Chapter 79: "Donna's Ducklings" Named

Tuesday, April 19, 2005 (Continued)

At home Carol went to put away her clothes for tomorrow and I caught up with Mom and Dad. They started asking general questions about the evening, but I focused on Prof's idea, "Because I want to call him back shortly, before it gets too late." That conversation went very much as I expected:

• Surprise at my needing so little sleep. I answered, "You know I'm weird, just accept it please. I'll make sure I get the sleep I need, however much that is."

• Surprise at the Williamses being willing to let me come and go at such odd hours. I said, "It's mainly 'come'. They've already given me their house-key and shown me how to use their alarm."

• Not being happy at letting a driver with so little experience drive at those hours. I countered with, "If the Examiner from Hell couldn't find a single fault, I'm sure I can drive safely for the few minutes it takes. And I don't need experience. You saw me drive Dad's car in the parking lot with no experience whatsoever. You know I didn't need any driving lessons to satisfy the Examiner from Hell. I'm weird, just accept it again please."

• Worrying about other drivers, especially the drunks. At those hours, that was an issue I was willing to accept as real. We agreed I wouldn't drive to the Williams' Saturday or Sunday mornings (late Friday or Saturday nights, if you prefer to think of it that way). I was happy to agree to that because it meant the rest of the week I could do as I wanted.

Mom tried to call Vanessa, but the Williams' phone was engaged.

I explained to Mom, "It's probably Julia inviting her classmates to lunch. She could be tying up the line for quite a while."

So Mom called Vanessa's cellphone, and I left them to their discussion about my comings and goings.

Carol and Donna were both hanging around, and so while Mom talked the issue to death with Vanessa, us kids and Dad just chatted. We talked about the evening, with me mentioning the highlight, "Carol cooked a VERY delicious roast chicken. I had four helpings."

Dad and Donna had a few things to say about Carol's increasing wifely domestication, which Carol beamed with happiness about.

Remembering that it was Donna's bowling game with Robert that had spurred that whole idea, I mentioned our plan for Sunday noon, "Julia, Robert, me, and a bunch of girls from Julia's classes will go bowling. Julia wants me to bowl 300 and impress everyone."

Donna immediately BEGGED to come with us. At the same time Dad's reaction was to laugh at the idea that I could get 300. He obviously remembered some of my previous games.

I chose to answer Dad first. "Dad, I CAN bowl 300. Prof suggested we go to the lane to find out whether I could, and I can. It's actually quite easy, if you can believe that."

"You bowled 300 already tonight?"

"No, I just bowled enough balls to know I can. If you like I'll bet you $10 that I can get 300 on Sunday." I'd rather thoughtlessly copied that line from Julia, when she'd used it to shut down Robert's doubtful comments. In our household the effect was a little different.

From Mom in the adjoining kitchen, "I heard that, Mark! I'll be in to talk with you as soon as I'm off the phone. In front of Donna too!"

#1: <Oops.>

Dad, very quietly said, "I get your point, and you better not mention the previous $10 to your mother."

Donna repeated her request to be allowed to come bowling with us.

Dad, no doubt happy to change the subject, especially if Mom came in soon, said, "Mark's doing this to meet a bunch of 16-year old girls. I doubt he'll want you there, sweetie."

I couldn't think of any reason not to allow her to come, and it seemed entirely fair to do so as it was her game that made me think of it. So I said, "Donna can come if she wants. It was her having a game with Robert that made me think of it. As I understand Julia's plan, it's just going to be a bunch of girls who'll be trying to flirt with me. If any of them have a problem with Donna, that's their problem, not mine. I'd rather have Donna there than any of them anyway."

Carol had already claimed my lap, but Donna still gave me the best hug she could, exclaiming, "He's such a great brother. I'll LOVE to come see you bowl 300. It'll be incredible."

Carol and Donna were giving me the kisses that I apparently deserved when Mom came in. "Sorry to break up the love-fest, but Prof wants you on the phone, Mark, to arrange your first visit."

When I got to the phone, Prof told me, "Your mother has approved it. As I understand it you'll go to sleep at the usual household hour tonight, and wake up at an unknown time. Is that correct?"

"Yes. I'll go to bed about 10 or 11 and tell myself to wake up when my body decides it's had enough rest. I don't know how that'll work. I might not sleep at all that way, or I might sleep until 7:30am which is when I'll ask Mom to wake me if I haven't already. I just don't know. But if Vanessa's right I should wake some time between. I think I need less than five hours, which if I'm right will mean I'll wake about 3am. If I wake at a useful time, I'll go to your place."

"Good. I hope to see you in the morning then. Vanessa wanted me to ask whether you needed some snacks left in your study in case you get hungry during the night?"

"That's VERY nice and thoughtful of her. Normally I do raid the fridge a couple of times during my late-night studying. This time, if I come, I'll just bring the chicken leftovers back and a few pieces of bread to make sandwiches. I'll look after myself tonight, but for other nights that would be great. Please thank her VERY much for me." I was VERY sincere. I joke about my eating, but it's a fact that I do need a lot of food and I do get hungry quicker than I used to. It can get very distracting and unpleasant if I don't eat often enough.

"I will. Last point, remember to pick yourself a project before you go to sleep. Unless you've got one in mind already?"

"Ahh, no. I haven't thought about it yet."

"Something you'll enjoy, that involves other people, and will require several decisions.

^-- "Goodnight, Mark. No, hang on, Julia wants to talk with you. I'll see you tomorrow morning hopefully. Putting Julia on now, goodnight."

Julia - who hadn't talked to me for SO LONG - had to tell me how excited all the girls she'd contacted so far were at having lunch with us tomorrow.

When I had a brief window of opportunity, I mentioned that Donna was coming on Sunday, and knowing her she'd certainly want to play rather than be a spectator.

Julia said, "Good. I'll add her to the list. All the girls I've talked to tonight want to come too. I've got more calls to make and it's getting late-ish, so I better hang up on you, darling."

Some brief smoochy talk later, we hung up. I thought it was probably time to face the music, so I walked into the living room.

Mom saw me enter and immediately said, "What was that I heard about you trying to bet ten dollars?"

I managed to convince Mom that what I'd said was equivalent to asking Dad, "Do you want to bet that the sun will rise in the East tomorrow morning?" It wasn't meant as an invitation, but as a way of telling the other person that I was confident that I was right. Which led Mom to ask what we'd be talking about, so I told her I'd be bowling a 300 game on Sunday.

Mom, like Dad, was initially doubtful. I debated whether to offer her a ten dollar bet, but decided that was like dousing myself with gasoline and then playing with fire, as Mom doesn't like smart-asses. So I just assured her that I was positive that it was "well within my Special Abilities." Mom got that, and accepted my assurance.

Before Mom could return to her theme of betting I quickly asked, "Mom, Dad, while you're both here, I wondered about my parking Julia's car in our driveway. I think it'll be here most nights, Julia not having her license yet. Should I park it in the driveway where I might block you guys, or on the street?"

"Use your judgment," was Dad's answer. He further suggested, "If you're going to be leaving in the wee smalls, you should back into the drive so you can get out quietly and without shining the headlights on anyone's windows." (Dad's saying "wee smalls" either meant in the early hours of the morning, or in my smallest pair of underwear. His mentioning the glare of my departure not shining on people's windows made me reasonably sure he was meaning the hour of the night.)

That was a good enough idea that I immediately went out to rearrange the car. Donna wanted to come for a ride with me. Her first, even if it was only twenty feet or so.

On the way out to the car I asked Donna, "Do you want to bowl or watch on Sunday?"

I got an even fussier answer than I'd expected, "I want to play on your lane, of course."

"I'll need to check that Julia hasn't already promised all those slots away. If not, sure."

Turning the car around necessitated driving on the street, so the seatbelts went on before the engine did. Donna thought I was OTT, and I told her, "You should get into the habit with me. And with everyone else too, come to that."

^-- Donna didn't seem impressed so I added, "Prof lost his leg because people weren't wearing seat belts. Do you want to lose your leg?" That worked much better.

Then Donna started telling me how wonderful I was to let her come bowling with me. I didn't see it as such a big deal. There was no reason why not, and a very good reason why: because she was so pleased about it. It was an easy decision. I was barely half listening to her because she was just praising me. She did say, "Wait until I tell my girlfriends how wonderful you are to let me come along. They'll be even more eager to meet you again."

This immediately caught my attention for a couple of reasons, the first was, "Remember my being able to get 300 is a secret. No one should know I can do that in advance. You can say we're going bowling, and that I'm happy for you to come play with us, but please don't mention anything about 300 until after I've done it, then you can say I did, but not that we expected to, okay?"

Donna assured me she understood.

While I thought of it, I added, "And no betting on me! If Mom found out you'd be grounded. I'd be upset with you too. No betting, okay?"

"I never thought of it, and still won't do it now you've given me the idea. Mom got REALLY annoyed at me for betting at your race."

The second reason Donna had caught my attention was an idea for the project that Prof wanted me to exercise my non-existent leadership abilities on. Donna's little friends had been fun when they came to see us off at the car; "fun" being one of Prof's criteria. Involving people was another criterion, so that also got a tick. Involving "several decisions or actions" was the remaining criterion. I didn't have any specific goal in mind for those girls, but I was sure that whatever I did would involve many "decisions or actions". I had to decide what my goal was. After a bit more thought, I decided it was probably the 'journey' rather than the 'destination' that would be the most fun in this case. I imagined it'd be fun to play with their adoration and one-upping of each other to get my attention. I didn't want to actually do much with any of them; I just liked the fun of a group of them trying so hard to get me interested. "Can I ask you a favor, please Donna?"

"Sure." After a brief pause she added, "OF COURSE you can. I'm not going to say no to you."

"Thank you. I'm thinking of having some fun with those girls you introduced to me. Plus maybe some others of your friends if they want to join in too. If you get a group of them together, I can meet them from time to time. As a group; not one on one. I'd need you to manage them all. I certainly don't want to have a whole bunch of giggly girls calling me, or worse still, me having to call them. Would it be okay for you to do that for me? It might be a bit of a pain at times."

Donna exclaimed, "Are you kidding! I'd love to do that. It'll be fun and make me very popular too. I'd be like a queen, with all the girls begging me for the chance to meet you."

"Don't let this go to your head! Don't turn power-mad or anything. I'd hate to see you get arrogant and bossy, because you're such a nice girl the way you are now."

"I won't. It'll be fun, but it's not going to last long. To the end of the school year, I guess, so just a few weeks." I hadn't thought about that, but it was true.

Donna added, "Plus I'll be happy if I can see you enjoy yourself. I know Julia and Carol are going to get girls for you, and I think it's choice that I can too."

"How do you know about Julia and Carol doing that?"

"Please! It's hardly a secret. You all talk about it a lot. Carol calls Julia on her cellphone and talks in my room right next to me. You just told me Julia's inviting a whole lot of girls bowling on Sunday. The reason is obvious! Duh."

"Okay, I asked a silly question. Your group of girls is different from Julia's and Carol's girls though. Julia and Carol want me to have sex with their girls, but with your girls I just like the fun of seeing how eager to please they are. I don't want to have sex with any of them."

"You could if you want. Most of them haven't done it yet, but they'd love to do it with you. Maybe some might back out, but the rest would be jumping with joy."

#4: <That'd make it difficult.>

"I don't want to, sweetie. Thanks for offering them to me though, haha. I just liked seeing the way they behaved in a group. I need to think of a way of meeting them as a group. I can come down to wherever it is that you have lunch some days. Not often, as I always have lunch with Julia and Carol and we've already got our lunches heavily booked. But I think I can come down sometimes. Maybe once every two or three weeks. How would that be?"

"It'd be fantastic. It'd be great no matter where they meet you. They don't care; they just want to meet you. You tell me where and when and lots of them will come. Some would probably steal a car if they had to, haha."

I was a bit worried about the idea of having dozens of pre-teen girls mobbing me somewhere, especially if I was trying to be cool in front of Julia's friends. "If you told them I was bowling, would they come to see me?"

"If you wanted them to, sure. They'd love to come."

"Actually, I meant if they just knew I would be there at a certain time. Would they come hoping to meet me?"

"If they heard a rumor that you'd be somewhere at a certain time, outside of school, then maybe some would go. It'd have to be somewhere they could be just 'accidentally on purpose'. They don't bother you at school at lunchtime because they'd get in trouble walking around the high school looking for you, and they don't come here because I've put my foot down about that and told them I'd tell my mom who'd tell their moms, but quite a few might go to the bowling alley."

I suggested, "Maybe you'd better not tell anyone about going bowling with me on Sunday. Afterward you can tell everyone, just not before. What do you think?"

"Could I say that you've agreed to let me go bowling with you and a lot of other girls, but we don't have a time yet? That's okay, isn't it? I want to say you've got lots of girls after you."

"Hmm. Yeah, I guess that's fine. I'm not worried if one or two of your classmates see me there, I just don't want fifty of them, or something silly like that. I just want Julia's girls there. I need to think of places where I can meet your group of girls."

"What about at one of your soccer games? They can come and see you play, which will be good because you play so well. You could talk with them before and after the game. They'd be very happy, even if you only talked for a few minutes. They were very excited about meeting you at the car, and that was very short."

I quickly had three thoughts about soccer, even before I got to speak the first thought. This was often the case. Having three minds not on duty meant I often got several suggestions. Most conversations we just let one of us run the body, including the mouth, and the other two normally just leave him to it. That's because most conversations were dull and routine: with the kids around school, answering a teacher's question, etc. But if the conversation interested us, all three would participate and suggest lots of ideas. Often we had to pick among several ideas what to say. The first of the three thoughts I told Donna, "I don't really want a bunch of 12-year old girls flirting with me in front of my teammates. It'd be a bit embarrassing, sorry. I don't mean to insult you."

Donna interrupted an apology that I could've kept repeating in various forms for at least another two or three minutes. "Don't worry, I understand."

The other two thoughts I had, which I didn't voice, were: I'm now MUCH better at soccer, thanks to my proximity sense. In fact, I'm awesome at it. So if the girls saw me they'd be blown away. And my third thought was that I shouldn't invite Donna's giggly girls to watch me play soccer, but should invite Julia's friends. I wouldn't be at all embarrassed by a large bunch of good looking, 16-year old girls flirting with me. I made a mental note to mention that idea to Julia.

I said, "I can't think of anywhere else to meet your girls. That's about all I do outside of school. Running with you is about the only other thing, and that's not suitable. It might impress them, but it's too hard to talk, tease them, etc. I want to see them as a group, not strung out along the road."

Donna said, "Most of the girls you met last time are members of my running club. You could easily meet them there and they could talk with you when they weren't running. I'm sure there'd be a huge number of twisted ankles all of a sudden, stopping them from running, haha. If I told them you were coming down to meet them again they'd be very excited. My WHOLE club would be very excited if you came down. You know nearly every big wig in the club called Mom after you won the race?"

"I didn't know that exactly. I knew lots of people called Mom, but I wasn't interested in who. I don't want any of the crap I faced at the race. I like doing things for fun."

Donna said, "There are lots and lots of girls at the club. Most of them are very fit too, and they're all different ages. I think you could have plenty of fun if you came sometime. You're very famous there. If you ran another 10k around one of the tracks while people tried to keep up, you'd be a big hit."

Running an informal 10k actually sounded like a good idea, as it'd destroy any doubts people around the club had about my winning the big race by pulling a substitution cheat. I thought it quite likely that many people would still have that doubt, and I worried that my being thought a cheat might rebound on Donna, especially from the people she'd bet with. Fixing my reputation at her club was a good idea. I had a condition though, "I could come to your club, but there'd have to be no crap. I don't want people begging me to join it because I never will. I don't want to be pushed into entering any races, or do anything organized. That takes all the fun out of it. I wouldn't mind coming down if it was just social, and having a fun run around a track for half an hour to prove my win was legitimate would be easy and a good idea."

Donna eagerly said, "I'll call them up and tell them you'll come if there's none of the crap you said."

I interrupted with, "Actually, I think I might ask Mom to call them. I want them to take it seriously, and they might not believe you enough."

"That's good. Mom's good at telling people off." Donna was particularly well aware of that, as it's her that gets told off the most.

I asked, "What time does the club meet?"

"They have different things on at different times over Saturday morning and afternoon. You just tell them what time you want to come, and they'll meet you."

"Let me put it this way, what time will the group of your girls be there, and will there be older girls there at the same time?"

"Haha, I forgot about that. About 10am would be a good time to go."

"That sounds good. Let's go inside and I'll ask Mom to call the boss of the club and tell him the rules. It won't be this Saturday because I'm busy already, but the next one should be fine. Mom and Dad are probably wondering where we are, so let's go in." We'd been sitting in the parked car talking for several minutes, but they could see us out of the kitchen window so they hadn't needed to send a search party out.

On the way in, Donna said, "We're not running tomorrow morning, are we? I heard you say you're going to Julia's in the middle of the night."

"Oh, that's right. Tomorrow was supposed to be a running day. I forgot. Can we skip tomorrow please, and I'll try to make it up to you another day?"

"{Raspberry}. You don't need to make it up. I want to thank YOU for letting me do the group thing. That'll be fun for me."

Inside I told Mom about Donna's talking me into going to her athletic club the Saturday after next. I emphasized, "For SOCIAL reasons." I asked Mom, "Would you please call the boss of the Club and tell him I'll only come if I'm not hassled to join the club, enter any races, or any sort of organized crap. I'm just going down because Donna talked me into coming down to meet some of her friends. It's a SOCIAL visit. I'll run another 10k around their track in the same time as I did in the race, if they want, but I'll do it for fun. It's not a race, people can run alongside of me and chat while they can keep up, and that sort of thing. Okay?"

Mom said, "Sure, I can do that. I have their numbers so I can call him now. I talked to him last Saturday and I know he'll be happy to have you come."

"Make sure he knows that I'll get in my car and leave if someone asks me to join."

"There'll be dozens of people there and some of them are bound to ask you that. I can tell him to do what he can to stop the club officers from pressuring you, but you've got to expect a few of the members to mention it. It's their club, so they obviously like being members. I think you can shrug off a few comments. It's not going to kill you to say 'Not interested' a few times."

"That's okay, I guess. But make sure he understands that I don't like it though. See if you can give Donna the credit for getting me to visit, for what that's worth. She might as well get some credit for that."