Time Trials

by Lee, Terry

“It’s her signature deal, I’m sure it’ll be there.” Allison checked on the driver, who had become unusually quiet. “You okay over there?”

  “Hmm? Oh yeah, I’m fine.” Regina ran a hand through her shoulder-length perfectly colored hair. “I was just thinking about an assignment I got yesterday.”

  Glad the topic centered around something other than the reigning head drum majorette, Allison prompted Regina to explain.

  “There’s a set of dog tags that have been recovered from a guy who died in Vietnam twenty-two years ago. His mother lives in Houston.” Regina paused. “I’m supposed to cover the story.”

  “Do you know the name?” Not that Allison thought she’d know, but she liked Regina talking about someone other than herself.

  “Michael Middleton.”

  “So…when is this going down?” Allison actually thought this to be a pretty cool assignment.

  “Sometime next week.” Regina dabbed at the corner of her mouth with her little finger, obviously not wanting to disturb the newly applied lip gloss. “I’ll just interview the woman after she’s presented the tags.”

  “Wow.” Allison sensed something in Regina’s tone, something few people other than herself would pick up. There had been no flare, no ta-dah about the assignment, although it seemed like a really big deal. What was it? Dread? She cut her eyes toward Regina and saw a profile devoid of any flamboyance. “What else?”

  “What do you mean?” Regina’s eyes never left the road in front of her.

  “There’s something else.” Allison felt safe enough to push Regina on the subject. Suzanne, who still balanced near the front console, appeared a bit confused, as if trying to figure out what she had missed.

  Regina gripped the steering wheel with such force her knuckles turned white. Her head swayed slightly toward Allison when she whispered, “I know the woman. She’s my apartment manager.” Regina’s voice died off so low her words were barely audible. Her gaze returned to the road.

  “What’s…wrong with that?” Suzanne looked back and forth between the two women in the front seat. “Isn’t that good? I mean, this could get you’re a lot of exposure. People love stuff like that.”

  Silence filled the car like a pushed mute button. After several long moments, Regina broke the quiet. “She hates me.”

  “Your apartment manager? But why?” Suzanne had apparently forgotten the long list of people who didn’t see Regina in a favorable light.

  Oh, the picture began to unfold in Allison’s mind. Someone with spunk who saw right through Regina’s façade. Someone who took pleasure in bringing self-serving, narcissistic people down to size. “You’ve had some run-ins, I take it?”

  “A few.” The grip on the steering wheel tightened, if that was possible. “My one big story.” Prying a hand loose, she shoved her hand in the air as if presenting the situation on a platter. “And then this! She’s such a bitch.”

  They rode in silence for a good fifteen minutes before Allison spoke. “When did you say this is going down?”

  “Next week sometime. It’s a human interest piece, so maybe after the major headlines one day.”

  “Maybe Suzanne and I’ll be there,” Allison said. “You know, to support you.”

  One of Regina’s manicured hands clamped across her forehead. Allison clearly saw tears fighting to stay in place. Regina’s voice cracked just the tiniest bit when she replied, “You’d do that? For me?”

  “Damn straight.” Suzanne almost lifted herself off the seat.

  “Down girl.” Allison smiled at Suzanne’s pizazz. “Maybe you’d better get buckled back in.”

  Their conversation remained light after that brief solemn moment and carried the threesome all the way down to the Laguna Madre Bridge, which crossed over onto North Padre Island.

  “You remember how to get there?” Allison dug into her purse for the directions while Suzanne gawked at the three-story high mermaid sculpture perched like the Statue of Liberty in front of one of the island’s souvenir shops.

  “I know it’s down here by one of these convenience stores.” Regina slowed to look at street names.

  “Not this light.” Allison pointed to the left. “That goes down to Port Aransas. It’s the next one.”

  In less than five minutes they were pulling into the driveway of Janie’s bay house.

  “We made it.” The words uttered in unison sounded rehearsed.

  Chapter 19

  Friday, North Padre Island - 1992

  Janie had moved her car into the garage to make room for her friends who would start arriving shortly. Dena and Frannie were driving down together, as were Allison and Suzanne. That left Regina and Piper, the unpredictable remaining two, who could arrive anytime from now until Sunday afternoon. And no, they would not be driving down together. After their freshman year, Regina and Piper’s paths had gone in extreme opposite directions. So much so, it always seemed to take them a minute or two to even remember how they knew each other.

  Piper had gone off the deep-end once she hit college and had freed herself from the jaws of her overbearing parents. Going to class had not been a top priority, but she aced the socialization end of college life. No one could stop her; no one tried. If there was one person who got the most out of college, with the exception of a formal education, it was Piper.

  Regina saw herself as the celebrity of the group and never let anyone forget it. She had clawed her way into the local spotlight, stepping on whoever crossed her path. However, her glory days plummeted even before she could finagle free tickets for the BAGs to witness her live daytime talk show. Once the show had been cancelled, Regina disappeared for a while, only to resurface with her chin and nose as high in the air as when they were freshman, and then proceeded to pretend everything was still hunky-dory in her so-called life. Any and everyone who knew Regina knew better.

  They each had their stories of cheers and tears over the years. They’d grown apart in so many ways. And now Denise’s death was the catalyst that pulled them back into the fold. Sad, but true.

  ~~~

  Dena and Frannie arrived early, as expected. In charge of providing the seafood for the shrimp boil, they wanted to make sure they got to the docks early. Mission accomplished.

  It was early afternoon and Janie expected Allison and Suzanne at any moment, figuring Regina would make her entrance whenever with some sort of grand gesture. Speaking of whenever, the jury was still out on Piper. Allison said she’d left a message on her answering machine, but never heard back. Piper was like that. She drifted in and out; sometimes no one knew how to contact her. Not unusual.

  Surprised to see a black Lexus in the driveway, Janie peaked through one of the mini blinds covering the long narrow windows on either side of the front door. The driver emerged.

  “Regina’s here.”

  “Oh shit. I don’t have enough alcohol in me yet.” Dena scrambled to the kitchen for a refill from her traveling box of wine.

  “Holy crap!” Janie could hardly compute what her brain tried to convey.

  “What?” Frannie peered over Janie’s shoulder and clamped a hand across her mouth, but not before uttering, “I don’t believe it.”

  “Allison and Suzanne rode down with Regina.” Janie whirled around, having no clue how to process the information.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me. Guess I won’t be the only one needing alcohol.” Dena emerged from the kitchen, boxed wine in hand.

  It was a well-established fact Regina required no other company than herself, her only and best fan. “There’s a story there.” Janie suppressed a giggle. “Poor Suzanne. This ought to be good.” She opened the door.

  Oddly enough, Suzanne seemed to have weathered the trip with no emotional scars, at least none that showed. Big hugs were exchanged by everyone except Regina, who seemed to be content with air kisses. Dropping luggage in the middle of the family room, the BAGs each grabbed a beer or a glass of wine and the chatter, nervous chatter, began. The subject of Denis
e, the white elephant taking up most of the space in the room, seemed to grow larger as time passed. Dena and Allison kept eyeing each other, with slight nods to each other as if to say “say something...no, you say something.” The talk around the room had reduced to ridiculous trivial bits of conversation.

  Dena rolled her eyes, stood, and used one of her freshly manicured bold red fingernails to tap the side of her wine glass. Her diamond tennis bracelet jangled on her wrist. Dena had done well for herself. “Okay everyone. We know we’re here because of Denise. There, I’ve said it.” She paused and took a breath. “But let’s wait and talk about her later.” Another breath. “Agreed?”

  The group nodded. A small amount of tension seemed to escape from the room.

  “Besides, I brought gifts.” From behind one of the stuffed chairs in the family room Dena pulled out a large party bag. “I think I figured out the sizes,” she said, handing out pairs of flaming red flip flops, adorned with rows of rhinestones across the top. “I figured we need a little bling for the occasion.”

  “My first diamond flip flops.” Janie kicked off her Converse tennis shoes. “I love them!” Pause. “Oh God, I need a pedicure. These little puppies have been so mistreated.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like these before.” Frannie tried on her pair and held a foot up for inspection. “Where did you find them?”

  “I made ‘em.” Dena pulled out several clear sheets covered with adhesive rhinestones. “Good old Michaels.” With her other hand she flipped out a glue gun. “There’s a new sheriff in town. Besides, I thought we could all wear them tomorrow night at the beach.”

  “But they’re stuck on, right?” Suzanne held up one of the sparkly flip flops for close inspection. “So why the glue gun?”

  “In case we lose a fucking diamond at the beach, that’s why.” Dena winked at Suzanne. “Janie, let’s do the sleeping arrangement thing.”

  “We can do that.” She pulled herself off the couch and grabbed a bowl sitting on the bar filled with little folded pieces of paper. She excluded herself, since she’d already claimed the master bedroom. One said “master,” one said “couch,” two said “blue,” and two said “yellow.” Besides the master bedroom, the bay house had two spare bedrooms with queen beds, each room decorated in their designated color schemes. The family room had an over-stuffed sofa bed, also queen-size.

  Ordinarily this would have been a fun exercise, but with this group? After ten years? There was a high probability someone could be rooming with a complete stranger over the next couple of days. Or worse, they could be zapped back to 1972 and assume their immature late-teen personalities, rather than those of grown women approaching forty.

  As it turned out, Allison would be in the master bedroom with Janie. Frannie and Suzanne got the blue room, which left Dena and Regina the yellow room. The last remaining piece of paper, the couch, which both Dena and Regina eyed, was relegated to Piper, if and when she showed. Everyone seemed okay with their picks, except, of course, Dena and Regina. Dena shot Frannie and Janie a WTF look, then leaned over to Allison and whispered, “And this was my idea?” Allison gave her a “sorry” shrug. Dena returned the gesture with more of a “whatever” implication. Regina’s fake smile was only slightly marred by the biting of her lower lip.

  After disposing of their luggage in the appropriate rooms, the women met outside on the deck. The sky, a deep blue, had been touched with passing streaks of scattered cirrus cloud formations. Janie’s bay house had been built on a canal lot that allowed a perfect view to the west of some breathtaking sunsets, which was the main reason the women always chose North Padre for the BAGs weekends.

  Earlier, Janie had made a batch of frozen margaritas and handed a stemmed glass to each of the BAGs from the tray she brought from the kitchen. Only Dena held two glasses, her unfinished wine and her margarita. She quickly resolved the dilemma by downing the last swig of boxed chardonnay.

  “It’s too hot out here.” Dena juggled the full and empty glasses in order to open the door back into the bay house. “C’mon, before my drink melts.”

  The women followed Dena back into the house and took seats around the family room.

  “Here, hold this a minute.” Allison handed her margarita to Frannie and then dropped down onto a beanbag chair covered with patches of different colored duct tape, obviously a throwback from the ‘70s. Being five foot ten, Allison’s knees ended up around her eyebrows. “N-o-t a good idea.”

  Allison’s awkwardness in her seating arrangement mirrored the laughter in the room. Denise and Piper were the two missing BAGs. Piper’s absence could be chalked up to…well, that was a long list. Denise had missed get-togethers in the past because of her treatments, but at least she was still alive back then. The permanent absence of their friend seemed to permeate the air.

  “Here, let’s change places.” Frannie sat both margarita glasses on the coffee table and extended her hands to help Allison free herself from what was surely an uncomfortable position. “Short people can handle this. Watch.” And she was right. She plopped down on the squishy chair and immediately started rocking back and forth. “Drink please.”

  Allison handed back the frozen drink. “Janie, didn’t you have this in college?”

  “Yeah, it keeps sprouting holes and shooting out those little white things. I keep pushing the little suckers back in and adding more duct tape.” Janie took a sip of her margarita. “Just haven’t been able to get rid of it.”

  Kinda like Matt? Candy added, which Janie ignored.

  “So…..how did the three of you end up driving down together?” Dena, still the boldest, used her groomed fingernail again to encircle the group, obviously not waiting a moment longer for the scoop.

  “Oh, it was such fun.” Regina sat posture perfect in a chair she had pulled over from the kitchen table. She crossed her legs and offered her on-stage smile. “I just called Allison. Yes, just one phone call.” She snapped her fingers. “And it was all arranged.”

  Dena mimicked the snapping fingers. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.” Regina remained totally clueless to the doubt and mischievous looks passed around the room.

  “Yeah, I bet that was a blast.” Janie scratched her upper lip and tried to maintain a straight face. “Anyone want another margarita?”

  “I do.”

  The BAGs turned to Suzanne, all eyebrows in the arched position.

  “You? You.” Janie had already hoisted herself to her feet, but came to a halt and had a finger pointed at Suzanne.

  “Well.” Suzanne moved around on the couch. “I’m trying to break out of my mold. How do you make these anyway?”

  “Follow me.” The thought of Suzanne getting smashed bumfuzzled Janie’s brain. She poured another frozen drink for her usually subdued old friend. “It’s easy. Just remember one, one, and one.”

  Suzanne pulled a small pad from her purse, which still hung on her shoulder.

  “Seriously, you gonna write that down?” Janie handed her the margarita. “One can limeade, one can tequila, one can water. Add some ice and blend.”

  Suzanne held up a finger as if to push Janie’s pause button while she jotted down a few words. “Just one small note.”

  “Why don’t you put your purse down?” Janie held her glass up for a toast. “Stay awhile.”

  Suzanne clinked her glass against Janie’s and nodded. “Okay.”

  Obviously not willing to let the “just like that” lie, Dena continued her line of questions. “So…what did the three of you talk about?”

  Allison had just opened her mouth to fill the group in when Suzanne piped up after returning from the kitchen. “Regina has this really interesting assignment.” Suzanne air-quoted really. “Regina, you’ll have to explain it to everyone later. It’s such an unusual story.” Suzanne, obviously already feeling the effects of her Coors Light and now the tequila, rambled on a few more minutes before jumping into the pond everyone seemed to be avoiding. “I’d b
een nervous at first about the ride down here.” She turned to Regina. “No offense, but you’ve always kinda scared me.”

  “I think there’s a compliment in there somewhere,” Regina said to no one in particular.

  “Then Allison reminded me of when Denise and I….”

  Silence filled the room like a smoke bomb.

  “Go on,” Allison spoke slowly, coaxing Suzanne. “Remind everyone what you and Denise did. It was funny, remember?”

  A moment passed, a long moment. “When Denise and I built the beer can wall across the opening to Allison and Regina’s bathroom.” Suzanne took way too big of a draw from her frozen drink.

  Regina, arriving late to the game, came out with, “Oh, I do remember that. That was when I—”

  “Okay.” Allison cut Regina off from any further ramblings that would surely revert back to herself. “Denise’s name has come up again.” Allison looked at each pair of rounded eyes and then Regina’s. Hers were round but fixed. It was the rest of her face that gave the expression of concern, either about Denise…or being cut off. “So, what do we do? Talk about this now or wait till this evening when we’re all more mellow; maybe around sunset?”

  “Wait” and “Yeah, let’s wait” circled around the room.

  “I even thought tomorrow night we could go down to the beach after Chicken and Rice a la Dena and have a bonfire for her,” Janie said. “I brought the wood, just in case.”

  The uptightness in the room deflated like an inner tube losing air, settling into a more relaxed mode. Conversations were generalized, reminiscing mostly about their college days and the crazy, often stupid things they’d done. The instructors they despised, the ones who became mentors, the “freshman fifteen,” and the stupidity of signing up for an 8:00 class their first semester.

  After raking Miss White (aka Miss Dove, the house mother) over the coals, which erupted in boatloads of mischievous but fond memories, they also remembered having some guy take a picture of the eight of them on the infamous hill in front of Old Main. Sadly, the Victorian Gothic building had been completely destroyed by fire in 1982.