoria." R. J. reached for the Scotch again.

  "Mother, it wasn't a bad thing. In fact, it was a beautiful thing. It just happened. We were happy. We were in love."

  "Love?" Bunny cast a jaundiced eye. "Men don't sleep with other women when they're in love with you."

  "But they do," Vic quietly asserted. "I instigated it. It was all about love."

  "I see," R. J. said simply.

  "Get rid of the baby," Bunny spat out. "Don't ruin three lives." "No." Chris found her voice.

  "She's not ruining three lives. Charly, Chris, and I talked it over. Chris and I will raise the baby."

  "What?" R. J. nearly choked then started crying.

  Vic went to her mother. "Mom, it's all right. Don't cry. Please don't cry."

  "Honey, I'm just so sorry for you. I know you love Charly and he loves you. You don't have to give him up and well, I just don't understand this."

  "She'll find another rich one. With Vic's beauty, she could marry a goddamned Arab sheik and own half the world's oil."

  "Aunt Bunny, I'm not going to marry."

  "You say that now. It will pass."

  "Mom, would you like another drink?" Vic handed her the glass. "That depends." R. J.'s green eyes sought out her daughter's.

  "I love Charly, but I'm in love with Chris. So you see, this is the

  right thing to do."

  Mignon stood stock still.

  "What are you talking about?" Bunny crossly said.

  "I'm gay."

  "Then I want my truck back!"

  R. J. put her glass on the coffee table and gathered her composure. "This must be very painful for you, for both of you." She looked at Chris.

  "Jesus, R. J., slap her face." Bunny stood up, but R. J. pulled her back down. "Vic, you need a vacation from yourself. You'll come to your senses," Bunny continued.

  "But I have. I'm glad I realized this before I . . . Well, it doesn't matter now. The three of us have made our decision, and it's a good one."

  "I don't see how telling us that you're a lesbian can be a good decision."

  "That part's not a decision, Aunt Bunny," Mignon said, taking up for Vic.

  "You shut up," Bunny growled at her.

  "No, Vic is Vic. She didn't decide to be gay."

  "It will pass." Bunny crossed her arms.

  "It won't pass. I love Chris, and she loves me." Vic refused to cry, despite the lump in her throat.

  "I do," Chris said.

  "Did you always feel this way, dear?" R. J. asked her daughter.

  "I did what was expected of me. I went through the motions. I didn't ask questions. It's not like I grew up knowing there was another way or that I'd go that way."

  "Well—" R. J. thought awhile. "—the three of you have put the child first, and that speaks well for all of you. I can imagine this is extremely difficult." She looked at Chris. "I'm glad you're having the baby." She looked back to Vic. "I think it will take me awhile to get used to this. Is this why you were kicked out of school?"

  "No, that really was over the BVM."

  "She took the blame for Charly and me." Chris reached for another tissue.

  "1 see."

  A silence followed that was finally broken by a wail from Bunny. "But what about me!"

  Epilogue

  P

  eople have always known that time flies. The Romans famously said, ”Tempusfugit." Yet, it's one of those realizations that startles each person as they feel it happening in their own lives.

  The image of Father Time as a white bearded man, bent over with years, isn't quite correct. Time is an imp, a little devil who kicks over the hourglass. By the time you right it, half the sand has run out and you can't find the rest of it, the grains have scattered to the winds.

  So it was at Surry Crossing. The shock of Vic's declaration, Chris's pregnancy, and Bunny's discovery yielded to the details of daily life. Tempests occurred most notably with Bunny. She sued for divorce and won. For a while she argued that bringing Vic into the new business was just endorsing her lesbianism.

  This argument was quickly dropped when Chris was delivered of a beautiful blond boy whom she named Victor, in honor of Vic.

  Much as Bunny fumed about the social disgrace of lesbianism, she couldn't resist Victor. Neither could anyone else, most especially Piper.

  Chris's family cut her off. Her brothers sporadically kept in touch with her, but she never heard from her mother or father again, and she never attempted to contact them. Her view, often declared, was that your family is made of the people who love you for you.

  R. J. saw that Vic was happy and so she accepted the relationship.

  But then R. J. always did believe in love. She loved Frank in spite of everything. Why shouldn't Victoria have her chance?

  If Frank didn't understand the relationship, he kept it to himself. He was never critical. He remained what he always had been, a Virginia gentleman. He liked Chris. He loved Victor.

  Once Bunny got off her high horse, she and Chris became friends. Both of them suffered a streak of perfectionism, which drew them together since they were lightning fast to see the tiniest flaw in anyone else's personality, plans, or performance. Chris kept the books for the nursery. Bunny couldn't find one single thing wrong. Then the two decided the nursery could expand and sell outdoor furniture, sculpture, and trellises. That sideline became very successful.

  Charly, true to his word, visited Victor when he could and each month he sent money. He had entered the draft after graduating from William and Mary and was picked by the Kansas City Chiefs in the last round as an afterthought. He worked hard and beat out guys who had played for powerhouse schools like Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Nebraska. By the second season he was a starter. He set up a college fund for his son.

  He also married a beautiful woman. Her physical resemblance to Vic escaped no one—especially his wife. The marriage was wretched. He paid through the nose to divorce her.

  He'd call Vic once a week and talk to her about his life. He'd talk to Chris about their son. He was now famous, handsomely paid for being able to run around with a pigskin tucked under his arm. And he was just miserable.

  Vic gave Jinx, Charly's number. She had graduated from the University of Virginia Law School and was working for a high-powered firm in Washington. She specialized in
tax law, which seemed boring to everyone else, but Jinx, always looking ahead, realized it was a powerful political lever. She had a conference in Kansas City and she called Charly. She was attractive, brilliant, kind, and she had that self-confidence that attends people who love their work. They married two years later. This marriage was a success.

  When Charly retired from football at age thirty-four, before his knees were totally destroyed, he moved to Washington, took a job in a

  brokerage house, and found he loved his work as much as Jinx loved hers. He grew closer to his father, too, now that they shared a common profession.

  Don continued to run the dealership. He owned half of it, but he was surprised to learn he couldn't really live without Bunny. He begged her to take him back. She was in no hurry to do so since she liked being free, as she put it. His entreaties finally wore her down. But Bunny, being Bunny, cut a tough deal. He could run the Dodge/Toyota dealership, but she was going to get the Mercedes and Nissan dealerships, which she would run herself. He agreed. They remarried.

  Bunny sold her half of the nursery business to Vic and Chris, who had formerly been paid employees. She gave them good terms, and Chris figured they would pay off the debt in eight years.

  Mignon sailed through William and Mary, then attended New York University's Medical School. She specialized in plastic surgery, lived in New York City, and made boatloads of money. She married a teammate of Charly's. Mignon blossomed into a most delightful woman. She and Vic adored one another.

  Edward Wallace hung on to eighty-eight. Yolanda succumbed long before the old man did. In his grief when she died, he marched out and bought a few more Jerseys, which put Sissy right over the edge. More visits to Frank Savedge finally straightened it out, but the old man did break down and buy her a cream-colored Cadillac with a sea foam interior, which Bunny, after hundreds of phone calls, got for a great price. Then he had to turn around and buy a black one, for Georgia. They became a three-Cadillac family.

  When Edward went to his reward, he willed his cattle as well as all his farm equipment to Vic and R. J. Mother and daughter cried when they found out. Edward had been a true friend to the Savedges through all their struggles. He shut up Georgia and Sissy when they pitched a fit over Vic and Chris. He shut up a few other people, as well. He, too, was a Virginia gentleman, the type that confused people because on the outside he could seem prejudiced and sly, but on the inside he was always fair. In that sense, he truly was a gentleman because he did not see the world in terms of groups or causes. He took the world one person at a time.

  Hojo moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and enrolled in the University of North Carolina. Determined to make something of herself, she majored in business and then returned to Surry County. She took a job at the Chevy dealership, eventually buying out the owner, an aging and alcoholic relative of Boonie Ashley's. Hojo became the McKennas' fiercest competitor, taking over the GM dealership in the process. She never married, contenting herself with a string of men whom she could dismiss at will. Which she did. She became something of an expert consumer in that respect.

  Vic worked morning, noon, and night when she was an employee of Surry Crossing Nursery. Once she became a partner, she worked even harder, but she was still outside most of the time, so she was happy.

  She loved Chris and Victor. Children force you to do a lot of things you'd never do otherwise. In a way, she was grateful because Victor probably saved her from becoming self-centered or too focused on the business. Still, Chris was better suited for motherhood than Vic was. Vic always worried Chris protected Victor too much.

  When Chris wanted to have a second baby, Vic argued they couldn't support a second baby. Victor was two years old then. R. J. understood Chris's desire much better than Vic did, and she brought Vic around to the idea. Thanks to artificial insemination, a little girl was born, whom Chris named Sean, which provoked another fight since Vic said Sean was a boy's name. However, Sean worked her way into everyone's heart, and Little Vic became a big brother, a job that was quite important to him.

  One hot July day, Vic was having a beer with Don as her truck was being serviced. She said, "Christ, women are a pain in the ass." She'd had a knock-down fight with Chris that morning. He just laughed sympathetically.

  Still, she and Chris stuck together. Like most couples, as time goes by, they were bound by money, by possessions, and above all, by the children. Vic sometimes wished Chris weren't so damned picky, and she really wished Chris were more sexual. For most people, that wildness wears off, but it never did for Vic. As the years rolled along she recognized she didn't have a sex drive, she had a sex overdrive, She

  had a few affairs but she was lucky. She never got caught. Sometimes she thought she was in bed with another woman because she needed more sex. Other times she thought she was there just to get some positive energy, just to take a vacation. Her Uncle Don's former behavior made a lot more sense to her now.

  She loved Charly, but not once did she regret not marrying him. He couldn't have found a better partner than Jinx, with whom she stayed best friends.

  Piper died of old age. Within a year another golden retriever joined Surry Crossing.

  Frank died of a massive heart attack on the courthouse steps in 1996. He was given a funeral with full military honors. At the end of his life he had stopped reading even the Wall Street Journal. He accepted that he wasn't ever going to make up the money he lost and redeem himself. He didn't really need to, of course, because the love he gave others, quietly, generously, was redemption enough.

  Don McKenna gave the funeral oration and said something that stayed in Vic's mind. It became her mantra.

  He said, "Most people believe in 'Live and Let Live,' but Frank believed in 'Live, Let Live, and Help to Live.' "

  Tonpus fugit.

  When Victor Carter graduated from William and Mary, one year early in 2001, thanks to his advanced studies, the Savedges, Harrisons, Wallaces, and McKennas proudly attended. He was a great-looking kid, a terrific athlete, and he was going on to attend Auburn Veterinary College.

  After graduation he led them all to St. Bede's. There waiting for them was the Blessed Virgin Mary, appropriately dressed for the occasion in a graduation robe and mortar board. Vic thought her expression was unusually serene.

  About the Author

  Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, Six of One, Southern Discomfort, Sudden Death, High Hearts, Bingo, Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer's Manual, Venus Envy, Dolley: A Novel of Dolley Madison in Love and War, Riding Shotgun, Loose Lips, Outfoxed, and a memoir, Rita Will. With her tiger cat, Sneaky Pie, she also collaborates on the New York Times bestselling Mrs. Murphy mystery series, including Claws and Effect. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and a poet, she lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.