Ch. 49

"So, who's going to take care of crime here while we go to California?" Dan asked Laurie as he walked her home.

"Oh." said Laurie, stopping in her tracks. She hadn't thought of it, and considering Nelly and Walter hadn't mentioned it either, she could safely assume that they hadn't either.

"Well," Laurie scratched her head and started walking again. "We won't be gone too long, I hope."

"If we took turns driving, we could probably get to California in two days," Dan said. "So even if we stayed for a few days there we would be back in a week at the latest, I hope."

"True, but I'm sure Nelly would like to stay there for a bit longer than that," Laurie said.

"Oh, well," Dan shrugged. "I suppose I should have more faith in our police department."

Laurie shrugged back at him. As they reached the house, she could hear the phone ringing from inside.

"Phone," exclaimed Laurie. "Bye Dan."

Laurie could hear Dan calling after her, but she was too busy fumbling to get inside. The phone was ringing incessantly, and when it stopped, it started again a few seconds later. Laurie finally tore the phone from its hook and placed it on her ear.

"Hello?" Laurie asked, out of breath.

"Laurie," said her mother's voice. "Where have you been?"

"Mom, I was outside."

"All night? I've been trying to reach you, sweetie."

"I was at Walter's." Laurie cringed a little.

"Hm."

Silence.

"What is it, Mother?" Laurie asked.

"Laurie," sighed Sally. "I've been trying to talk to you for some time now; we finally have a chance for a decent conversation and you act as if I'm intruding on your life."

"Well, I--..." Laurie sighed as well. "I'm sorry."

"That's better," Sally said, sounding placated for now. "I'm sure Walter has told you of this already, but since I've finally gotten in touch with you, why don't we get together for dinner tonight?"

"Isn't that a bit last minute, Mom?"

"Oh, nonsense. I'm sure even your father can find time for a little dinner."

"Oh."

Laurie grimaced.

"What's wrong, Laurie? Is there trouble? Is that why you had to stay at Walter's?"

"Well, no..." Laurie paused. "I thought he told you."

"Told me what?"

"He's gone to Vietnam."

Sally was silent for some time.

"What?" she finally asked.

Laurie shrugged, though afterwards realized that her mother would not be able to see it, of course.

"He went to war," Laurie tried again.

"He didn't tell me."

"I figured so, Mother."

"How could he do this?" Sally asked. "How could he leave you there by yourself, Laurie?"

"Mother, I'm old enough to take care of myself."

"No -- you know how hard it is for a woman to live on her own? He didn't even consider how you would be affected by something like this, did he?"

"I'm sure he did."

"No, I know Eddie, and I know how he is. He's selfish like that. Has an idea in his head, goes with it whether anybody else likes it or not."

"Mother--"

"Don't 'Mother' me, Laurie," Sally sounded quite upset. "You would think he'd at least have the courtesy to tell me, but no, just like always, Edward Blake. Just like always."

Laurie felt an angry flush come up around her neck and cheeks.

"Well, maybe if you had tried to get along with him better, he would have told you," Laurie told her mother.

"Laurie--"

"Instead you have to play hard to get. You're always running around flirting with everybody and people don't know what to think of you. It's so embarrassing."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about," shouted Laurie. "If you'd told him you were keen on something, anything, I bet he would have stayed. It's not like he wanted to go to that awful place. He probably thought he had no other options."

"He had an option, Laurie -- for a man who says he loves his daughter--"

"Mother, he knows that I have my own life. He thinks he's intruding on it, though I do try to tell him he isn't. If he knew he had someone to come home to, he would have stayed."

"That's unrealistic--"

"No," Laurie felt the anger flash in her eyes this time, blinding her for a moment. "You know what's unrealistic? The expectations you put on people. You're so cold, Mother. You want everyone to behave as mercenary as you do."

"Laurie," Sally sounded hurt.

"Why are you so ambivalent?" Laurie asked. She felt sad now. She hadn't meant to say those things to her mother, but now it was too late to take them back.

Sally was silent on the other end.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Laurie sighed deeply. "I'm just blaming you for things that could have been. I guess I am being unrealistic."

"No, dear," her mother sounded very far away. "It's all right."

"So, uh," Laurie bit her lip. "What was this about dinner?"

"Oh -- well, why don't we go out to eat?" Sally said, sniffing. Was she crying? "At six? I can come pick you up."

"No, uh, we'll just stop by your place," Laurie said as she twirled the phone cord nervously around her finger. "I'll see you."

"Fair enough."

Sally hung up before Laurie could say anything else. Laurie sighed and threw up her hands. She looked around the house, half-expecting her mother to show up to start another fight. Laurie paused for a moment. She hadn't checked the mail in a while. She stood up and went out to the mail box and pulled out stacks of envelopes. She flipped through them. Was she supposed to pay these bills?

Laurie was surprised and pleased to find a letter from her father. She had been half hoping for some sort of correspondence, but wasn't betting on it. She set the other letters down and opened the one in her hand.

"Dear Laurie,

How are you? I miss you. Really wish you were here.

What am I talking about? Wish I was there, for crying out loud -- you were right, kid. Don't know why I thought it was a great idea to come here. Well, didn't, really. Just came anyway. It's a lot different from back when I was in war a hundred years ago (yes, your father is THAT old!), you think it's pointless when you hear about it on the news broadcasts. Well, they ain't talking half of what you see in this shit hole. Aw, should censor myself but who cares. I can't think of any other way to describe the place.

I wanted to tell you: don't worry about Walter. I should have said it before I left but I didn't think of it until after I was halfway here. He's a good kid, and you need to lead him, otherwise he won't know what to do. If you haven't already, I suggest you talk to him. He cares about you a lot, you know. I'm sure he's hurting worse than you are.

Is that weird that I'm telling you this? I'm rambling but I'm not drunk or anything, I swear. I'm behaving myself over here. I have the creepy blue guy to take care of things -- don't know why they bothered sending for me with him around. He's been playing god around the place, disintegrating people like you wouldn't believe. I'm sure he'll make short work of this war. At least, I hope so. That means I can come home faster.

Say hello to Walter for me -- and your mother. Write to me if you have the time, but if you don't want to that's okay too. Don't feel obligated. I ain't dead yet though!

Love you,

-Dad"

Laurie smiled to herself and reread the letter. Then she placed it near her heart as she searched for an envelope and some paper and began writing her own:

"Dear Dad,

I'm so glad to hear from you -- I'm sorry if this is getting there late. I forgot to check the mail for a while, so I don't know how long your letter's been sitting in the mailbox. It's not because I was procrastinating on it or anything. By the way, do I have to pay any bills? We received a ton, and I have no idea what goes where or what for.

Dad, it's glad to hear that you're safe over there... Well, relatively safe, anyway. But why can't you just leave and come back, then? You should do that thing you do and tell them to stuff it. If they don't need you, then why should you be there? I wish you were over here too. It's really sad without you here. I'm back with Walter though, so you don't have to worry about me too much.

I talked to Mom today. I told her where you were. I'm kind of upset at her right now -- you know how she is. I'm supposed to go to dinner with her and Walter tonight and I don't want to go.

Oh, I almost forgot -- we're going to California! Nelly is taking us. Not for a vacation or anything, but he got in touch with the CF group there and they invited us to visit them. Walter is going because he wants to solve a case. He's quite obsessed with it. Dan's going with us too, by the way. I hope the two of them get along, though they have been lately so I'm not too worried. If you write to me while I'm gone though, that might be why I take a while to respond. I am going to guess we are going to stay there for two weeks at the most. I hope we don't stay too long. Dan pointed out that it wouldn't be wise for all of us to run off and leave the city to fend for itself... if you know what I mean...

I better go, Dad. You take care. And I will tell Walter and Mom that you wrote. I love you and miss you! Did I say that already? I don't think I did. Well, I miss you a lot, I wish you were here too. I'll see you.

-Laurie"

Laurie read over her letter. She hadn't wanted to talk too much about crime fighting, just in case the mail was screened by the military. She was sure most people there knew who the Comedian was, but she didn't want to take any chances. She placed the letter in the envelope, affixed a stamp to it, then went out to mail it. She spent the rest of the afternoon packing her essentials. Nelly hadn't told her yet when they were leaving, but she wanted to get it out of the way. Towards the evening, she looked up and was startled to find Walter standing in the doorway to her room.

"You left the door unlocked again," he told her in a disapproving tone.

"Oops," Laurie shrugged.

"Are you packing already?" Walter walked over and started to rifle through her suitcase.

"Yes," she said, laughing and slapping his hands away. "Why don't you go home and pack?"

"It's good to see you too," he said, sounding a lot more hurt than she would have expected.

"No," Laurie exclaimed, grabbing his waist and pulling him to her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"Mm-hm."

"I didn't!" Laurie said, kissing him. "I'm sorry, Walter. I'm in a bad mood because of my mother. It's good to see you."

"What did she do?" Walter asked her as he put his arms around her.

Laurie shook her head and sighed.

"I don't know -- she was being weird about Dad going to war."

"What, did she say that it was a good riddance?"

"No," Laurie laughed at the thought. "I don't know, Walter. I guess... If you said you were going out to war, I would do everything I could to stop it. I'd drive us to Canada if that would help. And if you ended up going anyway, I would be heart broken."

"I'm not going to war," he said, dryly.

"Well, yes," Laurie sighed. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, I thought she would care more about the fact that he could die out there. That he's in a mess and she's standing by just watching."

"They don't really have an obligation to one another," Walter said. "They're not really together anymore, are they?"

"I suppose so," frowned Laurie. "But how can you love someone so much at some point, but then not care if they live or die?"

"Sometimes, love fades," said Walter. "And sometimes things just don't work out when you look at them realistically. Beneath the surface, even."

"Yeah," Laurie sighed. "I don't know... Seeing it from my dad's perspective I guess I'm a little biased."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he obviously still cares about her -- I think he loves her, even."

Laurie frowned and hugged Walter.

"I was just hoping she would feel the same way," she said.

"Your mother is an ambivalent person, it seems," Walter said, thoughtfully.

"That's exactly what I told her," Laurie laughed. "That's the word for it -- ambivalent. Yet, I know my mother's not that bad. She feels just like the rest of us."

"Just not as much."

"Walter," Laurie protested, but she was still laughing.

Walter shrugged and kissed her tenderly.

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To be continued...