The Vow

Another school day has ended, and Donna Barclay walks home with Jessie Morales, who is doing most of the talking, as usual. Jessie wants Donna to come watch a Civil War documentary her family taped for their history class, but the conversation takes a darker turn when they spot a girl from school across the way. The girl's parents are getting a divorce, Jessie explains, and she has heard the whole story firsthand. There were warning signs, she says. The parents argued and fought all the time. The father was away on business a lot and stopped showing up at church. Then, about two weeks ago, he came home, picked up the girl's little brother, and left. Jessie insists that arguing is always the first step, because that is what they say on the talk shows, and she warns Donna not to blind herself to the truth. Donna answers that she has nothing to worry about, because her parents simply do not argue.

Then she opens her own front door and hears exactly that. Her mother and father are in the middle of a sharp, stinging argument over an opinion George Barclay asked for and did not like. George storms off to the office, and Mary Barclay, left alone, mutters that sometimes she wonders why she ever married that man. When Donna comes in a little later, her mother is sitting quietly by herself, says her father will be home late, and tells the family to fend for themselves for supper.

Donna carries her fear upstairs to Jimmy, who is busy playing imaginary championship basketball with a pair of his shorts tied in a knot. He is not much impressed by strange behavior until Donna lists it all out: the argument, the late nights, their mother alone in a dark room. Then Jimmy offers what he thinks is the reassuring part - he knows what the fight was about, because their father is going on a trip and wants to take him along. It is the last piece Donna needs. Every single thing that happened to her friend's family is happening to hers, and Donna tells her brother she is certain their parents are getting a divorce.

Jimmy thinks the idea is harebrained, but before they can settle it, George knocks and announces a change of plan: he is taking Donna on the trip instead. The two children hatch a scheme. While Donna is away, Jimmy will keep reminding their mother how much she needs their father around, and Donna will work on their father. Jimmy jokes that there are no guarantees, since parents do not sign contracts, and Donna seizes on the idea in earnest.

The destination turns out to be Washington, D.C., chosen because Donna is studying American history, and George promises one more surprise waiting for them. Alone in the hotel room, Donna drafts her contract, a solemn pledge for her father to sign promising to stay with her mother from now on. Then the phone rings. A friendly woman asks for George, says she feels like she already knows Donna, and leaves word that Caroll is on the way and will be there shortly for dinner.

Donna is sure she has caught her father seeing another woman. A frantic phone call to Jimmy produces a desperate plan, and Donna hides her father's good shirt and shoes. When George discovers the theft, Donna confesses, begs him not to go out, shoves the contract at him, and finally tries to keep him from answering the door. She loses that struggle, and greets the visitor by shouting at him to go away, homewrecker.

The visitor is a man. He is Dr. Caroll Porter, George's American history professor from college, and the woman on the phone was his wife. He is the surprise, and he has come to show Donna all around Washington. Over a very quiet dinner, Donna tells her father everything.

George is gentle with her. He and Mary are not getting a divorce. They have argued before, several times, and have simply been careful not to do it in front of the children. Most married people argue at one time or another, he tells her, and it does not mean a marriage is ending. He and Mary love each other and care about each other, arguments and all. When Donna asks whether he would sign a contract saying so, her father tells her he already has, long before she and Jimmy were born. Their wedding vows are a contract he takes very seriously. Donna understands, but admits she was not there to see it, and that she wishes she could have been.

So her parents give her that too. In a small ceremony, George and Mary renew and strengthen the marriage that began fourteen years ago between a very nervous young man and a very beautiful young woman. George tells Mary that his love has grown steadily and that she will always be his bride, asking to love, honor, and cherish her for the rest of their lives. Mary thanks him for his faithfulness and for being a loving husband and a caring father, and prays that her love will keep growing to death's gates and beyond. They turn to Donna and Jimmy and tell them that although they were not there when it started, they now belong to this union as well, that they are the best part of their parents and complete them. Together the family dedicates the covenant and the renewed vows to God in the name of Jesus.

Afterward, George says the place reminds him of the little cabin where he proposed. Mary informs him that he did no such thing, since she was not there for it, and asks who was. The teasing argument starts up all over again, and this time Donna and Jimmy know exactly what it means.