WIP: DYNAMIC DUO OF THE OZARKS

NEW NOTE: I’m happy to report that this sneak peak chapter has received several hits, according to the stats provided by WordPress and Jetpack. I noticed that in my haste to post this in time for Valentine’s Day three years ago, I had some typos, as well as I have since changed the name of the college and the town the novel is set. I have changed those and even some of the music titles mentioned. ENJOY!

NOTE: This is a sneak peak at an upcoming chapter. I thought I would post it today since it involves Valentine’s Day. Enjoy!

Mykel managed to stay awake during American Lit with Dr. Gladys Wisencoff, as the class discussed Winesburg, Ohio, and how close it was to Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology. As far as answering questions about any character other than young, idealistic newspaper reporter George Willard, Mykel wasn’t real interested. Dr. Wisencoff asked Mykel if he thought the character of Wing Biddlebaum was a pedophile.

“I don’t know,” Mykel answered with a cocky smirk on his face. “It never noticed it saying that he was a bicycle collector.” Dr. Wisencoff tried to hold in a laugh, given a half smile at Mykel before moving on to one of the more serious students. Kathy and Grace snickered and giggled at his answer. Finally class ended, mercifully, and everyone made their way out of the classroom.

Kathy instructed Mykel, “You and Clint try to be dressed in something nice about 7 p.m., for the Alpha Sigma Alpha Valentine Date Dash Dance.”

Mykel then confided in Kathy and Grace, “I got a Valentine card and present for Sherry. Just a box of candy. I’ll give it too her after classes this afternoon.”

“We have an appointment to have our hair done at Campus Beauty Shop at 2 p.m., but I’m sure you can give it to her before we go to our appointment,” Kathy said.

“She might not want it and will give it to somebody else,” Mykel fretted. “I gave candy to a girl in Lemming Pond and she gave it to a bunch of guys on the football team. It was those chocolate covered cherries and they used rubber bands to shoot them at me in class.”

“Mykel, Sherry would never do something like that!” Grace said.

“No, Sherry likes you,” Kathy tried to reassure Mykel. “She also appreciates the attention you give her, because she didn’t get any attention from her former boyfriend.”

“I hope so,” Mykel said with trepidation.

“We know so,” Kathy reassured him.

Mykel went to American History and sat down. Sherry came bouncing into the room a few minutes later with a smile on her face. Her hair was pulled back in a knot.

“Good morning! Are you excited about tonight?” Sherry asked, as she took her coat off, with a crackle of static, as it came off of her ski sweater.

“What is tonight?” Mykel tried to act like he wasn’t to anxious about going to the dance with Sherry.

“The Valentine’s Day Date Dash! You’re not really supposed to know about it, but it is best if you’re dressed kind of nice, since it is Valentine’s Day,” Sherry beamed with excitement.

“Yeah, I’ll be ready” Mykel was feeling more comfortable about the dance, so he decided to ask her about this afternoon. “Can we get together for a few minutes this afternoon, when you are finished with class?”

“Well, me and Kathy are going to get our hair fixed for the dance, so we can’t get into the shenanigans that we have been after class,” Sherry giggled. “But yeah, we can get together for a few minutes and hang out.”

Mykel relaxed, slightly, but became more excited that the experience might be more positive than his horrible experiences with girls in Lemming Pond. He got little out of Professor Plowright’s lecture why Charles Guiteau assassinated President Garfield.

Mykel rushed back to his dorm room. He needed to be ready for when Sherry got out of class. As usual, the first thing he did when he got into the room was turn on the radio.

He took the Valentine card, that he bought at Katz, out of the sack, which showed a boy and girl drinking soda with the words, “Just thought I’d POP the question – Will you be my Valentine?,” and signed his name on the inside. It was kind of corny, but Mykel still wasn’t sure how he was going to take it. He had told Bethany Duckworth that he was in love with her and she said she felt “disgusted” that he was in love with her. Mykel was trying to be cautious, but at the same time he had bought Sherry a heart-shaped box of Whitman Chocolates for four dollars. Maybe these won’t end up as projectiles aimed at him.

On the radio, T. R was telling about a private plane crash landing on the water at the Lake of the Ozarks, a soldier being stabbed at Fort Leonard Wood and budget talks in Jefferson City. When he was finished, the Four Tops began singing “Wake Me, Shake Me.”

Mykel decided to ring the girl’s suite to see if Sherry was back from class. His finger’s trembled as he dial ‘420’ on the phone. No answer. He hung up and waited about ten seconds and dialed again. No answer. It didn’t help that the Four Tops song included the lines “She don’t love you, she don’t love you.” Mykel waited a minute this time and dialed the phone. Debbie answered and he asked if Sherry was there.

“No, she is back from class yet,” Debbie said. “I’ll have her call you when she gets here.”

“THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L WITH THE FOUR TOPS AND WAKE ME, SHAKE ME, THROW COLD WATER ON ME! I’M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS AND HERE IS A SONG THAT WE ARE HAVING A TON OF REQUEST FOR TODAY. IT’S A VERY MUSHY ROMANTIC SONG FOR VALENTINE’S DAY. IT’S STAFF SARGENT BARRY SADLER AND THE BALLAD OF THE GREEN BERET ON THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L!”

Mykel decided to call the girl’s room again to see if Sherry was back from class. Debbie answered again. “No, Mykel, she isn’t here yet. I’ll tell her to call you, when she gets in.” Mykel sat down on the bed and watched the minute had on the clock make it’s revolution around the face of the alarm clock. So, he got up and dialed the phone. “No, Mykel!” Debbie snapped. “Sherry isn’t here yet! I will have her call you when she comes in! You will just have to wait for her to call you!” Mykel hung up. He decided that he probably should wait for Sherry to call, rather than call the room again.

Finally, the phone rang and Sherry told him to come down to 420. Mykel picked up the envelope, with the Valentine inside, and the heart-shaped box of Whitman’s Chocolates, and made his way to see Sherry, stopping off in the stairwell to buy a bottle of Pepsi for her and himself. Mykel was going all out for this girl, in hopes that she was maybe THE girl.

The door was open and she walked out the bathroom, rubbing that concoction, of Witch Hazel and peroxide, on her hands. “Hey, I understand you have been trying to call me,” she laughed.

“Is Debbie mad at me?”

“No, she just thought it was funny that you were calling that much,” Sherry said. “You must really want to see me.”

“Yeah, can we sit down?” Mykel’s voice croaked with nervousness.

“How about we sit on…” Sherry pointed to the settee and said in a pretend sexy voice, “the Love Seat.” She then burst in to laughter. Mykel sat down and Sherry sat down next to him, after she turned on the radio on the counter, playing “Hungry For Love” by the San Remo Golden Strings. “What all have you got in your hands?”

“I got us a Pepsi and this other stuff is for you,” Mykel was shaking as he handed the gifts to Sherry. “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

“Chocolates! You shouldn’t have!” Sherry took the envelope with the card and opened it. She looked at the cutesy drawing on the card and then, read the inside. Her bottom lip began to quiver and tears began running down her face. “Oh Mykel!”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you. I’ll leave now and…”

“No! No! Your not going to believe this, but this is the first Valentine’s card that I have received since elementary school,” Sherry sobbed. “It is so nice to have a boy treat me special on Valentine’s Day for once!”

“You mean Mr. Knob Noster didn’t give you a Valentine?” Mykel asked.

“No, and we went together two years I got nothing from him,” Sherry then threw her arms around Mykel and gave him a tight hug. “Oh Mykel, thank you!” Then, she said, “Let’s eat the chocolates!” They unwrapped the red foil on the box and each took one out and bit into it.

Sherry chewed the chocolate candy rather furiously, then asked Mykel, “What was in your? Mine was filled with maple syrup – taffy – stuff.”

“Some kind of stuff that taste like orange juice, after you brushed your teeth, with a mystery nut in it,” Mykel grumbled. Sherry giggled about Mykel deduction of what was inside the chocolate he had just ingested. “That was one of those strange ones, that I don’t like to get a hold of when eating chocolates.”

“There is a key on the inside of the box lid,” Sherry exclaimed, as she looked at the lid. She held it up and scanned it for the flavor of chocolate Mykel had eaten. “That was a peppermint and fruit cream. I don’t like the cherry cordials myself.”

“I bought a box of those cherry cordials for a girl I liked in Lemming Pond and she gave them to some guys on the football team. They put them in rubber bands and shot them at me. They would hit me and break open, so the filling would run down the side of my face. I was all sticky by the end of the day.”

“That’s awful, Mykel! If she didn’t like the candy, she could have least shared it with you, not let a bunch of brutes pelt you with it.” The story made Sherry feel sorry for Mykel, but she decided to rectify the wrong afflicted on him in Lemming Pond. She found the cherry cordial in the box and held it up to Mykel’s face, to feed it to him. He was taking a drink of Pepsi at that moment. “Here you can eat my cherry!” Mykel nearly choked on his Pepsi and Sherry, quickly realized how awkward and inappropriate that her offer of the chocolate candy sounded, she began laughing. They were both laughing and she placed her head on his shoulder. “That didn’t sound very good, did it!” Once they stopped laughing. They looked into each others eyes and she placed the cherry chocolate candy in his mouth. Mykel bit down on the chocolate and realized that he could probably develop a taste for cherry cordials. Sherry then leaned in and gave Mykel a kiss on the lips.

“THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L! I’M LOVABLE LANCE POWERS WITH THE SAN REMO GOLDEN STRINGS AND HUNGRY FOR LOVE! I’M CRAVING PIZZA MYSELF. IT VALENTINE’S DAY, ALSO KNOWN A SINGLE PEOPLES AWARENESS DAY.” Lovable Lance played a recorded drum rim shot. “IF YOU GIVE YOUR GIRL A DIAMOND RING TODAY, I HOPE SHE DOESN’T GIVE IT BACK. IT’S GARY LEWIS AND THE PLAYBOYS ON THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L!” Lovable Lance introduced “This Diamond Ring” to the listeners.

Kathy walked into the dorm suite, “Well, you two are celebrating Valentine’s Day the right way.”

“Mykel got me chocolates and a Valentine card,” Sherry boasted to Kathy.

“They are talking naughty too!” Debbie yelled from the bedroom. Sherry and Mykel chuckled about the faux pas Sherry had made about the cherry cordial.

“That was nice of him! Can I have one?” Kathy reached for a piece of candy out of the red foil, heart-shaped box and Sherry, playfully, swatted her hand.

“Get you own box!” Sherry laughed, but some stray tears welled up in her eyes, as she explained, “These are the first box of chocolates I ever got from a boy and I’m not sharing.”

“Well!” Kathy said with fake indignation. “You’re sassy now that you have a nice boy that gives you attention.”

“Now Kathy, you know some people think I’m queer because I have a Beatle hair cut and make jokes. Also, my family never put the knob in Knob Noster,” Mykel making fun of Alice, which made Sherry and Kathy laugh. “By the way, will Alice grace us with her presence at the dance tonight?”

“No, she isn’t in our sorority,” Sherry answered. “Thank God!”

“That’s good! I was afraid that while we are dancing tonight, she would be following us around telling you how you need to go back to that jerk Chip,” Mykel said. “I can see her doing that and staring at me with that creepy eye of hers.” Sherry and Kathy laughed at Mykel’s comment, which he augmented with a futile attempt to imitate Alice’s exotropia strabismus by crossing his eyes.

“Not trying to rush you off, but we need to be going to our beauty appointment,” Kathy informed Mykel.

“It’s 1:45 now!” Sherry exclaimed with a slight panic. She put the candy box in the refrigerator and Mykel walked with Sherry and Kathy out to Kathy’s Packard Clipper in the parking lot.

After they came back from eating in the cafeteria, Mykel and Clint got dressed up for the Alpha Sigma Alpha Valentine’s Day Date Dash, which they were supposed to act like they didn’t know about it. Clint put on a white dress shirt and Mykel put on a sweater. They turned on Mykel’s television and watched the news until Batman came on.

“Shouldn’t we put on ties?” Clint asked Mykel, before taking a drink of Dr. Pepper.

“It would be nice, but we are supposed to act like we didn’t know the girls were coming to get us,” Mykel explained. “I think we are already over dressed as it is.”

“Did Sherry like the candy you got her?” Clint asked.

“She liked it so much she cried,” Mykel replied. “She had never been given a gift on Valentine’s Day. If I ever meet up with that Chip Hallwell, I’m going to punch his lights out for treating her like her did. I don’t care if his family did –” Mykel quickly slipped into a crude imitation of Alice’s voice. “Put the knob in Knob Noster.”

Clint chuckled at Mykel’s imitation of Alice, then said, “You know, I’d to take a dip of chew, but I don’t think I should before a date with a girl, because there might be some kissing later on and girl don’t like to kiss a guy that has been chewing tobacco.”

Someone banged on the door of the boy’s dorm room. “Are those are dates that we are not supposed to know about?” Clint laughed.

Mykel got off of the bed, walked down the corridor to the door and opened it, to find Sherry and Kathy were standing outside, dressed in their best dresses, with white gloves and their hair and makeup to perfection. Kathy’s hair was curled and Sherry had her hair bleached to an almost silvery white. “Surprise! We are here for the Alpha Sigma Alpha Valentine’s Day Date Dash!”

Mykel milked his attempt to act like he didn’t know they were coming to the point of absurdity. He turned and said, to Clint, who was walking up the corridor to the door, in a dry, slow, mock unexcited tone, “Oh my, there are two sorority girls here, wanting us to go to a dance with them. I was not expecting this tonight. Were you, Clint?”

“Nope. I forgot it was Valentine’s Day,” Clint answered. The girls laughed at the boys acting like they didn’t know about the dance, even they were ready and waiting for the girls. The boys got their coats and Mykel turned off the TV. “Why don’t we take my Mustang since it is a special occasion?” Clint suggested.

“The Alpha Sigma Alpha house is just across the street. We were just going to walk,” Kathy said. “But it will be cool to ride in a Mustang! Besides it is cold outside.”

When they arrived at the Alpha Sigma House, the boys opened the doors of the Mustang for the girls and helped them out. “We should have got the girls roses or corsages,” Clint observed.

“Remember, we weren’t supposed to know about this,” Mykel reminded him, as they walked the girls up the steps to the Alpha Sigma house, which was decorated the red, white and pink crepe paper streamers and big, scarlet hearts. There was a pretty good crowd of students, dancing in the large room, in the center of the house. In the corner, a fellow was playing records on two record players with a hi-fi speaker. At the moment they walked in, he was playing “More and More Amor” by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

“Hello, girls! You look lovely!” a white haired lady, with silver framed glasses, walked over and began talking to Kathy and Sherry.

“Hello, Miss Emojean!” Kathy greeted the lady.

“Miss Emojean, I want to introduce you to my friend, Mykel Daring,” Sherry gushed. “Mykel, this is the sorority house mother, Miss Emojean.” The boys told her that it was nice to meet her.

“Sherry, this boy is a different boy than was here at the Christmas party, isn’t he?” Miss Emojean asked. “Wasn’t he a taller boy with blonde hair in a brush cut?”

“Yes, mam! But since he never liked to celebrate Valentine’s Day, he is probably spending it alone in Knob Noster tonight,” Sherry acknowledged that she was not with Chip anymore.

Miss Emojean placed her fore fingers over her lips and snickered, “Oh my! Well, Mykel, were you surprised when Sherry came to get you for the Date Dash Dance?”

“Mam, I was never more surprised in my life,” Mykel told Miss Emojean, imitating Red Skelton doing Clem Kadiddlehopper character. He then went back to his own voice and told her, “This is the first time a girl asked me to go to a dance with her. I’m pretty happy right now!”

“You certainly have more personality than her former boyfriend,” Miss Emojean complimented Mykel, then turned to Clint and Kathy. “Kathy, what is your friend’s name?”

“This is Clint Grogan. He is on the Wolves Basketball team.”

“I thought he must be a basketball player as tall as he is,” Miss Emojean observed. “Where are you from, young man?”

“Hermes, Missouri.”

“That is near the Iowa line, isn’t it?”

Clint smiled and said, “Yes, it is near Iowa, near Nebraska and near Kansas.”

“Well, it is nice to meet you boys,” Miss Emojean said. “I’ll take your coats, girls. We have punch and cookies, over at the kitchen bar. Have a good time!” The boys helped the girls removed their coats and Miss Emojean took them in another room to hang them up. Kathy was wear a knee-length, black, velvet party dress with white satin collar and cuffs and Sherry was wearing a knee-length, deep pink, chiffon, shift dress with vertical pleats all around.

“Shall we dance, ladies?” Clint asked, as they walked into the parlor of the old Victorian house, which had been converted into a makeshift ballroom for the evening. The instrumental ended and the DJ providing the music, began playing “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” by Mel Carter. It was then that Mykel realized that dancing with Sherry would be a tad awkward since he stood only five foot one and she was five foot five.

“I know how to fix this!” Sherry said, as she reached down and took off her shoes, to make her closer to the right height for Mykel to dance with. He still had to look up to look into Sherry’s blue eyes, but the fact that he was standing close enough to do so was an wonderful experience alone. They put their arms around each other and began slow dancing to the soulful love song. Her body felt warm pressed up against his. It was warmer than it usually was when they were heavy petting in his dorm room, but he figured it was because of Valentine’s Day excitement.

“That was nice of you to do that,” Mykel thanked Sherry. “The girls in Lemming Pond wouldn’t dance with me, because they said my eyes and nose would be right between their boobs.”

Sherry laughed and gave Mykel a flirty wink, “What would be wrong with that?” Then, she said, “I find it ironic that none of the girls in Lemming Pond wanted to have anything to do with a sweet, considerate and loving person like you, Mykel, and yet, in Knob Noster, I was the envy of Alice, and all the other girls, because I was going with Chip Hallwell, who was inconsiderate, uncaring and downright boring.”

“I noticed Miss Emojean wasn’t very impressed with Chip,” Mykel said with a smirk.

“Once you get away from Knob Noster,” Sherry explained. “Nobody is impressed with Chip.”

“You know what we should do tonight that would make this evening more fun?” Mykel asked with a sarcastic tone in his voice.

“What?” Sherry looked Mykel in the face with an inquisitive look.

“If we didn’t talk about Chip anymore tonight,” Mykel answered, right about the time Eddy Arnold began singing “Make The World Go Away” on the Hi-Fi speaker.

Sherry smiled, “That’s a good idea, although I was hoping you would say we should get drunk. Maybe when Miss Emojean isn’t looking, someone will spike the punch. They usually do.”

Mykel felt he really didn’t need a drink, he was inebriated just holding Sherry close to him and swaying back and forth with the music. “I like your perfume,” Mykel said to her. “What’s that called?”

“Ambush,” Sherry whispered the answer to him. “Someone didn’t like me to wear perfume, but you just told me not to bring him up.”

“Well, I like perfume on a woman, even though it sometimes triggers my asthma,” Mykel’s complimented her awkwardly.

“Thanks! I put it on my both sides of my neck, both of my wrist…” then Sherry whispered to Mykel. “I also put it on my derriere and my underwear.” She winked at Mykel and continued, “I’d lift my skirt and let you smell, but…” she began giggling to a point that she could hardly talk, “Miss Emojean would frown on me doing that.”

Mykel tried to continue dancing, although his mouth was hanging open to his belt after Sherry passed on that bit of candid, provocative information to him. She was still smiling and laughing at his reaction. She placed her hand on the back of his head and pushed it forward into her hairspray stiffened blonde hair, which kind of scratched his face, which was draped on her shoulder. The DJ switched from playing a smooth, Nashville, reconciliation ballad to the sinister, spooky, Philly soul song “Who Do You Love (I Want To Know)” by the Sapphires. “Let’s just keep dancing,” Sherry said. “We can do that sometime, when I’m in your room.”

So Mykel and Sherry continued to dance to the slow songs, holding each other close, occasionally stopping to kiss each others cheek and smile at each other. It was during the big dramatic finish of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by B. J Thomas, that Sherry made an acute observation, “Mykel, have you noticed how all of the songs that are so good to slow dance to are very sad. They all seem to be about losing your love to another person or someone couple breaking up. I wonder why that is?” As Sherry commented with wisdom of a person, who knew the sadness that comes with love, the DJ began playing “What Now My Love”.

“And this song is about the most depressing song in the world,” Mykel odd continued the discussion. “Why Sonny and Cher, would want to sing this is beyond me. They’re a happy couple and will probably be like my both grandparents and celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary some day.” Mykel then said, “Where are Clint and Kathy?” He and Sherry looked around until they spied them at the refreshments.

“They are having cookies and punch,” Sherry noticed their location at the party. “Kathy is probably telling Clint the proper way to make sugar cookies.”

“Do you and Kathy not get along?” Mykel asked.

“Oh no! I like Kathy!” Sherry clarified what she meant. “But she always is in charge and organizing everything. She likes to tell you how to do everything. Kathy is a born leader.”

Mykel and Sherry made their way over to where the refreshments were being served through a serving window with a Formica covered bar. There was a platter of heart-shaped sugar cookies, iced in pink and red, with little sprinkles on them. The punch was being served in little plastic flutes, like for champagne.

“Taste the punch!” Kathy commanded Sherry and Mykel with a big smile.

“Did somebody…?” Sherry started to ask.

“Oh yes and it is rather strong too,” Clint added. “Pretty sure they put vodka in it.”

Mykel and Sherry both got a cup of punch from one of the senior Alpha Sigma Alpha girls, then walked back over to where Clint and Kathy were sitting. They took a drink and both made a funny face. Mykel strangled a little and coughed.

“Now that is what I call punch,” Mykel joked. The fellow playing the records followed “What Now My Love” with “I Can’t Grow Peaches On an Apple Tree” by Just Us and Mykel thought of Sherry’s rather poignant comment to him, before they paused for refreshments. He excused himself and walked over to where the DJ had his hi-fi system set up.

“Hey pal, can I have a word with you?” Mykel asked the guy.

“Yeah, sure. Do you have a special song you want to request?”

“Not one special song, per say. My date pointed out that most of the slow songs are kind of sad. Do you have any slow songs that aren’t about breaking up?” Mykel inquired. The guy pulled out a clipboard with a list of songs on them.

“Yeah, sure,” the DJ explained. “I was just playing some of these first. I have some others I can play. I got plenty of Beatles records I can play. Those are usually happy. I’m also going to play some upbeat stuff so people don’t have to slow dance all night, then the last few songs will be instrumentals.”

“By the way, how did you get started doing this?” Mykel asked.

“I used to be in radio,” the guy said.

“I’m a Broadcasting major and an intern at K-I-L-L.”

“Can I give you a word of warning? Do not work at K-M-W-H for the Meinhoffs!”

“Is that the father and son team? I have heard bad things about them.”

“They forced me to sign, what is called, a non-compete contract. Most non-competes are for a few months in the same market. The Meinhoffs non-competes are for two years for the whole state of Missouri. My wife and I are both from Spring Valley and don’t want to move to another state. So, I started this business. I make good money at these frat and sorority parties. Tell you what, kid. I’ll try to play something happier for your girlfriend.”

Mykel thanked the guy for the advice, about avoiding the bad radio station, and walked back to where Sherry, Clint and Kathy were sitting. Mykel had barely sat down, when they DJ played “Every Little Thing She Does” by The Beatles. His little talk must have worked.

Sherry’s cheerful smile was a tad wilder this time. “I think I’m going to need another cup of this punch.”

“I do too. Want me to go get us another cup?” Mykel asked and Sherry said yes. Clint asked Kathy if she wanted another cup of punch and she said yes, so both boys walked over to the refreshments were being served to get the girl’s more punch.

“Are you having fun?” Mykel asked his roommate.

“Yeah, we danced some, but we’ve enjoyed talking more…” Clint answered. “And drinking this punch, although Kathy thinks the cookies are too dry.” Mykel smiled, because Sherry had already remarked, to him, that Kathy would say something about the cookies. “She said they need more shortening or butter in them.” Then, Clint added, “I can tell you two are having good time. I don’t think either one of you have stopped smiling since you got here.”

“We’re having a good time, but we always do when we are together,” Mykel replied with a ever growing smile. He glanced over at Sherry and gave her a little wave, she smiled and waved back at him.

Clint tapped Mykel on the wrist, as he started to pick up a plate, with some cookies for he and Sherry to enjoy together. Clint then motioned, with his head and eyes, toward the serving window, to a red headed girl with a towering beehive hairdo and violet dress, in the kitchen, pouring a some Smirnoff Vodka into a paper cup. When it was filled, she dumped it into the punch bowl, after making sure Miss Emojean wasn’t around. The girl was adding a can of Ruby Red Hawaiian Punch and a quart bottle of Bubble Up to the bowl, when she noticed that Clint and Mykel had saw her spiking the punch. She came out of the kitchen, with the punch bowl and placed it on the refreshment table, where the boys were standing and began chatting with them.

“Well Hello! I’m the Alpha Sigma president Betty Kay Kendall. You are two nice looking young men! I assume you are here with dates.”

“Yes, we are,” Clint answered, as “Everybody Loves Somebody” by Dean Martin began playing on the DJ’s hi-fi system. “I am here with Kathy Trautman and Mykel is with Sherry Ridenhour.”

The red haired girl looked at Mykel and smiled, “Sherry is kind of a big girl for a tiny, little boy like you.” She was joking, but Mykel didn’t appreciate her attempted humor.

“So, where are you tigers from?” Betty asked, as she sat a cup of her lethal punch down on the table behind her and lit a Tareyton 100.

“I’m from Lemming Pond, but don’t hold that against me.” Betty laughed in a slightly fake manner at Mykel’s usual comment about his hometown.

“I’m from Hermes.”

“Well well, I’m from Palmyra. We are practically neighbors,” Betty gushed.

“If you call twenty miles away being neighbors,” Clint answered in an annoyed voice. Neither Clint nor Mykel was having any of Betty’s glad-handing. Luckily, Sherry and Kathy apparently saw Betty trying to flirt with their dates and rushed over to get them away from her. Clint was sort of startled by how quick they came over, to the refreshment table, from across the room, as if to save them from being hijacked by the red haired girl with the beehive hairdo.

“And here are your dates now!” Betty gushed, trying to avoid acting like she was caught. “Are you girls enjoying the dance?”

“Yes we are, Betty! We sent the boys over here for some more punch and cookies,” Kathy hinted. “We came to check on what was keeping them.”

“I was refreshing the punch bowl, so they were probably waiting on that,” Betty apologized, but never admitted that she was flirting with Clint and Mykel. She dipped all four of them a cup of the punch and served it to them. The four took a drink and were struck by how this batch of punch was stronger than the last. The amount of vodka caused a tingling numbness, accompanied by acidic singe as it went down their throats. “Do you all like what I did with the punch?”

“It’s great!” Sherry said with a burning throat. “But Miss Emojean is going to be upset, if she finds out what you put in it.”

On the dance floor, there was more movement, thanks to the DJ playing “I Getting Sentimental Over You” by the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. The Valentine couples were trying to dance the Watusi, Frug and Pony to the mariachi-influenced jazz-pop.

“The music seems to have gotten happier,” Sherry observed. “Maybe we should be out there dancing too.”

“That’s a great idea, but let me finish this cup of punch,” Mykel answered her. “It kind of makes me vibrate all over.”

Sherry winked at Mykel and giggled, “It does me too.”

They finished their cookies and punch and returned to the dance floor, just in time for the DJ to play “You’re The One” by The Vogues, which was faster than what they had been dancing to earlier. The up-tempo music mixed with the buzz from the spiked punch gave Mykel and Sherry a rush of enthusiastic dancing that others at the dance began watching with great enjoyment. They were running the gamut and trying to do the Watusi, Frug and Pony, all at once, and Sherry even threw in a little bit of the Swim, before Mykel put his arms around her waist and tried to spin Sherry, while she held her flailing arms out, like they were an Olympic ice skating duo, but the effects of the spiked punch caused them to blunder into two other couples. They began laughing, only slightly embarrassed, although one of the couples, they bumped into, was not amused. Mykel and Sherry both told the other boy and girl that they were sorry. The girl mumbled something to the boy about them being “freshmen.” Sherry gave Mykel a kiss and smiled with a twinkle in her blue eyes.

“I think you are a pretty good dancer!” Sherry complimented Mykel

“I think you have had too much of that punch,” Mykel replied, to which Sherry threw her head back and laughed louder than usual. Surprisingly, her hair never moved, thanks to the amount of hair care products that had been applied, while she and Kathy were at the beauty shop, but she was glistening with perspiration.

“Hey, you want to get another cup of punch?” Sherry asked while grabbing Mykel’s lapel and tugging on it, for no apparent reason. “I need a cold drink to cool me off.”

“I don’t think another cup of punch would hurt us,” Mykel agreed, so they walked over to the refreshments and grabbed another cup of the spiked punch.

The DJ began playing “Eight Days a Week,” by the Beatles, and Sherry smiled at Mykel. “I love this song!” She then tried singing along with John Lennon, “Hold me, love me, hold me, love me.”

Mykel was drinking another cup of punch, when he noticed, through the serving window, Miss Emojean in the kitchen, she dipped a cup of the punch, took a drink and made a horrified expression on her face. “This is punch is tainted. I’ll bet Betty did this!” She said, out loud, before she took the punch bowl and dumped the contents into the sink.

As soon as she finished her cup of punch, Sherry jumped up and said, “Let’s go dance some more!” She grabbed Mykel’s arm and almost dislocated his shoulder pulling him to the dance floor. After the earlier dancing mishap, the other couple tried to make sure they were not around Mykel and Sherry. The Beatles song ended, the DJ went back to slow dance music and played Barbara Streisand singing “The Shadow of Your Smile.” Mykel put his arms around Sherry, giving a gentle, little squeeze.

“You know what we need to do?” Sherry jabbered loudly in Mykel’s ear, even though she probably thought she was whispering. “We need to pick us a special song to be our song. How about this one?”

“This is okay to dance to on Valentine’s Day, but too middle-aged, country club couple for us,” Mykel answered, as only a radio station employee would, when speaking of popular music.

“You’re right,” Sherry said. “This is something old country club people would like and I sure don’t want to be like them. I’ve been to some country club dances and they are really, really boring! And you also dance better than Chip did. You hold me closer. I also like your aftershave, it smells so clean.”

“It’s just Aqua Velva; nothing fancy.”

The continued to sway slowly to the songs the DJ played on his hi-fi system, as they would continue to try to pick a “special song.” They considered both “Today” by the New Christy Minstrels, “Some Enchanted Evening” by Jay and the Americans, and “All I Really Want To Do” by the Byrds. They had a bit of a disagreement about “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers. Sherry liked it, but Mykel said “People twenty-five years from now probably won’t remember that song.”

Some of the other couples were starting to leave. Clint and Kathy were sitting and talking to another couple, while about three other couples continued dancing next to Mykel and Sherry.

Mykel quietly told Sherry, “You know, I could hold you and dance with you, from now until eternity.”

Sherry, after being so happy and giddy all night long, suddenly sounded morose, “No, Mykel, I’m afraid you can’t.”

Mykel was afraid, that she would eventually turn on him or let him know that she didn’t love him. He was having such a wonderful night. He knew it was too good to be true. “Why?” he asked, as he felt like he was going to cry.

Sherry looked at him, with that mischievous look of hers, where she was trying to hold in a laugh She then confided, with a little giggle in her voice, “You can’t hold me until eternity, because I drunk all of that punch and I’M DYING TO GO TO THE LADIES ROOM!”

Mykel quickly turned loose of Sherry and gave laugh of relief. He was afraid he had done something wrong and their friendship was over. Luckily, it was only the call of nature. A total of four songs passed, while Mykel waited for Sherry to return from the bathroom. To Mykel, it seemed like four years. She came tipsy toddling back to Mykel from the bathroom, still in her stocking feet, after removing them, so she and Mykel wouldn’t be so miss matched in heights while dancing. “Red Roses For a Blue Lady” by Vic Dana began playing for the remaining couples and Sherry reached out her arms for Mykel to take her again.

“I noticed, while I was on the toilet, my shoes are missing,” Sherry informed Mykel. “I may have lost them. I really, really, really liked those shoes. They were so cute.”

The next song the DJ played was a ballad called “For You” by a soul group called the Spellbinders. Mykel held Sherry’s body tight against his body, as the lead vocalist sang, “I would cross the desert sands, on my knees and hands for you, girl. For you hooo-hooo-hooo-hooo you girl.”

“Do you like this one, Sherry?”

“Yes, this is a sweet song.”

“Then this is will be our song,” Mykel told her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I love you, Sherry Ridenhour!”

Sherry teared up and began to weep with happiness, “Oh Mykel, this has been the best Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had! I love you too.”

“What a coincidence, this has been the best Valentine’s Day, I’ve ever had!” Mykel gently wiped her tears with the side of his hand.

The DJ announced that the next two songs would be last dances of the evening. Clint and Kathy and the couple they were chatting with, got up and danced as well to “Our Winter Love” and “Stranger On the Shore.” Miss Emojean turned the lights up and began trying to find what coats, in the den, belonged to which guest. She had actually kept track pretty well. When she brought out Sherry and Kathy’s coats, she also brought the pair of high heeled pumps, that Sherry had shed, before she began dancing with Mykel. “You will need these, Honey,” Miss Emojean smiled. “I think your new boyfriend is a keeper too.”

“He told me he loves me,” Sherry bragged with a smile. “My other boyfriend never said that to me.”

“He didn’t act like he would have the gumption to love anybody,” Miss Emojean gave her final judgment on Chip for that evening.

They walked out into the twenty degree night to Clint’s Mustang. He opened the door and again pulled the seat forward, so Mykel and Sherry could ride in the back seat, and drove back to the dorm parking lot. On the radio, Bob Dylan was finishing up singing “Love Minus Zero.” After comparing his girlfriend to a raven with a broken wing, the PAMS jingle singers came on and cooed, “HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM YOUR SWEETHEARTS AT K-I-DOUBLE-L!” As if Cupid had intervened in the programming at the radio station, the next song was The Spellbinders singing “For You.”

“OH MYKEL! They are playing our song on the radio!” Sherry squealed with joy. “Me and Mykel picked this to be our song tonight.” She moved closer to Mykel, put her arm around him, laid her head on his shoulder, and gave him a kiss on the lips.

“This is a good song to have as your song,” Kathy commented.

Clint parked the Mustang and Kathy made a request. “Since it is so cold outside, let’s just sit here awhile. That heater feels so good. I’ve been cold all night.”

“Fine with me,” Clint agreed, then added. “I’m glad you talked me into going to this party. I had fun. The best part of the night was when you two ladies rushed over to rescue me and Mykel from that red headed gal.” He began laughing, “She was trying to get her hooks into me and I didn’t want to tell her that I don’t find red heads attractive.”

“I like how you two girls just appeared out of thin air, when you saw her talking to us,” Mykel laughed. “You two were like Elizabeth Montgomery and Barbara Eden. I turned around and there you were. Although she was more interested in Clint than me.”

“We caught her spiking the punch,” Clint told the girls. “She was putting whole cups of vodka in the bowl.”

“I drank several cups, because I have been hot all night,” Sherry said, moving in closer to Mykel to a point that she was almost in his lap, which was beginning to make Mykel nervous. She eased up her skirt tail above her knee and then moved his hand over to her nylon covered leg. She smiled and winked.

“Betty is notorious for two things: spiking punch at our parties and trying to steal your date,” Kathy explained. “She thinks because she is the Alpha Sigma president, she can get away with taking your boyfriend away from you.”

“She never tried to steal Chip, unfortunately,” Sherry remarked.

“THIS IS MATT MOONLIGHT ON THE BIG THIRTEEN-HUNDRED – K-I-DOUBLE-L AND THE PERFECT REQUEST FOR VALENTINE’S DAY – THE SPELLBINDERS AND “FOR YOU.” ANOTHER NICE VALENTINE’S DAY DEDICATION, FROM BOBBY TO SALLY, WHO ARE IN THE SIXTH GRADE AT JARRETT MIDDLE SCHOOL, HERE IS SPRINGVILLE. FROM HIS TRIBUTE TO NAT KING COLE LP, THIS IS MARVIN GAYE AND “TOO YOUNG.” I’M MATT MOONLIGHT AND I LOVE ALL OF YOU LISTENING TO K-I-DOUBLE-L!”

Mykel was listening to Matt’s on-air voice, that evoked an image of a handsome, white playboy with wavy hair, which was different than who he really was; a hard working, stout, Black man with a wife and two kids. He knew how to perform, as Mr. Ketner and Lovable Lance like to say, radio magic.

Sherry turned around in the back seat and laid her head in Mykel’s lap, looking up at him with a sweet, childlike expression, she raised her arm and began to tickle him under his chin. Without warning, her expression changed to one of terror and she bit her lip. “Quick! Let me out of the car!” she screamed.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Mykel asked. Before she could answer with words, she answered instead with a rumbling, rolling, demonic belch, accompanied by a scarlet deluge of regurgitated Hawaiian Punch, Bubble Up, and Smirnoff Vodka, that flowed, from her once kissable lips, to cover Mykel’s bright yellow sweater and the white, leather backseat of Clint’s Mustang.

Kathy looked around and announced to Clint, “Oh my gosh! Sherry just puked on Mykel!”

Sherry looked rather embarrassed, but before she could apologize, she vomited on Mykel again with even more force than the first volley. Sherry began to cry, not with happiness, as she had when Mykel gave her the Valentine card and candy or when he was telling her he loved her, but this was shame mixed with discomfort.

“Are you going to be okay?” Mykel asked with a worry.

“No.” Sherry whimpered and sobbed. “I threw up so hard, that I pooped a little.”

“We better take her inside! I’ll bet it is alcohol poisoning!” Kathy said.

They helped Sherry inside and into the elevator. “I just thought of something. This dress is dry clean only,” Sherry lamented. The girls got off the elevator on their floor. Mykel decided to help her walk down to Room 420.

“Mykel, you could get in trouble!” Kathy reprimanded him. “It’s after curfew and boys aren’t supposed to be on the girl’s floor or in their room.”

“I don’t care! She needs my help!” Mykel and Kathy got Sherry into the room. Her knees buckled a few times and she was as limp as a rag doll. Grace and Debbie were still awake, studying with the radio on.

“Oh my gosh! Were you guys in a car wreck?” Debbie asked at the sight of red bodily fluid on Mykel and Sherry’s clothing.

“No, Sherry got sick on Mykel,” Kathy explained. “It may be alcohol poisoning. We will need to keep her up for awhile. First, we should give her a shower. That will help and clean her up too.”

Kathy and Mykel sat Sherry down, in one of the kitchen chairs, and helped her off with her coat. Grace and Debbie watched with both worry, as Sherry was sweating buckets and seemed to be on the verge of passing out, and revulsion at the soiled front of her dress and Mykel’s soiled sweater. In the background, the science fiction, gospel choir and jazz trumpet sound of Donald Byrd’s “Christo Redentor” played behind Matt Moonlight, while he gave his famous sign off spiel over the K-I-L-L.

“OH MY LITTLE CHILDREN OF THE OZARKS, IT IS BEDTIME, SO SAY YOUR PRAYERS AND KISS YOUR TEDDY BEAR GOODNIGHT. THIS IS MATT MOONLIGHT, YOUR FRIENDLY VOICE AND GALLANT CHAMPION IN THIS SOMETIMES HARSH AND CRUEL WORLD. I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR LISTENING, THANK YOU BEING A FRIEND AND, MOST OF ALL, THANK YOU FOR ALWAYS BEING YOU. IF YOU FEEL SAD OR ANGRY TOMORROW, I HOPE YOU WILL THINK ABOUT SOMETHING I SAID TONIGHT AND IT WILL MAKE YOU SMILE. SO I SAY TE QUIERO, TE AMO, WO AN NE, JE T’AIME, ICH LIEBE DICH AND, OF COURSE, I LOVE YOU, NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE, BECAUSE WE ARE ALL HUMAN BEINGS ON PLANET EARTH. FOR THOSE OF YOU IN THE LOUNGE, SAVE A DRINK FOR YOURS TRUELY. GOODNIGHT MY SWEET ANGELS! THIS HAS BEEN NIGHTCAP WITH MATT MOONLIGHT, SIGNING OFF UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.”

When the unusual jazz piece faded out, Matt did his patriotic duty for the FCC and played the cart with Mr. Ketner signing off, with information about K-I-L-L, being 1300 kilohertz, and owned by the Mary Sue Broadcasting Company of Ardmore, Oklahoma, and then the ‘Star Spangle Banner” played, before the signal went dead and white noise prevailed. Grace reached over and turned the radio off.

“Mykel, we need to get Sherry undressed and into the shower,” Kathy informed him.

Mykel understood, but before he left, he squeezed Sherry’s hand. “Sherry, I wanted to give you a goodnight kiss, but…I don’t know…you know…and hugging would be kind of…uh…”

Sherry in a groggy voice mumbled, “I had a wonderful time and I love you, Mykel!”

“Oh wow! She told me she loved me…again!” Mykel gloated as the girls smiled at the sweetness of the scene, even though both parties involved were covered in vomit.

Mykel went to his room, took off his clothes and took a shower.

“Do you think you can get that sweater clean?” Clint asked.

“I really don’t like that sweater, so I’m not too worried about it. I’m more worried about Sherry. You know there are people, who go to sleep with alcohol poisoning and don’t wake up.”

“I don’t think she really drank enough to kill her. We will have to try and clean the backseat of my car tomorrow,” Clint said, then he chuckled. “I got to say, me and Kathy bought busted a gut laughing when you spun Sherry around and you, kind of, whacked that other couple upside the head with Sherry.”

“They didn’t think it was very funny,” Mykel fretted. “I’m kind of worried about her. People die from alcohol poisoning.”

“Surely Sherry didn’t have enough to kill her,” Clint surmised. “And she already threw up. Usually people die when they vomit in their sleep. Besides, Kathy knows everything, she probably knows what to do.”

“I hope so,” Mykel murmured.

As soon as they got out of class, Mykel and Clint took some paper towels and a bottle of 409, they got from the grocery store, across from campus, and went to work, in the chilly February weather, cleaning the back seat of Clint’s Mustang, where Sherry had vomited. When they got back inside, Clint made them each a cup of instant coffee on his hotplate. They were drinking their coffee and watching an Our Gang short, where Spanky feed the Wild Man from Borneo everything in the kitchen pantry, when there was a single “ding” from the phone.

“Grogan’s mule barn, which ass do you want to talk to?” Clint answered. “Howdy! We just cleaned up the little present you left in my car last night. You want to talk to Mykel?” He handed the phone to Mykel. “It’s Sherry.” Mykel smiled when Clint told him it was her. They talked a few moments, then Mykel got an uneasy look on his face, then he told her goodbye.

“What did she say?”

“Well, the good news is she didn’t have alcohol poisoning,” Mykel said. “The bad news is she has stomach flu and so does Kathy, Debbie and Grace. She said to tell you we would probably have it next.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day to us,” Clint groused.