I didn’t know what to say in response.
My teacher didn’t wait for any comment from me. He said, “If anything, power incurs responsibility. If not, nature has a way of rectifying things. If a leader is powerful and does not act in a responsible way, the situation will eventually be rectified. In the example of Hitler, who did indeed experience close to absolute power in Europe, his irresponsible actions caused one of his country’s allies to change sides, forcing Germany to once again fight a world war on two fronts. This directly led to his downfall.”
There was some silence as my teacher allowed his words to sink in.
“Hmm,” I finally said. “I’ll need to think about that.”
“That’s never a bad idea. A teacher always likes to hear that his students want to think about something!”
The two of us laughed, and it broke the tension that started when my teacher was lavishing his praise on my talents. There was something embarrassing about having those kinds of things told to me by adults.
The time was getting late, so I thanked my teacher, and he surprised me by shaking my hand. “I’m glad we had this talk, Jim. If you ever want to talk, whether it be about history, the British monarchy, or just about life in general, feel free to find me and we’ll set up some time together.”
“Thank you, Mr. Stiles. I’ll do that.”
The school was mostly empty when I got out of the building. I saw June and Sherry standing over by June’s car, patiently waiting for me to arrive. I saw them and waved as I walked over toward them.
Before I could get to where the two girls were, I was apprehended from behind.
“Jim! Can I talk with you?”
It was Roy, one of my closest male friends. I glanced back at the parking lot and saw the two girls getting into June’s car.
I turned around and said, “Of course. What’s up?”
“I have a personal question to ask you.”
I instantly got the feeling of having done this the day before with Sherry. My mind instantly flashed an image of Roy under the influence of the tickets, but I quickly dispelled that idea from my head.
“Is there anything wrong?”
Roy looked around and pointed to a bench that was empty. We walked to the bench, and Roy said, “Your sister is going to have a birthday party in a few weeks.”
“Merry?” I asked. “Um, yeah. That’s right.”
“The cheerleaders want to do something special for her birthday, and they want to make sure that you are involved.”
“Of course,” I said, smiling. “Kristen and I threw her a nice party last year at the park.”
“I’ve been asked to see if we could throw her a party at your apartment.”
I was a bit surprised by the question. Why were the cheerleaders asking me through an intermediary—and why Roy?
The cheerleaders were known to go to parties on a regular basis, but aside from their initiations and special parties, they were usually pretty tame. Was Roy implying that Merry’s birthday party wouldn’t be tame?
“Like the Halloween party last year?” I asked, remembering the off-duty policemen Kristen had hired to ensure that the party wouldn’t be too rowdy.
“Yeah, like that,” Roy said.
“That shouldn’t be a problem, but I’ll run it by Lynnette and Kris when I see them.”
Roy smiled. “Thanks, Jim.”
“Oh, by the way, my own birthday is on Thursday. Kristen and Lynette have something special planned for me after school that day.”
Nodding, Roy said, “Yeah, I figured that.”
“I’m just telling you that because I may leave rehearsal early.”
“I think people will understand.”
I got up from the bench and shook Roy’s hand. “OK. I’ll see you on Monday.”
Roy’s expression changed for a fraction of a second before he said, “Yeah. Monday.”
June and Sherry were over by June’s car. They both smiled at me as I approached them.
“Hey, Oogie!” Sherry said.
“Hi, Sherry… June.”
June smiled. “Hey. Sherry’s mother gave her permission to stay with me over night tonight.”
“Oh?” I asked, pretending to be surprised.
“Would you mind if we use the Recovery Room tonight? Sherry’s never been in a water bed.”
The pronoun that June used made me uneasy. I turned to Sherry and asked, “Do you want to be with June tonight?”
Sherry shrugged and didn’t answer.
“I don’t see any problem if the two of you want to use the Recovery Room tonight. Of course, I’d have to ask Kris and Lynette…”
“They don’t mind!” June said, hurriedly.
This confirmed my suspicion. “Then I guess it’s a done deal.”
Sherry smiled and started to get into the passenger seat. Just as I was about to get in, I saw June’s eyes narrowing at me. I don’t think she expected me to accept the idea of Sherry spending the night so easily.
After I got into the car, I turned to Sherry in the back and nodded at her gym bag. “Is that your overnight stuff?”
“Yeah,” Sherry said, sounding a little bit nervous.
I decided to take it easy with Sherry. After all, she wasn’t completely under control of the reasons that she wanted to be with me today.
June started the car, and gave me another quick look before backing out of her parking spot and headed toward the house.
Well, since June wasn’t going to level with me about Sherry, I wasn’t going to let her know that I was in on the secret.
When we got to the apartment, I excused myself from the girls and instead headed for the main residence. Harry greeted me at the door.
“What’s up, Jim?”
“Are Charlie or Daniel in?”
“Mrs. Swift is in the living room. Should I announce you?”
“No need for formalities unless she’s entertaining.”
Harry smiled. “She has guests. She’s planning one of her charity events.”
“Could you let her know that I would like to borrow something?”
“May I tell her what you need?”
“A record.” I told Harry exactly which one and he shrugged and left me in the foyer as he went to tell Charlie my request.
In about a minute, Harry returned with the requested album.
“Thanks, Harry! Tell Charlie I thanked her, too!”
“Of course, Jim.”
I left the residence and got back to the apartment. I took the album into the music studio. I had some cassette tapes that I wanted to integrate into a recording and this record was going to help. To get the cassettes onto the open reel tapes meant that I was going to have to reverse the hookups between the cassette and the four track. I knew from experience that recording from tape to tape added noise, but I hoped that the added noise wouldn’t detract from my recording.
I knew that I was going to need a good saxophone player to help me with some of the instrumental parts. There was an instrumental bridge in the song that was mostly a duet between a saxophone and trombone. I could play both instruments all right, but between the two of them, I really preferred the trombone. Then there was also a heavy bass riff on the piece. I was lost in thought trying to figure out who was in the band that I could enlist in this duet. Despite the fact I could play both parts, there was a give and take that two live performers could do that really couldn’t be duplicated by recording the parts separate.