Chapter 19 Happy Birthday, Luke
(Author's Note: This time the musical lyrics are the original ones, and of course I'm quoting them without permission)
The birthday party was a big difference from the previous year's fiasco, which Joan and Grace had had to salvage. Everybody was there: Luke's parents, Kevin and Lily, even the cousins whom Luke had visited in North Carolina in the past summer. On the school side, there were Grace, Adam, Friedmann, Glynis, Maggie, and Elizabeth Groetzmman.
And Cute Boy God.
Joan was curious that neither Grace nor Luke seemed to have spotted Him, and nobody else in the family or friends seemed to wonder why He was there. He must be using that ability to deflect the attention of people that He didn't want to deal with. Which meant that He was here for Joan.
Joan reluctantly made her way across the Girardi living room. "Please don't tell me you've got another mission for us. It's been a busy fall. I'm worried about the Law paper, particularly since I had to fake the interview with the prisoner."
"No worry, Joan. I'm here to honor a friend on his birthday. And to advise how to fulfill your current mission."
"Fulfill?"
"Glynis is resigned to the possibility that Friedmann won't help her. She will announce her condition tonight, and start making plans for bearing her child alone. So this is your last chance to appeal to Friedman."
"We've been trying to talk to him all fall."
"Yes -- by appealing to his sense of duty, which is unfortunately weak in Friedmann. Tell me, from what you have seen this fall, what is the most powerful force shaping people's lives?"
Joan thought about it. After a minute, she said "Friendship. Grace and Luke and me. Grace and Maggie. Even the Reynolds cousins."
"Exactly. And, by the way, you will get an A on your paper." And with that curt phrase, Cute Boy God retreated toward the door with His characteristic wave.
"Wait!" Joan said, dashing up to Him and whispering, to avoid being overheard. "As a guest, shouldn't you have a gift for Luke?"
"I did, but I'll make it more explicit." He raised His hand, and it occurred to Joan that the characteristic wave might be a sort of blessing. 'May Lukas Girardi receive his fondest desire tonight'."
So God doesn't resent Luke's drawing the line about violating computer ethics. He still gives His blessing. Good. But I wonder what the desire is?
After that, Joan kept an eye on Friedmann. When he went up the stairs, presumably to use the bathroom, Joan counted to twenty and then followed him. He didn't see her coming up behind him. But when he came out of the room, Joan planted herself at the top of the stairs and blocked his way. "Friedmann, we need to talk."
"If this is about Glynis again--" he said, bored.
"No, it isn't about Glynis, it's about you. In fact, Glynis doesn't need you."
Joan noticed that he was shook by that dismissal. Good.
"When is the last time you made a friend, Friedmann?" Joan demanded.
"Um, Judith."
"A year ago. And you had to memorize HAMLET to get her attention. You met Luke and me two years ago, probably Adam and Grace at the same time. The only friendship I know of that's longer is with Glynis. Now you're actively pushing Glynis away, and Judith is dead, and you're alienating the rest of us. Who does that leave?"
"When I get to college--
"Yeah, you think you'll win new friends when you get to college," mimicked Joan. "Since you were so successful at that in high school. You'll make, what, one new friend every six months?" The math did not sound right -- Joan was too determined to stop and work it out -- so she pressed forward. "And how long will you hold on to them, if you treat them like you're treating your current ones? As high-schoolers we can sometimes get away with rotten behavior. In college your friends may judge you more strictly."
Friedmann seemed intimidated into silence.
"You've got a girl who loves you so much that she devoted the summer to helping you with your drug problem, and compromised herself in the process. You can have her, or you can have no one. Take your choice. But better choose before she commits herself to living without you." Joan stepped aside. "Now you can go downstairs."
She watched him go down and breathed a sigh that she gotten the speech out. Once again she counted out a delay, then followed Friedmann down.
Elizabeth had seated herself at the piano was belting out Broadway songs. One wasan old Rodgers & Hammerstein song which, she said, was particularly appropriate for Grace:
Don't throw bouquets at me.
Don't please my folks too much.
Don't laugh at my jokes too much.
People will say we're in love!
That got a laugh from everybody who knew about Luke's long-drawn-out wooing, including Grace herself. Elizabeth followed up with "Tonight, tonight!" which she was rehearsing for her January musical. If the romantic lyrics also had some relation to Luke and Grace, she didn't explicitly say so. Elizabeth was rather an attention-getter, but most of the people present knew how she had sacrificed the Homecoming contest and didn't mind.
"Hey! People! We have an announcement to make!"
That was Friedmann, standing at the back door with his arm around Glynis. Apparently they had slipped out to talk in the back yard, and nobody had noticed.
"Glynis and I are getting married!"
That got a lot of applause -- polite from people like Maggie, Lily, and the cousins; enthusiastic from those who knew about Glynis.
"And we're having a baby!" gushed Glynis, pressing her hand against her stomach to make her condition clear for the first time. "I'm afraid it'll be a little early--"
"Because the father was late!" said Friedmann. "But he won't be from now on."
"Mazel tov!" shouted Grace.
"Mazel tov!" echoed the partygoers.
Friedmann looked around the audience, and was apparently gratified by their reaction. On spotting Joan he winked, to her relief. So he didn't blame her for that harangue upstairs, but realized the truth of it.
"I'm afraid that you're being upstaged at your own party, Luke." said Elizabeth, who happened to be standing near Luke and Joan during the announcements.
"I don't care," said Luke. "The good news is like an additional gift to me."
Joan surveyed the gifts on the table. Preserves, brought by the cousins from their farm. A book called Sports for Dummies, a gag gift from Kevin, who knew Luke was no dummy. A handcrafted wallet from Istanbul, from Maggie. Some science-fiction DVDs from Friedmann.
"And what's this from you, Grace?" Joan asked, picking up a book as her friend walked up. "Scientific Revolutionaries. Figures."
"That's only part of it," said Grace. "I'm going to give Luke another gift later tonight."
"What is it?"
"It's secret. Maybe I'll tell you tomorrow."
Joan knew that she would not be able to worm the secret out of her friend. It didn't matter. Observing the smiling Luke, Joan knew that last year's miserable memory was erased. This was the best birthday that Luke had ever had.