Thursday July 15, 1988
Sabrina picks Nick up just before 9am, after dropping off her mom at the office and before Geena arrived - just makes it more sporting.
The deal was that she would drive out to campus and he’d pick up lunch, he had stashed some mowing money back since there hasn’t been much mowing and no reason to spend it, he was caught up on blank cassettes. Not surprisingly, Irene had slipped him a ten to “make sure”.
“So you might get a job soon?” She starts with, of all things.
“Yeah prolly at Casper’s, that seems to be the starting point.”
“Gonna pay your dues?”
“Yeah that’s a good way to look at it. I asked at Radio Shack but they don’t hire till 18, although the owner encouraged me to get some experience somewhere and stop by when it gets close next year. I swear the guy looks at me like raw meat since that’s my second home.”
She glances over with that smile that always seems to be up to something. The sun really gives her brown eyes a translucent sparkle.
Still, this feels like just what it is, two kids goofing off at the campus for a while.
“Doesn’t the Shack work on commission?”
“Something like that, not that I really need a paycheck, you know, responsibility…”
“Yeah I’ll probably intern here and there.”
“Just what are you going into?”
She just shakes her head slightly. “Your guess is as good as mine, but probably something, well, in my gene pool, social sciences. I really enjoyed Psychology last year, that would make a good prelaw.”
“With Basinger?”
“The same, he’s actually really good at frank discussions, we even talked about S E X.”
Nick clutches his chest and gasps.
“DUNN DUNN DUNNNNN,” she mocks before laughing.
Nick lets that die out a bit then ponders, “Why do people even have physical relations?”
She looks over with a smirk, “Nick, it’s funny, there’s no single answer to that, is there?”
“No I bet not, seems it’s more fun to just joke about it.”
“Hard to get a nasty rash that way huh? And what’s the saying, we mock what we don’t understand.”
“That’s a good saying.”
Nick pauses. “What year is this thing?” They were riding in Honda Civic with a stick shift, something he really envies her skill at even through she’s a rather casual driver, at least by what he’s used to.
“It’s an ‘81, not surprisingly handed down from my brother, he has almost no need for one up there and can take a bus to Springfield at least.”
“Wow, I wouldn’t have thought of that.”
“You’d like Fabe, he’s kinda far out, but fun.”
“Probably would make my head spin.”
“Nah he meets you where you are, should make a cool professor some day.”
“We need those.”
“Well he’s got a good example, we should be able to catch Dad in his office.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah he really is.”
Nick is tempted to ask who she had for driver’s ed but that would just put a target on his back, well, in a fun way, but he doesn’t want to criticize her driving. Besides, this is a scenic drive, he always enjoyed coming out here for trail walks.
“Too bad it might rain, well, we need the rain, would be nice to walk the trail.”
“Yeah, we have a few times.”
“We used to on Sunday afternoons now and then. One time Dad told me the noises in the pond were water doggies, pretty sure they were some kind of frogs.”
She covers her mouth and swerves slightly, “Sorry, but you probably believed him I bet.”
“Hey I was like five.”
She faces her window for a second, “That’s so cute!”
“Everything’s cute to girls.”
“Hey I get to be a girl when I want to, you complaining?”
“Well you’re a cool girl.”
“Yeah better quit while you’re ahead.”
Nick lets this float and looks out his window for a few hundred feet, and then, the big turn near the dairy stand sneaks up and it should only be another mile.
He thinks to ask, “So the library is open to the public?”
“Oh yeah, just need a campus ID to check anything out, but they have a lot of bound magazines that are fun. Most public libraries only have them on microfilm but these are right on the shelf.”
“Hmmm.”
“Can we try to catch Dad first?”
“Of course.”
Before long they’re in Gelding Hall, which always sounded more like a stable than a college building, and they raced up the stairs to the second floor, History and Human Sciences Department. The receptionist is on the phone but she smiles at Sabs and waves them on back.
She knocks on the open door, to be greeted by, “Hey honey, come on in.”
Nick follows, and gets introduced.
He responds, “Nice to meet you, professor.”
This gets a hearty laugh, “Oh Nick please, I’m Steve, just Steve…god whenever I’m addressed as professor I’m in for it, lemme tell ya. So you plan to enroll over at Tech in a couple years?”
And so they go over his inklings based on hobbies and family history, all sounds great, and sometimes Steve advises that faculty, etc.
“You’ll love it here Nick, I’m still amazed at all this place has to offer, let me know if I can ever help out, okay?”
“Sure, thanks Steve.”
Pretty soon they’re on the way to the library, but not after Sab slyly committed Nick to join them for supper.
“Oh were’ not formal, we can sit in the living room - OH, wanna watch Breakfast Club?”
“Wow, yeah, I’ve only seen it once on TV.”
“Yeah they cut a lot out…”
“I could tell. That one dude, the hood, was kinda scary.”
“Bender? He’s definitely had a rough life.”
Nick lets that float, suddenly realizing he’s a bit out of school here. Heh, in more ways than one, it would seem.
The library is a couple minutes of walking, they just take it in under increasing clouds. To Nick at least this is still an extension of the chemistry labs, they walk about a foot apart like at school; this is a field trip of sorts.
Once inside they look for what they can find in current periodicals, she looks for a current psych journal but Nick has a hunch and finds an Esquire.
They find a table and she whispers, “Oh the Dubious Achievements they do at the end of the year are hysterical, Fabe used to collect those.”
Nick makes an intrigued face and pages through the current issue with plans to look up some doobies here in a bit.
Often times he just looks around the liberry itself to get a whiff of the next level, what’s to come after high school. This gives him hope like nothing else.
He looks at Sabrina, absorbed in an article, she plays with her lip when concentrating and is probably bobbing a foot. That’s what makes her fascinating, she’s bustling with purpose, even though, when asked, she pretty much claims to figure it all out as she goes.
So he puts his issue back on the rack and tracks down the bound volumes, and sure enough the collection goes back to the 70s, probably when they had the funds to first subscribe.
Choosing a year will be hard, hell, just get the latest, see what they have to say. Turns out the volume has about 3 months worth and sure enough December has the gold, all the televangelist scandals, the blonds, Iran-Contra, Reagan, and some obscure stuff. A couple times he has to stifle his youthful laughter to keep quiet.
At one point Sab scoots over and chuckles along, even leaning on his shoulder for a bit, which is nice. For a split second he almost puts an arm around her but that would still seem weird.
“Hey, when we get back to the house, I have something that might be good for some laughs.”
“Oh no.”
She giggles and gets up to find something else to read.
At one point he remembers his dad looking through a special issue of Life that had a bunch of Marilyn Monroe poses and manages to find it, surprisingly intact. Sabrina just grins.
This pattern continues for a bit then they decide to tour the other buildings, see the sculptures, then head for lunch.
Sab is leaning vegetarian these days and just wants some fried mushrooms, and Nick has a couple with his fish sandwich.
“Ever tried sushi?”
Of course he hadn’t, closest he’d been was shrimp cocktail.
This girl can be a chatterbox when she wants to, but it works, she keeps things from lagging and never seems to get bored with life.
They walk around some more and he offers to treat at the dairy stand on the way back to town, so they do that and settle at a picnic table beneath an umbrella.
“What would you be doing if it weren’t for me?”
“Probably lying around listening to tapes or messing around on the bench, but it’s cooled down so I can ride the bike.”
“The bench?”
“Dad built me a workbench, for soldering and stuff, one time I built a phone touch tone decoder, kinda got me into trouble.”
She laughs impishly, looks away for a second, then offers, “There’s worse ways to get into trouble, of course.”
“How about a phone recorder from the law office?”
This makes her cough.
“SWANSON!”
“Well Deke gave it to me and I put it into use, what’s a boy to do?”
“Wait…so…”
As they clean up and head to her house he starts relating the saga from just over a year ago when he had that inkling to dig in and push back a bit to those who challenged his deeply held but barely understood convictions.
Before they get in the car she hugs him, and holds it longer than he expected, “Can friends do this sometimes?”
“It doesn’t exactly hurt.” Nick consciously realizes that she doesn’t have a chest hardly at all, not that she needs one, just skeeter bites poking at him.
“What does this feel like?”
“Well…you’re pretty lean.”
She shakes her head. “This is just so relaxing.”
“Yeah that too.”
She sighs, squeezes tighter before releasing, “Let’s go.”
Back at her house he looks around at the detail of the living room, nothing seems store-bought but it all came from somewhere, an exotic culture, or, actually, a mix of cultures, just like her name, so much to take in and he’s not sure he should ask about it.
She returns from the hallway holding a manila envelope, “Alright, get a load of this.”
They take seats on the couch and she produces a magazine, and as he takes it in there’s a 70’s looking babe on the front, nude but covering certain bits.
Nick can only grunt out, “No way.”
She knows her way around this thing, and every scene she lands on is richer than the last. Naturally Nick has to balance a bunch of things with the amusement, it’s weird to be kinda turned on next to a female but not by said female.
He finally expresses, “All the body hair…that’s supposed to be attractive?”
Sabrina explodes with laughter, gathers herself, then, “OH wait, wait.”
The topper is an encounter with a male on top, with so much hair on his ass, it’s like a combover.
This time Nick about falls onto the floor, “God how does he take a shit?”
Sab throws her head back and kicks and they laugh it out, in gales and heaves, for several minutes.
While fighting tears she slips the tawdry treat back into the envelope.
“Somehow I suspect your brother gave you that?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes, he took a class on sexuality in undergrad and found this gem at a, like a comic book shop, you know.”
“Yeah I get the idea, wow.”
She draws a deep breath to catch up, “Nick I’m so glad we can tear into shit like this, anyway, ready for Breakfast Club?”
“Oh yeah, can I hit the head first?”
“Yeah it’s across from the rumpus room, with the bass. Hey do you play guitar?”
“I can strum a few things.”
She beams “I have an acoustic, we should jam later!”
While in the bathroom he realizes he needs to doze off during the movie, this chick is gonna wear him out but he doesn’t want to miss any of it, way too inspiring.
After washing up he opens the door and she’s heading to what must be her room, and without thinking he grabs her face and plants a peck on her lips, then keeps walking and plops onto the couch. Anticipating her move he leans back and leaves room for her to lean, takes off his shoes and shuts his eyes, might even try to doze off.
But right away she flutters by, sets up the tape then, yes, sits down and leans on him like the other day, then starts the tape. Nick looks up to see the enduring FBI WARNING message just as she grabs the back of his head and plants one on him, beside the mouth, then mutters,
“Smartass.”