Bee raised her glass to that, and Pat raised her teacup.
“But if something does happen to one of you, then the guardian thing, and if that holds up that’s all well and good. But if there’s a problem then I think the sensible thing is if I marry whichever one of you is left. I am their father, and that’s all legal and on their birth certificates and their ID. I’m the natural guardian, and if I’m married to whichever one of you is left, then she’d be the natural stepmother. We wouldn’t have to live together or have sex or anything.” He drained his glass.
“That’s wonderful,” Bee said, and there were tears glistening in her eyes. “But it does put an awful burden on you. Philip’s not five yet. That means you’d have to stay unmarried for thirteen years. Well, eleven.”
“The older they get the less of a problem it is,” Michael said. “But I wasn’t planning to get married anyway.”
“But don’t you want children of your own?” Pat asked.
“I have children of my own, isn’t that what this is all about?” Michael filled his glass again. “I’m very very fond of both of you, and I love the children. I know it wasn’t the plan, it wasn’t what we agreed, but I can’t help it. I don’t know if it’s genetic instinct or if they’re just so lovable I’d have loved them whoever their father was.”
“I have never seen anyone so embarrassed at making a declaration of love,” Bee said. “And that includes me and Pat, who were really pretty embarrassed when we first admitted that we loved each other.”
They all laughed. “Well, with that settled we can safely go to the lawyers on Monday,” Pat said.
Bee looked at Pat with a wicked twinkle in her eyes. “And as far as sex goes, well, there might be sex,” she said.
Pat looked back at her and nodded. “If you want to,” she said.
“What?” Michael looked from one to the other of them. “I thought you didn’t want more children?”
“It might be news to you that there are ways of having sex that do not result in children,” Bee said. “Nice ways.”
“We do them all the time,” Pat said. “We wouldn’t have to do that.”
“So if you want you can come upstairs with us and have lesbian sex,” Bee said, leering.
“Oh my God,” Michael said. “I don’t know whether you’re joking.”
“We’re not joking,” Pat said.
22
“Getting Married on the Moon” Trish 1977–1980
It was Duncan, one of the men in the Lancaster Preservation Society, who suggested that Trish should stand for the local council. At first she was skeptical—she had no qualifications, and why would anyone vote for her? She wasn’t even a local, although by now she had been living in Lancaster for more than ten years.
“The council needs people who care, and who have their heads screwed on right about environmental issues. There’s so much corruption in the Town Hall,” Duncan said, shaking his head. “It’s all established interests, and they’re all in each other’s pockets. They need a shake-up.”
“I don’t think I have time.”
“It’s part time. And unpaid, but they get an allowance.”
“You stand,” Trish said.
“I’m going to, but we need more than one person.”
Duncan stood as an independent, and Trish campaigned for him. He was elected, to her surprise, and immediately the profile of the Preservation Society rose. Duncan kept talking to her about what the council did and how it worked and encouraging her to stand next time.