Chapter 5
On the drive home from her session with Cheyenne she treated herself to a coffee from Summer/Moon instead of a hot fudge sundae. Quarter Moon Latte, which should have just enough sugar and caffeine to get her to bedtime. She felt exhausted, but good. Cheyenne led her to a couple of places she really didn’t want to go and poked at them a little bit, but didn’t push. It was hard for Mary Louise to open up to people. She grew up in a house full of secrets and shame. When she walked out the front door, she was to put on a smile and never let the outside world know what went on behind those closed doors. She was brought up to be a proper lady. Proper ladies didn’t discuss family matters.
And going on a blind date? She couldn’t think of a more horrifying situation. Worse than being married to Albert?
It was not a great marriage but both of them stayed. Decades had passed since Albert said he loved her, and even back when he did, Mary Louise knew it was said mostly to manipulate her. She didn’t have much experience with men before she met Albert. A couple of the girls she had gotten chummy with at the community college were constantly trying to fix her up and get her out into the dating world.
They talked her into going to a Halloween party with them. It was last minute so Mary Louise had no costume. One of the girls who had invited her, Peggy, lent her a black dance leotard and they spent an hour sipping whiskey from Peggy’s parents’ liquor cabinet and fashioning a tail and kitty ear headband out of wire hangers and a black t-shirt. Peggy painted Mary Louise’s face, complete with a little pink nose and whiskers. Mary Louise did not recognize the young woman in the mirror staring back at her out of the black eyeliner and make-up. But wasn’t that the point of costumes? To pretend to be something you are not?
Although Mary Louise felt almost naked in the tight fitting leotard, she looked very tame next to Peggy and Madeleine who had each bought Playboy bunny costumes weeks before.
Mary Louise didn’t recognize herself in the mirror, and she didn’t recognize the girl crammed into the backseat of Peggy’s Honda. They had already been drinking, and now they were headed to a party. It was Halloween. There were children everywhere. Mary Louise felt sick. Yes! That was it. She was sick, so she just needed to go home.
“Peggy, I don’t really feel well. I think I should just go home,” she said from the backseat.
Peggy looked at her from the rear view mirror. Madeleine turned around and said, “No way, Jose. You need to lighten up, Mary Louise! You’re young! You’re beautiful! You need to have some fun!”
No one had ever called her beautiful. She looked at her cat face in the mirror. On occasion her mother would tell her, “You’re such a pretty girl,” but didn’t all mothers do that? And what did it matter how she looked anyway? She was going to get to the party and then what? Sit in the corner and try to figure out how to get home?
“No really, I…”
“Too late! We’re here!” said Peggy.
Mary Louise hadn’t been paying attention to where they were going. It was a neighborhood Mary Louise had certainly never been to before. She unfolded herself from the backseat and Peggy and Madeleine dragged her up to a front door covered in cobwebs, a portal that would open up to a massive house. The beat of the music inside pounded inside Mary Louise’s chest. They opened the door without knocking and Mary Louise’s anxiety went into overdrive. The music, the people, the costumes. They stepped into a marble-floored entry way. They shut the door behind them. The beat of the music, plus a girl in a Cleopatra costume pulled them into the great room. A large wet bar dominated one corner of the room, hosting a steady stream of people. The red solo cups looked as out of place as Mary Louise felt. Was that a Monet hanging above the fireplace?
Peggy shoved a cup in her hand, and then Mary Louise shrank back to the safest spot she could find next to a fake ficus tree. Everyone looked to be college-aged, probably from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine. Peggy and Madeleine were not alone in their Playboy Bunny costumes. Mary Louise half expected for someone dressed up as Hugh Hefner to appear in a silk bathrobe and creepy grin. There were a couple of pirates, a cowboy and even one guy dressed up as a tampon.
Suddenly a cheer erupted from the front of the house along with a few shouts of “Shaggy!”
Shaggy, clearly a nickname, was dressed up as a hippy with a peace symbol headband securing his long-haired wig. He wore a tan leather vest with nothing underneath and a pair of striped bell bottom pants that flared out just above his chunky boots. A pair of circular, purple-lensed John Lennon style sunglasses completed his outfit. As soon as he arrived, the party atmosphere shot up a few notches. Mary Louise immediately knew to stay far, far away. She shrunk farther back into the corner clutching her cup of way-too-strong punch and continued to people watch. Part of her was mad at herself for agreeing to come to this party, but part of her was fascinated by how different her world was from all of the other young people around her.
Before she got to the end of her punch the mood changed again. Someone put on a Marvin Gaye album and people began pairing off. She’d stationed herself by a pair of French doors that led onto a patio, so she opened one and slipped out into the humid night.
The patio was decorated almost as elaborately as the inside of the house. Candles illuminated a table laden with chips, sandwiches, vegetables trays, and cookies. The only other person on the patio was a large young man dressed up as a panda. It suited him. He shoved a celery stick into his mouth and noticed Mary Louise.
“Hey, man,” he said, “those little chicken salad sandwiches are dynamite.”
Mary Louise realized he was probably suffering from the munchies. She also realized she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and decided to heed his recommendation on the sandwiches. She filled a plate and joined him at one of the small tables scattered around the patio. He appeared harmless.
“Justin,” he said, offering a pudgy paw.
“Mary Louise,” she said, lightly shaking his hand.
She bit into one of the sandwiches and it was, indeed, dynamite.
“You didn’t get any brownies,” Justin said. “Here, have one of mine.”
He placed a large brownie on her plate on top of her chips. She had noticed the brownies but they were on a foil-wrapped tray and did not look like they’d come from the caterer. One bite confirmed her suspicions. It was gooey and delicious but there was no mistaking a certain herbal quality in the flavor profile. She took another bite and before she knew it, the brownie was gone and she began devouring the sandwiches and chips.
“Looks like you need a refill,” said Justin. He stood with his own cup in hand and grabbed hers as well. “Be right back.”
She felt so…mellow. So relaxed. Normally her mind was racing, no matter the time of day or night. There was always something to be worried about, something to be figured out. Right now her thoughts could focus on nothing but the beautiful twinkling lights and the delicious food on her plate. Her mother had hounded her since birth about the virtues of being thin, and about how she’d never get a husband if she was overweight. Food was thought of as a necessity to stay alive, not something to be enjoyed. She was enjoying this food. In fact, she was enjoying it so much she went back for a second plate and this time included a brownie.
Justin returned with her refill. They munched and talked and Mary Louise couldn’t remember ever feeling this happy in her entire life. Not happy like a surprise birthday party. Happy like even when she tried to make a negative, worrisome thought come into her mind it flitted away. She was just being and enjoying the moment.
Justin was so kind and pleasant with no hints of trying to make a move. He lived at home and attended the University of Houston, working on a degree in Petroleum Engineering. He had two sisters and by all accounts appeared to be a normal, happy guy.
The two cups of punch were now sitting in her bladder begging to be released. She stood up and gave herself a minute to be sure she had her bearings after that second brownie and second cup of punch. Confident she could make it to the nearest restroom she headed back through the french doors.
She remembered overhearing someone getting directions to a bathroom down near the kitchen so she headed that way. She knocked, and with no response from within and an unlocked door, she opened it. The hippie guy, Shaggy, had Cleopatra pressed up against the wall. Her dress was up above her waist and Shaggy’s pants were down below his knees. Rut ro.
“Oh, God!” exclaimed Mary Louise.
Shaggy turned his head at the sound. He still had on the sunglasses.
“Hey,” he said, looking her up and down. “Me-ow! Would you like to join us? Three’s company.”
The last thing Mary Louise saw before quickly stepping out and shutting the door behind her was Cleopatra slapping Shaggy in the face. She managed to find a powder bath on the other side of the great room, thankfully unoccupied. She closed and locked the door. It was a struggle to get the leotard down to a place where she could sit on the toilet and she was afraid she might not make it in time. But she did, and then spent the same amount of time trying to get it back on. She went to the sink to wash her hands and did not recognize the person staring back at her from the mirror.
Her eyes were totally bloodshot. Her face was flaming, visible beneath the rouge and kitten nose, resulting from a combination of shock and embarrassment at what she’d witnessed in the other bathroom plus the effort it had taken to get the leotard off then back on. The intense amount of eye make-up was beginning to run and she looked more like a racoon than a cat. She thought for one split second about what her mother would think if she saw her like this, but that wasn’t going to happen because she was spending the night at Patty’s. If she could find Patty. She made her way out to the patio to get another brownie, not realizing that just moments before she had met her future husband.
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