Chapter 20

The next day, Mama, Uncle Bunny, Dad, and I teed off at ten thirty. Jane and Grace had joined another twosome right behind us. The twosome was made up of two younger girls. I had seen one of them at the pool before, a brunette about my age, who was about average height, with small breasts, and hips just a little wider than normal. She had worn a bikini at the pool, and she looked a little bit pear shaped in it. I'd never seen the other girl though. She too was a brunette, with hair on the short side, and long arms and legs. At first, there wasn't anything about her that stood out to me. That changed though, as soon as I took a look back and watched her golf swing. She looked like a younger Mama, at least as far as her swing went. I saw Mama looking at her too. Neither of us were surprised to see her drive rolling twenty five yards past Grace's.

Uncle Bunny hadn't been kidding when he told me he'd been practicing his short game. He shot an eighty five, chipping in once from the fringe, and making three putts from fifteen feet or longer. I shot an eighty one, and dropped three hundred to him. He took six hundred from Dad, and another three hundred from Mama. Mama had shot a seventy three, and Dad shot a seventy nine. Uncle Bunny had the worst score and still made twelve hundred from us. I watched Grace and Jane putting out on the eighteenth. Having paid Uncle Bunny as soon as I collected my three hundred from Dad, I made my way back over to the eighteenth green. Mama and I tied for the eighteen, and she lost the front to me and won the back nine. She won one hundred from Dad though, winning the eighteen, and the back nine from him.

"What did you shoot, Grace?" I really wanted to get a closer look at the new girl, but I used the excuse of wanting to know how Jane and Grace did.

"Seventy five, Kenny. Jane shot seventy one though. Do you know Shirley and Denise?" The girl I was interested in was named Shirley. Grace made all the introductions, although Denise said she already knew who I was. From the way she said it, and the lukewarm hand wave she gave me, I guessed that she had heard something bad about me. I was happy to find out that Shirley was fifteen like I was. With my birthday just around the corner, that meant I was probably older than her. She was almost as tall as I was, maybe five ten or eleven, a little on the thin side, with small breasts and narrow hips. I found out that she was going to be a sophomore, so I was a grade ahead of her. All of this was good to know. She wasn't nearly as pretty as Brenda, but she had regular features and a nice smile. She seemed shy too. I wanted to get a chance to talk with her, but Denise was in a hurry about something, and they both left before I had much of a chance to tell her more than hello. I watched them driving away in their golf cart.

"You like Shirley, Kenny?" Jane nudged me playfully in my ribs when she asked me that.

"I just now met her. I liked her golf swing though. What did she shoot?"

"I think around eighty five or so. What did you shoot?"

"Eighty one. Uncle Bunny shot an eighty five, and took all of us to the cleaners. He's been practicing. I'm going to have to re-evaluate giving him strokes." Both Grace and Jane were laughing at me. I was pretty sure then that I knew who was coaching him. "So Jane, tell me about Shirley. What else did you find out? Did Denise say something bad about me?"

"Denise doesn't like you much. She thinks you're conceited, and said you like to throw the fact that you're rich in other people's faces. She was talking about you having five or six people for lunch, everyday at the club, last summer. She also said you dumped Brenda Connor."

"What did Shirley say? Did she ask any questions about me?"

"She did like the way you got out of that fairway bunker on fourteen. What did you use, a seven?"

"No, I crushed an eight. It was just lucky that I picked it so cleanly."

"Grace and I both told her that Denise didn't know what she was talking about. We told her how sweet you were. She just moved here from Salt Lake City about two weeks ago. Her father works in Bolling, as a sales manager for a carpet company, and her mother is an artist of some kind. She's the baby in her family, with two older brothers in college. One is at Yale in Connecticut, a junior, and her other brother is a sophomore, transferring to KU, over in Lawrence. He went to Oregon as a freshman, but he didn't like it there."

I thanked Jane for all the information, and we went over to the clubhouse together. Lunch was pretty unremarkable. I had the fried chicken for a change. It was good, but not as good as Gerta's was. Uncle Bunny and Mama were talking about Elizabeth. Mama was warning him about her drug use, but Uncle Bunny was mostly concerned about her being too intrusive on his privacy. He did say that he hoped she was a good cook, but told Mama he was keeping the mother and daughter team that came in and cleaned his house twice a week. Mama told him about Elizabeth's home baked breads, and about the sherbet and cookies she made. I stayed relatively quiet, thinking about the four members of my birth family that I knew about. I was curious to meet my Aunt Donna. I thought I'd get Elizabeth to help me out with that, at least make the introduction for me.

I was staring off at nothing, thinking about Elizabeth, when Gary, Emily, and Mr. and Mrs. Carstairs came into the restaurant. They were seated about twenty feet from us. Mr. Carstairs came over to say hello to Mama and Uncle Bunny. From the way he was acting, he didn't know anything about what had happened with Brenda, Emily, and me. Mama introduced Dad to Mr. Carstairs, but they already knew each other from high school. Dad didn't act very friendly towards him, but he did shake hands after Mr. Carstairs offered his hand. I looked over at Emily and Gary. I wasn't mad at Gary because of anything that had happened. I was very angry with Emily though. Not for her telling me about Gary and Brenda, but for the reason she did it. The fact that it had worked was also galling to me. When I got up to use the restroom, Emily was waiting outside the door when I came out.

"Kenny, I'm sorry. Now you're mad at me and so is Brenda. We both got hurt by her. You were right, and I should have listened to you." She was standing directly in front of the door, there was no way for me to go around her. I either had to stand there and listen to her, push her out of my way, or go back inside the men's room. I didn't feel like retreating from her. I hadn't done anything to injure her, why should I go hide?

"Emily, get out of my way. I have nothing to discuss with you. You got what you wanted, Brenda and I are through. Go back to your family." I knew she was already embarrassing herself by trapping me at the bathroom door like this, but I didn't know how much humiliation she might be willing to suffer before she'd leave me alone. I didn't want to speak with her. In fact, I wanted to see her less than I wanted to see Brenda.

"I wish you wouldn't be mad at me, Kenny. I already told you how sorry I am."

"You're sorry because your plan backfired, and you got Brenda mad at you. Brenda was your friend, and you harmed her for selfish reasons. What Brenda did was bad, but what you did by telling me, that was even worse. I don't know why Brenda did those things with Gary, but I know why you told me. You have to live with the consequences of what you did. I don't want to be around you anymore." She stepped aside then, letting me pass by her. I went back and sat down again. I saw the worried look on Mama's face, and heard Emily crying as she returned to her family. I looked over at their table, and Emily's mother was trying to comfort her and find out what had happened. I saw Gary looking over at me angrily. I hoped he wasn't going to come over and confront me about what happened with his sister. I really hoped he didn't. Mrs. Carstairs got up and led Emily away to the ladies room. It looked for a moment like Mr. Carstairs was going to come back to our table, but I guess he finally decided not to.

Everyone at both tables was a little bit uncomfortable, so when Uncle Bunny suggested we all leave and go back to our house, it was quickly agreed to. We got up and left. I went with Uncle Bunny, and Grace and Jane left in Jane's car. Mama and Dad both waited for Hans to come pick them up. They had a drink while they waited. In the car, Uncle Bunny started asking me questions about Elizabeth. Specifically, he wanted to know the exact point when she asked me how old he was. He made me go over what had been said before, and afterwards too.

"I wonder why she'd ask such a question, Kenny?"

"Probably because I'd been joking with her about her funny business comment. Maybe she meant to say she was too young for you."

"Is that why you mentioned Bea to her? To let her know she wasn't?" Uncle Bunny didn't sound upset, just curious.

"I wasn't thinking of you and Elizabeth that way. She made that comment, and then I made a joke about it. I should have just said you weren't going to try any funny business. I'm sorry if it embarrassed you."

"Kenny, I'm not embarrassed. I was interested in the context of her statement, and of yours. I'm still wondering about her asking my age like that, after the dialogue the two of you had just had. She isn't some young girl after all. One would have to presume, at twenty eight, and having been married, she asked the question knowing how it would sound to others."

"Maybe she's lonely since her husband died. Whenever we've talked, she's told me she misses him, and is afraid that she's forgetting what he looked like. He's been gone a long time. Maybe she is starting to put him behind her."

At the house, the first person we ran into was Elizabeth. She was packing her things into the limo parked in front of the house. Hans had been forced to take Mama's car to go get my parents because the back seat of the limo was stuffed with Elizabeth's stuff. Elizabeth looked upset because she knew Mama wasn't going to like not having the limo pick her up.

"Hans said it would be all right. I didn't know it would take so long to load everything up. When I moved in before, it didn't take so long and there wasn't so much stuff. I'm sorry."

Uncle Bunny stepped in, and spoke up soothingly. "Don't worry about it. I'll have a word with Bertie when she gets here. Is there anything that Kenny and I can do to help you? When Hans returns, we'll ride over and help you move your things in. That way Hans can hurry back here, in case Tommy and Bertie decide to go somewhere tonight." Uncle Bunny was putting on his charm. His smile was at full candlepower, and he was holding in his overly large stomach, and smoothing down the loose strands of his rather sparse hair. I stood back, away from the two of them. Whether she wanted it or not, I was guessing that Uncle Bunny was going to find out if Elizabeth was up for some funny business with him. I left the two of them at the limo, talking together, and went upstairs to change into some old clothes.

When I came back down, Dad and Mama were speaking with Uncle Bunny, and he was telling them that he had commandeered the limo so that he could assist Elizabeth in getting her things moved in quickly. Elizabeth was standing over by the limo, out of everyone's way, letting Uncle Bunny smooth the way for her.

We followed Hans over to Uncle Bunny's house and it only took us about five minutes to unload everything in front of his house. After Hans left, Uncle Bunny, Elizabeth and I brought her things inside his house. I'd never been there before, but I'd driven past it a few times with either Mama or Hans. It was a one story house that was very wide in front. There was an attached four car garage that made the house look really wide. What I didn't know was that the whole area behind the house was a big square, and the house was one hundred feet by one hundred feet. The garage must have been about forty feet by forty feet deep. I know it was a lot bigger inside the house than you would think, looking at it from the outside.

There was a large bedroom in the back of the house, behind the kitchen. It must have been about six hundred square feet, around twenty feet by thirty feet. There was a full bathroom, and a separate door that led outside, to the side walkway. She picked this bedroom without even looking at the five other choices. Of course, this room was the farthest away from where we'd off loaded her belongings. It took us over twenty minutes to carry everything back there. Uncle Bunny insisted, after the first load, which we all carried, that Elizabeth stay in her room, putting things away, while he and I brought the rest of it back to her.

It was a short, five minute ride back to our house, and Uncle Bunny stopped in front, telling me that he'd see me later, at the country club dance. Until then, no one had mentioned to me that we'd be going. I didn't want to run into Brenda or Emily, so I instantly made up my mind to beg off from going. It turned out not to be necessary. Mama told me that she and Dad were going, and she thought I'd appreciate the chance to stay home and rest up from my ordeal. I wasn't sure which ordeal she was referring to, so I just nodded to her and grunted out what I hoped she'd take as verbal approval of her idea.

I was in my room at nine, when Brenda called me. Gerta used the intercom line to tell me that Brenda was calling. She asked me if I wanted to take the call or not. I knew that I was going to have to talk to her again at some time. Maybe it was better to do it then, when my parents weren't there. I told Gerta to patch the call through.

"Kenny, hello?"

"I can hear you, Brenda."

"I'm glad you're back home. Did your mother tell you what happened to us?"

"No, I heard that your parents split up, and you and your mom moved to Bolling for awhile."

"Daddy found out about what we did all that weekend, and that my mother knew it was going to happen, and about her putting me on birth control pills. He hit both of us, in the face, really hard. You should have heard the things he said to us." I didn't say anything to her, waiting to see if she would come to the point or purpose of her call. So far, she hadn't brought up anything about her and I, or about what happened with Gary. I knew that she was hoping I'd give her an easy opening so that she could start crying and asking me to overlook her mistake. Instead, I waited. "Kenny, I don't think you should be so mad at me. The things with Gary were before we got together again. I was going to tell you, but I didn't want to spoil things, because they were going so well. I would have told you myself, when I got the chance to, honest."

"Brenda, we couldn't be any more finished unless you were dead. I gave you several chances to be honest with me. You lied to me. I probably wouldn't have forgiven what you did with Gary anyway, but the lying on top of that, there's just no way to forgive that."

"We've had problems before though. We always managed to get through them. I don't know why we can't get through this one too. I never cared that much for him, it was kind of like me teaching him what to do. He never had a girlfriend. It was something to do, something to keep Emily away from me. I didn't like that she was always after me to do things with her, so I did those things with Gary. When you did them to me, it was totally different than it was with him, or with Darryl. Like night and day different. I love you. If I'd known it was going to turn out this way, I wouldn't have done it."

"Brenda, I don't even care anymore, really. I don't want you in my life, or anywhere around me. I feel the same way about Emily. Right now, you still have some support from Mama, but if you keep trying to contact me, she said she'd stop trying to help you. I'm not going to tell her about this phone call, but Gerta probably will."

"Your mother told us you were going to work with your father here in Bolling sometimes. Even if we can't be together anymore, Kenny, I still love you. Do you want to come over here for lunch or something? I've been thinking about what we did that weekend. I miss you. It can just be for sex, I don't mind."

"Brenda, that's never going to happen. This better be the final time you call me, or ask me something like that. I'm through with you. I don't think I could screw you again, not without getting sick to my stomach. Leave me alone." I heard the line go dead before I finished telling her to leave me alone. I'm not sure how I managed to keep my voice sounding so calm and steady while I was talking with her. I didn't feel calm, that was for sure. I felt terrible. I wanted to cry, but I also wanted to go to Bolling and strangle her. I was happy we talked on the phone though. In person, she'd have seen the physical reaction hearing her voice had elicited from me. Seeing her, I don't think I could have handled saying what needed to be said.

In spite of what I had told her, Emily, and Mama, I still had an emotional connection to Brenda. I hated having it, but I had to be honest with myself. I needed to keep distance between us. How could I feel so negatively about her, and, at the same time, want her so badly? I felt as addicted to her as Anne Coulter was to alcohol. Maybe I needed to go somewhere and get dried out from Brenda? I went downstairs, looking for Gerta. As usual, I found her in the kitchen, sitting at the table, writing out the menu for the next week.