Chapter 2: Freshman Thanksgiving

It was three-thirty p.m. on the seventeenth of November 1989, and we were on our way home for Thanksgiving vacation. Ned had come alone this time. I offered to drive and he gladly surrendered the wheel to me.

"Well, it happened. I wasn't there a full month before I got into trouble," I began.

Ned looked over at me, smiled and settled back to hear my story. Talking to Ned about things was always preferable to talking to Mr. Oldham about them. Ned probably knew I was using him for practice, rehearsing my lines before the main presentation.

I told him how I had walked in on Roland trying to take advantage of Angie, gotten into a scrap with Roland, spent the next few days explaining what had happened, been disbelieved, been ostracized by my fellow students and now faced expulsion from school because Angie had been too timid to come forward and set the record straight.

"I thought that kid was trouble when I first saw him," Ned said. "We've got to get you out of that room."

"Thanks," I said, dismissively. I had offered to move but my request had been denied. "They said every room is full. Freshmen stay in the room they're assigned, regardless of the circumstances."

"Get through this year. Next year we'll rent an apartment or house," Ned said.

"It's not that simple. I've been sleeping with one eye open, waiting for him to pounce. What I find incredible is that the authorities believed him. Apparently, they didn't even ask who his girlfriend was or try to talk to her."

"You've got to talk to John about this. He'll have a suggestion as to what you have to do."

Telling Ned had me feeling a little better. Instead of accusing me or getting angry, his immediate response was to look for a solution. Finally, someone was on my side.

We stopped for a quick sandwich, then got back into the car and drove the rest of the way without stopping; arriving at home about nine p.m. Mr. Oldham and Suzanne welcomed me with open arms. I didn't have the heart to ruin the reception by telling them about the trouble at school.

Penelope came over and we all sat down to have dinner. Home cooking was never better. It was ten p.m. before I made it up to my room. The light on my answering machine was flashing. I pushed the button. 'You have ten new messages.'

"Sammy, when are you coming home? Call me." The message was date stamped November 15. Karen left her number.

There were three messages from Marcy, imploring me to call her as soon as I got home. There was one message from Sean, saying he was home and there were also messages from Curtis, Josh and Jeannie.

But the messages I played, saved and played again were the three from Karen. "Call me."

I didn't dare return calls at ten p.m., did I?

"Hello?"

"Hi, I hope it's not too late. I just got here and..."

"Sammy? Sammy, I was hoping it would be you. No, it's not too late."

"Well, you left three messages. It must be important."

"Did I really? How desperate am I? I have some questions about... you know... what you said about the domino."

I felt faint. She was calling, wanting to know about the domino. Careful, she may be toying with you. But no, she left three messages. She's interested. Cool, be cool.

"It's just a domino. I see things. This one was twelve dots, six on each side."

"But... how do you know what it means? How can you be sure? What if you're wrong?"

I became bold. "What if it's wrong? You mean what if it's more than twelve times? That's the most dots there are. They don't come with more than twelve dots."

"No, I mean what if you're wrong about the sex?"

I waited for her to continue but she was finished. "I'm never wrong about sex."

"Sammy, really, how can you be so cavalier about something this... this... how can you off-handedly talk about sex that way?"

"I'm serious. You can't imagine how serious I am."

"Tell me again. Tell me what it means again."

"You're interested," I teased.

"No, not at all... but I'm curious, I guess," she said, sounding tentative.

"That domino appeared in the form of the foul ball that I caught at your softball practice. It was a domino with twelve dots until the last second when it became a ball. I decided the twelve dots meant we would have sex together twelve times."

"You decided?" she scoffed.

"That's how it works. I count the dots, decide what they mean and wait for my prediction to come true."

There was silence at the other end of the line. Karen said nothing for a full minute. I waited. I tried to picture her. Was she pacing? No, she was sitting, cross-legged. Was she in bed? Yes, she was sitting cross-legged wearing, what was she wearing? Pajamas, she was wearing silk pajamas. What color? Pink, she was sitting at the head of her bed, wearing pink silk pajamas and talking to me on the telephone.

"Has this phenomenon happened before? Have you ever predicted the meaning of the dots and your prediction came true?"

"Many times," I answered. Now we were getting someplace. She was definitely interested.

"Are you sure it wasn't a coincidence? You may have wished for something to happen and when it did you said, 'Oh, yes, I saw a domino.'"

"That's not how it works. I see a domino falling, count the dots and decide what's going to happen. Then I wait for it to come true."

"I don't believe you."

"Unbutton the top button of your pajama top and scratch your left breast."

"Sammy, I'm not going to... uh... how do you know what I'm wearing?"

"I don't know. I see things," I said, pleased with myself for being right. "Are you doing it?"

"You tell me, Mister Smart Guy."

"Not yet, but you will unbutton the top button before we hang up."

"How many dominoes have you seen?"

I hadn't thought about how many dominoes I had seen fall. "Six," I said.

"Tell me what happened."

I tried to think of a good example. The snake eyes I had seen when everything was going wrong had no real outcome. I considered telling her about the two and two domino I had seen twice at Sheila's house or the three and two domino I had seen the night Charlie lost his cherry. I couldn't tell her about the three and one domino that preceded my afternoon with Cindy and the groundskeepers. The snake eyes domino I had seen in Mr. Oldham's office hadn't come true. I settled on the two and one domino.

"I assigned three different meanings to one of the dominoes I saw fall. It had two dots on one side and one on the other. I wrote to a friend who was considering marriage, telling her the three dots represented her, her daughter and the guy she was considering for a husband. I asked her if that was enough because she wouldn't have more children? She has since left the guy and come home."

"That proves nothing. Your friend was crazy to listen to you."

"Perhaps but I used that same domino to advise another friend that she and her boyfriend would see three other people before they got back together. So far, they've each been with two other people and it looks like they've already met the third one."

"You're making up things about other people's lives and getting them to believe you. You're dangerous Sammy. I don't want to hear any more of this nonsense."

"Wait, don't hang up. That same domino had a third meaning."

"All right, tell me. This better be good."

"A woman I knew, Ann was in a similar circumstance to you at the time. She was twenty-six, divorced and had a six year old son. We were attracted to each other from the beginning but she was seeing someone who was about to propose marriage."

"Wrong! I'm not seeing anyone who is about to propose marriage and I'm not attracted to you," Karen said, glibly.

"Okay, I'll concede that much to you but hear me out. Ann kept telling me she was going to meet the guy's children but then she would call me and want to see me. I told her the three dots on the domino were her tits and pussy and they belonged to me."

"That's... that's preposterous! No self-respecting woman would let you say that to her and get by with it. She would tell you to go to hell and never see you again."

"Ann didn't. She stood under a streetlight in driving rain and yelled across the street to me, admitting that her tits and pussy belonged to me. She said she was my domino."

I heard a snicker that turned into a forced laugh. "You really, really are a head case," she said before hanging up.

Is it me? Why do women keep hanging up on me? Did I say the wrong thing? Did she unbutton the top button and scratch her tit? I think she did.

I went downstairs and told Mr. Oldham and Suzanne about what happened at school, that Ned had seen how big Roland was, how much I had hurt him, that none of the authorities had believed me, about the Dean of Men's warning and how Angie had kept quiet.

Suzanne ridiculed me for not setting the record straight, but Mr. Oldham said he understood my reluctance to embarrass Angie by telling anyone that she had let Roland persuade her to go into his room with him. We talked until past midnight, weighing the various possibilities. When we went to bed Suzanne was still inclined to, 'expose the slut, ' but Mr. Oldham was more restrained, advising that he would 'sleep on it.'

The next morning I called everyone back, starting with Marcy. She was a walking, talking, breathing question box. What's new, college boy? Have you seen any new dominoes? Have you been hitting on those college chicks? Tell me about them. What's wrong, Sammy?

I told her about my discussion with Mr. Oldham and Suzanne concerning my trouble at school and Angie's reluctance to come forward to set the record straight. Marcy agreed with Suzanne, telling me to 'expose the slut.'

She told me things that were impossible to say when she called me at school. Press was improving at what she referred to as 'oral sex, ' and was constantly pressuring her to give in and let him 'make love' to her. "Sometimes he makes my pussy itch and want more but other times he's so predictable that it turns me off. What should I do, Sammy? Should I give in and hope it's as good as everyone says?"

"Who is everyone?"

She didn't answer for several seconds. "Jeannie, for one."

"Don't take Jeannie's word for it. She's a Baldwin. The Baldwin girls live for sex," I said, resolved to call Jeannie next and tell her to stop encouraging Marcy to try sex.

We ended the call, Marcy promising to call me often while I was at home. I promised to keep her up to date on what was going on with me too.

It was a beautiful fall day. I called Josh and Curtis and arranged to meet them at the park. Curtis brought a football and we threw it around, all talking at the same time. Josh was high on football but had to admit that Eddie had bested him scholastically. As juniors, they were still running neck and neck, ranking forth and fifth and hoping to make sergeant at mid-year.

We got my car out of the garage and the guys helped me clean it up. I was going to drive it back to school but I was undecided as to whether to take my computer. With Roland as my roommate it was best to keep all possessions locked up.

I talked to Alice. She was excited about her new job and her boyfriend, promising to introduce him to me while I was home. She thanked me again for advising her to come home. She told me she was happy and that Brenda seemed happy too. We didn't make definite plans but she promised that we would talk again before I went back to school.

Jeannie invited me to go to the movies with her and Josh, but I said I should hang around the house and get caught up with Mr. Oldham and Suzanne. I passed the afternoon writing to everyone I knew, except Becky. I had given up on her. Why didn't she respond to me? Could it be that my letters were being intercepted?

At about six-fifteen, Suzanne paid me a visit and told me to get ready. We were going to the club for dinner. I must have been in the shower when my phone rang. I was on my way to my closet to find something to wear when I noticed the blinking light. The date stamp on the machine verified that it was a new message.

"Sammy, call me please."

I dialed Karen's number from memory.

"Would you like to come to dinner sometime?" she asked.

"Sure, when?"

There was a short pause, like she was checking her appointment book. "Tonight?"

"What time?"

"Any time. I live in the guesthouse behind my in-laws' house. Tell them you're here to see me and drive around to the back. I'll tell them to expect you."

She gave me directions to her in-laws' house and we said goodbye without specifying a time. I think we both knew it would be as soon as possible.

Mr. Oldham and Suzanne must have heard the urgency in my voice when I told them I had a dinner date. They said they were sorry that I wouldn't be going to dinner with them but they understood. I promised to have lunch with them the next day.

As Karen had said, her in-laws were expecting me. I talked into the speaker, giving my name and the gate swung open. A variety of lights illuminated the property. There were low lights along the driveway and floodlights showing off the main house. I parked near the garage and walked across crushed stone to the guesthouse.

"Don't get the wrong idea; I'm not committing to go through with anything," Karen said before I could greet her properly. She had let her hair grow but otherwise she looked the same as I remembered. She was wearing what looked like silk pajamas.

"Hi, how have you been?" I asked as I walked through the door.

"Did you hear me? I don't feel compelled to carry out... just because a domino... is this a scheme you dreamed up to get college girls into bed?"

I was delighted with the way things were going so far. "I'm sorry I'm late. I stopped to pick up condoms."

"You're not late and you won't need any condoms."

Karen asked if I wanted something to drink and leaned over to pour two glasses of white wine before I could answer. We sat down, I on the center cushion of the couch and she in a chair. We both took a sip of wine, it was Chablis, and looked at each other. It was clear that she was nervous and I suppose I was too. I looked around the room. It was spacious, doubling as the kitchen and dining area. A short hallway led to what was obviously the bedrooms and bath. I wondered where her son was. What was his name? Oh yes, Kevin. Where was Kevin?

"Are those the same pajamas you were wearing last night?"

I knew it wasn't pajamas she had on and she must have known that I knew, because she didn't correct me.

"I'm twenty-seven," she said, her eyes somber.

"Did you do it? I think you did."

Her hand went to her top button before she caught herself and dropped her hand. "Yes."

"Did you scratch your left breast?"

"I'm not... I'm not some schoolgirl who falls under your spell. I don't believe in dominoes. I'm twenty-seven years old."