Gathering Clouds Read Online Free PDF Page A

wasn’t sure what I intended to do with myself, and even though I wasn’t sure a college education was that necessary for me. When I made the mistake of voicing this thought, my mother pounced.
    “What do you want to do, Megan, stay home as did Margaret Carlson and wait for your parents to find a suitable young man for her to marry? Accompany your mother as she does to all the events older ladies attend? Mope about the house waiting for this Prince Charming? I can’t imagine what she does all day, can you?”
    Margaret Carlson had graduated the year before and was very shy. In the high school yearbook, there was only one extracurricular activity next to her name – Audubon Society. Watching and identifying birds was about as venturous as she would be.
    “Of course not, Mother. I’m just confused,” I said.
    “Eventually, you will become unconfused,” she predicted. It was more like a prayer.
    In the end I was sure she wished I had been another Margaret Carlson.
    Mother’s college was a small, all-girls’ private school near Jamestown. My friends thought it would be horrible to attend and all-girls’ school, but I knew from perusing my mother’s college yearbooks and periodicals that they were inundated with boys from nearby coed colleges. There was something mystical about an all-girls’ school as far as most boys were concerned. It was as if they believed that because we were surrounded most of the day by only girls, we would be easier targets for sex and romance, hungrier for their company.
    Mother believed in a woman’s college, especially for me, because studies showed women were more apt to succeed and find their way and purpose at an all-girls’ school. She proudly rattled off the statistics that proved women were more serious about their studies, interacted with their teachers more, and generally were more successful in the business world.
    None of that particularly impressed or attracted me, but I knew the school was very expensive and would probably be the most comfortable of any I could attend. Daddy gave me a car over Mother’s vehement objections. It was a red Jaguar. He wanted me to always have the option of coming home. She said it would only provide temptation, waste my time, and give more distraction just when I needed less.
    Victoria agreed with Mother, but from a different point of view. Of all the cars to buy me, she said, this one made the least financial sense. It wasn’t fuel efficient and was too small for my bags.
    Daddy ignored the both of them. He took me aside and said, “This is your time, Megan. Let your hair down, feel the wind, and enjoy. They’ll be plenty of time to be sensible later.”
    If Mother had known what he said, she would probably have had him shot on the spot.
    I did have an impossible time trying to fit the things I wanted to take with me in the car. Daddy told me he would have everything sent anyway, so I shouldn’t be concerned. In the end, I drove onto campus with the top down, the wind in my hair, just as he had urged. Some of the other girls had sports cars, too, especially the older girls.
    I could have had a private room in the dorm if I had wanted, but I chose to have a roommate and I didn’t care who or what she was. As it turned out, she was an African-American girl, Lynette Robinson, the daughter of a famous NBA basketball player. She quickly became the school’s basketball star, having inherited her father’s talent and being five feet eleven and a half herself.
    We hit it off immediately. Aside from her obsession with basketball, she was just an ordinary girl, unspoiled by her father’s fame. Her mother was a very attractive woman who was nearly five feet eleven. One thing I loved about Lynette and her parents was how at ease they made me feel by not being in the least defensive or concerned about our racial differences. When Victoria discovered my roommate was black, she grimaced and asked me how I dealt with it, as if I were rooming with a