Changing Partners

"Helping her study for her GED," Daniel said. "Why?"

"It figures she'd need a GED," Mom sniffed. "But Daniel, we're not stupid and we do know what goes on in town. Now what else have you been doing with that little harlot?"

"What?! Nothing!"

"Ain't what I heard," announced Daniel's younger brother, Ken.

"Shut up, Kenneth, and don't say 'ain't'," Dad said. "But Daniel, it's not what I've heard either. If you're up to anything with this girl other than tutoring her, I want it stopped. Understood?"

"I'm not, and what's it to you if I were? I'm in college now."

"And we want you to stay there, not dropping out to get married and work in some dead end job here," Mom told him. "And believe me, if you get her pregnant, that's exactly what you'll do. We're a God-fearin' family and we won't have you shirking your responsibilities just 'cause you couldn't keep it in your pants."

"Mom! For cryin' out loud!"

"Should've known better than to let you work at that stupid restaurant," Mom said. "That and my goddamn sister's records have you brainwashed, Daniel."

"Don't worry, Mom, Shaune is still a metalhead through and through," Daniel couldn't resist saying.

"That's worse and you know it, Daniel," Dad intoned.

"How so? Doesn't it prove Aunt Arlene hasn't infiltrated Shaune's heart and turned her into a lesbian? Or wait, shouldn't you want her to be a lesbian so she won't rape me or whatever you expect?"

"Go to your room!" Mom roared. He could hear her sobbing by the time he got to the top of the stairs, something about not even knowing her son anymore.

When he got to his room, Daniel immediately set about packing up Aunt Arlene's records -- his records -- to hide from them. He could see just where the conversation had been heading, and on further reflection he was surprised his mother hadn't already thrown them away while he was at Jerry's or out with Shaune. She hadn't, though, and it only took a few minutes for Daniel to gather up the records and stack them neatly in the ancient shoebox in which Aunt Arlene had presented them to him last spring. He rolled back the carpet in the far corner of his closet and lifted up the loose floorboard, and placed the box in the same hiding place where he'd hidden the wine bottles he'd smuggled home back in high school. Mom had never found those, but then she'd never known to look for them. Daniel could think of no better hiding place, though, and concluded that now all he could do was hope.

His iPod didn't offer anywhere near the warm and intimate sense of the music that the records did, but at least there was no danger of Mom stealing that from under the covers. So Daniel drifted off to sleep to the comforting strains of Billy Ward and the Dominos singing "Harbor Lights," tempered only by his own wish that he could see the harbor lights of his hometown fading into the distance forever.

This time found him in the corner of the gym -- a great vantage point for seeing what was going on in the hall. He could see all across the crowded floor as the couples swayed together and singles of both genders prowled along the way waiting for the "change partners" that he had come to hate so much. But there was no sign of Peggy Jean, with or without a partner. Having not seen her in several weeks, Danny even got to wondering if he would know her for sure if he did see her, for he couldn't nearly envision her face even now. But somehow he was sure he would know.

It didn't hurt to ask around, no matter how fleeting the time might be. A couple of guys and a gal he hadn't seen before were chatting by the punch bowl. He made his way over to them "Excuse me?"

"Hi, Danny!" the girl said cheerfully. From somewhere or nowhere, he realized he knew her name, too: Miyuki.

"What's up, Danny?" echoed the two guys in unison.

"Uh, hi. Have any of you seen Peggy Jean?"

To his dismay, Miyuki burst into laughter. "I told you!" she said to her two friends. "I'm sorry, Danny, she was here and she was asking everyone about you! When we saw you over there, I told the guys, now watch, he's going to be looking for her too! But I'm afraid she's gone, Danny."

"I'm getting used to that." Danny smiled through his disappointment. As if on cue, the air was flooded with the song he had come to dread but almost welcomed now that he knew Peggy Jean wasn't there: "Good night my love/Pleasant dreams and sleep tight, my love..."

"Oh, Danny, the last song!" Miyuki exclaimed. Holding out her hands, she asked, "May I? God knows these two would rather hang around and look cool. Why come to a dance anyway?"

"Yeah, sure! Why not?" Why not indeed, Danny mused, as he let Miyuki lead him out onto the floor. He wondered about her story as well -- quite possibly interned with her parents as a little girl in the war. Had they ever gone home? Wherever they were now, was this home? Was she angry? Just how did their staid suburb treat her and her family?

It did not appear Miyuki had politics on her mind, however. She was rubbing Danny's back and whispering in his ear. "I love this so much, Danny! I'm gonna miss it when I go out East, you know? Aren't you?"

"They have dances in college, don't they?" Danny asked. His own memory of the wild parties his freshman year were miles from what she was probably hoping for, but no need to burst her bubble.

"It won't be the same! Not like it was here, with our friends and the lake and the malt shop and everything. We're so lucky here, no place else quite like it. I hate to think that's gone, but at least it'll be here to come visit on holidays. You will be here at Christmas, won't you, Danny?"

"Hmm? Yeah! Of course."

"And still holding out for Peggy Jean, I'll bet," she teased. At that mention, Danny snapped to attention and realized his gaze had been drifting. He looked back into her eyes, bringing only another laugh. "Got your attention now, don't I?"

"Sorry!"

"Danny, it's okay! But listen..." She drew her arms seductively down along his shoulder blades and around front, and rubbed his chest. "She's not here and I am, and soon we'll both be history, but we have got tonight together, haven't we?"

"Miyuki, are you saying..."

"Why wouldn't I?" she asked him. "We've got tonight, after all, and this will all be history so soon, we ought to make it a nice memory!"

"I...I don't know what to say," Danny said.

"Say yes, silly! And make it fast, you know this is always the last song they play!"

Danny panicked at that realization. Somehow he was certain if they made it to the end of the song, he'd never get back there. "I -- Miyuki, I've got to go!" It was the last thing he heard himself or anyone else say before he sprung awake and sat up in a panic. His iPod was still playing, but he pulled the earbuds out before he could even tell what song was playing. He leapt up out of bed and drew up his window shade, and looked out at the dark streets.

Now that he had a moment to think more clearly about it, he laughed.

"How does a metalhead order eggs?" Daniel asked Shaune over breakfast at a competing diner the following week.

"Aw, fuck you, Dan," Shaune said, rifling through her cheat sheets. "When I told you to quiz me, I didn't mean jokes."

"You don't need any more quizzing," Dan said. "You're going to do fine!"

"Easy for you to say, you've already got your diploma and you're in that fancy schmancy college of yours!" Shaune groused. "And you'd better go back there. I don't want to hear any more thoughts about throwing that away when I'd kill for it."

"Thank you, and I will go back," Daniel said. "Now, how does a metalhead order eggs?"

Shaune set down her stack of scrap papers. "You are going back? Sweetie, that's great!"

"Of course I am," he said. "I decided a while ago I'm definitely going back. Enough of this dead-end town. I thought I'd already told you. But you haven't guessed an answer to my question. How does a metalhead order eggs?"

"Thank God!" Shaune said. "I mean, I'll miss you something awful, but I was so afraid you were gonna do something stupid and end up like me. I didn't need that hanging over my head while I'm taking the test today, you know."

"Yeah, working at Jerry's all summer has made me realize how lucky I am, and I'm not going to throw that away. And you're going to get out of there too, you'll see after today."

"I sure hope you're right." Shaune looked down at the stack of notes as she took a drink of coffee. "I don't feel prepared."

"We never do, but you've been studying all summer. You'll be fine."

"Thanks to you, Dan."

"Now then, how does a metalhead order eggs?"

Shaune looked down at her own half-eaten plate of eggs. "I'm a metalhead and I don't know, Dan. How do I order eggs?"

Dan intoned in a menacing growl, "'I wish to devour the unborn!'"

Daniel was lucky he hadn't worn his uniform shirt to breakfast, for he was due to go on duty in an hour when Shaune laughed so hard she spewed coffee all over him.

The GED exam would take over seven hours. So Dan was just as happy to be slated to work all day. It wouldn't do Shaune any good for him to be worrying about her, and the restaurant was much too busy for that. Daniel remembered all too well from when he was a kid, how the dog days of August had always brought tourists out of the woodwork for one last fling at the beach before the kids went back to school. That, of course, meant the local kids like Daniel himself could rarely get a decent spot on the sand or a milkshake at Jerry's.

Now, with the line for a table out the front door, the grass looked a whole lot greener back there to Daniel. But the jammed restaurant did mean plenty of tips, anyway, and he was finally within striking distance of the $300.

The other waiters, though, had no intention of making it an easy goal to reach.

"Dick!" Jason hissed every time Daniel had to pass him. When that failed to get a rise out of Daniel, he tried tripping him once when Daniel had a tray of empty glasses.

"What the..." Daniel regained his balance and his temper just in time, and settled for only giving Jason a dirty look.

"Temper, Daniel," needled Martha, who as usual was paying more attention to the staff intrigue than to her customers.

"Don't you see what he almost did?!" Daniel demanded.

"Yes, but I also saw you sell out his friend to KP," Martha chirped. "What do you expect?"

Daniel laughed through his irritation. The idiot still didn't know what Chris had been up to at her expense that night. Somehow that was enough for him, and he held his tongue once again.

"College boy, just out for hisself," Jason spat out. "Don't they teach you nothin' about loyalty? What'd Chris do to you anyhow?" With the ice broken, Jason now gave up any pretense of minding his customers, and stood hands on hips just inside the door to lecture Daniel.

And so it was that Jason didn't see KP opening the door behind him. Daniel managed to keep a straight face as he saw. Martha didn't, but Jason noticed her change of expression a moment too late. "What?" he asked her.

"Me, that's what," snapped KP from behind him. "Look, Jason, is super busy here and what are you doing about it?"

"What, me?" Jason whipped around and grinned pathetically. "I'm just makin' sure Daniel doesn't slack off like the wimp he is, is all. You know what he's like!"

"I know what you are like, too!" KP snarled. "Kitchen, now!"

"You need to learn to get along better with the others, Daniel," Martha said. Daniel barely heard her; he had customers to attend to.

Ten tense, overworked minutes later, Jason emerged from the kitchen with a scowl at Daniel and picked up his notepad to resume taking orders. "You better not have got any of mine wrong while I was back there," he growled.

Daniel ignored him. He was busy serving desserts to a family of five, including a hot fudge sundae to the eldest daughter. Having watched her put up with a great deal of poking and prodding from the younger kids throughout their meal, Daniel had added just a bit more fudge than usual. The poor thing deserved it. "Here you go, everyone!" he said with a cheerful flair that he hoped would make up for Jason's nonsense.

"Thank you," said the mother and father and the older girl in unison.

The two younger kids took no notice of Daniel. "Mandy, let me try yours," demanded one of them just as Daniel was setting down their parents' refilled coffee cups.

"No," said Mandy, taking her first spoonful of the sundae. "You got yours, I've got mine, and you should say 'please' anyway."

"Mandy, just give her a spoonful already!" snapped their mother. She looked up at Daniel with a look of seeking commiseration in her eyes. Daniel tried to pretend he wasn't very much on Mandy's side.

"Is there anything else I can get you?" he asked, just as Mandy refused her mother's order and pushed her sister's hand away from her sundae.

"Oh, I think --" began the father. But he was promptly cut off by a shriek of anguish as Mandy's younger sister made a furious jab at the sundae and toppled it off the table.

Mandy burst into tears. "You little wretch!" she shrieked.

"Mandy, language!" snapped her mother, as the younger sister turned her attention back to her own dessert and kept her head down.

"Folks, it's okay, I'll make another sundae!" Daniel said. "No extra charge."

"No you won't!" came KP's voice from behind him. "Daniel, you know the rule." To the family he continued, "He will make another if you want, but not free."

Daniel had had enough. "Yes, free," he snapped. "Take it out of my paycheck if you want!" Before KP could respond, he turned on his heel and marched back to the kitchen. Knowing the cooks would be too frightened of KP to do anything at the moment, he set to making the sundae himself. The cooks looked at one another with bemusement over just what it was about a silly little dessert that had Daniel so wound up. He ignored them.

He was just setting the cherry on top when KP burst in. "That will come out of your paycheck!" he hissed.

"I already told you it could, didn't I?" He set the sundae on a tray and grabbed up a spoon and a napkin.

"If you pull this again, you're fired, Daniel! You understand? Fired!" He was still screeching at Daniel as he returned to the dining area, and there was little doubt several customers overheard the threat.

It did not appear that Mandy's family was among them. When he arrived at their table, only Mandy and her father remained. "Their mother took the others outside for a talking to," he explained as Daniel set the dessert down for Mandy, who was looking most triumphant.

"Thank you, Daniel," she said.

"Yes, thanks!" added her father. "I hope this doesn't get you in any trouble."

"It won't," Daniel said, though he wasn't entirely sure of that. "He always reacts to everything like that. It's just a fact of life working here."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Daniel said. "I'm going back to college in a couple of weeks. It's the ones who work here year round that I feel bad for!"

The place was still much too busy for any further socializing, so Daniel was soon pulled back into the grind. He didn't even notice when Mandy and her father finally left. It was the busboy who notified him: "I'd go get that tip if I were you, that jerk Jason'll probably snap it up if you don't!"

"Why?" Daniel asked. No one had stolen a tip from him all summer, though in retrospect that rather surprised him now.

"Just go look," said the busboy.

There, on the newly-cleaned table, was a $50 bill with a note attached. "With many thanks for diffusing an ugly family moment! Best wishes to you!"

Daniel picked up the money and looked at it as if he expected it to disappear, or at least to transform into only $5. It didn't. This would put him over $300!

"Daniel, you can admire your money later," came Martha's voice from a table over. "Get back to work for now."

"Yes ma'am!" Suddenly Daniel didn't care at all if anything cost him this job.

There were six hours left on his shift, but they flew by on the wings of Daniel's image of holding his coveted record in his hands tomorrow. As the sun went down and the crowds finally began to taper off, he thought of Shaune. The website had said results would be posted within three hours of finishing the test. Would she want him to come by and see if she'd passed? What would she prefer if she hadn't passed? She wouldn't give a damn about his big tip, that was for sure, so he opted not to mention that no matter what happened.

He still hadn't made up his mind whether to go see her or not when he finally clocked out just after the dinner rush. Probably should either way, he thought to himself as he reached into his pocket for his car keys.

"Hey asshole. Heard you got a big tip."

"What's it to you, Chris?" Keeping a stiff upper lip, he turned around to see his nemesis approaching him with a policeman's billy-club in one hand. His heart leapt in his throat and, instinctively, he reached for his right pocket to grab at the $50. He realized his mistake and drew his hand back just as quickly, but it was too late.

"It's fifty bucks to me, that and whatever else's in your pockets. I'll have it now, thank you very much, unless you want to get clubbed."

"Hey, look," Daniel said. "No need for violence, all right?"

"Not if you give me my money."

"Your money?!"

"Yeah, my money, asshole! Look at you, goin' back to California in a couple of weeks, you didn't need this job the way I did, and you just couldn't keep your mouth shut just 'cause I didn't want to serve that nigger-lover? Way I figure it, everything you made in there since then is really mine, and I'm gonna have it, one way or another." With that, he drew the club up over his head and brought it down in a clean swish. Daniel dodged him and the club bounced harmlessly off the side of the building, but he was still cornered. If only he could ring the doorbell...but no one was on break and Chris knew as well as he that the bell tended to be ignored by everyone who was on duty.

Chris took another swipe at Daniel, horizontally this time. Daniel jumped back just in time to evade it, but now he had his back up against the building. He kicked at Chris, but Chris spotted his move just in time and caught his foot in midair, and threw Daniel off balance.

As he crashed to the ground, Daniel had just enough time to wonder whether he ought to cover his head with his arms or reach for his pocket first. As Chris seemed to be aiming for his head, he chose the former and closed his eyes in anticipation of the blow.

It never came. Instead there was the sound of a scuffle and Chris shrieking, "What the hell, come off it!"

Daniel opened his eyes to see Shaune tackling Chris from behind. "You leave him alone!" she snarled. She struggled a bit to pull him down backwards, but with a well-placed kick behind his knee she did it. Once he was sprawling on the pavement, Shaune gave him a swift kick in the balls that rendered him helpless as he clutched at his gut.

"What the fuck, Shaune!" he wailed. "That's out of bounds!"

"And this wasn't?" Daniel was on his feet by then, and he wrenched the billy club out of Chris' hands. He couldn't resist whacking him on the hip with it, but Chris barely seemed to notice as he was already in so much agony. To Shaune he said, "Thanks. Let's get out of here."

"Please," Shaune agreed. "Where's your car? I walked here."

"Nice kick," he said with a relieved sigh once they were safely locked in his car.

"Thanks," Shaune said. "I always said I would never do that to a guy unless he was threatening me, but, well, he was threatening you."

"Worse than just threatening. Listen, I was going to come see you anyway, really," he added.