Wendy Rondforet's Big Boyfriend (KOI 25)
The summer of 1970 was what we world-weary types call a fallow period. I was nineteen, and there wasn't even hope: it was obvious that the thing with Laura would be dwindled to nothing by the time I returned to school at Kaw Valley the following fall. Libby, who was Thommie's sister -- Lib had quite wisely rejected my
purely innocent
invitation to the Who concert at the Mississippi River Festival. I'd lost not only the the number but the name of the girl who'd shared the ride home from school with me just after the SDS shut down the Kaw Valley campus. The sullenness with which I carried out the office work at my summer job precluded any attempt to strike up anything with the girls there, despite the security guard's friendly remark that he'd caught the redhead "looking long" at me a coupla times as I stooped squinting over the bills of lading on my desk. Dave's sister was impossibly beautiful. Jim's sisters had moved out of town.
And Dan had stuck me with these two tickets to the Who concert at the Mississippi River Festival.
In crazy desperation, I called on The Rat Girl. The Rat Girl informed me that her first, best boyfriend had just returned to her.
"Why don't you call Wendy Rondforet?" suggested Libby, who suddenly appeared at The Rat Girl's side. "And here, have another hit of this. The Indian has been good to us this day."
Wendy Rondforet was an old, old friend of Libby's, from Girl Scouts. Wendy was loopy. She was a pre-engineering major at State Polytechnic. She minored in old barrelhouse blues. Wendy had gone to Lib's high school, not mine, and I'd spoken to her about four times in as many years.
I was
certain
Wendy'd want to go with me to the Who concert at the Mississippi River Festival.
In the late Sixties, Wendy was the only white girl within seven hundred miles who rinsed her hair with henna. She'd discovered henna in ninth-grade biology, but hadn't let this triumph lead her into the Life Sciences, that Sixties cop-out field for scientifically-minded girls being pressured into nursing by condescending Guidance Counselors. Wendy didn't give fuck-all for the sensibilities of Guidance Counselors. For that matter, she had no particular regard for the engineering establishment either. She just liked stuff that zapped and popped. She'd scored almost 770 on her Math SAT, and so today she's a respected member of the AEEE.
Anyway, Libby and The Rat Girl sent me off with a little bag to Wendy's parents' house, where I found Wendy on the screened-in porch, digging into the corners of her own little bag, trying for once to
avoid
stuff that might zap or pop. Chuck Berry was singing through a Heathkit amplifier in the living room behind her.
"Here, try this," I said. "The Indian has been good to us this day."
"You've been to Libby's," said Wendy. "Humpff...
"Good stuff."
"How about going with me to the Who concert at the Mississippi River Festival?" I asked.
"No," said Wendy. "You see, I have this big boyfriend back at Poly."
Her reasoning made eminent sense to me.
"You like Chuck Berry?" said Wendy. "I am the last living exponent of Chuck Berry. I held down the radio station at Poly from midnight to six a.m. on weekends this spring, and I'd play Chuck Berry until the phone was ringing off the hook. All these engineering jocks -- [deep jock voice] -- 'Play
Love
. Play
Spirit
. Cut the shit.' "
I noticed the rum bottle next to the Coke magnum next to Wendy.
Wendy noticed me notice.
"Have some, have some. This rolling is thirsty business."
Wendy's parents' house had lost its air conditioning on Friday night, and Mom and Pop had fled to their air-conditioned cabin on the Lake. At our latitude, sticking out a summer weekend without air conditioning could be fatal to anyone over forty.
While imbibing, Wendy and I traded stories of our first year in college. We passed on to discussing historical details of Libby's byzantine love life. Then we talked about music and radio. Wendy, I reflected, really had th' gift of gab. It went well with her open, bright brown-eyed face and freckles. The words flowed from her round red mouth like butterscotch, like caramel, like...
"I'm hungry," said Wendy.
"Your parents left you here alone without food?" I said.
"I've already reported Mom to the ASPCA," said Wendy. "But the ASPCA don't have a Meals-on-Wheels program. They said I'd have to check in there.
"I don't want to spend the weekend in the pound, Rich. I been there."
"Never fear. I can smell the Reaganburgers from here."
Wendy peered through the screen, down the street.
"You've got a pickup!" she squealed. Dan had loaned me his truck for the week, so to advertise him at the Who concert he had to miss.
"I
love
pickups!" said Wendy. Recall that it's 1970, before the pickup truck had taken the place of the family station wagon on suburban American roads. If you were working at being Dennis Hopper or Peter Fonda, you were kind of wary of pickup trucks.
But Wendy
loved
pickups. Similarly, while every hip girl back then was growing her hair to Judy Collins' length, Wendy's kindaragged hennaed bob would not be seen elsewhere in the Midwest for at least another seven years.
We hopped into the truck for Reagan's, where a sort of preprocessed White Castle meatstuff patty, thick, gray, and gleaming, was served to you in your auto by white-uniformed runners.
At the drive-in we sat high in Dan's pickup, lords of the parkinglot. I'd parked a ways from the rest of the crowd. I was all too aware of what we looked like, close up.
Wendy's eyes and face, at the moment, were sorta puffy, as if it were December and she were outdoors too long in the cold blow. She wore a cheesy pale blue pullover blouse, what the hell, with short elastic-banded puff sleeves that cut into her white arms. It had a lozenge-shaped collar dropping to an unbuttoned slit. The slit was in some disarray, and offhand yet keen observation confirmed my suspicion that Wendy'd decided to stay
comfortable
and braless when she'd dressed that morning. The moment of confirmation led me to realize, dreamily, that her breasts were larger than I'd previously imagined. Then my gaze drifted, of course, to her blue jeans encasing long legs leading to
naked