54
Sam is in school for a reason, but geology keeps luring her.
“What is that book?” Ann asks, when she sees Sam reading at the kitchen table.
“Earth Science.”
“Oh, how interesting!”
“I should be practicing QuickBooks,” Sam admits.
Accounting is important; it’s how you get a job. It is money and cash flow and record keeping. Witchy says, “Accounting makes the world go round!” But geology is the world for real—the earth under your feet. It is where you are and what is happening. Accounting is keeping score. You take this, I give you that. You borrow this. I owe you that. You learn how to write up balance sheets—but in geology you learn about the planet before money existed or humans ever lived.
In October, Sam’s class drives out to Red Rocks to discuss how glaciers carved out the landscape. They hike in together, and Sam doesn’t even realize it, but after just a few minutes, she is up front leading the way.
Doc Martin says, “You know the trail, don’t you?”
“Yes.” She almost says she is a climber, but then she is too shy to mention it.
Doc Martin uses hiking poles, which is funny because it is not exactly rough terrain. On the other hand, he can point at interesting rocks with them. He looks back to make sure the group is all together. “Where’s Colleen?”
Sam says, “I’ll check on her.”
Colleen is a super-heavy woman who is already out of breath. Sam finds her way behind, leaning against a tree.
“We’re almost there,” Sam encourages her.
“I’m good,” Colleen says. “I’ll wait for you guys.”
“No, don’t stay here by yourself.”
“It’s my knee,” says Colleen.
“You can do it! Lean on me.” Sam coaxes Colleen all the way up the trail, where everybody has gathered round to talk about the glacial plane.
They talk about what makes a boulder erratic, and Sam can’t stop smiling.
“You’re so happy,” Colleen tells her. Colleen’s face is red, and she is drinking from her water bottle. She has a lot of allergies.
Sam says, “Because look how beautiful it is.” A single gold leaf floats to the ground and Sam is curious and glad—like What will happen next? What will we see? It’s just so cool to find out the backstory of the ground beneath your feet. It’s like you have X-ray vision through the leaves and lichen, underneath the moss and toadstools down to the granite with its tiny crystals. Her dad was right—there are jewels everywhere if you just pay attention.
Meanwhile, when Sam gets back her unit test in accounting, she gets a 79.
“That’s not so bad,” says Justin.
“It’s my fault, because I didn’t make myself study.”
He looks at her like he doesn’t understand that concept. “Why would you have to make yourself learn something?”
“Because I’m not interested in it.”
“So maybe bookkeeping is not your thing.”
“It is my thing,” she says, because this is what she came to college for.
When Courtney calls, Sam lets her talk and talk, because she does not want to say anything about school.
Courtney says, “I’m trying to start a rule where Noah can’t play his game until he does his work.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Well, I’m trying anyway. Could you make sure you remind him?”
“He won’t even look at me. He hates me now.”
“He does not.”
“Okay, he’s annoyed with me.”
Sam can hear her mom thinking. Then Courtney says, “You know what would help?”
“What?”
“If he met Justin.”
Sam almost laughs because her mom is relentless. “You’re amazing.”
Courtney reasons, “If he sees Justin, it won’t seem like you’re disappearing into some black hole.”
“Dinner is not going to help anything.”
“Yes, it will,” says Courtney.
Sunday evening, Sam leads the way to the apartment. Justin is holding purple dahlias for Sam’s mom, as if this will win her heart completely—and it’s weird because it almost does. Sam is wearing an old sweater, but Justin is in jeans and a button-down shirt, and also a black vest, and he has brushed his hair. Courtney says, “I love the vest! You look Victorian.”
Then at dinner, she serves lasagna and sits next to Justin. Sam sits across from Justin and Noah sits across from Courtney.
“You could grow rosemary,” Justin tells Courtney. He is thinking about what she might grow next summer on the balcony, and he is talking to Noah about hockey, which makes Courtney smile. Sam feels like her mom is checking boxes.
Dahlias (!)
Vest
Gardening advice
Ice hockey
He and Noah talk about the Bruins, and Justin knows so much that Courtney says, “Did you play in school?” This is her way of asking, So what about college, what did you study, what are you doing with your life?
Justin answers Courtney, but he keeps his eyes on Sam. “I’m just a fan.”
Courtney says, “I hear that you’re a gardener.”
He says, “Yeah, I work part-time for my uncle on lawn care, but mostly for myself.”
“He’s gardening in Gloucester,” Sam says.
Justin says, “For my great-grandma.” Underneath the table, he clamps Sam’s feet between his.
“It’s an acre,” Sam adds, so her mom won’t think the job is nothing.
Justin says, “We’ve got flowers, and fruit trees, and vegetables. We had a big garden over the summer.”
“And what about the winter?” Courtney asks. “What do you do then?”
“Snow shoveling and writing.”
“What do you write?”
“I keep a journal.”
Courtney looks at him blankly, like, A journal? Okaaay. A journal is not one of Courtney’s boxes. “A journal for yourself?”
Now Justin looks at her a little bit confused, like who else would he keep a journal for? He says, “Yeah, I’m not going to publish it or anything.”
“Noah!” Courtney says. “Come back to the table.”
Noah doesn’t listen. He is on the couch with his computer as always. But Justin goes over there and sits next to him. He says, “Oh, I love that game.”
“Do you play?” Noah asks.
“I used to.”
So, Noah starts showing Justin his city, and Courtney tells Sam, “Do you still want that fleece?”
In the bedroom, Courtney pulls out flat storage bins from underneath Sam’s bed. “Where is it?”
“Mom,” Sam says, because Courtney is so transparent, taking her into the other room and closing the door to talk to her alone. “I don’t need a fleece. It’s not even cold yet.”
“I like him,” says Courtney. “Don’t look so surprised!”
But Sam is a little bit, because she saw her mom assessing Justin, and adding up his questionable traits.
Journal? What is that about?
Great-grandma? Are you living off her?
Courtney says, “He was looking at you all through dinner.”
“Sh! He was sitting across from me,” Sam points out, because where else would he look? “It’s right there.”
Her mom pulls out the fleece and says, “He won’t earn any money, though.” Now Sam thinks her mom will say, You are too young for this; you are a student and your boyfriend needs a job, not a frickin’ journal—but no. Courtney says, “That’s why it’s great you’re learning bookkeeping.”