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Authors: Rita Mae Brown

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"You shut up," Bunny growled at her.

"No, Vic is Vic. She didn't decide to be gay."

"It will pass." Bunny crossed her arms.

"It won't pass. I love Chris, and she loves me." Vic refused to cry,
despite the lump in her throat.

"I do," Chris said.

"Did you always feel this way, dear?" R. J. asked her daughter.

"I did what was expected of me. I went through the motions. I didn't
ask questions. It's not like I grew up knowing there was another way or that I'd go that way."

"Well—" R. J. thought awhile. "—the three of you have put the
child first, and that speaks well for all of you. I can imagine this is ex
tremely difficult." She looked at Chris. "I'm glad you're having the
baby." She looked back to Vic. "I think it will take me awhile to get
used to this. Is this why you were kicked out of school?"

"No, that really was over the BVM."

"She took the blame for Charly and me." Chris reached for another
tissue.

"1 see."

A silence followed that was finally broken by
a wail from Bunny.
"But what about me!"

 

Epilogue

P

eople have always known that time flies. The Romans famously
said, ”Tempusfugit." Yet, it's one of those realizations that startles
each person as they feel it happening in their own lives.

The image of Father Time as a white bearded man, bent over with
years, isn't quite correct. Time is an imp, a little devil who kicks over the hourglass. By the time you right it, half the sand has run out and
you can't find the rest of it, the grains have scattered to the winds.

So it was at Surry Crossing. The shock of Vic's declaration, Chris's
pregnancy, and Bunny's discovery yielded to the details of daily life.
Tempests occurred most notably with Bunny. She sued for divorce and
won. For a while she argued that bringing Vic into the new business
was just endorsing her lesbianism.

This argument was quickly dropped when Chris was delivered of a
beautiful blond boy whom she named Victor, in honor of Vic.

Much as Bunny fumed about the social disgrace of lesbianism,
she couldn't resist Victor. Neither could anyone else, most especially
Piper.

Chris's family cut her off. Her brothers sporadically kept in touch
with her, but she never heard from her mother or father again, and she
never attempted to contact them. Her view, often declared, was that
your family is made of the people who love you for you.

R. J. saw that Vic was happy and so she accepted the relationship.

 

But then R. J. always did believe in love. She loved Frank in spite of
everything. Why shouldn't Victoria have her chance?

If Frank didn't understand the relationship, he kept it to himself.
He was never critical. He remained what he always had been, a Virginia gentleman. He liked Chris. He loved Victor.

Once Bunny got off her high horse, she and Chris became friends.
Both of them suffered a streak of perfectionism, which drew them to
gether since they were lightning fast to see the tiniest flaw in anyone
else's personality, plans, or performance. Chris kept the books for the nursery. Bunny couldn't find one single thing wrong. Then the two de
cided the nursery could expand and sell outdoor furniture, sculpture, and trellises. That sideline became very successful.

Charly, true to his word, visited Victor when he could and each
month he sent money. He had entered the draft after graduating from
William and Mary and was picked by the Kansas City Chiefs in the
last round as an afterthought. He worked hard and beat out guys who
had played for powerhouse schools like Ohio State, Notre Dame, and
Nebraska. By the second season he was a starter. He set up a college
fund for his son.

He also married a beautiful woman. Her physical resemblance to Vic escaped no one—especially his wife. The marriage was wretched. He paid through the nose to divorce her.

He'd call Vic once a week and talk to her about his life. He'd talk
to Chris about their son. He was now famous, handsomely paid for being able to run around with a pigskin tucked under his arm. And he was
just miserable.

Vic gave Jinx, Charly's number. She had graduated from the Uni
versity of Virginia Law School and was working for a high-powered firm in Washington. She specialized in tax law, which seemed boring
to everyone else, but Jinx, always looking ahead, realized it was a pow
erful political lever. She had a conference in Kansas City and she
called Charly. She was attractive, brilliant, kind, and she had that self-
confidence that attends people who love their work. They married two
years later. This marriage was a success.

When Charly retired from football at age thirty-four, before his
knees were totally destroyed, he moved to Washington, took a job in a

 

brokerage house, and found he loved his work as much as Jinx loved
hers. He grew closer to his father, too, now that they shared a common
profession.

Don continued to run the dealership. He owned half of it, but he
was surprised to learn he couldn't really live without Bunny. He begged
her to take him back. She was in no hurry to do so since she liked being
free, as she put it. His entreaties finally wore her down. But Bunny, being
Bunny, cut a tough deal. He could run the Dodge/Toyota dealership,
but she was going to get the Mercedes and Nissan dealerships, which
she would run herself. He agreed. They remarried.

Bunny sold her half of the nursery business to Vic and Chris, who
had formerly been paid employees. She gave them good terms, and Chris figured they would pay off the debt in eight years.

Mignon sailed through William and Mary, then attended New
York University's Medical School. She specialized in plastic surgery,
lived in New York City, and made boatloads of money. She married a
teammate of Charly's. Mignon blossomed into a most delightful
woman. She and Vic adored one another.

Edward Wallace hung on to eighty-eight. Yolanda succumbed
long before the old man did. In his grief when she died, he marched
out and bought a few more Jerseys, which put Sissy right over the
edge. More visits to Frank Savedge finally straightened it out, but the old man did break down and buy her a cream-colored Cadillac with a
sea foam interior, which Bunny, after hundreds of phone calls, got for a
great price. Then he had to turn around and buy a black one, for Geor
gia. They became a three-Cadillac family.

When Edward went to his reward, he willed his cattle as well as all his farm equipment to Vic and R. J. Mother and daughter cried when
they found out. Edward had been a true friend to the Savedges
through all their struggles. He shut up Georgia and Sissy when they
pitched a fit over Vic and Chris. He shut up a few other people, as
well. He, too, was a Virginia gentleman, the type that confused people
because on the outside he could seem prejudiced and sly, but on the
inside he was always fair. In that sense, he truly was a gentleman because he did not see the world in terms of groups or causes. He took
the world one person at a time.

 

Hojo moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and enrolled in the
University of North Carolina. Determined to make something of herself, she majored in business and then returned to Surry County. She
took a job at the Chevy dealership, eventually buying out the owner,
an aging and alcoholic relative of Boonie Ashley's. Hojo became the McKennas' fiercest competitor, taking over the GM dealership in the
process. She never married, contenting herself with a string of men
whom she could dismiss at will. Which she did. She became some
thing of an expert consumer in that respect.

Vic worked morning, noon, and night when she was an employee
of Surry Crossing Nursery. Once she became a partner, she worked even harder, but she was still outside most of the time, so she was
happy.

She loved Chris and Victor. Children force you to do a lot of
things you'd never do otherwise. In a way, she was grateful because
Victor probably saved her from becoming self-centered or too focused
on the business. Still, Chris was better suited for motherhood than Vic
was. Vic always worried Chris protected Victor too much.

When Chris wanted to have a second baby, Vic argued they
couldn't support a second baby. Victor was two years old then. R. J.
understood Chris's desire much better than Vic did, and she brought Vic around to the idea. Thanks to artificial insemination, a little girl
was born, whom Chris named Sean, which provoked another fight
since Vic said Sean was a boy's name. However, Sean worked her way
into everyone's heart, and Little Vic became a big brother, a job that
was quite important to him.

One hot July day, Vic was having a beer with Don as her truck was
being serviced. She said, "Christ, women are a pain in the ass." She'd
had a knock-down fight with Chris that morning. He just laughed
sympathetically.

Still, she and Chris stuck together. Like most couples, as time goes by, they were bound by money, by possessions, and above all, by the
children. Vic sometimes wished Chris weren't so damned picky, and
she really wished Chris were more sexual. For most people, that wild
ness wears off, but it never did for Vic. As the years rolled along she
recognized she didn't have a sex drive, she had a sex overdrive, She

 

had a few affairs but she was lucky. She never got caught. Sometimes
she thought she was in bed with another woman because she needed
more sex. Other times she thought she was there just to get some posi
tive energy, just to take a vacation. Her Uncle Don's former behavior
made a lot more sense to her now.

She loved Charly, but not once did she regret not marrying him.
He couldn't have found a better partner than Jinx, with whom she
stayed best friends.

Piper died of old age. Within a year another golden retriever joined
Surry Crossing.

Frank died of a massive heart attack on the courthouse steps in
1996.
He was given a funeral with full military honors. At the end of
his life he had stopped reading even the
Wall Street Journal.
He accepted
that he wasn't ever going to make up the money he lost and redeem himself. He didn't really need to, of course, because the love he gave
others, quietly, generously, was redemption enough.

Don McKenna gave the funeral oration and said something that stayed in Vic's mind. It became her mantra.

He said, "Most people believe in 'Live and Let Live,' but Frank be
lieved in 'Live, Let Live, and Help to Live.' "

Tonpus fugit.

When Victor Carter graduated from William and Mary, one year
early in 2001, thanks to his advanced studies, the Savedges, Harrisons,
Wallaces, and McKennas proudly attended. He was a great-looking
kid, a terrific athlete, and he was going on to attend Auburn Veterinary
College.

After graduation he led them all to St. Bede's. There waiting for
them was the Blessed Virgin Mary, appropriately dressed for the occa
sion in a graduation robe and mortar board. Vic thought her expres
sion was unusually serene.

 

About the Author

Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of
Rubyfruit
Jungle, In Her Day, Six of One, Southern
Discomfort, Sudden Death, High Hearts, Bingo, Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of
Writer's
Manual,
Venus Envy, Dolley: A Novel of Dolley Madison in Love
and War, Riding Shotgun, Loose
Lips,
Outfoxed,
and
a memoir, Rita
Will.
With her tiger cat, Sneaky
Pie, she also collaborates on the
New York Times
bestselling Mrs. Murphy mystery series, includ
ing
Claws and Effect.
An Emmy-nominated screen
writer and a poet, she lives in Charlottesville,
Virginia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOOK: Alma Mater
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