Chapter 44: Spookyversary

Monday, October 25, 1982

Angie and I got up extra-early and made pancakes for Dad’s birthday. Not only pancakes — we had candles, too, and sang ‘Happy Birthday’. As hoped, this was a complete surprise to Dad, and he loved it.

After school, we cooked a nice steak dinner, with potatoes and green beans, which he loved, too.

Tuesday, October 26, 1982

Everyone brought their costumes for a show-and-tell. I had an army uniform. Jasmine had some traditional Vietnamese finery, as did Connie. Jimmy had gone with a naval uniform. Cal, Andy, Cammie, and Mel were going as The Mamas and The Papas, which was probably a bit of a stretch for recognizability, but did suit them otherwise. Pretty much everyone else was a hippie of one sort or another, which did somewhat suit us.

It wasn’t our finest hour for costumes, but we’d be fine, and recognizable. Hopefully next year would be better. It would be, if they went with our idea.

Friday, October 29, 1982

Another Friday, another pep rally, another game. As good a planner as Jessica was, she couldn’t have planned this better. Head cheerleader during an amazing run for a Memorial football team, with packed gyms and enthusiastic crowds at pep rallies and games. She was in her element and she clearly loved every bit of it.

This was an away game, but it was Northbrook, which means the same stadium where we play home games. Not far to go, and it was fun to have more fans at ‘away’ games than the ‘home’ team brings. We succeeded, too. This was nothing at all like Halloween two years ago. It was still in the mid-80s after the sun went down. Too warm for late October, even in Houston.

On paper, this should’ve been relatively easy. On the field, it was a cake-walk. The halftime score was 28-7, and it ended 42-28, with their last two touchdowns against our third-string defense in the waning moments when it hardly mattered.

The team was now 9-0 with one game to go: Spring Branch. On paper - not a hard game. But, who knows? Sometimes experiences can be deceiving. We’d find out. I’d find out later, since I’d be at Emory for the game.

After that, it’d be the Bi-District Championship game. Right now that looked to be against either Lamar or Westbury. Neither should be as hard as teams we’d already beaten.

11:15pm

Angie slipped in, wearing her pink PJs, after she’d gotten a shower.

“Tired,” she said, yawning. “And tomorrow will be a late night. One year ago...”

I nodded. “Most successful first date of my life. I’m giving it the nod over my first date with my ex-wife, because I won’t wait ... um ... twenty-eight years or so to declare it more successful.”

Angie giggled. “Yeah, no. I’ll agree. More successful than that one.” She leaned in and smooched me. “Love you, big brother.”

“Love you, little sis.”

“Always.”

“Forever.”

We rubbed noses, then snuggled up to sleep.

Saturday, October 30, 1982

I settled into my chair at Jane’s office.

“How’s life treating you, Steve?” she said, sitting across from me.

“Good, really.”

“No more nasty tricks by the universe?”

“None that I see, anyway. If they’re happening, it’s behind the scenes.”

She nodded. “Good attitude. So ... what’s new?”

I shrugged. “Dance tonight, not that it’s as big a deal as a dance was two years ago. Just ... fun. Which I’m very in favor of. Jessica has a little crisis, and Jasmine is supportive of my helping. Um ... we fly out to Emory next weekend. Football’s going well. Pretty much, just little things.”

“Little crisis?”

I explained the situation, Jane nodding.

“It’s maybe a bit depressing that your friend has girls to ... send ... to someone like that ... but we all know that happens.”

I nodded. “I’m not judgmental. Girls can be just as interested in a romp in the sheets as guys.”

“As long as they can stop, I agree. If he’s the type to not take ‘no’ for an answer...”

“We’ll be watching for that as best we can.”

“I’m sure you will. Anything else new?”

“I thought more about telling Jasmine. Oh, not right now, but ... when. I think ... it has to be before we fully commit, and maybe it should be still earlier. There are ... it’s ... I think she may realize we’re more unusual than we should be, and ... well. She’d never guess the truth, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t know there is a truth she’s not being told.”

Jane nodded. “I know how apprehensive you were about telling me, and it’s probably worse with her. But ... I also can understand how it’d be nearly impossible to have a long-term relationship with someone you couldn’t share that part of yourself with.”

“It won’t be anytime soon. Well, unless something forces the issue. But ... it’s on the table. And Angie understands that and, I think, agrees.”

“Of course, or you’d be negotiating it with her.”

“That’s about it for anything new.”

She looked at her watch. “We’ve got some time left. Maybe we should talk about your ex-wife some more?”

“Actually ... I had another topic.”

“Oh?”

“So ... um. These incidents with Jessica made me think. There are people I know of — famous people — who are out there, right now, today, doing bad things.”

“I’m not sure I want to know, but ... I’m curious about what you mean. I don’t think it’s what I’d mean by that.”

“For instance ... there’s ... well. I don’t want to give it away, but ... someone who’s a household name, well liked ... routinely spikes women’s drinks and has sex with them when they’re incapacitated. That won’t come out for decades yet, and he’ll harm more people between now and then. The thing is — I could never prove it. His victims take thirty years to get anything proven, and they know it happened! I can’t warn him off — he’d assume anything came from a victim or someone they told. I can’t do anything ... and I feel bad that I can’t.”

She nodded. “That’s ... tough. In the abstract, of course we know there are people out there doing bad things. But knowing that a specific person is doing something bad ... which, as you say, his victims do ... and being unable to affect it ... that’s hard. I can’t say it’s worse for you, but it’s ... well. Both the same and different. You, or a victim, can’t speak up because of the effect it would have on them. In their case, denial, mockery, maybe blacklisting, counter-suits, etc. In your case, exposure and everything that comes with it.”

“Yeah. It’s maybe an extra reason why I want to do something for Jessica. At least ... here’s a problem I can try to solve. There are so many more bad people out there that I can’t do anything about. Most of them I’ve forgotten about. And that’s not even counting politicians making bad decisions, or stuff like the John Delorean thing...”

“Huh. I just realized ... of course, you knew that was coming.”

“I didn’t know when, but, yeah, that happened the same in my first life. He tried everything to keep the dream alive, even what turned out to be a terrible idea.”

I hesitated, then grinned a bit.

“I’m afraid to ask, but ... what’s so funny?”

“Deloreans — the car, not the guy — wind up with a pretty solid fan base. Eventually the brand name got bought by a guy in Houston who was planning to use old spare parts and some redesigns and reclaimed parts from wrecks and such to make ‘new’ Deloreans. I’m not sure how far he got with it.”

“That’s pretty funny ... and, another ethical dilemma.”

“I’m not going into Delorean production. Or cars, at all. Really, only one completely new American auto company has any big success up to 2021, and I’m not about to spoil which one that is, particularly because of how incredibly close the margins were between collapse and a major success. I want to steer as clear as possible from getting in the path of that, partly because it impacts some other businesses totally unrelated to cars that probably matter more than the auto company.”

“Odd, and mysterious, and ... well, the sort of thing I expect I’ll hear more of.”

“You will. I’ll mostly keep the details at arm’s length until and unless we change things.”

“Makes sense for now. And ... we’re about out of time.”

We got up, hugged, and I headed on out.

Most of the group was meeting at a Chinese buffet, but I took Jasmine to Brennerman’s. This was our first anniversary, after all, and it needed something like that.