Rescue Me

3

Wendy froze in her tracks, standing in the doorway, her eyes wide with surprise as she realized who was in the living room. "Stan! Ford! What are you doing here?"

Leaning back on the sofa, Stanley said, "Same thing as you, I bet! How'd you even get here?"

"Drove," Wendy said. "Called Soos and took a day off, told my dad I had an emergency come up with a friend." She looked a little sheepish. "Just cut school. Only have the one class, and we were just reviewing the unit test anyhow, and I got an A on it, so . . . anyway. I left Gravity Falls late last night and drove straight through."

Stanley whistled. "Left like at midnight!" he said. "You must've, to get here this early."

Wendy shrugged. "Mm, a little later than that, but, yeah, I drove all night, just stopped for gas." She looked embarrassed. "Uh, speaking of that—could I use your—"

Alex stood up and pointed. "Down the hall, last door on the left," he said.

Wendy nodded and hurried. Alex turned to Wanda. "I'll bet she didn't even stop for breakfast," he said quietly.

"Why would she drive all this way?" Wanda asked.

Ford said softly, "Because she's a good friend of Mabel's and Dipper's. And she doesn't want anything bad to happen to their family."

Wanda shook her head. "I feel like I'm in the minority," she complained.

Alex went to the front door, opened it, and stood looking outside.

In his most reassuring voice—and the man had charm and a sense of people, give him that—Stanley said, "Like I told you, we're not here to overpower you. Or overrule you, or whatever. But this is a family matter, Wanda. If we don't settle it, it will only get worse for everybody, kids and you and us and all."

"What are you doing?" Wanda asked her husband, who still stood in the open doorway. "Is someone else coming?"

"No. I'm just looking at Wendy's Dart," Alex said, closing the door. "She's got it looking great. And running great, too, I bet. I never met a girl like her." He went to the next room and brought back an extra chair.

They heard a flush, and Wendy came back, still looking a little unsure, a little hesitant. Alex asked, "Are you hungry?"

She flashed him a grateful smile. "Well—I could sure use a cup of coffee," she said.

Alex asked, "Anybody else?"

Stan held up his hand and looked at Ford, who said, "Water would be good."

Alex went into the kitchen and they all heard water running. Then he came to the doorway and leaned against the doorjamb. "Be ready in a couple of minutes," he said. "Sit down, Wendy. Take the armchair. I brought another in for myself."

Wendy nodded, though she remained standing. She bit her lip and then said, "First off, Mrs. Pines—"

"Wanda," Alex suggested.

"Mrs. Pines," Wendy said. "I don't have the right to first names yet. First off, I want to apologize to you. This whole mess is mostly my fault. I was the oldest one there. I should've cut it short before anything happened. I failed you. Worse, I failed Dipper and most of all Mabel. I'm so ashamed of myself, so sorry."

"It wasn't your idea," Wanda said. Then she managed a smile. "Oh, go on and sit down. And Wanda is fine. I'm happy that you all think so highly of Mabel, but look at what she did! If that photo ever got out, what would happen to the other girls?"

Stanley held up the picture for Wendy to see. She winced a little. "Well . . . Grenda would probably want copies. Pacifica would want one, too, but she'd tell us to hide it from her boyfriend. Candy—I don't know. She's hard to figure out. Me—well, if my dad ever saw it, he'd hit the ceiling. Send me up to my cousin Steve's logging camp to work for, like, the rest of my life." She looked down. "But if you want to send it to him I under—"

"No," Alex said. "Definitely not. It's caused enough trouble as it is. All right, Wendy, you were there. Tell us the story."

Rashomon is a classic Japanese movie. In it, a terrible crime is committed, and four different people who witnessed the crime—including the criminal!—tell just what happened. Every witness seems sincere. Yet no two versions of the story are the same. None of them agree on just who killed the murder victim—or on the motives of the people involved.

Not so in this case. Sitting tensely in the chair, Wendy told the whole thing over again, and what she said jibed with what Dipper and Mabel had told Wanda. Wendy wound up with her voice mournfully sad: "So, you know, it was 'Truth or Dare,' and—I don't know. Those three girls are sort of Mabel's posse, her bffs, and—it was Mabel's dare, and I should have said something, but I guess I just didn't want to be, you know, the enforcer, putting Mabel down in front of her friends, so I . . . I went along with it. We didn't mean any harm, and I knew it would startle Dipper, but he's so shy in so many ways. I thought he'd even get a chuckle out of it, looking like a guy who's irresistible to the girls." She rubbed her eyes. "I was sleep-deprived, I guess. That's not an excuse, though. I should have stopped it instead of going along with it."

"You posed in it, too," Wanda said, not in an accusing way—just stating a fact.

"Yeah," Stan said. "Fifteen-year-old boy, hot older girl cuddled up to him—big ego boost for most kids. I can see that."

"Stanley!" Ford said.

Grinning, Stan said, "Wendy, I officially apologize for saying you're hot."

Wendy shrugged. Her expression had become woeful, and she didn't speak. But after a moment, she managed, "Wanda, please, please don't let this be a wedge between you and Mabel. I lost my Mom when I was too young to understand. I—God, I miss her every day of my life. If—if she'd been around when I was Mabel's age, I don't know, I think I'd be a better person. Please don't break off with your kids."

Wendy was tough, and she didn't sob, but they could all see unshed tears brimming in her green eyes.

"Maybe I overreacted," Wanda conceded with a sigh. "But really, they crossed a line, and they can't get off scot-free. What should I do?"

"Wait. Dipper's kinda the victim here, isn't he?" Stanley asked. "He wasn't even in on this. He was asleep!"

"Yeah," Wendy said. "He didn't get any sleep until real late, and then when he did drop off, he was dead to the world. See, he was downstairs in the guest room, but Mabel and her friends get real loud."

"Tell us about it," Alex said. "Coffee's ready."

"Anyhow, for part of that night Dipper even went down in the basement and slept for a while on the floor. Or tried to, but the floor's hard. I guess he came back upstairs early in the morning and finally went to sleep in the guest room. We came in on him not long after he'd nodded off."

Alex returned with a tray. "Here you go, Uncle Stanley. Black, two sugars. Wendy, cream, no sugar. Uncle Stanford, water on the rocks."

Wanda said, "You're right. It wasn't Dipper's fault, I do realize that. But if I punish Mabel alone—"

"We," Alex corrected. "We're both in on this."

"But I'm the bad guy if I punish Mabel and let Dipper off. You know that's how he'll see it, and then he's going to resent me. But if I punish Dipper, Mabel's going to be even more furious with me. There's no way out."

"You don't need a way out," Stanford said. "You just need a way through."

4

They talked for a couple of hours, looking at options. Then when they'd sort of shaped up a plan, Stanford said, "Well, you can only try. For our part, we'll be completely supportive of you and your decision—just reach it together with the twins, that's all we ask. Wanda, when all this has simmered down, reflect that you and Alex have raised two wonderful kids." He chuckled. "Think of all the things teenagers do that they never do! That should be a comfort. This is just a minor peccadillo compared to some shenanigans I've heard of."

"Yeah," Stan said. "Nothin' but a peck of—hey, I remember this one time a few years back when a bunch of Gravity Falls teens about the same age as Dipper and Mabel even stole a cop car right out from under the sheriff's nose! Drove off from outside the school gym and went on a joyride!"

Wendy looked as if she were going to choke on her coffee, but she got the sip down. "No way," she said in a strangled voice—and with a warning glare at Stan.

With a widening grin, Stan said, "Eh, you wouldn't have heard about it. That was before your time, I think. Probably."

The Pineses invited them to lunch, Wanda made some tasty sandwiches, served them along with some of her home-made vegetable soup (she made it in big batches and froze quarts for just such occasions), and Wendy ate with an appetite that told them all she'd been hungry for a long time. Afterward, without being asked, she helped clean up—"I'm used to this, do it all the time for my dad and brothers."

Stanley and Stanford had a short private conversation, and when she came back, Stanley said, "Wendy, listen. You're in no shape to drive another six hundred miles today. Anyways, here's what we're gonna do. My brother's gonna fly back to Portland, as planned. Me, I'm gonna drive your car while you catch some Z's, and then you can take over for a couple hours and we'll rotate, and you won't go to sleep at the wheel on the way back home. That OK with you?"

"She can stay here until tomorrow," Alex said. "We've got the guest room."

With a smile, Wendy said, "That's nice of you, and thanks, Mr. P, but I don't think Mabel and Dipper ought to know that we even showed up. They didn't ask us to do this. Don't tell them, OK?"

Alex looked at Wanda. She smiled ruefully and shook her head. "We won't tell them. I—I suppose our kids must be basically OK if they inspire such loyalty in her great-uncles and you."

"When you're having your talk with 'em," Stan advised quietly, "Start by telling them you love them. That's important. And then when you finish, ask them how they're feeling. And end by telling them you love them again." Gruffly, he added, "I wish my folks had done that with me. I might've turned out different, been somebody important, like my brother here."

Ford put his arm over Stanley's shoulders. "You turned out just fine," he said. "And you are important." To Wanda and Alex, Ford added, "Stanley's our hero."

Stanley gave him a little shove. "Ah, get outa town, Poindexter. Well, we gotta run. I'll have to cash out my return ticket or get a rain check whatever you do, and Ford's got a plane to catch in three hours. Give us a ride to the airport before you and me head off to Oregon, Wendy?"

"You got it," she said.

As Mr. and Mrs. Pines saw them off, Stanford awkwardly hugged Wanda. "Stay brave," he said, giving her shoulder a six-fingered pat. "Give and take, remember. Nobody's going to be a hundred per cent happy, but everyone will be relieved and better off when this is resolved."

Stan's hug was much warmer. "Wanda," he said, "remember, no matter what, the kids love you. Families do get mad at each other. But the good families always make it up. It's hard to forget, but you always can forgive."

Wendy stood awkwardly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "Uh—thanks for hearing me out," she said. "I still feel like I should come in for some punishment, too."

"Hah! I got a whole raft of new jokes to tell you as we drive up!" Stan said. He gave the others an evil grin. "Oh, you're gonna pay!"

Wendy started to turn, but Wanda stopped her: "Wait." She took a step forward. "I get too emotional. That makes me feel—weak, I guess. I always try to guard against that, and—and that makes me seem like a harsh, horrible person. But—oh, come here, Wendy."

And she hugged Wendy.

And let's just say . . . some tears were shed.