“I don’t know,” Kerry said when Shannon suggested they go to Eddie’s house.
“Oh, come on. What else are we going to do?”
“Let’s go out to the lake,” Kerry said as he followed Eddie’s shiny blue Cutlass into the Green Acres subdivision.
A sweaty pawing session at the lake was the last thing Shannon wanted.
“We always go out to the lake. I want to have some fun. And I want to go to that party after the senior breakfast, too.”
“Your momma said I had to have you home as soon as the breakfast was over.”
“I don’t want to go home. I want to go to the party.”
“She’ll skin me alive if I don’t bring you home on time.”
“You scared of my little momma?”
“Damn straight. And why are we going over to Eddie’s anyway?”
“What else are we going to do until the breakfast? You don’t know where there are any parties do you?”
“No.”
“Well.”
“But I want to be with you. I don’t have to have some party all the time.”
“All the time? It’s prom night, Kerry. Let’s have a little fun. All we ever do is ride around and around town and watch TV.”
“Oh, I’ve been having fun all right. Watching you dance with every guy in the county tonight.”
“I guess you would have preferred that I sat there with my hands folded in my lap staring adoringly at you all night long.”
“No, but that would have been an improvement over being left alone at the table by myself.”
“What did you think people would do at the prom? It’s a dance. Pull in here.”
“I’ve got eyes. I can see where he’s going.”
“Well, perk up. No dancing here,” Shannon said.
“Hey, y’all come on in,” Eddie said leaning in Shannon’s window. He stumbled up to the little stone two-bedroom house and left the front door wide open when he went inside.
“You coming in?” Shannon asked.
“I don’t know.”
Shannon slammed the car door with as much force as she could muster and walked away.
“Where’s your old man?” Eddie said.
“He’ll be in in a minute. He’s mad. And he’s not my old man.”
“All right then. I hear you. You ladies have a seat and we’ll get high.”
Eddie went in a back room and came out with a piece of equipment that reminded Shannon of a rain gauge.
“You ever smoked out of a bong before?” Eddie asked.
“No,” Shannon said.
“We’ll show you how to do it.”
Eddie packed the bowl and handed it to Pam. He sparked his lighter and Pam drew in. Water bubbled. The glass container filled with smoke. She quickly sucked up the haze and handed the bong to Shannon.
“It’s like a pipe,” Eddie said. “You let your finger off that hole to suck in the smoke.”
Shannon, who was used to the burn of a joint on the back of her throat, was pleasantly surprised by the smooth way the cool smoke slid down.
“That’s awesome,” she said.
Kerry stepped inside and stood by the door; his bow tie was hanging sideways from his collar and his cummerbund was off.
“Hey there, partner,” Eddie said and held out the bong. “Come on in and join us.”
“No thank you. Shannon, I’m ready to go.”
“Go? We just got here.”
“I’ve been sitting out there for twenty minutes waiting for you.”
“So?”
Shannon picked the bong up off the table and bubbled and sucked in a thick cloud of smoke. She blew streams of smoke out of her nose.
“Shannon,” he said. “You’re making me mad. Let’s go.”
Pam and Eddie looked up at Kerry and then down at Shannon on the floor by the coffee table. There was a heavy silence.
“Fine.” Shannon stood up with a wobble. “Sorry,” she said to her friends and rolled her eyes.
Back in the car they were silent, anger palpable between them. Kerry drove to an old iron bridge over the Green River, where he pulled his father’s car along a weed-choked side road to the water’s edge. He took a long drink that finished his bottle of bourbon.
“So what are we going to do about this?” he said.
“I don’t know what your issue is tonight, but I was having a good time and you’ve ruined it.”
“Oh, I see. So it’s all my fault.”
“You don’t dance; you don’t like parties; you don’t like my friends.”
“I’m not a pothead.”
“It’s not about that. It’s about trying new things. Take a chance on something different once in a while. I’m tired of driving around Falling Rock in a circle every weekend. That’s a good metaphor for my life, driving around in circles and never getting anywhere.”
“I’m so sorry. Am I boring you?”
“I think you know the answer to that question.”
“I’ve got a few complaints of my own, you know.”
“I bet you do.”
The first cicadas of the year burred from the woods, the sound swelling in intensity and then tapering back down. She sat with her arms crossed over her stomach, watching ripples from a mysterious animal move across the river’s surface.
“Come here. Let’s don’t fight.” He reached for her. She gave him a half-hearted shove away but finally let him kiss her. Her head was oozy and she was sleepy. He brushed a curl away from her face and said, “I love you, Shannon. I don’t want us to fight. Look here.” He opened the glove compartment and took out a small box. “I wanted to give it to you earlier, but I don’t know, the time didn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel right now either, but I guess…well, just open it.”
Shannon held the tiny box, sure that it contained jewelry. “I don’t know,” she said.
“Come on. Open it. I want you to have it.”
She unfurled the delicate pink bow and pulled off the silver paper and inside she found a black fuzzy jewelry box. When she snapped open the top, a gold chain with a delicate heart twinkled in the moonlight.
“It’s got a diamond chip in it,” Kerry said.
“It’s real pretty.”
“When I saw it I thought of you.”
“You’re the one graduating. I’m supposed to be giving you a present, not the other way around.” Shannon bit her lip. “I can’t take it.” She handed him the box. “Here. Take it back and get your money back.”
“You don’t want it?”
“If I take it then that would mean everything was okay between us. And it’s not.”
“Man,” Kerry said. He sat back in the seat and stared out at the moon’s reflection moving on the river. “I’m going to keep it and when things get better between us maybe you’ll take it.”
“You’re getting too serious for me, Kerry.”
She couldn’t tell if his eyes were red from drink or if he might cry. “Are you breaking up with me?”
She turned away and felt the ache of her own tears. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
12
One hundred and eighty hands raised to move tassels from one side of their mortarboards to the other. The class of 1980 was announced graduated. Dozens of red-and-white squares sailed into the stifling auditorium air along with a cheer that rattled the windows. Friends and family streamed onto the gym floor, making it impossible for the kids to file out as they had practiced the day before. Folding chairs rattled over. Gowns were ripped off. Mothers cried for what might be the most important day of their child’s life.
Instamatic cameras and whining Polaroids battered the graduates with flashes. Will’s assorted family rushed him. Liz, swamped by her own family, finally broke away and came over to give him an embarrassingly lengthy kiss.
“Smile!” Virginia commanded. The couple obediently grinned. “Now…” Virginia said, but Will had stripped off his hot gown and was headed for the door. “Wait, Will!”
She held the envelope out at chest level and waited. He looked at it.
“Take it, Will!” Liz said.
“Okay.” He let out a lengthy sigh as he flipped the envelope over to look at the Western Kentucky University Athletic Department insignia. He thought the envelope had more than a single letter inside. Surely they wouldn’t send all this paperwork for rejects. Everyone watched, silent.
“Will, do you want to go outside and open it?” his mother asked.
“No. I’m fine,” he said, but still hesitated.
“Do it, Will!” Liz urged. He finally ripped the envelope and unfolded the first sheet. His eyes scanned down the page giving no indication of what the letter contained until he raised his face to his mother and said, “I’m a Hilltopper.”
“Lord, have mercy!” Aunt Patsy cried.
“Is it a scholarship, Will?” Virginia asked.
“Yeah.”
Liz kissed him and bounced at the same time so that her lips only brushed his face at intervals. Kerry walked over and shook Will’s hand. “Good job. Proud of you, man.” Word spread fast. His baseball coach parted the crowd and shook his hand. A couple of his teammates bear-hugged him off the floor.
“I gotta go,” Will said. He wanted to leave before he broke down and cried like a girl.
“Go on, son,” his mother said. “Go have a good time tonight.”
Liz waved to her parents, who waved back with empty expressions. Will and Liz left in a flurry of vehicles tearing out of the school parking lot, graduates on their way to the future or at least the field party. Boston’s guitars whined from his dash and Will sang, “Don’t look back, a new day is breaking.”
The DJ came on. “Now here’s another Boston off their self-titled album for you. Party music all night for those of you who just graduated down at Baylor County High School. Congratulations, man!” The music cranked. Will sang, “There’s nothing like a party when it’s kicking into gear, I’m getting ready for a party tonight.”
“Hot damn!” he shouted and banged his hand against the steering wheel. He leaned over and sang to Liz, “If you got something for me, I got something for you.”
She laughed.
“Just meet some friends and have a toke or two in a place where they can never play the music too loud!”
PIG was scrawled in black marker on a foot-wide strip of cardboard in the brambles of a ditch. An arrow pointed down a farm road where weeds had been rolled over by dozens of vehicles on their way to Long Branch. Early birds had been out since last night turning the meat. Will drove through cattle gates onto a farm’s bushy lane. Cars and trucks parked haphazardly in a field: a Duster, Chevettes, a Pacer, Firebirds, and lots of trucks. A metallic blue 1974 Monte Carlo had both doors thrown wide, and woofers and tweeters vibrated on the roof. Eddie Horn stood on the hood and finished the Boston song with a flourish of air guitar. “Oh get down, let’s have a party!” Another kid standing in a truck bed let out a long happy howl and threw a beer bottle into the creek.
“This is Terry, your host with the most, talking to all you young people out in that field down by that branch tonight. I’m not saying what branch, and I’m not saying what field, but hey, you know who you are. Congratulations to the graduating class of nineteen eighty. This next song’s for you. It’s from Styx off their new album Paradise Theater. Okay you guys, now that you’ve graduated, you’ve got too much time on your hands.”
A ring of teenagers with plastic cups stood poised around a keg of cheap beer. One of them said, “Awwww-right! Here comes Rick!”
A blue conversion van lurched through the field. The palm trees painted on the side panels were scratched and muddy. Takin’ Care of Business was written on the side in four hues of purple. The vanity plate on the front read COMFORTABLY NUMB, and the driver had a crazy, crooked smile that said he had already been numb for a while. The van pulled up to the outside ring of parked cars. People crawled out of the side door and the back.
“There’s the man. Come on.” He grasped her hand through the crowd. “Rick!” Will yelled. They knocked fists and pointed at each other.
“Will Lemmons. Mr. Baseball. Congratulations on Western, man!”
“News travels fast.”
“Always, dude. Would you and your fine lady like to step into my chariot before this party gets rocking?”
“You know it.”
“Solid.”
The sliding door was open. Liz hesitated, but Will gave a little tug on her hand and she climbed in.
“Nothing to be afraid of, Miss Izod. We’re all good here,” Rick said.
He unlocked the console between the front seats and extracted a carved wooden box. He took a tray and unrolled three bags. He pointed to each bag in turn. “Sensi, Thai stick, homegrown, but it’s good.”
“What kind of buzz?”
“The sensi’s a mellow high, but it lasts a good couple of hours. The homegrown’s a sweet high. Good sex weed. But I can’t speak highly enough of the Thai stick. It’s expensive, but you’ll be fucked up for hours and it’s the buzz from heaven.”
Will opened the bags and smelled, pulled out buds to examine.
“I grew that green on state property in the middle of the lake. How about that shit?” Rick giggled and nodded his head like the fuzzy dogs people kept on their dashboards.
“At least your daddy won’t lose his farm that way,” Will said.
“I’m serious, man,” Rick said. “Of course, if you’re looking for another kind of buzz, I got ’ludes, speed, microdots. They don’t call me the rolling pharmacy for nothing. Here, ball boy. Take this homegrown on me. Y’all smoke it and get back to me.” He tossed a joint into Will’s lap, locked his stash back in the console, and stepped out of the van. He put his hands on the roof and leaned in. “Smoke up man and…take your time. Mi casa, su casa and all that shit.” He winked and walked away.
“Would you look at this thing?” Will said. Deep blue shag covered the floor, walls, and ceiling of the van. A roach clip with leather strips and feathers hung from the rearview mirror. The windows were tinted so dark that they could barely make out the people around a fire down by the creek.
“Light that up and let’s get out of here,” Liz said.
“What? You don’t want to take the man up on his offer of a little time alone?”
“I don’t want to even think about who else has been naked in this van.”
Will lit the joint and handed it to her. “Don’t you think that’s kind of kinky?”
“I think you’re kind of kinky.”
“Yeah, that’s what you like about me.”
He pulled her to him and kissed her deeply. They lay back against pillows and he smoked while she brushed her hands lightly down his cheek and over his hair.
“Will,” Liz said. “What if I don’t get into Western?”
“You’ll get in.” He ground out the joint in an ashtray.
“Yeah, but what if my parents won’t let me go there?”
“Because of me, you mean?” With one hand he reached inside her blouse and lightly cupped a breast.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t want us to be apart.” He ran his hand up under her skirt and hooked his fingers down inside her panties. He gently parted her soft hair and slid his middle finger up into her moist warmth. She arched her back and raised her arms above her head.
“I love you, Will,” she said. “You make me feel so good.”
“I love you, too. It’ll all work out.”
He kissed her eyes, her neck, her shoulders. He was kissing his way down her smooth belly when he suddenly raised his head.
“What?” Liz said.
“I heard Shannon.”
Will sat up. “Listen. You hear that?”
“So leave me here. I’ll get a ride home,” Shannon shout
ed.
Will stuck the roach in his shirt pocket. Liz sat up and pulled herself together.
“I see Will’s truck over there. I’ll ride home with Will and Liz.”
“You know I can’t leave you here. Your momma’d have a shit fit.”
“So, you’re going to hang around and monitor me all night long?”
“Jesus, Shannon.”
“It’s the senior party and you don’t even want to be here. What’s wrong with you? You got a corn cob up your butt or something?”
“Shannon.”
“Let go of me!”
“Hey!” Will quickly stepped from the van. “Let her go!”
Shannon was facing Kerry between two cars.
Kerry held up his hands. “I ain’t got her, man. I don’t know what her problem is.”
“You don’t own me!” she shouted.
“What are you talking about? Are you drunk or something?” Kerry said.
“I’m not drunk, but I’m going to get that way soon. Now leave me alone.” Shannon stomped through the thick hay toward the party. Kerry started after her but stopped when Will put up his hand.
“Look, man. I don’t know what your issue is tonight, but I’d say leave her alone. Let her cool off. I’ll take her home. You’d better leave.”
“I brought her because she wanted to come and then she got mad at me,” Kerry said. “This ain’t my scene.”
“I respect that, but maybe it’s hers. Maybe you ought to back off for a while.”
“Shannon!” Kerry yelled. “Shannon!”
“I’m telling you, back off my sister.”
Kerry paced between vehicles and looked over the roofs of cars after Shannon.
“I’m just going to go tell her I’ll see her later.”
“You won’t see her later. Now turn on around and get out of here.”
Liz brushed her hand down Kerry’s sleeve. “Don’t worry about Shannon,” she said. “I’ll take care of her.”
“Shitfire!” Kerry banged his fist down on his truck. “Shannon!”
Two of Will’s teammates walked up. “Hey, Will. What’s up, dude? There a problem here?”
“No, man. Everything’s cool,” Will said. “Kerry was just leaving.”
Kerry slammed the truck into gear and spun tires across the field, the truck fishtailing and bouncing until it was out of sight. Will lit the roach again and walked toward the fire. He found Shannon dangling her legs from a tailgate where Pam also sat.
Calling Home Page 10