Chapter 8

I promised to tell you how bad the rest of the summer sucked and I’ll get to that. But first I have to tell you that July started with a lot of promise. My baseball team was cruising, my social life was most excellent and my love life was extraordinary.

Caroline Hernandez had blossomed into a confident young woman right before my eyes. She had a job at Walgreen’s now, making money for herself for a change. Her store manager loved her because of her work ethic and ability to speak two languages fluently. The manager gave Caroline her dream job, assigning her as an assistant pharmacy technician. The store’s pharmacists thought she was a Godsend and spent time teaching her pharmacology. Caroline took a computer course and became the youngest Certified Pharmacy Tech in the district. We had to switch our day from Saturday, but we still got together once a week.

Denise Drake took charge of her life and career in a big way. She fought for and gained more creative control of her show and ramped up her involvement in the Republican Party. Her name was seriously bandied about as a possible State Representative candidate. In her personal life she told Jack Caldwell he could sleep with whomever he wished, as long as it wasn’t her. For all intents and purposes he had moved out of the house. She said he was playing house with his young leggy assistant in a condo on the beachside. Denise and I even went out on dates now, her in her Dee-Dee disguise. Any success I’ll ever have with women for the rest of my life I owe to Dee. She nurtured the romantic in me and taught me the nuances of dealing with women.

On the sixth of July my sister Katrina departed for basic cadet training at the Air Force Academy. She was excited about her upcoming adventures yet seemed to be sad at the same time. I thought it was because she was leaving home. My parents flew out to Colorado Springs with her for an orientation program and open house the academy held for the parents of incoming plebes.

While my folks were away I was entrusted to stay home alone, tempered by the watchful eyes of Papa and Nana. Still, after a little talk with Papa Janus, I was able to spend my first full night with a woman. Yep, you guessed it. It was with Dee-Dee Drake and cabin number seven at Mermaid State Park. I want to tell you that us sleeping in the same bed was the most natural thing in the world. Dee took a short three-day vacation and she and I spent every minute of it together. I’m afraid those three days probably spoiled me for life. I figured it was impossible for anyone ever again to be as deliriously happy as she and I were. To make it even more perfect Dee gave me her cherry ass on our second night. It was something she wanted to do just for me and I went along with it willingly.

Denise and I had a long talk Friday night. We talked about her political aspirations and how they would affect us. We agreed that we were going to have to suspend our relationship before we made a mistake and became public knowledge. It wasn’t a sad split though, because we were not calling it quits. However events shook themselves out, we would find a way in the future to spend time together.

My parents flew back in Saturday afternoon. We had dinner at my grandparents and my mom and dad filled us in about the academy. Both my parents were subdued all evening. I thought it was because of the Moose. Stupid me.

When we were home my parents asked me to sit at the table with them. We all sat in our usual seats, my parents at the ends of the table one on either side of me. I looked at my mother inquisitively.

“Your father and I are getting separated,” she said in a flat emotionless voice. “I need to move to Houston for work and your father’s family and business are here. It’s a practical matter, Johnny, and nothing personal. You are almost grown, Katrina is gone and I have been offered the position of Deputy Director of NASA.”

My eyes ponged back and forth between them, my mother all business, my father stoic and silent, as was his nature. I might be growing up but I was ill equipped to handle something like that.

I stood up and lashed out. “Sure, Mom, no problem. Have a nice life.”

I started to stalk out of the kitchen when my father’s huge meaty hand gently grabbed my wrist.

“Sit down, son, and remember the rule.”

I sat my butt down and looked at him like he had suddenly grown horns. The rule in question was that there was absolutely no talking back to or disrespecting my mother. It was one of the few things in our house you could do to make my father angry. That he could invoke the rule in the face of what I saw as my mother’s treason was mind-boggling.

“Sorry, Mom,” I mumbled.

“Johnny, your mother deserves this chance and she deserves our support. I know this seems strange to you, but we are going to be fine and Sonia will visit us as often as she can. It’s not as if we’ll never see her again.”

I understood what my dad was saying, understood it with my head, anyway. My heart was another matter. I went to bed, numb.

The next day was surreal. When I came downstairs Mom’s bags were packed and sitting by the door, yet she and Dad were sitting at the table as if it was a normal Sunday. Dad and I loaded up Mom’s new Ford Escape hybrid and stood awkwardly on the curb saying our good byes. I was damned if I was going to cry when she didn’t. She seemed anxious to leave. She gave me a brief hug and said she loved me. I accepted her hug but didn’t say anything. She knew I loved her but I wasn’t at all sure how she really felt. Mom drove off without so much as a backwards glance. My dad sighed, put his arm around my shoulders, and turned me towards the house.

Thank God for my grandparents. I guess Dad called them as soon as we went into the house because they arrived fifteen minutes after Mom left. Nana collared Dad and Papa dragged me out to the park with him and Jethro again. As before, we sat on the tailgate of his truck. I told him exactly what happened and how I felt. As a bonus, I threw in that Dee and I had agreed not to see each other any more.

“That’s probably a good thing for Ms Drake’s political career,” he said nonchalantly.

I stared at him, my mouth hung open.

He laughed and slapped me on the back.

“Close your mouth, Johnny, before something flies into it. You know I was in Special Forces for years, stationed in Germany. Part of my job was collecting intelligence in Berlin. I still have most of my skills. It took me one day to find out who she was after we took her the flowers. She is a woman worthy of a Pulaski.”

“Then maybe we should hook her up with Dad.”

“Don’t give up on your mom, boy. She is an incredible woman.”

Yeah, I thought, incredibly selfish.

Mom’s moving away didn’t change our life style very much. She had been pretty much an absentee for the last year or so. I think that her finally making it official was what bummed me out so. I threw myself into baseball to help me forget both Mom and Dee. I made the all-star team for the county and had a good tournament. Our team was runner up to the state champion and I was named to the all-state team, the fourth outfielder picked.

Football tryouts started on the second of August. I had grown a little in the last year, now I stood an even six feet tall and weighed one ninety. I was faster and stronger to boot. I signed up to try out for safety and tight end again. Coach Boyette took one look at me and wrote ‘linebacker’ down on my card, also.

School started on August ninth. I had barely gotten my schedule memorized when Hurricane Charlie hit on Friday the thirteenth. Charlie came ashore on the west coast of Florida at four-thirty in the afternoon and cut diagonally cross the state. It hit Palmdale as a category two storm at nine-thirty that night. We rode out the storm at my grandparents’ house, snug in the windowless safe room my grandfather had added. The storm was scary as hell even in the safe room, especially after the power went out. Jethro, always a big fraidycat anyway, lay with his head in my lap trembling.

We ended up staying at my grandparents’ house for four days because the electricity took that long to restore. My ever-prepared grandfather had a twelve-kilowatt diesel generator in his shop that back fed through his circuit breaker panel. When the wind died down, Papa turned off his principle main circuit breaker, and all the individual breakers. He cranked up the generator and threw a switch in his garage that fed the power into his circuit breaker panel in the house. Then all he had to do was turn on selected circuits and we were in business. The system was great, powering everything but the clothes dryer and electric range. We even had air conditioning!

The next day, Saturday, my grandfather, Dad and I went over to check our house. We had a few ruffled shingles but no obvious damage. From our house Papa drove to the Hernandez’s. I gave him a grin when he drove by Denise’s place so I could see that it was okay. The house Caroline and her family lived in had been built in the fifties so we were all worried about how it weathered the storm. Turns out they built them pretty good, back then.

We went back to school on the twentieth. Two weeks later on the fourth of September Hurricane Francis smacked us a glancing blow from the southeast. Francis was a huge, slow moving storm. The wind howled and the rain deluged on us for thirty hours. Power outages lasted longer this time as trees weakened by Charlie gave up the ghost for Francis. Another ‘Cane, another week out of school.

Two weeks later Hurricane Jeanne plowed on to land in the same place Francis had. Jeanne took a more southerly path though, so all we received was a shit load of rain and some pretty stiff tropical storm force winds. Power was out for only a day this time. And we only missed two days of school. Palmdale’s pristine white sand beaches took a beating from storm surge and battering waves though. For all intents and purposes the beach mostly disappeared. The ocean, even at low tide was now up to the sea wall in most places. The last two storms also removed more shingles from our house and we ended up with a huge FEMA tarp covering our roof. There wasn’t a shingle available in the southeast let alone the 30 squares of them that we would need.

At school, in between hurricanes, things were even better for me than last year. I could talk to girls now thanks to Dee-Dee. I met another girl I resonated with. Her name was Amanda Pullman. We met because we were alphabetically assigned as lab partners in Honors Chemistry. Amanda was a tall girl at five nine, and while she wasn’t fat she was not petite either. It was hard to gauge her figure because she dressed to hide it, loose jeans, roomy tops and Doc Marten boots being her standard grunge outfit. She had nice features, big hazel eyes and short brown hair. We introduced ourselves and shook hands. I felt a seriously strong attraction between us and held her hand longer than was polite. She snatched her hand away.

“No way Romeo,” she said forcefully, “I play for the other team.”

I sighed, dramatically as I said, “Story of my life, all the good ones are taken.”

That made her laugh. “Looking at you I don’t think the disappointment will last.”

Amada and I quickly became friends and sparring partners. She had a sharp and quick wit that kept me in stitches. I treated Amada as I did all my friends, not put off in the slightest that she was gay. I had to wonder at the mutual attraction I felt with Amanda though, because if she was a lesbian why were she and I linked?

Football was a mess because of the hurricanes. We had two games to make up and had missed weeks of practice. We had started out with two wins but were not well prepared for the third game when we finally played again. We got our asses handed to us by a non-conference team we should have beaten. I was the starting left outside linebacker and back up tight end. I even talked the coach into letting me keep my place on the special teams.

Caroline and I shared English and lunch this year. Amanda also had lunch the same period. I signed up for Spanish like I promised myself I would. I was pleasantly surprised that Michelle Hoffman was in the class also.

The first time Amanda joined Caroline and I for lunch was a hoot. I had a woman I was attuned to sitting on either side of me. It was obvious to me that Amanda was very interested in Caroline. After I introduced them Amanda casually asked if we were going together. Caroline looked at me and I shrugged. I didn’t mind being open around Amanda, I trusted her already.

“No we aren’t going together, although we do date occasionally.” Caroline said then she leaned across me and whisper conspiratorially to Amanda, “Mainly, Johnny is my lover, he takes care of me so I can concentrate on school. He is very much a man.”

I didn’t exactly mean for Caroline to put out that much information. I couldn’t help blushing at her characterization of me. It sure shocked the bejesus out of Amanda. She drew back with an ‘oh wow.’ Caroline resumed eating but gave me a sly wink.

We chitchatted for a few more minutes and cleared off our table at the first bell. Caroline headed off in the opposite direction and Amanda walked with me. Again, because of the alphabetical closeness of our last names, our lockers were close together.

“You surprise me Romeo. The way you look and dress made me think you were the type that went for blonde cheerleader Barbie wannabes (it’s a word – look it up). But that girl is real as well as hot.”

“Why do you think I hang around you, Mandy? I see real Barbie potential in you. All it would take is a miniskirt and some hair dye,” I teased.

She slugged me in the arm, “In your dreams, Pulaski.”

I rubbed my arm in mock injury. “How did you know about the dreams?”

She growled and stalked off but not before I saw the smile she was trying to suppress.

Caroline was very pleased with herself later in English class. She told me she was open with Amanda to help me if I was trying to date her. When I cracked up she gave me a confused look.

“Sweetie, Amanda is gay; it was you she was checking out, not me.”

Caroline blushed that cute pink I loved. “Really!?” she said.

Amanda was fun to hang around with. I swear she was the queen of the one-liners. It became a habit to meet up with her at our lockers and head out to class together. We were standing at our lockers one day when these three guys stopped in front of us. They were your typical, alienated by choice, teenaged boys; they wore a lot of black and tried to look menacing. They might as well have had ‘L’s tattooed on their foreheads. The one in the front spoke to me.

“She told you she was a dyke, Man?”

“I wasn’t until I saw your pencil dick,” Amanda spat back.

Even loud mouth’s two buddies snickered over that one. The guy Amanda insulted pulled his hand back as if to slap her. I clamped on his wrist before he could do anything. Now us Pulaski men are big boned and we have large hands. I couldn’t compete with Dad or Papa, but my hands and wrists were strong for a teenager. My strong hands and forearms were a big part of my success at sports. I squeezed Mouthy’s hand until he sagged.

“Apologize to the lady and if you come within fifty feet of her again I’ll tear off your head and shit down your neck.” (I heard my grandfather say that to a guy once, ever since I’ve been dying to use the line)

“Shit, man! Let me go, she ain’t worth all this.”

I squeezed a little harder.

“Okay, okay,” he whined, “I apologize, Amanda, I’m sorry.”

As they departed Amanda looked at me and grinned. “Damn, Romeo, I’m impressed even though I coulda kicked his sorry ass by myself.”

I kept watching the three stooges as they walked away. When they were safely out of my reach the talkative one turned around and flipped me off.

“Who was that jerk?” I asked.

“Jamie Hauver, my last boyfriend, he was a big mistake.”

“We all make em,” I say nobly. “But someday I want to hear your story.”

We were walking by then but she stopped and put her hand on my arm.

“Someday I’ll tell you all about it Pulaski. God help me, but you are the first guy I’ve met in three years I really trust.”

She did tell me all about it the next day in Chemistry Lab. We whizzed through our experiment and spent the rest of the period yakking. Amanda said that she had gone out with boys from the time she turned thirteen. She had a few crushes but never met a guy who really did it for her. Then last spring break the older sister of one of her friends seduced her. It was the first time sex had ever been enjoyable for her. She and Ricki got it on again over the summer and the sex was even better. The experiences convinced her that she was a lesbian. She was looking for another partner but didn’t really know the life style.

“I haven’t developed gaydar yet,” was how she put it.

“Mandy have you ever considered that you might be bi-sexual? I can see you are attracted to Caroline; yet I can feel you are attracted to me, too. Why label yourself as one thing or another?”

She started to say something, but her mouth slammed shut as she started thinking.

“Pulaski, you are a big pain in my ass, just when I thought I had this all figured out and you throw something else at me.”

“Hey, what are friends for?” I asked with a grin.

Amanda turned the rescue tables on me the very next day. We were sitting in the lunchroom by ourselves (Caroline had a dentist’s appointment) when I saw Marcie Winter sashaying towards our table.

“Uh-oh, here comes trouble,” I said.

Amanda looked up and saw Marcie. “Barbie is coming for you,” she teased.

“She’s not smart enough to be Barbie,” I replied.

Marcie arrived at the table and stood across from me.

“Johnny do you have a date for Homecoming yet?”

Before I could say I wasn’t going Amanda grabbed my hand.

“Yes he does, he’s taking me,” Amanda said sweetly.

Marcie’s nostrils flared but she recovered quickly. “Good,” she said, “we cheerleaders were worried you wouldn’t have a date.” Marcie spun around and flounced off.

I turned to face Amanda; I was speechless.

“We’re even now, Pulaski,” she said smugly.

I got it then, she was paying me back for chasing off her ex: Jamie. Well, she opened the door, so I dived through it.

“What color is your dress?” I asked.