Sam nods like she understands a world without the Internet, but of course she doesn’t.
When the clam cakes are gone and the plate has been cleared away, Sam says, “So... I’m glad you’re both here. There’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.”
She’s going to tell us! thinks Amy. She’s going to tell us what happened in New York! She hits her knee against Greg’s under the table as if to say,Here we go.She wipes her mouth, folds her hands on the table, and looks at her daughter.
But before Sam can get to it, their entrées arrive, so they have to take a few minutes accepting, arranging, prepping their food. Greg squirts ketchup on his burger, and Amy steals a fry from his plate and pops it in her mouth.
“Shoot,” says Greg, holding his burger with both hands and pointing it at Sam. “What did you want to talk to us about?”
Sam chews a bite of her salad, really taking her time with it, looking down. When she looks up, she meets their gazes squarely and says, “Money.”
“Money?” Amy stops mid-chew.
“Specifically, my money. The money that’s in my account fromMockingbirdandDaughters.”
“Your college money,” Amy clarifies.
“Mymoneymoney,” says Sam.
“Is there any brown mustard over there?” asks Greg. Greg likes lots of things—local IPAs, nine holes of golf on a Sunday, John Wick movies—but one thing he does not like is confrontation.
When Sam worked on Broadway, and then in Hollywood, Amy and Greg opened an account to deposit into any money earned, minus expenses for travel and living away from home. The law mandated only 15 percent be set aside for Sam, as a minor, but theyput more in, every penny they could after expenses, with an eye always toward her college tuition. By the time Sam left L.A., after twenty-six episodes as a series regular, she had a nice chunk in there—enough to pay tuition and room and board at any college of her choosing.
Sam finds the brown mustard in the caddy and passes it to her father, maneuvering around his attempt at distraction. “Mom. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not in college.”
“Well, not at the moment, no. I did happen to notice that,” concedes Amy. “But it’s not too late. There are schools with rolling admissions... or you could apply for the semester that begins in January. There are so many options. I’m available—we’re both available—to help you figure it out. Aren’t we, Greg?”
Greg is super focused on his burger, but he does make a sound that Amy takes to be affirmation.
“Whether or not I go to college,” says Sam, “I earned that money, and I’d like to have the account only in my name now.”
“That’s fine, of course. But what are you going to do with it?” Truly, Amy is perplexed. She’s not trying to steal Sam’s money. She and Greg have touched nary a dime, even when it meant they had to take out loans to pay Henry’s Middlebury tuition, even when it meant that the year their hot water heater and their roof both went they didn’t take their usual trip to Cape Cod for a long weekend in July. It simply wasn’t a consideration to use the money, because it wasn’t theirs. But hadn’t they all agreed it would be for college? They didn’t have that in writing, but certainly they’d had at least a verbal agreement.
“I’m not sure yet. But I want a safety net. I want to be able to take my next steps, once I figure out what they are.”
“Collegecan be your safety net, Sammy. Education is the best safety net there is. Henry—”
Sam cuts her off. “Mom. I’m not Henry. I will never be Henry. I love him, and I’m happy that he’s doing what he wants to do,whatever that is, because seriously, I don’t understand it, but it’s so far from what I want to do.” She turns to Greg. “Dad?”
Greg clears his throat and lays his burger on his plate, patting the bun, as if the burger needs to go down for a nap. “She did earn the money,” he says, almost apologetically, not looking at Amy.
“Iknowshe earned it! I’m not trying to keep it from her. I’m not Jamie Spears.”
Sam nearly chokes on a piece of lettuce. “Mom. I can’t believe you know who Jamie Spears is.”
“Everybody knows who Jamie Spears is.”
“I don’t know who Jamie Spears is,” says Greg.
“Really? He’s Britney—”
“Not now,” says Sam. “It doesn’t matter now. Can we stay on topic, please? I really want to talk about this while I have you both here.”
“What if you take the money and move really far away?” says Amy. “To Hawaii or Hong Kong?”
“Why would I move to Hawaii or Hong Kong?”
“People do. Or... California. What if you move back to California?”
