His dreams were intermingled with those of this era. The shrill ring of the telephone awakened him. Groaning, he picked up the receiver, and thought to himself, "Who is daring to disturb me when I was both sleeping and sort of listening to one of his past favorite shows?"
The caller was his sister Jeannie. The call was one in which she was in tears, begging for her brother's advice. Obviously, she and Adam had had one of their notorious fights. Ironically, she was at home, sick with a virus as well as Bob.
After she calmed down, Jeannie could hear the sounds from the TV. The music sounded familiar. "What are you watching, Bobbie? It sounds familiar."
"Oh, I'm uh," he was a bit embarrassed that he never returned the gift to replace her Christmas present, "watching one of those U.N.C.L.E. tapes which you adamantly refused to have in your sophisticated home." Bob was a bit sarcastic as he still was a bit miffed from her rude rejection of his gift.
"You've got to be kidding?" she responded when he told her, in a tone, which was a 360-degree change from the origin of their conversation. "Ya know, maybe I should have given those tapes a chance. Hey, since we're both home sick, how about it if I come over and we'll watch it together like old times? How 'bout it Bobbie?"
Bob had never heard Jeannie sound so upbeat in years. Even though he was tired, and feeling poorly, he agreed to Jeannie's suggestion. "Yeah, sure. Ya feel up to driving?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm not that sick! Hey, I'll be over in 15 minutes." Obviously they lived in a close proximity of each other.
When Jeannie arrived, without even saying hello to her brother, she ran over to the TV. "Which one are ya watching?" she asked excitedly.
"Uh, it's the Jeannie and Adam Have Another Fight Affair." He answered comically. He received a slap on the shoulder for his humorous yet sarcastic response.
"No, let me see." She grabbed the case off of the top of the TV. "Oh, I remember this one! I've got to watch it! Hey, rewind it from the beginning. We'll watch it like we did years ago!"
Bob stared at his sister. She was actually regaining her 11-year-old personality; simply over a TV show. He obeyed and rewound the tape.
"Oh, Bobbie, look at Napoleon; he's so cute! And Illya! Oh God, I had forgotten how much I loved those guys. Remember how you could never remember um, what's his name?"
"Illya Kuryakin" Bob reminded her; surprising his sister.
"Hey, you were the one who could never remember his name! Geesh, I've got some catching up to do."
"I thought that this was not good enough for your lifestyle, my wonderful sophisticated sister?" Bob chided her.
"Oh, shut up, and just listen to the show. I hope that no one calls."
"Uh, Jeannie, these days we can just, uh, rewind it. You're mind is stuck in the '60's. Ya know, no VCR's or DVD's?"
She turned her head to look at Bob and smiled. "Oh yeah, and we wouldn't have to fight over the TV if we had one of these" she said, her voice filled with happy memories.
Bob sat down next to her. "Ya know, in all truth, I used to really love this show. I just liked to annoy you and pretend to hate it."
Giving Bob an amusing glance, Jeannie replied happily, "And you think that I didn't know that? You loved it as much as I did. I'm glad that in, well, uh, 36 or 35 years that you finally admitted that."
"And I'm glad that after 35 years that you're finally smiling!"
They looked at each other, each remembering those wonderful years.
The phone rang, and Jeannie said, "Oh for God's sakes; who could that be? I just wanna watch the show."
"Remember; we can rewind it?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot."
Bob picked up the phone, a bit annoyed himself, and was shocked to learn that it was Adam calling for Jeannie. How did he know that she was over at his place?
"Hey, Jeannie-baby, it's for you! It's your hubby."
Jeannie put her hand over her mouth in shock. "You're kidding? He's calling me? We just had….."
He held his hand over the mouth piece of the phone, and commanded "Just pick up the phone and talk to him!"
Jeannie and Adam had what appeared to have been a conciliatory conversation. Her voice was still light and airy, as it had been watching the show.
"Ya know, I can get off work for a couple of hours; how 'bout it I come over to Bob's and we all watch it? I used to love the show too!"
"You did? Yeah, but we're both sick. You don't wanna catch this bug, Adam."
"I'll get sick anyway. I'm comin' over and I'll pick up some lunch or we'll order a pizza. How 'bout it, honey?"
He hadn't called her "honey" for years. It appeared that the TV show was having an amazing impact on everyone's behavior!
"Hey Bob, Adam wants to come over, watch the shows, and said that we could order a pizza. Is that OK with you?" Jeannie asked her brother.
"Sure, the more the merrier! We'll have an U.N.C.L.E. party!"
"You're crazy, Bob. Sure, Adam, that would be great!"
"I'll be over in, say, a half hour. You guys order a pizza and I'll, or we'll spring for it; OK?"
Jeannie laughed, surprised at his change in behavior, "Sure, Adam, come on over. We'll get a pizza or two. What d'ya like again on the pizza?"
They stopped watching the show for a bit, ordered two pizzas, and began to discuss what had happened between the two of them. As she explained the disagreement, Jeannie realized the triviality of the entire situation.
Within 30 minutes, both Adam and the pizzas arrived. The TV was turned on, and once again, the VHS was rewound to the beginning.
"My third time, listening to this music," Bob said as he grabbed a piece of pizza. "It's gonna be running through my head all day now."
Adam and Bob had a great friendship. "You're not the only one, buddy. I loved this show when I was in Jr. High. I never even told Jeannie that."
Jeannie turned to look at her husband. "Yeah, you never did tell me that!"
As they watched the show and ate the pizza, they laughed and commented on their memories of the era. It was fun contrasting it to the present.
Before they knew it, 3:30 rolled along. Jennifer strolled in and smelled the pizza. She saw her dad, aunt and uncle sitting in the family room watching TV.
"So, were you guys planning a party all along, here? Mom's gonna be really pissed if she knows that you were just pretending to be sick, ya know! What are you watching anyway?"
Bob changed his position to look at his 16-year old daughter. She was close to the age that he was when he loved this show.
"Oh, honey, it's a long story. We're watching that MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. series which I gave to Aunt Jeannie. Well, you may recall, that , I never returned."
Jeannie piped in, "And I'm taking it back, Bobbie."
"Forget it, sweetie, it's mine! You didn't want it, remember?" They began fighting over the tapes just like they fought over the TV show.
"You guys are crazy! I can download them from my computer, ya know." Jennifer retorted in a condescending and omnipotent manner.
"You gotta be kidding?" Bob said. "Here, all this time, I could have given it to Jeannie for free!" He laughed at his own joke.
"It's not the same, Bobbie. Ya know, getting this from you, I realize now, really meant a lot. You still remember those days, don't you? You remember the good times!"
"Well, I sure wish that you still had that attitude that you did when you were younger." Bob spoke, and wondered if he was embarrassing his sister in from of her husband.
"Jeannie, I think that we should either take these home or download these, as Jennifer recommended, so that we can find some happiness back in our lives." Adam with a tone of optimism.
"Aww, you guys are so cute." Jennifer interrupted. "You should only know how many of my friends' parents have these U.N.C.L.E. parties. Geesh, you'd think that they wanted to be our age again!"
All three adults laughed.
"You've gotta be kiddin' me!" Bob surprisingly asked his somewhat "know it all" daughter. "We should all get together and join them."
Jennifer rolled her eyes back. "I can't believe you guys. Well I've gotta do something useful like my homework!"
"Hey, just wait 'til you're our age. You'll be watching re-runs of "Desperate Housewives!" Everyone laughed at
Bob's joke.
