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Chapter 2: Family

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Joan reentered the house, walking past Sgt. Williams. Even though her mind was somewhat distracted after spending the last few minutes dancing with Adam on the sidewalk, she did not fail to overhear the Sgt. comment into her cell phone, "Okay Will, we'll see you around noon tomorrow."

Turning to her fellow detective, the Sgt. said, "Will said that he would be returning first thing in the morning, and that we should plan to meet with him around noon. We had better get down to the station and get our report on the stakeout written up."

Walking over to Joan who had been putting her coat back in the hall closet, the Sgt. said, "Goodnight Ms. Giradi, I assume there will be no further noise complaints from this area tonight."

"Good night, and no, there will be no further noise. And oh yeah, thanks again, for, well you know, for not saying anything."

Joan saw the detectives out of the house, closing the door after them. Worried though about what she had just overheard, Joan turned to locate Luke.

Luke was crashed out on the sofa, feet up, eyes closed, and a cool cloth on his forehead.

Grace stood at the end of the sofa, attempting to toss popcorn into Luke's open mouth. So far it seemed that she had been unsuccessful, with two dozen or so popcorn kernels spread across his shirt and hair. Luke, apparently asleep, remained totally oblivious to her actions.

"Hey Giradi, I'm glad the uncontrollable rabble has finally departed. Now I can get down to some serious fun, like annoying Science Boy here. Where's Rove?"

At the mention of Adam's name Joan glanced back toward the door and a stupid grin spread across her face. Turning back to Grace, she offered, "His dad just picked him up."

"Ok, that's cool. Wait a minute, what's with the stupid grin when I mentioned Rove's name? "

"No particular reason."

"What, do you think I just fell off of a turnip truck? On second thought, no maybe you shouldn't tell me. After observing the behavior of a number of your party guests this evening, I am not sure I could stomach any further tales of teenage romance."

"Believe me Grace, even if I understood what just happened * and * I felt I could tell you, we have a much larger problem."

"Wait, what could be more difficult than attempting to describe, no doubt in minute detail, the on again, off again relationship between two members of the sub-defective class? "

"How about parents arriving home a day early from their supposed 'weekend' away?"

Grace glanced around the Giradi living room and laughed, "That does sound like somewhat of a big problem given the condition of home, sweet, home here."

"Thanks for that wonderful observation, Grace, perhaps instead of honing your three point shot with popcorn, you could wake up Science Boy there and introduce him to Mr. Clean?"

Joan turned to head for the kitchen to get the trash can. Grace, given the opportunity and no less than a direct request to annoy Luke, turned back to the couch and unceremoniously knocked Luke's feet to the floor.

"What?" Luke said.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty, time to wake up. The Evil Queen has issued her decree and I believe it has something to do with the business end of a mop."

"What?" Luke repeated still somewhat groggy from his impromptu nap.

"Don't ask me, something about parental units returning home a day early. I would suggest though that you take the hint and get up before your sister comes back and turns you into stone. Given your current state, you would be a hit with all the birds in the neighborhood."

Snickering, Grace turned to follow Joan into the kitchen to see what she could do to help.

"Great, that's just great. Parents home a day early and the house looking as if the Mongolian hordes have been here. I told Joan having a party was a bad idea."

Luke, finally awake enough for Grace's comments to sink in, sat up. As he did popcorn fell from his shirt and hair onto the floor.

"What the? Popcorn?..Grace!" Resigned that he had a date with a mop, Luke stood up and headed after Grace toward the kitchen.

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Adam got into the car and buckled his seat belt as Carl Rove pulled away from the curb.

"Son."

"Dad."

Adam figured he should likely say something else. "Hey, thanks for coming to pick me up."

"No problem. Was that Joan I saw you talking with on the sidewalk?"

"Yeah, it was."

"So it would appear the two of you are on speaking terms again."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

Carl Rove glanced over at his son and smiled. Adam was starring out of the car window, with a slightly stupid grin on his face and seemingly talking to himself, as if trying to figure something out. He was pretty sure that Adam and Joan had been having more than just a casual conversation there on the sidewalk, but he thought it best to keep his observations to himself. Carl was just pleased to see Adam starting to act a little more like most other sixteen year old guys, showing some interest in members of the opposite sex, and yet not understanding them one bit.

For the last several months, he had watched the positive changes in Adam's behavior. That was at least until the incident at the art show when everything had seemed to fall apart. Then last week, Adam's behavior had once again taken a radical shift. Whether Adam would admit it or not, Carl believed pretty firmly that most of the changes had been due to the arrival in Arcadia of Joan Giradi and her family.

Together the Giradi family had made quite an impact on Arcadia, or at least within Carl's realm of exposure. The Police (now Sheriff's) Department was reorganized, the city government dissolved, and from what he had heard, the science fair at Arcadia High last week had been one to remember for a long time. From his perspective though, the only important impacts were those that affected his son.

Since his mother's death, Adam had not really shown much interest in going to school or doing much at all with other kids. Yes, he did hang around some with Grace Polk, but they had known each other for years and he thought their relationship was mostly driven through the need to present a unified front to the rest of the world they knew as school. Otherwise, Adam was a loner and, Carl feared, extremely lonely. Adam's primary outlet of expression had always been his art. Carl was convinced that Adam created his unique sculptures out of haphazard junk to maintain some connection to his mom. Elizabeth had always loved whatever Adam had created.

Carl knew that Adam still grieved for his mom, he himself grieved deeply still for Elizabeth and all that they would never share, but father and son had never been able to talk about how they individually handled their grief much beyond their weekly trips to the cemetery.

Carl wanted his son to be happy. What parent wouldn't want that for their child? But in Adam's case, he also wanted him to move beyond the void that Elizabeth's death had made in his life. Perhaps Joan Giradi, even given her erratic behavior, was the person to help fill that void. The way Adam acted whenever Joan was around seemed to indicate that might be the case.

"Do you have any plans for tomorrow son?"

"Yeah, thought I might go out to the shed for awhile in the morning. Then I was gonna call Jane and we were gonna go do something. Why? Did you need me for something?"

Carl smiled inwardly, overlooking Adam's reference to Joan as Jane.

"No, no, not at all. I was planning on helping the neighbor replace a kitchen faucet in the afternoon. Just wondered what you had planned."

"Hey dad?"

"Yeah son?"

"Thanks for wondering."

"No problem."

Carl pulled the car into the Rove driveway and Adam started to get out.

"I'll see you in the morning when I get home from work."

"Sure Dad. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Adam."

Adam had gotten fully out of the car and started to close the door, but before he did he turned and stuck his head back in.

"Dad?"

"Yes Adam?"

"Do you ever get to the point where you totally understand them?"

"Well son, I suppose that it would be possible, but in my experience, no you don't."

"Okay, thanks. I'll see you in the morning."

"See you then."

As Carl Rove backed out of the driveway and headed down the street toward the station he was smiling. Yes, it definitely appeared that knowing Joan Giradi was having an effect on Adam's behavior and general outlook on life. He only hoped that the impacts would continue to be positive ones from now on.

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It was about 11 AM the next morning when Adam knocked on the Giradi back door. Expecting Joan or one of her siblings to answer the door, he was quite surprised to see Chief Giradi (he was going to have to stop thinking of him as "chief") answer the door.

"Good morning, Adam."

"Good morning Mr. Giradi."

"Come on in. Is Joan expecting you this morning? "

"Well, sort of."

Adam entered the kitchen noticing Mrs. Giradi at the stove and the smell of bacon in the air. As he glanced around the room, he noticed that the portions of the Giradi home he could see looked spotless, as if last night's party had never occurred.

Helen looked up from her task, "Oh, Hello Adam. How are you today? Have you had lunch?"

"Hello, Mrs. Giradi. And no, I've not had lunch yet."

"Would you care to join us then? Nothing special, just BLT's and vegetable soup. It seems as if Joan and her brothers were pretty hungry while we were out of town. There weren't very many other options in the refrigerator."

A slight grin crossed Adam's face as he recalled the feeding frenzy that had gone on the night before and Luke's continual attempts to keep the party "guests" from eating the cupboard bare.

"Thanks for the invitation, Mrs. Giradi, but I wouldn't want to impose. I just came over to talk with Joan."

"It wouldn't be an imposition at all," Will said as he closed the back door and followed Adam into the kitchen.

"Oh, okay then, if you're sure it isn't any problem, and if you think that Joan won't mind."

"Joan's fine with it," came the response from above as Joan came down the stairs and entered the room.

To Adam, Joan looked tired this morning, but given the state of the Giradi house last evening when he left and the "neat as a pin" appearance it presented this morning, he had an idea why Joan didn't get much sleep. Truth be told, he had not slept all that well either, but his lack of sleep had been due to other reasons.

"Cha, Jane."

"Morning Adam. I thought you were going to call before you came over."

"Yeah, I know. I tried to call several times, both on the regular phone and on your cell. One was busy and I got your voicemail on the cell. I thought maybe your phone was off the hook or something."

"I'm afraid the busy phone is my fault Adam," Will offered. "I've been on it pretty consistently this morning."

"And I'm sorry about the cell phone. I forgot to charge it last night and it was dead this morning," Joan added.

"No problem, just as long as it's okay I just headed over ya know."

"It's fine, really. We did say we were going to do something today and I wanted to talk to you about that stuff from yesterday."

Adam, who had glanced over toward the activity near the stove, snapped his gaze back to Joan at her comment. He was not sure what Joan meant by the last of what she said. They hadn't actually talked about a lot yesterday other than the "not being ready" stuff. Hopefully, whatever she would have to say would help to answer the questions that had kept him awake a good portion of the night.

"Time for talking later," Helen offered. "Maybe even over the dishes. It is time to eat now."

"Great, I'm pretty hungry" Will said. "Helen, are you still available to drop me off at the station on your way to the grocery? Remember I have a noon appointment with a few of the detectives."

"Sure Will," then turning, she called up the stairs, "Luke.lunch is ready."

Getting no answer, Helen asked, "Joan, is your brother up?"

"Yeah, I heard Science Boy rattling around in his room before I came down," Joan replied.

"Coming," Luke called as he came down the stairs. "Good morning family units. Hi there, Adam."

Adam raised his hand in greeting toward Luke.

Noticing Luke's mood, Helen commented, "Well you're pretty chipper this morning. What has you so 'ready to face the world' today?"

"Oh mom, did you have to ask?" interjected Joan. "Now we will have to have all of the itemized details, categorized by level of importance and benefit subset, and in the end he still will not have given you a real answer."

"Enough! Let's sit down to eat," Helen said. "Adam, why don't you take Kevin's seat over there? Rebecca called and Kevin had to head down to the paper so he won't be joining us."

As everyone took a seat and the meal began, light banter started up around the table. All of the Giradis made an effort to involve their guest in the conversation, but their efforts were not overly blatant. Adam found that he was enjoying himself. With just him and his dad, mealtime conversation at home consisted of usually only a single topic. Balancing multiple conversations on a variety of subjects made lunch at the Giradi's a pretty cool experience.

"Okay Luke, now, again, what has you cranked up today?" Will asked.

"Do you remember that physics contest that I mentioned last week, the one that involved documenting research that demonstrates everyday interaction of physics and people in the real world? Of course, since the contest is only for high school students it has the strictest limitations on the actual cost of the research that is undertaken. With such limitations, the possibilities for using specialized source material are just not viable. I was having difficulty identifying the obvious over the unique. Finally, yesterday Grace offered a suggestion that will work perfectly. I'm going to begin my research today."

Joan turned to Adam and said, "See, I tried to tell them, but they never listen. Ask a question, receive way too much information in response, but in the end you never really get an answer to your question."

Adam just smiled in response to Joan's comments and went on happily munching his BLT sandwich.

"Okay Luke, for those of us perhaps more limited in our understanding of the nature of your proposed research, could you possibly share with us what that will be?" Will asked.

"Not another rail gun I hope," Helen commented.

Helen's comment caused Joan and Adam to look up quickly at each other, both had a slight blush spreading across their face. The comment brought to both of them an immediate memory of the science fair. Not so much the rail gun itself, but rather of the kiss they had shared amid the disaster of the project's success.

"No, of course not mom, a rail gun would not at all be an appropriate example for this research. The application of electromagnetic propulsion is not at all common place. The..."

"Luke!" Will interrupted. "In five words or less, what is your research to be today?"

"Oh, we're going bowling."

"Bowling?" repeated Helen.

"Yeah, bowling. Grace and sibling unit here said they would help out since the research will require multiple bowlers to establish an effective data set. Joan said she was going to ask Adam if he wanted to go along as well to expand the data pool even further."

"Well brother dear, if you ever learned to give short answers to questions asked of you, perhaps someone else could get a word in edgewise and actually * ask * Adam if he wanted to go along." Turning to Adam, Joan added, "Sorry about that roundabout way of asking you to go along. Wanna go bowling with us today?"

"Cha, Jane. Sounds like fun. Did Luke say Grace suggested it?"

"Yeah he did."

"Just checking," Adam offered. "Should be fun to watch."

Joan was not sure what Adam's last comment had meant but she'd ask him later.

As the meal wrapped up, Helen and Will coordinated with one another the times and locations of their errands for the day. They both got up from the table and began preparing to leave. "Joan, would you and your brother clean up the table and the dishes? Your father and I have to get going or he will be late for his meeting."

"Ah, Mom, I've got to finish preparing my data collection worksheets before we have to leave to pick up Grace," Luke commented.

"Oh no brother dear, I'm not doing the chore thing by myself while you go crawl into your computer for another hour."

"Ah, come on Joan..." Luke whined.

"I'll help you Jane," Adam offered.

"No, Adam, there is no need, you're our guest," Helen said.

"Not a problem, Mrs. Giradi. I'm pretty good with the dishes thing; I do them all the time at home."

Jane stood up and turned to Adam "Since you're the guest here at least I'll let you pick...wash or dry? Either way I'll appreciate the help since Mr. Physics there is too focused on spending the afternoon with Grace at the bowling alley to care about much of anything else."

"Joan I told you I have to have an adequate data set to provide a basis for my research. Grace being there too will benefit the project results."

"Yeah, sure. Just one thing though, you might want to avoid telling Grace that you view her solely as a source of data. "I'm afraid the outcome might not be a pretty sight."

With lunch over, Will and Helen left for their meetings and errands, Luke went to his room to finish his preparations on the computer, and Adam and Joan were left in the kitchen alone except for the remnants of lunch and a pile of dirty dishes.

"Okay Adam, big decision making time, wash or dry?"

"Wash of course; the bubbles make it an adventure to find out what's at the bottom of the sink."

Joan laughed, "Don't tell me that you're considering marine archeology as a career alternative?"

With the jokes setting the mode as one of fun, Adam and Joan completed the kitchen clean-up quickly, even given Adam's attempts to put soap bubbles on Joan's nose and her attempts to even the score by swatting Adam with the dish towel. After they had finished they both sat down at the table and waited for Luke to come down so they could leave to pick up Grace.

"Thanks for helping out Adam. It was a lot more fun doing dishes with you than with my geek brother. He always wants to discuss the surface tension of soap bubbles or some other just 'oh too thrilling' topic the whole time."

"Cha Jane, no problem. Lunch and everything was cool. Like I said before, I hope you're okay with me joining you and your family and all."

"Adam, why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, I guess it's just that I don't know what's cool and what's not between us."

"What if I told you I was trying to figure that out too? That's why I said earlier that I wanted to talk about the stuff from yesterday. I was hoping we could try to figure out where we can go from here with out getting mad at each other and all that."

"I think it would be cool if we could do that."

"How about later after we get done helping out Luke with his project?"

"Sounds good."

"Well I suppose if we're going to do this bowling thing, we'd better get going. I told Grace we would pick her up around 1:00. I'd better go tell Science Boy to get with the program."

"Hey Jane, you did know that Grace is like this great bowler didn't you?"

"No. What's up with that?"

"Well it's just she's been doing it for forever. Something about it being a family activity. When she was little she used to do the whole league thing."

"Does she still?"

"Naw, it just wouldn't fit Grace to do something like that anymore."

"Then why do you think she suggested it?"

"Don't know, but if I could guess I'd say it has something to do with annoying your brother."

"Maybe doing this research thing won't be so bad after all. We get to spend sometime together, and we likely get to watch Grace beat the pants off my brother in bowling, reinforcing his true geek status even further. Sounds like it will be great fun. Let me go see what's keeping him."

As Joan got up from the table and headed for the stairs, Adam was thinking that today might just turn out pretty cool as Jane just said. She'd actually seemed to want to spend time together with him and they'd agreed they would try to figure out where they could go from here with their relationship. Maybe things were looking up, definitely, today was something to look forward to.