Before the Fall

Carol didn't have much to take home with her for Thanksgiving Break. It was only five days -- the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the following Sunday.

Most of her clothes were still at home anyway; there hadn't been a lot of room for clothes in their tiny sorority-house bedrooms. Other kids going home, especially the boys it seemed, were taking large duffel bags full of dirty clothes, but Carol was used to doing her own laundry ... she had been doing hers, her mother's, and her little brother's for several years before she ever went away to college. So she really didn't need to take clothes home for mommy to wash.

Carol threw a couple of changes of underwear, her most comfortable bra (she wouldn't be wearing one on the drive home!), a couple pairs of shoes and some clean socks, some decent panty-hose, her jammies, her toiletries, and two of her diaphragms, with a supply of spermicidal jelly. Hey, you never knew what might come up!

For a couple of years, since she had been working in the bank, her mom had been trying to get Carol to go out with the son of a woman she worked with. Carol knew Mrs. Kelly well; Mrs. Kelly and Mary, Carol's mom, not only worked together, they had become buddies. They went shopping on their lunch hours, went up to one of the casino towns to waste money playing poker on the weekends, drank coffee and smoked cigarettes together.

Mrs. Kelly wasn't a big drinker, though, like her mother. And Mrs. Kelly hadn't had a string of "boyfriends" like Mary had had. Mrs. Kelly was a married woman, apparently happily married to the same man for over thirty-five years. Her mom teased her by saying "So what if you're married? What difference does that make?" but Mrs. Kelly never seemed inclined to step out on her husband, though she had plenty of chances hanging around with Mary.

All of that was nice, but none of it was enough to make Carol want to go out on a blind date set up by her mother with Mrs. Kelly's son. Mary told Carol that John Kelly was probably a good catch, cute, smart, a good student. As if it would somehow make a difference, her mom also added that he drove a Corvette. Carol couldn't imagine anything less important about a guy.

Oddly, just as Carol Mason knew Mrs. Kelly pretty well because of her mother's friendship, John Kelly knew Mary Mason well, too. Apparently, Mrs. Kelly had also been trying to get John to call Carol for at least a year, and he would just roll his eyes and change the subject.

But now that Carol was coming home for Thanksgiving Break, the mothers had conspired to get their kids together, and had set up a sort of a date that they couldn't easily get out of. Apparently John was bringing home with him some of his friends from the big State University who, for one reason or another, weren't able to be with their own families for Thanksgiving Dinner. Mary learned that they were all planning to go out afterwards, and that John would be the only one without a date for the evening.

"Look, Carol, it'll only be from about five o'clock when the Kellys have their turkey until maybe ten. Nobody's going to stay open late on Thanksgiving night!" Mary said.

Carol couldn't seem to wiggle out of it while she was talking on the phone with her mom. And Carol was so excited about how her mom was changing her own life, that Carol didn't want to disappoint her. Mary had given up her habit of bringing home one guy after another, and had set out to find herself a new husband. After only three months, her mother was sure that she had found the right guy (Mac), and wanted Carol to meet him. Mary was going to be going to Mac's family's house for Thanksgiving to meet his family, so there wasn't really any reason for Carol to stay home alone.

The trip home in Jeannie's little VW Beetle was uneventful, luckily. And it was pure luck, because at this time of year, sudden winter blizzards could shut down the interstates in just a few minutes. It was an eight-hour drive, and although Carol DIDN'T drive, she COULD drive; she had a license, just not a car. So she felt comfortable enough to take a turn to relieve Jeannie on the long drive home, while Jeannie caught a nap. Whether Jeannie felt comfortable with Carol driving her cute little car down the windy highway at 70 mph, she didn't say, and Carol didn't press her on the subject.

The two girls arrived home alive and in good repair, but tired, Wednesday evening after six p.m. Mary had just gotten home from work herself, and came out to the car to give Jeannie a big hug and kiss and thanks for delivering her baby safe and sound. Carol wouldn't see Jeannie again until late Sunday morning.

Carol and Mary sat up late that night talking about Carol's adventures at school, and Mary's new love. Mary explained that maybe "love" was too strong a word, but that she and Mac really got along and had a lot of fun, and that Mac treated her with respect. She said that it was Mac's idea that maybe they could get married. "Why not," he said, "we're virtually living together anyway!"

Carol laughed and said that wasn't exactly the most romantic proposal she had ever heard, but Mary was cheerful about it. ":Wait til you meet him! That was so 'Mac!' It's just the kind of wise-ass thing he would say!" Carol was interested to see whether she was going to like this guy because he had a sense of humor, or detest him because he was too flippant with her mother's heart. Mac was scheduled to come over Thursday morning to meet Carol and take her mother and her brother over to his sister-in-law's house for dinner and to meet his family for the first time. So Carol would be able to form her own opinion soon enough.

Carol had promised she would tell her mother everything about her love life, so she started to describe her activities with Todd, Sheila, and Thor. Mary was appalled. "For God's sake, Carol, you don't have to fuck ALL the time!"

"You just forget what it's like to be young, mom!" Carol said. "It's exciting and fun, and I plan to keep doing it until I decide to settle down."

"Honey," said her mom in a consoling tone, "be careful! Don't overdo it! Please slow down a little! There's more to life than sex!"

"Sorry, and no offense mom, but that's pretty hard advice to take seriously, considering the source!"

Mary felt as if she had been slapped, and just glared at her daughter. How had she become so distant from her daughter?

"Mom! Sorry! You said you wanted to know this stuff. If you want, I can certainly keep it all to myself!"

"No, I'm glad you're telling me. But I wish you'd follow my advice. I've changed my life and I wish you could benefit from my experience and not make the mistakes I've made."

"I know what I'm doing, mom. I'm just having some fun! Now, tell me more about this guy 'Mac!' Is he hot in bed?" Mary laughed; she knew Carol was kidding her, now. Or at least, she thought she was!

Carol had trouble sleeping that night. She had what they call "free-floating anxiety," a condition where you're just going to worry and fret about something, it's just a matter of figuring out what exactly to worry about.

The next morning dawned cold but clear and sunny. Mac came over, and Carol was pleased to see that he got along okay with her brother, who was at that age where he really didn't see eye-to-eye with his mother at all. Mac was in the Air Force, a really big guy, but very easy-going and funny. Carol liked him right away. The only cloud on the horizon as far as Carol was concerned was that he liked to drink even more than her mother did. The two of them were belting back shots of scotch before noon.

Carol had begun to get really nervous about seeing this John guy her mother had set her up with. As the afternoon wore on, and her mother left with Mac and her brother, she got dressed in a nice plaid wool skirt, a button-down blouse with a pull-over sweater on top, socks and her good penny loafers. Then she just sat on the sofa in the living room, looking out the front window and waiting.

About 4:30, a white '64 Stingray convertible pulled up to the curb. A gut got out of the other side, and she scoped him out. He was fairly tall ... maybe six feet, and had a dark complexion. He was dressed in jeans, cowboy boots, a surplus Navy pea coat (surplus military clothing was all the rage either because of or in spite of the Viet Nam War), and a navy-blue wool watch cap. She didn't really get a good look at his face, because she quickly dropped the curtain back in place ... she didn't want to have him see that she'd been waiting by the door like a pining wallflower.

Soon enough, the doorbell rang, and she opened it meet John Kelly. He was okay looking. Like her, he was attractive, but just as no one would say Carol was particularly beautiful, no one would say John was especially handsome. But he had a great smile, and was enough of a goof to have brought her a single "sweetheart" rose to kind of take the sting off of the awkwardness of the blind-date-set-up-by-the-mothers thing.

"Hi, you must be Carol!" he said, with a bright grin, holding out the rose like it was about to explode. "And you must be John Kelly!" Carol said. "That's me! Shall we do this thing?"

"Let me put the flower in some water, first," Carol said. He stepped inside while she hurried to the kitchen, filled a drinking glass with some water, put the bud in it, and put the whole thing in the fridge.

Carol came back out to their little living room, and grabbed her jacket off of the ottoman. John offered to hold it for her, and she accepted, wondering if he was always this way or if he was just trying to make a good first impression.

She locked the door behind them, he held the door open from the lobby to the outside, and he got the door for her to get in the car.

"Nice car," she said. She really couldn't have cared less, but it obviously mattered to him, so she felt she had to say it.

"Kind of a beater, actually. It's been hit ... before I got it ... and it needs some work. Has potential, though. Seat belts!" he said, indicating that he expected her to put hers on as he had done. She usually didn't bother, but she did as she was told.

He fired up the big engine; it was loud and the whole car shook as it rumbled roughly at low idle. She expected him to show off by screeching his tires as they left, but he signaled, carefully checked over his shoulder, and smoothly pulled away from the curb.

The ride to the Kellys' house was uneventful. She and John exchanged trivia about school and gripes about their mothers fixing them up with each other. John was in his second year in architectural engineering, but it was a five-year degree program, so he was planning to graduate the same year as Carol. He told her that it was a constant battle with his draft board, trying to persuade them that he was a student in good standing in spite of the fact that he wasn't going to graduate until a year after all his contemporaries.

Carol told John about her little school in Nebraska, and how different it was from her mammoth high school. John had graduated in a big class, too -- 850 in his case, so not as big as Carol's, but still. State University, where he was now attending had an enrollment of 25,000 on campus, so he felt like, if anything, he was even more anonymous now that he had been in high school. "And that suits me just fine, thanks!" he said with a grin.

"Yeah, going to a small church-sponsored college is like living in a small rural town," Carol said, "everybody knows everything about you and what you're up to." She fervently hoped that that wasn't true, thinking about some of the recent fun she'd had with Todd, and Sheila, and Thor. Looking at John as she had these thoughts, she couldn't help but speculate on how he might be as a sexual partner, and she felt a sudden rush of sensation between her legs that was totally inappropriate for the current situation, so she blushed. Luckily, it was dark in the car, so she hoped he had missed it as she looked away in embarrassment.

No such luck. "Oh, oh! Someone isn't really comfortable with everybody knowing EVERYTHING!" He was looking at her out of the corner of his eye, grinning as he teased her in a kind of personal way after only a couple of minutes.

When they got to the Kellys' house, Carol found that it was packed with people. Carol already knew Mr. and Mrs. Kelly, and was introduced to Mrs. Kelly's father, who lived with them. John's friends were two couples: there was Dick and Jan, who had been dating for a year, then there were Mahjid and Mike, who apparently had just hooked up for the weekend. Dick was quite tall, maybe six feet six, lean and gangly, and quiet, and his girlfriend Jan by contrast, was no more than five feet tall, heavy-set, and talked a mile a minute with a South Carolina accent. Mahjid was even taller than Dick. Mahjid was a foreign student from Iran, and he was no less than six-foot eight. Mahjid had extremely dark olive-toned skin, black eyes, and wore a thick, jet-black beard. Mahjid spoke seldom, and carefully, his English excellent but not too confident. When Mahjid spoke, his voice was so low that Carol thought she could almost feel it in her chest more than hear it. Mike was not a guy, but a saucy blond girl of about Carol's size, but with absolutely the biggest, most prominent bosom Carol had ever seen on a woman. Mike's given name was Michelle, but she liked to be called Mike because that's what her family had called her growing up, "and I like to watch people try to work it out" She was a light-hearted joker, and her voice, too, was deep (for a girl.) She and Mahjid made a striking and interesting couple.

Apparently Mike was Jan's roommate, although Carol got the impression Jan basically lived with Dick in the same house that he shared with John near the campus. Mahjid was an architectural engineering student, also, and lived in an apartment across the alley from John and Dick. That's how he got connected with Mike. It quickly became apparent that, even though Mike and Mahjid had only met earlier this week, they were sleeping together. Carol wished she could see that pair-up!

To top things off, Dick and Jan had brought along their St, Bernard puppy, Tuck, who was as energetic and rambunctious as any puppy, except that he also weighted over a hundred pounds and was over five feet tall when he jumped up and put his paws on your chest.

Which he did, often.

Mr. and Mrs. Kelly were good sports, and helped Dick and Jan get Tuck settled in the basement (after he had been to the backyard for whatever it was he needed to do!), then served everyone a traditional Thanksgiving feast. John's parents didn't seem at all concerned about the living arrangements of Dick and Jan or the clearly evident sexual connection between Mike and Mahjid. They just seemed intent on making everyone feel at home and have some fun. The perfect hosts.

Everyone ate plenty, but there were lots of left-overs, and Carol helped put them into wax paper and aluminum foil for John to take back to school. Mrs. Kelly had even baked a second turkey for him to take back for the boys in John's house (there were five of them altogether) to make sandwiches with.

After sitting around chatting for an hour or so, the young people gathered themselves together and borrowed Mr. Kellys' big Pontiac sedan, and set out to have some fun somewhere. As big as the car was, it was comical watching the six of them try to find an arrangement which would accommodate the three big guys plus two normal-sized girls, plus tiny little Jan, while also keeping couples together as much as possible. Jan got "the hump" in the back, of course.

John drove them to a restaurant and bar that he knew was open. The maitre'd of the place was John's brother-in-law, and John had worked there as a bus boy when he was in high school. When they arrived, John introduced his friends to his brother-in-law (who was dressed in full plains Indian regalia, with buckskins and a feathered chief's bonnet), then, when he got ready to introduce Carol, he paused.

"Crap! I've forgotten your name!" John said.

"Carol," Carol said, and they all had a good laugh at John's expense.

"I guess John's not getting lucky tonight," Mike said in her throaty voice, to another laugh.

But Carol thought it was cute.

None of them was twenty-one, which was the legal drinking age in their state, but they all sat down at the bar and ordered mixed drinks. The bartender asked if they were all of legal age, and John's brother-in-law came over and just said, "serve them!" So he set up drinks all around. They each had another, too, while they talked, and then they wandered downstairs where there was a jazz band playing and a few folks dancing. It clearly was going to be an early night, and the club part of the place was just about to close up for the day.

They sat around talking and joking, then finally left after an hour or so when the club's manager shooed them out. Carol enjoyed the funny back-and-forth of these boys and their girlfriends, and she felt quite comfortable considering she was on a blind date with a guy who had forgotten her name.

The next morning, when Carol woke up in her own bed, she felt something new, some kind of unfamiliar warm glow. When she got out to the kitchen, she saw that her mom had come home after she had, and was sitting there already, having a cup of coffee. "Morning, sleepy-head!" Mary said, "Mac's still asleep too," suggesting with a hand signal that they should keep their conversation low. "So, how did it go?"

"Mom," Carol said, "I think this may be 'the one!'"

"You're welcome," Mary said.

Before going home after walking her to her door Thursday night, John had asked her if he could see her again Friday. "I know of a great movie you're just gonna love!" he said. Carol had said yes. "Oh, I'm so glad you said that," John said, "I thought I'd really blown it there when I forgot your name, Sharon."

Carol looked at him oddly, and then noticed just the slightest hint of a grin. He was pulling her chain, and at the same time mocking himself about his faux pas. She laughed. "See you tomorrow, Don," Carol said, and shut her door.

John called about five to say he would like to pick her up at maybe six, go get a burger or something, then get to the show at 7:30. She said that would be fine.

John wasn't a fast mover. He still kept up with opening doors for her and being especially polite, but he didn't try anything physical with her until, during the movie (which was, oddly, an old W.C. Fields comedy ... "the Bank Dick" with Mae West), he looked over at her and gently picked up her hand. He casually kept hold of her hand through the rest of the movie, on the way back to the car, and after they got to Carol's apartment, on the way to her door. He didn't try to kiss her, or even seem to be thinking about it.

"Goodnight, Carol," John said. "That was fun!" He had already told her that he and his friends were going to see a University football game tomorrow (Saturday), against a traditional rival, and had asked her if she wanted to go along. She had said she'd be delighted. "Game's at noon. I'll come get you about nine, okay? We need some time to get there, park, and all that, and there's always lots of interesting stuff before the game if we get there early!"

"That sounds great," Carol said.

"Dress warm!" John called out as he walked back to his car.

Saturday morning, it was snowing lightly. When they got to the stadium, the field was covered with snow, and the field crew was shoveling it off so that everyone could see the lines for the kickoff. This was years before the yard numbers were painted on the fields, and they were indicated instead on little folding sandwich-boards along each sideline ... actually a real advantage in snowy conditions.

Although there was snow, the day was not really cold when the game began. But as the clock ticked off, it got snowier and colder. Everyone was dressed in their most efficient winter gear, and the boys had brought blankets. It was a great excuse for the couples to snuggle together. Carol thought that maybe John would use this excuse and the concealment of the blanket to get more personal with her, but he was the perfect gentleman, and hugged her for warmth, but otherwise kept his hands to himself. Carol couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. But there was no doubt that the two of them enjoyed snuggling close together, and Carol thought maybe that unfamiliar feeling she was getting was because she was falling in love.