Chapter 92: Time Warp

Friday, February 24, 1984

Meg and Steffie left around two, heading to Aldine Eisenhower for their tournament. Almost no one that had gone to Lexington was going — just a few people who still needed to qualify (particularly in Extemp). We’d have a chance for more high-level competition in a couple of weeks, and most of us were happy to wait.

With them gone, we nominally had Mrs. Watkins checking in on us, but even she told us to do whatever we wanted. What we wanted was to hit the road half an hour early, so we did, just after I called Kyle and triple-checked that all was well with the paperwork. It was, and he had no trouble approving Jasmine signing it on behalf of the LLC.

Leaving early might have caused trouble in 2020, when my kids were in school, or it might not have. For all that schools were much more ‘closed campuses’ in the future, my kids had routinely gotten off campus when they weren’t supposed to. No one noticed or cared. High schools were too big, with too many doors, too many buildings, and too many kids with legitimate reasons to go hither and yon for anyone to notice the people taking off to places they weren’t supposed to go.

Memorial, being physically smaller, and having a smaller parking lot with easily monitored exits, would have been easier to ride herd over, but they didn’t.

Thus, we were on the road well before rush hour. Even with taking a few minutes to drop off Angie’s note, we made it up to College Station by five. College Station had its own rush hour, it felt like, if a lesser one. The major streets were all very busy when we came into town. I imagined it would be much, much worse on a football weekend. We’d experience that soon enough!

We passed our hotel and headed up to Maxine’s office. She was there, of course, and expecting us. She decided we all deserved hugs, so we all hugged back. I liked it, and the girls certainly did.

“Okay!” she said, sitting down. “We’re all set for tomorrow. Closing will be at eleven at Brazos Valley Title, on Harvey. You probably have little idea of where that is...”

I had some idea of where Harvey (Road? I thought so) was, but I’d need the road atlas to be sure. It was a major street — I knew that much!

Everyone else nodded except for Jas, who said, “That’s the road that goes to the mall, right?”

Maxine nodded, grinning. “Got it! You’ll get very used to it. Lots of restaurants, lots of shops, lots of apartments, plus the mall.”

“I knew it!” Jas said.

“The seller has already signed everything on their end. They’re not coming into town, but their agent will be on hand to work out anything last-minute. You normally never see the other party at a closing, anyway.”

I nodded. I’d done this a couple of times (not that Maxine could know that!) and I’d never seen the other party at the closings.

“It’s good that you’re banking with RepublicBank. They’ll be open tomorrow, so you can simply bring a cashier’s check for $73,750. If there are any last-minute adjustments, the title company will cut a check for the difference at closing,” she said.

“I’m a bit nervous, still,” Jas said.

“That’s perfectly normal,” Maxine said. “Everyone is nervous the first time they buy a house. Most people are nervous the second, third, fourth ... however many times they buy one. It’s a big expense and there are tons of pieces of paper and you don’t have time to read them all. You’ve had a lawyer review them, though, which puts you ahead of most people.”

“I’m excited, too!” Jas said, grinning.

“That’s the spirit! By noon tomorrow, you’ll be homeowners! Or your LLC will, which I think pretty much means the same thing, anyway.”

“It does,” I said. “By the way, do the tenants know about the change of ownership?”

Maxine nodded. “They do. Not much changes for them, and there’s no reason for you to bother them unless you need to get access or the like.”

“Not right away,” I said. “We might come over for Spring Break and get started on some estimates, though.”

“They’ll likely be out of town. You can work that through the property managers, mostly. They’ll make sure all of the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed.”

“Works for me,” I said.

After making sure no one had any other questions, we adjourned and headed off to dinner. Angie wanted to try the Dixie Chicken again, so we did. We had to wait for a table, but not really long. The place just got busier as we were there, though.

On football weekends, I imagined this place was packed as tightly as possible. That seemed likely.

We decided to go for a walk on campus after dinner. It was a good way to spend a couple of hours, I thought. The campus was busy, with students everywhere, but it never felt crowded, much less claustrophobic. There would be events like that, but UT could feel crowded, or worse, just on an average class day sometimes. Too many people, not enough space.

It would take us a while to really get a feel for everything, but we got a head start on it all.

There was a big field located just north of the Memorial Student Center (still not quite ‘the MSC’ to us, yet) which I seemed to recall people calling the ‘drill field.’ That made sense for a former (and current) military school, but no one was drilling there, and people were out on it, sitting and talking or just passing through. Off in the distance we spotted a lit-up building.

Paige said, “What’s that? It looks a bit like a theater.”

Angie said, “I think the map called it ‘The Grove’. I don’t know.”

We walked over, to find that it was indeed an outdoor amphitheater. I’d never heard of it, but I’d never been very familiar with the A&M campus in my first life, mostly just going to the football stadium and student center on my trips here.

Paige looked at a sign. “Hey! They’re doing ‘Rocky Horror’ here. Like, tonight! I’ve never been. Do you think we could go? It’s at midnight.”

“I’ve never been,” Jas said. “It sounds cool.”

Ang and I looked at each other.

“Love to!” Ang said. “I’ve only been once.”

“And I’ve been ... um ... a few times,” I said, chuckling. “The first was in 1985.”

Paige stuck out her tongue, then said, “Well, look at you!”

That got everyone laughing.

We decided to hike back to the car, go back to the hotel for a bit, then meet up around eleven-thirty. There was parking much closer to The Grove, and we’d want to get back after the show ended.

It turned out that ‘going back to the hotel’ also included fooling around. I wasn’t all that surprised, but I was certainly happy with the development.

We didn’t have that much time, but enough so nothing was rushed. After that, a quick shower and we were ready for the show.

We made it back with about fifteen minutes to spare. Tickets were cheap, and they handed each of us a paper bag with the usual supplies (newspaper, rice, water gun, party hat, and so forth). Jas and Paige had blank looks, but we promised to explain, and told them it’d be more fun if we didn’t spoil it. They looked curiously at the fairly sizable number of fans who’d arrived in costume, too. Considering the outfits, I was looking, too. There were far more girls than guys, and the girls’ costumes were pretty eye-catching, after all.

The show itself was as much fun as I’d remembered — possibly more. The crowd was into the movie from the start, and had their lines and timing down. Jas and Paige giggled at the first cry of ‘Slut!’ for Janet (which happened early, here — there are disagreements on when it’s appropriate) and ‘Asshole’ for Brad (always appropriate, in my opinion). Both of them jumped right in and started yelling along with the crowd. For whatever reason, the crowd hadn’t demanded that ‘virgins’ out themselves, which was good, because Angie and I were both virgins and experienced at the same time.

We had a great time, laughing all the way through, as I’d known we would. Angie knew what she was getting into, and it was impossible to imagine Jas or Paige not loving it, not in this setting. In a quiet theater with just the movie? Maybe, or maybe not, but that was never really what ‘Rocky Horror’ was all about. It was about a shared experience with a bunch of people who were all having a great time.

Angie and I, of course, got a particular kick out of doing ‘The Time Warp’ again, and Jas and Paige both shot us significant looks. I’d danced it many times before, and would many times again most likely, but this was the first since we’d actually done the time warp (or whatever it was that we’d done), and the first time dancing the dance with Jasmine and Paige. It was special, a moment that could only come once in two lifetimes.

As we left, Paige said, “I had no idea it would be that cool! It’s like an audience-participation musical!”

“That’s pretty much exactly what I was thinking,” Jas said. “So cool! Completely ridiculous, but that’s pretty awesome. Most of the acting was good, too, but in just the right way.”

Angie nodded. “I think it’d be flat as a pancake if you just tried to watch it as a movie, but like this, it’s amazing.”

“I’d do the costume thing,” Paige said.

“Of course,” Angie said, giggling. Then she added, “We could do it together.”

“Three of us!” Jas said. “And I bet I could convince someone to play along!”

“You’re very convincing,” I said, smiling.

“You’d be a really good Rocky,” Paige said. “Also a good Frank-N-Furter, but that’s a bit more ... interesting.”

“Whatever works,” I said. “We’ll see.”

Jas giggled. “This is going to be awesome!”

Once we were in bed, Jas said, “You’d really go as Frank-N-Furter?”

“You already know the answer.”

“I do,” she said, nodding. “Another reminder that you’re... you! I’m not sure anyone in Drama would do that, even the ones that are much more ... you know.”

“Charles would have,” I said.

“Oh! Well, yeah. No, Charles definitely would have. That would’ve been awesome at Halloween, not that ‘Harvey’ wasn’t awesome.”

“I think some of the chaperones might have had heart attacks.”

“True! Anyway, I just forget that nothing really throws you,” she said. “But you’ve got the ‘been there, done that’ thing going on.”

“I’ve never been to ‘Rocky Horror’ in costume,” I said.

“And then I forget that, too! I mean, that you’re not ... you. So it’d be new, but you still feel good about it.”

“I’m pretty sure that, if I would’ve ever had any trouble, being in class with Charles and Bob and John and...”

Jas giggled. “Point taken! Yeah, if you weren’t secure, they’d have given you a challenge.”

“I’m not even sure I like that phrasing. Cal and Andy are about as ‘secure in their masculinity’ as anyone.”

She giggled more. “Point taken again! You know what I mean, though.”

“I do. I like girls that way, and not guys, but guys that like guys don’t bother me at all, even if they’re making passes at me. If I ever did get curious, everyone around me would support me. I can’t really lose. Plus, I’ll be going to the show with some of the cutest girls around no matter how I’m dressed.”

“Some of the girls in costume were very cute.”

“So are you, Ms. Nguyen!”

She giggled and kissed me, which ended any talking for a while. Even then, most of the rest of our conversation was just saying good night to each other after another shower.

Tomorrow (today!) we were buying a house! Even with that, it was nearly three in the morning, and we had somewhere to be at eleven. Sleep was a priority!

Saturday, February 25, 1984

We managed breakfast at the hotel restaurant, though everyone was slightly groggy. Still, we were used to performing at a high level on short sleep. That, and coffee really did help.

A lot.

Once we were mostly back to being awake, Jas said, “I have to admit, I found the notion of you two, in particular, doing a dance called ‘The Time Warp’ hilarious!”

“Me, too!” Angie said. “I hadn’t done that in ... hell, I don’t know. A long time!”

“Much more recent for me. Certainly within ten years, probably more like seven or so. With my ex-wife — well, my wife then — and the kids,” I said.

“I hate to ask,” Paige said, “but how old were your kids when they first saw ‘Rocky Horror’?”

“Maybe ... ten? They knew the dance before that, though.”

“You guys were the cool parents!” Paige said. “It sucks that your ex-wife was a bitch, though. Always will.”

“Just a part of life, and very much in the past, now,” I said.

Jas smiled at that and squeezed my hand.

Thinking about it, that prompted me to say, “Mostly ‘very in the past.’ Jas knows very well that sometimes things turn up, but they’re not bad.”

Angie said, “We all need to see the house, I think.”

Paige nodded. “I want to, if it won’t hurt too much.”

“I don’t think it’ll be what it was last time,” I said. “That’s another demon exorcised. It’s not the last one, but they get easier. I’m convinced of that.”