December 18, 1976

"So you have to see this new movie," Keith began to ask, "Then on Monday give a review 'bout the movie?"

I nodded. "Exactly," I answered, "The station is paying for our tickets at the movie theater, so we just have to go watch it."

The radio station had been making me and Andy do more with entertainment in the morning talk show part. They'd recently began telling us to see certain films, going to specific events, watching certain shows or episodes sometimes, and reading specific books. We had no problem with any of it, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't get annoying every once in a while. I mean, they were telling us to do it all for the station, so that wasn't the annoying part since that's what we get paid to do- the annoying part was that some of the shows or films and such were just so terrible. But the reason for this was cause the station was progressively getting more popular throughout the state, along with a little bit outside of the Oklahoma state borders.

I actually really liked working at the station, and had liked it since I first started working there a few years back. It had some pretty cool perks, so that was definitely a plus of working there. It was also kinda weird at times, though. The reason I say this is cause in some of the major cities of Oklahoma, they had billboards or signs that advertised the radio station, more so the morning show- and there was a picture of me and Andy on the posters. Sometimes we'd even be in the town or state paper depending on what was going on. Supposedly, people all over the state knew who we were, and to me, that felt kinda weird sometimes.

Was it a bad thing that it felt weird at times? No, it's not, and I'd been told that it was ok that I felt weird at times about it. In fact, everyone said it was a completely normal thing to feel, and that it'd be a bit odd if I didn't feel weird at times cause of it.

Wouldn't you feel weird if nearly everyone in your state knew who you were? And along with that, those same people might be able to pick you out in a crowd and know who you are just by the sound of your voice?

Yeah, it's weird.

"What movie are we seein' again?" Keith asked as the two of us walked to the ticket booth; KJ and Sky were with Keilah for the present time.

"It's some movie called Rocky, I think," I guessed and shrugged a bit, "I heard the guy who actually plays Rocky also wrote the script."

"Is he some famous actor?"

I shook my head. "Not from what I know, but last year he was in that David Carradine movie, Death Race 2000, I think."

The two of us got our tickets and walked to the specified theater. When we walked inside, a little more than half of the seats were taken. My eyes widened for a brief moment, a bit shocked at the amount of people that filled the seats. Keith and I shared this facial expression before locating two seats that were next to each other that were located on the end of a row in the middle of the theater. We walked together to the seats; he sat in the outer seat and I sat on the seat on the inside next to him.

"I think that actress… Talia Shire?... from The Godfather is in this movie," I said as we waited for the movie to start.

"Ain't she the kid sister of the guy who directed The Godfather?" Keith asked.

I shrugged a bit. "Not a clue. I mean, it's not impossible, but there's definitely no family resemblance between the two if they are."

He chuckled slightly. "Ya know, not all brothers and sisters look alike."

"While I know that's true, all the people I know who have siblings look alike. Even KJ and Sky already look alike."

"And how you and Eric look alike."

"And how you and Keilah look alike."

Before either of us could say another word, the lights in the theater dimmed down until they were completely off and the movie started. The two of us quickly shut up and held in our laughter from our previous conversation and turned to face the screen and the MGM film company symbol ran across the screen.

The movie lasted a little over two hours, which is longer that I thought it would be. We had been going to see the 2:30 afternoon showing, and didn't get out until 4:50 in the afternoon. The two of us walked out from the theater and back outside to our car. Keith started the car and drove to where Keilah's apartment building was so we could pick up KJ and Sky.

"So what'd ya think of the movie?" I asked.

"It was alright, actually," Keith answered, "But it was kinda hard to tell what a few of 'em were saying at times."

I chuckled. "Ok, you thought so, too. I mean, do you think it was cause they're all from the East Coast that it was weird for us? Since their accent is different?"

He shrugged slightly. "Maybe. What you're sayin' makes sense, but it just could've been cause they talked worse than all of us."

"We're not that terrible. We've gotten better over the years. I can tell cause sometimes when I talk, I feel like how I used to feel whenever I was trying to be proper or make a good impression."

About fifteen minutes after leaving the movie theater, we stopped in front of the building where Keilah lived. The two of us got out of the car and started up into the building. Her apartment building had a total of five floors. The first floor was the lobby and what was equivalent to a basement. Then the next four floors was where the apartments were, and there were four individual apartments on each floor. Thankfully, along with the staircases, there were two elevators that went to all five floors, along with the roof that could be used. It was a nice building, and the apartments were great, too.

Once we reached her apartment door, as if on cue, the door opened. "Hey, guys," Keilah greeted with a smile."

"Hey, Pipsqueak," Keith greeted her teasingly, "How'd it go?"

"Everything went fine, as usual. KJ's playing with some wooden building blocks, and Sky is lying on her blanket watching. Why does she get such a kick outta watching him play with those blocks?"

"No clue," I answered a chuckle and a slight shrug, "She just does, even back at home. We can't figure it out."

Keilah laughed and let the two of us in. As soon as KJ saw us, he got up and ran to Keith, who got down on the floor to make it easier for KJ to reach him. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight as I went to pick up Sky from her spot on the blanket on the floor. She smiled as I did so, and small smile formed my lips as well.

"Hey, Rain?" Keilah started, "Can I talk to you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, sure," I answered. She nodded and led me to the other room. Once we got there, we both sat down, and I sat Sky down on my lap, holding her tight against the front of my torso. "Is somethin' wrong?" I asked with a confused look.

She quickly shook her head. "No, on, nothin's wrong. I just wanted to tell you something I'm excited for."

"Well, what is it then? Don't keep me in suspense here," I laughed.

"Alright, alright," Keilah said with a laugh, "I have a date tonight."

I smiled. "With who?"

"His name is Emmett Washington, and he's from my American History class at college."

"His last name is Washington, and your met him in your American History class… well, that sure is ironic."

"Yeah, I know." She looked a bit upset. "I really like him."

"If you like him so much, why don't you seem too happy?"

Keilah hesitated a bit. "Some people might not like the fact that we're going out cause we're… different… from each other."

I gave another confused look. "Care to shed some light on that, Kay?"

"Well, Emmett's African-American. I mean, I don't care about that either way, and I don't care 'bout the fact that he's black and I'm white. I just wanna make sure that there's someone else I know that I'm related to that doesn't care about that either when I tell everyone else."

I honestly saw no problem with the fact that they were going out. To be honest, I found it ridiculous that people still did have a problem with it. I mean, we're all people, right? So why should it matter? And this goes for any race or nationality. But I could understand why Keilah was concerned, especially with the times. I guessed that she didn't want a home reenactment of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

"I see no problem with it," I said nonchalantly and shrugged, "This is 1976, right? We've already had the Civil War a little over a hundred years ago, we've had the Civil Rights movement- and some people still don't get it. But I do, and I think it's great you two are gonna go out."

Keilah smiled. "Oh, great," she said with a relieved look on her face, I mean, I know you wouldn't have a problem with it, but I just wanted to be sure. I just don't want our own little version of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, ya know?"

I couldn't help but laugh as I nodded at her words.

Before I say anything else, I need to do like what I did in January.

Rest In Peace, Prince Rogers Nelson, known either as "Prince" or "the Artist Formerly Known as Prince". It was such a shame how you died, and honestly, I feel the same way I did when David Bowie died and when Robin Williams died. You've always been around my life, even when I was little and didn't really know who you were by name. I remember hearing my two favorite songs of yours on my still favorite radio station, which are "When Doves Cry" and "1999". I used to love "1999" and would get so excited to hear it and always go on about "that's the same year I was born!" and such. I also always loved your music cause it seemed that you loved purple, which has always been my favorite color. What kind of scares me about your death is that exactly five days previous, I was watching "Purple Rain" from 1984 on television, also that you were the same age as my father, only being about a month and a week older than him. And since he's a musician, I guess you could say that it kinda makes me nervous. But thank you, Prince, for all your years of music and all the songs you gifted the world with. You go down in history as a legend, right there with David Bowie, as well as hundreds of others before you.

"dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. electric word life. it means forever and that's a mighty long time. but I'm here to tell you there's something else: the after world. a world of never ending happiness. you can always see the sun, day, or night. so when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills, you know the one, Dr everything'll be alright, instead of asking him how much of your time is life, ask him how much of your mind, baby. cause in this life, things are much harder than in the after world. in this life, you're on your own."

I was gonna end it off there, but I need to point this out- racism was still a big problem throughout the 1970s and the 1980s too. So yeah.