Settling Old Scores: BWWM Second Chance Romance (9 page)

"I
am part German, and we are stubborn. We are obsessive, too. You don't
get to be a good violinist without obsession. I don't have the
attitude that you have. Your whole story is about obsessiveness. You
have overachieved by being that way, though. You are perfectly
willing to screw yourself over to make a point at times. I don't get
that," Pat said.

"Don't
I know it? Most of us former street urchins don't kiss any butt. When
I talked to Mr. Sharpe the other day he told me that he and your mom
were from the same part of North Dakota. He told me about how tough
life could be out there. Then, he added he was sure that you could
handle me easily," Kevin said with a smile.

Pat
replied grinning and making a nutcracker gesture and crunching sound.
"I think my hands are big enough to geld you! Seriously, I don't
know much about what it was like. My mom never says too much about
it. Her family sort of excommunicated her after she got pregnant with
me. I was conceived out of wedlock you know."

"I
didn't know. You have to admit you have never shared shit with me
about your story. I have tormented myself more than once about that
too. I'm just glad you are in my life again. Maybe, you will open up
one of these days and tell me more. Was your dad's name Clarence by
chance?" Kevin asked, seizing the chance to learn more about
her.

"My
dad had a brother named Clarence. My dad’s name was Dwayne,"
she said giving Kevin a funny look.

"The
only reason I ask is that I read a reference to Clarence Washington
in the socialist paper they printed in the city at least when they
had the riots," Kevin added.

"He
was a labor activist; I am told he had his own paper at one time. I
am glad we can joke a little, with each other. You might just be a
little wittier than you used to be, or am I just imagining it?"
she said with her dazzling grin.

"I
still know I am the unarmed one when we have a battle of wits. I am
never going to be your equal in that department. We both know it
too," Kevin said as he gave her shoulder a squeeze.

"God
that feels good. I'll give you two or three hours to stop," She
said with a laugh.

Kevin
massaged her more. "I suppose playing the violin like that does
get you cramped up in the shoulders, neck, and arms. You have pretty
good muscle tone by the way, or else you are just tied up in a knot.
If it was up to me, this would degenerate into a whole body
horizontal massage."

"I
predict that is going to happen; it is inevitable, but not today,"
Pat said.

Then
she started in, "Counterpoint is a German invention. JS Bach was
the world's greatest at it. The Protestant religion was tied to
Bach's music. Maybe, we are partially different because I am a
Lutheran and you are Catholic. I know you think Lutherans are all
about pain, suffering, and stoicism, but Luther wanted the music of
the era to glorify God," she said.

Then
she went on about that subject, "With Bach it's about more than
counterpoint. In Actus Tragicus BWV 106, he hits B flat minors and F
Minors. Nobody ever had that stunning and thrilling swing in mood
before. If you match the words to the music, it starts to rip your
heart out. Like you said, feeling trumps hearing."

By
the time it was over, they had covered Baroque Music. Kevin also got
a fascinating lecture about the Enlightenment, Martin Luther,
Protestantism, and Prussian history along the way. She told Kevin a
story about Bach composing almost extemporaneously a piece of music
for Frederick the Great that had ten canonicals in it, like the Ten
Commandments. It was his reply to Frederick’s challenge to his
music. To Pat, Bach was a genius of such degree that most people
couldn’t even grasp his ability.

She
concluded her lecture with a story about the great mathematician
Leibniz. It is suspected that he carried on an almost lifelong affair
with Sophia, the Electress of Hanover. At one point, she wrote to one
of her friends that Leibniz had talked to her all night about smaller
and smaller increments. Then, Sophia glibly said something to the
effect of being totally familiar with small things already. It was a
scorching inside joke about her husband.

Pat
went on for at least an hour. She had been a Graduate Teaching
Assistant in numerous classes, and now Kevin knew why. She was so
damn good at it. She would occasionally make her point by playing a
piece of music for him and pointing out the notes being hit. She was
knowledgeable, and she made it entertaining, too. That she could do
this so skillfully and right off the cuff was testament to her
knowledge and wit. She had even worked math into it as a touché
to his counterpoint remarks, he supposed.

16.
Sister Janet

The
next day, Kevin got on the bus again and rode it downtown looking for
Matt. No dice in the usual places he hung out in. Kevin thought that
maybe he hadn't been processed out of the tank yet. He walked into a
little greasy spoon place in the area. He was ready for some
breakfast. The waitress came over with her pad at the ready. They
made eye contact and recognized each other. She was a short stout gal
with ample proportions everywhere. The waitress was Willie Smith's
older sister Janet. She leaned over the counter took his face into
her hands and kissed him hard full on the lips.

"Kevin,
you sweet white boy! You have gotten to be a handsome man," she
said with a giggle.

She
was darker than dark, and Kevin was getting looks from the other
customers that ranged from disgust, to shit eating grins. He didn't
care, she didn't either. They hammed it up a little more just to
irritate the disapproving.

Janet
undoubtedly knew the story of how he had helped her brother out, and
defended her against some prick. She had been a big sister to the two
boys in their younger days. Janet had no problem getting in their
faces if she thought they needed it. Like all adolescent boys they
did need to be reigned in practically every day. She was about five
years older than the boys.

"You
know Willie went in the Marine Corps. He ended up spending his time
mostly in Okinawa," she said.

Kevin
knew that, and also knew that by 1971, the marines were out of
Vietnam except for embassy duty. So, being deployed to Okinawa made
sense. "What is he up to these days?" Kevin asked.

"When
he was in the marines, he was a military policeman," she said
with pride.

"Willie
was an M.P.? You got to be shitting me!" Kevin said.

"Now,
he is a policeman, believe it or not. He really straightened out!"
she said beaming.

"For
sure, nobody is going to play him for a fool! But I still can't
believe it. You have to give me his number. I want to call him,"
Kevin said.

"You
know he says you were the one that got him off the path he was on. He
thinks you may have saved his life that one time," she smiled.

Kevin
laughed, "Believe me the Marine Corps should get the credit.
Somewhere, there is a leather tough DI that did the heavy lifting."

As
Kevin finished eating, Janet went in the back and dug a business card
out of her purse. She presented Kevin with it. It was Willie's
official police business card. On the back, she had scribbled
Willie's home number.

Kevin
told Janet she would be seeing him around more often because he
wanted to see if he could get Matt T some help. Janet knew who Matt
was. She shook her head and said she didn't think he could be helped.

Saturday
morning, Kevin went over to the old neighborhood in his beat-up, old
F-150 pickup. He pulled up to the Washington place and sat in the
truck for a second, just taking it in. It was a white duplex with a
slightly sagging front enclosed sun porch on it. The porch on the
main floor was where Pat slept. Mom had the back bedroom. Kevin
thought to himself about what a rut Pat held herself in. The house
was the same; only more dilapidated than it was since the last time
he was there, over four years before.

He
saw that Pat must have heard the truck idling at the curb as the
heavy curtains on the porch fluttered into place. He supposed you had
to have heavy pulled curtains if you were a good looking female
sleeping on a ground floor porch in that neighborhood. He shut the
truck off, and walked up to the door.

Pat's
mom opened it and looked Kevin over. Then she welcomed him in.
"Kevin, it's great to see you. Pat told me you had filled out
and turned into a handsome guy. She wasn't kidding," she said
with a smile almost as beguiling as Pat's.

Pat
appeared about that time and rolled her eyes in mock disgust.
"Mother! You are embarrassing me. You know all the flattery will
just make him insufferable," Pat said.

They
made some small talk. Hannah expressed sorrow about Kevin's dad
dying. She asked about his mom. Kevin told her she was loving it down
South. He told them both about her little place in Hilton Head. "If
you have never been down South, it does take some getting used to,"
he said.

Pat
had not sealed some of the boxes to be moved yet. So, Kevin set to
work in the porch; sealing them and stacking them. It would be about
a 10 minute job to load them up. Kevin had even taken a two wheel
dolly from the apartment complex storage area to use. As he packed,
Kevin noticed that Pat did have one picture stuck in the corner of
her bedroom dresser. It was an old picture. Kevin had been in the
room before and seen it there before. It was a black & white of
the two of them together outside the house. They were just teenagers,
tall and thin. Big smiles on their faces and arms around each other.
The picture had to be ten years old.

Kevin
picked it up and studied it. Pat came over and stood next to him as
he looked at it. Then she said, "I thought about taking it down
today so you wouldn't know I had kept it up there all these years. I
want to be more like you, more honest with my feelings. So I left it
up there. Believe me; I have looked at that picture often. I prayed
for you lots of nights before I went to bed, especially when you were
in the service. I don't know what I would have done if something had
happened to you."

Hannah
was in the living room. The sun porch bedroom could be closed off
from there only by a set of French Doors. She could see the two of
them in there looking at the picture. She heard the conversation, and
attempted to rescue her daughter from it. She called out to ease the
situation and said that she was going to get her camera and retake
that same picture of them, today.

They
loaded the boxes in two trips. When Kevin came back in for the second
trip, he left Pat out there with the truck. Hannah whispered to Kevin
how happy she was to see the two of them together. "She cares
about you so very much. Please be nice to my daughter!" she
pleaded.

Kevin
wondered if the picture had been discussed between the two of them.
In any event, Hannah came out with Kevin, camera in hand, as he took
out the second dolly load. Within minutes, they loaded the boxes in
the truck, secured the dolly and finished the job. Hannah positioned
them almost exactly as they had been 10 years earlier and took three
pictures. The old clunky Polaroid Swinger whirled a little and spat
out a picture. Hannah presented one to Kevin, one to Pat, and she
kept one.

They
laughed as they looked at the picture and contrasted the changes they
had undergone in the 10 years since the last one was taken. Then,
Kevin asked if he could take a couple of mother/daughter pictures of
them. They laughingly agreed and posed together. The pictures came
out great. You could see the resemblance.

"You
know, Kevin and I had a discussion about this three days ago. He told
me his dad always told him to look at the mom if you wanted to know
how the daughter was going to age," Pat said to her mom.

"So
what’s the verdict Kevin?" they asked.

"I
think you are both gorgeous. These pictures don't do you ladies
justice," Kevin said to their delight.

After
clowning around a little more, Pat kissed her mom and climbed in the
truck. They were ready to go. She slid in next to Kevin on the bench
seat of the Ford. He put the truck in gear and slid his hand onto her
thigh. They headed across town on mostly quiet residential streets.

"Guess
who I ran into the other day?" Kevin said.

"I
have no idea," Pat said.

"I
ran into Janet Smith, Willie's sister," Kevin said.

Then
he told her the whole story of how he went out looking around for
Matt, and couldn't find him. How he had stopped at the greasy spoon
place and Janet was the waitress there. He went on to tell Pat about
how glad Janet was to see him. He told her about the little spectacle
they made when they recognized each other.