Chapter 57 - The College Decision
Eli chose a university in Boston.
Not Chicago.
Not Madison.
Not near Vincent's business.
Not connected to Jonah's architecture school.
Boston.
Anna immediately calculated distance.
Vincent immediately calculated flights.
Eli immediately became irritated.
"Read the letter again."
Anna laughed.
They visited campus together.
All three adults.
Maya came too and complained about walking.
The university had a strong engineering program and a student arts center.
Eli liked both.
He also liked that no one knew his family.
"Fresh start?" Anna asked.
"Not hiding."
Important distinction.
He applied.
Got in.
Received partial aid.
Vincent wanted to pay the remainder.
Anna reminded him the education trust existed for exactly this purpose.
The trust paid.
Boring.
Useful.
Safe.
At graduation, Eli wore a blue gown and a grin too large for his face.
Vincent sat beside Cecilia.
Anna sat with Jonah and Maya.
Nora and Rina filled the row behind.
When Eli crossed the stage, everyone cheered.
He found them afterward.
"One picture."
They gathered.
The same awkward group.
Larger now.
Cecilia.
Nora.
Rina.
Maya.
Jonah.
Anna.
Vincent.
Eli in the middle.
The photographer asked, "Family?"
Eli said, "Yes."
No explanation.
The summer before college, Eli worked at North Street Studio and spent several weeks with Vincent.
He packed for Boston in August.
Anna folded clothes.
Eli unfolded them.
Some patterns never changed.
At the airport, Anna hugged him too long.
"Mom."
"I know."
Vincent hugged him next.
"Call when you land."
"Both of you will get one text."
Jonah said, "Efficient."
Maya cried.
Eli hugged her hardest.
Then he left.
Anna watched him pass security.
She felt the old fear.
Departure.
Planes.
Distance.
She did not let it decide.
He landed.
Texted:
Alive. Boston smells weird.
Anna laughed until she cried.
College move-in day tested every family's promise about distance.
Anna drove with Jonah and Maya.
Vincent flew separately.
Eli had requested both parents help, then regretted it when he realized that meant four adults offering opinions about one dorm room.
"The desk goes here," Vincent said.
"No," Jonah said. "Light."
Anna said, "Let him decide."
Maya lay on the bed.
"This room is tiny."
Eli shouted, "EVERYONE STOP."
They stopped.
He arranged the room himself.
The desk faced the window.
The bed remained where the university had put it.
Vincent assembled a lamp incorrectly.
Jonah fixed it.
Anna made the bed.
Maya stole a granola bar.
When it was time to leave, Eli hugged them each.
Vincent held him longest.
Then Anna.
"Call when you need something," she said.
Eli looked at her.
"Not every day?"
"Not every day."
He smiled.
"Growth."
She hit his arm lightly.
Outside, the adults walked toward separate transportation.
Vincent said, "I hate this."
Anna said, "Me too."
Jonah said, "Good sign."
Maya said, "Can we get food?"
Life refused to stay solemn.
Back in Madison, Anna walked past Eli's empty room.
She did not preserve it exactly.
She did not immediately convert it.
She left it alone for a semester.
When he came home at Thanksgiving, he complained that she had moved one stack of books.
"College has made you unbearable."
"Genetics."
She pointed toward Chicago.
"Not mine."
They laughed.
The first semester away was harder on Anna than she admitted. She reached for her phone at seven each evening out of habit, then stopped herself. Eli called when he had something to say.
Sometimes that meant three days of silence.
Once it meant twelve.
Anna texted:
ALIVE?
Eli replied:
UNFORTUNATELY. MIDTERMS.
She laughed.
Vincent struggled too.
He called Anna after a week without hearing from Eli.
"Have you heard?"
"Yesterday."
"What did he say?"
"I'm not forwarding his private messages."
Vincent sighed.
"Right."
"Text him."
"I don't want to be annoying."
"You have earned the right to be moderately annoying."
Vincent sent: CHECKING IN. NO RESPONSE REQUIRED UNTIL TOMORROW.
Eli called that night.
The parents were learning a new version of distance. They could not use schedules, school pickups, or legal agreements to guarantee contact. Their adult son had to choose relationship freely.
That was frightening.
It was also the goal.
At Thanksgiving, Eli returned taller, thinner, and convinced dorm laundry was a scam.
Anna fed him.
Vincent visited for one afternoon.
Jonah gave him space.
Maya stole his sweatshirt.
Home still worked.
During the first winter break, Eli admitted he had been homesick and deliberately avoided calling because he thought independence meant not needing anyone. Anna corrected him gently. "Independence means you choose when to ask, not that you never ask." He stored that sentence somewhere deeper than she realized.
During sophomore year, Eli called Anna after his first serious breakup. She listened for forty minutes without telling him the relationship had been wrong or that someone better would come. Afterward he called Vincent, who listened too. Neither parent used heartbreak as a chance to become the preferred confidant. Eli later thanked both for "not making it a committee."
College also changed Eli's relationship with Vincent because visits became chosen rather than scheduled. Some breaks he spent more time in Chicago. Others he stayed in Madison. One winter he traveled with friends instead.
Vincent felt the loss.
He did not invoke old custody arrangements.
Anna felt it too.
They commiserated once on the phone.
"We trained him to leave," Vincent said.
"We trained him to live."
"Less comforting."
"Still true."
They both laughed.
Boston gradually became another home rather than a place Eli had gone away to. Anna learned his grocery store, his favorite coffee shop, and which subway line he complained about. Distance grew specific, which made it less frightening.
On the first anniversary of his move, Eli sent both parents a picture of his Boston apartment with the caption: STILL ALIVE, STILL MESSY. Anna replied with a heart. Vincent replied: CLEAN YOUR KITCHEN. Some forms of parenting survived every distance.
May you like
By then, homecoming no longer meant reversal. Eli could leave, return, leave again, and remain connected. Anna had finally learned that distance was not disappearance.
He called the next weekend anyway. Anna answered on the second ring and did not ask why it had taken seven days.
