Chapter 9: Life Is Never Boring, Part I

February 1983, Chicago, Illinois

We were fully into the routine of school, though there were things happening that kept life interesting. On Tuesday, I met with Anala after making my rounds of the fraternities for Theo. Betting was really tailing off because most betting was on professional and college football, although some guys bet on basketball and a few bet on hockey and baseball, though baseball was still a few months away.

I let Anala know about what we were calling the Think Tank and she was surprised that I'd moved so quickly to have those kinds of discussions, which were, in fact, directed by the Kama Sutra. I explained that our group was pretty special and that we were all more or less searching for answers. The only one in the group that was really religious was Dave, and even he was interested.

As we had the weeks before, we had a good conversation, though I noticed that she was directing the conversation towards us, and towards getting to know each other. It was subtle, but I sensed her directing the conversation to areas she wanted to explore, but also that she was carefully avoiding discussions of sex and intimacy. That made sense based on the things she'd said before, and interestingly, I began to feel closer to her as the conversations progressed deeper and deeper into our belief systems.

Just before I left, I asked her, "Anala, I get the idea that you need a devout Hindu man for a husband, like the one described in the Kama Sutra. Is that so?"

"Yes, it is. But nowhere does it say that he must be born a Hindu. My parents think so, but I'm aware that it's possible to convert to Hinduism or Buddhism just as it is to Christianity or Islam. But you're way ahead of yourself!"

"Am I? I'm asking because I'm still trying to figure this out. What exactly do you want from me?"

"At the moment, companionship and conversation. In the future, perhaps intimacy, and after that, perhaps sexual relations. That might lead to something or it might not. Patience!"

"I am patient," I said. "I just don't want to mislead you about anything."

"Just be truthful and that can never happen," she said with a smile.

"I will. Next week I have a friend visiting from overseas, so I won't be able to be here. I hope that's OK."

"Of course. It's still nearly two years before you graduate!" she said with a smile.

I walked back to campus to meet Stephie, and we headed home, where I started working on dinner.

"Elyse, would Eduardo want to go to a hockey game tomorrow night?" I asked.

"Oh, that's right! You have tickets for your precious Penguins!" she declared.

"Sadly, they suck this year. They're on a six-game losing streak and, given how the Hawks are playing, I suspect I'll be disappointed tomorrow night."

"I'll cheer you up afterwards, Yankee!" Stephie offered saucily.

"Let me call Eduardo and find out," Elyse said.

She made the call, and it was quickly clear to me that he wasn't really interested, but Elyse talked him into it. She hung up and came back into the kitchen.

"He's never been to a hockey game and doesn't know the rules, but I got him to agree to come."

"OK. We'll leave here about 5:30pm. I figure we can grab burgers or hot dogs at the game."

Which is what we did. Unfortunately, my prediction of the outcome turned out to be correct. With atrocious defense and even worse goaltending, the Penguins lost 7-4, taking them to a 12-34-7 record which was the worst in the league, with only Hartford, Detroit and New Jersey being close to as bad as the Pens were. I enjoyed being at the game, even though the results were even worse than I'd feared. Eduardo, much to his surprise, discovered that he liked ice hockey. When we arrived home, Stephie did indeed cheer me up, as well as wear me out, before we finally fell asleep around 3:00am.

On Thursday, Stephie had the advantage of not having class, and I slept in later than usual, arriving at school just a minute before my International Relations class started, coffee and doughnut in hand. I was tired, but I really liked the class and the professor was entertaining, so it wasn't difficult to stay alert. The extra-large coffee helped as well.

I had lunch with Becky as usual, and we discussed a few new computer installations. She handed me a stack of disks that she'd copied and I stuck them in my bag. It dawned on me that I could save them as insurance if ever I got into trouble with the police. I asked Becky to continue providing backup copies each time she visited a site. Just before we parted, I handed Becky her envelope.

"You know, you could keep the money and pay me in other ways!" she offered.

"Uhm, no. I don't think so!" I said. "First off, that would be too much like paying for it. Secondly, this has to stay as a business relationship."

She sighed, "Can't you just get past that?"

"Come on, Becky," I pleaded. "It's not that easy, and you know it."

"I guess," she sighed. "Are you going with me to see Alyson this weekend?"

"No. My friend from Sweden is coming into town on Saturday, so I'm going to be super busy. Maybe next time. And we'll have to skip lunch next week as well."

"OK," she said, clearly disappointed.

I headed to my car and drove back to Hyde Park. I let Stephie know I was going to take a nap because I was pretty tired, and I needed to go to my meeting that evening and would be out late.

"Can I join you?" she asked with an impish smile.

"Yes, but you have to let me sleep first, OK?"

"Sure. I just need to get my lovin' in before Saturday. Can I ask how that's going to work?"

"It's up to you, but I'd like you to be here on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend and next. Elyse said it's OK to sleep on one of the air mattresses in her room. Eduardo will go home if that happens."

"I'm not sure I can handle seeing you with Karin the same way you're with me," she said.

"It's up to you Peaches," I said. "But come on, let's go nap and then we can make love."

I set the alarm for 4:00pm, which would let me get about two hours of sleep. We stripped and got into bed, and spooned together. I quickly fell asleep, and when the alarm rang two hours later, I felt refreshed enough to make love with Stephie twice before dinner, after which we went to the shower.

"Yankee, I think I'll come this weekend and see how it goes. If I can't handle it, I'll go home with Jackie on Saturday night. I want to meet the competition!"

I pulled Stephie to me under the spray and hugged her tight.

"I appreciate it Peaches. Remember, you're my main girl and that hasn't changed."

"So what is Karin, then?" she asked.

"A girl I have a close relationship with. But nobody has any claim on me, Peaches. We talked about this back in December when I called you. You know I was with Bethany and Tatyana. It's the same with Karin."

"I guess I'm just trying to figure out how to handle this whole group thing without getting jealous."

"I can make one promise to you. You're the one who's living with me. And that lasts until YOU change your mind. I am not going to wake up one day and tell you to move out. Maybe you never move out, ever. Maybe it ends when we graduate and go our separate ways. Maybe you decide tomorrow you can't handle it."

"Steve," she said, pulling back a bit and looking deep into my eyes, "that sounds like a commitment."

"Well, I'm not making commitments, so it can't be!" I chuckled. "But I like what we have and I don't want to change it. Do you?"

"No, of course not! It's exactly what I agreed to when you called me. Hell, you're even giving me input on who else you're with. You didn't have a problem with the line I drew, either."

"Of course not. I sure as hell wouldn't do anything with Kurt, even on a dare, so why would I expect you to do anything with another girl?"

"I'd pay to see that, Yankee!" she exclaimed. "And I KNOW Elyse would pay to see it, too!"

"And you also know that's never happening, Peaches!" I chuckled.

We finished our shower and after we dried off and dressed, I made dinner. After we finished eating, I spent a few hours reading several chapters in my international relations text, plus one in my American history text. About 9:00pm I went down to my car and got the box with my pistol and brought it up to my room. I quickly put on the holster and then my blazer, then put on my Winter coat, kissed Stephie goodbye, and headed over to Theo's. We got into his Ford LTD and I drove him to an address in Lincoln Park.

"You stand at the door, kid. I'm going upstairs."

"What am I looking for?" I asked.

"You'll know it if you see it. Just wait here."

I'd know it if I see it? I thought back to the diner and realized that I'd known instantly when I saw the other guy's cover. I stood in the light snow, my fedora pulled down low, and my hands in my pockets. I chuckled to myself because I realized this is how Enzo the Baker from The Godfather likely felt when he was outside the hospital where Don Corleone was taken after he'd been shot.

I stood quietly for about ten minutes when I heard a loud report, which I knew could only be a gunshot. Then a second, and finally, a third. I looked around and saw nothing on the street. Theo had told me to wait, but I figured there were now two possible outcomes. One, he was dead, which meant I should leave before whoever killed him got downstairs, or two, he'd killed or wounded the other guy, in which case he'd want to leave. I sprinted to the car and started the engine, looking over my shoulder to see who came out of the building.

A man stumbled out the door. I wasn't completely sure, but the build and overcoat were right for it to be Theo. I put the car in drive and stood on the brake. As he got closer to the car, I saw that it was Theo, so I leaned over and opened the passenger door. Theo got in and slammed the door.

"Go kid, but don't break any traffic laws," he grunted.

"Where to?" I asked.

"Cicero. We got a tame doc there. I managed to get plugged in the shoulder."

"How bad?" I asked.

"It hurts like a motherfucker, kid," he said with a grimace, "what else would you expect? But it's not fatal."

I saw him pressing a handkerchief against his shirt inside his overcoat.

"And the other guy?" I asked, wondering just how bad this was.

"Dead. One in the chest, then one in the head. He went for his gun and got a shot off after I plugged him in the chest."

I sarcastically congratulated myself on being an accessory to murder. Even if I didn't know what happened, I'd driven Theo to and from the place, and now I was taking him to a doctor. That was NOT what I'd planned, but I supposed I should have expected, eventually, something like it would happen. The cold metal of the pistol under my arm accused me of being naïve, and that accusation was accurate. Now I was in. All the way in. I knew enough to at least have Theo arrested, which meant I knew enough that I could no longer safely quit.

When I finished recriminating myself, my mind turned curious. I really wanted to know what had happened and why it had happened, but I figured asking questions would get me in some serious trouble, and call into question my ability to stay quiet. I kept my mouth shut and drove to Cicero.

"You know where the house is? The doc is two blocks further west on the same street. You leave me there. Take my car back to my house and park it. Then go home. I don't have to remind you not to say nuthin' to nobody."

"Right," I replied tersely.

We found the house, and I pulled up in front of it and parked. I helped Theo out of the car and up the walk to the front door. I rang the bell and a guy in his twenties opened the door a minute later. Theo went inside and I left and did as I was told, parking his car exactly where I'd found it. I checked the passenger seat and found a bit of blood. There was a roll of paper towels in the back seat, so I got some and wiped up the blood as best I could, locked the car and tossed the paper towels in a trash can on the way back to the apartment.

I stopped at my car and, after looking around, quickly put the gun and holster in the trunk. There was no way I could take it back inside because I might not be able to remove it without Stephie or Elyse seeing it. I'd bring the box down to the car and lock everything up.

I was inside by 11:45pm and went right to my darkened room.

"Hey, Yankee. Everything OK?" Peaches asked quietly from the bed.

"It was a long meeting," I answered carefully, hoping my voice didn't betray me.

I undressed, got into bed, and pulled Stephie close to me. She fell back asleep, and I lay thinking about what had happened and wondered just exactly what I had gotten myself into. To this point, it had been all fun and games, and quite a bit of money. Sure, I was involved in gambling, and to a lesser extent, prostitution, but those had always seemed to me things that ought not to be illegal.

Capone had once claimed that he was offering to the public the goods and services that they wanted but which were denied to them by their government. I agreed with the sentiment. The problem was that I'd stepped over a very bright line. I hadn't pulled the trigger, but the government sure as hell wouldn't care about that, any more than they had cared about Chicagoans' desire for beer in the 1920s and 1930s.

I eventually fell asleep, though I slept restlessly, and awoke tired and stiff. Had it not been for the nap on Thursday afternoon, I'd have been in really bad shape. After my exercises, I showered and took stock of what had happened. I was quite glad that it had been cold enough that I'd had my gloves on the entire time I'd been in the car. Nobody had walked past the bungalow while I'd been standing there, and even if they had, my face was mostly obscured by the collar of my coat and the fedora that I'd pulled down low against the wind.

It was certainly possible that someone had looked out a window and seen me at a distance, but it had been dark and the closest streetlight was on the other side of the street and a short way down the block. The car had been parked in a relatively dark spot, so it was really unlikely that anyone could put me at the house when everything went down. I was sure Theo wouldn't say anything because he wasn't supposed to involve me in that kind of stuff. I wondered when I'd see him again, and what would happen next. I also wondered about my usual betting payouts and collections, because after the Super Bowl at the end of January, betting had fallen off dramatically.

Friday at school went quickly, and as soon as I arrived home, I started preparing dinner. Dave, Julia and Cindi arrived just before 6:00pm, joining Elyse, Stephie, and Eduardo, who'd arrived just after 5:00pm. After we ate, Dave and Julia did the dishes and then we all went to the living room to hang out.