Leftover Baggage from Llanview

1

Dorian:

I arrive at National Airport by metro, wanting to meet my grandson on my own.

River is really excited about coming to Washington from Akron, Ohio and told me that he wanted to ride the metro, so that third Saturday in August, I brave the metro, hoping that it wouldn't be crowded.

Crowds, like so much else in my life, have always made me nervous, so I am relieved that it's early in the afternoon and not a weekday rush hour.

I'm happy that I have my townhouse and a penthouse within walking distance from the capital, where I am a senator.

I initially started out serving for a few months, but since no one else ran that November, I gained another four-year term.

My current husband David Vickers is out west filming more commercials.

Ever since moving from the small town of Llanview to Washington, DC almost two years ago, my life has felt more settled and more peaceful.

It's a bit difficult to explain. DC has far more freedom than Llanview...people are not as scrutinized here.

I think River will enjoy DC also. As I arrive at the gate half an hour early, I mull over the conversation I had with each of River's parents, my oldest daughter Cassie and her former husband Andrew.

Cassie is concerned that her brief marriage to Kevin Buchanan has somehow traumatized River and made him "adverse" to being a man.

She wondered if she somehow "ruined" her son. I reassured her that she didn't, that she did the best she could under challenging conditions, namely living in a town like Llanview.

She and Andrew split up when River was four, but they both co-parented their son well, despite Cassie being with Kevin and Andrew being with Téa Delgado.

I suspect that if Cassie had stayed with Kevin longer, it would have been a different story.

Kevin already had one son Duke that he wasn't a good father to, not to mention most of that Buchanan family who rules Llanview.

Most of the Buchanans, which include my stepdaughter Victoria, are a mostly arrogant lot rife with a history of instability, bitter divorces and dysfunction.

I myself grew up in a dysfunctional family and I know I was not always the best mother to my daughters, so I know about family dysfunction firsthand.

I try not to dwell on them right now...I'll be telling you more about them later, though and how my own family intertwined and intertangled with the Buchanans and the Lords for years.

When I spoke to Andrew a few days ago, he expressed concern that River was involved in a cult back in Ohio.

I asked how he suspected this and Andrew mentioned that he was "dressing strangely" and was wearing earrings and a necklace.

I tried to reassure Andrew that this was not signs of being in a cult.

Andrew then begged me to "talk some sense" into River and to get River to "confess" what he's involved in.

I think it's a lot of worry over nothing...I see men here in DC with jewelry and open transvestites are commonplace in DC.

River is staying with me for his first year in grad university.

It'll be nice having family close to me again...for a few years, my niece Blair and her daughter Starr, who is close to River's age, lived with me back in Llanview.

My other niece Kelly stayed with me for her first two years in college too.

Today Blair and Starr and Starr's daughter Hope live in New York City while Kelly and her two children live in London.

My middle daughter Adriana lives in Mount Vernon, Virginia with her lover and their two kids while my youngest daughter Langston recently came back from London and lives in Largo, Maryland with her small daughter.

So, I have four beautiful grandchildren today...in a couple of weeks, I will be visiting Langston and her daughter.

The waiting area din grows louder and I can see that the plane has landed, so I stand, ready to give my grandson a warm welcome.

I can feel my face smile already and a warm glow flow through my heart at seeing my grandson again.

It takes a few minutes, but gradually, people start flowing off the plane. Finally, I hear, "Gran!"

"River!" I call, my arms going out.

My darling grandson rushes into my arms and we embrace tightly.

"Oh, let me look at you, dear," I croon.

River smiles down at me...he's six feet compared to my five-two.

He really has grown into a lovely young man...dark auburn hair, large hazel eyes and a medium complexion.

He does have earrings, but they are lovely and glint in the light. I notice that he has traces of orange lipstick as well.

Other than that, he seems like a regular young man about to enter graduate university.

We stand in each other's arms for a long minute before going over to baggage check to collect a bag he has in addition to his backpack.

He's already shipped a few bags of his things to my place already and I have his room ready.

"Feel hungry?" I ask as we walk across the bridge to the metro.

"Yeh..." River nods. "I can't wait to try out the restaurants here...thank you so much for letting me stay at your place for grad school."

"Consider it your place also," I tell him.

River's eyes are wide in wonderment as the train whizzes into the station with the voices announcing various trains and destinations and the door pings as it opens.

On the train, we decide to drop River's bags off first, then go eat at a Vietnamese place near Union Station.