The Blackmore house was darkened as I pulled to the curb and shut down my engine. I breathed a sigh of relief at this. Maybe I could get her inside without awakening her parents. Beside me Nina was unconscious, snoring softly. I began to shake her gently, trying to wake her.
"Nina." I called, using a louder and louder voice. "You're home."
She stirred a little but would not open her eyes. She batted at me once when I shook her a little too hard.
"Shit." I mumbled.
I began patting down her pockets, looking for her keys. Feeling the tell-tale bulge in the right front of her pants, I put my hand in, having to force it the pants were so tight, and finally felt the cold metal of the keys. It took a few moments of stern yanking before they popped free. Using the dome light I searched through the ring and finally identified a likely house key.
I got out of the car and walked up to the door, quiet as a mouse, and inserted the key into the deadbolt lock. It wouldn't turn. With a curse I pulled it out and searched through the ring again, locating another prospect. This one did the trick. I released the bolt and pulled the key free. I then tried the doorknob, finding it to be locked too. Using the first key I unlocked that and gave the knob a quick turn to make sure it would open. Knowing that Nina had a cat that was not supposed to be outside, I did not open the door just yet, although that would have made my task easier.
I quickly returned back to the car and opened the passenger door. I shoved the keys back into Nina's pocket and then reached down and picked her up, cradling her like a baby. This was easy since she only weighed about a hundred pounds or so. Even in her stupor her arm automatically went around my neck.
Tiptoeing I walked up to the door and, after considerable twisting and stretching, managed to get my hand on the doorknob. With the layout of the Blackmore house in my mind, giving me the fastest route to her bedroom and back out, I turned the knob and pushed open the door, prepared to make the dash.
"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
My eyes looked up to the lighted box next to the front door. An alarm code box. As soon as I heard the noise and saw the box a memory came to me, a memory of the days before our breakup, when Nina's mother used to drive us to this house after school to study. I remembered either Nina or her mother punching in a code as soon as the door was unlocked. A code that shut off the infernal beeping before the alarm would start to ring. How in the hell had I forgotten about that?
I shook her up and down, trying to rouse her. "Nina." I whispered frantically into her ear. "What's the code for your alarm?"
"Huh?" She croaked, her glassy eyes creaking open a quarter of an inch or so.
"What's the damn alarm code?" I asked desperately.
She giggled. "That's funny." She went back to sleep.
"Nina!" I barked louder.
A bedroom door opened from down the hall. A light clicked on.
"Nina?" Came Jack Blackmore's voice. "Turn off the damn alarm! What's the matter with you?"
Footsteps began to approach. Mary's voice spoke up. "Jack? What's wrong? Why is the alarm going off?"
I could only stand there as Jack came around the corner. He was dressed in gray sweatpants and was shirtless, the surgical scar on his chest standing out like a zipper. His eyes locked onto me standing there and holding his unconscious daughter in my arms.
"Christ Almighty." He muttered, tromping over. He punched in a code and the beeping fell silent.
"Jack?" Came Mary's voice from the bedroom. "Is everything all right?"
Jack looked at me carefully for a moment and then at Nina, who was snoring drunkenly again. I wondered if he was going to go get his hunting rifle and blow me away right there or if he would at least give me a running start.
"Is she okay?" He asked tonelessly.
"Uh…" I stammered.
"She smells like a damn brewery. Is she okay?"
"She had a little too much to drink." I finally admitted.
Mary came around the corner. She was dressed in a long cotton nightgown and pulling a robe around her body. She took in the scene before her and walked carefully into the living room.
"What's wrong with her?" She asked.
"Too much to drink." Jack explained.
"I tried to get her to slow down." I offered weakly. My arm muscles were starting to cry out as I stood there. I wondered if we were going to end right back up at step one again because of this?
"And you?" Jack asked me. "Have you had too much to drink too?"
I shook my head. "No." I replied. "I only had three beers all night, and those were when we first got there. I told you I take driving very seriously."
He nodded. "You seem sober enough." He pointed out. "Well don't just stand there. Go put her in her room. Mary, can you take care of her once she's there?"
"Of course." Mary said, shaking her head sadly and looking at her intoxicated daughter with something that looked almost like affection. Strange.
"C'mon." Mary told me, leading the way.
"Aren't you guys mad about this?" I finally had to ask.
They both stopped and looked at me. "Mad?" Jack asked. "Why would we be mad? You got her home safely just like you said."
"Yeah." I stammered. "But…"
"You mean because she's drunk?" Mary asked next.
I nodded.
They looked at each other for a moment and chuckled knowingly.
"Bill." Jack told me. "We'd be about the biggest hypocrites in the world if we got mad over this. Why back in our day I drug Mary home many a time carrying her just like you're carrying Nina there."
"And I've dragged Jack into the house more than my share too." She added.
My mouth was agape as I tried to picture what they were saying.
"Drinking is a part of every young person's life." Mary said, reaching out to stroke Nina's hair. "She's free and eighteen and if she wants to drink until she vomits, that's her prerogative. Did she vomit?"
"Uh, yeah." I nodded.
"You were a lot more responsible than we used to be." Jack told me. "Why we used to go out to parties and when it was time to go we decided who would drive by whoever had to carry the other. A couple times we woke up the next morning and the car was in the garage and we had no idea how we'd gotten home."
They looked at each other affectionately again. "It's a wonder we didn't kill ourselves back then." Mary said nostalgically. She turned to Jack. "Remember that time we woke up in someone's house in the morning and we didn't know where we were?"
Jack laughed fondly. "Oh yeah." He nodded, turning to me. "It was back in the late fifties or thereabouts. We went to this Christmas party and got drunk out of our minds. The next thing we know, we're waking up the next morning in chairs at someone's dining room table. Never seen the house before in our lives."
Mary actually giggled, to my astonishment. "And the kid!" She said. "Remember the kid!"
"Oh yeah." He repeated. "There was this kid eating breakfast at the table. A bowl of cereal. We'd never seen him before, had no idea who he was. He just kind of looked at us and said hi and then went back to eating. Were we hungover? Oh boy I guess we were. Our car was out front so we got into and tried to drive home but we had no idea what part of town we were in or anything."
"It took us about twenty minutes to find a street we were familiar with." Mary laughed.
That this story would be one of their fond marital memories seemed strange at first but I finally realized I was dealing with the alcohol generation here. In their youths alcohol use did not have the stigma it would develop in mine. Drinking was a part of every social function and was seen as a rite of passage almost. The Blackmores seemed almost proud of their daughter for having her first vomitus trip through the land of intoxication.
"This is very weird." I couldn't help commenting.
They offered no comment to that. Mary led me to Nina's bedroom where I gently laid her down on her bed. She shoed me out and closed the door while she began attending to her comatose daughter. When I returned to the living room, Jack was holding two bottles of beer in his hands. He handed one to me.