Chapter 84
Around the middle of the month, Dana sat on the couch in the early morning before work, the TV on for background noise, and had finally bitten the bullet and called home. As much as she didn’t like making small talk with her mother, she thought maybe she might have to tell her parents about her impending graduation. They would want to come up, after all, and hell, they might even want to give her a gift of the monetary persuasion.
A girl could hope, couldn’t she?
“I’m getting a diploma, I’m getting a diploma,” she crowed on the cordless phone receiver to her mother. “Well, another one.”
“Oh, honey, I’m so proud!” But of course, leave it to Mommy Dearest to put a dent in things. She followed up the praise with the cutting question, “So what will this degree do for you? Hopefully help you get a real job, finally.”
“Mom, God.” Dana felt her good mood dissipate like a dandelion gone to seed. “Just be happy for me, okay? Let’s leave it at that for now, and worry about a job after commencement is over. You and Daddy are coming up for it, right?”
“Sure, sure,” her mother replied. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world. I hope you don’t want us to stay with you and Bethany, though. I mean, your place is so small.”
Dana sighed. “I’ll get you a hotel room, don’t worry. Heaven forbid you see real life lesbians hug and kiss, or something.”
“That’s not what I—”
“Have to go,” Dana lied. Something on the television caught her attention—she was only half-listening, but had she heard the words lesbiansand marriedin the same sentence? “Love you. Call you soon. Bye.”
Quickly she reached for the remote to turn up the volume as she hung up the phone. On the television, a reporter stood outside of a weathered brick building; Dana didn’t recognize it, but if she had to guess, she’d say it was a government building of some kind. Not in DC or New York, though, nowhere she’d ever been, though it looked old and atmospheric. Where…?
And what was he going on about? “A historic day,” he kept saying. “History being made. “ Why?
The image cut to two women, both older than she was—easily her mother’s age, who beamed as if being on television had been their only goal in life. One of them looked as if she were about to faint, and her friend—no, her lover, Dana’s gaydar was pretty sharp, and she could spot a pair of lesbians a mile away—her loverhad an arm firmly around her waist, as if to keep her from swooning to the ground. “Breathe, babe,” Dana muttered. “In through the nose, out through the mouth. If you pass out on TV, your friends and family will never let you live it down. What the hell is all this about, anyway? What’d you two do, win the lottery or something?”
Then, across the bottom of the screen, flashed the words, First lesbian couple to wed in the U.S.
Dana felt the remote control slip from her numb fingers. “What the—no.”
As if he heard her, the reporter popped back into the screen, nodding and smiling alongside the happy couple. “That’s right, folks. History was made today here in Boston when these two lovely ladies finally tied the knot after eighteen years together. Same-sex marriage is now legally recognized here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as of yesterday’s state Supreme Judicial Court ruling—”
Dana fumbled for the cordless phone just as the receiver rang. Without looking at the caller ID, she knew who it would be. There was only one person who could be calling now. Answering, she gasped, “Oh my God! Did you hear?”
“Everyone here’s talking about it,” Bethany said, breathless. “I rushed into my office to find it online for myself. Are you watching it on the news?”
“Of course!” Dana muted the TV and huddled up with the phone, enjoying the sound of her lover’s voice in her ear. “God, this is great. Those women look so happy. Eighteen years! Can you imagine?”
Bethany scoffed. “Please. If you count from the day we met, we’ve been together eleven.”
“You were dating Terrance then,” Dana reminded her. “That doesn’t count.”
“Well, it should.” Bethany’s fingers clicked on her keyboard, the sound echoing through the phone. “Listen, I’m looking now at the requirements to get a license in Massachusetts. There’s a three-day waiting period, but we can just make a mini-vacation out of it, if you want. I’ve always wanted to visit Boston.”
Dana frowned, a gesture Bethany couldn’t see. “Wait, what?”
“Did you want to go before or after your graduation?” Bethany asked. “I just need to know so I can schedule the time off, but it should be fine. Actually, if we wait until after, our parents can ride up with us and—”
“Hold up. Stop.” Dana switched the phone to her other ear, as if that might help her hear better. “Are you talking about usgoing up to get hitched? Like, now?”
“Not now,” Bethany corrected. “There’s a three-day waiting period. Weren’t you listening? I have to ask for the time off, and I don’t know about your parents, but my mom will want to be there, at least. Even if it’s just a courthouse wedding, she’s going to expect to see me in a dress and veil, the whole nine yards. So if we can coordinate this, they won’t have to make two trips—”
“We haven’t even talked about this.” Dana wondered why the thought of marrying Bethany made her nervous. She loved the woman, more than anything else in life—she was committed to her lover heart, body, and soul, so why not justify it in the eyes of the law?
Because I shouldn’t have to,she thought. We shouldn’t need a piece of paper to prove our love. We don’t need a name to show how much we feel for each other.