Chapter Six

 

 

Their family had lived in this house for fifty years. Amy and her husband bought it after her parents had to move into assisted living. There had been a lot of changes in the landscape of her hometown. It used to be an area of avocado groves, orange trees, and strawberry fields. There used to be a large tractor showroom across the street from her house. A 7/11 replaced it years ago.

In 1971, when Amy was learning how to drive, her Dad would take her “out in the country” for driving practice. They would head east on Fourth Street, pass Browning Avenue, and be out among the orange groves and strawberry fields. There were few cars on the road, so her Dad thought she could handle it without getting them both killed. Driving “out in the country” was something she always liked doing after she got her license at 16 and could drive all by herself. She’d turn up the radio, smoke one of her Dad’s cigarettes that she had surreptitiously taken, and feel grown-up. There was very little of “the country” left in 2018. Orange County had experienced a population explosion, and the orange groves had been ripped out to make way for housing projects and mini malls.

Amy and Denise’s family had experienced a lot of tragedy since 1968. Both of their parents passed away in 2000 and their brother and younger sister died five years ago. They were both bracing themselves for the ghosts they might be meeting.

After Denise rang the doorbell, the porch light came on.

“Here we go,” Amy whispered to her sister.

A handsome man who looked like a movie star opened the door.

“Hi, Dad,” Denise said and started to cry. She hugged him and said, “We’ve missed you so much!!”

He pulled away from her and lectured, “Where on earth have you two been? I was about to call missing persons!”

Just then, a woman in a caftan came up to the door. “Mom!” Amy cried.

“Are you on drugs?” her Mom accused.

“No. No. I’m just happy to see you.”

Her mother looked at her with disbelief.

Their father said, “You two had us worried sick. Your Aunt Phyllis went to pick you up and waited and waited. Didn’t you two remember that you were supposed to meet her at 6:00 outside the fairgrounds?!”

Denise said, “We’re sorry, Dad.”

He answered, “You are both on restriction! Denise, I’m disappointed in you. I expected you to be the responsible one.”

“I’m sorry, Dad.”

“How did you two get home, anyway?”

Amy jumped in and said, “A friend of Denise’s brought us back.”

“That’s good. We’re glad you’re in one piece!” he answered and hugged his two oldest daughters.

“Come on in for dinner. We were just about to start eating,” their mother told them.

“Oh, boy. Pot roast. My favorite!” Denise said as they sat down at the kitchen table.

“Where are Steve and Paula?” Amy asked, looking around.

Paula, a little five-year-old with a Dutch boy haircut, came into the kitchen and saw her sisters. Amy and Denise had a horrible time dealing with their little sister’s untimely death at 46 and both ran to her ghost and cried and hugged her.

Paula recoiled and told them, “You’re weird!”

“Why are you two acting so strange?” their mother asked.

Amy answered, “We’re just high on life.”

“That better be all you’re high on!”

Amy told her, “Oh, Mom. Don’t be so hard on us. We love you.”

“Alright. Alright. Sit down before the food gets cold.”

Denise looked over at Amy and gave her a wink.

“Where’s Steve?” Amy asked.

“Who knows?” their Dad answered.

“What’s he been up to today?” Denise asked.

Their Mom answered, “He’s been moping around here, angry that he couldn’t get tickets to the concert like you two did.”

Denise remembered what happened and said, “I gave him plenty of notice when I told him that I was buying a block of tickets.”

Their mother told her, “A letter from John came today.”

Denise was amazed at the timing and asked, “You’re kidding?”

“No. I’m not. I’ll go get it.”

Denise raised her eyebrows and looked over at Amy. She was surprised when she realized that the day they happened to time travel would be the exact day when she’d hear from her first husband after he had been drafted. It was the letter she knew so well. The one she’d read over and over, as she felt so lonely and worried that he may not be able to “get leave” so he could be present at the birth of their baby.

Their Mom stood and went into the front room to get the letter for Denise. She handed it to her daughter and sat back down at the table.

Amy tried to lessen the tension. “Boy-Oh-Boy. Nothing beats home cooking.”

Her Mom looked at her funny and shook her head.

“Mom,” she went on, “have I ever told you what a good cook I think you are?”

“Okay, Amy. What’s up? Why are you acting so weird?”

“Nothing’s up. I just wanted to say that right now. That’s all.”

“Thank you,” her Mom curtly answered.

Denise started crying as she read John’s letter. All the memories came flooding back: the fact that they both protested the Viet Nam War and he had been drafted; the fact that she’s had to go through all the morning sickness without her husband helping her out; and the fact that her parents were angry at her for getting pregnant out of wedlock in the first place.

“I’ve got an idea to cheer us all up,” Amy said. “Let’s all go play miniature golf.”

“Oh, boy!” Paula answered. “Let’s go.”

“You’re too young to play, Paula.”

“Please??”

“You can watch the rest of us,” Amy told her. “Let’s all go and do it as a family. What do you say, Dad?”

He replied, “Well, it’s a good thing it’s not a school night…He was quiet for a few beats and then gave in. “Why not?”

“That’s the spirit, Dad,” Amy told him.

He replied, “This doesn’t mean that you two are off restriction.”

“We know, Dad,” Amy answered.

Denise said, “Let me go wipe off the mascara that’s probably smeared all over my face right now.”

“You do look like a raccoon,” her Mom said and went to her bedroom to change out of her caftan. She came out wearing some pedal pushers and a short-sleeved blouse.

“Nice outfit, Mom,” Amy said.

“Thanks. I just bought it at Kresge’s.”

“That color sure looks nice on you.”

“Are you buttering me up for any particular reason?”

“No. Do I sound like Eddie Haskell?”

“A little,” her Mom said and laughed.

After making sure Paula had her sweater on, even though it was about 80 degrees outside, they all walked the few blocks over to the miniature golf course. There was a long line for tickets and Amy told her sister, “Let’s go watch the guys playing pinball in the rec room.”

“Come and get us when you have the tickets, Dad,” Denise told him.

“Okay.”

Amy and Denise walked inside and saw all the teenagers hanging around, smoking cigarettes, and “banging them pleasure machines” as Bruce Springsteen called them. They saw a young “hood” smoking a cigarette who looked like Leonardo DiCaprio had in Romeo and Juliet. He glanced over at them. “Hi, Amy. I was wondering if I’d see you here.”

“Hi, Ivan,” she answered. This was the boy who would grow up to become the infamous “hammer murderer” after he killed his girlfriend’s husband.

Denise asked her, “Ivan! Is he ‘that Ivan’?!” She knew his name from the murder mysteries that Amy and her husband wrote in which Ivan played a starring role.

Ivan said, “Well…Amy… it sounds like you’ve been telling tales about me.”

“Yeah,” she answered, feeling somewhat guilty.

“How’s your cousin, Lisa?” he asked.

“She says ‘hi’,” Amy answered.

Denise whispered, “Let’s get out of here. He’s giving me the creeps.”

Amy told him, “We’ll see you later, Ivan. Stay out of trouble,” as she and her sister went to look for their father.

“I’m so glad that you didn’t have a crush on him,” Denise told her sister.

“I had a crush on his older brother, but he thought I was ugly.”

“You were never ugly. What a jerk! Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t get involved with that family.”

“You can say that again.”