“So do you!” He poured a couple of drafts and set them down. “You been working out?”
“I’m keeping up. I’m taking tae kwan do now.”
He turned to face Marilyn. “So how’d you meet this guy? You in college, too?”
Marilyn nodded. “We met at a party. How do you know Carl?”
“Why? Because I don’t seem like his type?” he asked with a grin. I laughed at this, loudly. “You’ll have to ask him, but I was his supplier all through high school.”
Marilyn looked horrified. “His supplier?!”
I laughed some more. “Oh, now you’ve done it. She thinks you were selling me drugs.”
“I was, sort of.”
I snorted at that. “Yeah, alcohol!” To Marilyn I said, “It’s not what you think. He bought all my booze back then.”
“Your booze!?”
Tusker laughed. “Yeah, Carl had his own apartment here in town for a couple of years. I was a year older than him, and looked about ten years older, so he’d give me the cash and a shopping list, and I’d go buy his beer and liquor and wine and stuff.”
“And I said, thank you very much, and made sure he got some beer and a few bucks for his trouble. We were also in English class together,” I added.
Just then I heard a girl’s squeal and as I turned around to face it, a little whirlwind of a girl came running in. “Carl! I can’t believe it!” She came running up and leaped into my arms and wrapped her arms around my neck. I ended up with a big kiss on my cheek, and I noticed Marilyn was watching this all quite curiously. “I can’t believe you’re here! Tusker never said you were coming by!”
I set the girl back down on the floor, totally mystified by this. She was very pretty, wearing skin tight jeans cut very low, high heeled slut pumps, and a fringed leather bra for a top. Her hair was long and straight and blond, and she had rose colored heart shaped glasses. I had to look closely at her, as she stood there smiling at me. “He doesn’t know who I am.” she announced with a laugh.
Slowly it came to me. My jaw dropped and I stared at her. “Tessa? Tessa Harper? Is that you?” I stared her up and down. No way was this hot biker chick the little Bible thumping girl I used to know. “No way! Tessa?”
Tessa giggled and twirled around, causing the fringe on her bra to fly up. “You got it!”
“No way!” I smiled at Marilyn. “Back in high school she was Little Miss Sunshine, with one hand holding a Bible and the other holding her textbooks.” I grinned at Tessa. “What happened to you?”
She grinned back. “I met a guy.” She glanced over at Tusker and gave him a shy smile.
I looked back and forth at the two of them. “Oh, no, I don’t believe a word of it. No fucking way!”
“Believe it,” said Tusker. He leaned over the bar and Tessa stood on her toes to kiss him. It was like watching Beauty and the Beast!
“This is so bizarre! Do you remember when your mother wanted me to take you out, and I joked that I wasn’t looking for a good girl. If I had only known!”
Even Marilyn laughed at that, and I introduced the two of them. When Tessa asked how we met, I laughed and said that I had fought a duel over her. Tessa just smiled. “You have a tendency to do that sort of thing.”
“What do you mean?” asked Marilyn.
“I mean that your boyfriend once took out three lacrosse players who decided I was their next meal. He left them in pieces on the floor!”
Tusker nodded. “Yeah, you know, man, I really respected you when you took those guys out. They were just totally out of line. I mean, like, we weren’t even seeing each other then, but we all knew Tessa was in trouble with them. She shouldn’t have had to put up with them, not like that.”
I just waved it off, but Tessa commented, “Carl, I love you dearly. You are the sweetest guy in the world, but you can be as mean as a snake. I mean that in a good way, of course.”
That caused me to snort with laughter. Marilyn said, “I’ve actually seen that. Before we left his house, he knocked his brother out cold!”
It surprised me, but both Tusker and Tessa nodded. “You finally had enough of the little shit?” asked Tusker.
Tessa said, “He was awful, always running you down to whoever would talk to him.”
“That was a long time ago, and I don’t care anymore.”
Tessa went into the back and made us some sandwiches, and Tusker poured us another couple of beers. We ate our lunches at the bar and talked about what we were up to. Tessa was going to UMBC and working at the bar nights, Tusker worked at the bar and fixed motorcycles on the side, and they were living together in an apartment in town. They had the idea of saving up enough money to get married and open a place of their own. I told them I thought that was a great idea, and that they should start working up a business plan. I also told Tusker he should take a few business courses of his own, maybe even get a two year degree in something. It would mean a lot to the bankers he would eventually need to talk to. He didn’t say he would, but he didn’t blow me off, either.
After lunch was done, Tusker offered us another round, but I declined. “Listen, what I really need is a place to leave the Galaxie for a week or two. We’re going to Ocean City in her car, and I can’t leave it at the old homestead. Hamilton will set it on fire or something.”
“He’s a little shit. Yeah, just pull it around back and leave the keys with me. There’s a couple of spots in the back corner,” he replied.
Marilyn and I went outside and I tossed our luggage in the back of her car, and then I drove around the back and parked the Galaxie. I locked it up and went in through the kitchen entrance, and tossed the keys to Tusker. He hung them on a hook behind the bar. I hugged the pair of them, and then we were off.
Chapter 33: What I Did On My Summer Vacation
Marilyn handed me her keys, and I started her car up. There was a throaty rumble from under the hood. I looked at her and grinned. “Oh, shit! Your old man got this thing with the big V-8, didn’t he?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea. I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
I laughed at that. The standard engine in this car was either the Chrysler 225 Slant-6 or a 318 V-8, but they also offered some larger V-8s. Her father must have gotten his daughter one of the big ones, which would have been just like him. Of course, Marilyn didn’t grasp just how great this car was; she thought it was ‘cute’.
“Don’t sweat it.”
On the way out of town, I diverted past Towson High and Towson State, to show her where I had gone to school. Then I drove past my old apartment, and pointed that out to her. That was a bit more sobering. “I find that so hard to believe. You’re telling me that when you were still in high school you moved out of your house into an apartment, and your parents went along with it?”
I pulled onto the Beltway and headed west. “My father helped me pick it out and helped me move my stuff in. I had to pay for it, of course, but he let me go.”
“You paid for it? How?”
Time to shade the truth a touch. “I had some money saved up, so I used that.”
“You had enough money to live two years on your own? What about now?” she pressed.
“Why do you think I’m in ROTC?” I said with a laugh. Another shading, but harmless.
“And your parents went along with this? Why?”
I looked over at her, and then back out the windshield. I was silent for a second. “Because I told my father that if he didn’t go along with it I would leave, and he’d never see me in this life again.”