Freedom [28]
Patty was curious about Eliza’s parents and wanted to stick around the house and meet them, but Eliza was adamant about this being a very bad idea. “They’re the love of each other’s lives,” she said. “They do everything together. They have matching offices in the same suite, and they coauthor all their papers and books, and they do joint presentations at conferences, and they can never ever talk about their work at home, because of patient confidentiality. They even have a tandem bicycle.”
“So?”
“So they’re strange and you’re not going to like them, and then you’re not going to like me.”
“My parents aren’t so great, either,” Patty said.
“Trust me, this is different. I know what I’m talking about.”
Driving back into the city in the Bug, with the warmthless Minnesota spring sun behind them, they had their first sort-of fight.
“You have to stay here this summer,” Eliza said. “You can’t go away.”
“That’s not very realistic,” Patty said. “I’m supposed to work in my dad’s office and be in Gettysburg in July.”
“Why can’t you stay here and go to your camp from here? We can get jobs and you can go to the gym every day.”
“I have to go home.”
“But why? You hate it there.”
“If I stay here I’ll drink wine every night.”
“No, you won’t. We’ll have strict rules. We’ll have whatever rules you like.”
“I’ll be back in the fall.”
“Can we live together then?”
“No, I already promised Cathy I’d be in her quad.”
“You can tell her your plans changed.”
“I can’t do that.”
“This is crazy! I hardly ever see you!”
“I see you more than practically anybody. I love seeing you.”
“Then why won’t you stay here this summer? Don’t you trust me?”
“Why wouldn’t I trust you?”
“I don’t know. I just can’t figure out why you’d rather work for your dad. He did not take care of you, he did not protect you, and I will. He doesn’t have your best interests at heart, and I do.”
It was true that Patty’s spirits sagged at the thought of going home, but it seemed necessary to punish herself for eating hash brownies. Her dad had also been making an effort with her, sending her actual handwritten letters (“We miss you on the tennis court”) and offering her the use of her grandmother’s old car, which he didn’t think her grandmother ought to be driving anymore. After a year away, she was feeling remorseful about having been so cold to him. Maybe she’d made a mistake? And so she went home for the summer and found that nothing had changed and she had not made a mistake. She watched TV till midnight, got up at seven every morning and ran five miles, and spent her days highlighting names in legal documents and looking forward to the day’s mail, which more often than not contained a long typewritten letter from Eliza, saying how much she missed her, and telling stories about her “lecherous” boss at the revival-house movie theater where she was working in the ticket booth, and exhorting her to write back immediately, which Patty did her best to do, using old letterhead stationery and the Selectric in her dad’s mothball-smelling office.
In one letter Eliza wrote, I think we need to make rules for each other for protection and self-improvement. Patty was skeptical about this but wrote back with three rules for her friend. No smoking before dinnertime. Get exercise every day and develop athletic ability. And Attend all lectures and do all homework for ALL classes (not just English). No doubt she should have been disturbed by how different Eliza’s rules for her turned out to be—Drink only on Saturday