Arriving

The trip, though long, was uneventful. The twins sang along to CDs and played yellow-car-punch. Eddie won. Between CDs, Alice counted green Saabs – aloud – and whined when she didn’t see any. Eddie told her to knock it off. Though this time, his was the privilege of driving, hers was the privilege of having time on her hands to kill; and she did just about kill it, though it came very close to killing her. As they approached their destination, Alice became more and more restless, while Eddie grew more and more irritated. By the time they turned into the long, winding road leading to the college, both were ready to spill out of the car and into the bright sunshine. As always in the Midwest, the weather at Sayers was temperamental, to say the least; the sunny and cloudless skies proved an agreeably propitious welcome for the fall. The sun glistened golden through the scarlet leaves, and shone gleefully on the great somber brick buildings which sat heavily around campus. One might have pictured half-a-dozen portly businessmen, milling about in an open room, discussing politics or law or some such subject, with the glow of gold on their mustaches and ruby satin waistcoats.

Eddie pulled into the parking lot of Christie, Alice’s dorm, with more than a sigh of relief. They opened the car doors and simultaneously rolled out, one on each side, stretching and yawning restlessly. “Come on then,” said Eddie, “let’s get your stuff out so I can go take a nap.” He opened the trunk and began unloading.

“Alice!” With a yelp and a shout Alice turned to face Tessa Moore, running down from the dorm.

“Tessa!” The girls hugged and jumped and shouted and yelped and did a happy dance and laughed and said how glad they were to see each other again and how wonderful it was to be back and what an awesome semester it was going to be and … yes. Eddie closed the trunk and stared.

“Hello, Ed,” Tessa turned to him and smiled. Alice beamed at her brother.

“Eddie! It’s Tessa! She’s here already!”

“I see that,” he remarked. But he smiled back at Tessa. “Good to see you again. I can’t believe you’re willing to room with her again. If you had to drive all that way with her …”

The girls laughed. “Eddie, you are ridiculous.” Alice took up one of the crates of books and headed towards the dorm.

“But how was your summer?” Eddie began picking up luggage.

“Here, can I take something? Wonderful, thanks. And yours? Alice, is this all your stuff? Did Eddie have any room in that tiny car for anything? I hope he managed at least his guitar,” and she looked at him inquisitively.

Alice laughed. “No worries; it’s bigger on the inside. The car I mean. Didn’t you know? And yes, of course he brought his guitar; I saw to that. We’ll have to make him bring it over tonight after dinner. Once we’ve unpacked, at least … how does that sound, Eddie?”

They had reached the dorm. Eddie sat down a suitcase to hold the door. With an unperturbed face, he replied, “as you wish.”

Alice giggled. “Excellent. Tess, we have the same room we had last year, right?”

“Yes, second floor, corner room. I might have liked a bigger room, but We could easily have been stuck with something much worse. Hey, at least it’s bigger on the inside.”