The Beginnings - Part 47: PULL OFF THE COVERS

The purity of desire filled him for the first time with sustenance rather than envy.  His desire offered him promise.  It would, he hoped, armor his soul, protecting the most vital parts of who he might someday be allowed to be.
-Christopher Rice
A DENSITY OF SOULS

The Beginnings – Part 47:  PULL OFF THE COVERS

June 25, 1983

I drove to Alameda to pick up some clothes at mom and dad’s house. I also ate breakfast there and returned to my apartment in San Leandro after the meal.

Doug Siu called and said he would stop by to see my new pad.

RB Furniture delivered my furniture. They delivered an oblong coffee table versus the square cocktail table I had expected. Oh well…there goes another six-weeks of patient waiting for the correct table.

Doug arrived and we drove together to Helen Wong’s. Doug drove his BMW. Helen was washing her Volkswagen when we arrived. Her brother, Dennis, was helping her. Dennis is a bit ‘slow’ because when he was a little boy he was placed on a counter for a split-second and fell down on his head. Dennis has a mentality of a thirteen year old boy.

I drank some cranberry orange juice while at Helen’s place. After the visit with Helen we returned to my place. Helen, Doug and I went over to THE TIMBERS complex swimming pool to lie out for a while. The guy who always looks at me was there.
As we left ‘the guy’ said, “Hi.”
“Hmm,” I thought to myself, “He’s questionable.”

When Doug and Helen departed I went over to the swimming pool area again but ‘the guy’ was gone.

My phone was ringing in my apartment and I answered it in the nick of time. It was George Jones, calling from Sunnyvale.
“Hey Mike,” George asked, “Do you want to go to dinner tonight?”
I hated to turn him down but I said, “Well, I made plans with Tammy for her little party deal she is having.”
“Oh.”
“How about if I call you later to see if I can make it to that Light Show you were talking about the other day?”
“That would be great. I think the last showing is at half past midnight.”
“Okay, I will call you.”
I ‘kind of’ want to go…but I just don’t know. I will have to slyly slip away from the so-called Tammy pool party.

Frank called.
“Are you going to Tammy’s party?” I asked.
“I guess.”
“You know…while I was at the pool today I heard a BILLY IDOL song that made me think of you.”
“Really?”
“Yes, it’s called IT’S SO CRUEL…WITHOUT YOU…or something like that.”
“Could you bring that BILLY IDOL tape to the party?”
“Sure.”
“Good…because I want to hear that song.”
It was a tune that reminded me of him…or it used to remind me of him.

After I hung-up the phone with Frank I felt like I should start seeing George Jones. I, of course, would still like to date Allison, the hostess at the RED ROBIN, most of all. She isn’t working tonight, so I’m hoping to drop by tomorrow night for a drink to just see her once again.

The pool party at Tammy’s was a drag…at first. In the beginning it was just Tammy, me, the ‘gross’ Michael and Frank. Frank was getting a bit wasted and acting drunk. Maybe he actually was drunk. I couldn’t believe it when I overheard Frank telling some of those guys how we met. He was going on with shit like that. He was being too crazy for me to handle. He started on with his effeminate ways. I know now that we’ll just be plain friends from here on.

The highlight of the party was probably when Frank, Vaughn, ‘gross’ Michael, Rich, Randy, Clark and ‘who knows who’ ripped-off all of the blankets from Tammy and I as we lay on her parents’ King Size water bed. There we were, lying totally naked as they all looked at us from the doorway. It was a minute that seemed to last forever. It was a little embarrassing to be exposed that way.

Everyone left soon after that ‘pull off the covers’ scene. It was a fiery fiasco.  ‘Gross’ Michael didn’t leave because he was spending the night in the spare bedroom.  Tammy and I ended up sleeping together.

She’d told him that what happened over the summer had been exactly that, something that happened over a summer.
-Michael Cunningham
THE HOURS