100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2021 #65

65

Continued from yesterday's story.....

Sherwyn Watanabe was mercilessly teased in school, at karate class, and by his cousins because of his name. People called him 'Cher' and would constantly shout the lyrics to 'I Got You Babe' at him every time they saw him.

I can't begin to imagine what that did to him psychologically and emotionally. Gale and I decided that we'd start going to a different club, so we began to frequent the old Jazz Celler on Lewers. My recollections about that establishment involve pulsating, deafening music, flashing lights, and lots of Gale freely expressing herself mainly on me. She was blossoming and evolving, and she needed someone to blossom and evolve on like she was figuring it all out. There was never the inkling that it would be more and that we'd end up in bed together. I know she appreciated not having that kind of caveat in exchange for her quest for self-discovery. 

Sundays are usually the days where I slept in until noonish or something like that. But, at exactly nine in the morning, Gale was knocking on my door. "Hey, let's go to Waikiki and see a movie," she whispered.

"Let me shower and get ready," I croaked while she let went to the kitchen and helped herself to some guava juice and leftover pizza.

"I got the movies and the popcorn and stuff," she shouted. "You can take care of the lunch or the dinner, whichever."

When I was dressed and ready to go, she was sitting on the edge of the couch watching HBO. So we took my car and made a day of it. Since she was paying for the movie, we watched The Thing, which was really good. Then we drove to Rainbow Drive-Inn to get a plate lunch and took it to the Kapiolani Park, where we spread a futon out on the trunk of my Sebring and enjoyed our Shoyu chicken. "I like this," Gale said through a mouthful of rice and french fries.

"What?" I asked.

"This," she pulled her shoulders up to her ears while holding her plate in one hand and chopsticks in the other. "Hanging out, going to the clubs, movies, or just being cool together. I like it,"

"It is cool, yeah?" It didn't dawn on me that we had to define what we did together. "I just never thought about it. I mean, it's something we do."

Gale took a long chug of her giant cup of soda, then put her plate down and leaned into me. She put both hands on my face and gently pulled me toward her, and gave me two test kisses to see how I'd react. I'm not sure if I reacted at all, but I didn't pull away either. That's when she gave me the deeper, slower kiss. I stop and put my plate down too, and then chug from my soda cup as well so I could wash everything down; then I kissed her back, and that was it. We sat there and finished up our food, feeding ourselves and feeding each other. In an hour, we were back at my place, and you can guess the rest. I'll say that what made it meaningful for me was that we had already developed a strong friendship with no expectations before we finally became official. 

~

Eight years later, Gale and I attended our class reunion. We were married at that point, but no kids just yet. Sherwyn was there, and he ignored the both of us entirely, and that was no sweat. The event was filled with the usual how are you and how have you been and wow, you're so different now. Of course, everyone is also looking to see who they can hook themselves up before the night was over, but the word was going around that there was an after-party reunion at a suite at the Sheraton. No one knew who got the room but that everyone was invited. Gale and I talked about it and figured we'd stay for an hour at the after-party and then go home. Later, we expected to see a hand full of people in attendance at the Sheraton, but the entire class reunion just continued from one hotel to another, except that it was in much closer quarters. In an hour into it, when Gale and I were preparing to leave, there was clinking on a glass of water, which everyone else imitated. It was John Texiera. "If anyone is going to end up crashing over, it's cool!"

Everyone laughed, and the party continued. Gale and I were on our way out and heading out the front. We were coming up on one of the bedrooms doors, which was closed, but it opened the second we passed it. Sherwyn Watanabe stood there and grabbed Gale by her arm and yanked her into the room, and slammed the door shut. I heard the lock engage over the din, and then I heard Gale screaming my name at the top of her lungs.

....to be continued