by R. D. Power
The Taylors gave him some presents, mostly new clothes picked out by Kristen.
“Come on into the living room. We’re going to sing Christmas carols,” Jennifer told Robert. It was group singing at first. Then Jennifer sang “Silent Night” solo. Her voice, aided by two years of singing lessons, was nice, noted Robert. He was in good humor that evening and had the family in stitches at times.
Jennifer lay in bed awake that night thinking about him. What an impression he’d made on her family. “You should marry him,” a young female cousin sharing Kristen’s room suggested.
“Don’t be silly,” Jennifer returned, but reflected, Jennifer Owens. Hmm.
Kristen reflected, Shit.
Chapter Five
Let the Competition Begin
We rejoin our cast of adolescent characters on a cold, grey Saturday morning a few weeks later. Jeremy called Robert at his sister’s behest, and asked him if he would like to go to a movie that evening. “We have coupons; it’s free.” He said sure. “I’m taking Judy Gilmour. You know her?” Robert responded in the negative. Jeremy continued. “Krissy’s coming along, too, okay?”
“It’s your van,” Robert said. “Is Jenny going, too?”
“No, she went skiing. We’ll pick you up at eight o’clock. Bye.” Jeremy called upstairs to his sister, “Owens said he’ll go.”
“Cool,” she said, a happy smile belying her nonchalant tone.
Lisa dropped the four off at the cinema. Judy and Jeremy, who sat a few rows in front of Kristen and Robert, began some light smooching. As Kristen sat next to Robert, her lips curved into a subtle smile, and her eyes brightened, something that had begun to occur unconsciously every time he was near. He didn’t notice. A few minutes later, wanting to start a conversation to end the awkward silence, Kristen asked Robert, “What do you think of Judy?”
“Hate her.”
“Why?”
“Don’t know. Something about her makes my scrotum recoil.”
“Knowing you, you think she’s ugly,” Kristen claimed. He made no response, so she continued, “Looks are all you care about when you judge a girl.”
“So looking over a girl’s body means overlooking her mind?”
“Oh, don’t you think you’re clever?” Kristen said. “Enlightened guys care more about a girl’s character than body.”
“So look past the ugly girl outside to the beautiful girl inside her?”
“Yes.”
“I’d rather look past the ugly girl outside to the beautiful girl beside her,” he said, grinning in evident pleasure at what had just popped into his head, and out again via his mouth.
Kristen thought it was witty, too, but wasn’t about to let on to this cad. “God, you’re superficial,” she informed him in an exasperated way.
“I hate to offend your social conscience, Taylor, but here’s a newsflash: regardless of what the hideous masses tell themselves, human beings are wired to respond to physical attractiveness.”
“Evolved human beings also find intelligence, kindness, humor, morality, courage, and other fine human traits attractive.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t care about looks.”
“If I did care, I wouldn’t be here with you,” Kristen jested.
Betraying some exasperation of his own, he said, “So far you’ve said or implied that I’m conceited, superficial, and ugly. Why the hell are you sitting with me if I’m so awful? Why don’t you do yourself a favor and sit somewhere else?”
“I’m really messing this up,” she muttered. She said, “Calm down—”
“You know what? I hate being told to calm down when I’m totally calm as it is. People who say that are really saying, ‘Now I know I’ve said something stupid and I got you mad, but that’s really your fault because you’re so touchy.’”
“I didn’t mean that at all.”
He got up and moved to the other side of the theater. She sat through the movie embarrassed and upset.
When Kristen’s mother came to pick up the teens, she asked if they enjoyed the film. “No,” Kristen said in a tone that connoted irritation.
“Why not?” said Lisa. “Was the movie bad?”
“She didn’t enjoy it because the moron she was with had a hissy fit and left her by herself for the whole movie,” butted in Judy.
“Oh, mind your own business, scagatoid,” he growled at Judy. He loathed her. She despised him, too. Maybe they smelled off to each other. “It’s not as if we were on a date.”
“That’s the last time we take you to a movie, jerk!” Kristen said.
“Oh, no! How will I go on? My life is over.”
“Oh, shut up,” Kristen snarled. He moved his right hand close to her face, lowered one by one his thumb, pinky, forefinger, and ring finger, and flourished it at her.
“Never mind,” said Lisa. “If you can’t be civil to each other, keep quiet, all of you.” And that was that.
•
Jennifer was displeased to learn he’d gone to the movies with her cousin. The two had never contended for a boy before—Kristen had never been interested previously and couldn’t compete with such comeliness anyway—but now that Kristen was interested and appealing herself, Jennifer started to regard her as a threat, and decided to take action to solidify her claim on him.
“I heard you took Bobby to the movie. You know I’m trying hard to get him back, yet you went on a date with him behind my back. I won’t let you steal him from me. I’m going over to his place right now to make sure of it.”
“So what?” Kristen said. “Stay all night for all I care.”
“Maybe I will,” rejoined Jennifer, as she got her coat on and sneaked out. Kristen went to bed, but couldn’t sleep.
By the time Jennifer got to his place, Robert had gone to bed and fallen asleep. She knocked on his window. He got up to open the blind and window. “Jeez, Jenny,” he greeted, “it’s almost midnight. What are you doing here?”
“I want to talk to you.”
“Come in, okay? It’s freezing out there.”
“Okay, but behave yourself,” she warned. He helped her in through his window. “And put on some pants,” she ordered, learning he slept in his boxers.
He smiled and pulled on his jeans. She took off her coat. “It’s really cold. You’ll catch pneumonia if you go out there again. You should stay the night for your own safety.” He took her in his arms, pulled her closer, and kissed her.
“That’s considerate of you, but if I wanted to be safe I wouldn’t be here.” He smiled. “I think the cold would do you some good right about now,” she added, then she kissed him avidly. The two migrated to his bed and sat on it, kissing. She let him get her shirt off, and eventually her bra. A consummate tease, Jennifer had never let a boy go this far before. She enjoyed it immensely. “You, sir, are most definitely misbehaving now,” she alleged breathlessly. After a few more minutes of petting, Jennifer announced, “I’m falling for you, Bobby.”
“That’s nice,” he said, playing with her nipples.
“Is that all you have to say? I mean I have very strong feelings for you.”
“I lllllike you, too,” he replied, licking her nipples.
Distraught at this tepid assertion, Jennifer said, “What do you think of Krissy?”
“Mmm mmm mmm mmm,” he said, sucking her nipples.
“What?” she said.
“I think … she figures … her main role in life … is to let me know … what a loser I am,” he said while kissing her nipples.
“Yeah, she thinks she’s perfect herself and expects it from everyone else. What about looks? How would you compare her to me?”
“She’s nowhere close to you. She’s a cute kid. You’re spectacular!” he declared, staring at her nipples.
“This feels so good,” she declared as he gently squeezed her breasts. “Have you ever done this before?”
“Of everyone I’ve ever fondled, you’re the first who isn’t me.”
&nbs
p; “Can I ask you why you went on a date with Krissy?”
“Who said it was a date? Jeremy asked if I’d like to see a movie for free, and since that was in my price range, I said yes. Kristen went, too, but it wasn’t a date. We sat together, but I moved away after a few minutes of listening to her list all my faults.”
“My little cousin can be very annoying, eh?” She kissed him and said, “I have to go,” as she put on her shirt and coat, and stuffed her bra into her coat pocket. Deaf to his entreaties to stay, Jennifer tiptoed out of his room to avoid waking up the Kriegers.
Jennifer was gone for less than an hour, but it seemed much longer to Kristen. Kristen opened her door a crack to see her cousin go into her room. She saw Jennifer carrying her bra in her hand and went to bed in a bad mood.
•
Jennifer waited in vain over the following weeks for Robert to make the next move. He’d assumed, since their last meeting had been so horizontal, that she would come back to him, so he waited. Finally, she confronted him the next time he was at Kristen’s house. She did it in front of Kristen.
“Bobby, why don’t you ask me out?”
“Where, Jenny? On the bus?” he asked.
She turned crimson. “I promise I will never embarrass you like that again. I would never dream of rejecting you again, believe me,” she avowed.
“I know you won’t, because I would never dream of asking again,” he asserted.
Her voice quivering perceptibly, she said, “For Pete’s sake, it’s been over a year. I made a terrible mistake, and I’ve apologized again and again. There must be forgiveness in your heart.”
“I forgave you long ago. I just don’t trust you. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if you were to ditch me again right after I fell for you. I won’t give you the chance.”
“What if I told you I love you? Would that change your mind?”
Kristen gawped at her in shock.
“That would change nothing,” Robert replied. “You might change your mind tomorrow. I won’t make any commitment to you. I don’t trust you.”
“Guys ask me out almost every day,” Jennifer said. “Any of them would be happy to commit to me.”
“Take your pick then. You can’t have me.”
“Fine!” she said. “I will take my pick, jerk!” She ran upstairs.
Robert left.
Kristen smiled.
Chapter Six
Play Ball
It’s not fair from the outset. An elite few are born superior, and with proper training they succeed where those with lesser talent fail, no matter how good the teaching and how hard they try. The mediocre, encompassing most everyone, bumble their way through, trying to excel despite the hopelessness of ever prospering. They think they’re much better than they are, but who has the right to take away their dreams? Others, who never asked to be here (it was their parents’ idea), just waste time grumbling about it all, never carrying their weight and always getting in the way, but demanding equal consideration.
A thousand different things can happen at any time, and that’s what makes it interesting and challenging. A great deal of it is boring, but it is punctuated with moments of sheer excitement or beauty that make it all worthwhile, and with moments of heartbreak that make one question the significance of it all. The end is certain, though just when and how it will come is unclear. Ultimately, some would say it’s about doing one’s best; others think it’s about money; others think it’s about winners and losers; others think it’s about attracting the opposite sex; others think it’s about nothing; most don’t bother thinking about it at all. Regardless, spring renews it.1
With spring, Robert would chomp at the bit to start baseball. Practices began indoors in early March. The Lambeth coaches looked on in amazement as they saw the youngster pitch. They clocked his fastball at eighty-seven miles per hour, approaching major league territory. His curveball and changeup were no less impressive. And his control was superb. “We can’t lose with this kid,” they told each other.
But no one he knew cared for the sport, so no one cared how good he was at it. It frustrated him that his talent in baseball earned him no recognition, let alone admiration among those who knew him. Girls flocked around the great hockey players and football players, but his being the best baseball player by far in the city garnered shoulder shrugs.
Baseball could have been a good avenue for Robert to make friends, but that went nowhere. The game came so naturally to him, he couldn’t comprehend how others seemed to find it so difficult. The game was so important to him—in his mind, baseball was his most promising means of escape from indigence and social oblivion—he took exception when bad plays or bad calls affected his record, and thus his chances of getting noticed by a scout. He’d often lose his composure with teammates over botched plays and scream reprimands not calculated to endear him to anyone such as, “Christ, don’t we have a first baseman who can catch the damn ball!”
He’d constantly argue with umpires over their incompetent calls, often cursing or throwing his cap or his glove down in frustration and getting tossed from the game. His parents would never have tolerated this behavior, but they were gone. His coaches tried to reign in his excesses, but didn’t feel they had the authority to get too harsh. Combine his poor sportsmanship with vanity over his talent and envy over that talent, and none of his teammates liked him.
At school, the story was analogous. With an IQ sixty-two points higher than average, relating to his typical classmate was a little like that classmate trying to relate to a mentally retarded peer with an IQ of thirty-eight. Teachers, with a few notable exceptions, were too inept or unmotivated to challenge him with advanced material; standard high school fare was well beneath his capabilities, so he spent most of his time bored to death. He had a tendency to ask questions that most teachers couldn’t answer, which undermined the respect they got from other students. He regularly disputed the statements they made, which also conduced to disrespect. Had his parents been there to guide him, they would have subdued his arrogance and disrespect, and ensured he was in the best learning environment lest his gifts stagnate, but they were gone. His teachers tried to assert their power when he got unruly, but he only respected authority when it was earned and wielded with competence. Few teachers met his standards. He was a regular at the office. Not able to trust anyone and wary about forming relationships, he seemed unfriendly to most people, which was impertinent of a guttersnipe.
There he would sit, now on the bus, now in class, now in the cafeteria—surrounded by people, but all alone. Classmates construed his isolation as aloofness. No one liked him, and no one felt sorry for him.
Hence, this young man, blessed by nature with charm, looks, athletic talent, humor, and brilliance, had no friends whatever, the continuing toll of the calamity that befell him at age eight. Only Kristen and Jennifer saw him for what he was. Most everyone else saw a low-class, yet conceited, foster child, someone to look down on.
With the end of the school year, the Taylors migrated northwest to their cottage. Kristen renewed her relationship with Dominic. Dominic thought Kristen had matured nicely over the past year and he moved in for the conquest. Talk about poles apart from Robert. He took her for drives in his Mercedes convertible, took her around the lake in his powerboat, raced with her on jet skis, took her for expensive dinners—and gave her a gold necklace, which she accepted this time. He was an egoist, often bragging about himself and forever descanting on what he had, but those were excusable faults in the context of a two million-dollar cottage on the lake.
She didn’t know the half of it with Dominic. Some might describe him as dissipated, but others weren’t so kind. His fortune came from his father’s dealings in the illicit diamond trade. Daddy had found he could get diamonds cheap, while fueling insurgencies in some African nations. Rebel groups used the money from the sale of these diamonds to buy weapons to continue killing anyone who got in the way. Government troops killed rebels when they could, and
anyone else who got in the way. Hundreds of thousands had died—but no one important to the Solanos. Dominic, who was as malevolent as his father, but not as smart, continued his father’s ways, and dabbled in cocaine pushing to make his own indelible mark on the community.
Kristen, pure of soul, saw only the good in people. Overlooking their foibles and blind to their perfidy, she had no real conception of evil. This was an enchanting quality—she had nothing but—although it could be hazardous, like walking blindfolded along the precipice of the Grand Canyon. Dominic seemed a bit shady—consorting with shifty-looking rogues, for example—but that was exciting to this young girl. More exciting, in any event, than the cold shoulder from a cold boy. It was easy to forget Robert while she was enjoying herself so much with Dominic. Few teenage girls would feel different. They might have got serious had it not been for her father’s constant warnings that Dominic was a libertine and for the other four girls he was entertaining in similar fashion.
By summer’s end, he was getting so serious about this wonderful girl that he dumped two of the other girls and devoted his extra time to wooing Kristen. She was the only one who wouldn’t come across with what she owed him for all his effort and expense, and he meant to exact payment. She had no intention of letting him go very far, though. Dominic’s attempt ended when Shannon, one of the dispossessed women, broke in on them, and spoiled the mood with her screaming and crying.
•
Robert passed the summer playing baseball, reading, watching TV and hanging around. He managed to get two lawns to mow at twenty dollars each. He might have got more but for a key shortcoming: no lawnmower. The two who hired him had their own and allowed him to use it.