The Beginning

by Ed Nelson

  Finally all had read. Some students had left, but most had stayed to see if they would get a part. Mrs. Ramsey spent about fifteen minutes with her notes and finally stood.

  She announced, “The cast is as follows, Pam Schaeffer will play Emily, Sam Shepard is George.”

  She went on to name the rest of the cast.

  My name wasn’t read as an actor.

  Mrs. Ramsey told us, “If your name wasn’t read out for the cast we still need stage hands, please see me if you are interested.”

  I turned to congratulate Pam, but she was gone. She was on the other side of the auditorium speaking to Sam.

  I approached Mrs. Ramsey; she asked if I wanted a stage hand position. I told her no, I just wanted to know what was so bad about my reading. She asked my name and looked at her notes.

  She smiled and said, “That was the most overdone over the top reading I have ever heard. Please don’t take offense, but I don’t think the stage or screen is in your future.”

  I managed to nod my head and walk away.

  Chapter 36

  I was humiliated, I was fuming mad; I had to get out of there without opening my mouth. What would come out would get me in big trouble. I wanted to cry, I wanted to get even, I wanted to run away.

  How could I ever face the world again. As I walked home in the rain I had visions of taking Mrs. Ramsey to the Holland Theater this weekend to see me on the big screen in, “It Never Happened.

  Of course all she would see was me falling off a horse. Okay I would get her to watch Spin and Marty when it was on the air. But all she would see was me riding a bull; then trying to force myself on Annette the first time she talked to me.

  If I took her to see, “Hell Fighters,” all she would see was a brief glimpse of me working on an oil rig. Okay I would join the Marines; that would show them!

  By the time I walked home I figured out how ridiculous I was being. It started to strike me as being funny. When I walked into the kitchen where Mum was working on dinner she asked me what I was smiling about. I told her everything.

  How I tried to inject passion in my reading, how bad it came across, the stupid thoughts I had on the way home. Then how I realized that it was no big deal, and I should forget it just like Pam appeared to forget me.

  Mums face looked like a lightbulb had come on.

  She said, “I’m so glad I’m not your age. I would never want to live through that again.”

  “Live through what,” I brilliantly asked.

  “Being a teenager with all those hormones running amok,” she replied.

  She then changed the subject.

  “Wait here I have some things to show you.” She went into the front room where her cabinet was and returned with a spoon and a cup.

  These were very special items; both were made out of silver. The spoon handle was engraved, ‘To my God Child-Richard Edward Jackson from HRH Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain,’ on the back. The cup was engraved, ‘To my God-Child Richard Edward Jackson from Dwight David Eisenhower Commander in Chief Allied Forces, General of the Army USA’.

  “These are yours, but they should be kept locked up. One day they may be of great value.”

  “Mum would you keep them for now, and I don’t care how much value they may have, they belong with the family forever.”

  “I’ll keep them for you Richard. When I see the fine young man and how you behaved today in the face of great disappointment I am almost ready to forgive you for how you were born.”

  Mum had never forgiven me, no matter what she said, about my timing in being born. It was in the middle of an air raid. She couldn’t be moved while in labor, so I was born in her bed upstairs as the bombs fell. They destroyed the house across the street and blew our door open and broke all the windows. You would think she would get over it.

  At dinner that night I shared with the rest of the family how I had stunk up the stage. Denny and Eddie thought it was funny. Mary wanted to go punch the old meanie who didn’t like my acting. Dad laughed about it but didn’t make a big deal about it, so that was good.

  Dad had his own news to share with the family. Actually it was several pieces of news. First of all he had made an offer on a duplex through Tapp Realty. It had been accepted. He hoped to have the purchase completed by Thanksgiving and work started on renovations.

  His second news was that we were getting a TV antenna! The installers would be here tomorrow to erect a tower for the antenna. It would connect to a box on top of the TV. By turning a knob you would be able to change the direction of the antenna and improve the picture.

  It would be so much better than the rabbit ears that we had to move around all the time. The ears had worked better when Dad had wrapped them with aluminum foil, but they still had problems. Mum thought it would be great that we would be able to watch all three channels just by turning the antenna.

  The events of the day left me very tired that night. I went to bed and fell asleep without reading.

  Wednesday I was up and at it. The rain had passed through and we had another beautiful fall day. Mum had the radio on when I came in from my run; they were doing an interview with Ohio State Coach Woody Hayes.

  Woody was predicting they would beat Illinois this Saturday at Champaign. When asked his strategy he said, “It will be fullback Bob White in three yards and a cloud of dust. We will bring the IIIbuck trophy home again.”

  Asked if there would be a repeat trip to the Rose Bowl, he replied, “Of course, after beating Michigan.”

  (Ed. Note: They did beat Illinois that week and brought the carved wooden turtle home. Bob White had another good week running. They did beat Michigan but didn’t go to the Rose Bowl.)

  I went out the door when I saw Tom coming: we hadn’t seen Bill for a while. I didn’t know when or how Bill was getting to school.

  Tom’s first words were, “Did you hear about Bill?”

  “No, what happened?”

  “He and a couple of other guys got caught by the Police in Mary Rutan Park Saturday night. They were drinking beer. Bill was really drunk and took a swing at one of the cops. He didn’t hurt the cop when he hit him, but the cop hit Bill with his night stick and broke his arm. His parents are talking about sending him to a Military Academy to get him out of town.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “At home, he is not allowed out until after his court date. The Police wanted to put him in jail on the assault charge but his Uncle, Tom Patterson the County Prosecutor, allowed him house arrest.”

  “That’s too bad, but he is really having some problems.”

  “Yeah, I tried to call him but his parents wouldn’t let me talk to him. They said they didn’t want him to associate with anyone who helped him get in trouble.”

  “That’s not fair! You had nothing to do with it.”

  “I know, some blame a woman, Nancy Sparks, but it’s his own damn fault.”

  Of course Bill was the talk of the school. Before the day was over I heard he had tried to shoot a Policeman but shot himself in the arm instead.

  Other than that it was a day of review for the upcoming tests. I kept working ahead on the next six weeks.

  Chapter 37

  Golf practice was a surprise, putting! We did spend some time on the driving range, but most of it was putting. Coach also started talking about the Sectional Tournament at Bowling Green, Ohio. It would be played at the Stone Ridge Golf Course.

  Stone Ridge is 7054 yards from the Gold tees. So while not a long course it is still in the range the professional golfers play. There would be one team from each school.

  The team which wins the tournament will advance to the District. The four top individuals who aren’t on the winning team will also advance. At the District level it is the same advancement to the State.

  That way if the team doesn’t make it to the State Championship the top individuals still have a chance of competing and winning. Coach was looking straight at me when he said that. No pressure here.r />
  Dinner was spaghetti which we all loved. Then to top it off Mum had made a trifle. Her version was a biscuit base covered by a can of fruit cocktail topped with vanilla pudding. The canned fruit juices would be allowed to soak into the biscuit before she poured the hot vanilla pudding, then it was allowed to set up. This was my favorite dessert of all time.

  That night I read about a guy who didn’t age, but had a picture in his attic that did. It was real creepy, but kind of neat.

  Thursday was cool, but clear so I was able to run once more. The radio this morning was talking about Bobby Fischer winning the United States Chess Championship at age 14. I hadn’t paid any attention to that, but that explained why the Chess Club at school had gotten so popular. I played, but not close to that well.

  The six week tests were a yawn. My biggest problem was in American History. There were one hundred and fifty questions. They were all fill in the blank. I finished one hundred and forty nine of them in thirty minutes, and sat there the next fifteen minutes trying to remember who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Of course right after I turned my test in I thought of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

  Golf practice was playing the front nine. It was fun as there were few people on the course. The fairways and greens were pretty beat up from the summer, but the rough’s condition wasn’t too bad, it was rough as usual.

  It certainly added a dimension when my putt would take an unexpected bounce or even a change of direction, because of a previous ding in the green. I would have to pay special attention to this on Saturday.

  The big news at dinner was that Denny announced he was going to try out for the middle school basketball team. We thought he would do well, his accuracy was incredible. Eddie was champing at the bit for his time to play. He was just as accurate as Denny and would be taller.

  Mary was very quiet. Mum asked her why she wasn’t talking.

  Mary asked, “Mum do they have teams for Princesses in school.”

  Mum thought for a moment and told her, “Yes they do, they are called Cheerleaders.”

  “Then I will be a Cheerleader.”

  We all agreed she would be the best Cheerleader ever. What sort of a monster were we creating?

  After dinner I went to my room and brought out a set of pom poms for Mary. They were the stick type with long thin slices of paper; half the paper black, half red the Bellefontaine High School colors.

  These were handed out in the stands at every football game. I proceeded to teach Mary several simple cheers. Hey she may end up a monster, but she is and always will be my baby sister.

  That night I read some real funny stories by an old Englishman who spoke really weird, some words did not even seem to be English. They were tales about a group of travelers on a pilgrimage to a town. They named a ghost after the town later on, or maybe the town was named after the ghost. I saw that in a movie on TV.

  Friday was nice. but we had a hard frost that night. Dad called those killing frost as the bugs would all die. It made running a pleasure as I warmed up.

  School was okay, more tests. In the morning walk with Tom, I asked him if he knew anything more about what was going on with Bill. He didn’t, the only time they saw anyone from the family, it was Bill’s dad going back and forth to his job as a Supervisor at Detroit Aluminum and Brass.

  Golf practice was the back nine today. Again it was laid back and easy as we had the course to ourselves. I did run into Dr. Costin in the clubhouse when we were finished. He told me he had checked and there was no age limit on membership. Just have a sponsor and the money.

  I told him I would think about it. It would be good to be able to play here when the school golf season was over. However I didn’t plan to stick around next summer.

  I didn’t know yet where I would go, but some thoughts were percolating. I didn’t even have a girl friend to bring to the restaurant for dinner. All in all I wasn’t certain there was a need.

  I talked about it with my parents at dinner. Dad thought for a while.

  “If this rental business goes well I could see it as a useful business tool for the contacts. That would mean I would have to be a member, and we would have a full family membership. Why don’t you hold off till next season and we see how things go.”

  That made sense to me.

  That night I finished up the Canterbury Tales, I also figured out that it had nothing to do with the Canterbury Ghost. Maybe I shouldn’t believe everything I watched on the TV.

  Before I fell asleep I did think about Bill. After his rejection by the girls in our class, for his loud mouth and exaggerating about Nancy, his reaction was to reject us all. His smoking, running with a different crowd, drinking beer and attacking a Police Officer was certainly a rejection of our high school society.

  How was that different than my initial reaction to not making the play? The only difference was I didn’t act on my first impulse. Bill did and now he is in a mess. Taking that together with Mum’s comment about hormones run amok I better watch my reaction to disappointment. The first action should always be, shut your mouth and think it through.

  Chapter 38

  Saturday morning I was up bright and early as usual. I doubt if I could sleep in anymore even if I wanted to. Dad was drinking his morning coffee as I came back from my run.

  My cheerful, “Good Morning,” received a grunt in return.

  I interpreted that to mean, “Shut up and leave me alone, you horrible cheerful person.”

  Taking this hint I took my shower. I still couldn’t figure out how to make the shower head adjustable without leaking.

  We met at the school as usual for the bus to the country club. The whole team was up for the match with Marysville. We loosened up on the practice green and driving range.

  The Marysville team started at the same time as we did. In all the other golf matches we played everyone had been polite to each other. The Marysville group was different.

  They started making comments how they were going to kick our butts. Then they got personal about our appearances, and how we hit the golf ball. If a ball went slightly wrong they laughed and pointed out what losers we were. Our respective Coaches were drinking a cup of coffee inside the club, so they heard none of this.

  I hadn’t hit anything other than my irons. I decided to keep it that way. I was feeling limber enough that I wouldn’t use my driver until I teed off. My actions would be my statement. One by one I pulled my team mates aside and explained my plan. We wouldn’t respond to their taunts other than to beat the crap out of them.

  Our team went from looking frustrated to almost smug. This got to the Marysville team and they redoubled their efforts. The more they did the less we said and the more we smiled. When we lined up for the tee toss to see who had the honors, we won with the tee pointing towards our team.

  Since I currently had the best handicap I was first up. The first hole was a three hundred and fifty four dog leg to the right. The shot I made I had tried on Thursday so I knew I could make it. I drove the ball and it landed curving into the dog leg.

  The ground was hard enough it rolled almost to the apron of the green. After my follow through I turned to the Marysville player who was up next and said, “Talk is cheap.”

  Even that comment was enough to get me taken aside by Coach and told to watch my sportsmanship.

  My plan worked, the Marysville player shanked his shot to the left badly. It cleared the ladies tees enough that his own teammates didn’t have to tell him to wear a dress but it was close.

  John Scott from our team was up after that and he hit a career distance line drive approaching two hundred and forty yards. That was the end of the day for Marysville.

  Marysville never got their act together. Their Coach started berating them to the point, that we were embarrassed for the other team. At least we were learning where their speech habits were formed.

  The icing on the cake was when we walked up to the first green. My ball had rolled directly in front of the green. The hole was ni
cely centered in the front of the green that day, so I had an easy hit and run up a slight slope for a two under eagle.

  My opponent had a double bogey. I would like to say I set another course record that day, I didn’t; I only tied it.

  All four members of our team won our matches. What I found interesting was when we were shaking hands after the match the Marysville Team Captain, who was looking down at his shoes, quietly said, “I’m sorry about the early talk, we were told it would mess your minds up and get you off balance for the match.”

  I took that to mean their Coach had told them to use that garbage. Was garbage talk going to be the way games were played in the future? What lesson would that teach young athletes?

  How they talked didn’t matter, we won!

  Needless to say the ride back to town was loud and cheerful. John Scott filled Coach in on the way Marysville had talked on the practice green.

  Coach told us that he was proud of our reaction. He even forgave me for my comment on the first tee.

  “Rick, at least you only made a general comment, it wasn’t personal to anyone there.”

  Then he burst into a big smile and told me, “Good team leadership.”

  I hadn’t said anything to the team about my birthday so I escaped without any big scenes. That all changed when I got home.

  It started out quiet with soup and hotdogs for lunch. After that the house started smelling good as Mum baked my Birthday cake. As usual it was my favorite white cake with lots of icing. Of course there would be ice cream with it.

  While Mum was baking Denny and Eddie were putting up streamers. Mary was already practicing at pin the tail on the donkey. When it was time all she would need was a blindfold and a tail to pin. In the meantime she was nailing it with her finger. She never missed once.

  Dad was having another one of his thousand or so cups of coffee a day. It may not be that many, but it seems like it. I was a disappointment to both Mum and Dad. I didn’t like coffee or tea. Just don’t get between me and a Nehi grape soda.