by L. D. King
“Maybe we should go back inside. The others might think we broke up with them so we could see each other.”
“You’re right. We should go back inside before they start talking about us.”
Mary was next to the front door as they came in. Raymond’s eyes were filled with tears. Valerie was crying as well, and her lower lip was quivering. Mary stopped them as they came through the door and placed her arms around their shoulders, drawing them close to her. She whispered to them, “You guys are going to be all right. Kathy and Chris probably just forgot about the party. Things will look better tomorrow. You can talk to them then.”
“Mary, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. I was at Kathy’s before I came here. No one was home, and everything was trashed in the house. It looked like someone had gone through their house with a baseball bat. I called the cops, but they told me it was gonna be hours before they could get there, because they were being overwhelmed by the number of calls they were getting. I think something really bad’s happened.”
“Oh, god… that’s horrible. I hadn’t heard that anything like that was going on. Valerie, what about Chris? Have you heard from him?”
“I called to tell him I was ready, ‘cause it was getting late, but there was never any answer. Tomorrow I have to go with my parents to work in their booth. Half their employees didn’t show up today. I guess I get to spend the last couple weeks of my summer working at the beach again.”
“Oh, that doesn’t sound like much fun,” said Mary.
“I even talked to Chris about coming to the beach with us. My folks were okay with it. He said working with all of the tourists didn’t sound like much fun, but he was good with it so that we could be together. Now I don’t even know if he’s around, and after hearing Raymond’s story, I’m starting to get scared.”
“It’ll all work out for the best. This is East Norwich. What happens in this town anyway?”
With everything that has happened today, I’m just going to go home,” Raymond said. “My dad wasn’t home when I left. I called my mom. Dad is not home yet. She’s worried. I should be with her. My dad isn’t home, and we can’t find our friends. Something just isn’t right.”
“Okay, Ray. Thanks for coming. I hope your dad’s all right. Tell your parents hi for me.”
“I’m going to ask Raymond to walk me back to my house,” said Valerie. “It’s on his way home. I’ll feel safer if I have someone to walk with me.”
“I hope everything’s okay, Val. Let me know, all right?” Mary said. “Ray, will you call me when you get to her house, just to let me know that everything’s all right? And then call me again when you get home, please?”
“Sure I will,” said Raymond. “Valerie, if you’re ready, let’s get going. I really want to be home with my mom.”
As Raymond walked Valerie down the steps, Mary knew that her party was starting to wind down. The snacks had been devoured. The candles on the cake had been blown out and the cake half eaten. Mary had opened her gifts. The girls who were still there were helping clean up the house.
Mary’s birthday gifts weren’t extravagant. As with previous birthdays, her parents had bought her new school clothes for her senior year. They were practical like that. But they always splurged for a couple of gifts for Mary as well. This birthday was no exception. They gave her a gold necklace with a charm that matched her earrings.
Mary wanted to take the time to visit with each of her friends before the party was over. The first person that Mary caught up with was Rosie. They were on the high school’s flag cheerleading squad together, which kept them in good physical shape.
Mary was always flamboyant with her movements. Mary flipped her long auburn hair away from her face to show off her new necklace to Rosie. She held out her right arm, hand bent at her wrist, to display the new bracelet she had received from Jerry. Smiling at Rosie, she said in her best Victorian accent, “Dahling, have you ever seen such a beautiful set of earrings, or a more extravagant necklace? They were lah-vish gifts from my parents. This bracelet was from my adoring beloved. My dear, I believe that they simply are the loveliest gifts that anyone would ever see. Don’t you agree, Rosie?”
With a flair, Rosie took Mary’s hand, bending at her waist to examine her bracelet. Still holding her hand, she looked closely at her necklace as well. When Rosie was done, while still holding Mary’s hand she bowed before Mary, smiling.
“Oh, my goodness, my dear Mary,” she said in the same posh Victorian accent. “They are so startlingly, incredibly awesome. You know that your beloved must have paid a rawther large sum for this? And you know, of course, that he will later be seeking an equally large compensation for his gift.”
Mary took her hand back. With a frown on her face, she spoke to Rosie in her normal tone of voice. “I know. I hate it when a boy does something for you, then expects you to feel obligated to repay him for it. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Jerry, but I’m not ready to take that next big step with him. Not just yet. You know what I mean, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I know. Stan has been pushing me to go there too. I want to, but I don’t want to just yet. With Stan, you have to take him one day at a time. Your parents always throw you the best birthday parties. I’m having a blast. Thank you for letting me invite him.”
“Oh, you’re welcome. It wouldn’t have been a party without you!” Mary said.
“I’m gonna have to go soon. Have you seen the guys lately?”
While the girls were cleaning and visiting, their boyfriends had needed something to keep them occupied, so Matt had taken advantage of the opportunity to herd them into his radio room.
Mary stood like a model with one hand on her hip and the other bracelet-adorned arm pointing to her father’s radio room. Putting on the Victorian accent once again, she told Rosie, “Dahling, look there. Father has trapped them in his radio room.” She was giggling as she continued putting on the accent. “He has a bunch of old radio equipment in there. He calls it a ‘ham radio.’ He told me that spies and spotters used to use them back in World War II. He can talk to anyone around the world that has one of those. Mom says that when she married him, she married his radio too. When I was little, he would be on his radio all weekend. He’d stay up all night long, talking to people all over the world. It bores me stupid. I guess it’s a guy thing. He’s so into his radio he even has a generator out back in case the power goes out. You can see the radio antenna from blocks away. I tell everyone, ‘Just look for the house with antenna. That’s where I live.” She smiled good-naturedly. “Right now he has a captive audience. He’s showing off for the guys. They look more interested in his radio than they are in us. This happens every time we have a party in our house. Dad ends up in his radio room with most of the men. Mom’s left to entertain her friends alone. I guess it works for them. It won’t work for me. When we throw a party, my man had better be with me.”
Mary took Rosie by her shoulder and walked her to the open door of her dad’s radio room. As they walked, she told Rosie, “See, there they are. They haven’t run away. Dad has them corralled in there. He even has some of them talking to people on his radio. Guys get bored so quickly. They have to be doing something all the time.”
Rosie sighed as she shrugged her shoulders. She put her hands on her hips. She sighed as she spoke. “Look at them. They are almost drooling. Our dog at home looks like that when it’s time to feed him. When Stan looks at me like that, I know what he wants. When he knows that I’m not giving in, he pouts. Every time we go somewhere if I don’t keep him on a short leash close to me something will get his attention. Then he just walks away to look at whatever it is that he is looking at. It could be a rock or a car or something else. Stan has such a short attention span. Are they all like him? Look, Stan is talking on the radio. Do you ever get to talk on your Dad’s radio?”
Mary wrinkled up her nose at Rosie. “Eww! No, not any more. He used to make me sit next to him for hours while he was on that thing
. Every weekend it was the same thing. He worked so hard to get me to talk to people I didn’t know, and I hated it. He’d have me talk to this guy in England or that guy in Chile. Mom kind of gave up on trying to get him to spend more time with us. I guess it’s a guy thing.” She smiled.
“Finally, to get out of having to spend every weekend on the radio, I told mom that I had homework. She told him he had to let me do homework instead. It worked. I haven’t been on his radio since.”
“That was smart!” Rosie said. “Hey, did Cori and Teddy go home? I haven’t seen them in a while.”
Mary smiled. She pointed at the far side of the radio table. She whispered so as not to interrupt the guys. “There they are. Can you see Jennifer? Cori’s sitting on the floor next to Ted. Come on, you can help me rescue them.”
They walked into the dreaded radio room. Mary stood behind her father, placing her hands on her Dad’s shoulders. Leaning over, she spoke to him quietly: “Dad, it’s getting late. The girls want to go, and they’d like their boyfriends to walk them home. Will you be all right without them?”
Her father took hold of her hand and turned his chair to face her, tugging her into his lap. He looked into his daughter’s eyes, announcing to the boys, “Okay, guys. My little princess has spoken. I guess it’s getting late and the ladies would like you to walk them home. Thanks for indulging me as much as you did. I kept you a little longer than I should have. Thanks for coming to Mary’s party. You all made her happy. Be safe on your way home.”
The girls had all followed Mary and Rosie into the room. Each girl took her respective boyfriend’s hand and led them out of the room. As the boys left, they shook Matt’s hand, thanking him for showing them his radio.
Jennifer said, “Thanks for inviting us, Mary, and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, thank you for having us. We had a great time.”
Rosie agreed. “I had so much fun tonight, Mary. I didn’t have to babysit Stan all night! Your dad was our babysitter!” They all laughed at that. “Stan has to get home to his parents, and I need to get home too. My folks always have a big family for dinner the night before they leave for the beach. They need to fleece the tourists for as much as they can before summer is over. When school starts, the gravy train is over until next year.” More laughter.
Then it was Cori’s turn: “Mary, your party was the best. Your Mom and Dad always give you the best birthday parties. Thank you for inviting me and letting me bring Teddy, and Mr. Johnson, thank you for giving him something to do besides standing around, bugging me to leave every five minutes.”
Mary led everyone to the front door. There was an enormous smile on her face, and her eyes were sparkling. She had both of her arms wrapped around Jerry’s left arm, holding him tight. As she saw everyone out, she told everyone. “Thank you all for coming. You all made my birthday so beautiful. Please be safe and call me when you get home. We start our senior year in just a few weeks.” They all hooted and cheered.
As each girl walked out, Mary gave them a big hug. Jerry was the last to leave. He gave Mary a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. As Jerry walked out, she closed the door. Her party was officially over.
Early the next morning, before Mary got up, her parents left to go to work. There were rows and rows of booths lined up near the beach, most of them owned by people living in East Norwich. More than half of the owners and their children worked their booths for the last few weeks before school began.
Mary wouldn’t see her parents again until after school started. As in prior years, this was the final push for everyone who owned a booth to make as much as they could before the season ended. This year was no different than other years, but no one knew that this was the year that everything would change. This was the beginning of the end. No one imagined what was coming.
There was nothing special about Saturday; it was the same old boring summer doldrums. When Mary got up, she went over to Jerry’s house. They were a perfect couple. He was a member of the ROTC and the first string quarterback on the football team, and Mary’s cheerleading squad was there cheering for every game.
Both of them had been born and had grown up in East Norwich. It was a small town. They’d been in classes together ever since the first grade. They had started to notice each other as far back as the fifth grade and had started dating when they were freshmen.
Today, they’d been making out on the couch since midmorning. Jerry had successfully unbuttoned the top two buttons of Mary’s blouse as they were kissing. He was trying to not be too obvious as he worked to get the other two undone. Jerry hoped that once he had accomplished that, he could get her blouse off. Mary had different thoughts about that. She was not going to allow Jerry to get any further. She remembered what had happened earlier this summer when she let him get her blouse off.
That time, she hadn’t stopped him from going further. What they had already done felt so good that she didn’t want to stop him. They’d had sex for the first time. Both of them had been virgins. Jerry didn’t force her; she didn’t stop him. They were both at fault for what had happened. It did feel good.
Mary knew that neither of them were really ready for this new phase of their relationship; at least not for now. Mary was determined that she wasn’t going to let it happen again, at least not until they were a little more mature and ready for the consequences that would come with it. Now wasn’t the right time for that, no matter how good it felt. Coming up for air, she gently pushed him back. She wanted — no, she needed a break. She stood and took Jerry’s hand, leading him into the kitchen. She knew that having something to eat would give them something to do besides going down that same road. While he watched Mary make them some sandwiches, Jerry said, “I’m bored. Our parents go to the beach every year, leaving us here alone for two or three weeks. If we say anything to them about it, they tell us to come with them. If we go, we get put to work. Not a great way to end our summer vacation. So we stay in town with nothing to do. This year we’re gonna be seniors! We’ve done nothing all summer except hanging out in this little town, bored out of our minds!” He shook his head in disgust.
“We should do something. Something big, before school starts. I’ve never really had a summer vacation with my parents. I want to get out of this town. I want to go somewhere. Before my brother started his senior year, he went to Harlem in Upper Manhattan. He told me that he had a great time. I read that it’s changed from a low-rent slum to a high-rent place. It’s one of the greatest places to go in the city.
“You know, Harlem used to be a rough place to be. Before the changes, people got robbed or killed for the clothes on their backs or the shoes they were wearing, but that was a long time ago. When my brother went a few years ago, the city had been working in Harlem to clean it up, and arrest the criminals. It took a while, but they finally drove the crime out of Harlem. Now it’s the place to be to have fun. The slums have been cleaned up, the city’s forced the sleazy hotel owners to clean up their property. They spent the money they needed to remake Harlem into a destination to be rather than a place to avoid.”
Mary was spreading jelly on their sandwiches. Holding the butter knife in her hand, she stopped and turned to face Jerry. She pulled him close to her, hugging him. She laid her head on his shoulder, letting out a sigh and whispered into his ear.
“I know Jerry, I’m bored too. I hate the tourists, but we both know that’s how our parents earn extra money for the rest of the year. They take vacations from their jobs so they can work the booths. Every year it’s the same thing. That’s not what vacations are for. I’d do anything not to be around the tourists. They’re rude, pushy, and demanding. They’re just plain difficult to be around. When they get here, they take over the town. I’m so tired of them. But if they’re all here, maybe New York City is empty.”
Jerry smiled as he hugged his girl with a smile on his face. He looked deeply into her face.
“What if we take our own vacation? All we have to do is be back before they come home. They won’t even
know that we have been gone. Mom gave me her credit card in case I need something. What do you think? Do you want to get out of this burg? Go on our own little vacation, just the two of us. While all of the city people are here, we could go to the Big Apple! What do you think?”
Mary took both of his hands in hers. As she looked into his blue eyes, with her crooked smile, she told him, “Jerry, that’s an excellent idea. I think it’d be fun to have our own little vacation. It’d be an extended birthday present for me. My parents call me every night, but they always call my cell; I can be anywhere when I answer. They’ll never know where I am. They’ll think I’m at home, but we’ll be having the most fun ever.”
She hesitated for a moment. Mary put her hands on his chest and looked as if she was pouting. Jerry had spoiled her so much. He’d do anything for her if she pouted.
“If we go, I want my friends to come with us. If they can’t come, I don’t want to go. I want to ask Jennifer, Cori, and Rosie. And of course, if they come, their boyfriends will want to come with them. It’ll be a lot more fun with a group.”
She went on, “We all have our government IDs; we’re all over 16. We have our travel visas. We can go anywhere we want all by ourselves. Before, our parents had to hold our hands. Come on, Jerry, what do you think? Can we all go?”
Mary knew that it would be much safer if their friends came. There was safety in numbers. She couldn’t trust herself to be alone with Jerry in another city. She had let her guard down once; she wasn’t going to do that again until the time was right. If it was just the two of them, all he would want to do was stay in the hotel room, in bed the whole time, and she wasn’t ready for that. Not quite yet.
Jerry thought that once they all got to the city, he would try to get some alone time for the two of them. He thought it could work. He hoped it would. Still smiling, he looked into her eyes.
