ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 94 - DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL

She made two phone calls once she was on the highway heading back. One phone call was to William to see how he was doing. He’d told her he was fine. Clem and him were just finishing lunch, and were heading back outside to continue working on the car.

An hour later, she got off the highway in Santa Ysabel and went past their road and headed into town. She had one more thing to do, before going home.

She pulled up in front of The Rittenhouse Restaurant and went in. It was between the lunch and dinner hours, so the restaurant was empty. She walked through the kitchen toward the back office. She heard rustling inside through the partly closed door. She knocked lightly.

“Come in,” a voice called.

Buffy opened the door and looked over at the desk, there she was. A little older looking than when last she’d seen her, but still capable of running the restaurant.

“Elizabeth!” Edna said, rising slowly from her chair. Her expectant eyes asked it all.

Buffy smiled and nodded at her as she walked toward Edna, who had stood and was now coming around the desk. She held out her hands and Buffy took them in her own.

“William…?”

“Yes,” Buffy nodded, “he’s very much alive and he’s home.”

They embraced, Edna hugging Elizabeth tight. As they came apart, they both had tears in their eyes.

“When I got your message, I didn’t know if you were bringing William or not, I was so excited!”

“I’m sorry, I thought I mentioned it. I just wanted to drop by and see you by myself today, first.”

“You probably did, I just…would you like some tea, dear?”

“Um…sure, if it’s not a bother.”

“No bother,” Edna said, motioning Elizabeth to take the seat in front of her desk.

Edna went over to the corner of the room, which had a small coffeepot full of hot water. Placing two tea bags into the cups she’d taken down from the cabinet, she poured the hot water over them, placed them, along with sugar and creamer on a tray and brought them over to the desk.

“Now, tell me everything,” she said, as soon as Elizabeth had fixed her tea the way she liked it.

Buffy took a deep breath and proceeded to tell her the story, starting with when she last had spoken to her. She told her about the hospital, skipping the worst parts, but still, Edna’s eyes filled with tears and anger as she learned how William had been almost lost to them.

She gave Edna the short version of the past month, how they’d stayed at a friend’s cottage in Michigan while William recovered from his ordeal and the drive across country.

“And his memory? It’s come back?”

Buffy shook her head, “No, it hasn’t.”

Edna’s eyes spilled over, “How very awful for you. And for him…poor dears…how is he then?”

“Please don’t cry. Actually, it’s not as bad as it sounds, I’d say that he’s doing remarkably well, considering…” she said, then went on to explain more of the specifics of his condition.

“He’s learning about computers and cars? That’s marvelous. Always knew my William was a smart one,” Edna said, lapsing back to a thick Irish brogue, when using ‘my,’ in the fondest of ways.

“Edna, that’s why I came over to see you today. I knew that you’d want to see him and he knows about you and wants to meet you, too. But he doesn’t have any memory of his ‘father,’ or ‘grandfather,’ having had connections to you and to the area. Or that his bro…er his grandfather’s brother bought up acres back when it was being mined for gold. William just knows that he owned the house before he…was lost. I think it might upset him if you mentioned them, or much of his distant past, at this point.”

Edna nodded, “Of course I won’t. I’m glad you told me, I wouldn’t want William to be getting upset because of what comes out of an old lady’s mouth.”

“You’re not old,” Buffy said, smiling at her.

Edna just laughed, “Oh, but dear, I am. I’ve lived a very long time and I’ve seen a lot of things. Some things I can’t even explain…our William being one of them, but I suspect you know all about that,” she said, looking steadily at Elizabeth, a bit of a twinkle in her eyes.

Buffy nodded. She didn’t know exactly how much Edna knew, or even what she might suspect. Best leave that under the heading of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’

Buffy left a short time later, promising that she’d bring William there for either lunch or dinner in the next few days.


She arrived home a short while later. She walked in and found William sitting at the kitchen table looking over the DeSoto manual.

“Hey.”

“Hi,” he said, coming over to her and giving her a kiss.

“Where’s Clem?”

“He went home a while ago. We have to get a part before we can do anything else on the car. But it’s coming along.”

“I see,” she said, “when did he leave?”

“Right after the last time you called to tell me you’d be home in about half an hour. Told him he needn’t stay to baby-sit me, if he had other things to do.”

“Alright,” she said. She would have to talk to Clem about this, about sticking around when she wasn’t there, but for now she let it drop.

“So, did you have to wait around much?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“For my papers?”

“Oh, no,” she said, covering, “it was pretty quick, actually. None of the departments were too busy.”

“I’m glad. Don’t like the idea of you having to stand around all day on my behalf. I felt guilty that I let you talk me out of going with you.”

She kissed him, “Don’t be silly, William. It wasn’t a big deal. You had the car to work on anyway, and I got to blast my radio all the way to San Diego,” she said grinning. They’d had some discussions about music and what was good music. It was sadly, an area where they were going to have to agree to disagree.

“Why don’t I go get out of these heels, put some of my junk down, then I can show them to you if you want.”

“Okay,” he said.

Buffy went into the bedroom and closed the door. She took all the papers out of the envelope from Willow, except for his university transcript. She couldn’t very well explain how she’d gotten a hold of that right now. She’d think up something later, when he needed it. She quietly opened the closet door, stood on a footstool and put it into the box that she’d moved off her bed the night they returned.

She stuck the new ‘old’ car registration and title in William’s name, in her dresser drawer. She’d give him this when they needed to go to the DMV.

William was waiting for her on the couch when she came out. She walked over to him and sat down, then gave him the manila envelope she had put the remaining documents into.

He took them out and studied them.

The paper read:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
STATE DEPARTMENT OF NATURALIZATION

Name: William Spencer Worthington

Date of Birth: 08/15/80

Place of Birth: London, England, U.K.

Date of Naturalization: 06/01/99


Next he took out the Social Security card, brand new attached to a rectangle piece of cardboard.

He read the directions on it and slowly folded the serrated edges around the card back and forth, until it would tear easily off of the surrounding card.

Buffy got up and went to the desk, bringing him back a pen and a notepad that he could put the card on.

He nodded at her and signed his name.

“Does this mean I’m not a citizen of England?”

“I guess not.”

He shook his head; “None of it ‘feels’ right. I just wish I could remember…something, anything.”

“I’m sorry,” Buffy said, putting her head on his shoulder, trying to comfort him, “but it’s not like you can’t ever go over to England again, or something. Just nice that you’re all legal here, so you can…do whatever you want to do.”

“And be with you,” he said, kissing the top of her head.

“Well, that has nothing to do with you being naturalized or unnatural…ized,” she said, rolling her eyes so that he didn’t see.

“I still can’t drive, but at least I can get my own library card, eh?” he teased.

“Well, we’ll get you a driver’s manual, so you can start studying the rules, so that you can pass the test and get a driver’s permit. Then I can teach you to drive. In the meantime, yep, you can check out books to your heart’s content.”

“And don’t forget about CD’s and Videos, books on tape…” he said, naming off half a dozen other uses for the library that Buffy rarely partook in.

“I see you learned a lot the other day,” she said.

“Yeah, made friendly with the librarian,” he said, smiling.

She jabbed him in the ribs.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“Making friendly with the librarian. You’re not supposed to be ‘makin’ friendly’ with anybody but yours truly,” she said, pulling his head down towards hers for a kiss.

He chuckled, “Do you count 70 year old librarians in with that, ‘anybody’ but yours truly?”

“I don’t know. Think I’ll have to check her out,” Buffy said.

“I already checked her out, quite a dish, for her age,” he parried, causing Buffy to dig her fingers into his side, tickling him.

“Oh, she’s really a good lookin’ old gal. Quite well read,” he went on teasing, while trying to squirm away from her fingers.

“You are so going to get it,” she said, and flung herself onto him as they tussled on the couch.

“981. 82,” she whispered into his ear.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“It’s part of the Dewey Decimal System, how they organize books, or well, at least how they used to on little cards…think it’s all computerized now anyway. Isn’t it?”

He nodded; his eyes half-closed underneath Elizabeth, with her breath in his ear.

“I think I like the old system better, especially if sexy librarians read them to you,” he said in a low voice, “tell me more.”

She licked the outside of his ear and sucked on his earlobe, “549.73,” she said in a soft, sexy voice.

“Um…again,” he murmured.

“721.69,” she said breathlessly into his ear.

“I think I’m in love,” he said, and kissed her hard, as together, they melted into the leather couch and each other.

END CHAPTER 94