It's no use arguing with Marilyn when she gets something into her head. For proof of that, we only had to go back to Suzie's graduation. This wasn't going to be that bad, but it was probably going to be pointless. "Honey, it's been ten years. Nobody will even remember who the fuck I was."
"Tusker and Tessa will remember you!"
"That's it! Nobody else will know me, that's for sure.", I replied.
"How do you know that!?"
I just smiled at her and shook my head. "Honey, I wasn't even there half the time. The last couple of years, I spent half the day over at Towson State. Trust me; nobody will know who I am."
"Well, I want to go, so you have to go."
Why she wanted to go to a reunion of a school she had never attended mystified me, but so much about my wife always would mystify me. I sort of liked it most of the time. I just smiled and shrugged. "Okay, we'll go. We can stay for an hour or so, and after we get tired of the blank stares at my name badge, we can leave and go out for dinner or something."
Marilyn squealed happily and kissed me on the cheek, and then scampered off to call Tessa and tell her that we would be going. I just rolled my eyes.
The morning of the reunion, I told Marilyn that we would go, but to dress for going out to a nice dinner afterwards. I would dress casually - chinos and a dress shirt, no tie - and toss a sport coat in the back of the car. Marilyn decided on a button front long denim skirt and a peasant top. She wore some high heeled sandals to look classy, but she kept laughing about how we would end up staying the day at the reunion. She was up to something, but I had no idea what.
The one thing I definitely wanted to do was to take my new toy. I had been over to Tusk Cycles a few months ago when one of his customers drove up in a Mercedes Benz 380 SL, a new one, and I saw it through his front window. Memories came flooding back of the 380, which I thought at the time was one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Even the way they built the hard top, with the lowered center section, looked exotic. I just stared at it through the window while my buddy dealt with his customer. The next day I drove down to Towson and went to the Mercedes Benz dealership.
They had one in the showroom, and it was like getting an instant erection! Back before, the idea that I could ever actually afford one of these cars was like the idea that I could ever actually become an astronaut and go to the moon. They only built them in the late Seventies through the mid Eighties, and I always stared when I saw one. To me, they were the sexiest car around. I wanted to have a mid-life crisis so I could solve it by buying a sports car; never mind that I was nowhere near mid-life.
I left the dealership that day, but came back about a week later, and this time I convinced myself to take a test drive. I wasn't going to actually buy one, but it wouldn't hurt to drive one. The sales rep must have thought I was nuts, or maybe he had seen this before. I took the drive, which was sort of like a mechanical wet dream, and then left the dealership again. A week later I was out with Marilyn and Charlie and I stopped into the dealership again to show her the car. I think the cat was out of the bag when the salesman smiled and said, "Welcome back, Mister Buckman."
I looked guilty when Marilyn commented, "Been here before, have we?" I hemmed and hawed, and she just rolled her eyes and said, "Well, how much does it cost?"
"If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.", I told her.
She gave me a "Hmmppphh!" at that, and then looked at the sticker in the window, at which point she gave a small shriek and said, "You've got to be kidding me!" The sales rep never batted an eye; I at least had the good taste to blush with embarrassment. "Oh, hell, do what you want!", she said, shaking her head.
"Seriously?"
"It's your money! Feel free to waste it!" She juggled a laughing Charlie and said, "Daddy's being silly!"
So I bought myself a dark blue 380 SL model. Dealer prep - waiting for the check to clear - took a few days. The day I could pick it up, Marilyn and Charlie drove me down, and then I drove it back, stopping at Tusker's to give him a ride. He agreed with me, it was like an orgasm on wheels. He also, even more importantly, offered me a place to store the hard top if I wanted to drive it with just the soft top or topless.
So, if I was going to the reunion, I was taking the 380 and Marilyn and I would dress for an afternoon and evening out. The reunion was bound to be a bust, so we could do a date night afterwards. Marilyn had joined Our Lady of Grace over in Parkton, and had a babysitter in the form of the fourteen year old daughter of a friend in the parish. Becky arrived around 11:00 or so, and Marilyn gave the poor girl a complete breakdown of Charlie's entire life and every conceivable emergency. I finally rescued Becky by dragging Marilyn out the door.
The reunion was being held at the Loch Raven Tennis and Swim Club, north of Dulaney Valley Road on the Jarretsville Pike, north of the reservoir. Becky had assured us she would be fine for the afternoon and into the evening, and in fact was looking forward to it, since it was worth extra money for her. It was about a half hour drive to get there, and Marilyn had a rather self-satisfied smile on her face most of the time. I couldn't figure it out, since I just couldn't understand why Marilyn had wanted to go to my reunion. My wife was astonishingly unromantic about the schools she went to. She never went to any of her reunions, or even her graduations for that matter.
It was just before noon when we pulled into the parking lot. It was surprisingly full, with about a half dozen motorcycles parked over at one side. "It looks like Tusker and his friends are here already.", I told Marilyn, pointing at the bikes.
"I never have figured out how you ended up hanging out with the bikers! It's not like you ride."
"Not in a million years!", I said, laughing. "I might be an organ donor, but I want to hang on to them a little while longer. Listen, I'm just not that judgmental, and mostly they weren't either. I remember one time when the vice principal, a real tool of an asshole, was giving out a lot of shit. He had this little VW Bug, so I rounded up a few of the bikers and a few of the lacrosse players, and we picked it up and carried it over to the school entrance and wedged it between a couple of the pillars at the front door, sideways, so it couldn't be driven out. He was so pissed!"
"You're so pleased with yourself over that, aren't you?!", she responded primly.
"You're damn right I was pleased. I'll bet you never did that with the nuns." Marilyn was almost apoplectic at the thought, so I just laughed at her some more, and teased her about getting back at the nuns, perhaps by smacking them with rulers. Thank God I never had to put up with parochial schools!
I parked the car and we got out; I left my cane in the car for later. My knee was better early in the day, generally, so I might not need it until later. I reached out and we held hands as we walked across the parking lot. There were a couple of really gargantuan tents behind what looked like a clubhouse, and several tennis courts and a swimming pool over to the right. Nobody was playing tennis or swimming, though, and it was a beautiful day, so it made me think that the reunion group had reserved the club for the day. Regardless, the only way to go in was through the clubhouse, so I opened the door and ushered Marilyn inside.
There was a big banner stretched across the far wall, 'WELCOME BACK TOWSON HIGH 10 YEAR REUNION!', and below that was a long table with what looked like spread out name tags. Behind the table were three girls, women actually, and they looked familiar. Also on the table was a pitcher of beer and several Solo cups. I looked around the clubhouse for a second, and then walked towards the table. I figured it to be a registration table.