Chapter 4

On Saturday afternoon, Rita Maude Fricke met with her friends Betty Lou and Ruth again. They met in Ruth’s office at the library, because Ruth was once again filling in for an absent employee. Both Betty Lou and Rita were favorably impressed by Ruth’s dedication to her library and her patrons.

Newly divorced Margie Wilcox was also at the meeting. Betty Lou had called her the previous evening, and asked her to join them at Rita’s request. As soon as they all had a cup of tea in their hands, Rita went straight to the heart of the matter. She provided background information for Margie’s benefit as she went.

“My husband Harold had a man to man talk with Tommy Thursday during lunch. We felt that it was time that someone had that talk with Tommy, because of how rapidly he is progressing. According to his tutor, Tommy is well on his way book learning-wise.”

Everyone nodded in understanding, so Rita took a breath and continued.

“Harold said Tommy understood the mechanics of sex, although he has no experience, except for masturbation.”

Rita and the other women couldn’t help but smile at Betty Lou’s gasp. Rita patted Betty Lou’s hand reassuringly, and looked at each woman, letting her point sink in. She had every one of the women’s complete attention, including the furiously blushing Betty Lou, so she resumed her narrative.

“So anyway, our boy knows the mechanics, now. What he doesn’t understand, but wants to know, is how relationships between men and women work. Thankfully, Harold did not try to explain that. I mean, I love my husband to death, but like all men, he doesn’t have a clue about relationships.”

Rita paused again while her friends all nodded emphatically in agreement.

“So Tommy is making amazing progress. The Good Lord has seen fit to make things right by Tommy, I think. According to Becky, Tommy will be academically ready for college in less than a year. I think we need to make sure he is socially ready also.

“So that’s where we are right now,” she said as she ticked off her points with her fingers. “One, our wonderful Tommy is a blank canvass. Two, he professed his love for each of us to my husband, so I know he will listen to us. Three, we all love him in return. Four, Tommy is mature enough now to learn about women. And five, who is better equipped to teach him how to treat a woman than the four of us?”

The other women quickly signed onto Rita Fricke’s innocent plan. They would take turns exposing Tommy to various social settings and teach him the proper way to respond in each situation. They would train him in how a woman should be treated when he took one out. Rita even had the first evening planned for that very night. She, Harold, Margie Wilcox and Tommy were going to the monthly first Saturday spaghetti dinner and dance down at the VFW hall. Tommy would be Margie’s escort. Rita and Harold would be there for moral support.

When Tommy told Ruth Silverman about Doctor Giles’s assessment of his ability to learn, he had told the absolute truth as it existed while he was in the hospital. The brain damage Tommy suffered was permanent and irrevocable. For a few months after his discharge, Giles’s prognosis held true, as Tommy often had memory lapses. That was one reason the Frickes wrote his duties out for him each morning.

Tommy’s brain however, did not sit idly by while all this was going on. Instead, it created new memory pathways and established easily accessible nexuses to store incoming data. His brain could not repair itself, but it could adapt to make up for what had been destroyed. Because it was playing catch up for areas of the brain that had taken over twenty years to develop, Tommy’s brain housing group went overboard when it created the new memory network.

Madeline (Maddie) Dixon, the pianist and choir director for the First Baptist Church of Brantley, was the first person to notice the manifestation of Tommy’s strange new talent. It happened the same day that Harold told Tommy the facts of life.

What Maddie noticed was that Tommy sang along with the choir during practice, even though he was not a member and didn’t even have a hymnal. Tommy attended Thursday choir practice, because Betty Lou and Regina were in the choir, so he and Bucky had to tag along.

Madeline was always on the lookout for new choir members, especially males, so she called a ten minute break and talked to Tommy.

“How do you know all the words to the songs we were singing,” she asked.

Tommy shrugged.

“I remember them from p-p-practice last week,” Tommy stammered.

Madeline nodded and pressed on.

“You don’t stutter when you sing, just like that singer Mel Tillis.”

“I know,” Tommy said brightly, “That’s why I like to sing.”

That was good news to Maddie Dixon.

“So sing with us, we could use a strong male voice.”

Tommy was pleased as punch.

“Sure, who do you want me to sound like, Conway Twitty or Johnny Cash?”

Maddie grinned at his response; he had picked out a couple of tough acts to follow. Maddie decided to humor him.

“My husband Leo is the choir’s basso, so why don’t you try to be a tenor like Conway.”

Tommy’s new memory processing apparatus not only allowed him to easily remember songs, it also internalized musical styles. As a result, Tommy became an amazingly accurate mimic. It was amazing, because using his real voice, Tommy could not sing a lick. His natural singing voice was horrible, it was raspy and nasal, and when he used it, folks cringed.

It was fortunate for Maddie Dixon that Conway Twitty had released a couple of gospel albums that Tommy could draw on as a reference. In fact, two of the songs the choir rehearsed were on the Twitty records. When Tommy did Conway’s version of Precious Memories, the rest of the choir fell silent in awe. Even Regina was impressed. Madeline moved Tommy to the front of the choir so he could sing the song solo, with the choir backing him. Of course, as soon as Tommy was by himself, he had stage fright so bad he couldn’t make a sound. Finally, Maddie put Tommy back in the choir right next to Betty Lou. With his eyes closed and Betty Lou holding his hand, Tommy made it sound as if Conway was actually a member of the choir of the First Baptist Church of Brantley.

It was exactly noon on Saturday, when Tommy locked up the feed and seed warehouse and trudged home. His step was slow, because his mind was working on a problem that came to his attention right before he left the store. It had started with a casual remark Rita made.

“I expect to dance the first slow song with you tonight,” she’d said.

That simple little statement threw Tommy into a near panic, because he could not dance a step. He desperately dredged his mind for even a hint about dancing and could not find the slightest clue. He was still furiously thinking about that when he pulled open the front door and almost ran over Regina.

Tommy backed up a step and started to stammer an apology when Regina smiled at him.

“My fault, Tommy,” she said sweetly.

Regina treated Tommy much better now for a few reasons. One reason was because Tommy no longer felt inclined to take any crap from her. Another was because Tommy no longer seemed such a moron to her. As a matter of fact, the guy she had called a drooling idiot was now helping her with her eleventh grade Algebra II homework. Finally, Tommy’s singing in the choir Thursday night had impressed the hell out of her. Tommy had slowly changed from her little brother’s retarded pal to a slightly goofy, handsome young man.

“Uh, thanks, Reggie,” Tommy said as he slipped past her.

Regina shot him a smile at the use of her nickname and headed out. He was a couple of steps into the room and Regina was just out the door, when he had an idea. Tommy spun around and jerked open the door.

“Regina,” he called to her retreating back.

Regina turned around and looked at him inquisitively. Tommy blushed crimson, but gathered up enough nerve to spit out what he needed to say.

“Ah, do you know anyone I can hire this afternoon to teach me to dance? I’ll pay them twenty dollars.”

Turns out Regina knew just the person he was looking for. She walked back into the house, called the friend she had been about to visit, and canceled the trip. Then she ran up to her room and gathered up her Philco Hi-Fi portable record player and a stack of forty-five rpm singles. Regina was about the best dancer at Brantley High, and twenty bucks would buy her a very nice outfit. She moved the dining room table into the corner, pushed the chairs out of the way. On the table, she set up her record player with six forty-fives on the spindle.

Tommy had his doubts about the lessons at first, because the music Regina listened to was rock and roll, while the VFW crowd was into traditional country. Tommy told her that, but she dismissed his concerns.

“Slow dancing is slow dancing, Tommy. Doesn’t matter if it’s Merle Haggard or the Beatles. Here, give me your hand and I’ll show you.”

As in most things, Tommy was a quick study when it came to learning to dance. He was well coordinated and surprisingly light on his feet. Regina taught Tommy how to dance the way she knew old people liked, her left hand in his right, her right hand on his shoulder and his left hand slightly around her waist.

Midway through the second stack, Tommy was moving smoothly enough that he actually took to leading her. It was about then that it stopped being a lesson and started being fun for Regina. When the next song started, Regina showed Tommy how to dance really close, putting her arms around his neck, placing both his arms around her waist, and snuggling up against him.

“You need to learn to dance like this too, Tommy. If a woman likes you enough, this is how she’ll want you to hold her,” she said softly, her head resting on his muscular upper chest.

Tommy felt the benefits of dancing like that immediately, as Regina’s nice medium sized breasts pressed into his chest, and her coconut scented hair was right under his nose. Unfortunately, he also experienced the pitfall of such intimate contact, as he sprang to its full hardness in about five beats of his heart. He gasped in embarrassment and tried to step back from his partner. Regina, however, was into the dance and stepped forward, reestablishing contact. That’s when she discovered what was going on. Tommy was mortified by his unwanted boner, but Regina took it in stride. It was a point of pride for her that she could make a boy pop one of those things any time she felt like it. And Tommy had the biggest she’d ever had rubbed against her. The only problem was that it tented out his jeans a good three or four inches down his left leg.

This time Regina stepped back at the same time Tommy did. She glanced down and confirmed it was the largest bulge she’d ever seem.

“I think you’re ready, Tommy, but you better wear a jock tonight,” Regina said straight-faced.

Tommy gulped and nodded, his face the same color as the McCulloch County Volunteer Fire Department’s new pumper, his hands fluttering uselessly down by his crotch. Regina smiled and patted his cheek.

“Relax about that, Tommy,” she said. “It happens to every guy I’ve ever danced with, and it will probably happen during your date tonight. Just don’t grind it against her, and let her decide how to handle the situation. Okay?”

Tommy bobbed his head up and down and dug a twenty out of his wallet. Regina declined the money with a wave of her hand.

“No charge, Tommy, but tomorrow after church, you have to sing a song for Melody Graham and me.”

Tommy grunted and sped down to the basement, his face redder than ever. Regina smiled at his antics as he hustled away. “When,” she asked herself, “did I start thinking of his shyness as cute?” She was still grinning as she collected up her records and her phonograph and headed upstairs. Melody was going to pee her pants when she heard Tommy sing tomorrow after church. Melody was Catholic, so she attended Mass at Sacred Hearts. Regina and Melody had been best friends since the first day of kindergarten. Because their last names, Grimes and Graham, were alphabetically close together, the girls ended up partners in everything.

Regina kicked her bedroom door shut and put her record player on her dresser in its usual spot. She plugged it in and stacked the feed mechanism with the same songs to which she and Tommy had danced. While the record player was dropping the first disc, she locked her door and flopped down on her bed. She could not believe the tingles she was getting “down there,” nor could she believe she was actually going to do something about it in broad daylight.

Tommy was as nervous as a gun shy dog at a turkey shoot by the time six o’clock rolled around. Betty Lou tried to calm him down, but he just couldn’t sit still, and he had about a thousand questions. To make matters worse, Bucky was spending a couple of days at his grandparents’ ranch, and Regina had already departed for her own date. At her wits end, she finally ordered Tommy to dust and vacuum the parlor in case someone came to visit.

The clock had just crawled past six-fifty when Harold knocked on the door and dragged a suddenly very shy Tommy out to Rita’s car. The Falcon was all shined up and the top was down. Rita was sitting in the passenger seat and Margie was seated directly behind her. Harold held the driver’s seat forward and Tommy climbed in the back. Tommy said hello to Rita and Margie and slid onto the slick vinyl upholstery. Once he was seated, Tommy took a good look at Margie. As soon as he did, he was thankful that he’d worn his jock strap and a pair of Jockeys, because she looked really, really pretty.