Privately, later, Amanda would plead temporary insanity. David Tighe provided more excitement than she had known in her adult life, which had consisted primarily of the U of C business school and the real estate business. She went to movies and bars with Farrah sometimes, but Farrah was on the look-out for potential boyfriends, not cultural enrichment.
During this phase, Cheryl, also always on the look-out in a sorrier and more aggressive way than Farrah, phoned with great news: she and the young tennis pro, Guy Hoverman from Belgium had gotten married the previous weekend. “No time for preliminaries,” Cheryl had explained. “We wanted it to be quick and easy. Any big whoop-de-doos can wait.”
“Well, congratulations, Mom! I’m very happy for you and kind of proud of you for going right ahead with it, you know: minimal preliminaries.”
[Click here to read the first episode, or here to read the previous one.]
But Cheryl sighed in annoyance as if Amanda had asked her if the haste had to do with a green card problem, which hadn’t occurred to her, and yet did happen to be the case.
“But that’s not the reason, Amanda, no matter what you think. Guy and I are deeply in love and have been for more than a year. And if he had wanted to apply for renewal, he would have easily gotten one.”
The Wisconsin Dells were filled with wedding chapels and Cheryl had asked golfing friends to attend, not family. She and Guy would go on a honeymoon later, in the winter, since early spring marked the first days for golf and tennis in the Wisconsin Dells.
Amanda expressed polite interest in meeting her new step-father, but Cheryl said, “It hardly matters any more, does it? You can meet him in due time.”
Her mother didn’t ask about Evie or Vanessa, which relieved Amanda. Had Cheryl suddenly shown interest or said she was missing their childhood—anything like that—Amanda would have attempted to make amends.
But Cheryl was happy and Amanda was genuinely glad for that. Her mother’s life intersected with her own so rarely at this point that a little good news was just that, leaving Amanda free to jump back into her own life, which had never interested Cheryl, except for that strained, miserable phase when Amanda was in high school and Cheryl was determined to go on record as a vigilant, not negligent, mother.
She must have talked to David about her mother's marriage, and how Cheryl had wanted to get married Amanda's whole life, but until now the great occasion had always eluded her.
But David apparently registered little of this. Amanda having two young daughters was problem enough without honing in on a mother-in-law that Amanda didn’t even like.
Still, actively wooing Amanda, however, David took her to hear blues and jazz in Chicago, experiences that thrilled her to the quick. He escorted her around The Art Institute, watching her reactions.He explained the paintings that moved her, and even more about the ones that didn’t.
Within no time, he began to predict which paintings would enthrall her and which she would ones would leave her cold. Her taste, he claimed, was predictable because it was common. And if she didn’t make a conscious effort to refine her sensibilities, she’d always respond to intensity and sentiment.
Unless she was content to prefer art that he considered cheap, Amanda should cultivate her awareness of subtlety and mastery. That took time for most people, whether as artist or audience.
But, of course, David had already decided that Amanda’s personality pegged her as a primitive.
“Insult or compliment?” Amanda had asked.
That depended. She certainly appreciated art. Her excitement exceeded anything in his experience, and rest assured, she was not the first unenlightened women he’d courted. No argument there. Standing beside him, she suspected he had trained himself to say “unenlightened” when he meant “ignorant.”
But so what? These days she was either captivated by David’s brilliant observations or preoccupied by the obnoxious minutiae coincident with her changing financial and legal status. It was proving almost impossible to sell her little house on North Humphrey Street, and it was only beginning to dawn on her that sharing David’s house, although it was spacious and in its way rather grand, was a bad idea.
If she included the girls in her concept of their future life, sharing the house, if not their lives, didn’t seem feasible. But now that they had set wedding date set for April—their standing within the school district, Amanda realized, was a definite factor here—she and the girls faced the unexpected and rather unhappy process moving into David’s meticulously ordered, yet borderline huge home.
It sat on an acre of natural prairie. Again, Amanda should have heeded a serious warning, this one much more serious than his need to instruct her incessantly. And that was: When they talked about moving into his vast premises, it became clear that history teacher or not, David disliked children. Perhaps he liked them more when they were older. At four and seven, he suffered them to a degree that seemed preposterous—at least in retrospect.
Heading into this second marriage, Amanda’s main insight lay in realizing he would almost certainly not want her to have his biological child. It took her some pondering—she tended to assume it was another reason a childless man would want to marry her—but this was one prerequisite of his she could accept easily. David was fifty year old.
Of course, Amanda and Farrah both knew men who considered that a fine age for fatherhood. Less active, but more patient… But in David’s case, they agreed beyond any doubt he was not among those men.
Because, again, while there might be many other reasons, all of them sensible for him preferring to forgo fatherhood, Amanda felt more vaguely than she should have that David plainly disliked children. But then, he disliked many adults as well. So perhaps she should hold off on her judgments.
Still, the first night she brought Evie and Vanessa to David’s for dinner proved miserable for everyone. Amanda had teased David not to get too anxious at thought of entertaining three primitives. “What are you students for the most part?”
That made him groan but he smiled stiffly, determined to play the good sport. “It’s fine,” he said. “I look forward to the three of you whooping and skidding through the hallways, overrunning my dining room, and in general accosting my finest furniture.”
If he was joking, as Amanda assumed for the time being, the joke was a revealing one. During that first dinner, however, her premonitions changed from vague to quite clear, really. He and she both squirmed, uncomfortable for opposite reasons, over Dover sole and fresh peas.
Evie and Vanessa’s eyes darted in confusion. Amanda imagined them too intimidated to ask: Was it okay to drink their milk like always or must they sip it as David sipped his wine? Since they couldn’t talk and eat at the same time, and couldn’t talk while he talked, the girls ate silently. Except when David tried to elicit a response. Evie feigned quiet pleasure. “This is delicious.”
Later Amanda apologized to her daughters. They shrugged—their father’s girlfriend was the same way.
Sad but true, David confessed, “We need to buy a different house, one that’s ours and not my precious domain.” He laughed. See, he could be light-hearted about it as long as everyone respected each other’s prerogatives.
Yes, well. Maybe if he said so, it would prove true. David was never wrong.
Finalizing her divorce with Mike occurred suddenly and anti-climactically, after a burst of last-minute haggling. The house quandary didn’t work out as neatly. Real estate values had sunk through the earth. Amanda and David had already more or less agreed, however—a big, bad idea that nonetheless gained momentum—that Amanda and her children would live at David’s, temporarily.
He’d rearrange rooms and box prized possessions until the market turned reasonable. He didn’t mind. “Although, perhaps your girls should eat dinner before we do.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
So they were fine. Amanda’s divorce from Mike became official in March. Her mother, who hadn’t seen them since she had married Guy, the tennis pro, was rather suddenly urging Amanda to hold the wedding at the resort.
“Assuming,” she said, “the ceremony’s small and simple.”
“Very small,” Amanda said. “Very quick.”
They agreed: after the wedding, Cheryl and Guy drive the girls to Madison and stay with Evie and Vanessa's other grandparents a few day before the Morrisons and Mike flew with the girls to Bermuda during their spring vacation while Amanda and David honeymooned in Mexico.
Amanda had become comfortable and grateful for the trips Mike and his parents regularly lavished on the girls. She was more anxious about Cheryl and Guy driving them anywhere, which she decided was nonsense.
Cheryl didn’t like Amanda—she had no reason to take it out on her granddaughters. And she very well might be a nicer, happier person now that she and Guy had married. In any case, they were driving the girls a short distance. Mike and his parents sponsored the actual vacations.
Since David had chosen Mexico City for the honeymoon, he told Amanda the trip “was on him.”
Fine with her if he preferred they keep their finances separate, but then why were they getting married? Oh yes, Amanda didn’t want the girls aware she was having regular, unmarried sex. This, too, in retrospect would seem far-fetched at best. He found several Mexican history books for Amanda to study. Mexico was vastly underappreciated and misunderstood by most US citizens. And, David claimed, his Spanish was better than fluent.
David and Amanda drove to the Dells with Evie and Vanessa in Amanda's old Toyota. David’s vintage convertible was suitable only for summer picnics that were rather nearby. She had wanted to wear the white dress she had worn to Olivia’s wedding, but David thought it was “too Audrey Hepburn.”
Amanda didn’t know what he meant exactly, but assumed he didn’t like the full skirt. A beige sheath he said might make her look sophisticated. She found one in shiny pale blue. He wore a dark suit and the girls wore flower-printed dresses, which they both hated.
They had all warned David that the Wisconsin Dells were not at all “sophisticated,” and Evie had heard him say his sensibilities were being assaulted. Twice as they drove, she asked him, “Are your sensibilities being assaulted?”
He looked annoyed but said no, they weren’t as a matter of fact. This was perfect for a wedding, like Niagara Falls.
Cheryl's one and only husband, Guy, was blond and thirty-six but looked younger. If it weren’t for a broken nose that hadn’t healed well or which he hadn’t had straightened, he might look pretty. Amanda liked him and was glad to see him wrap his arm around her mother, saying his golf was improving almost as well as her tennis.
Cheryl smiled. She looked happy but noticeably thicker and sun damaged. Fifty like David, she had taken to wearing very high heels when she wasn’t playing golf. But her legs had thickened, too, so she looked ill-proportioned and off-balance. To complete her new look, she had dyed her hair a brilliant, deliberately implausible but apparently chic orange.
After the ceremony, Cheryl and David, who she referred to as “her brand new son-in-law,” reminisced about growing up during the seventies. Amanda spoke with Guy for one minute before Cheryl hauled her off and practically shoved her into a hedge.
“Hands off.”
Amanda nodded and turned away. She hadn’t found the right time to offer her mother congratulations. Like, “Guy’s a lucky guy.” But, oh well. Maybe later. Or maybe never.
(click here for the next episode)
