by Dawn Gardner
April 1971
As Joni worked the night shift at the newspaper, she mindlessly watched the papers whiz along the line. But tonight an article caught her eye, she grabbed the paper and took her break. In the break room, she opened the paper.
“The Little Ball, Moves the Big Ball.” Mao Invites American Ping Pong Team to Tour China.
Joni scanned the article. At the world Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, a 19-year-old named Glenn Cowan, player hopped aboard the Chinese shuttle bus to congratulate the Chinese players. The greatest player on the Chinese team came over and shook Cowan’s hand. The Chinese player through an interpreter had a conversation with the American. The Chinese player gifted Cowan with a silk-screen picture of China’s Huangshan mountains. The American followed the gesture with a t-shirt with the peace sign and the Beatles lyric “Let It Be.” The complete exchange was captured by photographers. The goodwill exchange became the talk of the tournament. Before the American team left Japan, Mao shocked the world by inviting all 16 members of the team to an all-expense paid, ten-day trip to China. The team was treated like dignitaries.
She quickly scanned all sixteen names and locations of the American players. There were even three female players. Her eyes landed on Jack Andrews, 19 of Lynchburg, VA. Lynchburg. She couldn’t believe someone who’d been to China was so close to her. When he got back, Joni was going to find Jack Andrews. The photo was so blurry she couldn’t see the faces of all the players. But, if they could get into China, she certainly could. And maybe if she had to, she would take up Ping Pong.
May 1971
It wasn’t hard to track down Jack Andrews. Joni found out that Jack was a mechanic at an auto shop about a mile from the newspaper plant. After her shift was finished, she changed into her cut-off denim shorts and her favorite cotton tank top. Even though it was the middle of May, the air was hot and thick like late summer. Right outside the doors of the building, she threw her head down, grabbed her long curly blonde hair, swirled it into a bun on the top of her head and stuck her tortoise shell hair pin at the base of the bun. She slipped her silver hoop earrings on as she walked. As Joni’s bare legs touched the car seat, she popped up and then eased back down suffering through the burn. She had no idea what she would say to Jack Andrews, but she had to meet with him. She had to hear about China and the river.
Joni stepped out of her car and walked to the open bay of the garage. As she walked, she grabbed the backside of her tank top and fanned the bottom of the shirt in and out. An older man in a dark grey greasy jumpsuit bent over a Ford truck engine glanced her way.
“What can we do you for?”
“Hi, I’m here to see Jack.” Joni said.
“Oh, you are.” The old man stood up, placed his hands on his hips and looked at Joni and then smiled. “He’s around back on his break. Go alongside the truck here and out that red door.”
Joni walked over the threshold of the garage and the smell of sweat, oil and cigarettes mingled in the air. Country music was blaring out of a radio that sat on top of a wooden shelf was dotted with tools and cinnamon roll cakes wrappers. Joni pulled open the door and stepped into the back of the garage. To her immediate left was a large dumpster that blocked her view. She heard a rhythmic sound. Stepping out into the open space, she saw him. His grey jumpsuit was on halfway, the arms of the suit were tied just below his waist. The tips of his light, brown hair were wet with sweat and clung to his neck. He was moving back and forth behind the table with his legs crouched. His bare back gleaned in the sun. The weathered ping pong table folded up for one player and he was moving the paddle with little effort. She watched his back and biceps move for a while before speaking.
“Hey Jack.” Joni said and put her hands into her back pockets.
He continued the rhythmic dance with the paddle and the ball.
“Jack.” Joni raised her voice to get above the sound.
He turned around, the sweat glided over his chest muscles. He pulled his t-shirt that was wedged in the front of his jeans, wiped his face and chest and walked toward Joni.
“Hi Beautiful.” He smiled and wiped his face again. “Did my Dad send you back here?”
“Yes. I mean, I guess so. That was your dad out front?” Joni stared at his sky blue eyes and felt a fluttering in her stomach.
“Yep. What’s going on with your car?”
“My car?” Joni smiled realizing that he thought she was here for a repair, “Oh, my car. Nothing’s wrong with my car, I was hoping to talk to you about China.”
“China, really?”
“Yes, I want to know everything you can tell me. And I am willing to feed you dinner for the information. You interested?”
“Very.” Jack opened the door and motioned for Joni to walk first back into the garage.
Joni felt his gaze, turned around to see him still holding the door and watching Joni’s body move into the garage.
Joni flushed, but turned away before he saw. “Great! I will pick you up here at seven?”
“Cool. Seven it is.”
Chapter 10
Joni had changed three times before she settled the light green sundress with the embroidered daisies. It was short to accent Joni’s long legs and the cinched waist gave her slim tomboy-body a defined waist. She tied the straps on the dress and adjusted the bows, so that sat evenly on her shoulders. Joni thought about Jack, replaying that deep voice saying Hi Beautiful. She had not expected Jack to be so good looking. It had been a very long time since she had felt interested in a man. Joni’s focus had been spent on working and saving money. Jack aroused something in her.
She arrived at the garage five minutes before seven. As Joni pulled into the garage, Jack leaned against the inside frame of the closed garage door. Joni surveyed his outfit, he looked completely different, almost like he could have been in a fashion catalog for the white jeans he wore. His brown striped shirt pulled tight against his chest. His hair was dry and his bangs swept over to one side almost covering his eye. She parked and got out, she wanted him to see her dress.
She walked over to Jack, and he let out a long whistle.
“You look even more beautiful than earlier.”
“You look like you should be in a magazine ad.” Joni smiled and pushed all of her hair off her neck and to one shoulder.
Jack placed his hand on the small of her back and walked her toward the car. He walked around the car and let his hand ride over the fender.
“How do you like the bug?”
“I love it. I got it new last year, cost me nearly two thousand dollars, but it came loaded with a heater and radio. It’s awesome in the snow.”
“I think you can tell a lot about people by their cars.”
“Oh really? What can you tell about me by my baby blue bug?”
“I thought you said you were going to feed me for information?”
“Hungry?” Joni said and hopped in the car. Her dress slid up and revealed more of her legs. She noticed Jack looking, but didn’t pull the dress down. When they arrived in front of the Chinese restaurant, Jack laughed and said, “I shoulda seen that one coming.”
They were seated quickly and ordered food. Joni looked over at Jack seated in the booth across from her. As he spoke, he had to continually tuck his long bangs back behind his ears. His voice was smooth and deep. Joni could see the passion he had for the garage and his work.
“Is that what you want to do? Or do want to play ping pong professionally instead?” Joni asked.
“Ping pong is cool. But working on cars is what I love to do. One day I’ll buy the garage from my Dad. What about you?”
“I work at the newspaper. It’s not great money, but over the years I’ve been there I have learned so much about production and the machines. I’m a shift manager now.”
“What do you really love Joni?” Jack said and finished his last bite of lo mein.
“Don’t laugh.” Joni made him promise with his eyes before she continued. “I want
to be an artist. I paint and sketch, but painting is my love. And I love the Chinese art of painting.”
“That’s so cool. How did you learn that?”
“I’m still learning. At first, I mostly taught myself through books. A year ago, I went to Lexington and took a workshop from a great teacher there. I’m painting the Four Gentlemen, or I guess I’d say, I’m practicing the Four Gentlemen,” Joni took a bite of her food and wondered if she were boring him, but she couldn’t help herself and continued, “The gentlemen are not people, it’s a series of plants: bamboo, orchid, plum blossom and chrysanthemum. In Chinese philosophy, these four gentlemen have meanings.”
“What are they?”
Joni smiled. He was really into this. Most people didn’t get her interest in China or painting. She rarely shared this much of herself with anyone. “Bamboo bends, but doesn’t break. The orchid is noble and pure, growing in the valleys, chrysanthemum is an old man that survives the elements, even after the frost and the plum blossom is like new life that comes from the old.”
“You must really love painting. Your face just lights up when you talk about it.”
“I do.” Joni said and felt warm all over.
“Why China, why me and what do you want to know? I’ll tell you as much I can.”
“Jack, the why of China goes back to when I was a little girl. But I need to get to China, to the Yangtze River to be exact, and I’d rather not tell the why right now. What I need from you, because now you have to work for that lo mein, how did China look? Did you see the River and how did you get into China.” Joni took a breath, but before Jack could answer she went finished with, “and don’t leave out any details about the scenery.”
“Damn, I think we might have to do more dinners together. It’s going to take a long time to tell you all of this. It was the coolest thing. We were treated like we were important people. I mean, it was so cool to be a part of the peace between the countries, but none of us really knew what was going on at the time. I gotta give it to Glenn, he did a rad thing by hopping on that Chinese bus.”
“Why do you think Glenn did that?”
“I don’t know. We were feeling pretty good about the tournament. And the Chinese played hard. Maybe it was just to say good job, I don’t know. But we all got ten days in China from it.” Jack smiled.
Jack went on for an hour describing his trip and Joni hung on his every word. The waitress left them alone for the last hour. After Joni had paid the check, the waitress came back to the table and gathered up all of their dishes, including their glasses and trash. As she made the last sweep for the trash, she gave them the it’s time to leave stare. The only things left were their two fortune cookies. Joni grabbed the cookies and motioned to Jack to get up.
The sky was the deep purple-blue that happens about an hour after sunset. Joni wasn’t ready for the night to end. She loved hearing Jack talk, and the fact that he was talking about China was even better.
“Hey, do you want to take a drive up to the parkway?” Joni asked.
Jack and Joni arrived at the Peaks of Otter Lodge and parked. The moon was low on the horizon. The water on Abbott Lake was still. Joni had been first introduced to the lodge when a date took her to dinner at the Lake View restaurant. Joni couldn’t even remember that guy’s name, but she fell in love with the spot and the trail around the small lake. The lake was now the place that Joni came when she needed to think.
“Follow me.” Joni said and she jogged to the trailhead. Jack followed. As they walked, Jack took the lead. He held a branch back for Joni, and their bodies brushed against each other. Joni felt the heat from him radiating outward toward her. When they reached the middle of the trail, there was a wooden platform that extended over the lake. They walked out and Joni placed her hands on the railing, and Jack placed his hand on top of hers. Joni looked out over the water. The wavy reflection of the light from the lodge on the water looked like dabs of yellow paint floating on a pool of black ink. Jack rubbed her hand.
“I’m glad you asked me out.” Jack said. Joni smiled and turned back to the trail. They walked the rest of the trail, ending at the opposite side of the lodge.
“If we sit still enough the deer will walk right by you.” Joni pointed to a wooden bench facing the water and right under a willow tree.
Jack and Joni sat and listened to the tree frog symphony. They both spoke at the same time. Joni motioned for Jack to take his turn first.
“I have been talking all night about China. I just gotta know why you want to go so bad.”
Joni looked away and across the water. She hadn’t told a soul about her quest to get to the Yangtze, much less the reason why she wanted to go. She had mentioned to her father once that she wanted to take a trip to China. Her father was so aggravated that she would even consider going to such a place. He went on and on about communism and the war in Vietnam, he made Joni feel like a traitor for even considering it. Maybe Jack would be different. Maybe it was the fact that he had already seen its beauty, or maybe it was the courage to trust him.
“My Mama died when I was five. She had cancer, but she died in a car accident on her way home from a doctor’s appointment. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.” Joni closed her eyes, trying to remember her mother’s face. “Every night she read a book to me about the river. I can’t tell you how much I miss her, because there are no words for it. I wish everyday that she were still here. So when I was nineteen, I went to see a psychic. She gave me a message from my mother, to get to the river and she’d be there.” Joni looked over at Jack.
He sighed, “Man, that’s heavy. I’m so sorry.”
“I know it must seem crazy to want to go to another country just because a psychic told you. Sometimes I think it’s crazy. But what if I never go, what if I never knew if it were true? I have to know, and I have to get there.” Joni wiped a tear from her eye.
“I get it. My mom died last year. I miss her. I know my dad misses her more than me.”
“Jack, what happened to her?”
“There was something wrong with her heart. It didn’t form right. She didn’t know about it, until she had the heart attack and it killed her.” Jack looked away from Joni. “She made the best cinnamon rolls. She’d make food and it looked like art. Sometimes, my dad would joke that it was too pretty to eat. But man, was it good. I miss her.”
They sat in silence. Jack reached down and found Joni’s hand.
Jack slid up to the front edge of the bench, leaned in toward Joni and kissed her. She kissed him back, hard and deep. With the next kiss, she pushed him back against the bench and straddled his body. Jack’s hands squeezed her waist. Joni pulled back and looked at his eyes. Without moving his gaze from Joni, he undid the strap of her dress and her bare breast was free. He caressed it with his hand, and then filled his mouth with her breast. She sighed. Joni loosened his belt and unbuttoned his jeans, she placed her fingers around his shaft and led him inside her. Their movements became rhythmic and their bodies took over.
Joni separated from Jack and walked to the water. She had not intended for that to happen and she had never been that aggressive before. She had relations with her boyfriend she had when she was eighteen, but he was only a summer thing and she had found sex unfulfilling, at least on her end. Jack had awoken something inside her. She couldn’t name it, she only knew it felt beautiful.
Jack walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, “Are you the love’em and leave’em type? I hope to hell you’re not.”
“Jack, I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened to me. I never did that before. I mean, I have done that before. But I have never wanted something so much that I lost control.”
“Don’t be sorry Joni.” Jack slid her hair to one side, exposing her neck, and kissed her from the nape of the neck down to her shoulder. Joni felt her body melt into his. She needed a distraction or her body was going to take over again. Then she remembered the fortune cookies, they hadn’t opened them. S
he playfully slipped away from Jack, grabbed her purse at the bench and ran toward the back of the lodge. She stood right under the light and waited for Jack to catch up. When he got to her, Joni fished out the cookies from her purse.
“Here, we have to know our fortunes.” Joni handed Jack a cookie. They both opened them. Joni laughed at hers.
“What? Read it?” Jack said.
“No, you first.”
Jack cleared his throat, “Like the river flows into the sea. Some things are just meant to be. It’s deep right?”
Joni smiled again, looked down and began to giggle. She gained her composure and read her fortune, “Tonight you will be blinded by passion.”
Chapter 11
It was Saturday. Dressed in workout clothes, Ellen met the home health care aide at the door. Ellen decided to walk or walk run on the days that she had help. The last walk with her mother had made it quite clear how out of shape she was. The exercise was doing her mind good, and she couldn’t even remember the last time she had a regular exercise routine. As she reached the pond, the road flattened out and Ellen took off into a full run. By the end of the stretch, she was winded, but felt alive. Today, she would find Jack in those boxes in her mother’s room.
After her shower, she peered into the sunroom to check on the aide and her mother.
“Go fish,” Joni said to the aide. Ellen laughed, remembering the hours of card games as a child.
Ellen pulled the set of keys out of her pocket. After the front door fiasco, Ellen had a locksmith come out and replace the lever lock with a keyed lock on both sides. She now had the four keys on the ball chain, a copy of the sunroom door key and the front door key on her at all times. Ellen lifted the top wooden box by the gold handles on either side. She placed the box on top of the bed. The wood was a mixture of light and dark wood. Ellen marveled at the smoothness of the finish on the wood. She tried the smallest key of three matching keys into the gold lock and with a little wiggling the key caught and Ellen lifted the hinged lid open.
