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Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
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Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
It was a long time before Scott got to sleep. Mostly, he lay awake and thought about Sonja.
The truth was, he admitted to himself, that he had taken it awful easy with her. He’d been fascinated with her for a long time, almost since he’d met her, and early on he’d realized that there was a great deal about her that drew his interest. As close as they had been, as good friends as they had been, it seemed almost amazing to him that after almost two years they were both doing a pretty good job of keeping each other at arm’s length.
In a sense, he hadn’t wanted to, but when he’d first gone to college he’d made up his mind to play things very cool with women in general, and that was even before he’d met Sonja.
Scott had been a popular kid in high school, and especially popular with the girls. He’d done a lot of dating in school and could have let things get much further than he’d allowed. At one time or another he’d probably dated half the girls in his relatively small high school class. Admittedly, he’d gotten some action out of it, but he’d tried to keep it casual and rather meaningless. He was aware that there were girls in the Bradford Class of ’88 who would not have minded dragging him into their bed as a first step in a campaign to get a ring on their finger. He didn’t doubt that Vicky still felt that way. For the most part he was able to detect such intentions early on and break things off before they got too serious – and mostly, but not always, before they got to a bed.
Even before the dating buzz got busy in high school, Scott had been able to see the trap that lay there. Like a lot of Bradford kids, he had no intention of staying in the town a minute longer than necessary – there was a wider world out there, more exciting places to live, more exciting things to do. The local slang for kids who wanted to have a life outside Bradford was “taking the on-ramp” of the Interstate, the road to better things, and there weren’t many kids in the class who wanted to take the on-ramp more than he did. While dating – and a little more than that on occasion – was fun, setting up something permanent could easily louse that up, and he recognized that from the first. He was leery of it and preferred to not get pinned down. Really, the possibility of that was still there, and Vicky had proved it all over again that afternoon.
But the attitude carried on into college – fun was fun, but commitment was also commitment, and something to be avoided at all costs. The truth be told, he’d been lusting after Sonja since shortly after he’d met her. She was beautiful, exotic, and friendly, if a little on the shy side. They’d easily become friends with each other, but partly because of his distrust of commitment he’d held back on pushing the issue. Also, he’d detected early on that Sonja had a similar distrust, along with some other reservations, so being friends, the occasional casual date, and something approaching boyfriend/girlfriend without acknowledging it as such had been about the limit of their relationship to now.
Now, the door seemed open to something more, something he thought he wanted – but he wasn’t sure if he really wanted such a commitment so soon. Oh, of course he was sorry that his friend had to put up with the hassles with her mother and he would do what he could to help, but well, there was still a reluctance to let things happen. Still, the desire was there . . . and maybe more than he had admitted, even to himself.
Scott didn’t actually see Sonja in the morning; he had to work seven to twelve out at General, and he had to be out of the house well before work started. At that, working in the morning was going to be something of a blessing, since it wouldn’t be as hot around the loading dock as in the afternoon.
Getting a job working part time at General had seemed like a good idea at the time because he could live at home, but on a day like this it seemed like a really stupid idea. It was still hot. He had to run the heat gun again all morning, and it was no fun. While Scott had decided long before that this wasn’t the kind of thing he wanted to do for a living, which was why he was studying business management, working on the dock only underlined how much he disliked this kind of work. There was nothing wrong with it, but it wasn’t for him. If others liked it, or could tolerate it, more power to them, but Scott had long made up his mind that in another year he was going to find something else for a summer job. Hopefully it would be something sitting down close to an air conditioner. After all, the on-ramp was there so he wouldn’t have to sweat like this in another summer.
Needless to say, he spent a lot of time with the heat gun in his hand, wishing he was with Sonja, and wishing that he dared just up and quit the job. But quitting early wouldn’t look good on his résumé, so there was nothing he could do but run the heat gun and sweat while he waited for his shift to be over.
Finally, noon and quitting time rolled around. Gratefully he put down the heat gun and went over to the dock supervisor to say that he was out of there, and soon he was out on Taney, headed for home. He was still hot, sweaty and stinky when he walked into the house to find Sonja reading a book, wearing an outfit of Abby’s he recognized. “So how did your morning go?” she asked.
“Could have been better,” he said, “I’m going to head up, get out of these hot clothes and into the shower. Then, maybe we can think of something to do this afternoon.”
“It’s been a little dull,” she nodded, “but I’ve gotten into this book a little so it hasn’t been too bad. Oh, some girl called for you, Emily I think her name was. She wants you to call her back at the Spee-D-Mart.”
“I think I know what that’s about,” he nodded. “Might be something we could do. I’ll call her back after I get out of the shower.”
The shower felt good; he kept it cold, and soon was feeling almost human again. He dried off, pulled on shorts and a T-shirt, then headed downstairs, got a big glass of iced tea, and headed back to Sonja. “I’d better call first,” he told her. “Then we can think about doing something for lunch.”
He soon had Emily on the phone. “I won’t go into the ins and outs of it,” Emily said, “but right now it looks like we can have more people at the weenie roast if we do it tonight. There’s going to be several classmates there, and Vicky said she hoped you could make it.”
“A little problem with that came up,” Scott told her. “It turns out Sonja is here. If I come I’d have to bring her.”
“Oh,” Emily replied, some of the enthusiasm going out of her voice. “Well, bring her along,” she added after a moment. “There have been some stories going around about you and her, I think maybe people would like to meet her.”
“I’ll have to ask her, see what she thinks,” he replied. “What time, anyway?”
“Oh, let’s make it around six. We’ll just do it in my back yard, there’s plenty of room. It’s BYOB, but I’ll provide the hot dogs.”
“Like I said, I’ll have to talk with her,” Scott replied. They talked for another moment or two, then Scott hung up the phone.
“So,” Sonja asked, “what was that all about?”
“More than meets the eye,” Scott grinned. “You remember me telling you about the girl who hit on me yesterday? Well, she’s big friends with Emily, who was our class president. Emily said yesterday that she was talking about getting a few of the kids from the class together for a weenie roast, and I presume beer bust. We had another deal like that not long after school got out and people got pretty blitzed. When this came up I figured it was Emily trying to set Vicky up with me so I didn’t make any commitment one way or the other. I guess I was right.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The disappointed sound of Emily’s voice when I told her you were here,” he grinned. “Look, both Emily and Vicky are OK. Emily is married. She’s got one kid and another on the way. Vicky, well, Vicky is looking to get someone to put a ring on her finger like Emily has, and she wouldn’t mind using a bed to do it. I know that, which is why I wouldn’t go solo with her being there, even if you weren’t here. We don’t have to go, but these are good kids, nothing is going to get out of hand if you’re with me.”
“It’s up to you. These are your friends, after all.”
“It would be nice to go. This is going to include friends I don’t see often enough and won’t see enough in the future. Besides, if you go with me maybe we can put this stuff to rest once and for all.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well,” he grinned. “Like I said, I think at least part of the reason for this thing is Emily trying to set Vicky up with me. I know you and I aren’t very huggy and kissy, but if we could even put on a little bit of an act it would make Emily’s matchmaking seem like a hopeless cause. That’d get both of them off my back and would keep them off my back for the rest of the summer at least, no matter what else happens.”
“Sure,” she grinned. “When you put it that way, I’d love to do it. Scott, don’t get me wrong, but I’d like to be a little more huggy and kissy with you than we’ve been in the past.”
Emily and Kevin lived on the far edge of town from Scott’s house. It was a small house, but Scott noted that there was an addition in the works, presumably to house their expanding family. There were several cars already parked along the street when Scott pulled up a couple of minutes after six. Scott could see some activity in the back yard, so he got a small cooler filled with ice and several cans of beer from the trunk. Sonja, wearing a nice-looking halter-top green sundress she’d borrowed from Scott’s sister’s closet, carried a bag of chips as they walked hand and hand around the house.
Sure enough, there were several people there already; Emily’s husband Kevin was standing at a charcoal grill, trying to get it lit. Scott didn’t know Kevin well; he was most likely the oldest person there, about four years older than Emily and the rest of the ’88s present. He’d gone to Amherst High School, the next town to the east. His family and Emily’s had been long time friends, and she’d been serious about him all the way through high school, while he did military duty in the Air Force. She hadn’t done any dating to speak of through high school, unless it had been with a group and very casual; she’d been wearing Kevin’s engagement ring all through their senior year.
Emily was standing near a group of girls, who were mostly paying attention to Emily’s one-year-old daughter, Kayla, obviously the hit of the show. Scott and Sonja had been there for a few moments before Emily noticed them; she immediately broke off what she was doing and came over to greet them. “Scott!” she said. “It’s good to meet you. I take it this must be Sonja.”
“Yeah,” Scott grinned. “She really exists.”
“Well, it’s good to meet you, Sonja,” Emily grinned. “We’ve been hearing about you for a while now.”
“This was kind of unplanned,” Sonja replied, “but it’s good to meet you, and find out that Bradford isn’t quite the kind of lost-in-the-sticks place Scott makes it out to be.”
“Oh, it’s all right if you like it,” Emily replied brightly, “but a lot of people from the class have scattered to the four winds, and I doubt many of them will ever come back to stay. Even last summer we had more people from the class of ’88 around than we’ve got this year.” She turned to Scott and added, “You’re not planning on coming back here after you get out of college, are you?”
“Not unless I can get into a management position at General,” Scott shrugged. “I’ve learned this summer I have no interest in being out on the floor.”
“I guess I don’t blame you,” she smiled, “and if you do get into management, they’ll ship you all around the country sooner or later. You heard Shae’s dad got moved down to Georgia, didn’t you?”
“Something like that,” he agreed. “I don’t know the details, but I guess that’s why Shae isn’t around this summer.”
“That’s it,” Emily nodded, a little sadly. “Sonja, did Scott ever tell you about Shae?”
“Could be,” she replied, wrapping her arm around Scott’s and getting a little closer to him. “I don’t know for sure.”
“Oh, sure I have,” Scott told her. “She’s the gal who stands six-eight, and is a wizard with a basketball.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess I remember,” Sonja replied uncertainly. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to be that tall.”
“It’s not the easiest thing in the world, I do know that,” Emily smiled. “So there’s another kid from the class gone. I’ll bet we don’t see her again until we have our tenth reunion or something.”
“And maybe not then. There’ll probably be lots of kids who won’t show up even for something like that.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Emily sighed. “It’s sure not like it was just a couple years ago, and it’s going to get worse as time goes on.” She brightened up a little and turned to Sonja. “That’s probably the down side of you coming to this with Scott. We’re probably going to spend a lot of time talking about people you don’t know.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” Sonja smiled. “It’ll be nice to meet some of the people Scott calls his friends. That tells me a little more about who he is, after all.”
“Maybe we’d better introduce you around,” Emily said, looking around at the people in her back yard, most of who were standing around talking in small groups. “We don’t have all that many people here yet, and I hope a few more will show up.” She started with a short, heavy-set girl, who had a barely-taller guy with her, also equally heavy-set. “This is Liz Goodrow and her boyfriend Mike Austin,” she began. “You two are engaged now, right?”
“More or less,” Liz replied. “We’re saving money for a ring. We should have it by the end of the summer.”
“This is Sonja Lambert, Scott’s girlfriend,” Emily told them. “I don’t think they’re engaged yet.”
“Not yet,” Scott smiled, thinking of how he and Sonja had agreed to make it look like they were closer than they actually were. “Getting closer, though.” And yes, he thought, we might be a little closer to it than we were this time last night, but only by a matter of degree.
“Sonja, Liz works at the Burger King in Hawthorne,” Emily explained. “Mike is from Hawthorne, he works in the shop at Burleigh’s.”
“Mike,” Scott put in, “Are you any relation to the Austins who run the Bradford Speedway?”
“Afraid not,” Mike smiled. “I get out there once in a while though. Haven’t made it out there this year yet.”
“I haven’t either,” Scott agreed. “Maybe I’ll have to take Sonja out there tomorrow night. I ought to show her some of the finer points of life of Bradford.”
“Might be an idea,” Liz agreed. “Sonja, you go to State with Scott, right? What are you majoring in?”
“Computer science,” Sonja told her. “I’m not in classes with Scott much anymore though, no matter how much we try to rig it.”
“I guess that’s pretty complicated,” Liz shook her head. “Computers are way beyond me.”
“I sometimes wonder if they’re not beyond me,” Sonja told her. “Everything keeps changing rapidly, and there are going to be changes coming faster than ever. In ten years everything that seems so advanced now is going to seem unbelievably primitive.”
Trying to keep things moving, Emily broke in. “Sonja, you probably know Shelly Waltz,” talking about the next person in line. “She said she’s seen you up at State a few times.”
“Oh, yes, I remember,” Sonja smiled at the sharp-faced brunette with her brown hair in a perm. “How are you doing, Shelly?”
“Looking forward to getting back to school,” Shelly said. “It gets unbelievably dull around here in the summer. How’s your summer been going?”
“Just fine, till yesterday,” Sonja replied. “Then I had a little trouble blow up, so I decided to come down and see Scott for a few days while it blows over. I’m going to be glad to be back in school, too.”
Scott could just about see Emily’s ears perk up. He wouldn’t want to call Emily a gossip, but he knew she did talk things around, sometimes more than he thought necessary. For that matter, Shelly did, too; it had been mostly her doing that the word had gotten around town that Scott was going out with a black girl. It might have been a mistake – it was one he had made in the beginning – but it had made things a little awkward from time to time.
“Something serious?” Emily asked casually.
“No, just family stuff,” Sonja brushed her off.
“Do you guys see each other around college much?” Emily asked, realizing that she’d touched a sensitive area and had better head off in a different direction.
“Not very often,” Scott replied. “Sonja and I see Shelly, oh, maybe once or twice a semester. We’re in pretty different programs and we don’t get around the same parts of campus very often.”
“I see Sonja more than I do Scott,” Shelly said. “She gets over to my part of the campus more than he does, but we’ve never really gotten to know each other.”
“I don’t know, but it seems a little strange to me,” Emily shook her head. “Scott, I figured you and Shelly would be hanging out together at least a little up at State, what with you both being Bradford kids and all.”
“Just hasn’t worked out that way,” Scott told her. “Emily, State is a lot bigger place than Bradford. Really, it’s bigger than I expected it would be. You tend to get into your own circle of friends and acquaintances, just like we do here, but you’re even more lost in the crowd.”
“Scott’s right,” Shelly put in. “I know I thought I’d see him more than I have, but he has his friends and his classes, I have mine, and about all you can say is that we trip over each other when we do see each other. Sonja is usually with him when I see him.”
“I don’t know,” Emily sighed. “I guess I’m missing something by not going to college.” Kayla had been running around her feet; Emily reached down, snared her daughter, and lifted her up to put her on her hip. “But then, I guess I can’t complain. Sonja, I suppose you don’t know anyone else here, do you?”
“No, Shelly’s the only one I’ve met.”
“Then I guess I’d better keep going,” Emily said. “OK, next up is Cindy Dohrman. It was basically Cindy and Shae who brought us the girls’ basketball state championships two years running.”
Cindy was short; shorter than either Emily or Sonja, with short red hair and bangs. She was rather muscular, and Scott knew she was going to the University of Toledo on a basketball scholarship. “I haven’t been hearing much about you,” Scott said. “How’d your season go?”
“Could have been better,” Cindy shrugged. “We played Shae’s team a couple times back last winter and they kicked our butts both times. They wound up going to the NCAA meet, and that was pretty cool.”
“I heard that,” Scott nodded. “I guess I was a little busy with other stuff so I didn’t pay more attention.”
“I wish I could have been there,” Cindy sighed, “but at least it’s going a long way toward putting me through college.”
“Are you doing anything this summer?”
“Yeah, I’ve got an internship at a TV station in Toledo,” she said. “I just drove in for the weekend.”
“You like working in television?” Sonja asked, trying to show a little curiosity.
“I might if they actually let me do anything,” Cindy replied. “Oh, well, it’s a job, so I guess I can’t complain.”
“There is that,” Scott agreed. “I’m wrapping pallets with a heat gun out at General, and I wouldn’t mind being in a nice, cool office instead. I think you may have a better deal.”
“I’ll tell you what, there have been times I’ve been so bored I’d have loved to be doing it,” Cindy shrugged.
Next to Cindy was Aaron Heisler, who, Scott explained to Sonja, had been one of Scott’s better buddies in high school. They’d played football and basketball together, although with nothing like the success of Cindy and Shae. “Boy, I thought I was going to be seeing more of you this summer,” Scott said.
“Yeah, well, it hasn’t worked out that way,” Aaron shook his head. “Amber is with her folks in Ludington, so I’m up there about every chance I get.”
“I know how that goes,” Scott nodded. “If I wasn’t working such goofy hours I’d be in Pontiac to see Sonja more often, but it’s a long drive for an evening or half a day.”
“I hear you,” Aaron agreed. “I’m beating up a lot of road miles up to Ludington. At least they’ve got a good beach up there. Getting out there with Amber takes some of the sting out.”
“This is getting pretty serious, I take it,” Scott smiled.
“Yeah, pretty serious, although Amber is a lot of fun,” Aaron agreed. “We haven’t gotten as far as a ring yet but we’ve talked about it. I’d probably be up there tonight if she didn’t have something going with her folks. I’m heading up there tomorrow.”
“I’ll bet you’re looking forward to getting back to school,” Emily put in.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “It’s a whole lot easier when Amber and I are on campus together, rather than having to drive better than two hours to see her.”
“Boy, isn’t that the truth,” Scott shook his head. “We’re going to have to get together one of these nights and just kick things around.”
Emily introduced several more classmates, Diane Kinkaid, Andy Baker, and Dean Sallows, who had his rough-looking girlfriend Joyce with him. While Andy was going to college at Grand Valley, Diane was working at a store in Hawthorne, and Dean was driving a truck with his brother and explained that if a couple things went right he was going to be having a truck of his own in the fall.
“OK, next is Vicky Varney.” Emily said, continuing the round of introductions; they were getting through most of the people at the party by now. “She’s my best friend. We used to be cheerleaders together. She goes to Central, up north of you.”
Scott glanced at Vicky, who appeared to be less than totally happy, although she appeared to be doing her best to cover it up. She was wearing something similar to what she’d worn the day before; the top might have even been the same, still with no bra, and with her extra weight it probably was needed. In any case, she was dressed to show off what she had and make it clear she was ready for action. In any case, Sonja in that halter-top sundress outclassed her by several miles. Scott knew that the summer before Vicky had been hot and heavy with John Engler, but from what little he’d heard – and that from Emily – John wasn’t around this summer and was more or less living with Mandy Paxton over in the Detroit area somewhere.
Pretty sure that at least one of the intents of this get-together was to allow Emily to set him up with Vicky, he put his arm around Sonja and pulled her a little closer as Vicky said, “Hi, pleased to meet you. We’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Scott must have mentioned you,” Sonja said diplomatically as she caressed his arm lightly and innocently, trying to send a message that said something like He’s mine, so don’t get any big ideas, “but it’s nice to be able to put a face with the name.”
“Are you going to be down here for long?” Vicky asked innocently enough, although Scott could detect her trying to see if there might be an opening in a few days.
Apparently Sonja saw it, too. “I’m not sure yet,” she smiled. “It depends on how things go, but I might be here for the rest of the summer. His folks are really pretty cool.”
“Well, have a good time here in Bradford,” Vicky replied. It sounded friendly enough, but Scott could detect a slight tone of disappointment in her voice. If things had been different, if it hadn’t been for Sonja being next to his side, Vicky might have represented the possibility of a fling that could last the rest of the summer . . . but he wasn’t sure he wanted to go down that road anyway. The risk was just a little too great. “I’ll probably see you around,” Vicky added.
“Yeah, Bradford isn’t like State,” Scott agreed. “We’ll probably see you again.”
Scott thought Emily couldn’t have avoided seeing the unspoken communication that went on in the innocuous exchange. If there had been any hope in putting Vicky together with Scott after he showed up with Sonja, it had pretty well been washed away in the last few seconds. That was a relief all by itself.
