Chapter 22

Friday started on a down note. Richard III murdered his two young nephews in cold blood so he could be king. Thanks, Mrs. Middleton, for reminding us to take the bad with the good. Then, in history, Coach Miller gave us a pop quiz on the Louisiana Purchase. I did fine but a lot of people were caught off guard. Kim didn’t look too happy about it. In precalculus, we covered some ground that I knew would mystify Lori and Marci. All in all, the morning was lovely.

I was the last one to the table at lunch and had just sat down when Jake sat next to me and bumped me over. What the heck?

“Let me just sit here for a minute.”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Shh. You need to be my friend for a minute. If I go sit with the rest of the team without spending five minutes sitting here, I’m going to get raked over the coals, for, you know.”

I looked across at Kim, and she could tell I was completely bewildered by it. “Nice of you to join us, Jake. I hear you’re in Jack’s PE class,” she said.

He was trying not to look at the football team, even though that’s all he wanted to do. I nudged him to get his attention and tilted my chin toward Kim. She repeated her question.

“Yes. Ah, ah, yes, we are,” he said and looked at Kim for the first time.

He’d seen her but he hadn’t really looked. Kim had done her hair the night before, putting a soft wave in it and she was wearing a little makeup, something she rarely did at school. I knew why. We were going to be manning the booth for Marion’s Bridal but Jake didn’t know that. She was devastating. Jake looked at her, really assessing her, then at me, then back at Kim.

“Damn. I wish I knew how to swim,” he said, then looked over at the football table. They weren’t looking at him or us. “You are smokin’ hot. Seriously.” He started to get up, but sat back down. “You’re engaged,” he said. He knew we were but he had to wrap his head around it.

Kim smiled and held her ring finger out. Jake looked at it, then back at me again. “Dude, I seriously need to up my game.”

Kim reached across and laid her hand on his forearm. “Is it in you? Can you up your game? Then do it.”

He had no words. He just nodded, apologized to me once more and left for the football corner of the Porter-Gaud universe. I shrugged and Kim sighed. “No one has a more up game than me,” I said.

“Make sure you keep it that way,” she said and took another bite of her sandwich.

PE was surprisingly quiet that afternoon and I think that’s mostly because Coach Leonard had let things get out of hand the day before. He really set a different tone that afternoon but it was obvious that Jake didn’t need a reminder. Life was back to normal, but I wasn’t letting my guard down, literally.

Kim dropped me off at home, then went back to her house. The plan was for us to each grab something to eat at home and for her to pick me up for the trip to North Charleston. The North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Art Center are really two different venues that share parking. If your event is at the Performing Art Center, also known as NOPAC, the same night as something at the Coliseum, you better hope yours starts first or you’ll have to walk a mile. There was a hockey game that night but it didn’t start until seven.

Stepping into the grand ballroom was a bit of a shock. I’d been there before for some kind of home and garden show but nothing like this. We checked a large map of vendors and found Marion’s Bridal on the back wall. A lot of vendors had only one spot, but some had two. Marion’s Bridal had four spots in the middle of the back row. They were all the way at the end of the center aisle and you couldn’t miss them.

We walked past photographers, florists, event planners, tux rentals, and a booth for every venue in town. I hadn’t realized weddings were such big business. Katie greeted us and asked if we were ready. I had no idea but Kim assured her we were. We had time to walk around and see what else was there so we did. Our wedding was too far out to be thinking about most of the stuff being offered but we enjoyed looking at all the venue booths.

“I know you,” Courtney practically bubbled when we got close to the Lowndes Grove booth. “What are you doing here, besides the obvious?”

“We’re working at Marion’s Bridal for the show,” Kim answered.

“How exciting. I saw you on the news. The weekend show, I think. Are you ready to book? Wait,” she said and looked at her reservation book. “Ha. I already have you penciled in. You’re the only reservation for 1984. I’m planning on it.”

“I think you’re still at the top of our stack,” I said and Kim agreed. We talked for a couple of minutes and then people started to stream in so we scooted back to our booth. The first thing we noticed was that about ninety percent of the people were women. There were some guys but they mostly trailed behind their girlfriends.

Marion’s Bridal booth had lots of wedding dresses on display. Kim and my pictures were posted but it was Kim’s wedding dress pictures that stole the show. They’d been blown up into posters and they looked great. She looked great. Kim and Katie answered questions and took names for a raffle. I watched.

I’d been in the quietly-watching mode for some time when a gentleman asked me some questions. He wanted to know if I was the guy on the news report, how old I was, and if we’d found a place for the wedding. Then he asked if we had a wedding budget. We got to talking about the actual cost of a wedding and it surprised me. He’d done some research but he figured I might know some things he didn’t. His daughter was getting married in the spring and he was nailing down some details. I actually took some notes, he congratulated me and moved on.

When I looked back at Kim and Katie, they had quite a crowd of pretty young ladies. When Mr. McClusky had asked us to do the interview, I doubt he would have guessed we’d be working at a bridal booth at a wedding and shower show.

“Jack, come say hi,” Kim said and I was sucked into a bubbly, laughing, group of girls. I learned that I was a hunk, dreamy, handsome, and young. I knew about the young part. I also learned that I’d been snagged, landed, caught, and a host of other things I thought only happened to fish. I guessed it was okay since I was a fish. I had the sense that I was getting a taste of what some women get. They were talking about me as if I wasn’t there.

I approached and they quieted down. “Kim is way better than I deserve. If anyone snagged anyone, I snagged her and she makes me want to be a better person. That’s just for what it’s worth.” The girls looked a little stunned, but Kim smiled. I turned and walked to the back of the booth and waited for another dad that wanted to talk.

Instead, Katie backed over to me. “They needed to hear that,” she said, while watching Kim and the girls continue to talk. “Wedding fantasies are pretty common.” She walked back to join them.

I talked to a couple more people but Kim and Katie took care of most of the booth visitors. At nine, the show was officially closed for the evening but some visitors took their time leaving. I’d been to a show before but this was my first chance to get a behind the scenes look.

“We have sixty-five people added to our mailing list,” Katie said. “That’s a great first night. You two were fantastic. I should have done this a year ago.”

“A year ago, I was fourteen and Kim and I hadn’t dated yet,” I said and they both laughed.

“Cradle robber,” Katie said to Kim.

“If you snooze, you lose,” she answered as we tidied up the booth so it would be ready for Saturday.

As we walked out, we took note of a couple of booths we wanted to check out the next day. Kim flashed a manila envelope full of engagement photos we received for free and that was pretty sweet. We’d had engagement photos taken by a top-notch photographer at one of our favorite locations with no cost to us. On top of that, we’d never even thought about having engagement photographs taken.

We talked about lessons-learned from our first evening as Kim drove toward home. Before we got to the Ashley River Bridge, Kim turned onto Lockwood Drive toward the marina. “I thought you might want to help me test out the privacy theory,” she said. I did.

The marina was practically deserted when we pulled into parking. We walked the length of the dock to her dad’s boat, Inherit the Wind, and stepped on. Harbor lights reflecting off the water, cool, fresh air, and tiny ripples gently rocking the boat definitely set the mood. I stepped down onto the boat and held my hands out for Kim. She stepped down, looked around the marina and the boat and announced, “It seems pretty private to me.”

Kim kicked off her shoes and we ducked into the cabin. We kissed and hugged a bit and then practically raced to get naked. I used my hands to get Kim started but she wanted me inside. I’d been worked up since she turned on Lockwood so I did my best to help her catch up.

“Missionary, Baby,” she said. “I want to watch you smile as you cum in me.”

“That’s an amazing coincidence. Together,” I said, hoping that we could manage the timing. I was generally faster than Kim and tried to bring her to orgasm first. I used all the tricks I knew to bring us to orgasm together.

“Nobody else,” I said. “You are my one and only.”

“Good. I’m good. Give me,” she said and I thrust harder and faster and we both went over the top. I struggled to keep my eyes open, locked onto her, and she did the same. “Wow. Partners,” she said and I collapsed onto her. “Oof.” I started to roll off but she held me. “You’re good, right there. Just stay put for a minute. I like you on me.”

She ran her hands over my back and I flexed when she did. I rolled to the side and returned the favor, running my hands over her silky-smooth side and back. “You feel pretty amazing,” I said.

“What a coincidence. It’s nice to feel you all strong and everything. I like lifting together. It’s nice to be strong and healthy but it’s nice to know it makes sex even better.”

I kissed her and we both lay on our backs, enjoying each other, We could hear ropes creaking as boats shifted in their mooring. Some sort of small bell clanked every now and then, and once, a larger boat idled up the river, rocking all the boats with its wake.

“Would you still love me if we couldn’t have sex?” Kim asked.

“Of course, I would.”

“Would you still want to get married if we could never have sex again?”

“Why would you even ask that?” I asked.

“Would you?”

“That’s a crazy question. Were you thinking of becoming a nun or something?”

“No, silly. I just want to know how important sex is to our relationship.”

“Ah. That’s different. I love you. Making love with you is amazing but I enjoy the closeness. Laying together like this is pretty nice. Naked together is nice, even without sex.”

“Hmmm.”

“Hmmm, you agree? Or was that, hmmm, I’m thinking.”

“Some couples wait until they get married,” she said.

“It’s a little late for that. Do you wish we would have?”

“No. No, I like this. I enjoy this. Don’t get me wrong. I’m just curious if our relationship would be much different.”

“It probably would be but I don’t think it would be better, do you?”

“No. Maybe if we weren’t so certain. But I’m certain,” she said. “You know what I’m certain of? I’m certain I want to do this again.” So, we did.

Saturday morning came all too soon and Kim and I were back on the road to NOPAC for day two of our wedding and bridal show. We were early and Katie wasn’t terribly worried about our punctuality so we stopped at a store Kim was familiar with. She bought two sets of white sheets, a couple of pillowcases and some air freshener. I knew what that was for.

Even with the stop, we made it to the show in plenty of time. With a little free time before the doors opened to the public, we did what a lot of other vendors were doing. We scoped out the competition. I stopped at a financial planning booth. I would never have thought of it, but they said they had signed up a lot of people for a free class. They had a wedding expense spreadsheet and some budgeting material that looked handy and I grabbed that.

I expected there to be booths for florists, photographers, tux rental, and all that. I didn’t expect there to be places where you could start a wedding gift registry. I grabbed a couple of checklists. We met a wedding planner that seemed to have her act together but before we could really talk about it, the doors opened and we went back to our booth.

The morning crowd seemed to be more focused. A lot more people were taking notes and collecting brochures than the crowd from the night before. Mom and Dane surprised us by stopping by. They had been doing some of their own planning. They met Katie and were generally pretty encouraging. Every now and then someone would recognize us from the news interview.

After a truly tasteless lunch, I vowed never to eat at a concession stand ever again. Never. I can’t remember the last time I threw food away, especially when I was hungry. Mom says I have a cast iron stomach. Maybe. However, my tastebuds were not up to the challenge.

Things had slowed down after lunch when Katie told me to get ready for a bunch of visitors. I didn’t see why she would think that. I guess I hadn’t noticed Kim leave, but I sure noticed her coming back. She was wearing one of the wedding dresses she’d modeled for photos and was walking down the main aisle, smiling and greeting people.

“Close your mouth, Romeo. You’ll catch flies,” Katie said. How many guys get to see their sweetheart walking down the aisle in a wedding dress before their wedding? I left the booth, met Kim about midway, and escorted her back to our booth. Sure enough, there was a crowd waiting.

After a mad rush of people, things slowed down. With an hour left in the show, Katie thanked us and kicked us out. “Look around some more or beat the crowd out of the parking lot. You both did great. I’ll be in touch.”

With Kim back in her street clothes and me with a handful of brochures and business cards, we left. When we finally made it outside, we looked at each other and laughed. “I’m peopled out, Baby.”

“I bet you are. Let’s go get some real food. I know you’re starving.”

I told Kim I’d rather eat her and she was happy to oblige. We went to the boat and spent an hour together. We were lying together, simply enjoying each other after a rather enthusiastic love-making session when my stomach announced its presence.

“Holy crap, Jack.”

“I know. And to think, I just ate.”

“You’re a funny guy. Want to get some burgers?” I did. We stopped at Pinkney’s Pub and picked up burgers and fries to take back to Kim’s place. You had to be twenty-one to go into Pinkney’s, but they had just opened and weren’t busy yet or they probably wouldn’t have served us. We were dressed for the show, so we might have seemed older. Kim took the lead since she looked older.

“I shouldn’t have shaved this morning,” I whispered.

She looked at my smooth face, then ran her hand over it. “Silky,” she said. “I’m okay with that.”

“Good thing.”

We took our bag back to Kim’s house, greeted her parents, and sat at the dining room table to eat. Mrs. McTighe brought us some Cole slaw and sweet tea, saw how messy our burgers were, and brought a batch of napkins. Between bites, Kim told her about the show and our experience. Her dad hollered a question or two from the next room. They seemed to be enjoying our adventure.

Kim drove me home and we sat in the driveway for a while, talking. “There’s storage under the bed that my parents never use because it’s too low for them to reach easily. We’ll just keep a couple of extra sheets there and I can wash them after each tryst,” she said.

“Tryst?”

“Exactly. You can look it up. I got an air freshener that wasn’t too strong. Sea breeze, I think. Unless the weather gets really warm or there’s some special event, I can’t imagine my parents using the boat until spring.”

“I like it. I like the boat. I like the sounds and the gentle rocking and the air is always fresh. Plus, I really like...”

“Privacy.”

“Privacy is good. I love you so much. Is there anything you want me to do or need me to do? Is there anything you wish I would do?” I asked.

“I’m pretty happy. Be careful. That’s it. Just be careful. Ooh, I was pissed at you for fighting Jake Gealy. Don’t do that again.” She paused a minute and added, “I already got your Christmas present.”

“Does it have to do with being careful?” She just laughed.

“What do you have planned for tomorrow?”

“Shopping. Christmas is getting close. I was planning on going with Mom but I think Karen and Angela might go, too. Your mom is going the other direction with Veronica.”

“Oh, good. Mom and Veronica on a Christmas shopping trip,” I said with memories of last year. “What could go wrong?”

“Everybody said they weren’t going to be drinking. Do you think that includes when people are out and Angela isn’t with them?” Kim asked.

“I don’t know. That’s up to them.” We kissed and hugged and she went home.

“Hey, Dane,” I hollered when I stepped inside. I found them in the kitchen, working over a bunch of the brochures they’d picked up at the show. “I need to do some Christmas shopping.”

“Ah. I guess I could do a little of that, too. You can probably help me figure out a few people.”

“Right. I can figure out Kim, and maybe Franklin and Mom. After that, your guess is as good as mine.”

“Hey, we enjoyed the show today. I hope you two had as much fun as it seemed. Quite the local celebrities.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t last long. Ten?”

The next morning, Dane, Franklin, and I went shopping at Citadel Mall, along with a million other people. Frustrated and impatient, we abandoned the mall and went downtown to try shopping on King Street. College of Charleston is spread all over downtown Charleston and when school is out, the crowds are generally lighter, especially in the winter. We walked down Market Street all the way to East Bay and by the time we got there, our hands were full and we were two miles from the car.

“Give me the keys and I’ll go get it,” I said and they both laughed.

“Good idea, though. You two wait here and I’ll be back in a few.” Franklin hailed a pedicab and got a ride back to his car while Dane and I compared notes on who we had left. We agreed that Franklin and Karen should be easy as they needed a lot of stuff for their new house.

Franklin pulled up and we filled his trunk with goodies. I asked if we could go to one more place. I gave him directions and we made our way out to John’s Island. We pulled into the parking lot and Franklin gave me a look. “Are you sure this is the place?”

“Yup. Maria Ignacio’s Tienda de Curiosidades. Hard to confuse it for something else.”

They followed me in and I found what I wanted and then some. “We should have started here,” Dane said.

“It’s unique. Chicks dig that.” Maria’s curiosity shop was full of one-of-a-kind items, some new and some used and most of them had started out somewhere in Mexico.

“Wait until Karen sees this place,” Franklin said, and Dane and I stopped what we were doing and gave him the evil eye.

“No, Franklin. Do not tell Karen about this place,” I said.

“You may want to shop here again and even if you don’t,” Dane said.

“We will. Don’t tell her,” we said in unison and Franklin threw up his hands in surrender. Goofball. What was he thinking?

We finished shopping, realizing it was really late for lunch. It wasn’t hard to convince Franklin to take us to La Esperanza. The last time we’d been there, I ordered a dish for him hot enough to bring tears to his eyes. I promised not to do that. The food was great, as always. We were about to walk out when Hector and Inez came in.

“Hola, como estas?” I asked.

“Bien, y tu? Tienes planes para Nochebuena?” Hector asked.

“Dane, do we have plans for Christmas Eve?” I asked. He shook his head and Hector switched to English.

“We are having a party at my house. Traditional. I would like to invite everyone but it will be very crowded. You and Kim?”

“I’ll ask her. She hasn’t mentioned any plans. Do I need to bring anything?”

“An appetite.” I liked the sound of that. I promised to call him and he said there was no need. Just show up. The party would start at seven and last until midnight when they would all go to Midnight Mass.

The three of us unloaded the car, putting all our gifts in the rec room. I climbed into the attic and brought down all the wrapping paper and we got to work. Dane, the ten-thumbed surgeon, impressed us with how not to wrap. Franklin and I managed an acceptable effort.

“You actually take a sharp knife and cut on real human beings,” Franklin said.

“Sad, isn’t it?” It really was. We helped him out. It was a bit like the blind leading the blind. Fortunately, we had a big bag of bows and we used those to cover our ineptness.

With shopping and wrapping finished and no other demands on our time, we settled in to play some pool. Whatever deficiency Dane had in wrapping gifts, he more than made up for with a pool cue. He was a sniper, hitting everything he aimed at. Twice, he ran the table without Franklin or me having a shot.

Dane had some weekend work to do so I went with Franklin to his new house and worked with him until dinner time. When we got back to the house, the ladies were still out, shopping wherever ladies shop. I didn’t think they would be out much later. Stores generally aren’t open late on Sunday, but with Christmas approaching, who knew?

I called Vince and left a message, then read some and hit the sack. Pretty good week and weekend, I thought.

Kim picked me up early Monday morning. I asked about their shopping trip and she shared some humorous stories. It was the beginning of a tough couple of days before school got into holiday mode. There was a major test in every class, each teacher trying to wrap up a study block before the break. Everyone knew it was coming but that didn’t make it any easier. With no swimming, and Sifu Chen away for the holidays, boxing during PE, and lifting with Mom and Kim were my outlets.

Mrs. Middleton promised us a fun Friday morning but wouldn’t say what. When the time came, she announced that we would be reading Much Ado About Nothing after the Christmas break. We knew that. What we didn’t know is who would be reading which part. Her fun morning consisted of us getting to vote on who would read which part.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the outcome. There were twenty-four people in class and twenty-two of them voted for me to read the part of Benedick. The results were the same for Kim, and she had the part of Beatrice. Perfect. Votes for every other character were all over the place but Kim and I had a solid lock on the two leading characters. Mel had the role of Hero, so it would be fun to watch her character’s virginity called into question in a class her mom was teaching.

In PE, we wrapped up our boxing module with a winner-defends tournament. For the tournament, we would be wearing headgear like always but the take-it-easy part was relaxed a little. He didn’t actually say that but we all knew. Coach Leonard said he wouldn’t let it get out of hand but we were supposed to box like we meant it.

We picked numbers to see who the first two boxers would be. The winner of the first two-minute round defended his position. The first four matches were pretty even. Bobby had the fifth match and he handled that pretty easily. He stayed up, winning three straight matches. Gil had been doing really well in class and barely managed to beat Bobby. He defended once pretty easily but on his second defense, Jake was up.

I thought Jake was going to lay into him but he didn’t. He tried to win on points and it didn’t work so well. Gil beat him pretty easily and it was my turn. When Coach Leonard announced that I was next up, Gil got a warning for profanity.

“Do we get extra points for a knockout?” I asked.

“NO!” Coach Leonard hollered. “Do not knock anyone out.”

We only had two minutes and Gil was pretty tentative. I chased him out of our “ring” twice before Coach warned him. I stayed near the center and threw mostly jabs, but I got in a couple of body shots. The round was over and Gil hadn’t managed to land a single punch. I felt cheated.

I went through five challengers as quickly as they could get ready. Swimming twenty miles a week builds stamina and core strength better than anything else I know of. Boxing one person after another requires stamina and core strength, which is a happy coincidence. Everyone in the class had a chance to box at least once and Coach was taking volunteer challengers. Bobby stepped into my little world with a smile on his face.

I’d had probably thirty or forty hours of instruction in boxing from Timex and another twelve hours or so of instruction in kung fu from Sifu Chen. Bobby had about three hours of instruction from me, plus what he’d learned from Coach Leonard. Bobby and I were about the same size. Bobby was just as athletic as me and he was fresh. He gave it his best shot.

Bobby kept his guard up and threw jabs. I switched to southpaw and circled. I slipped Bobby’s punches and got him with some good body shots. I switched stances again and came in with a couple of jabs and when I was close enough, I laid down a flurry of punches that Bobby had no answer for. High, low, low, high, high, high as fast as I could throw punches. Most of them hit and Coach hollered ding.

“You cheated,” Bobby said, laughing as he backed away.

“How did I cheat?” I asked.

“You’re good. No fair.” He rubbed his stomach and sides. I’d peppered him pretty good although I hadn’t hit him hard.

“Show him how it’s done, Coach,” Gil hollered and a couple of other kids chimed in. The bell rang and class was over with more than one claiming I’d been saved by it.

I grabbed some of the gear and was walking toward the locker room with Coach Leonard. “You’ve boxed before, haven’t you, Coach.”

“I’ve boxed before but it’s been a long time.”

“Were you any good? Sorry, that sounded bad. You know what I mean.”

“I was pretty good. I was the Illinois Golden Gloves champ in the heavyweight division in 1963. That’s a long time ago.”

“Golden Gloves champ is pretty good, I’d say. Did you box after that?”

“I went to Olympic trials but competition was pretty stiff. There were six or seven heavyweights who were easily better than me. Good experience, though. Good reality check, too.”

“Whoever did the best qualified for the US Olympic team, right? So, you had a shot at that,” I said.

“Nah. Not really. I went,” he said, holding the locker room door open. “But the guy that qualified ended up winning the gold. I’ll bet you’ve heard of him.” I waited. “Smokin’ Joe Frazier.”

“Joe Frazier won a gold medal? I didn’t know that. Did you box him?”

“No, no. I didn’t make it that far. I saw him box, though. He had a wicked left hook. If he hit you square with that, you were done.”

“I know about him, fighting Ali and all, but I never saw him fight. He’s retired, right?”

“He’s retired. Great boxer and probably won’t get the recognition he deserved because of Ali.”

“Ali was better?” I asked.

“Ali had a bigger mouth, that’s for sure. I think Ali was kind of an ass toward Frazier and Smokin’ Joe took it personally. Called him a lot of names. That was just his way of hyping a fight and making more money but it’s not easy to take.”

The thought crossed my mind that Coach Leonard was the Illinois state champ and he got to go to Olympic trials. I was a state champ. I asked. “Hey, Coach, I’m a state champ. I don’t think I’ve ever said that before.”

“Yes, you are. You want to go to Olympic trials? Coach Miller and I actually had this conversation a month or so ago. The next Olympics aren’t until 1984 which means the trials will be in late 1983 or early 1984. You’re planning to be in college by then, right? Plan on swimming?”

“No. I wasn’t. Oh, well.”

“Doesn’t mean you couldn’t. Here’s a couple of things to consider, though. First, South Carolina has about half the population of the city of Los Angeles, where Birch went. Not a lot of Olympians come from here, simply because we have a smaller pool of athletes to pull from. Next, is the level of competition at the collegiate level. If you talked to Birch, I’ll bet he’d tell you it’s a whole ‘nuther world.”

“I have. Swimming is a full-time job for him. It was just a thought.”

“Not a bad thought. Olympics in 1984 will be in Los Angeles so you wouldn’t have to worry about Jimmy Carter pulling the rug out from under your Olympic hopes.”

“Oh, man. I hadn’t even thought about that. All those guys bust their butts for years and then we boycott.”

“Let’s give credit where credit is due. That boycott was all Jimmy Carter. He wasn’t an athlete and I don’t think he even considered the negative impact it would have on our Olympians. I can’t even imagine.”