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I was in the recliner watching the news when my mom brought me a tall glass of iced tea. My parents had bought a color TV. It was our first, and it was really neat. A bunch of people were demonstrating against the war. Some long-haired guy ran up to the police barricade and threw a bottle at the cops. That did it. The cops knocked the barrier down and charged, batons swinging. I watched in fascination.
My mom shook her head. “Carl, do you have to have that on? You ought to take a break from all of that and just rest.” She looked at my leg worriedly.
“Okay,” I said. “You mind turning it off?”
She smiled and turned the set off and went back to the kitchen.
They had given me a two-week medical leave. I could walk okay, but not too far. And I still had to do these physical therapy exercises. When I came back from my leave, they would cut orders for my next duty assignment, somewhere stateside. I only had four months left in the army.
The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” my mom called.
I heard her greet Jimmy Byrnes. “He’s in here,” she said.
He had a big smile on his face when he came in. He was dressed nicely. He’d always been a sharp dresser. He wore a maroon three-quarter length leather jacket and Beatle boots. He extended his hand. “Hey! You’re lookin’ good, man.”
“Thanks.”
“Can I get you some iced tea?” my mom asked him.
“No thanks, Mrs. Melcher.”
My mom went back into the kitchen.
“How was it over there?”
“Not too bad.”
He nodded. “You hear about Joey Sheehan?”
“Yeah.” My mother had already told me. He lived a couple blocks away and had died in Vietnam the week before. I had never liked the guy. He was a year ahead of me in grade school and the worst kind of bully. Just about every kid in the neighborhood had been worked over by Joey Sheehan at some point.
“How long you home for?” Jimmy asked.
“Couple weeks.”
He nodded at my leg. “How is it?”
“Pretty much healed now.”
He smiled. “So, you ready for ‘Chez Vous’ Friday night?”
I smiled. “Maybe next week.” Even if my leg were completely healed, though, I still wouldn’t go out. I didn’t want to.
“Mike Bennet and Frank Carey are flying out to LA to be on Bandstand.”
“You’re kidding,” I said.
“Uh-uh,” he said. “They’ve been saving up for six months.”
“Any guarantee they’ll get on?”
Jimmy shrugged. “I don’t know.” He pointed to the TV. “Mind if I turn it on? Bandstand is coming on.”
“Go ahead.”
It was already in progress. I was amazed by the colors of the clothes. The girls wore miniskirts and halters and the guys, bell bottom pants and vests. A lot of people had these psychedelic designs on their shirts and pants, like swirling vortexes of color. Tie-dyed, they called it. Dick Clark looked the way he always did.
Jimmy watched for about five minutes. Then he checked his watch and stood.
“Gotta go, huh?” I said.
“Yeah.” He put a stick of gum in his mouth. He offered me one. I shook my head.
“Well, I’ll stop by again before you go back.”
“Good deal.”
I heard my mom coming out so I wouldn’t have to get up and see him to the door.
“I’ll let myself out, Mrs. Melcher,” he called to her.
My mom looked at the TV. “Those skirts...” She shook her head.
“They’re in California, Mom.”
“Oh, that’s right.” She shook her head again and went back to the kitchen.
They were playing some new song I had never heard before. It had a pretty good beat, and I knew I could dance to it. But not there, not with those people. There was something about them... They were older than me, a lot of them. The guys were taller than I was and dressed nicer. But they had an intriguing look on their faces as they peered into the camera. What was it? I wondered. Where had I seen it before? Then I realized. It was the look of a child searching for his parents’ faces as he goes around on the merry-go-round, a look that said, “Look at me! Look at me!” They were kids, I realized, twenty-somethings, but still kids.
After a few minutes I couldn’t watch any more of it. I lay my head back and closed my eyes. Later I heard my mom click the TV off and I slept.
The End