Chapter 6

The break for the Christmas holiday was a welcome respite from class stress and love life drama. I'd asked Gerri if she would like to come to Chattanooga to meet my folks, but she'd looked at me like I was crazy.

"Christmas and New Years are the busiest times of the year for my dad," she explained. "He hosts parties almost every night, and I run a lot of them for him."

"Wow ... that'll sure keep you hopping. How about if I come over for New Years Eve?" She seemed to be considering the idea carefully.

"I'm going to be working at my dad's party."

"Maybe you could sneak me in to watch the ball drop with you?"

Her eyebrows rose as she assessed the merit of the idea.

"That ... would probably be ... useful. Sure, we could do that."

"'Useful, ' huh? You are such a romantic."

She smiled. "Sorry, poor choice of words. Yes, I can see you New Years' Eve."

"Then it's a date! Do you have a place where I can crash for the night? I don't want to be driving back to Chattanooga with all the drunks that'll be on the road."

She smiled indulgently. "I think we'll be able to find a spare bedroom for you."

I spent some time over the break catching up with friends from high school. It was kind of sad how the old gang broke further and further apart every time I was home. Girlfriends in other cities, colleges too far away to come home, full time jobs, even a marriage or two; so I had more uncommitted time than I'd expected.

One guy I was able to connect with was Jeff Perry. We'd been in the same schools through middle school, but his family had moved across town just before high school.

We'd stayed in touch through a shared interest in golf. With his family's connections he could get us onto many of the private courses in the area, and I called to see if he wanted a game. He said as long as I didn't mind his girlfriend coming along, he'd be happy to set it up, and we were out playing that same afternoon.

The temperature was in the mid forties, brisk enough to keep the less hardy away — we had the place pretty much to ourselves. I brought a six-pack in my bag, which didn't last long as we caught up on college life.

He'd met his girlfriend, Mary Parker, at Vanderbilt, where he attended on his parent's dime. She was blond and pretty, and quickly proved to be a better golfer than either Jeff or me. She explained that she'd started very young and had been on her high school's golf team. Jeff said she was the perfect girlfriend ... she gave good golf tips and was great in bed too, which earned him a smack to the back of his head from said girlfriend.

Although she'd met Jeff at college, she was actually from Chattanooga, having attended a private all-girls high school in town. When she mentioned it I realized it had to have been the same high school that Kendall attended.

As we were working on our second beers I asked Mary if she'd known Kendall in high school.

"Oh yeah, I remember her. Gorgeous, right?" I nodded. "I knew her a little," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "She had kind of a tough time of it."

"Oh?"

"That school was incredibly cliquish," she explained. "Most of the kids there had been going to the same private schools together since kindergarten. Kendall and a few others new to high society (she rolled her eyes) took a while to get accepted there.

"She had it tougher when word got around that her parents couldn't afford to send her there — that her dad was 'just' a cop and she'd gotten in on a merit scholarship."

She shook her head at the unpleasant memory.

"So the snobs looked down on her as poor white trash. The geeks and smart kids were intimidated by her scholarship, brains and looks. And the cheerleaders saw her as a threat; they made sure none of their boyfriends gave her the time of day.

"She did make a few friends, but she just didn't seem to get close to them. I knew one girl she hung around with, but they had a falling out between our junior and senior years. I guess her family took long vacations every summer, and she said Kendall just flat refused to tell her where they went. It kind of put her off I guess.

"I always made a point to stop and say hi when I ran into her. But she seemed to get more and more closed off every year.

"Like I said, she had it tough there."

Mary's observations of Kendall fit my impressions of her at UT perfectly, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. The next day I decided I should give her a call, thinking she might appreciate a little social contact, even if it was just a chat over the phone.

There weren't many Paytons in the phone book, and there was only one that didn't list an address, just a phone number. That sounded like what a cop would have in a public phone book, so I gave the "A. Payton" listing a try.

"Hello?" It was a woman that answered, and though it sounded very much like Kendall...

"Hi, I'm sorry to bother you ... is this Kendall Payton's house?"

After a pause, "Paul?" she replied in a puzzled tone of voice. "Did you get home okay?"

"Uh, no, this is Randy Burton; I'm a friend of Kendall's from UT. Is she home?"

There was a significantly longer pause.

"Hello?" I finally had to say.

"Why yes, Kendall's here! I'll go get her for you; it'll be just a second, okay?"

"Uh, thanks," I replied, taken aback by her sudden enthusiasm.

The phone was put down with a clunk, and then I heard her calling out loudly, "KENDALL! The phone is for you!"

"What?" I could hear faintly.

"There's a phone call for you! He said his name is Randy, from UT."

I heard what sounded like someone thundering down a hallway, a scramble for the phone, and then a breathless "Randy?"

"Well hi there," I said with a chuckle. "Did I catch you at a bad time?"

"What? Oh, no, now's fine."

I waited for her to say the usual conversation starters, how are you, what have you been up to, what's up, etc. But there was nothing but rapid breathing into the phone.

"So how's your break going?"

"Okay I guess," she replied, sounding distracted by the question. "I'm about half way through the Western Civ book. I haven't started the other classes yet."

"What? Good God, woman, you're supposed to be on vacation!" I couldn't see it, but I'd have bet the house she was blushing.

"I know, I know. I just go for every edge I can."

"You sure do! Now you'll know the names of all the kings of England before I do. That's cheating."

"Is not!" she replied. I was glad she took my teasing the right way. "So what are you up to?" she asked, and I smiled at her recovery from the surprise of my call.

"Mostly just hanging out, catching up with friends from high school." I thought I caught a quick hitch in her breathing, so I moved on quickly.

"And I've been helping my parents around the house, getting them caught up on grading their students' tests and homework, stuff like that. It's amazing how much they have to do on their own time to keep up. There are mountains of it piled up on the dining room table."

"Do you want some help?" she asked.

I blinked in surprise. "Uh, well sure, it you want. It isn't exactly glamorous work."

"True, but it'll give me a break from Civ reading." Then she gave a throaty laugh. "And from my romance novels too, of course. But then, you already know about those ... don't you, Randy?"

Now it was me that was off balance. In the space of a few words her voice had changed from a self conscious teen to a worldly seductive siren. It was startling.

"Uh, yeah. So, uh ... when do you want to come over?"

"Pretty much anytime will work ... how about now?" Before I could answer I heard her mom's voice in the background.

"Remember, I'm meeting some friends this afternoon. So you won't have the car."

"Oh, that's right," Kendall replied, sounding disappointed. "I guess today won't work. Maybe tomorrow?"

"If you want to come over today I can come get you. I have my mom's car."

"Really?" she said excitedly. "Well sure, that'd be okay," she said with obviously feigned nonchalance.

She gave me her address, and I said I'd see her in half an hour or so.

The Paytons' home was a modest three bedroom rambler in a working class neighborhood similar to my family's. There weren't any opulent palaces around, but from the well maintained lawns and the spic and span houses, it was clear everyone took pride in caring for their homes.

There was a large motor home parked beside the house, sheltered by a carport type roof attached to the house. I parked at the curb and walked to the front door on a path of red bricks that was lined with colorful flowers on each side.

Kendall answered the door with a grin on her face; I couldn't help smiling in return, especially when I got a tentative hug in greeting. She was dressed in jeans and a bright orange UT sweatshirt, with black leather clogs on her feet.

"I'm so glad you called," she said sincerely as she led me into their living room. "I was beginning to go stir crazy."

"You're welcome. This is a good thing for me, too. I can't wait to see my parents' faces tonight when they come home and see how much of their homework we've done for them."

Her forehead wrinkled. "I didn't think to ask on the phone ... aren't they on vacation too?"

I shook my head regretfully. "They're off from school, but they always take jobs at one of the department stores downtown during the holidays. Teachers don't get paid for shit in the city's school system." I grimaced. "Sorry about my language there."

She nodded sympathetically. "No problem. That's too bad. My dad puts in a lot of extra time too. He gets paid okay I guess, and another good thing is he can trade some of that extra time for vacation days. That way we can take longer vacations in the summer."

I recalled Mary's comment about her family "disappearing" during the summer months...

"You just missed my mom. She was asking so many questions about you I didn't get a chance to brush my teeth. Can you give me a second?"

"Sure."

After she'd disappeared around a corner I looked around a living room that was a picture of middle class contentment — a lot like my parents house I guess, sofa and a love seat, a reclining chair for dad, all mostly pointed at a large color television.

There was a fireplace in the side wall with a crowded row of pictures on the mantle over it. I wandered over to take a look.

There were several formally posed family shots, which showed Kendall with her parents and a guy around my size. He looked enough like Kendall that there could be no doubt he was her brother. There was a picture of a young man in a policeman's uniform, I assumed from when her dad first joined the force.