WIP: DYNAMIC DUO OF THE OZARKS

CHAPTER 2

The Greyhound pulled into the bus depot in Lemming, Missouri. Mykel Daring got off and looked around the parking lot, still wet with melting snow, for his mother’s 1963 Buick Electra.

“Mykey!” a familiar woman’s voice shouted from across the parking lot. It was his mother, standing by her car, waving for him to see where she was parked. He picked up his suitcase and carried it over to where she was standing. His mother was dressed in a white, boucle St. John’s skirt suit, with matching white gloves and pillbox hat. She was smiling, but yet he could see tears in her eyes as her approached her.

“Come here, baby!’ she said, as she threw her arms around Mykel and squeezed him tightly. Mykel tried to put his arms around his mother the best he could, because she had such at tight hold on him. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“I’ve missed you too, Mom!”

Margaret Daring took her son’s hand, as if he were still five, and lead him to the back of the Electra, where she unlocked the trunk, so he could put his suitcase inside. “How is Alvin and Nora?”

“They are doing great,” Mykel replied. “I think Granddad is enjoying being retired.”

“I’m glad. He worked so hard for many years,” Margaret replied. “They sent a large parcel to the house.”

“That’s my Christmas present!” Mykel said. “They told me they would sent it to the house, so I didn’t have to try and take it on the bus.”

“You can open it tonight, when you open your presents from me and Grandma and Grandpa,” Margaret explained. “I’m fixing meatloaf and scalloped potatoes for dinner and on Sunday, I’m going to fix turkey and dressing for you.”

“Great! We had ham on Christmas at Granddad and Granny’s house,” Mykel explained. “I’d rather have turkey and dressing. Ham is something you can have anytime.”

“Does Nora still pour a bottle of Coca Cola over her ham?” Margaret asked, as she opened her car door.

“I think so. She had pineapple rings and bing cherries stuck on it, with toothpicks,” Mykel answered his mother, as he got in on the passenger side.

Margaret started the Buick Electra and the heater, windshield wipers and the radio came on full blast, with the radio blaring Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass playing “Taste of Honey.” Margaret began to quickly turn things off or, at least, down to a reasonable level.

“You received some other mail,” Margaret informed Mykel. “Do you know a girl named Mary Sue Media?”

“Oh great! It’s not a girl, Mom. That is a company that owns K-I-L-L in Springville. That is the Top 40 radio station that the kids at school listen to. I applied for an internship there.”

“Oh, that reminds me, they said on the news that one of the dorm’s at Show Me State burned down. Is there one called Carver House?”

“Yes, that is the colored students dorm,” Mykel answered. “Was anyone hurt?”

“No, it happened close to Christmas, so nobody was there,” Margaret explained. “It was shortly after you went to Binbury to visit Alvin and Nora.”

“Some of the girls were going to have to leave Shelby House, because the fire department said that it was up to code,” Mykel told his mother. “I wonder where they will put people.”

As they made their way through Lemming, Mykel noticed that the Christmas decoration had not been taken down from the street lights and some of the store windows. “The snow we had Christmas has almost all melted,” Margaret observed. “Did they have snow in Vermont?”

“Of course, they did. There was about four inches. How much did we get here?”

“I think they said on the news about two inches, maybe two and a half,” Margaret explained, as she pulled the Electra into a Fina station at the corner of Elm and Second Street. The guy, who ran the gas station, came out to wait on them, wearing a heavy jacket with a Fina logo on it. Margaret rolled down the window to talk to the guy.

“Hello, Gene! Fill it up with regular and check the oil, please.”

“Okey-dokey, Margaret! Is that Mykel with you?”

“Yes, I just picked him up from the Greyhound terminal.”

Gene leaned down, to talk to Mykel through the Buick’s window, “How was Christmas in Vermont, Sonny?”

“Snowy and cold,” Mykel answered. “It looks pretty though.”

“I think someone wrote a song about that,” chuckled Gene. “By the way, we have plenty of the Christmas records, we’ve been giving away, left over and the company says we can’t sent them back. I can give you all a copy. If you don’t mind? There won’t be a charge for it, since you are filling up the car.”

“Okay, that will be nice,” Margaret answered. “Yes, we will take one.” Gene then went to work, servicing the car. Margaret glanced over at Mykel with pleasant, loving smile and placed her gloved hand on her son’s hand, giving it a tender squeeze. “I’ve missed so much.” She professed to her seventeen year old son. “We only had a few weeks after you got home from college and, now, we will only have about two weeks before you have to go back to college.”

“Yeah, I wish we could have more time together, I felt I should go visit Granddad and Granny. I wished they hadn’t insisted on Christmas time,” Mykel told his mother. I wish it could have been in the summer. I finally found one thing about Missouri that I like compared to Vermont. It is warmer in the winter.”

Gene finished and came back over to the car window with the credit card holder and imprinter and three copies of the “Merry Christmas From Your Friend’s at Fina” record album.

“Here you and Mykel can each have a copy and here is a copy for your folks.” He then handed the records through the window and to Margaret’s credit card from her and ran it through the imprinter, then handed the holder and pen to Margaret to sign.

“Okay, they’ll appreciate it,” replied Margaret as she signed the credit card receipt.

“Thank you, Margaret! You and Mykel come back soon!” Gene said, while tearing the carbon copy of the receipt off and giving it to Margaret. Margaret said goodbye, rolled up the window and drove away.

“You can play that record, while you open your presents tonight,” Margaret suggested. “I’m anxious to see what is in the box Alvin and Nora sent you!”

“I am too!” Mykel replied as he scanned the back cover of the Christmas record. It featured the usual suspects: Andy Williams, Mitch Miller, Perry Como, Kate Smith, The Three Suns, Ferrante and Teicher, Ray Conniff Singers, George Melachrino Strings, and the Hollyridge Strings. One name wasn’t familiar to Mykel, someone named Aretha Franklin.

That evening, after Margaret served her meatloaf, with tomato paste topping, and cheesy scalloped potatoes. Her mother brought over green beans, that she had canned during the summer, and Christmas cookies. Mykel began opening his presents. He got two pairs of Levis blue jeans, two pairs of khakis, two Polo shirts, and a tie. Then things got interesting. Mykel unwrapped a Dutch Master cigar box of his Grandpa’s that contained three paperback, compilations of article and photos from Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine.

“Thank you! I’ve never seen these in the stores, even in Springville,” Mykel said with amazement. “I thought you could only order them out of the back of the magazine.” Mykel then took the other two gifts his mother handed him to open. They both looked like record albums.

“We found those at a Woolworth, when we went to Cousin Gerty’s funeral,” Margaret explained to her son, as she handed him two more presents. “Here open these next.”

Mykel opened the first one, wrapped in red paper, with pictures of smiling snowmen all over it. He tore into the paper to find a white cover. Another rip of the paper and he saw the word ‘HIGHWAY’ in big, bold golden-brown letters. Then he tore the paper some more to expose a sullen Bob Dylan in a blue paisley jacket staring back at him. “Oh wow! Highway 61 Revisited! I’ve been wanting this record!”

“That one is from me!” Margaret stated watching her son’s joy as he finished unwrapping the Bob Dylan LP.

“I bought the other one for you,” his maternal grandmother spoke up. Mykel began to unwrap the other record, which was wrapped in red and green paper. Under that paper, was an album cover with green trees on it and chubby, odd-shaped, orange letters reading RUBBER SOUL. Mykel ripped the rest of the paper to show the slightly distorted photo of The Beatles on the cover.

“Thank you, Grandma!”

“You’re welcome, Mykey honey,” his grandmother said. “I wanted to get that one for you, since I more familiar with The Beatles and their songs.”

“What is the song on that record that you said you like, Ma?” Mykel’s grandpa asked.

“Michelle,” his grandma replied. “I think that is such a cute little song.”

Grandpa moved a large package over to where Mykel was sitting. “Now, Mykel, I bought this from an ad in the back of American Legion magazine. Nothing exciting, but I thought this would be a good thing to have in the trunk of your car, in case of a break down or something.”

Mykel tore off the wrapping paper, which was silver with blue angels, to discover a red, metal tool box with the words ‘Roadside Emergency Kit,’ painted on in it black. He opened it ti find several sizes of flashlights, ropes, chains, hooks, a jack, sever wrenches, ratchets, screwdrivers, jumper cables, a detachable gas can, a belt to carry the tools, and a small case of what looked like tiny, glass eggs.

Mykel asked his Grandpa, “What are these things?”

“Those are called self-igniting road flares,” Mykel’s grandpa informed him. “You don’t have to strike a match to light those. You break them on the ground and they put off a light. Be careful with those.”

“There is a bunch of stuff here,” Mykel said, overwhelmed by the gift.

“Well, I hope you never need to use some of that equipment, but at least you will have it just in case you have car trouble.”

“Open the big package from Alvin and Nora,” Margaret requested.

Grandpa carried the large parcel, wrapped in blue paper with white snowflakes on it, to the living room and gave Mykel his pocket knife to open the box that was underneath. Under the wrapping paper, Mykel found a cardboard box with the words ‘Zenith 12 inch black and white television’ on the side.

“Wow! A TV! I can take this back to college with me!” Mykel exclaimed with a smile on his face.

“Remember Mykel, you are in college to study,” Margaret reminded him.

“I know, Mom,” Mykel acknowledged her with a twinge of sarcasm.

Later that evening, after Mykel’s grandparents went home, Margaret brought his mail to him to read, while he watched Laredo. Mykel was confused by the episode, because he was trying to figure out how the British pop singers Chad and Jeremy got in a Western.

“I’m going to take a bath and go to bed. I’d like to stay up to watch Dean Martin, but I’m really tired,” Margaret said, before she kissed Mykel’s cheek. “I’m so glad to have you home, Sweetheart! Goodnight.”

“Good night, Mom! I love you!”

As bad as Mykel wanted to read the letter from Mary Sue Media, he thought he should probably read the letter from the Show Me State College Housing Department first, because it might be important, since his mom mentioned a fire destroying one of the dorms. He opened the letter and began reading:

“January 3, 1966. Dear Mykel Daring: We hope you are enjoying your Christmas break. We feel there are many things to make you aware of before the start of the spring semester. We regret to inform you that your roommate from this past semester, Ralph Jenkins, will not be returning, due to his academic performance. We have assigned you a new roommate, Clinton Grogan of Hermes, Missouri. You will also be relocated to his room, which is 515 in Bonner House.”

“There are some temporary changes at Chester Ambrose Bonner House due to some unfortunate circumstances. The George Washington Carver House was destroyed by fire on December 22, 1965. Since there were a small group of students that resided in the Carver House, we will be desegregating the Bonner House. This will also be in compliance with President Johnson’s Civil Rights Act. If you feel uncomfortable about living in the same dorm as Negro students, please contact us and we will try to find different housing accommodations for you.”

“We also need to inform you of another situation. The Springville Fire Department has mandated that we bring the Flora Olivia Shelby House up to code, since it was built in 1922. This remodeling project will take place over the next year or two. The trend at other colleges and universities is co-ed dorms. We, at Show Me State College, have chosen to experiment with co-ed dorms by allowing the small group of girls displaced by first stage of construction at Shelby House do reside this semester at Bonner House. The girls and boys will be on separate floors. As with the Negro situation, if you have an objection to being in the same dorm as females, contact us and we will try to make other arrangements for you. Hope to see you for the spring semester!”

Mykel was not surprised that Ralph Jenkins flunked out, because he slept most of the time and rarely went to class. Mykel also didn’t have a problem with the students from Carver House students moving into Bonner House, because after all they were humans too.

The thing that caught Mykel’s attention was the last part about Shelby House. The formal language and explanation couldn’t hide the different meaning Mykel read. To Mykel it said: THERE WILL BE GIRLS IN YOUR DORM! YOUR DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE! Mykel thought maybe this meant he would finally be able to meet a girl who would go out with him.

He was so excited about girls being in the dorm, that he almost forgot about the letter from Mary Sue Media. He tore it open, even though he worried it might be a condolence letter saying that he couldn’t be an intern.

“Dear Mykel: Thank you for expressing interest in an internship at our radio station. Sol Ketner, the general manager of K-I-L-L – The Big 1300, has chosen you to be the intern for the spring 1966 semester, because your letter show genuine enthusiasm for Top 40 radio and broadcasting in general. We would like for you to meet with us on Tuesday, January 25 at 4 p.m., to discuss what you will be doing. Sincerely, Lance Powers, Program Director.”

Mykel was so excited about the internship that he ran to his mom’s bedroom to tell her the good news. “Mom, I’ve got the K-I-L-L – Big Thirteen Hundred internship.”

Margaret rolled over to see who had just woke her up. She realized it was Mykel, but still wasn’t sure what he said. She groggily tried to talk to him. “That’s nice, Mykey, but why do you need thirteen, one hundred year old ships?”

“Never mind, Mom,” Mykel realized his mother was too sleep to talk to him. “I will tell you about it in the morning.”