Chapter 12

Posted: August 22, 2008 - 12:38:18 pm

The VFW hall was packed with members and guests for the annual Christmas party. The Frickes and their friends were sitting at three tables pushed together just off the edge of the dance floor. Sitting at the tables were the usual cast of characters. Rita and Harold were there of course, and so was their daughter Caroline. Ben and Cricket Crawford were sitting across from Ramon and Theresa Salazar. Tommy sat at the end of the table with new VFW member Margie Wilcox. Margie had served a six month tour on a hospital ship off the coast of Vietnam, so she was qualified for membership. Betty Lou sat on the other side of Tommy. She was there that night as his guest.

As soon as the first slow dance started, Tommy walked up to Rita and asked her for the dance. It was an ingrained tradition now for Tommy to do that. Caroline watched Tommy speculatively as he presented himself to her mother. She had to give him credit for good manners, and the almost reverent manner in which he treated her mother earned him some bonus points.

Caroline was surprised at how smooth and effortlessly Tommy danced. He courteously asked each of the women at the table to dance, and seemed to pick the particular song each enjoyed dancing to. After a turn with each of the wives at the table, Tommy asked Caroline to dance a waltz with him. As he lightly whisked her around the room, she admired how gracefully he moved. Big Ben Crawford was the only man present who was bigger than Tommy, yet for his size, Tommy was noticeably agile. He was no Rudolf Nureyev, (whom she saw perform in Geneva with the Dutch National Ballet earlier that year) but he was fun to dance with anyway.

This was Tommy’s fifth or sixth VFW dance, and he was a comfortably favorite partner to a bunch of women. Caroline didn’t know that, though, so along about ten-thirty, when Tommy and her mother jumped up and started jitterbugging as if they were high schoolers in the early fifties, Caroline almost fell off her chair. This time it was her mother who amazed her as she shook and shimmied as Tommy spun her around the floor. Rita Maude Fricke, the forty-six year old mother of three grown children, was as swivel-hipped as Tina Turner. Caroline looked over at her father goggle-eyed. Harold just smiled smugly and leaned across the table.

“Your Momma is the best dancer I ever saw, and my rhythm is so bad, I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. When she dances with Tommy, I swear she is eighteen all over again. Look how happy she is out there and tell me Tommy being in our lives is a bad thing.”

Caroline nodded as she watched them dance, her father had a point.

Of course, Harold did not tell her that later tonight, her mother would bring some of those same moves to the bedroom. Harold had swigged down half a bottle of Geritol earlier that day, just so he could keep up with her even a little bit.

There was mistletoe hung in the archway between the dance floor and the game room. The archway was located near the left hand front corner of the dance floor. All evening long, some of the women would maneuver Tommy under the mistletoe and kiss him just to make him blush. Caroline even tried the mistletoe trick, but at the last second, Tommy turned his head so her kiss landed on his cheek. When he did that, she jerked her head back and gave him an exasperated look.

“Why did you turn your head like that?” she asked.

He looked at her as if she was crazy.

“I’m not kissing you on the lips without your parents’ permission. That would be disrespectful and make me some sort of creep. Besides, I know you don’t like me, on account of I ain’t hoity-toity enough for you.”

Caroline’s anger flared red hot when he said that, and before she could stop herself, she snapped back at him.

“I don’t dislike you because you aren’t ‘hoity-toity’ enough. I dislike you because you are an immature asshole with no prospects. I was being nice to you because my parents like you, for some unknown reason, and because I felt sorry for you, the same as everyone else,” she said bitterly.

Tommy winced a couple of times as she told him off, then shook his head and offered her his arm.

“Let me walk you back to the table, and I’ll make sure you don’t have to worry about me and my poor prospects ever again.”

Rita noticed Tommy and Caroline walking back towards the table before the song had ended, and she couldn’t help notice the expressions on their faces. Caroline’s jaw was set and her eyes squinted in anger, while Tommy was trying unsuccessfully to hide his hurt feelings. As soon as they were seated, Rita stood up and motioned Caroline to follow her to the ladies room. Caroline grabbed her purse and trudged after her mother, steeling herself for the confrontation that was sure to follow.

Once in the bathroom, Rita leaned against the counter and asked, “What’s going on with you two, Caroline?”

Caroline took a breath and gave her mother a fairly accurate version of the conversation she had with Tommy under the mistletoe, then told her why she reacted the way she did.

“I’m twenty-two years old, mother, and I don’t need parental permission to kiss someone. Plus, he had no right to call me a snob, just because I am not one of his concubines. I know you and Daddy think the world of him, but he is never going to be any more than he is right now, a hayseed Romeo with a menial job.”

Caroline braced her self for an explosion, but incredibly, her mother just looked at her sadly and shook her head.

“I can’t believe a child of mine could purposely say something that hurtful. And I can’t believe a woman as smart as you could misjudge someone so badly. As far as Tommy’s prospects are concerned, ask your father where the money came from to expand our business.”

As soon as Rita said that, she pushed away from the sink and walked out of the bathroom without saying another word.

Tommy did not let Caroline’s spiteful words ruin the evening for his friends. He avoided Caroline, but was his normal self for everyone else. He and Betty Lou begged out of further partying at eleven, because the next day was the Sunday before Christmas, and they both had to be at church early to prepare for the annual Christmas Pageant. Tommy was elated that he was playing one of the three wise men.

Betty Lou leaned heavily on his arm as they walked to his truck; she was unsteady on her feet because of the two Long Island Iced Teas she’d quaffed. Betty Lou was buzzed for the first time in her thirty-three years. She was flirty and giggly as Tommy helped her into the truck. As soon as Tommy slid into the driver’s seat, Betty Lou snuggled up next to him, put her hand on his thigh and her head on his shoulder. Ten minutes later, Tommy pulled into her driveway and switched off his truck. Betty Lou was still leaning against his shoulder, because she was fast asleep.

Tommy managed to wake her up and help her down from the cab. Once on the ground, she held his hand and wobbled into the house. Regina and Melody were sitting in the living room, huddled under a blanket with a pan of Jiffy-Pop, when Tommy helped Betty Lou through the front door. The young women were watching a movie on the Dallas UHF channel. The movie was a Beau Baumgartner tour de force, titled ‘Marauding Martian Monsters’. In the movie, Conchita Delgado played a scantily clad astronaut who crash lands on Mars and is pursued by green versions of Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein and the Mummy.

Regina took one look at Betty Lou and grinned mischievously.

“Looks like someone had a good time,” Regina quipped.

“I sure did,” Betty Lou said with a giggle.

When Tommy shot her a helpless look, Regina grabbed Melody’s arm and stood up.

“Me and Mel will tuck you in bed and you can tell us all about it,” Regina said, giving Tommy a wink.

Betty Lou pouted and clung to Tommy even tighter.

“I want Tommy to tuck me in,” she said sultrily. “He does that soooo good.”

Tommy shot Regina an alarmed look and blushed furiously. Regina grabbed one of Betty Lou’s arms and Melody took the other.

“Maybe next time, Mom. Tonight you both need to get to bed, we have the pageant tomorrow, and it’s late.”

Tommy had just stepped out of his jockeys when he heard someone on the stairs. He spun around, clad in nothing except his jockstrap. Regina and Melody were standing at the bottom of the stairs, smiling at him. Reflexively, he dropped one hand down to cover his crotch and grabbed his robe with the other.

“No need to cover up, Tommy. We’ve seen it all before,” Melody said huskily.

Tommy shrugged into his robe anyway, and belted it securely.

“I thought we all had to go to bed early, on account of the pageant tomorrow,” Tommy said.

Regina gave him a smile and did a back flop onto his bed.

“I said that so mom wouldn’t do anything to embarrass herself. We don’t have to be at the church until nine, and it’s only eleven-thirty now. Besides, we aren’t going to molest you ... much. We actually want to talk to you about something.”

While Regina was talking, Melody sat down on the bed, grabbed Tommy by the arm, and pulled him down to join her. Regina sat up and after a nod from Melody, started talking again.

“I’ll be eighteen next month, Tommy, and in August I’m starting college. The same is true for Melody, except her birthday isn’t until March. We have both decided that we are not going to start college as inexperienced virgins. We are going to start the pill right after our birthdays, so sometime between when we go on the pill and us leaving for school, you need to make us women.”

Tommy’s facial expression did not change as he nodded. Tommy had fooled around with both girls for months but never had intercourse with them. The request did not seem odd to Tommy at all, considering he had already performed the same service for Ruthie Silverman.

“Sure, Reggie, I’ll help you out. After all, what are friends for?”

Both girls squealed in delight and jumped on Tommy to shower him with kisses. Melody broke free of the tangle, tugged her sleep shirt over her head, and tossed it off the bed.

“Make me cum, Tommy,” Melody yipped. “I’m all hot and bothered from watching your girlfriend strut around half naked on TV.”

The church’s pageant went off without a hitch and Tommy sailed into the last few days before Christmas as excited as a six-year-old.

On Monday afternoon, Tommy took care of his last three presents, by meeting with banker Otto Mills, down at the Bluebonnet Diner. Mister Mills met Tommy there to keep their business dealings a secret from Betty Lou.

Christmas morning found Tommy up and dressed by six in the morning. With everyone else in the house sleeping, Tommy snuck into the family room and put his boxed presents under the tree. When his neatly wrapped (thanks to Melody Graham) presents were in the pile with all the others, he put on a pot of coffee, grabbed up another stack of presents, and took Rex for a walk around the neighborhood. During the walk, Tommy stopped a couple of times to leave presents at the front door of several houses. The presents for the neighbors weren’t all that much: a couple of Zebco fishing outfits for the Dawson children, an oversized maple rolling pin for the Widow Guthrie and a big bag of Florida oranges for the elderly Millers. They were gifts from Tommy’s heart, though, and it made him happy to be able to give everyone something.

Tommy was sipping coffee and watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ on television, when Bucky stumbled into the room, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He took one look at the presents, then hustled upstairs to roust his sister and mother. Ten minutes later, the women, each with a mug of coffee, joined Tommy and Bucky, and the fun began. Bucky dove under the tree and started to hand everyone presents. The Grimes’ tradition was that each person be handed one present, then everyone unwraps them at the same time. Tommy was very happy with the belt and buckle from Regina, the wallet from Bucky, and the low crowned black Stetson from Betty Lou. In turn, the Grimes family all seemed to like the practical gifts he gave them.