“Yeah,” Zack said.
“It says she’s smart and careful.”
“What it says to me is that she’s probably had a number of partners, which opens her up to all sorts of diseases. AIDS and a dozen others.
You should have used a condom, anyway. What if she’s lying to you?
What if she’s not on the Pill at all and is just trying to trap you?
And, damn it, you’re too young for this, anyhow. ” Whew. He sounded judgmental. Irrational. Hysterical. But he couldn’t seem to shut up.
Zack simply stared at him.
“What’s the problem. Dad?”
he asked. “Are you telling me you did it for the first time on your wedding night, or what?”
Be understanding, Daria had said. Be kind. With a heavy sigh, he sat down on the sofa.
“I know I’m not doing a good job of this, Zack,” he admitted.
“I’m sorry. I just worry about you, that’s all.”
“Well, you don’t have to,” Zack said.
“Yeah, I do,” he said.
“I was fifteen once, too, hard though that may be for you to believe. And I know how you can be drawn into things without thinking through the consequences.”
“I’m thinking things through, Dad. Have a little faith in me, all right?” Zack turned to leave the room.
“I think it’s time I had a talk with Kara’s grandparents. The Wheelers,” Rory said.
Zack spun around.
“What?”
“Not to tell them about what happened tonight,” he said quickly.
“Don’t worry about that. I just think I should get to know them a bit better, since you and Kara are seeing each other.”
“That is really not necessary.”
“I’d like to talk with them, anyway,” Rory said. He’d had a few short conversations with the couple this summer, reminiscing about old times on the cul-de-sac, but he hadn’t yet spoken with them about Shelly.
“Now is as good a time as any.”
“What a coincidence,” Zack said.
“You decide to talk to them right after you find Kara and me…”
“I told you, I won’t say anything about that,” Rory said.
“That’s a promise.”
“I’m going to bed,” Zack said.
“It’s still early.”
Zack looked at him suspiciously.
“You mean, you’d let me go out?”
“Of course.”
“If I go out, I’m going to see Kara.” It sounded like a threat.
“I’m sure you will,” he said.
“I know there isn’t anything I can do about that, Zack. Just… use good judgment, please. That’s all I ask.”
The Wheelers’ cottage was swarming with grandchildren of all ages the following day, but the older couple invited Rory onto their screened deck, away from the noise and clutter. Rory remembered the Wheelers fondly from his childhood. Every evening, they would stroll arm in arm on the beach together, and he’d thought of them as a kind old couple, although they must only have been in their fifties then. Now, in their mid-seventies, Mr. Wheeler was tall and lean and looked fit, while Mrs. Wheeler had grown quite heavy and walked with a cane. He did not know their first names; they would probably always be Mr. and Mrs.
Wheeler to him. “We watch you every week on True Life Stories,” Mrs. Wheeler said as she poured him a glass of iced tea from a plastic, childproof pitcher. She handed the tea to him, then lowered herself into a deck chair.
“Well, thanks,” Rory said.
“I’m sorry I haven’t stopped by yet this summer. I guess you’ve seen my son more than you have me.”
“He’s a sweet boy,” Mrs. Wheeler said.
“Thanks. He’s a good kid.” Rory took a sip of tea. It was overly sweet. “I do worry that he and Kara might be getting a bit too serious, though,” he said.
Mrs. Wheeler raised her eyebrows.
