The Humper Game Pt. 03 Ch. 06

It really was quick, and she did come with me. I had been planning to let our last memory be our wonderful time the night before, but having Sam insist on one more when we were short on time is also a good last memory. It's not as though it wiped out what had happened at bedtime, after all.

She finished packing her final things while I stripped the bed. Sam's nightgown went into the hamper. She had a clean one packed. Aunt Sally had said to just leave the bedding on top of the bed for her. We went downstairs to find she also had breakfast ready for us. After two weeks, she felt more like an adoptive mother than an aunt, though as I've said I really didn't know my aunts. Uncle John came in and sat down, he prayed, and we all ate.

Aunt Sally said to just pile the dishes in the sink for her to get later, so I did that. Last-minute things were gotten to the cars, mostly my car. Sam checked that she had her ticket and all that that required, and other stuff she would need to have ready.

She came up to me and kissed me and said, "Phil, is it OK with you if I ride with Uncle John and Aunt Sally? I've spent so much time with you I feel like I've shorted them some."

"I think you should. I didn't say so for two reasons—no, three: fear of losing my way with no navigator, pure selfishness, and thinking you'd argue."

She kissed me again, repeated the directions, and told me just to follow their car. I decided then and there that eventually I would get a GPS. My phone had an app, but it was kind of awkward to use while driving.

We all got in and started up. I maneuvered to the other side of the driveway, so that they could get by and lead the way. This also let me turn around so that I wasn't backing down a long driveway.

Traffic wasn't really all that bad, but remember that my experience in actual expressway traffic was limited. I lost them three times before we got to the airport exit, but it was clearly marked, and I saw them three cars and a truck ahead on the ramp as I exited. So I was able to follow them to the appropriate pull-off, where we got Sam's bags out of both cars, and then to the appropriate lot. Structure, I should say. That had been the part I was really worried about.

Uncle John and I walked to the terminal together, and found that Sam had gotten through the initial baggage check. She and Aunt Sally had waited for us. Sam had a little while before she really needed to head for the gate—and all the added security, of course—and we sat down to talk a bit more. Sam sat next to me, with Uncle John next to her and Aunt Sally next to me. We talked about lots of things, particularly about her hopes for her classes. Whereas I had a pretty good idea what my own classes were likely to be like—probably too elementary, in particular—Sam found the brief descriptions in the course catalog very frustrating and unhelpful. Those for the music classes were much better, she said. Those for the art courses were full of jargon and didn't help her know what she would be doing.

Finally, she really needed to move on. Sam gave lengthy hugs to her aunt and uncle, telling them both thank you for taking her in, in the first place, years before, and for their patience in all she had put them through, and for welcoming her and me for this break. They told her to keep in touch, to work hard and learn and practice all she could, and to keep focused on being the woman she should be.

Uncle John told her, "You have decisions to make, and they're the most important thing facing you. But you need to make them without letting go of the other things you're responsible for." She hugged him again.

Aunt Sally told her, "You know John and I always wanted children of our own, but God never provided them. We got to help provide guidance to quite a few along the way, but not our own. But it seems he's now sent us the daughter we always wanted, in a way we never expected." She got a big hug at that point.

And then Sam hugged me and gave me a long, passionate kiss. "I love you," we told each other. "I'll miss you," we told each other. She said, "I think I'll miss you more than you'll miss me, but don't you let that stop you from doing right by Ellen." She said this softly, for my ear only, though Aunt Sally may have heard it, too.

We watched from a little distance, as she passed through the scanner. I was very glad that the screeners didn't make Sam open her suitcase, where I'd put a little extra something she had somehow not noticed.

We waited until Sam was out of sight, and then walked back through the terminal and out to where our cars were parked. We stood there a while saying goodbye.

I hugged them both, thanking them again for welcoming me, for all the meals and everything else. I told them how much I had enjoyed everything.

Aunt Sally told me again that they hoped I'd come and see them, and again said that they would like to get to know Ellen better. "You told us a lot about her, and we got to see some of her while she was here. I know having to stay overnight was a problem for her, a little, but it was very good to meet such a good friend of yours and Sam's. I had, well, doubted your repeated statements about how much smarter than you she is, but I got to see a little of what you meant. And yet, I think you're probably wrong, in the end. Intelligence covers many areas, and the Lord gives different gifts to different people. But anyway, if you can possibly convince her to come along, bring her to visit along with you."

Uncle John said, "Phil, I agree with everything Sally just said. You have big decisions to make, though, and I hope you'll think about them. We'd love to have you come. That doesn't mean we can endorse everything you, all three or four of you, are doing, and you know that. But any or all of you are welcome to visit when you can. And yes, having gotten to know you and having met Ellen, we'd like to meet Jenny as well."

They made sure I knew how to get back on the highway, going the right direction, and then they drove off to return home, and I drove off to finish moving in.

This is the end of Part 3. Part 4 begins with Phil's getting settled in his apartment at the university.

Note: At various points, some readers of the original version of this story said they thought there was too much simple exposition of earlier events. I had thought so too, in writing it, but there were reasons I wrote it as I did.

In revising this part—and some later ones—I have cut a lot of that back. If you read the earlier version, I hope you will approve of the changes (assuming you notice them). (At least one reader said that he was reading for the second time, to my surprise.)

Some, at least, will almost certainly think there is still too much repetition. Realize that some things have been lost in the cuts. For example, sometimes the characters' memories did not precisely match the earlier events, in significant ways.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy it and find it worth you while in the end.

Revision: 6/11/2019