Chapter Seven: Saturday, April 9, 2005, Glen Oak, CA
"What can you tell me about this girl?" Annie Camden leaned back against the kitchen counter, steadying herself. The whole point of Simon's going to New York for a couple of weeks was to get him away from girls. Girl-problems. Problems arising from his inability to make good decisions when it came to girls.
Women.
Simon was a man now. His problems were adult problems.
An STD scare.
A pregnancy scare.
A false pregnancy scare.
But what Simon still couldn't seem to grasp, no matter how many times she and Eric told him, was that your girlfriend couldn't credibly lie about being pregnant with your baby if you hadn't had…. Sex.
How many women had Simon been intimate with last year?
What was wrong with him? Where had she gone wrong?
She closed her eyes. You couldn't live your children's lives for them. All she and Eric could do was give Simon, any of them, a solid moral grounding, and pray that it was enough.
Except when it wasn't enough, when you somehow failed to instill basic, decent values, where did they come?
Home.
Maybe she should have kept him home, where he belonged, instead of letting him go off to spend a couple of weeks with Matt. But with Savannah barely two months old, and Kevin and Lucy still living at home, and the shuffle of the bedrooms they'd had to do to make that work, moving them back into the house when Lucy was put on bedrest, giving Martin the apartment over the garage…. With whatever was going on with Ruthie these days and the twins…. She didn't have the time or energy to focus on all of it.
And so, her most vulnerable children, Simon and Mary—because no one was sure what was going to happen with Mary and Carlos after this trial separation was up—they were left lost. That's why she'd asked Matt to take Simon for a few weeks. By the time he came home, Lucy and Kevin might find a house, she would have time to sit down with Ruthie. The twins would outgrow whatever phase they were going through—and no doubt discover a new one, but one thing at a time. There was little to be done for Mary except fly off to London and try to straighten her out, but Annie wasn't convinced she had the right words to say.
"Simon was supposed to be spending time with you to get away from all this," Annie stressed to Matt. "You were supposed to give him an adult perspective on life."
"It's not like I haven't tried, but between school and work—"
"I know. I'm sorry. We just have so much going on around here. I had hoped…I'd hoped getting away from the chaos would do him some good." Although if she were being honest with herself, she would have no choice but to admit that she hadn't been up to dealing with one more thing when he showed up on their doorstep after withdrawing from his classes. After all the trouble Eric went through to get him into an apartment, after he'd borrowed money from Kevin…. "He is coming home, isn't he? He's not going to up and move to New York over some girl he's just met?"
"Well he's not moving here," Matt assured her. He sounded as frustrated as Annie felt. "Sarah knows this Caroline better than I do. Caroline Chandler-Wells. She's a volunteer at St. Vincent's, she's still in high school—"
"Oh." Annie had to sit down.
"Sarah thinks she's a senior. I mean, she has to be a senior, right?"
"Right." Of course, she had to be a senior. She had to be at least seventeen. Eighteen would be better. But seventeen was all right, just as long as Simon came home. "What else do you know?"
"Caroline's mother is an attorney. She's with the DA's office, so that has to be good."
Annie agreed. "What about her father?"
"Stay at home dad, from the sounds of things. It's a big family. And her father's father was a doctor. They have money. Like a lot of money. Caroline is going to some expensive prep school and she's not there on a scholarship."
"Money hasn't been a problem for you and Sarah. Or for Lucy and Kevin."
"I don't know about Lucy and Kevin, but it was a problem for me and Sarah. I didn't think it would be and we worked through it. We're still working through it. But I've gotta be honest, it was really hard for me to go to work every day while Sarah stayed home and read Oprah. Her parents offered to help both of us," he added quickly. "With rent and some expenses—but I was too proud to accept the handout."
"Oh, Matt. I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, Mom. We're working on our issues. All of our issues. Things are getting better every day."
"I'm glad to hear it. I worry about you too. It's not just Simon."
"I know. You're not the only one worried about him. I know you and Dad taught us not to judge a book by it's cover, not to make assumptions about people, but this girl is so far out of Simon's league and I'm afraid he's going to….I don't even know what, anymore. Look, I've gotta go. I have a shift at the hospital this afternoon. I love you."
"I love you too." Annie hung up the phone. Simon had been out all night with this girl. This Caroline Chandler-Wells whose parents had money. Whose parents were apparently all right with her being out all night, because apparently, she and Simon were out again, allegedly at the library—or at least that's what Matt said Simon had told him.
Annie looked up at the ceiling, the Heavens beyond. "Just please let him get on the plane when he's supposed to. Let him come back home where he belongs. I'll find the time make it all work. But if Kevin and Lucy could just find a place of their own soon, it would really, really help." She closed her eyes. "And please look out for Mary. And Carlos. And Charlie. Especially Charlie. I don't know what Mary is thinking but Charlie needs his mother and his father."
