AngelonSkates- I got the bra slingshot idea from a few places. It just sounded like something Phil would be up to. Thanks for the review.
Prettypinkcheer5- Drunk Silky is everyone's favorite. Kylah will talk a lot about home but won't go there till after the Olympics.
Staceygirl- Loved the review! I wanted to portray Craig as close to Kylah. We'll see what else happens with them.
Meadow567- It's Ky-lah. Like the female version of Kyle. The picture will all be explained in time. It's part of a plot.
Strangexbutxtrue- I was curios why you think Kylah and Craig wouldn't work if they were paired together? Yes bras make good sling shots. My cousins stole one of mine once!
Katie- Yeah, I am trying hard to make Craig less serious, and more open in this story. Glad you're enjoying it. Loved the review.
Emador- Glad you caught the picture part…it's important. Also, see you later tonight!
Killerkeanegirl- I hope you continue enjoying the story. I'm anxious for your review to this chapter. (You'll understand why when you read it!)
Klinoa, where you at? I miss you! Lia06, Miss you too! I love all my reviewers and miss them when they go MIA! LOL Peace and Love!
July 1979
Minneapolis, MN
It was getting late on a Saturday afternoon. I had spent a lot of the day working on a few press releases. Craig had spent the day with the Nagobads family. I had heard the boys coming and going all day, going about their business. I was considering going to visit a few of the boys, just to get out of my apartment for awhile.
Deciding to get out for awhile, I walked down the hall. There was most likely a poker game going on in Bah and Buzz's room. I knocked on the door, but it was the door next door that opened.
Phil stuck his head out the door. "Come on in, we moved the game over here today."
About that time Christian stepped out of the room. "Careful where you step Kylah." Christian grabbed my arm. "Philly has his room decorated his room with mistletoe."
"Why do you have mistletoe in your room?" I asked Phil as Christian helped me avoid stepping under the two bunches hung in the door.
"Christmas in July!" Verchota smiled.
"Where's the Christmas tree and elves?" I asked.
"I thought mistletoe would help get the ball rolling when I brought girls home." Phil shrugged.
"I'm sure Pavelich appreciates that!" I rolled my eyes.
Once inside the room, I saw several more of the boys sitting around. A few of them were actually holding playing cards.
"Kylah, do you know how to play poker?" Buzz asked.
"Sure I do." I said.
"She's not allowed to play. Knowing her she's a pool shark, card shark, and anything else that happens in bar rooms down south." Phil said.
"You're just mad because she drank you under the table." Silk said.
"Ignore them Kylah, they get near a pretty girl and act like they belong in the zoo." Bah rolled his eyes.
"It's okay. I don't want to play poker, I just wanted some company." I smiled.
"What kind of company?" Mac asked throwing his arm around my shoulders. "I mean if it's 'company' you want…..you and I should be somewhere much more private."
"You keep offering and one of these days you're gonna be stuck with me!" I giggled.
"That's my plan." Mac smiled and kissed my cheek.
"Now that we got Kylah here, we should ask her twenty questions?" Silk said.
"What on earth for?" I asked.
"Philly and I have some things we want to know." Silk said.
"What her measurements?" Rizzo rolled his eyes.
"No, but even you the other day was saying you'd like to hear some more stories on her." Silk said.
"Silky, that was you. You were drunk and wanted her to tell you a bedtime story because Janny still has your porn." Rizzo said from the card game.
I laughed and shook my head. "Alright Silk, what do you wanna know? My sign?"
"What's your favorite movie?" Verchota asked.
"Oh, I dunno……"
"She's not going to a drive-in with you Philip!" Strobel said.
"You guys make me sound so bad…did you ever think that maybe I liked Kylah for her mind?" Verchota said.
Jimmy Craig leaned over. "What color are her eyes, Phil?"
"Bluish-gray!" Phil answered proudly.
"When did you notice that?" I asked him.
"When we were having the drinking contest…once the alcohol set in, I had a wild thought that blue eyes were full of water!" Verchota shrugged.
I rolled my eyes. "So, since you like me for my mind, you'd be willing to sit and talk politics with me?"
"Sure….as long as its pillow talk." Verchota smiled.
I laughed. "I knew that was coming."
"So Kylah, Coach Patrick told me that you met Charles Manson?" Jimmy Craig said.
"Oh yeah, I had to interview him for a story I was working on." I nodded.
"What's he like in person? I mean you see him on the news and he's like a madman." Ramsey said.
"It's worse in person. Before I went into the interview room, the guards warned me that he had just finished being in seclusion for 30 days for biting a nurse at the infirmary. They bring him in, he was cuffed and shackled and had this wild look about him that makes my blood cold to think about." I said.
"Did you meet any of his family?" Broten asked.
"No, he was enough. Besides, the girls aren't allowed in contact with him." I explained.
"Kylah, you're from the south…you like NASCAR racing?" Pavelich asked with an overdone drawl.
"Richard Petty is the King." I smiled.
"Yeah, the Burger King!" Morrow said with a scowl.
"Let me guess, you don't like him." I said.
"I like the Allison's." Morrow answered.
I cracked up. "You're just mad because at Daytona, while Donnie was fist fighting with Cale Yarborough, Richard won the 500. Not Petty's fault those two wrecked into each other."
"Oh god, her hickness gets worse!" Cox laughed.
"Hickness? Is that even a word?" I laughed.
"Since we're playing 20 questions with Kylah, can I play?" OC said, walking out of the bathroom.
"What were you doing in our bathroom?" Pavelich asked.
"I just came in through the other door." OC explained.
"Can you play nice with Kylah?" Rizzo asked.
"I just have a few questions for her!" OC said.
"Listen OC, this is my room, so you either be nice to her or leave. I like having her here, and I don't want you upsetting her!" Verchota said, more serious than I had ever seen the usually horny, playful kid.
"I just wanted to play too." OC pretended to whine. "So Kylah, you grew up knowing your grandparents?"
The question was so unexpected that I blinked. "Uhhh, yeah. Both sets lived within just a few miles."
"Ever meet your great-grandparents?" OC asked.
"Just one, my great-grandfather……he died when I was about 7 years old." I said, so confused as to this line of questioning.
"And was he from North Carolina too?" OC asked.
"No, he was from Knoxville, Tennessee." I said.
"I see, so he fought in a Confederate regiment out of Tennessee then?" OC asked.
"Yes, how did you know? He was in the 16th Cavalry Battalion." I said.
"Had a hunch. You people are all alike." OC smirked.
"What's that mean? What people?" I asked, confused.
"OC, don't you dare trample on her family history. Whatever you are talking about, just shut up!" Rizzo told him.
"Come on Rizzo. You should hate her more than any of us. Your parents are immigrants!" OC told him.
"What in the hell does that matter?" Rizzo asked.
"Tell him Kylah. Tell Rizzo what you and the boys back home do to immigrants." OC said.
"I don't do anything to immigrants." I protested.
"Where's your white sheets Kylah?" OC asked.
Suddenly, what OC was trying to say hit me. "Oh my god……you think that I am like that?" I asked not sure if I was mad or sick.
"All you people down south are alike. Burning crosses, lynching, marching in those white hoods!" OC snapped.
"Jack, what gave you the idea she was part of the Ku Klux Klan?" Buzz asked.
"They all are. That's why we have such a hard time convicting the bastards. They all stick together." OC said.
"We're not all like that! Just being from the south doesn't mean I'm filled with hate!" I protested.
"Don't try that. We've all seen the murders, the marches, the violence…"
"That's right...you've SEEN it on the news and then you sit there and judge me by the actions of others. I've LIVED through that hell." I yelled.
"OC, you better go." Jimmy told him.
"No, OC, you better sit and LISTEN to me." I yelled.
"I ain't interested…." He was cut off by Bah pulling him down into a seat.
"How dare you accuse me of being like those murderers? It makes me sick that people like the Klan exist, and they're giving the good people of the south a bad reputation….apparently." I snapped.
I jumped up. "I was raised not to see skin color, or religion, or handicap, but to love people for who they are. My family taught me love everyone. I went to an integrated high school with Indian students, and I loved them the same as my white friends! And yeah there were bigots in town…and I'm not going to deny that there was even a chapter of the Klan, but me and my family was never mixed up in it!"
"I…" OC started and I cut him off.
"You shut up and listen to me. I was just a little child when the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed. And I remember crying for those little girls and not understanding how anyone could hurt little kids at Sunday school. I was so scared my parents couldn't get me to church without a fight for a month. And when those 3 Civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi, I remember my mother crying because they were just college kids not disturbing anybody, killed for no reason." I yelled. "And the Montgomery to Selma march…..the dogs, the water hoses, the cops…..I remember watching it all, and being afraid of cops for a long time. To a child raised to love…so much hate was scary and confusing. I remember when my family wouldn't eat at the 5 and dime because students were staging sit-ins and we were afraid of getting caught in the crossfire. I remember my parents not voting because of the riots erupting at the courthouse when blacks tried to vote."
"Kylah, calm down." Mac said.
"I'm fine. I just wanted OC to know how wrong he was. I know that the south has a bad reputation, but not all of us are monsters…..and how dare you think I could ever be that way." I said. "You grew up some spoiled rich brat in Boston. You see the news and think you know what's going on. You don't know nothing. You don't know what it's like to change churches because the Klan took over the one your family was attending. You don't know what it's like to look outside at night and see a fire on the mountain, signifying a Klan meeting. And you certainly don't know what's it's like to wake up to a cross burning on your lawn because you're going to prom with a black classmate."
"They burned a cross on your lawn?" Janny was shocked.
"Second worse thing I ever lived through. So if that's why you hate me O'Callahan. You hate me for no reason." I told him.
OC stared at me stunned. "That's all true……you don't belong to the Ku Klux Klan?"
"No, I don't….I find them to be the lowest form of life there is." I told him.
"Kylah, you gonna be okay?" Verchota asked me.
"Yeah, but I need a drink." I sighed.
"Come on, I'll walk you back to your apartment." Phil said and put an arm around me.
The boys all sat in stunned silence as Phil walked me out of the room. I felt tired and emotionally drained. Phil walked me to the end of the hall and opened my apartment for me.
"Kylah, you okay?" Verchota asked me as I sat down.
"Yeah, just bought up a lot of bad memories is all. I didn't realize how angry OC had made me until I started yelling." I said.
I heard Phil in my kitchen. "I never realized that's why he didn't like you." Phil walked over and handed me a drink. "Here, it's Jim Beam."
"Thanks." I said and took a sip. "Did any of the other boys think…..that I was part of the Klan?"
"No, not that I know of. The thought never even crossed my mind." Verchota said.
"Would you sit with me awhile, just keep me company?" I asked.
Phil smiled. "Sure thing."
Verchota sat down next to me. I leaned back against the couch, feeling tired and slightly upset. I looked over at Phil, who was giving me a serious look. I crawled over snuggled against him, just wanting to feel comfort.
"You sure you're okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I just…."
"It's okay…I understand." He said and wrapped his arms around me. "You just relax. I'm not going anywhere."