Wait until the music's over

15. Amends

"Do you know at what time does the train leave?" my big brother asks as he's driving us to Union Station with his Jeep.

"No idea, we'll find out when we get there" I answer, for Angie also, who's staring in silence at the Willamette river flowing parallel to the street.

"Do you have the money for the ticket at least?"

"Sure we have it! Despite what our parents think, I'm not a tramp, I work, I support myself, I pay for school, I pay the bills. And also save money!"

"What? You even save something"

"Yeah! Especially since Angie's with me, she's the queen of saving and recycling, aren't you?"

"Mm mh" Angie nods without even knowing what I just said.

"Do you know she separates waste?"

"Really? We have an ecologist here!" my brother says amused.

"She's also forbidden the use of the light in the bathroom" I add.

"I haven't forbidden the use of the light in the bathroom! I just pointed out that if you only go to pee and it's not too dark there's no need to turn it on, because you can find the bowl anyway. Of course you can't do other things in the dark" she snaps, her attention finally diverted from her own thoughts.

"And what about the hair dryer?" I ask.

"The hair dryer is ok, but there's no need to use it for half an hour! I don't and I've got long hair, why should you, short haired blondie? Once you've dried the roots, the rest dries itself"

"Ugh! That's horrible! And what do I do when I wanna style your hair?"

"You can do it in the dark, I'm awful anyways"

"See Chad? I'm in good hands"

"Hehe I see, I see. But talking about our parents... are you planning to show up at Thanksgiving this time?"

Shit. Thanksgiving, I completely forgot. And I wasn't expecting to see my brother so soon, I don't have any ready excuse.

"Well, I... ehm..."

"Well actually I had already invited Meg" Angie says out of the blue, basically saving my life.

"Yeah, right! She invited me in Idaho!"

"My parents insisted for me to bring at least one of my friends in Idaho and I immediately thought of her. Anyway if it's a problem you can go and visit your family Meg, I won't get offended, I mean..."

"No no, no way! A promise is a promise! Sorry Chad, will you explain everything to our mother?"

"Ok, I'll tell her you have a plausible excuse this year" he answers giggling.

Once we get to the station and thank my favorite brother, joint winner with my other brother, Trent, we go to buy tickets and find out our train has just left. The next one will leave at 12.45. This means we have to wait more than three hours, we have no choice but to play along. We slip into the restaurant at the first floor for a really long breakfast.

"It stops at all intermediate stations, like Olympia and Tacoma, we'll arrive in Seattle at 16.15" I explain as I read a leaflet with the train schedule.

"Fuck! And I haven't finished my report yet"

"Where's the problem? You've got plenty of time!" I open my bag and produce a pen and a kleenex "Here"

"Ha ha, really funny. You're right though... just wait here and order hot chocolate for me! With whipped cream!" Angie grabs her bag and runs out of the restaurtant, only to come back a few minutes later, a plastic bag swinging in her hand.