Chapter 30: Home
When Daria looked back on the months leading up to their proposals, she would envision two spellbound girls on either side of a great sea of calculation, both secretly planning as Jane's wintry blue eyes watched over all. And she would recall the sweet weight of Jane's ring in its box, safely secured in her jacket's inner pocket as they drove into Lawndale on a Saturday afternoon in late September.
They had left Boston after Jane's morning shift at Make My Clay and arrived at the Morgendorffers' house with a few hours to spare before Mystik Spiral kicked off the street dance. By the time they had tried Jake's chicken piccata ("I used extra capers!") and attended Helen's kitchen symposium on avoiding liability in a corporate merger ("Let's say there's a secret sinkhole…"), the sun was setting and it was time to head downtown.
The streetlights were just coming on as Helen parked her silver SUV. An autumn breeze carried in the sounds of Mystik Spiral tuning up and triggered an exchange of nostalgic glances in the back seat as Jane and Daria raised their windows. Jake stepped out onto the cooling asphalt and adjusted the polo he'd carefully tucked into his belted jeans, then reached for Helen's hand.
Tom spotted them as they approached and smiled, waving them over. "Hey! Glad you could make it. Trent has been talking about this non-stop for a month." He gestured toward the stage, where his husband was huddled with Jesse as they tuned up their guitars. Daria noted Jesse had opted for a shirt, which may have had something to do with the small potbelly he'd developed somewhere north of age thirty.
Helen looked up from baby Madeleine's stroller with a short laugh. "Tom! Where on earth did you two get this tiny Mystik Spiral t-shirt?"
"The company we get our band shirts from goes all the way down to baby sizes. We also got her Gwar socks, but I had to talk Trent out of the Cannibal Corpse onesie."
Daria deadpanned, "I'd just get her a chainsaw," then gave Madeleine a friendly wiggle of her little foot.
The crowd grew quiet as Trent cleared his throat into the mic. "Hey. We're Mystik Spiral, and we're pretty attached to the name." There were a few titters from long-time fans. Jane gave her girlfriend a subtle hip-bump and took her hand as the band launched into a seventies hit, the name of which temporarily eluded Daria. These days they played a lot of covers since originals like "Candy Heart Disaster (Up Yours)" had a pretty niche fan base.
After twenty minutes of uptempo rock—accompanied by what Daria affectionately thought of as Jake's "taming the possessed riding mower" dance moves—Mystik Spiral slowed it down. Daria and Jane had just determined they had enough space to dance when Tom shifted Madeleine in his arms and tapped Jake on the shoulder. "Um, would you mind holding her for a minute? I've got to use the"—he eyed the questionable porta potties—"well, maybe bathroom is the wrong word."
With a hesitant smile, Jake lifted the baby from Tom's arms as though she were a nuclear device while Helen stared daggers into the side of his head. He seemed almost instantly to soften when he looked down at Madeleine, and then he exclaimed, "Wow! She looks so much like"—he appeared to catch himself—"like you, Tom." There was a moment of awkward silence before Tom thanked him and excused himself, after which those left behind feigned intense interest in the baby to avoid any further discussion.
Many grunge covers and brooding on-stage facial expressions later, they were swaying to the last slow song of the evening. A pleasantly tipsy Helen had given up her keys to Jake and was smiling as she rested her head on his shoulder. Daria heard Jane's happy little sigh, so close to her ear, and held her tighter.
* * *
The light was yellow, pre-storm, as Jane and Daria sat across from each other at Pizza King the following afternoon. Daria had barely eaten and was now holding onto Jane's hand as if for dear life. Jane narrowed her eyes. "Babe? I ate, like, three times as much pizza as you. We may need to stop for a drive-through bypass on the way home. Are you okay?"
Daria took a shaky breath and let go of Jane's hand. She slid to the edge of the booth, slowly descended to one knee on the old tile floor, and pulled the ring box from her jacket pocket with trembling fingers. And then she began. "Before we met, Lawndale was a cold place. Then you came into my life with your art and your wisecracks, and suddenly there was warmth. And it grew, and it grew, until it filled my whole world." She paused for a moment, her eyes enormous, and faltered only slightly as she went on. "Dearest Jane, will you do me the great honor of spending the rest of your life with me…as my wife?"
Tears trembled at the edges of Jane's infinite blue eyes as she slowly nodded. Daria fumbled a bit as she removed the sapphire ring Jane had chosen from its box, then reverently slid it onto her finger. Jane helped her to her feet and wrapped her in a strong hug. As Jane whispered, "Yes," into her ear, Daria felt an unstoppable smile spreading across her face.
* * *
They had pulled into a truck stop for a bathroom break en route to Boston when Jane quietly slipped away. Daria didn't know that while she was deciding between the Barbarian Barbecue and Pepper Steak Pillager jerky flavors, Jane was calling the Indian restaurant where they'd had their first date to move up her reservation by a few weeks. She also didn't know that by nightfall, she would be wearing a black diamond and slow-dancing with her fiancée in their cozy little kitchen.