Decades Ch. 04

Kelly nodded. "Makes sense. But one thing doesn't, Doug. If you had stopped your mother from losing it, you probably wouldn't have been born, at least not in 1984 and not with the same father. Haven't you ever watched Back to the Future?

Doug turned white as a sheet and cast his eyes up at the ceiling. "How on earth did I not think of that?"

"I don't know, but I'd say we'd better give that waitress an awfully big tip," Kelly said.

"I wonder did she know?" Doug said. "That comment about them not being my family..."

"Wow, who else in town knows about the jukebox?" Kelly wondered.

Doug took a deep breath and finished off the last of his free milkshake. "Okay, no more trying to save my family from themselves, I promise." He took a look down the counter to see Janice still sitting there.

"But as long as we're here, we might as well try to save her."

Doug did, as promised, leave a nice fat tip for the waitress, who in the meantime had treated Aunt Doro to an iced tea and a friendly ear to vent her frustrations at the situation and sent her on her way. With no further risk of Doug interfering with his future, Kelly opted to keep that knowing look she thought she'd witnessed to herself. As they made their way around the tables to the end of the counter, she and Doug were both, for the first time, unsure of how to approach the situation or even whether to approach it at all.

Janice Payne - Jan - did not make that any easier as they approached her. After one cursory look at them over the edge of her book, she went back to reading, even as they arrived at her side, unmistakably there to see her.

"Are you Tim?" she asked, not looking up.

"No..." Doug answered, making no effort to hide his confusion.

"And you're not Barbara, I can tell that much," Jan said.

"No, I'm Kelly," Kelly said.

"Kelly? I've heard of you!" Now Jan set down her book. Looking furtively around to make sure they wouldn't be overheard, she continued, "But aren't they only supposed to send the generic guy to meet us? I've never had them send a girl along before." She gave Doug a dirty look, then continued. "No offense, but I'm really getting tired of always having to pretend with you guys. I pretended to be boy crazy all through high school and it gave me a bad reputation without even the fun that comes with that usually, and enough is enough. But this can be a hateful little town." Turning back to Kelly, she continued, "So how long have you been in the club?" In a whisper she added, "Are you out?"

"Not here I'm not," Kelly said.

"Good answer." Janice closed her book and shook hands with Kelly and, a bit begrudgingly, with Doug. "Sorry I wasn't more friendly. It's just so frustrating, you know? People think this town is so progressive, anything goes...anything but us, it seems."

"I understand," Doug said.

"Do you?" Janice looked at him with a skeptical glint. "Are you out?"

"No," Doug said, "And someone very close to me has been here since World War II and she's never been out in all that time."

"Really? Who? I probably know her. I've lived here all my life."

"You do, but it's not my place to out her to anyone," Doug said, barely hiding his satisfaction at his own chance to be snippy.

"You're right, of course," Janice said. "So. Shall we?"

"I think we should wait for this Tim and Barbara, don't you?" Kelly suggested.

"Yeah, of course," Janice said. "I just get so tired of hanging around this place all day. I don't know if you were here earlier, but there was some drama..."

"We were," Doug said.

"God, I'm so sorry you had to see that!" Janice exclaimed. "Those two ladies, they're..."

Doug was saved from whatever criticism Janice was going to offer up of his family when a young man in white bellbottoms and a form-fitting long-sleeve t-shirt appeared in their corner, with the first short-haired woman Doug and Kelly had seen all day just behind him. "You guys know a Jan Payne?" the man asked.

"That's me," Janice said. "Tim? Barbara?"

"Yeah," Barbara said in a tone just above a grunt. "And your friends here?"

"They're cool," Janice said.

"Breeders from the looks of you, but cool?" Tim asked. Turning to Barbara, he asked, "You okay with a straight guy at the cove?"

"Might as well let him eat his heart out over me," she teased. To Doug she added, "Just don't think you'll ever get to touch me, kiddo."

"Don't worry." Doug couldn't help laughing, to Barbara's visible annoyance, but she said nothing further.

"Wait," Janice said. "I don't mind you there either, Doug, but I think we ought to warn you both about the cove."

"We've been there once already, and it was beautiful," Kelly added. "So free!"

"Girl, I do like your attitude, even if I ain't buying what you got down there," Tim said. "All right, enough talk. Let's get out of here."

Once they were in the relative safety of outside in the late afternoon, Tim explained, "We always bring newly minted couples to the cove on their first encounter. It's a nice way of easing people into the intimacy, you know, giving them a chance to try each other on for size before things get too heavy."

"But hasn't Jan been out with you guys before?" Kelly asked, remembering what the waitress had said about the numerous guys she'd seen with Janice.

"She hasn't been with me before," Barbara explained. "I've seen her from across the room at a couple of our retreats, that sort of thing, but never got a chance to get up close and personal." She briefly took Janice's hand and squeezed it. "Not until now, anyway."

Janice let loose with a girlish giggle in response to the flirting. "I've seen you too, now that I know who this lady was who asked for a hookup with me," Janice said. "It's been a while, but I do recognize you now that I've seen you. And I'm so glad you asked!" She gave Barbara a coy grin, and then they all turned their attention to crossing the busy street to the beach.

"I'm so glad you're back among us," Barbara said once they were across and had their shoes off to shuffle across the sand. "How's your back?"

"Much better, thanks," Janice said. "I'd needed the operation for ages, but my doctor always said I should wait until I was a bit older and my body was done growing, so they'd only have to correct it once. Such a relief to know now it's done and I'll never have to worry about that part of my health again!"

"Oh, right, I heard about this from Jeremy, I think he was your generic guy once last summer," Tim said. "Surgery to fix a crooked spine, was it?"

"Close enough," Janice said. "Not exactly, but I don't like to talk about the particulars of it all now that it's finally over with. Even now that I'm safe and strong again, who wants to think about having your body ripped open for hours, and two pints of other people's blood pumped into you?!"

Doug and Kelly exchanged knowing, horrified looks. So it definitely was already too late, and there was nothing they could have done in the first place.

It was, they both mused silently on their own, each guessing correctly that the other was thinking the same, too late to extricate themselves graciously from their little group. The beach was still quite crowded as the sun was just beginning to dip over the hills to the west of town, and the five of them stood out all too well being fully clothed. Any locals who happened to be on the beach knew just where they were headed, an idea Doug found titillating as he always did when on his way to the cove.

But he found he didn't want to go there at all just now, not with Janice looking so healthy and vivacious and utterly unaware of the horrible undoing that was already coursing through her blood, to say nothing of the close call he had caused back at the restaurant. Looking silently over at Kelly, he saw that she was admiring the western horizon, all aglow with the impending sunset over the trees in the distance. More than ever, Doug he wished they could have a few days to explore the past beyond Pascatawa. But it wasn't to be, at least not unless they unlocked some new secret of the jukebox.

Before Doug could look away, Kelly turned back and met his gaze with a knowing smile. He felt his heart flip - it was time. Now all they needed was a room, and to get away from the others.

That proved easier than expected, for they arrived at the cove to find it already quite crowded with revelers frolicking about in their underwear. To his bewilderment, he was greeted with the sight of Mrs. Perkins, the librarian in his own time whom he had last seen as a snobby young woman in 1958, sunning herself on a rock in leopard print panties. "Well, hello, youngsters," she said with a grin, sitting up to greet them as they emerged from behind the boulders that shielded the cove from sight. "I hope you're not lost, this must be an awful shock if you are."

"No, thanks!" Doug said. "We know the cove and I'm pretty sure we're all here for the right reasons."

"Do I know you?" Mrs. Perkins asked him.

"Yes, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you how."

"Good answer back here," she conceded. "I've been coming here over fifteen years and the odd things you see...yes, like these," she confirmed, cupping her breasts in both hands, "Sometimes it's best not to remember too many details."

"You been here before, Jan?" asked Barbara, who had lost no time in stripping down to her underwear and looked like she was seriously considering taking it all off. That never happened in Doug's own time, but he saw now that in the seventies a few people did. He wondered when that had ended.

"Yeah, but only with guys," Janice said as she followed Barbara's lead. "I had to keep up my reputation."

"You did a good job of that, if you don't mind my saying so, Janice," Mrs. Perkins piped up. "But are you saying it was all an act? You wanted people to think you were promiscuous when you weren't really?"

"Well...yes, Mrs. Perkins, that's exactly it." Janice was also down to bra and panties by then, and she put an affectionate arm around Barbara, who returned the favor.

Mrs. Perkins was surprised, but she nodded agreeably. "Smart choice in this town, Janice. Well played."

Her attention was promptly redirected to Tim, who was also undressing. Doug and Kelly were unsurprised to see he was wearing the tiniest of bikini briefs and that they were bulging tightly enough to look like the fabric just might tear. "Well, look at you!" Mrs. Perkins exclaimed.

"Yes, indeed, sister, look at me," Tim teased, and with a wonderfully flamboyant flair he also pulled the briefs off. "All you ladies can look, but I'm afraid that's all you can do, my dears."

Mrs. Perkins laughed and didn't look the least put out, and she lay back down to resume her sunbath. "I might've known that package was too good to be true!" she squealed.

"Doug? Kelly?" Janice said. "Are you going to join us or not?"

"Oh, gee," Doug said. "It sure looks like fun, but..." He had no trouble looking only in Janice's eyes; he just couldn't stand to admire her beautiful young body knowing what he and Kelly knew.

"Might've known the breeders would chicken out," Tim clucked. "What do we expect?"

"Don't listen to them!" Mrs. Perkins said, propping herself up on an elbow to look at Doug and Kelly. "It's not for everyone, and that's fine. You know, I kept all my clothes on the first few times I came here too, and no one complained." With a dismissive look at Tim, she added, "And we'd like to keep the place as open minded as possible."

"Thank you," Kelly said. "Maybe next time, guys. It was nice meeting you all."

"You too!" Janice said. "Come say hi next time you see me at the restaurant, okay?"

"No problem," Doug agreed.

"Before you go, though," Mrs. Perkins said, sitting up straight for the first time. Doug did his best not to gaze at her breasts as they sagged lazily, though she didn't appear to care if he did. "I've got to know. If I don't know you from here, where do I know you from? I know your face from somewhere."

"I told you, you wouldn't believe me." Doug was seriously considering telling her the truth anyway - what could it hurt?

"Try me," she insisted.

Doug toyed with offering to do so only in exchange for letting him play with her breasts a bit, but he was quite sure Kelly would never forgive him for that. So he leaned over and whispered something in Mrs. Perkins' ear. Amidst the crashing waves and the shrieks of the other people playing in the water, no one else heard a thing.

Mrs. Perkins looked perplexed, and finally said, "You were half right. It's not that I don't believe it, I just don't get it."

"I'm not sure I do either," Doug said. He took the big chance of taking Kelly by the hand, and was rewarded with the lovely sensation of her clasping him back. "Well, maybe next weekend, everyone?"

Kelly, not wanting to spoil the pleasant intimacy as they walked hand in hand back down the sidewalk a few minutes later, tamped down the temptation to ask what he had whispered. No sense in giving him the satisfaction of refusing to divulge his secret. "So what now, Doug?" she asked. "We definitely can't do what you said you came here for or what you really did come here for, and we've got hours to kill."

"Well," Doug said with the shy grin that he was coming to realize always melted Kelly's heart, "I do know one way we could kill a few hours if you're feeling anything like I am." They reached the corner just as he said it and the light was against them, so he grabbed the opportunity to take her in his arms and leave no doubt whatsoever as to what he was suggesting. He leaned down just enough to invite a kiss if she wanted it, and as it turned out she did.

Their first kiss lasted through a cycle of the WALK light, and inspired a few cheers and hoots from passing tourists. Kelly felt high as the kites she could see out on the beach when she finally pulled back. "Yes, I'm ready, Doug," she whispered. "But where?" she asked in her normal voice.

"I told you that first night, I know a way in to Aunt Doro's place. We just need to wait for my mother to take off. That'll be..." He checked his watch. "Sometime after dark. Three, four hours. We've waited this long, haven't we?"

"You know what time of day she ran away?"

"I know it was late evening. Aunt Doro called her from where she and Grandma were staying to make sure she was there. That was around dinner time, she told me once. And Mom brags about it to this day, how she knew all she had to do was wait for them to go to bed."

"So until then...what? We watch 1978 go by?"

"Sounds like fun to me," Doug said. "Like you said, a costume party. And dig some of these old cars...I haven't seen some of them since I was a kid and they were junkers then!"

"I was thinking the same and hoping you'd agree to it," Kelly grinned.

They did finally cross the street, and staked out a bench in the park across from the beach, which in their own time would be a well-kept green with a visitors' center but was now a seedy lot with a beat-down old playground and a gang of boisterous teenagers holding court on the corner. "I remember when this place was renovated," Doug said. "I was about ten. I'll bet some of those losers over there are the parents of the bullies at our school."

"Remember what you said about how beautiful this place was in the fifties and sixties?" Kelly couldn't resist reminding him.

"I never said anything about the seventies," Doug shot back.

Their bench-level view of history lost its appeal much sooner than either of them had expected. After half an hour or so, Kelly asked, "Do you know if there was a movie theater back then? Back now, I mean..."

"Oh, Kelly, I was going to suggest the same, but you know where it is? The same place as now, or I mean..."

"I know what you mean," Kelly said. "But what's wrong with that? Just up the road, then?"

"Across from the Templeton mansion," Doug said. "I just thought, after the last trip, you might not want to go there."

Kelly nodded and thought about it. "Hey, we won that battle, though," she said. "Besides, isn't it condos now?"

"Not until the early nineties," Doug said. "I asked Aurora about it the other day."

"Oh, so what?" Kelly replied. "What happened was already...nine years ago? It's not like Jimmy's going to pop up and finger us or anything. He's probably in jail by now, isn't he?"

"Yeah, it's just all so creepy," Doug said. "I guess everything about the past seems a little creepy after...after seeing that." He waved off in the direction of the cove.

But he agreed to the walk up the street to the theater, which would in the future be part of a high-end outdoor mall with bistros and coffee shops and boutiques, but was now at the end of a seedy strip-mall. There was only one movie showing at a time, and to Doug's delight and Kelly's mild annoyance it was Animal House on tap that evening. Against her better judgment, she joined in with Doug on the laughter more often than not, although both of them were nearly as amused at the idea that everyone else was enjoying all the gags for the very first time.

Kelly returned to form as soon as they had settled down to dinner at a seafood place in the strip mall, so long gone in their own time that Doug had had no idea of its existence until now. "You do see the unapologetic and probably unconscious male privilege in the way they treated the dead girl's friends, don't you?" she asked as they clinked beer glasses.

"Sure, and you see the whole point of the movie is that they were a bunch of dipshits, don't you? They're supposed to be jerks."

"Yeah, but the exploitation is played for laughs!"

"A lot of stuff is played for laughs that isn't funny at all in real life. That's the whole idea."

"Maybe," Kelly said. "But one time I can't forgive the exploitation, that's the ladder scene. They just had to have a woman undress and masturbate on screen when they could have moved the plot forward without it!"

"It does drive home the point of what a chauvinist pig Belushi was, doesn't it? Besides, he'd have broken his neck in real life and here we're expected to laugh at it."

"Right!" Kelly said. "Now doesn't it bug you a little bit as a man to have them suggesting your whole gender are a bunch of drooling idiots who can't control themselves every time a woman takes her bra off?"

Doug took a long sip of his beer, and said nothing even after he swallowed.

"Have I gotten through to you on this?" Kelly asked.

"Yes," Doug said. "But that's not why I didn't say anything. I was trying to think of a polite way to remind you that you assumed I was Bluto when we first met."

"No! I just didn't know for a fact you weren't. Now I do."

Doug nodded. "I can live with that."

It was nearly ten o'clock when they finished dinner. There was no need for discussion when they came to the all-night drug store on the strip; they both remembered all too well their official reason for visiting this year. Doug didn't shy away from finding condoms, but he wanted a few minutes to browse the vintage brand names and logos all through the store. Kelly, for her part, stuck to the candy aisle, and she was waiting for him by the door with her purchase: two Choco'Lite bars. "Have you ever heard of these?" she asked Doug, pulling out the brown and yellow wrappers for them both to examine. "My older cousins always talked about them like they were manna from heaven. Now we'll see."

"Never heard of them," Doug said.

They ate the candy on the walk up to the school, and agreed that it was nice but overrated by Kelly's cousins. On their arrival at the school - which looked from the outside nearly identical to its future appearance - Doug saw a telltale light on the second floor. "Mom hasn't left yet," he said. "Let's go play on the swings until she does."