Blind Squirrels (21 page)

“No, we aren’t going to Pensacola. 
He’s staying here in Foster’s Bank with some friends.”  This much of my story
was true.  “We were going to this game room on Phillips Road.  The one across
from the mall.  But Josh doesn’t have a car.  He does want to meet you though. 
I can either meet him at the game room or pick him up.  If I pick him up, we
can come by here on our way. 
Please
!”  I wasn’t above begging.  I
wanted to go out with him.  I had never wanted anything so much – except maybe
Max.

“He said he wanted to meet me?”

“Yes.  He said he didn’t want to
go out with me if my parents didn’t approve.  His dad’s a police officer, and
he raised Josh to do things right.”  This wasn’t part of my original story,
but, the more I lied, the easier it was.  My imagination was working overtime,
and I was going to make Josh look like an angel.

“He sounds like a fine young
man...”  Relief washed over me.  I had done it.  She wouldn’t even ask to meet
him now.  “...Pick him up and bring him over.  I’d like to meet a man that has
morals and manners.  Then the two of you can go out.  I’ll even raise your
curfew to eleven o’clock.”

I didn’t win everything, but I
was going to get to go out with him.  Josh wouldn’t mind meeting my mom.  And I
was getting an extra hour with him.  I was ecstatic.

I met Josh at six o’clock sharp. 
He was waiting for me.  “You’re right on time,” he said.

I smiled.  “I hope you don’t
mind, but my mom wants to meet you.”

“That’s cool.  I told you that I
would.  I don’t want you lying to her.”  Too late for that.

When we reached our house, Josh
came around and helped me get out of the car.  As we approached the house, I
could hear my mom and dad arguing.  “They do this all the time,” I told Josh. 
I was almost ashamed to let him meet them.

Before I could open the door, Mom
jerked it open.  “Hi, Kat.”

“Hi, Mom.  This is Josh...”

“Joshua Boucher, Ma’am,” he told
my mom.  He pronounced his last name “Boo-shay.”

“Nice to meet you.  Sorry I can’t
invite you in.  You two have a good time.  Be home by eleven, Kat.”  Mom
practically closed the door in our face.  I looked at Josh and shrugged.

In the parking lot of the game
room, Josh pulled a joint out of his pocket.  “You don’t mind if I smoke, do
you?” he asked before lighting it.

“Oh, no.  Go right ahead.”  I
wanted him to feel comfortable.

“Want some?” he offered, after he
got it lit.  The smell was already overwhelming.  It seemed that I was smoking
it already.

“Okay.  But I’ve never done it
before.”

Josh held the end of the joint to
my lips.  “Suck hard.  You might not want to inhale until you get used to it.”

I took a long, hard suck on it. 
The heat from the tip and the harshness of the burning weed filled my mouth.  I
wanted to expel it immediately, but I knew I would look like a fool.  Instead,
I tried to swallow the smoke.  This resulted in a coughing fit.  The smoke
escaped from my mouth, but I also felt the heat of the smoke inside my lungs.

“I told you not to inhale,” Josh
said with a snicker.  He patted me on the back.  “Don’t worry.  Everyone reacts
that way the first time.”

Josh took another hit on the
joint, and then he put it out and hid it in his wallet.  “We’ll finish this
later,” he said.

We played several games of pool. 
Most of the time, I won.  Josh wasn’t very good, and my dad – who was
practically a pool shark – had taught me how to win.  My skill surprised Josh,
but he didn’t get upset when he lost. 

Around eight o’clock, Josh said,
“Let’s get out of here.  I’m hungry.”

After we got on the highway, Josh
asked me to stop at a convenience store.  “You want something to eat?”

I was hungry, but I did not want
to eat in front of him.  “No, I’m okay.”

“I’ll get us something to drink. 
Anything special that you like?”

“Whatever you are having,” I
answered.

A few minutes later, Josh
appeared with two bags.  I could see the neck of a bottle sticking out of one. 
It looked like a wine bottle.  “Let’s go to the beach,” he said.

I knew I shouldn’t, but I turned and
headed towards Pensacola Beach.  It was a drive, but we were soon sitting on a
sand dune and staring out at the vast Gulf.  It was dark and cold, and I was
alone with someone I barely knew.

Josh made a small campfire on the
ground in front of us.  He pulled the bottle out of the bag.  It was a jug of
something called “Pink Chablis,” and it was pink.  “I’ve never had this before,
but it looked like something you might like,” he told me as he popped out the
cork.

I took the bottle from him.  It
was big, but I turned it up and took a swig.  The taste was sweet and bitter –
kind of like soured grapes.  I made a face – my lips puckered, my eyes
squinted, and my nose wrinkled.  Josh laughed.  “It’s that good, eh?”

“Terrific,” I said as I prepared
for another drink.  Then I held the bottle to him, “Try it.”

It was great sitting there with
Josh, but the wind was cold.  I couldn’t stop shivering.  Josh looked over at
me.  “Let’s get back in the car.”

Sitting in the car on the main
road wasn’t as much fun as sitting on the beach.  Cars kept whipping past us,
and I couldn’t sit as close to Josh.  He hadn’t touched me or anything, but we
had sat close together on the beach.

“We need to find a more private
place.  I can’t smoke my joint here, and someone may see us drinking.  Let’s
see if we can find a deserted dirt road or something.” 

I wanted to leave the beach, too,
but I was beginning to feel the effects of the wine.  “I don’t think I can
drive right now.”

“I’ll drive,” Josh said.  We
exchanged seats in the car, and Josh took us away from the beach.  Since he
knew when my curfew was, he decided to drive us back towards Foster’s Bank. 
After a long while, we started down a rural street that Josh said was just a
few miles from the beach near Foster’s Bank.  All the while, I was sipping on
that bottle of Chablis.  Josh drove slowly until he found a dirt road leading
off to the right.  He turned down it and traveled about a quarter of a mile. 
He then pulled off the road and turned off the car.  I didn’t have a clue where
we were.

“Come on.  Let’s sit in the
back,” he urged me.

Too drunk to argue, I helped Josh
push the front seats forward and we got into the back.  Josh lit up his joint,
and we shared the wine.  I don’t know how long we sat there, but Josh smoked
several joints, and the smoke in the car was thick.  After breathing for a few
moments in that fog, I was as high as Josh was.

After we finished off the wine,
Josh put his arm around me and pulled me towards him.  He started kissing me
and
that
I do remember.  The next thing I remember is Josh pulling up my
pants.  Suddenly, a pair of bright lights came shining in through the back
window of my car.  Josh quickly zipped his pants and helped me straighten up my
clothes.  “Who the hell is that?” he said anxiously. 

Just then, someone flashed a beam
of light in my face.  Still dazed and trying to remember what had just happened
between Josh and me, I was unfazed by the blinding flashlight.  Josh was more
in control.  He leaned past me and rolled the window on the driver’s side down
to see who was out there.  I was enough aware to recognize a policeman standing
outside my car.  My whole life flashed before my dilated eyes as the officer
said, “What’s going on here?”

It was obvious what was going
on.  We were in the backseat, Josh’s shirt was off, and marijuana smoke was
steadily streaming into the officer’s face.  I saw the bars of a cell slamming
in my face.  Josh was strangely calm.  Perhaps he had been in prison before.

“Hi, Officer,” Josh said
confidently.  “My wife and I...”  He pointed to me.  “We just got married, and
we live with her parents.  We were just looking for a little privacy.  You understand.”

No, I thought, he doesn’t
understand.  We are going to jail, and my mother is going to kill me.

“I understand,” the policeman
said, “but this is a private road.  Why don’t you go over to the beach?  It’s
only a few miles away.  No one will bother you there.”

“Okay, Sir,” Josh told him. 
“Thank you.  We’ll leave right away.”

The policeman walked away.  He
got into his car and left us sitting there.  We weren’t going to jail after
all.

Josh leaned over and kissed me as
he said, “We should get out of here.”  He started laughing.  “I can’t believe
that cop bought my story.”

Josh reached over and opened my
door for me, but I couldn’t move.  I’d just had a life changing experience, and
I couldn’t even remember most of it.  Also, my head was still swimming from the
pot and the wine; I wasn’t sure I could drive.  Somehow, my eyes came to rest
on my watch.  Slowly I began to realize that it was ten-thirty.  I had only
thirty minutes to take Josh home and get home myself.  Instantly, I was as
sober as a judge.

I really felt like Mario Andretti
as I sped non-stop some ten miles from the beach to downtown Foster’s Bank.  I
was only a few miles from the apartments where Josh was staying, and it was
still ten minutes before I’d miss my curfew.  Just as I was breathing a sigh of
relief, I saw flashing red lights ahead.  A train was about to cross in front
of me!  Panic gripped me as I realized I had no chance of getting home by
eleven.

The caboose waddled by at
ten-fifty-seven.  I still had to get Josh home.  As we approached the apartment
building, I envisioned my forthcoming execution, or – worse yet – my
forthcoming ten year restriction. 

At four-after-eleven, I brought
the car to a stop where Josh was pointing.  Josh told me that he’d had a
wonderful time.  Then he told me that he had to leave the next day to ship out
on the Lexington which was pulling out from nearby NAS Pensacola.  The aircraft
carrier was going to New York City for over a month, and Josh had to go with
them.  At once, I knew that he was dumping me.  This was the same thing that
happened to Laura and Felicia when they lost their virginity.  I told him to
have a good time and prepared to leave.  “Do you have a piece of paper?” he
asked me.  “I’d like to have your phone number and your address.  I can write
you while I’m in New York.”

My spirits lifted.  I fumbled
through my purse until I came across my notepad.  I scribbled my address and
phone number on it and then tore the sheet off and handed it to Josh.  A
harrowing thought flashed through my mind, “He’s probably going to throw this
away when he gets out of sight.”

“I’ll write to you soon.  I
promise.  And I’ll be back in March.  I hope you’ll be waiting.  You can meet
the ship when it comes in.”  He leaned over and kissed me goodnight.  “I hope
your mom isn’t too mad.  Bye.”  He left the car and walked towards the building. 
I wanted to watch him, but I knew I had to get home.  It was eleven-ten
already.

At home, my mom read me the riot
act.  I apologized and promised it would never happen again.  She must have
been in a good mood because she let me off easy.  All she did was send me to
bed.  I had lucked out all the way around that night.

I counted the days until Josh
would be back, and I watched the mailbox for a letter.  I had to wait until
February to receive any mail from him.  It was a few days before Valentine’s
Day, and he sent me a Valentine.  He wrote inside, “Love, Josh.  You and Pink
Chablis really turn me on.”  I wrote back to him using the address he put on
the envelope.  Two weeks later, he wrote me a four page letter.  Even before I
read it, I knew I must be in love.  Josh would be home in two more weeks, and
he wanted me to meet him when he arrived.  I was jubilant.

Josh returned on a Wednesday
during Spring Break.  I talked Olivia into going with me to meet him.  We sat
in the parking lot for forty-five minutes before he appeared.  I introduced him
to Olivia, and the three of us rode around together for a couple of hours.  He
was going to be on duty for the rest of the week, so we made plans to go out on
Saturday night.

I got to the Lexington at four
o’clock on Saturday afternoon.  Josh and Ray were waiting near the gangplank. 
They both walked over to my car.  Ray was drinking a Michelob beer from a
bottle.  “Hi, Kat,” Josh said to me.  “Ray was wondering if you had a friend
that you could fix him up with.  He wants to go with us.”

I immediately thought of Felicia;
just as quickly, I remembered how much she had loathed Ray.  And Laura was
still dating Billy.  Olivia wouldn’t do it either, but I decided to call her
anyway.  The phone rang and rang, but Olivia wasn’t answering.

“That’s all right,” Josh told
me.  “We’ll dump him somewhere.  Or maybe your friend will come back home. 
It’s still early.”

The three of us climbed into my
car.  Josh took the shotgun position, and Ray was sitting directly behind me. 
He offered me a beer, but I politely declined. 

As we drove along, Ray kept
talking more and more, and I was getting pretty sick of him.  I was ready to drop
him off at the next corner, but he would have no part of that.  “What about
your friend, man?  Fuchsia or whatever her name was – is she going out with me,
man?”