1980s: I think I'll call it The Whittaker Saga (Last Chapter)
As Christmas comes around, Sydney decides it's time for them to throw a big party. A caterer and mixologist are hired, people invited, the house decorated. By the time the guests arrive, Sydney is so ready for their first party, especially as they have invited their very prominent neighbors. She is really excited that they all agreed.
The party goes, overall, well. The caterer is a mess, has no uniform and insists on interrupting her cooking in order to try to join the party, but with some work she's kept in the kitchen. Her food is good, luckily, and the guests seem happy enough dancing, drinking and eating.
But Carl is restless. He's happy that all his siblings have come, and he tries to enjoy himself, but guilt is eating away at him. He knows he should have told Sydney everything before they married, but every step of the way, every week and month, he finds excuses not to. This party is only the latest in the string of excuses he has had.
As the party dies down, he hides in his gym, fighting off the frustration.
But he can't fight off this frustration. Only the truth can do that and he knows it even if he doesn't want to admit it. So after the last guest is gone, their house overtaken by dirty dishes the useless caterer didn't handle, he blurts it out, perhaps less delicately than he should have.
Sydney doesn't know how to react, as feelings of betrayal, disappointment, jealousy and compassion war for attention inside her. Here they have been trying, and failing, to get pregnant, and Carl already has a child with someone else?
The only cloud on their Christmas celebration is the lack of Cindy, who is finishing up her last term and can't go home until her thesis is written.
"I'll come home after New Years," she promises over the phone.
For Cindy, things have been going well at university, while Abby still struggles with essays that are much less interesting than the things she wants to write. She tries to hang in there, but knowing that Cindy will leave in just a matter of days is something she has a hard time getting used to.
Then out of the blue, she suddenly gets a phone call from the father she never knew and never really thought about. The one she knows abandoned her mother for the big city and life without responsibility.
She shares a few minutes of awkward small talk, telling her some small information about her childhood while really wondering why he called at all. When they hang up, she doesn't know more about her father, but she does know he is not the family connection she's interested in. If he didn't care about her then, why should she care about him now?
That night, Cindy takes her out for he last time before leaving. It's a New Years bash worthy of its name and when 1984 turns to 1985 they're both on the dancefloor, trying not to think about the fact that the next morning Cindy is graduating and leaving.
She's already thinking it, but doesn't say it yet, but by next morning she's made up her mind. This, college, is not for her, and without Cindy here there is no need for her to stay. Without telling anyone and waiting for Cindy to pack up and leave, she drops out the moment Cindy is gone, packing up her stuff and driving home.
Her mother is surprised to see her, but happy, and even if Abby has always had her mother's support, in whatever she's decided to do, it takes a while for her to work up the nerve to tell her mother the truth.
"But why?" is her mother's first reaction, followed by: "Are you sure that's what you want?"
Abby assures her that it is, that what she's learning is not the creative writing she wants to work with, that she knows the risks, but she wants to try.
Barbara is a bit hesitant, but she's never been a parent who believes in controlling her child. "What will you write about?"
"Us! This family! Our history! Have you ever thought about how interesting our history really is?"
"Why would our history be of interest to anyone but us?" Barbara asks, confounded.
"I think it will!" Abby says confidently. "Think about it, mum. Our family have been involved in five wars, both our men and women! Alice and Cora were early pioneers of the LGBT movement, Anna running off to be a nurse in world war I and then exploring the world of her own, a single woman in the early days of the century? And then there is you, a part of the Beatnik movement, and the hippie movement. Cindy's professor called you an obscure feminist artist of the Beatnik movement. You are taught about at university, mom! Do you realise how many good stories there are in our family?"
"Alright, alright, you're making me blush. So where will you start?"
"Where else? In Willow Creek of course. At the library your grandmother built. From what you told me, there will be records there. Birth and marriage certificates, newspaper clippings, possibly even some of the books your grandfather wrote. I will start the family with her, Abigail, alone and with no family, settling as a teacher in a town she did not know."
"And what will you call it?"
"I don't know yet. How about The Whittaker Saga?"
The party goes, overall, well. The caterer is a mess, has no uniform and insists on interrupting her cooking in order to try to join the party, but with some work she's kept in the kitchen. Her food is good, luckily, and the guests seem happy enough dancing, drinking and eating.
But Carl is restless. He's happy that all his siblings have come, and he tries to enjoy himself, but guilt is eating away at him. He knows he should have told Sydney everything before they married, but every step of the way, every week and month, he finds excuses not to. This party is only the latest in the string of excuses he has had.
As the party dies down, he hides in his gym, fighting off the frustration.
But he can't fight off this frustration. Only the truth can do that and he knows it even if he doesn't want to admit it. So after the last guest is gone, their house overtaken by dirty dishes the useless caterer didn't handle, he blurts it out, perhaps less delicately than he should have.
Sydney doesn't know how to react, as feelings of betrayal, disappointment, jealousy and compassion war for attention inside her. Here they have been trying, and failing, to get pregnant, and Carl already has a child with someone else?
But as she calms down, and Carl assures her that he loves her, she goes into problem solving mode. She cannot deal with the emotional part right now, but she can deal with the practical implications. If he has a child, they need to take responsibility, and with more and more people getting involved in charity concerning these children, so will they. She lays down her demands, because at this point it's nothing less. They will start a charity towards these children, host charity events and work to find this child if it is at all possible, and if it truly is Carl's then they will try to adopt him or her. Until they know more, they do not share the information with anyone else.
Carl can't say no, in fact he can hardly believe he's been so lucky that she's still sitting there next to him. So he doesn't ask what an adoption would do to Chi, or mention her at all, but just agree to Sydney's terms and tells her over and over again that he loves her and that they will have children of their own one day. Little does either of them know that it will be two years before the opportunity for the Amerasian children to immigrate to the US through the Reagan administrations Amerasian Homecoming Act of 1987, and well over a year from then before they'll manage to locate Chi and the daughter she'd named Lan or how the by then teenage Lan would come to resent them for removing her from the only home she'd known in her life as Chi, by then very sick but with pride in her first grandchild, refuses the trip while insisting Lan makes it as she according to her mother "will never find a husband to take care of her." But right then and there, after a party that had left both of them drained, Carl doesn't feel ashamed when thinking about Chi and the child, but hopeful.
That Christmas, just like Thanksgiving, the family is spread out across the state and even country. In Copperdale, Carl and his siblings are all gathering with their parents, Kenneth, Grace and David joining them in spite of the lack of space. Barbara spends her Christmas with the friends as she has been known to do before, while Arthur and Claudia, along with Cathy and her husband, travel to Texas to see Beth who has no possibility of leaving Creek Lake just now.
Their arrival is happy news for Beth, who has spent little time with anyone outside of NASA and who is more than happy to have dad to talk to about her job, her career and her training. He might only work on the scientist side, but as an engineer herself, she understands more of his work than anyone else in the family.
"Can you believe I actually met Sally Ride?" she said with excitement.
Claudia, on her end, is most happy about the Christmas gift that Cathy brings with the news of her pregnancy, something that also makes Beth happy. "I can't believe I'm going to be an auntie!"
Carl can't say no, in fact he can hardly believe he's been so lucky that she's still sitting there next to him. So he doesn't ask what an adoption would do to Chi, or mention her at all, but just agree to Sydney's terms and tells her over and over again that he loves her and that they will have children of their own one day. Little does either of them know that it will be two years before the opportunity for the Amerasian children to immigrate to the US through the Reagan administrations Amerasian Homecoming Act of 1987, and well over a year from then before they'll manage to locate Chi and the daughter she'd named Lan or how the by then teenage Lan would come to resent them for removing her from the only home she'd known in her life as Chi, by then very sick but with pride in her first grandchild, refuses the trip while insisting Lan makes it as she according to her mother "will never find a husband to take care of her." But right then and there, after a party that had left both of them drained, Carl doesn't feel ashamed when thinking about Chi and the child, but hopeful.
That Christmas, just like Thanksgiving, the family is spread out across the state and even country. In Copperdale, Carl and his siblings are all gathering with their parents, Kenneth, Grace and David joining them in spite of the lack of space. Barbara spends her Christmas with the friends as she has been known to do before, while Arthur and Claudia, along with Cathy and her husband, travel to Texas to see Beth who has no possibility of leaving Creek Lake just now.
Their arrival is happy news for Beth, who has spent little time with anyone outside of NASA and who is more than happy to have dad to talk to about her job, her career and her training. He might only work on the scientist side, but as an engineer herself, she understands more of his work than anyone else in the family.
"Can you believe I actually met Sally Ride?" she said with excitement.
Claudia, on her end, is most happy about the Christmas gift that Cathy brings with the news of her pregnancy, something that also makes Beth happy. "I can't believe I'm going to be an auntie!"
The only cloud on their Christmas celebration is the lack of Cindy, who is finishing up her last term and can't go home until her thesis is written.
"I'll come home after New Years," she promises over the phone.
For Cindy, things have been going well at university, while Abby still struggles with essays that are much less interesting than the things she wants to write. She tries to hang in there, but knowing that Cindy will leave in just a matter of days is something she has a hard time getting used to.
Then out of the blue, she suddenly gets a phone call from the father she never knew and never really thought about. The one she knows abandoned her mother for the big city and life without responsibility.
She shares a few minutes of awkward small talk, telling her some small information about her childhood while really wondering why he called at all. When they hang up, she doesn't know more about her father, but she does know he is not the family connection she's interested in. If he didn't care about her then, why should she care about him now?
That night, Cindy takes her out for he last time before leaving. It's a New Years bash worthy of its name and when 1984 turns to 1985 they're both on the dancefloor, trying not to think about the fact that the next morning Cindy is graduating and leaving.
She's already thinking it, but doesn't say it yet, but by next morning she's made up her mind. This, college, is not for her, and without Cindy here there is no need for her to stay. Without telling anyone and waiting for Cindy to pack up and leave, she drops out the moment Cindy is gone, packing up her stuff and driving home.
Her mother is surprised to see her, but happy, and even if Abby has always had her mother's support, in whatever she's decided to do, it takes a while for her to work up the nerve to tell her mother the truth.
"But why?" is her mother's first reaction, followed by: "Are you sure that's what you want?"
Abby assures her that it is, that what she's learning is not the creative writing she wants to work with, that she knows the risks, but she wants to try.
Barbara is a bit hesitant, but she's never been a parent who believes in controlling her child. "What will you write about?"
"Us! This family! Our history! Have you ever thought about how interesting our history really is?"
"Why would our history be of interest to anyone but us?" Barbara asks, confounded.
"I think it will!" Abby says confidently. "Think about it, mum. Our family have been involved in five wars, both our men and women! Alice and Cora were early pioneers of the LGBT movement, Anna running off to be a nurse in world war I and then exploring the world of her own, a single woman in the early days of the century? And then there is you, a part of the Beatnik movement, and the hippie movement. Cindy's professor called you an obscure feminist artist of the Beatnik movement. You are taught about at university, mom! Do you realise how many good stories there are in our family?"
"Alright, alright, you're making me blush. So where will you start?"
"Where else? In Willow Creek of course. At the library your grandmother built. From what you told me, there will be records there. Birth and marriage certificates, newspaper clippings, possibly even some of the books your grandfather wrote. I will start the family with her, Abigail, alone and with no family, settling as a teacher in a town she did not know."
"And what will you call it?"
"I don't know yet. How about The Whittaker Saga?"
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