Chapter XI

Amygdalites/Wayne

A dark, purple velvet cloth covered the floor of the trunk of the 1959 Chevrolet.  Little loops of velvet dotted the smooth surface, many tying down parts of guns with an elastic but firm grip.  There was a small arsenal there.
Wayne allowed Scot to view the display for no more than a second, then he closed the trunk lid.  In that instant, Scot counted at least 12 guns.  They were like a collector’s display.  Every one seemed to be different.  Most were hand guns, but a couple long barreled weapons formed borders along the top and bottom of the display.
Scot wasn’t sure why he was chosen to be allowed to see the display.  It violated university, city, state and, probably federal laws.
Wayne was a loner.  He frequently got into arguments with some of the most vociferous opponents of the Vietnam War.  Scot never had crossed or even challenged Wayne’s radical views.  Perhaps that made Scot his friend, or at least not an enemy.
The Vietnam War generally was unpopular on campus, so Wayne was brave to take the pro-war position.  Positions on the war generally reflected University departments.  Liberal Arts students were more likely to be against the war.  Science students were more likely not to care, but if they did, it was to “support the troops.”  That little propaganda catch phrase was enough to sway borderline students to the pro-war cause.  They didn’t think deeply enough to consider that the support was killing and maiming the troops.  More than once, Wayne stormed out of the dorm complex TV room in a rage after a confrontation with the anti-war students responding to the latest “U.S. atrocities against their nearly defenseless opponents.”
Andy, a Jewish political science major and about twice the size of Wayne and 100 times his intellect, was Wayne’s constant antagonist.  Although no one else knew about the trunk arsenal, as far as Scot was aware, there was speculation that Wayne would return after an enraged exit and start shooting up the TV room.  Rather than advise the school authorities, six o’clock TV news watchers made bets about whom Wayne would shoot first.  It was a mark of honor to be the predicted first victim.  Anytime all the regulars were there, Andy won the bet hands down.  Andy’s comments were decidedly more provocative when Wayne was present.  Whenever Jane Fonda’s name came up, or the Viet Cong scored a victory, most of the viewers cheered.  The mention of “Jane Fonda” (Hanoi Jane as her detractors called her) rankled Wayne the most, nearly driving him insane.
Kevin believed that was the typical response of a primitive stimulus-response mind.  The S-R mind is keenly alert for traitors, or disguised agents in the midst of its herd.  This instinct often is an overreaction especially when there is a justification, no matter how remotely, for a spy to be there.  In times of war, that instinct is on the highest level of alert.
Rulers who want to stir up the natural fears of their citizens cultivate this trait according to Kevin.  Joseph Stalin constantly warned of “sleeper cells” in the midst of patriotic Soviet citizens.  In the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, “the fifth column” was the name given to those in Madrid, Spain who sympathized with rebel General Franco and his Fascist armies that were marching toward the Spanish capital.  Franco had four army columns marching toward Madrid from four directions.  Franco’s many sympathizers in Madrid were labeled his “fifth column.”  Madrid was the last stronghold of the Spanish Republic, one of the most democratic governments in Europe.  The Republic was dissolving as Spanish citizens with assistance from Germany, Italy and many U.S. corporations, opted for Fascism over democracy.
Jane Fonda represented the best example of the Fifth Column threat.  She could be visualized as a distinct target.  “Sleeper cells” were amorphous and more difficult to categorize and compartmentalize in the brain.  The mirror synapses of the brain had no distinct image of sleeper cells to store and no definite place to store it.
Wayne knew not to press the issue too far  However, his temper didn’t.  If the issue was highly sensitive or he thought he was winning, he stepped across the line.  Someone, usually Andy said:  “Wayne, why aren’t you over there fighting if you believe it’s such a worthy cause?  Is it worth someone else’s life but not yours?”
If a little more emphasis was needed, Andy, or his proxy added:   “Wayne, you’re nothing but a fraud and hypocrite.”
At that point, Wayne invariably stormed out the door muttering something about a health issue.
War is a potential health hazard.  Maybe those with health issues are more expendable and should be the first to go, Kevin liked to say.
Then came the Tet Offensive in early 1968.  The U.S. government had been claiming the Viet Cong were all but defeated.  Only some mopping up actions remained to be be done, they assured the nation.  The offensive was so widespread and vicious that U.S. leaders looked like fools--incapable of understanding let alone waging their war.
It was at that time that someone wondered where Wayne was.  No one had seen him for weeks.  That prompted speculation about his whereabouts.  Many speculated that he joined the military to assuage his humiliation.  Someone theorized that the U.S. had the war won, Wayne arrived, and the Viet Cong interpreted it as the U.S. being desperate and ready to surrender.  From then on, any U.S. setback was credited to Good Soldier Wayne.
It was in the middle of one of the raucous news hour melees that the desk clerk waved from across the room to get Scot’s attention.  The clerk beckoned for Scot to come to the desk.  Could Beth have arrived already?  Or was there a problem on Scot’s dorm floor?
Scot weaved his way through the throng of newsie fanatics.  As he walked toward the front desk, and Beth he hoped, he reflected on his good fortune.   He was as content now as he could be.  He was doing well in school, had his military service behind him, and just had his routine dental cleaning.  Beth, bossy as usual, had told him she had to visit Kent State and would like to meet him for dinner.  Her tone of voice gave him the feeling that he had no choice in the matter.  This was a violation of the dentists’ policy, Scot believed, but he certainly was not  going to challenge it.  His military service had instilled in him the concept that there was a policy for everything.  They had a policy for how socks were to be rolled and placed in each soldier’s foot locker.
At his dentist visit, Beth had seemed different somehow.  Her body brushed his arm more frequently than seemed necessary.  Scot believed it had to be deliberate.  Perhaps she was tired.  Could the dinner invitation promise more than food?  The thought was too exciting to think about for long.   Kevin had theorized that women become aggressive after five years of marriage.  They begin to wonder if they still are as appealing as they were in their prime.  Could they have done better?  Will their seasoned sexual prowess be irresistible?  The sampling was small for Kevin's theory, but he wouldn't admit how small.  He couldn't remember ever seeing Kevin on a date. Could she be experiencing that aggressive, exploratory stage after five years of marriage, give or take a couple years?  Scot could look on this encounter as academic contribution to the Kevin theory of human mating habits.
More realistically, Beth probably was attending some dental convention or conference and had some time to kill.  What better way than providing guidance for some wayward young man’s life.  She had expressed concern that he did not have a steady girlfriend.  She opposed marriage for him at this early stage of life, but thought he needed more order in his life and nothing would do that better than a steady girlfriend.  Maybe she intended to visit the college and select a girlfriend for him.  More likely she had some personal motive that involved someone totally unknown to Scot.  Whatever her motive, Scot was willing to do anything just to be in her company.
Beth smiled slightly as he approached her.  Would she hug him?  Should he just hug her and hope she would be too polite to resist?  He wished he had arranged for a friend to be there with a camera.  That matter was resolved when someone stepped between them and looked around as if searching for someone or something.
“It’s nice to see you,” he said when he finally maneuvered around the intruder.”
“It’s been so long since I’ve been on a campus,” she said slowly turning around taking in the building design and the students’ attire with slight modifications aspiring to start the next dress trend.
Scot now felt absolutely insignificant.  Beth seemed entirely uninterested in him.  ‘What did she want anyway?’ he thought to himself.”
“Where would you like to eat?” he inquired.
“I would like to eat in the cafeteria if that is possible.” she said with a tinge of mischief in her voice.
Scot couldn’t comprehend any desire to eat in the cafeteria other than the necessity to eat quickly the get to the next goal of the day.  However, he was willing to accede to her desires.  That also implied there would be no intimate subjects discussed.  Certainly eating in the cafeteria did not meet his definition of going to supper.  Now he was even more confused about the reason for their meeting.
“I’ll be dining with a guest today.” Scot told the cafeteria cashier.  He was beaming with pride that a beautiful woman was his guest and wondered if other students would be jealous.
“Is she affiliated with the university?” the cashier asked.
“That will be two dollars,” the cashier said in response to Scot’s answer in the negative.
“Where would you like to sit?” Scot asked after they had made their food selections from the cafeteria serving line.
“I’ll let you decide,” she responded looking around the cafeteria with great interest.  “I always dreamed of attending a university.  I still regret that I didn’t.  My technical school was nothing like this.“
Scot selected a table in the far end of the cafeteria where there was relative quiet and less traffic.  ‘“Is this okay?” he asked her.
“Certainly,” she responded.  “I would like the seat where I can watch the people if you don’t mind?  I’m curious how young people act and dress today.  I want to find out what I’m missing.”
“You’re young enough,” Scot said.  “You still can have a career change.  What profession would you prefer if you were not a dental hygienist?”
“I would love to be an elementary school teacher,” she responded with a gleam in her eye that hinted that she considered it to be an unreachable fantasy.
“How many credit hours would you need for a degree in education?” asked Scot.
“I checked, and few of my credits would transfer. So I would need nearly four years of college to get a teaching certificate,” she responded.  “I guess I’m stuck where I am,” she said despondently.
“I understand you keep jumping into cesspools and coming out smelling like a rose,” she said with a mocking tone in her voice.  “I spoke to one of your friends who told me you go through life aimlessly, but always end up in sweet positions.  What’s your secret?”
“Who told you that?” he asked.
“I can’t say,” she responded with determination in her voice.
“Was it a male or female?” he asked indicating he was not going to let the identity go unknown.
“I can’t say,” she responded emphatically.  “Let’s just call the person ‘ze’.  Ze believes your lucky streak is coming to an end, and you will be left hanging in the air with no foundation to fall back on.  For instance, do you know where you will be in five years?  Ten years?  Do you ever plan to settle down?  Do you plan  to have a family?  How many children would you like to have?”
“It had to be Susan you spoke to based on those questions,” Scot declared, wondering now if the entire visit had been orchestrated by Susan.  “I’m too young to make those decisions.   All I’m certain about is that I want a house with at least two bathrooms.  When I meet my life’s partner, we will become a team and then decide what is mutually beneficial to both of us.  If we are to be a harmonious team for life, we need to be pulling toward the same goals.”
Beth stared into his face for a few seconds looking for an indication that he was joking.  She never had met any guy who thought the woman should have equal say in everything, especially the major economic decisions.  “You’re in your late twenties.  Life as a student does not qualify you for Social Security.  And ze is not Susan, whoever that is.”
Since Susan was not involved, Scot felt he could say just about anything within reason, and Beth would have no way of verifying what he said.  “When the perfect person comes along, someone like you, that will be the time when I go into long-range life plans.  I will adjust to my wife’s talents and needs.  I’m a strong believer in women having an equal or dominate role in the decision-making process.  They are more altruistic because they bear the babies.  Women are best created for that role, for procreation.  They are more likely to make decisions compatible with that goal.”
Even though Beth was happily married, Scot could not resist trying to impress her.
“Well, my life is not exactly peaches and cream,” Beth interjected, a hint of despair in her voice.
Scot was curious about her statement which was not exactly compatible with the conversation.  He just assumed the most beautiful girl in his high school always would live a fairy tale life.
“Can we go somewhere more private,” she asked.
Scot was caught off guard.  Did she mean a hotel?  That couldn’t be possible.  Besides, he could not afford the cost of a hotel for a one-night stand.  Well he could if he made a lot of sacrifices, but he was not about to do that for any woman.  His uncanny mind came up with a brilliant idea.
“Tonight there is supposed to be a planetary event that happens only once every 10,000 years.  It’s call the Venus-Mars parallax.  Since Venus is inside the Earth’s orbit and Mars is outside the Earth’s orbit, it would seem impossible that they could align.  But they do.  If the Earth is at an acute right angle with the Sun, and Venus is behind and 90% to the Sun, and Mars is at an acute left angle with the Sun, they all can appear to be in a row.  Of course from Earth, you can’t see all three aligned, but you do see Venus and Mars appear to be be on a collision course, or appear to be side by side like two eyes staring at you.  Mars can disappear momentarily when it passes behind Venus, then seem to reappear.  There’s a hill north of this complex where we could go and watch the whole thing, if there are no clouds.  We can take a blanket to sit on and be very comfortable.  Would you like to do that?  And it’s very private.”
Beth was baffled by the whole idea.  She had not recalled hearing about it on the news.  Surely such a rare event would be a major news item.  “Wow.  I wouldn’t want to miss a once-in-a-lifetime event like that.  It’s very pleasant outside.  Let’s do it.  I’m excited about it.”
Scot felt some guilt that Beth fell for such an outlandish story.  It wasn’t really that different from the Blockhouse ruse he and his brother played on people when they were teenagers.  “Let’s go to the lobby where you can sit and rest until I get a couple blankets.”
Scot hoped and prayed that the sky would be too cloudy for clear vision so he would not be forced to explain his fabrication.  As they reached the top of Blanket Hill, the sun was setting over the west side of the campus.  There were some clouds and the sky was somewhat hazy.  He was saved, it appeared.  Just a little haze could explain the apparent absence of the two planets in the sky.
“We will need to sit just below the crown of the hill facing west to see the phenomenon,” he explained.  “That will block out local lights and face us in the direction where we can see the parallax most clearly.”
“I am so excited,” she said.  “I’m sure no one back home knows about it.  They will miss the experience of a lifetime.” she said, her voice very giddy.  She seemed almost like a child, a side of her Scot never dreamed existed.  “About what time will we be able to it?”
“The sun must be completely below the horizon so its rays and any reflections of its rays will be invisible,” he explained with a scholarly certainty in his voice.  “Actually, what we see is the sun’s rays reflected off dark matter, then traveling at 186,000 miles per second and striking the optic membrane in our brain behind our eyes.  Then our brain translates that into what we have been told is Mars and Venus.”
“Wow!” she said,  “now that’s why I wish I had gone to college.  There is so much information that I would get nowhere else.  There is so much I can’t even imagine how much there is.”
“It requires a strict regimen and discipline to read, study and absorb the pertinent facts,” he lectured her sounding more like a Sunday morning pastor speaking.
She clearly was impressed, Scot believed.  Maybe she was becoming enamored with him.  That question was answered when she reached over and placed her hand on his chest.  She massaged the chest muscles for a few seconds and looked up into his face in search of any reaction.  His face must have been beaming, even in the dim illumination of the twilight.  Her hand traveled down to the stomach where it rested for a few seconds.  Then it went down to the crotch and rested.
Scot unfolded the second blanket and covered both of them with it.  “There’s a chill in the air tonight,” he said.
Scot decided to travel the same route.  However, his hand dwelled much longer on the chest.  Then it went down to the trim belly.  She had not overindulged even though she was securely married and out of the mate competition world.  Then the hand started traveling lower.
“Don’t go there,” she whispered.  It didn’t sound like a command, but it obviously was or it would not have been uttered.  This was going to be limited to a fondling affair and nothing more, he concluded.
Then her head went under the blanket.  Her lips followed the trail blazed by her hand.  Scot felt his belt unbuckle.  The zipper went down smoothly and gently.  Her hand was searching the outside of his underwear.  It was somewhat cold due to the evening chill.  Finally it penetrated the overflap and released the member throbbing inside.
In no more than two minutes, Scots mind exploded in a galaxy of stars.  An ecstatic Milky Way formed around his head, followed by a Fourth of July fireworks finale.  He felt more drained than he ever did after a long tennis match with Ken.  He felt more exhausted than after an hour in the weight room at the gym.  But he never felt anywhere near as good after those physical workouts.  He lost all tension in his body.  Beth’s head now rested on his stomach.  Her long hair formed into its own blanket over his exposed skin.  They stayed in that position for nearly 20 minutes.  Scot would have remained there all night, but Beth’s head began moving.  Finally she emerged from under the blanket like a turtle’s head easing out of its shell.
Beth looked at Scot.  Suddenly, an expression of horror crossed her face.  There were other people on the hill.  There were numerous people on the hill, all with blankets of every color.  Some were just a few feet away.  Had they all watched what was going on?  Panic fell over her.  She hid her face withdrawing it back under the blanket except for one eye that apparently would act as a periscope watching for any threats.
“Are all these people here to watch the parallax,” she asked in a smothered voice.
“Yes,” Scot lied.
“Oh, thank God!” she said with a sigh of relief.   “Were any of them watching us?” she asked, a new sense of alarm in her voice.
“No,” Scot said.  He felt he told the truth this time, but he certainly had not been concerned about any voyeurism.
“It’s possible someone could recognize me.  That would be disastrous.  My husband is a policeman, and he can have a terrible temper.  Just maybe it would be good if someone thought they saw me, but wasn’t sure.  I’m sure he has had at least one affair.  This would be payback.  It would be interesting to see if he thought it was okay for him, but not for me.  In fact, I might just tell him I got even.”
Suddenly fear raced through Scot’s body.  He had heard a lot about Beth’s husband, but never met him.  He had a reputation for being brutal at times.  “I don’t think it would be a good idea to tell him,” Scot said, with a little tremor in his voice.  “You will have the personal satisfaction of knowing that you still could have any guy you want.”            
Suddenly Scot no longer felt he was the cunning, smooth talker that lured the most beautiful woman in his high school into an intimate affair.  He felt he couldn’t talk his way out of a confrontation with an angry husband.  Suddenly he had a feeling that the most romantic night of his life could end in tragedy.  Was it worth it?
“When will we see the Venue-Mars Parallax Alignment?” Beth asked.  “I hope we didn’t miss it.  I would never forgive myself.”
Is she dismissing what happened as insignificant, Scot wondered to himself.  “I think the clouds concealed it.  It should have occurred there where that large dark cloud is.”
“Let’s ask the other people around here if they saw it,” she suggested.  “Even if it was for a few seconds.  Maybe someone took a photograph and would be willing to give us a copy.”
“Excuse me,” she said to a couple sitting a few feet away.
“I think I see it!” Scot nearly shouted.
Several people sitting or lying nearby looked toward them in amusement.   “Must be someone on his first date,” one male voice commented.  Several other voices snickered in response.
“Where!” asked Beth, elated that she had not missed it after all.
“See the large cloud directly west of us,” Scot said pointing toward the city of Kent.  “Just behind it are two small specks of light that look like the eyes of an owl.  Darn!  The lights of the city are making the haze worse.  If only we had a telescope.  Do you see them?”
“Yes!  Yes!” she said rather loudly.  Another round of snickering erupted from the neighboring couples.
“What did I miss?” Beth asked in response to the giggling.
“Someone on the other side of the slope must have said something that we couldn’t hear,” Scot said in desperation.  He suddenly had a strong desire to get away from there before he ran out of fabricated responses.
Scot looked at his watch.  “The earth has rotated too far now for the planets to be visible from here, according to the time the astronomy department calculated.  We would need to be out west in Colorado or California to see it now.  We may as well go back to the dorms.  I’m sorry it wasn’t brighter.  At least you got to see a dim Venus-Mars alignment parallax.  That will be something to tell your grandchildren.”
“I’d have to have children first,” Beth replied as she helped fold one of the blankets.
Scot was shocked to hear that she had no children.  A goddess like her should be populating the earth with beautiful children.  He realized that he knew almost nothing about her.  This was quite awkward.  He had an urge to get as far away from her as possible.  That meant he would need to find a new dentist.  What an inconvenience.