A fictional story about fictional characters
This one is only for Red & Kitty fans
*****
Red Foreman loved his wife Kitty with all his heart, but if there was one thing he dreaded; it was when she returned from her excursion to the grocery store with a copy of Cosmopolitan tucked in her brown bag among the bread and milk. It always lead to some feminine discussion about "feelings" or emotions. He had been in a good mood, sitting at the kitchen table reading about the Packers, until he saw her approaching with her copy of Cosmo folded in her hand. "Oh brother, here we go," he sighed to himself as Kitty sat opposite him, a concerned expression on her face.
"I have some bad news Red," she began, "I've been taking the "How Spontaneous Is Your Relationship" quiz in Cosmo and we only scored a three out of ten: that's hum-drum. I'm worried about our relationship."
"Oh Kitty," Red groaned, "that magazine is for saps...like Midge next door. Our relationship is fine...see, I'm smiling."
"I don't know Red," Kitty continued, "you know Midge and Bob are talking about having an Open Marriage where they are both free to date other people," and when she said the word "date" she made air-quotation marks. Midge and Bob Pinciotti were their neighbors and like to consider themselves free-spirits. Midge was an absolute knock-out, but Bob was a Brillo-headed dork. The best thing about having them for neighbors was that their gorgeous daughter Donna kept Red's son Eric occupied.
"Jeez Kitty, you know they're dumb-asses," Red implored her. "How about this, we take a night all to ourselves...no kids. Let's go out to dinner. What do you say?"
"To Phillies, I suppose," Kitty asked, "I don't know, Red, that's pretty predictable."
"Yep, good old reliable Phillies," Red confirmed.
"Well OK, but I don't even think that will even raise us up a whole point," Kitty went up the stairs seeming dejected.
The rest of the day went pretty well for Red, none of the kids really bothered him and he found a good John Wayne movie on TV (hell, weren't they all good). Although he and Kitty actually only had two children, it usually seemed like a dozen because of all Eric's friends had adopted the Foreman basement as their own. They were down there constantly, doing who knows what. Red's daughter Laurie was hardly ever home; she was such a popular girl. Red knew she wasn't the perfect little angel like he treated her; the truth was he only pretended to worship her because he knew it pissed off Eric.
Eric was a disappointment to Red. It wasn't that he was such a bad kid: he always got good grades and never got in trouble. Maybe that was the problem: Red wished he would get into some trouble once in a while, act more like a man...like Red. He wanted a son that he could watch football with; take hunting; work on the car; do "manly" stuff with. Instead he had "goody-two-shoes" Eric, who sometimes almost seemed feminine...the opposite of Red. Oh well, Red knew that tonight Eric was taking Donna to the drive-in to see some horror film, "hey maybe he'll finally get to first base," Red chuckled to himself. "That Donna a one fine piece of ass," Red daydreamed, "just like her mother." He had often admired how Donna's ample breasts wobbled inside her shirts as she walked around the Foreman house.
He wondered where the rest of the swarm was today, instead of infesting his home. Eric's friend Stephen Hyde was busy trying to convince their friend Fez (the school's foreign exchange student) that the government was responsible for the subliminal messages supposedly found on rock-and-roll records. Fez's host parents had played a KISS album backwards for Fez and claimed they could hear the Devil speaking. His reaction had been innocently, "that can't be good for the record."
Hyde, ever the conspiracy theorist, was convincing Fez that the government was behind the messages. "It's Congress man, they don't want us listening to Rock-and-Roll because they know the music makes us horny. And you know the government hates sex. You know why they hate sex, Fez...because they can't figure out a way to tax it."
Eric's other friends; Michael Kelso and his petite girlfriend Jackie were off someplace making-out and arguing over whether they should tag-along on Eric and Donna's date. Kelso had told Eric that he and Jackie had been "doing it" for months and Donna was nervous about being alone with Eric at the drive-in. The truth, Jackie admitted to Donna, was the they had never gone "all the way," but they would go along on the date to make her feel more comfortable.
Red's reveries about Donna's fine nubile body were interrupted by Kitty bounding down the stairs to show Red her dress for their dinner date. It was a stunning red number that showed off her cleavage and her legs when she twirled. In the car that day the radio had been turned to one of Eric's stations and Red had actually left it there and listened to one of the songs. It's lyrics had gone "long tall woman in a black dress," and in his mind Red just changed "black" to "red" and could almost hear the beat as Kitty modeled in front of him.
"That's way too fine a dress for Phillies," he mused, teasing her, "but it would be just right for The Lion's Head."
"I thought we were going to Phillies," Kitty blurted out in a stunned voice.
"Changed my mind...being spontaneous," Red declared with a smile.
"Oh Red, heh, heh, heh," Kitty cackled in her distinctive laugh, "I think that will raise our score by two points. I love The Lion's Head; they are so fancy. Their butter is in little patties the shape of flowers. Come on upstairs and I'll get the clippers...if we're going to The Lion's Head we'll have to shave the back of your neck, heh, heh, heh."
Red grudgingly stood in front of the sofa, still humming the "Rice-a-roni" commercial theme song, and thought, "man this idea has already backfired."
Just before they left for the restaurant, Hyde came up to Red in the Foreman kitchen and stuffed something in Red's shirt pocket saying, "I hear you're going on a date tonight...this is just in case you get lucky."
Red reached into his pocket and pulled out a foil-wrapped condom and confronted Hyde, "first of all; this is my wife you're talking about...and second: how would you like my foot up your ass." He was smiling as he said it and couldn't help but chuckle at the balls on Stephen.
"You can never be too careful, I always say," Hyde chimed in. "Always use protection...you don't want another whining little Eric wandering around here do you?"
"OK Stephen," Red added, "thanks for your wisdom. Why do you always have to be such a wise-ass?"
When they arrived at the restaurant, everything about it had change: it was now a modern, buffet-style chain restaurant called Flannigans. "What the Hell happened to The Lion's Head," Red demanded and was told it had burned down. He tried to go with the flow of this new, unfamiliar style of establishment but in the end they decided to leave and go to "good old reliable Phillies."
"Salisbury Steak I assume," Kitty asked drolly.
"Nope, I'm going with the chicken," Red announced, "being spontaneous."
After the meal, Kitty chided Red, "I suppose we can go home now and watch some TV. That's what people do when they're our age, and have slowed down, flattened out...it's inevitable."
Little did she know (or so Red thought) that he had a surprise for her, "we'll see how much we've flattened out or become predictable," he answered as he revved the Toyota into gear and sped out of town.
He soon turned onto an overgrown dirt road that most people would never have known was there and Kitty blushed in the dark, "oh Red, you remembered."
"Hell yes," he answered, "we sure had some good times on this road."
Many times when they were dating, Red and Kitty had "parked" on Old Quarry Road. Of course that had been twenty years earlier and it didn't look like anyone had traveled the road since. The quarry had gotten a new paved road years before, and then the quarry had been abandoned altogether, so only the "old timers" knew this road even existed. Red pulled the tiny vehicle into a grassy clearing and parked, "how's this for unpredictable," he grinned.
Kitty threw her arms around Red's neck and signed, "Red Foreman, you're just an old softee."
Red took Kitty's hand and placed it on his groin, "softee you say...I don't think so."