The Stardust Lounge Read Free Page B

father arrive, the four of us walk over to a cafe.
    The initial meetings are difficult. But they get easier.In spite of the problems that led us to divorce, Charles Senior and I have always liked each other. I'm glad to see him.
    We shake hands and take the son in our arms who lives with the other. Into our futures as the parents of our sons—the only children either of us will ever have—we seem to agree in silence that dignity and kindness, however strained, is the best course of action. There will be graduations, accidents, prizes, weddings, and funerals we are bound to attend in the other's presence because of our boys.
    The trauma of the divorce is behind us, not without leaving scars. But we figure, without saying so, that neither of us can extract the last thirteen years of our lives.
    We're part of each other, part of the other's youth. And the boys will grow into traits and habits resembling each of us—Charles will inherit my love of books and my bent toward brooding, his father's good nature and the Digges ego, Stephen my spontaneity, which can turn quickly to impulsiveness, his father's fair beauty and single-mindedness.
    During those first weeks and months in which we meet in Bloomfield, I suspect we find a way to continue to love the other in our children.
    Then under the bank light's dropping temperature we say good-bye, set out again in different directions. Sometimes Stephen and I take his brother with us back to Iowa City for the weekend. Sometimes Stephen goes with his dad, Charles with me, and still other times, Stephen goes back for the weekend with his father and brother.
    Such an arrangement is in place one autumn evening as Stephen and I drive south again to meet Charles and his father. We've set out later than usual. We're in a hurry. During the hilly climb out of Iowa City the car groans and backfires.
    Once we're on level ground it seems better, but at the main intersection in Ottumwa, about thirty miles from Bloomfield, the Volkswagen throws a rod and dies at the stoplight.
    In 1985 few people I know own telephone answering machines, and if they do, those early machines haven't the feature that make calling in to pick up messages possible. In the middle of traffic I put on the flashers and Stephen and I set off down the road.
    In a phone booth I find the number of a local garage, and once I know they're on their way to the car, dial Charles's number in Columbia. How I'm to pay for the tow and the repairs I haven't figured yet.
    I have to call, collect, Charles’ new wife, Terri, and I'm grateful to hear her voice as she accepts the charges.
    “Why don't you just rent a car?” Terri suggests when I tell her our circumstances.
    “I don't have a credit card,” I answer.
    “No credit card?”
    “No. Listen. Surely Charles will call when we don't arrive. Could I ask you to tell him where we are?”
    “Where are you?”
    I'm looking down the street. Everything is shut up, closed for the night. But about a mile down the road, back toward Iowa City, we'd passed a motel, its restaurant as I remember called the Stardust Lounge.
    “We'll be waiting at the Stardust Lounge.”
    “You're kidding.” Terri laughs.
    “Tell Charles it's right on the interstate beyond Ottumwa. Tell him to look for a pink neon sign with yellow stars …”

Winter, 1991
    The first night I shadow Stephen, I watch his direction from our balcony, then tiptoe down the stoop into the brisk early December air. I keep the hood of his sweatshirt tied tightly, my hair tucked in a stocking cap underneath.
    At about a block's distance, hugging the stone wall down Winthrop Road, he heads toward the T-stop. I feel giddy and must suppress a nearly overwhelming urge to call out to Stephen, as if, outside the arena of our discord, we could meet and embrace, set out together in compatible alignment.
    As he boards a southbound train, I look at my watch: 12:45. I've planned badly. I have no money, no contingency plan for a taxi after the