Chapter 11: An Absence of Sparks

September 27, 1981

“OK, what are we doing for Halloween this year? The dance, I mean?” Jimmy said.

Connie nodded. “I’m curious, too. We were trying to plot and then realized we should see if we can all find a theme.”

Mike shrugged. “We hadn’t started plotting yet.”

I nodded. “I don’t even know who I’m going with.”

Angie shrugged. “Yeah, Gene and I don’t have a costume idea yet either.” Gene nodded.

“Well, we think we need to get going on this. We’ll need to order or make costumes,” Connie said.

Cal looked at Mike. “Hey, you were Frankenstein last year, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to do that again.”

“No, wait. I meant — would you mind if I did?” He laughed. “I’ve got the build for it.”

Sarah giggled. “No offense, dear, but he does.”

Cammie grinned. “I’d be Bride of Frankenstein for that.”

Andy looked at Mel. Mel smiled. “We could do classic monsters. Mummy and Bride of the Mummy. If Bride of the Mummy is a thing.”

Andy shrugged. “We can make it a thing.”

Mike and Sarah looked at each other. “Maybe Dracula and a lady vampire?” Mike said. Sarah smiled and nodded.

“We could be werewolves,” Angie said, looking at Gene, who nodded.

Connie bit her lip. “We’re kinda out of monsters. But Jimmy and I had kicked around the idea of being an elf and a wizard.”

“Oh, that’d work! And be cute!” Angie exclaimed.

“We need time to think,” Emily said. “We need something that works with two guys. I’ve got a couple of ideas.”

“And I’m out until I have a date to discuss it with. If I go stag, I’ll just come up with something,” I added.

Angie gave me a look. “If you go stag, you won’t need to come up with something. You’ll go as the guy who can’t sit down!” Everyone laughed. Yes, even me.

“Sounds like we’re mostly set. Next order of business,” Mike said. “We made rules on people joining. I want to check now. We’ve got one nomination. Does anyone have, or think they’ll have, another nomination in the next couple weeks?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“In that case, I’d like to propose we close nominations and vote on the nomination we have.”

I was surprised Mike was moving this along, but it seemed like a good idea, and I wanted him to assert himself. And I definitely wouldn’t assert myself in this case.

Angie — whose nomination it was, after all — spoke up. “I think we should first vote to see if we move on. We don’t have a policy for that. I think it should be conservative. Any ‘no’ votes and we wait until the regular time. Anyone can nominate, so anyone can vote to allow themselves time to nominate.”

Sarah nodded. “More than fair. How are we doing this?”

“We don’t need Rita for this, unless someone thinks we do,” I said. “Just slips of paper in a jar. If there’s a ‘V’, we vote. Blank means no. It needs to be unanimous to vote.”

“Good by me!” Mike nodded. Everyone else followed along. He fetched some paper and a bowl, handed out the paper, and we dropped our papers in. It was unanimous in favor of voting.

“OK, we’re voting. I think we all know Sue?” Everyone nodded, though I knew some didn’t know her well.

“Angie, do you want to speak in favor?”

She got up. “Sue’s a great student and she’d be an asset to the group. And I think we’d help her. And at least for me, I’d be happier if she was in the group.”

Connie asked, “Are you going to invite anyone else from Debate? Not that I mind. I’m just curious.”

“I don’t know about Angie, but I might nominate Amit. Jury’s out, though, but, quite possibly,” I said.

Cammie nodded. “Me, too. He’d be good with studies. But I haven’t known him long enough. We got to know Sue over the summer.”

“We’d still be OK with that number, even if Marcus and Debbie came back. Separately. With dates. Just barely, but we’d be OK,” Connie said.

“Anyone else want anything before we vote?” Mike had the papers and bowl ready. No one said anything, so we voted. And a unanimous vote later, Sue was in.

Angie smiled. “I haven’t mentioned it to her, because it’d probably have hurt her if we said no. So, for all I know, her parents wouldn’t let her attend, or she has a conflict.”

“Well, you have a green light to ask,” Sarah said, smiling.

9:30pm

“So, do you want to ask?” Angie asked.

“Nah. I really don’t. I don’t want it at all connected to our date. I mean, maybe it still is, but I want that at arm’s length.”

“Makes sense. I talked to Cammie. She was ... um ... I got the feeling she thinks Sue is a ‘maybe’ but wasn’t who she meant before.”

“I think you’re telling me that Cammie now thinks the girls in Debate are, like, up to one third lesbians.”

“Bizarre. And I don’t think she’s counting me. I don’t know how I could possibly have sent out that signal. Bi, maybe? I don’t really hide that I look at girls, if you know what you’re looking for. Cammie would know that. But girls look at girls constantly and mostly it’s not sexual.”

“Hey, you might be one-third lesbian.”

Whap! “You might be right,” Angie giggled.

“Then why’d you whap me?”

“General principles.”

“I’d rather have you whapping me than the principals, definitely.”

“Ugh! So would I!”

“Insert joke about whapping yourself.”

Whap! “What am I going to do with you?”

“Whap me, obviously.”

“I ... ugh! One day, brother dear!”

“Uh huh. One day, when it’s right.”

“Yeah. And yes, I meant it that way.”

“I know.”

“OK. You talk to Sue about the date. I’ll talk to her about the invite. I think I should talk first.”

“Me, too.”

She stretched. “I’ve been thinking.”

“As previously noted, we do that a lot.”

“Shush, you!” She hesitated. “I would love to discuss ... you know. Our situation. With someone. And I wish it were Dr. Stanton. The biggest issue is — would she decide we were crazy? Because if so maybe we’d hit some reporting thing. We’re not a danger to ourselves or others, so there’s nothing there.”

“I’ve considered it. We could prove it, of course. Just write her a note with big events we know will happen in the next year or so, make her hold it unopened, then open it. So, proving we’re not crazy isn’t the problem. The question is, would she get greedy or go to the government or something?”

“Yeah. I don’t know that I like the idea of a note, or at least, not something she could ever make a copy of ahead of the big reveal. We should think about that. I’m not saying we do it, but I like the idea, a lot. It’s just ... no note, and if she reports something... ‘Hey, look, she’s gone off the deep end!’ Some proof and it’s a different conversation. Even if she can’t prove the information predates the events, she could claim we believe the story and are therefore nuts.”

“It’ll take some serious thought. But ... yeah. It’d be nice to have an outside sounding board we could trust. And I can’t imagine many people we could.”

She shook her head. “Mom and Dad almost fit. I trust them, they wouldn’t misuse the information, and they wouldn’t turn us in. But...”

“Finding out we’re not the people they think we are might destroy our relationship with them. Even if we’re mostly those people. If I heard the story, I’d think, ‘Wait, my son is actually older than I am? What can I offer him?’ Which maybe has some truth, but is a lot more wrong than right.”

“Yeah. And now we’ve hidden it for over a year. Over a year and a half for me. Everything becomes suspect. I think they’d be good in a lot of ways but ... no.”

“No rush. I think we’re doing OK. Having another person would be nice, but it’s not necessary.”

She sighed. “We’ll never figure this out tonight. Bedtime, big bro.”

“Me, too.”

We kissed, briefly, and rubbed noses. Then she scooted off to bed.

September 28, 1981

Angie pulled Sue aside as soon as she could. I could see them talking. Sue glanced over at me a few times. I pretended to be busy, but I was pretty sure she knew I wasn’t.

After a while, they wrapped up and Sue grabbed me.

“I asked Angie why she was the one inviting me to study group and she said to ask you.”

I gave my dear little sister a glare. She smiled back. Too sweetly. OK, fine, we both know that I’ll do what she wants.

“Two reasons. First, she proposed you joining well before our date. And second, because it has nothing to do with our date. I don’t know if she told you, but we kinda have two systems for joining. Girlfriends or boyfriends of members get priority.”

“I already knew it was kinda a dating study group.”

“Kinda. I mean, almost everyone is. That happened naturally, mostly. But I’m not inviting you as a date.”

“Why not?” She didn’t seem peeved (which I was glad about) but rather just curious.

“Are we dating? We went to a dance. I had a good time, but I don’t know if we’re ‘dating’.”

She sighed. “I don’t either. Which probably means we aren’t.”

“We should talk about it, when we can. Right now might not be the best time. After class? Angie’ll wait a bit if we talk.”

“OK.”

“Anyway, see, that right there is why. It’d be false pretenses if I said ‘hey, y’all, welcome Sue into the group, please, we’re dating’ and then we weren’t.”

“I get that.” She smiled. “Thanks. I think I’d have said no if it was that way. This way? I really need a good study group. I’ve been jealous.”

“We discussed inviting Amit. No one’s dating him. Unless you are.”

She shook her head. “Not right now, at least.”

“So, there you go. Neither Angie nor Cammie nor I are ready to invite him yet, but none of us see any issues either. We just want to get to know him better.”

“You know me well enough?”

“We were around you in the summer. And there are, um ... well. Some factors I’m sure of with you that I’m not with Amit.”

She hesitated, then lit up. “Oh, OK, I get it. Yeah. Maybe.”

“Anyway, two totally different conversations. What you and I decide has nothing to do with the group. Well, unless you decide you hate my guts and can’t stand to be near me.”

She laughed. “Definitely not that, Steve. You’re stuck with me as a friend, at least.”

“Damn you, fate!”

She grinned and giggled, and we hugged. Then we started refreshing Extemp files.