Under the Stars and Stripes (Under Him)

He was only eight and I would have to wait for his teen years to be sure it stuck, but so far, every morning he was up a fair few hours before I was. Often before the sun had come up, he was quietly working on some project or another when I came in, a key element in a shockingly disciplined routine that had helped him write some kids books which had gotten published. The money from them went directly into a college fund.

Strictly speaking, my kid had more money in net assets than I did working on Wall Street. Amy used to joke that Matt was the kind of baby who never cried. I always laughed, but the weird thing was that I really didn’t think that he ever did cry.

I remembered some very pathetic sounding whimpers in terms of diaper emergencies or asking to be put to bed. Other than that, though, there wasn’t much of anything.

I was worried he might be at least partially mute, but the doctors said his vocal cords were fine. He could make sounds; he just chose not to. I didn’t remember Kingsley being much of a talker either. He was more of an observer.

Lovecraft Academy was one of the best schools in the state. Going straight through from grade 1 to grade 12, different years were held in different wings of the behemoth structure, stretching for five city blocks in every direction. It was one of the few all-inclusive academies left. They had looked at us rather askance when I first tried to apply. The stereotype of a single mother was clearly something quite different in their heads.

They put Matt through the entrance exam anyway. He was seven by that point and able to sit for it himself. He got the tenth highest score in the history of the academy.

When they ceased choking on their pipes and recovered their monocles, the board gave Matt a place along with a full scholarship. The clout of having such a student being associated with their hallowed halls was worth all the gold in El Dorado.

Today, the gargoyle gates buzzed softly as the automatic openers did their thing. If I was being perfectly honest, the place gave me the heebie-jeebies, some overwhelming sense of existential, cosmic dread that I could not quite name. Matt seemed happy though and was learning a lot, so I just grinned and beared it. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the parent-teacher conference days.

“Have a great day. I love you,” I told him.

“I know,” my dear boy replied, stoically accepting a kiss on the forehead.

I watched him go, as I always did. It was quite an emotional thing for a mother to watch her son walk away in uniform, even if it was just to prep school. My mind flicked back to that terrible day, so many years ago to Kingsley in his dress uniform, telling me that he was being deployed, his shiny new school ring where I hoped our wedding band would be. He might as well have punched me hard enough to leave an indent of that damn ring in my forehead.

The different schools thing had never bothered me. We were still less than an hour away, even though he was near the border with Connecticut. It had never occurred to me, in my childish ignorance, that going to West Point meant that he would be sent away. There was still a war on then, but I didn’t really think about it. Mission Accomplished was already declared. Or was that the other one? I really had lost track after the cowboy was booted.

Shaking my head hard, I wiped away the tears so that I could see clearly, always an advantage while driving, and headed for the office. It was presentation day and my input would be required.

I got parking on the first level, square between two empty spots. Truly one of the great marvels of the universe. Until I remembered that the girls owned all three levels and attendance tended to be pretty scanty on presentation days. Only those who really needed to be there showed up.

“It’s like the apocalypse out there,” I commented, shedding my tweed jacket.

“Godspeed,” Macy said, going to hang up my jacket.

It reminded me of a lecture hall at college. There was even a digital protector affixed to the ceiling and connected directly to a laptop set up for Power-Point. It was far from the first presentation I had attended, but it never ceased to amaze me the lengths the partners had gone to in terms of the venue, particularly considering that the offices took up a few floors in a downtown office building.

It was almost as if they’d had the entire building specially built and rented out the upper floors at a profit, but that was crazy. No one was that rich.