Chapter 25: Incidents and Accidents

Saturday, September 21, 1985

I drove my car over to the Commons, parking it in the lot behind the dorms so that it would be ready for our date. Once parked, I headed up to Darla’s room, meeting her around two. The others would meet us at the stadium. ‘Others,’ in this case, included Louise, who had agreed to head over without Darla.

We had intentionally planned only for a dinner date, not lunch. There were no really good lunch options on a game day that didn’t involve quite a lot of hassle. On-campus dining would be either crowded and not particularly special or expensive and still not that special. Oh, I’m sure there were a few exceptions, but they would likely be very expensive. Meanwhile, off-campus dining would be crowded and prone to long waits given the number of people in town for the game.

Instead, we walked hand-in-hand during our leisurely walk to the stadium. Most of the conversation was about classes, but it branched out into other things. By mutual unspoken agreement, we didn’t talk about anything serious — not even as serious as tonight’s date. There would be time for that later.

It took us a while to get to the stadium. Once we did, we headed to our seats. ‘Seats’ was almost a figure of speech. No Aggie student who was capable of standing would sit during a game except, perhaps, for the few minutes the opposing team’s band was on the field. Students stood, and that was that. Some of the shorter people (Jas, for instance), stood on the benches to get a better angle, while those of us taller folk stood on the concrete the benches were anchored to.

Some of the others were already here, and the rest met us within a few minutes. After we were all together, the game itself became the priority. It turned out to be a solid game for A&M. They won 31-17, so that amounted to five kisses. Nine, actually, because Darla slyly asserted that extra points were also ‘scores.’ Hard to argue with that logic!

Jas got her kisses, too. The first time that happened, several of our neighbors looked as if they expected a catfight to break out. Some looked disappointed when no such thing occurred. It was amusing enough that Jas and Darla high-fived each other a few kisses later.

Meanwhile, I’m not sure how long it took people to notice that Angie and Paige were also kissing on every score. No one seemed overly upset, which was par for the course. They had received some negative comments last season, but fewer than I had expected.

Cammie and Mel skipped the first few, but started kissing after they saw that Angie and Paige were fine. They would likely become more and more comfortable over time.

As one would expect, everyone left happy and upbeat. That worked well for Darla and me, since we were off to our date. Outside the stadium, I kissed Jas goodbye, and then both Darla and I hugged most of our friends (including Louise) before setting off to get my car from the lot behind the Commons dorms.

Had I not made reservations at The Grapevine in advance, we would have been left standing outside (or I would have had to slip the hostess a pretty large tip). Since I had, though, we were whisked to a table for two right away.

The Grapevine is not a particularly boisterous establishment, and it wasn’t so even after the football victory. People were in a good mood, but that was the limit of things.

We skipped any alcohol, instead simply enjoying each other’s company and The Grapevine’s always tasty food.

Once we were in the car, Darla said, “Let me guess on the movie.”

“Go for it,” I said, chuckling a bit.

“‘Gremlins’,” she said, grinning.

“What gives you that idea?”

“First off, friends say it’s a pretty good date movie. You hit me with the oddball choice last time — great idea, too! — so a more traditional date movie fits. Also, there’s just not a lot out there that I see appealing to you. Well, or me, either, but you would know that. There’s ‘Back to the Future’, but I’ve seen it and you’ve seen it twice. ‘Teen Wolf’ seems a bit too silly, and it’s the only real contender.”

“Got it!” I said, smiling. “Pretty much the same thought process, too. There are some I wish sounded more appealing — ‘Creator’, for one...”

Darla wrinkled her nose and giggled.

“Hey!” I said. “I like Peter O’Toole, and when he’s great, he’s great. This just looks like one of those times...”

“ ... when he’s not great,” Darla finished for me.

“That’s about it,” I said. “I might rent it when it’s out on video.”

“I’d watch it then,” she said.

“So, yes, ‘Gremlins’. I hear good things.”

“I do, too.”

It wasn’t a long drive to the theater. We again skipped snacks and just settled into our seats.

It had been at least fifteen or twenty years since I’d seen ‘Gremlins’. It also wasn’t one of those movies that I’d seen over and over. Thus, I was in little danger of being too aware of any plot specifics. That worked well for us. I just sat back and enjoyed the show. That included Darla scooting into my arms more and more at the more scary parts of the movie. ‘Gremlins’ is hardly a real horror movie, but it’s got enough jump scares and mildly suspenseful parts to create moments like that.

It was an excuse — on both of our parts — but it was a good one.

This time, when we were walking out, I said, “So ... would you like to go get ice cream or something like that?”

She grinned, batted her eyelashes just a bit, and said, in a mock-Southern accent, “Why, I would just love to, kind sir!”

She broke up laughing after that, which let me follow along. I knew a few people who might have been able to pull that off. Darla couldn’t, but she’d never intended to.

We went to Baskin-Robbins, another dating staple that I had actually never — not once, in either life — taken a date to after a movie. Life is strange, sometimes, but it was fun making up for lost time. Even if, hypothetically, I hadn’t even lost most of that time yet.

We talked about the movie, then about some of our hopes and dreams. I got as specific as I could with plans that were not ready to be discussed, saying I might work for someone else but also might start my own business right out of college. Darla was skeptical, but it was an informed sort of skepticism. She knew new businesses often failed, but she also knew me and the friends I had. If it seemed like a real possibility to me, she wasn’t going to doubt me.

Her future plans were more vague. She certainly wasn’t at A&M with a goal of simply getting her MRS degree and becoming a housewife, but she did see herself potentially doing that to some extent. Clara herself had a degree but had only worked outside of the home for a few years. Darla wanted more than that, but how much more wasn’t clear. She certainly wanted the husband, the home in the suburbs, the 2.5 kids, and the whole American middle-class lifestyle. Upper class would be fine, too, but the Wintons appeared to be solidly middle-class, so that’s where Darla saw herself.

The irony here was that I understood the Wintons’ finances better than Darla did herself. Her father made a very good salary as one of the few people in the country who could do what he did within the petrochemical industry. He would make an ever better salary after he retired, since they would keep calling him back in and paying him three times (or more) what he was making as an employee. Thus, by the time he passed away, they would be quite well off indeed.

I couldn’t say a word of that, obviously, and tried not to show any of it. I’m pretty sure I succeeded, too.

Darla saw herself working for some company, at least until she got married and had kids, and then potentially part-time. Or so. Maybe. It was a bit of a muddled mess, but I’d heard that from girls before. We were, after all, the generation who had grown up with messages telling girls they could do anything any man did, could do it better, and could, in fact, ‘bring home the bacon, then fry it up in a pan,’ all while bringing up happy, well-adjusted, overachieving kids.

The backlash from that had barely started to hit. When it did, it was going to be a doozy if things matched up with my first life. All of that was far too big of an avalanche for me to get in the way of. I’d do the right things in my own life and watch as things worked themselves out.

I didn’t say, ‘Well, perhaps you’ll work for me in some way,’ but I certainly thought it. Darla would be an asset to some business, and it might as well be one of ours. That is, if she didn’t somehow become the first girl I dated (in this universe, at least) who disliked me after the fact. The jury was out — and would forever be — as to how my first-life Laura felt about me after we’d seen the last of each other.

I took her back to Krueger at nearly midnight, walking her up to her room this time and giving her a goodnight kiss outside her door. Her RA saw me and gave me a cursory ‘you have five minutes to be out of the dorm’ warning. I had the feeling she felt like she had to say that but had little interest in actually enforcing it unless she had to.

Darla and I had one more kiss after the warning (likely because of the warning), and then I left to head back home.

Heading home was unexpectedly delayed. I got into my car, started it, and headed off toward the house. One of the roads was closed, so I turned and headed back along the Commons parking lot. Before I passed the second parking lot entrance, the car started making a ‘thump-thump’ sound I didn’t like at all.

Getting out, I confirmed what I expected: the front passenger-side tire was nearly flat. The culprit was obvious: there was a screw embedded in it.

There were several open parking spaces, so I pulled into one so as to be out of the way of any other students. I debated simply changing to the spare right then, but decided to walk back to the Commons and phone home. By the time I’d made it there, though, I realized it would be much easier to change to the spare tomorrow in daylight than it would be now. I probably would have realized that anyway had I decided to simply put on the spare, but it would have been while cursing at the iffy light in the parking lot.

So, instead of calling home, I decided to just walk back. There was little point in waking anyone, and this was a walk I made fairly often.