Elly opened her eyes. It was late in the morning and the curtains glowed brightly. Connor sat on the edge of the bed, drying his hair with a towel. “Hey, handsome.”
“Hey, beautiful.”
She sat up, yawned and stretched—and realized she was quite naked. She scrambled for her yukata. “What time is it?”
“Almost ten-thirty.”
“Oh, we’re supposed to meet Mel in an hour! And I’ve got that staff meeting at two. How about your Writing Center schedule?”
“I won’t know until the meeting on Thursday.”
“I should find out what classes I’m teaching today.”
“So we’ll have some brunch and go meet Melanie.” He kissed her. “Bathroom’s free.”
Connor was quite chivalrous about her getting dressed. But her sudden bashfulness annoyed her. Not that she wouldn’t have thrown off her clothes and fallen into his arms at the drop of a proverbial hat. But they did have places to go and things to do.
Kiwanis Park was crowded with students. They wove among the picnickers and Frisbee throwers, the shirtless guys playing touch football and the sunbathing girls coyly watching them.
The front door to the condo was open. Elly hesitated and walked in. “I’m paid up through the end of the month, so that gives me one more day.” Still, being in Melanie’s condo felt funny. The house spirits had bid her goodbye and now looked upon her as a stranger.
A girl came into the room carrying a cardboard box. “Hi. You must be Melanie’s new roommate. I’m Jill.”
“I’m her ex-roommate, in fact. Is Mel here?”
“She’s upstairs.”
Melanie was in her room, consolidating her clothes into one closet. Elly rapped on the open door. “Hey, Mel. I brought my keys back.”
Melanie hugged her warmly.
Elly said, “It’s only been a day since I left.”
“It feels like forever.” Melanie gave her a double-take. “I’ve never seen you with that choker before.”
“Connor’s mom gave it to me.” She smiled to herself, absently touching the necklace. “I guess Jill is going to be one of your roommates? I met her downstairs.”
“And Amy Perry. If I could stand living with them on my mission, I figured I could stand them as roommates. Which reminds me, you owe me a fourth, Elly. As much as I enjoy having a room to myself, the landlord in me can’t afford it.”
“I know.” She went to the bed and gathered up the rest of Melanie’s dresses. For several minutes they busied about with hangers and clothes.
“So—” said Melanie, “you know, what’s it like?”
“What’s what like?” She stopped and said, “Really, Mel.”
“I’m curious. So shoot me. I’m not asking for details.”
“You’re not getting details.” She pondered the question. Finally she said, “It’s fun.”
“It’s fun?”
“Yeah, it’s fun. A real lot of fun.” She broke into giggles.
Melanie reddened, rare on her part. “Fun,” she repeated, picking up the keys Elly had placed on the bureau. She walked down the hall and gave them to Jill. “I’m taking off with Elly and Connor. I should be back around two.”
“Did Amy say when she was getting in?”
“Not till tomorrow.”
“See you,” Jill said, and returned to her unpacking.
Clark’s Tuxedo was first on the itinerary. After that they stopped at the Key Shop on Second North. Connor threaded the shiny brass keys onto a key ring and handed it to Elly. “Here you go,” he said.
Elly said to Melanie, “ Now you can consider me officially moved out.” They drove back to the upper campus and parked behind the Marriott Center. Folding tables were set around the oval of the main concourse. Melanie got in line at A-B-C, Connor at L-M-N, and Elly at O-P-Q-R. Elly was still hashing things out when Connor and Melanie walked over. Elly pointed at Connor and said, “I’m living with him.”
“She means we’re married.”
By the time Elly had straightened out her marital status (filled out a name-change form at the Registration office, and drove downtown again to get a new Social Security card at the federal building), her staff meeting was about to begin.
Connor said, “Give me your class schedule and I’ll get your books while you go to your meeting.”
She kissed him. “I should be finished around three-thirty.”
Elly hitched up her backpack and hurried down the stairs to the main floor, out the northwest entrance, and into the hot, bright sunlight. She squinted, collected herself, and headed for the JKHB. She hadn’t gone more than ten feet when someone called her name: “Packard Shimai! Sister Packard!”
A sandy-haired woman ran up and grabbed her arm. Elly gaped at her. “Susan?”
Susan was literally jumping up and down with excitement. “I just knew you’d be here. I prayed about it, I really did—”
“Susan—it’s—it’s nice to see you—”
“—and here you are! I can hardly believe it! Remember how we talked about sharing an apartment when we got back to BYU? I was so looking forward to it.”
Elly thought: Oh good grief! Yes, they had talked about it. She couldn’t remember the talk being all that serious, more like all that well-wishing her classmates scribbled in her high school yearbook: See you at the reunion! She hadn’t been to a reunion and had no plans to attend one in the future.
Susan’s tone grew more serious. “Truth is, Elly, I got here yesterday. I’m staying at my cousin’s place in Salt Lake. She’s going to the LDS Business College. I really don’t want to commute. I was hoping—” And her hope trailed off in a cloud of unspoken expectations.
Elly swallowed hard. On the spur of the moment, she tactlessly blurted out the truth. “Susan,” she said, “I’m married.” Despite Susan’s plight, she felt her body warm as she said the words. “I’m married,” she repeated, and couldn’t keep the broad smile from her face.
“Married? You’re married?” Susan couldn’t have looked more stunned if Elly had punched her in the face.
“Susan, I’ve got to get to a meeting. Why don’t we talk afterward?” She resumed a brisk pace toward the JKHB.
Susan scampered after her. “Elly, how in the world can you be married? You got off your mission two months ago! I thought you said you weren’t going to get married the second you got back from your mission, that you had plenty of other things to do with your life.”
Elly remembered saying those things and shook her head in dismay.
“Two months!” Susan went on, marveling. “Not in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that Elaine Packard would get married in two months!”
Actually, a month-and-a-half tops. But Elly didn’t feel a need to make the facts of her life any more extraordinary than they already were.
“So who is it?”
She wilted a bit under the cross-examination. “Do you remember that time we were coming back from Nakamozu and there was that cute gaijin on the Nankai station platform?”
Susan thought for a moment and nodded. “I remember that. I was the one who said he was cute.”
“I married him.”
“You what?”
Elly pushed open the door to the Humanities building. Susan followed her up the stairs to the third floor and down the hall to the conference room. The door was open. Her uncle tapped on his watch and said, “I hate to interrupt my niece’s honeymoon, but we do need to begin.”
That got a laugh out of the room. Elly shot him a ferocious look that, when she turned back to Susan, caused her old companion to quail and retreat a step. She put her hand on Susan’s shoulder. “I should be done at three-thirty. I’ll explain everything then. Okay?”
Susan was still in shock.
“Okay?” Elly repeated. Susan nodded. When Elly walked into the room, everybody applauded. She gritted her teeth and smiled politely.
It was closer to four when Oh Sensei concluded the meeting. As the rest of the TAs filed out he said to Elly, “We’re picking up Atsuko at the airport tomorrow. Do you mind if we bring her by to see you?”
“No, not at all.”
Uncle paused before asking the next question. “Have you called your parents?”
Elly sighed. “I’ll get around to it. I promise.”
“Once Atsuko finds out—”
“I know, I know.” She offered a brave smile. “Believe me, Uncle, everything will work out.”
“I believe you. But I’d like to know when.”
They stepped out of the conference room. Susan was sitting on the bench next to the Asian languages office. Elly motioned for her to join them. She said to her uncle, “This is Susan Eliason. She was my last companion on my mission.”
Oh Sensei asked, “Are you attending BYU Fall semester? Taking any Japanese classes?”
“I’m signed up for 221.”
“That’s good. Elly is teaching one of the 201 labs. You should audit her section. Keep her on her toes.” He said to Elly, “See you tomorrow. And remember about your mother.” He disappeared into his office.
“You’re a teacher?” Susan asked, clearly impressed.
“I teach a section of 101 besides the lab.”
They descended the stairs to the main floor. Susan grew more subdued. She said, “I can understand why you wouldn’t want to live with me, Elly. It’s totally embarrassing when I think how I wigged out those last couple of months. I know, so you don’t have to pretend and be polite. But I’m back to being normal, carefree, guy-loving me. Promise.”
Elly found herself smiling. Susan probably wasn’t that bad a person to hang around with, as long as she wasn’t stuck with her twenty-four hours a day. She said, “I really am married, Susan.”
“I didn’t mean that.” She asked, “The guy on the Nankai station platform? You’re not kidding?”
“It’s the truth, as incredible as it sounds. Connor was working for Oh Sensei’s brother Spring term. We ran into each other again in July.”
“So you got married after knowing each other for two months?”
“You’re not the only one who’s surprised. I’m still recovering. I’m meeting him right now. His name is Connor McKenzie.”
They walked back to the Wilkinson Center. Elly said, “You should check the housing board in the Wilkinson Center. Contracts go up for sale all the time.” She stopped and laughed. “Wait, of course!” Good heavens, but she was living in a cocoon. “Melanie! She’s my old landlady. I left her a roommate short. She’s got a condo on Ninth East. It’s only a few minutes walk from the Law School. Did you ever meet Crandall Shimai? She was my training companion.”
“Do you think it’s still open? Can you call her for me? Here, use my cell phone.”
Susan dug her phone out of her purse. Elly took it with some trepidation. But she’d walked herself into this corner and she might as well walk herself out again.
“Hi, Mel.”
“Your chauffeuring privileges have expired, Elly.”
“No, Mel. I found you a roommate. Susan Eliason, my old companion. Elly smiled reassuringly at Susan.
Mel said, “Isn’t she the one who drove you crazy?”
Elly frowned to herself. This was what happened when she told tales out of school. “You’ll like her, Mel. I promise.”
“Well—”
“Mel—” Elly said sternly.
“Okay, okay. But if she drives me crazy as well, I’m going to send her to live with you.”
“Thanks, Mel. I owe you.”
“You owe me big time, sister.”
Elly handed the phone back to Susan. “She sounds agreeable.”
Susan clapped and beamed. At least one person was happy with the arrangement. The truth was, during the last two months of her mission, Elly had interacted with Susan pretty much on autopilot. She wasn’t sure what she had or hadn’t promised. Elly knew she couldn’t have made it through the last two months without Wanda and June and Mel to lean on. She hadn’t been there in the same way for Susan. She’d been too obsessed with her own problems. It pained her now to realize how selfish she’d been.
On the second floor mezzanine of the Wilkinson Center, Connor was sitting on a bench next to a bulky pair of BYU Bookstore bags. He cast a puzzled look at Susan. Elly said, “This is Connor.” She said to Connor. “Susan was the missionary I was with on the Nakamozu Nankai. You remember her, don’t you?”
They shook hands. Susan said, “I’m sure he only remembers you, Elly. Where are you living now?”
“Across the park from the condos. We can stop at Melanie’s place on the way.”
“You see, Elly,” her old companion said, in the manner of a wise adult pointing out the moral of the story to the attentive child. “I knew everything was going to work out fine.”