Chapter 11

"Hold it!" I said in Monday's class. "Some people stopped singing. You have to sing it if you want a decent grade. Let's pick it up at verse two. Ready ... one ... two ... three! I'm just a bill. Yes I'm only a bill and I got as far as Capitol Hill. Well, now I'm stuck in committee..."

Yes, it embarrassed the hell out of certain students and particularly boys but the Schoolhouse Rock cartoon did a good job summarizing the process. We'd get into more detail the rest of the week. When it turned to late October, I'd talk about the Electoral College. President Reagan was about to win the biggest landslide ever. Mondale would only win his home state's ten electoral votes.

I was sore leaving the dojo. Master Kenji made us work muscles I didn't even know I had.

"Chris?" I said on the drive back. "You ever think about asking Jenny out?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

He looked at me like I was crazy and perhaps I was but that wasn't a relevant issue at the moment.

"She likes you too," I said. "I'm sure she'd say yes if you asked her out."

"I don't know..."

"It's time, Chris. You defended yourself from bullies. Now it's time to ask a girl out. If you find out you don't like her you don't ask her out again."

Carrie had school projects to deal with so I didn't see her again until Wednesday. It was through her that I heard Chris asked Jenny out. They would go out on a date Friday night.

It took all my effort not to say or ask about it when I saw Chris at martial arts on Thursday.

It wasn't until Carrie came over Saturday afternoon did I find out how the date went. Carrie spent all morning on the phone talking to Jenny. Jenny enjoyed her date with Chris.

I pretended to be ignorant about the topic next Monday, the first of October, during the drive home from the dojo.

"So when are you going to ask Jenny out?"

"I already did."

"Great! So when are you going out?"

"We went out last Friday."

"Great!" I said again. "Did you have a good time?"

"Yes."

"Do you like her?"

"Yes."

"It sounds like you like her even more than you did before."

I glanced over. He had a sly smile.

"Did you kiss her?" I asked.

"Yes."

"She's very pretty," I said. "If I was your age, I would have asked her out. So when are you going out again?"

"Tomorrow."

Wow! I guess they did like each other.

"That's gr ... wonderful."

The next couple of months, I vicariously followed the relationship between Chris and Jenny via Carrie. Jenny would talk a lot more openly to Carrie than Chris would to me. It was a girl thing.

I could see Chris changing and blossoming. He was becoming a different person. My goal was coming true. I knew this Chris had a better future in store for him than I did when I was Chris.

It was during the Thanksgiving weekend that Carrie brought me the big news.

"They did it!" she said excitedly. "Jenny and Chris slept together."

"They did?" I said even more excitedly than Carrie. "That's terrific!"

I had to ask Chris about how his relationship with Jenny was going on Monday.

I dropped by his house to pick him up for martial arts. I no longer thought of it as my house. I made the mental switch. I may have grown up there but it wasn't where John Coleman grew up. I honestly still had no idea what John Coleman's history was.

"Hello, Lois," I greeted my mom.

"Hi, John. Come on in."

I took a seat on the couch and waited for Chris.

She said, "I just wanted to thank you for all you've done for Chris. He's a changed boy."

"I'm glad. I wish someone did it for me when I was young."

"He's not here by the way. He's out with his girlfriend."

"Oh. I guess he forgot to tell me."

"I asked him not to tell you. I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh, sure. What about?"

She sat on the couch uncomfortably close to me.

"You need to be thanked a lot more than you have," she said.

"Seeing Chris change is thanks enough," I said, feeling more uneasy every second.

"You deserve more," she said, sliding closer.

"It's okay." I could feel sweat on my back.

" ... and I'm a woman with womanly needs with a husband who is never home."

She kissed my neck.

I bolted upright and looked down at her. My mom was coming on to me! Yes, she didn't know I was her grown son only two years younger, but it still felt creepy. What was even stranger was to know that my mom was considering an affair. Had she had affairs before? With my dad spending so much time at work, I guess it wasn't unreasonable. She would be a lonely woman with sexual needs.

"Is something wrong?" she said, taking off her top.

I glanced at her bra. I didn't realize my mom was so big breasted. I tore my eyes away. My mom might be considered a beautiful woman for forty-two, but I wasn't sure because all I could see was that she was my mom. She could look like a supermodel and it wouldn't turn me on because she was my mom.

"I have to get to the dojo," I said. "I don't want to be late."

I hightailed it out of there.