Chapter 5

I went back to Kate's bedroom and knocked on her closed door. It was already five thirty by the time I got off the phone with Bill.

"What?"

"It's me, Kate, can I come in?"

"Why?"

"I want to see if you want to go with me to the movies or not."

"Really?"

"Yes. I checked with mom and dad, and they already said it was okay. I didn't tell them what was playing though."

"What's playing?"

"Psycho."

"What time does it start?"

"At seven, but I told Bill that we'd meet him and Eileen out front at six forty five." I heard a mad scrambling inside, and then her door flew open. She pulled me inside and shut her door after. She gave me a big hug.

"Mama said that first you'd think about it, and then, you'd do it, but I didn't really believe her. She said we had to let you decide to do it by yourself. Larry, I'm sorry about all those bad things I said to you. I didn't really mean them."

"Kate, before we start this, I need to get you to agree on a few things. The most important one is that you will listen to what I say when we're with Bill, or with any boy. Not just listen, but mind me when I tell you something. You don't get to just do anything you decide you might want to. Only what I say is allowed. There are going to be limits, because you're too young to do whatever you might feel like doing."

"What sort of limits?"

"I don't know yet. It will depend on the situation, who is involved, and where we are. I'm not going to let you get into anything that I think might be bad for you, or for your reputation. If you don't listen to what I say, even if it's only for one time, we'll go right back to what you agreed to doing in order to not be sent to Hungary."

"I agree to all of that for now, Larry. Can you please get out of my room so I can start getting ready? We can talk about it later. For right now, I'll mind you tonight. Is that okay?"

I got out of her room. It had just occurred to me that I needed to get myself ready also. Up until then, I'd been more concerned about how all of this was going to play out for Kate. Now, I needed to make myself presentable for Eileen, and to concentrate on the fact that I'd soon be spending time with her in the darkened movie theater. For the past six weeks, since the day of my birthday party, I'd been thinking about Eileen. This was going to be my first date ever, and now it was my turn to start worrying about all the things a boy worries about on his first date. By the time I was dressed and ready, I was a nervous wreck.

My mother wound up driving us over to the movie theater. It wasn't that far, and normally we would have just walked there, but Kate wasn't ready to leave until six thirty five. I couldn't make the palms of my hands stop sweating. In my mind, I was thinking about all of the things that could go wrong. By the time we left to go to the movie, I was wishing I'd never agreed to any of it. My mother examined me closely before we got into the car. She said something in Hungarian, I didn't understand any of it, and then she gave me a hug. That was embarrassing.

"Larry, relax. It won't be so bad. I spoke with Katinka, and she will be good." Then Kate had to chip in her two cents worth.

"I think he's more worried about being in the movie with Eileen." Then she giggled at my discomfort.

"What Eileen?" My mother looked at me sharply.

"Bill's cousin. The one he brought to Larry's birthday party. Bill has to watch her today and she's coming to the movie too." Kate didn't think anything about what she was saying.

"Get in the car, Katinka. Larry, you aren't to let this girl distract you from keeping an eye on your sister. You are going to be watching out for her safety?"

"Mom, it's Bill, not Jack the Ripper. She'll be fine, I promise. This isn't the kind of movie that kids would go to in order to make out at. I'll be careful, I promise." My mother nodded, looking back at our house once. I thought she was going to delay us further while she went inside to consult with my father. Apparently she decided against that, and we all got in the car and drove to the movie. When she stopped and let us out, I saw worry on her face. I thought she was worried about Kate.

"Laurant, you must set the example for your sister. Treat this Eileen like you would want Bill to treat Katinka. I would be ashamed if you took advantage of her." I got out of the car, and so did Kate. She was looking all around for Bill, but neither of us saw him. I waved to my mother as she drove off. At least her little talk with me had taken away some of my nerves about Eileen. I turned around to see where Kate had got off to, and found myself looking at Eileen who was standing less than ten feet away from me. Bill and Kate were standing about a foot apart from each other, talking together excitedly. I smiled at Eileen and moved over closer to her.

"Hi." I believe in the simple, bare bones approach to conversation.

"Hi." Ah good, Eileen feels the same way about conversation. Bill was telling all of us to hurry up, so that we didn't miss any of the movie. Bill and I each bought two tickets. Then, Bill and Kate walked in, and Eileen and I followed closely behind. The movie was great. I really enjoyed the shower scene. The girls all pretended to be scared and we had to hold them and make them feel protected. At some point in the movie, I turned and saw Bill kissing Kate. It surprised me a little, mostly because it was a good part of the movie. I turned and looked at Eileen, but she was watching the movie. I tapped Bill on his shoulder, and he straightened up right away. I squinted my eyes about halfway shut, and looked right at his face. Kate giggled at me. We sat there, all four of us being good and watching the movie.

When it was over, it wasn't even nine thirty yet. We came out of the movie and started walking towards Bill's house. When we turned on Sycamore Street, we were at the end of the street lights. The rest of our walk would be in darkness. Bill and I stopped several times along the way. I kissed Eileen, and I know that Bill was kissing my sister. I got my first French kiss. It was strange, but enjoyable too, once you got over the shock of having someone put their tongue in your mouth. We got to Bill's house, and, after a few more kisses, we left them, and Kate and I walked home together.

"Thank you, Larry."

"You're welcome, Kate. Did you have a good time?"

"Better than good. It was perfect. Was it all right that I let Bill kiss me?"

"That's all right, in private like on the walk home. At the movie though, I don't know about that. Did he French kiss you?"

"Did you French kiss Eileen?"

"Okay. I'm supposed to be watching out for you, Kate. I'm already fourteen. This isn't going to be something where you get to do whatever I get to do. Did he French kiss you?"

"Are you going to say anything to mom and dad?"

"Only if I have to."

"Yes, he did. But, he didn't try to touch me anywhere."

"He better not either. I'll talk to him about that. If he tries to feel you up, I'll kick his ass."

"Larry, don't say anything to him like that. If he tries it, I'll stop him myself. You act like I'm helpless. You should ask Tommy Lampkin how helpless I am."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"At your party, he tried to feel me up when we were dancing. I kicked him. Harder than I kicked you at Ed's party."

"How come you never told me that, I'd have kicked his ass too?"

"Because, I had already handled it. You can't go around protecting me from every boy who talks to me. Besides, Tommy and Bill would both mop up the floor with you." She was right. Still, I didn't like the idea of Tommy trying to cop a feel off my sister.

I thought the movies and the walk home had gone pretty well. The only thing I regretted was not asking Eileen for another date. This time, with just the two of us. I had thought of it, but didn't get up my nerve enough to actually do it. Eileen was different than the girls I'd grown up with. She seemed more daring, more alive somehow. I was intimidated by her. I probably would have been much less intimidated with Clara or any of the other girls I knew. That thought went through my mind, but at the same time, I acknowledged that it was this intimidation factor that drew me towards her. It wasn't a moth drawn to the flame kind of attraction, I mean, I didn't feel compelled or anything. It was a fact though, that she excited me more than any of the others. I sensed that, with her, there was no way of guessing, much less controlling, the events that might occur.

Sunday morning, right after we got back from church, Bill called me on the phone, asking me to meet him at the park where we had played football the day before. I changed out of my dressy church clothes, and into play clothes. I got on my bike and peddled over to the park. When I got there, instead of Bill, Eileen was there.

"Where's Bill?"

"He's not coming. I asked him to call you so that you could meet me here. Are you mad?" Eileen looked worried that I might be.

"Heck no. You are way prettier than Bill." That comment got me the smile that I'd been hoping for. "So, what brings you here to the park?"

"Isn't that obvious? I wanted to see you. Let's go for a walk." She reached out and took my hand in both of hers and started pulling me forward, into the park. At the far end of the park was a small wooded area. It was only a couple of acres, but it was pretty thick with trees. When I was about ten, four or five boys from the neighborhood had built a tree fort in there, and we had had some great snowball fights with two or three guys up in the fort and the rest of us below lobbing snowballs at them as they rained down on all the kids below them. We were heading over in that direction, towards the copse of trees. "You didn't ask me yesterday, but I broke up with Ken on Thursday."