Forever (14 page)

“Mom, not now,” Scott said.

“I think I’ve got this,” Wayne said.

The Mitchell men were securing the cooler and Scott’s duffle bag up against the front of Sarge’s box with packing straps. Donna had been fussing all morning about the stuff sliding all over the back of the truck.

“Where are you going to put your suitcases?” she asked.

“They’ll fit right here next to the cooler, Mom.”

“What if you need a pop while you’re driving?”

“We’ll stop.”

Donna sighed. “OK, fine. I guess you don’t need me out here.” She turned and went back through the garage into the house.

“She’s fine, Scott,” Wayne said. “She’s trying to process everything. You came home, you’re leaving, you’re getting married. You know how she is.”

Amy came out with the food bag. “Yes Dad, we all know. I’ll get it next month when I leave for Fort Collins. Where do you want the munchies, Scotty?”

“You can just put them on the seat,” Scott said.

“I’m going to go check on your mother,” Wayne said.

Amy shut the passenger door and turned to face her big brother. “Off on another adventure?”

“Guess so,” Scott said.

“I wish I was as brave as you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You go out for football at UNC. You join the Army. Now you’re getting married and you and Roni are going on a 1,500-mile trip. You have adventures. I have to have sure things. Sometimes I think I’m kind of boring.”

Scott chuckled. “You’re not boring little sister. Of the three of us, you’re the grown-up. Shit, I wish I was as grounded as you are. You’re damn right it’s scary; sometimes I scare the shit out of myself.

“This isn’t just an adventure. It’s life. You’ll have adventures. And life.”

Amy hugged him. “I’m the grown-up, huh?”

“Yep. Somebody had to be. That’s why I’m getting married.”

They were about to walk inside when McIntyre’s big blue Jimmy turned up Princeton, then into the driveway.

“Good morning kids!” Ray said.

“I’ll grab Roni’s stuff,” Scott said, going to the back of the truck.

Kat climbed out of the passenger seat, as Roni and Brooke climbed out of the back seat. Scott had Roni’s suitcase and overnight bag, while she carried her pillow and blanket.

“Good morning sweetheart,” Scott said as he reached the McIntyre ladies. He leaned over and kissed Brooke on the cheek.

“Damn,” he said. “Wrong sister.” He laughed as he walked to Sarge.

Roni ran up and jumped on his back.
“Wrong sister? Let’s make sure we keep that straight, bud.”

He set the suitcase in the back of the truck, then reached back and pulled Roni around in front. “No problem,” he said, smiling.

Scott secured the suitcase in back along with his guitar case then snapped down the tonneau, and set the overnight case, pillow and blanket in the front seat. Roni set her purse in there too. The food was already packed. Scott looked through the window.

“Good thing it’s a big seat,” Scott said. “There’s barely enough room for us.”

“How much do we need, Footer?” Roni said, smiling.

“True.”

They all went in the house. Donna was making French toast and bacon. An hour later it was time to leave.

“Drive carefully, son,” Wayne said, as he shook hands with Scott.
Then hugged him.

“We will, Dad.”

Donna was crying, of course. “Sure you can’t stay a couple of more days?”

“Not this trip, Mom.” He hugged her tight.

“OK, Big Bro, see ya,” said Amy with a hug.

“See
ya. Off on another adventure.”

Kimmy stood, pouting, against the fender of
Sarge.

“What’s up with you, Junior?” Scott asked.

“Nothing. Get going.”

She started to cry.

“Hey, don’t you start,” Scott said. “I’ll be back in a few weeks.”

“I liked it better when you were here all the time.”

“Yeah, me too. Love you, Rag Doll.”

“Love you too.” She climbed in his arms and hugged him tightly.

Roni slid in through Sarge’s driver’s side door and parked herself in the middle of the seat. Scott climbed in next to her.

“Roni Rae,” Kat said. “You need a seat belt.”

“There’s one in the middle, Mom.”

“Don’t make any babies!” Brooke yelled.

“Brooke Anna McIntyre!” Kat shouted.

Scott and Roni both burst into laughter and waved, as Scott threw
Sarge into reverse and backed out of the driveway.

Roni stuck Heart into the tape deck,
then snuggled into Scott, humming along to “Dreamboat Annie,” as they headed off into the sun.

****

CHAPTER 16

“No, just keep going straight. It’s up there.”

Roni was pointing ahead toward a stoplight two blocks up in Oakley, Kansas. Scott guided Sarge to the intersection of U.S. 40 and 83 and spotted the signs that pointed to “I-70 EAST” and within three blocks, they were on the interstate and halfway through their trip. Scott locked the cruise control at 68 miles per hour and leaned back in the seat.

“How are you going to get home from Texas without me, Footer?” Roni said, reclining against the far door on her pillow.

“I’ll just turn on my Roni-homing device,” he said. “That will get me there.”

This was going to an interesting few days. The 1,500 miles they’d be driving together would be the longest stretch they’d ever been alone together.

The subject went to football. Scott had discovered something in the NCAA called the “five-year rule.” It said an athlete had five years from the first time they entered college to complete their four years of competition. Since he wouldn’t be getting out of the Army until 1980, that was out.

But, he’d also discovered he could play at an NAIA school if he wanted to. The small college organization did not care about NCAA participation; all you needed was a good GPA and the willingness to go to a small school.

“Well, there’s Mesa and Adams State in Colorado,” Roni said, reading off a list she’d made. “A bunch in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Iowa. We’d have a lot to choose from.”

Scott sighed. “I really wish I could have tried D-I,” he said.
“Or even gone to a D-II school. But any port in a storm.”

“You,” Roni said, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek, “will be a star wherever you go, baby. It’s the NCAA’s loss.”

After a 15-mile round trip to the little town of Ellsworth, Kan., to find a bathroom, Scott pulled
Sarge back onto I-70 for the last 100 miles to Manhattan.

“I’ll drive some more, Footer,” Roni said. “I don’t want you to get too tired out for ravaging purposes.”

“Oh, we’re almost there. And knowing you, me being too tired won’t stop you.”

“OK, so here’s a question,” Roni asked. “All the times we could have hooked up, I mean all the way back, do you wish we had?
Before now?”

“Uh…I don’t know. I mean, yeah, but would we have had all of this?”

“You mean what we have now? What we’ve had since Christmas? I don’t know. We’ve both lived so much life over the years. We might have always been in love, but I don’t know if we were ready for each other yet.”

“Ready for each other?”

“I figured out not too long ago I was afraid of you. I realized I always at least liked you, and most of the time I did love you. But you scared me.”

“How did I scare you?”

“OK, this is probably going come out wrong,” Roni said, turning in the seat to face him. “You were my ‘sure thing,’ Footer. And that scared me.

“I used to sleep around because of the thrill. But there was never any love to it. After a while, I started to wonder if I was just some slut who didn’t deserve a sure thing. That’s why I stayed away from you sometimes.”

“God, that’s ironic,” Scott said. “When you got there this morning, Amy had just told me I was her hero because I was the adventurous one; she needed a sure thing.”

“Really?
I mean, you’re adventurous, but you were always more, I don’t know, grounded than me.”

Scott shook his head and smiled as they hit the I-70/I-135 interchange on the west edge of Salina.

“Know what?” Roni said. “I really did know in December that I was in love with you. I knew it when we spent the night together. I knew it when I saw you in the hall in your towel. I came back because I loved you; well that and the fact that I didn’t want to sleep in the lounge.”

“Well, I already loved you. And I needed you so much that night. I was so amazed you came back; it was absolutely the one thing I needed at that moment.
When you opened the door, standing there in your little hat and mittens…God, Roni. It was like a dream.”

“I almost woke you in the morning. I was standing there naked, and I was hoping, oh GOD was I hoping,
that you’d wake up. I wanted to make love to you so much.

“But you had so much on your plate and you had so many demons right then that I thought if we had made love it just would have made a complicated situation worse.”

“I absolutely can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m glad we didn’t make love that morning. Having you there and falling asleep with you that night was exactly what I needed. I wasn’t ready for the rest of it then.”

“So anyway, I don’t know about you, but I’m glad it happened the way it did. I needed to be ready for my sure thing, Footer. And I am.”

“Me too.”

They rolled through Junction City. Scott knew what was next. For the first time in 300-some miles, they both went quiet.

Dead ahead on a high bluff, a 105mm cannon sat pointed west. The interstate snaked slightly left and as it did, the outer reaches of Fort Riley came into view. There was an exit onto the base and a huge grassy field spread for a half-mile in every direction. The sight brought Scott back to a degree of reality for moment. For five of the most glorious days of his life, he was as far from the Army as he could get. But there it was again.

“The exit is up here, babe.”

Roni was pointing to a sign that read, “Ogden-Manhattan.”

Driving up a hill, Scott peeled off onto the ramp. K-18 crossed over the interstate, and angled them to the northeast.

“That’s Ogden over there,” Roni said. “It looks like half the town is trailers.”

“Kind of like St. Robert was, probably, only without hotels and restaurants.
Just a shit-hole Army town.”

“There’s the airport,” Scott said as they went a little further. “Guess I didn’t think about them having one that big.”

“God , Footer, there’s a big-assed Army base and Big Eight university here. Were you picturing a big-assed bus station?”

“Actually, that would be really funny.”

“Good thing you got that ring on me,” Roni said, rolling her eyes. “Now I’m trapped.”

“My plan worked to perfection.”

They came over a hill with a rocky limestone bluff on their left. As they passed it, the town of Manhattan spread out before them to the north and east.

Home.

****

CHAPTER 17

Once they unloaded their bags in the sixth-floor room at the Ramada Inn at the corner of 17th and Anderson that overlooked old Memorial Stadium, Ahearn Fieldhouse and the student union, Roni took Scott to the union to pick up another rental listing book.

“The new ones come out today,” she said as they crossed Anderson Avenue. She signed up in May to have them sent to her in Wild Horse every week, but they were usually three days late by the time she received them.

“Looks like a lot of complexes and they’re a ways from campus,” Scott said as he looked at the listings, then at the street map on the wall. “We don’t want a complex, do we?”

“Only in desperation,” Roni said. “I want to be close, if it doesn’t cost a fortune.”

“And as loud as you can be at certain times, we’d probably get evicted.”

“Speaking of which,” Roni chimed in, “let’s go back to the hotel. You have a ravaging coming, boy!”

Roni stepped out of the bathroom naked, brushing her teeth as Scott lay back on the disheveled covers of the bed. As usually happened after the most intense of their love-making, sometimes it took a bit for his body to catch up to his brain.

“OK there, Footer?” Roni grinned through the toothbrush.

Scott rolled over and looked at the clock on the table, which read 5:45 PM. They had made 7:00 reservations at Houston Street, an up-scale bistro in Aggieville, K-State’s “
campustown,” so Scott had a little time to recover before hitting the shower.

“You absolutely drain me sometimes, Cowgirl,” Scott said. “Talk about an endorphin rush.”

“That’s the difference between making love and screwing, Footer. There’s a big difference.”

“I’m learning that.”

Scott climbed off the bed. “I’m going to hit the shower. Why don’t you look at the listings and make us a call list for tomorrow.”

Scott has just begun showering off the road and Roni’s ravage, when suddenly the shower curtain flew open. Roni was standing there in her white peasant blouse and jean skirt, with a copy of the Collegian in her hand.

“House for rent. 3 bedroom. Full bath and a half, basement. Two-stall off-street parking. $350 per month, plus $350 deposit. Military preferred. Available August 1.”

“Wow,” Scott said. “Where is that?”

“On Fremont Avenue. According to the map, it’s about six blocks from here. Right off Aggieville.”

“No shit? God, Roni, call ’
em.”

“Already did. We’re meeting them there at tomorrow at 1:00.
Last stop on our list. Hurry up, Footer; I’m hungry!”

Thursday morning was a flurry of apartment viewing. They were all around Manhattan at different complexes. Things were starting to get testy. They decided to agree to one other place to compare to the house on Fremont. Trouble was they couldn’t agree.

Roni was drawn to a place east of campus on
Bluemont. It was on the second floor with a little balcony off the living room. It had two bedrooms and a nice-sized bathroom, but not much in the way of parking.

Scott wanted a place that was close to the stadium, but a long way from central campus. It also had a balcony and better parking, but Roni hated the kitchen.

“What if we don’t like the house?” she said, exasperated. “This is our last day until September, and I don’t want to live in Junction City.”

“Let’s see what the house looks like,” Scott said. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll go back through the list again.”

Just before 1:00, Scott and Roni walked around the corner from 11th Street onto Fremont Avenue. It was a white house with a covered front porch that even had a swing. Nice looking windows and paint. The house numbers were in an old-fashioned neon-orange plastic that Scott guessed lit up. So far, he was impressed.

“His name is Jack and hers is Esther,” Roni said. “Guessing he’s ex-military. He said they were cleaning this place up after the last tenants and didn’t sound too enthused about it.”

“You should be a detective, babe. Anything else?”

“I’m guessing he’s about 5-7 with a crew cut and he’s wearing bib overalls.”

“Oh?” Scott said, giving her a sarcastic eye. “What do you base that on?”

Jack Simmons walked down the front steps; about 5-7 with a crew cut and wearing bib overalls, with an older lady in a housedress pausing on the porch. Scott and Roni took hands and walked toward him.

“Jack Simmons,” he said. “Thanks for coming over!”

Scott stuck out his hand and they shook hands, “Scott Mitchell. This is my fiancé, Roni McIntyre.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Jack said. “Ms. McIntyre, you are as lovely as you sounded on the phone.”

“Why, thank you,” she said, giving him that beautiful smile. “Thanks for seeing us.”

“We wanted to get this done as soon as we can,” said Esther, who introduced herself as she came down the steps. “Please come in.”

The house was small, but within seconds of walking in the door, it felt very homey to Scott.

There was a small entry way with coat hooks on one wall and a small closet on the other. A roomy living room took up most of the front room, with a dining area through an arch to the right.

“We’ve been painting and cleaning things up since the last ones moved out,” Jack said. “There were four of them supposed to live here, but ended up with about six most of the time. Some things got a little trashed.”

“Oh, it looks very nice,” Roni said. Scott decided to defer to her on most of the house decisions. She had the eye for this kind of thing. “You said you’ve been painting.”

“Painting, plastering, cleaning carpet,” Esther was saying.
“Four college boys. Never again.”

The kitchen sat behind the dining area. The stove looked fairly new, and fridge was nice sized, but instead of white it was
coppertone with a freezer on the bottom. “We could get a little dining room table for right there,” Roni said, pointing to the dining area. “Esther is this an  electric or gas stove?”

“It’s gas, honey, we just put it in,” Esther said. “Those boys wrecked the old one.”

“Apparently, they got drunk and tried to bake a turkey,” Jack said.

“How did that do it?” Scott asked.

“It wasn’t dead yet, son,” Jack replied with an exasperated smile on his face.

Down a short hall were two small bedrooms and a nice-sized bathroom. It was probably bigger than either bedroom.

“The bedrooms aren’t very big,” Esther was saying. “That’s why we redid the upstairs.”

Between the bathroom door and the kitchen was another door. Ten steps up and around a corner was the upper level. Everything was dry-walled with a finished ceiling. The floors were hardwood. Two long closets flanked either side of the room. Opposite the stairs was a two-window dormer. The area was huge, covering the entire floor space of the house. There was even a bathroom with a big shower stall.

“It’s beautiful, Jack,” Roni was saying. She was absolutely glowing at this point. “Footer, look at this. This could be our bedroom. Look at the closets and we could put my art supplies and design board right here (under the dormer).

“Scotty, I love it.”

“Good enough for me,” Scott said. “Let’s talk.”

The four went back down the stairs to a card table and four chairs set up in the living room.

“Well,” Jack said as they all sat down. He pulled out a Camel straight and lit it with a shiny gold Zippo. “We own this house and the one next door. Three K-State girls live there. I’m retired military, came out a Command Sergeant Major five years ago. Was on Normandy Beach, Inchon and Khe Sahn. Came back to Kansas to retire, grow old and become a slum lord.”

The last part he said with a laugh, but Scott was in awe; not only three wars, but three of the toughest battles in each of those wars. This guy was no slouch.

“We just got engaged and we’re getting married on New Year’s Eve,” Roni said. “I start at K-State second semester in the interior design program.”

“I’m between sessions of AIT at Fort Sam Houston,” Scott said. “I’m a PFC now, but when I’m done at Fort Sam, I’ll be a Spec 4 and an EMT and I’ll be assigned to MEDDAC full-time and 1st Air part-time.”

“A doc at the hospital!” Jack said. “Hear that Esther? Just what we need; someone to take good care of us.”