Naked in School-Kevin and Denise
We arrived at Bob’s office at 3:15 and went up. His receptionist greeted us.
“Oh, Linda didn’t say you’d have someone with you. She’s in room 410, go that way.”
We went to the indicated door and on into the room. A middle-aged lady sat there surrounded by four monitors and loads of papers.
“Hi, you’re Kevin, right? You didn’t mention a friend.”
“Ah, forgot, sorry. I was rushing between classes. This is Denise Roberts and she’s one of the people I need to discuss with Mr Charlesworth.”
“Hello, Denise. I’m Linda Jameson, Mr Charlesworth’s executive assistant. Sorry for the mess; we’re closing a big case this week and this is the detritus.” She saw me staring at the electronics. “Oh, that stuff? Only one is my computer. I have only one head, after all. The others are terminals for the legal databases and the Bloomberg business line. They’re not on line and subscriptions cost bundles. You need special monitors to access them. Anyway, nice to finally meet you, Kevin. I think Mr Charlesworth is ready now; let me check.”
She did, he was, and she opened his door to let us in.
He stood up as we entered and came around his desk, briefly looking at Denise and shooting a glance toward Linda, who shrugged slightly.
“Kevin Coris, at last we meet,” he said, shaking my hand warmly with a firm grip. He put his other hand on my shoulder. “I feel as if I’ve known you for years; your file was so detailed and your dad told me all about you. I’m so very sorry for your loss; Dan Carpenter told me how very proud your father was of you. And who’s your charming friend?”
“Mr Charlesworth, thanks for your kind words and your condolences. This is my classmate, Denise Roberts, and her problem in school is one of the major ones I need to discuss.”
“Kevin, please call me Bob, or Robert, but I prefer Bob. Save you some breath, too,” he grinned. “Guys, please have a seat,” he indicated as he returned to his to sit down.
I looked at him closely now. He was looking back at me with a cooly analytical gaze, eyes flicking quickly between mine, then my mouth, the set of my shoulders, my hands, my legs... he was reading my body language! He was watching to see how I would react to his examination of my state of mind, as telegraphed by my body. I centered myself, relaxed, and gazed back at him serenely. This guy is really good, I thought. He’s actually dangerous, like a mind-reader. Wow! He’s trying to get inside me to test me. I can see why he has such a great rep.
Then he suddenly sat up a bit more erectly and said, “Kevin, very good. Very, very good. I’ve had very, very few people do what you did; you knew exactly what I was doing and you responded exactly right. Impressive. In reading your file, I noticed your study of the Arts, particularly taekwondo, and saw you’re a first dan, after first reaching a third poon. After seeing you just now, I’d think that mentally, anyway, you’re at least fourth dan.”
“Sir, you know taekwondo?”
“I have some small skill in the Art. In all humility, I allow myself to hold a seventh dan.”
Oh my God, he’s a Master. No wonder he could do that. I bowed my head and made the appropriate gesture.
“It’s my very great honor to meet you, Sahyun nim; forgive my lack of proper courtesy and forms when we first met.”
He made the appropriate response and waved his hand with a chuckle. “Not necessary, Kevin, we’re not in the dojang now.”
Meanwhile, Denise had been watching our byplay, her head whipping back and forth at us. I thought she’d get a whiplash.
“Uh, can I ask for a translation? I got some of that, but what just happened?”
“Denise, Sahyun... uh, sir, is it still ok to call you Bob? Thanks. Bob is a Master of the Art of taekwondo. You know what I did today with Abover?” She nodded. “Well, a master of Bob’s stature could do the same, but against three opponents. Blindfolded. With a hand tied behind him.”
“Oh my!” Her hand flew to her mouth.
Bob laughed. “He exaggerates. Well, perhaps a little. In the highest dans—that’s levels, or belts—some of the masters spar blindfolded. The idea is to try to sense your opponent’s location, posture, and movements. A first dan is the first level of the black belt ranks going up to nine. The poons are junior-level black belt levels for children under 16 years. They have basically the same skill levels as the dans, but poons don’t spar against adults because they’re too small. Oh—a dojang is just Korean for ‘gym.’”
“Denise, Bob was testing me—you know, the fly under the microscope? He was reading my body language, trying to unnerve me, to get under my skin. My response was to blank him out so he’d only read white noise.”
Bob grinned at my explanation.
“Oh, that’s not nice, Mr Charlesworth!”
“Please, Denise. It’s Bob. All we were doing is what dogs do, sniffing each other out, seeing who’s gonna be the top dog. If I’m going to be working closely with Kevin, as I’m looking forward with great interest to doing, I need to know where his weaknesses lie. So far I don’t see any and that’s a rarity, especially at his age.”
“Well, if you wanted to see how Kevin operates, you should have been in the principal’s office this morning. He was astounding.”
“Yes, I’d really like to hear about that.”
I let Denise do the play-by-play, breaking in only when her hyperbole became too great to let pass. When she finished, Bob had a broad grin.
“Well, the way she describes it, sounds like your goon friend encountered the Spiderman and then Mr Spock dropped in to conduct the negotiation. This is priceless. And yes, I know about the Program; my son was on it last spring and the stuff in it really riled him and bothered me too. It wasn’t at your school. He did the absolute bare (oops, sorry) minimum stuff in it; they threatened him several times—like he should ask for Relief in class more—they need to keep track of that? Anyway, after reading your file, I figured that when you learned about the Program, you’d step in to try to make changes. I never dreamed you’d get thrown into it first thing, though.”
“Bob, excuse me, but I nearly forgot. Don’t we need to discuss your fees?”
“Oh, sorry—no, that’s my fault. I felt that I’ve known you so long I actually forgot this was our first meeting. Kevin, I’m on retainer—actually, my whole firm is. What that means is that your dad arranged for us to provide you unlimited legal services—well, up to a point—during your high school and college years. We’re paid out of some fund he set up in Indonesia, from its interest, apparently, so the principal isn’t diminished. Your family is very, very wealthy, you know.”
Denise’s hand flew to her mouth. I said, “Denise, please, you never heard that, ok?”
“‘k,” she squeaked.
“So Kevin, all of my fees are paid if you use my services or if you don’t. The only billable items are externals, like, as examples, plane fares, expert witness fees, remote depositions, and the like. The retainer does pay for court filing fees, other court costs, stenographers and transcripts, and similar items. Understand? Ok. Now let’s get to work. What’s the most difficult of your problems?”
“Oh, I think that’s a easy one to identify. It’s Denise. Could you tell Bob as best you can why you can’t be on the Program?”
She began haltingly to tell her story as Bob asked her gentle questions, drawing out her descriptions and probing her tactfully. Wow. As forceful and direct he had been earlier, he was now so gentle, caring, and empathetic in his approach. He also asked her a lot of questions about her therapy, detailed questions, like what happened in her first session, her second, stuff like that. What did that have to do with the Program?
After they were done, Denise was drained and Bob looked very thoughtful. He looked at her, then at me, tapped his pen on his pad a few times, and then sat back and sighed.
“Ok, guys, I went a bit far away from Denise’s immediate problem with the Program—I saw you noticed that, Kevin, your body language was shouting ‘get back on track!’ I recently handled a rape case from the civil angle and some of the things I heard from Denise happened in that other case. I’m in no way a medical expert, but I could quickly tell that your therapist, Denise, isn’t doing you a favor. I think it’s the wrong treatment and it’s really important to do this properly. The right treatment I think is pretty difficult to do for the person because it needs careful recall of specific details of your assault, but I’ve seen excellent statistics for recovery. I’m making a guess that your family hasn’t much resources, right? ...ok, yes, and I know a therapist who provides services for really a pittance for situations like yours. I’ll give you her card; tell her I referred you. She specializes in the therapy method I’ll write on the back of the card. You can search the term on the Web and if it looks like you can do it, please call her. I really think you can do it, based on how you responded to my questions earlier.”
He held out the card and she stood and took it. When she sat down she turned it over and looked; I leaned over and read “Prolonged Exposure.” Strange name.
Bob began speaking again. “Now to the immediate issue. The threat to Denise of her impending Program participation for next week. First, we need to work within the Program parameters before we can go outside of them. That’s a basic legal principle; you can’t overthrow an entire contract or a law if you find fault with just a part of it. You work with the statements and interpret them in any way that isn’t self-contradictory or violates any other provisions. If a term is undefined in a contract, then its definition can be taken from any collegiate dictionary. If a list of items is given, the list is either inclusive or exclusive, and that has to be stated or else the list simply shows examples of included items and any other item of a matching class, no matter how remote, is automatically part of the class. I don’t want to do a lecture on legal principles but I want to show you how it works when we look for how to get what we need from the rules themselves.
“Now let’s look at the rules. I have a copy of my son’s booklet, but yours may be different.”
We both pulled out our copies; I gave mine to Bob and shared Denise’s.
“You said you were told that there were no medical exemptions, yet here on page 4 I see that they are permitted. Look under ‘Exemptions.’ It includes the statement, ‘matters of health.’”
Denise said, “Yes, my doctor specified that in my letter. But it says at the beginning, ‘Local Program officials may make exemptions...’ First, I was told the exemption is only given by the Program official, not the school, and second, they told me it says ‘may make’ and not ‘shall’ or ‘must’ make. They said that the official has the sole discretion. They also told me that a medical matter isn’t a health matter—I was healthy by definition because I was able to go to school.”
“Really. What kind of Neanderthal reasoning is that? Ok, we can probably challenge that dumb reasoning, but let’s see what other tools we have. Ok, here, under ‘Compulsory Nudity’ on page 2. At the bottom it says, ‘The Program does NOT expect participants to risk their health or safety.’ It goes on to talk about safety equipment, but this statement itself is pretty all-encompassing and could apply to exemptions too. There’s another law principle that says that all headings and titles are descriptive and not proscriptive. That means that the title tells what the next part is about, but does not say that is all it’s about. All provisions in a legal document carry the same weight wherever they are located. Sometimes you may infer that a statement applies only to the section where it appears, but legally that only counts as one’s opinion. The working principle is that a statement means what its words say. Nothing more, nothing less.
“That wording on page 2 says that if something in the Program can be a risk to a participant’s health or safety, the Program expects that the person will not do it—take steps to avoid injury. Ok, definition time. Risk: this is a well defined legal term, so hoary that no one would think to challenge its meaning. It means exactly what you think it does. To endanger. Health: this is a very broad term, so we can look it up.
“Here we are: ‘Health: the state of being free from illness or injury. A person’s mental or physical condition.’ So substituting terms then, that page 2 line says that the Program does not expect that a participant will endanger their mental condition. How do we prevent the endangerment? For a physical danger, like a chemical spill, we wear gloves and aprons. For a mental endangerment, since we can’t see it or feel it, we need a medical opinion. Expert opinions are another basic law principle. If something is too complex for a layperson to understand, the law accepts using the experience and knowledge of someone who understands. A medical expert can interpret and advise on medical matters. Denise, your doctor’s letter specifically states the consequences of your exposure to a Program endangerment?”
“Yes, it says that the effect of my being naked or my privates being touched will cause me to have a mental breakdown—didn’t use that term; it had words like ‘phobia’ and ‘psychosis’ but my doc said it’s what they meant.”
“Well, it’s clear then. We’ve got a good case, from two places in the booklet, for a permanent exemption. One, it seems, is up to our Neanderthal Program official. The other is open-ended as far as who can make the ruling, so we could make the case that the school’s principal can—or best of all—you yourself can, Denise. It doesn’t say you can’t. If you’re selected for the Program, then you’re part of the Program, it’s you, and you can’t expect to put yourself in danger, by definition. A bit disingenuous, but we’re working with the absolute meaning of words. I don’t think they’ll buy it though, they’re too entrenched in their interpretations, but this analysis is good enough to get an injunction, if necessary, and hold things up for as long as we want to do.”
I had been watching Denise’s face during Bob’s explanation and seeing her expressions go from hopefulness, chagrin, despair, uncertainty, wariness, and finally joy was amusing but heartbreaking. But with his final words she broke out into a huge smile.
“Oh my God, Bob, you’re wonderful! You can do that? I don’t know how to thank you!”
“No, don’t thank me, thank Kevin. He was the catalyst. I’m just the mechanic who puts the parts together. But I really hope you’ll consider that therapy; it’s had good results in so many cases that I strongly suggest you try.”
“I’ve been thanking Kevin all day long! I can’t believe I only met him seven hours ago—it feels like seven years!” She leaned over and kissed my cheek.
“Now, Kevin, let’s go to the second reason you’re here, and let’s hope it isn’t as complex.”
“Maybe. It’s my emancipation.”
“Ah. Yes, an interesting and unusual status. I’ll bet you’ve got school officials in a real dither over that. This’ll be fun, really. I love to see officious stuffed shirts squirm when they can’t put everything into simple pigeonholes. What aspect of your legal adult status seems to bother them?”
“Again, it’s the Program. Remember, they just found me in the office and grabbed me into it before I had the slightest idea about it. Here’s the papers they wanted my parent/guardian to sign; when I said I had none and the forms didn’t apply, all hell broke loose; the woman didn’t know what to do and began making random threats.”
“Yes, you’re right; clearly these are meaningless in your case—oh Denise—did your mom sign these?” He showed her the forms.
“No, the doc said she shouldn’t.”
“Oh good. Even better. No parental informed consent. Good. Kevin, back to you. What did she say?”
“First, that participation was a graduation requirement. Second, even as an adult I could be forced to be in the Program—forced was the key. Like that goon attempted. Third, even though I’m an adult, as a high school student I still don’t have an adult’s constitutional rights.”
“Oh good. This is a twist I didn’t think of with my son. He actually was 18 when he got picked. His birthday was the week before. I’m such a dummy—I could have had a blast with this. Oh, well, I get to have another go at it now. After we get finished with them, probably they’ll be so wary of picking seniors that the Program will effectively end in the junior year. Let’s see, now. An adult status, according to the Supreme Court, gives you all of the protections of the law and the Constitution. No law can deny you those protections. Minors have fewer protections; for example, I think in 1985 the Court declared a high school locker search constitutional and not a breach of the Fourth Amendment because the subjects were minors and while in school, they were the wards of the public, the school in that case. Here, the decision was the same, but this time applied to the Fifth Amendment and the Fourteenth, the parts interpreted as guaranteeing personal privacy. According to the Court, Congress could enact laws that deprived minors of their freedom to be secure in their person or property presumably because they weren’t legally permitted to make decisions on their own; decisions must be made for them by an adult; here again by the school acting in loco parentis.
“Now an adult in high school poses a problem of conflicts. Graduation is normally based on merit and achievement. Merit means grades; the most common measuring stick. Passing grades and minimum average grades determine merit levels. Achievement is typically the number of courses and their importance or weight—credits. You need a certain number of credits to qualify. Achievement can also include intangibles, like perhaps a certain number of hours of community service. Not part of the merit system, but a requirement still. The Program is part of the achievement system. It’s something to be done, like passing a swimming test for graduation; this assures that all graduates know how to swim. But if you have a water phobia, or a condition that prevents you from swimming, you get a bye, because demonstrating that ability isn’t related to the course of study.
“Now the Program has components that purport to also be in the public interest: to show that a graduate has achieved a reasonable level of comfort with his body’s sexuality. It does this by exposing his nudity and sexuality to the group and allows them to explore, tease, and humiliate him, and gratify themselves at his expense. Completing this process is supposed to show the achievement of meeting a societal goal—a sexually well adjusted person. But society is not homogeneous. There’s no reason, except for a disability of some kind, that keeps anyone from learning to swim. But personal privacy is at an entirely different level; it’s culturally based. There are a number of cultures where nudity is taboo, like traditional Muslims, for example. Forcing a Muslim girl to expose herself in public, or worse, to have sexual contact, is a shaming and could result in her being killed for shaming her family.
“Now your case. You can’t be forced to be nude in public; your civil rights as an adult preclude being forced to remove your clothes. But are you still subject to the achievement criterion? If you participate voluntarily, there’s no issue at all, right? Do you have any objections to participate?”
“Well, I guess I would if I could. I don’t have any particular modesty issues, except the idea of public masturbation and groping makes my skin crawl. The people who thought that up are really perverted. The issue—which I alluded to earlier in talking to Denise—is that I also have a disability, nowhere nearly as significant as hers. I’ve got a hypersensitive penis”—Denise’s jaw dropped—“and it’s excruciatingly painful to have it touched, let alone jerked on, or even having it swinging around freely.”
Denise murmured, “Oh my....”
“I don’t think Dad put that in my file...no?...ok, so what happened was this ...”
I went on to relate my condition, the surgery, and the sequella, and finished describing how I used the anesthetic and the tights I wore.
“So in a way I’m something like Denise; I have a weird disability where being nude under Program conditions would cause me physical harm, and my medical condition completely precludes my demonstrating ‘becoming comfortable with my body and my sexuality.’ You know, I’m totally embarrassed to say this, but the only orgasms I’ve ever had were while I was sleeping.”
Denise’s hand was at her mouth again.
I glanced at her, winked, and continued, “As far as my current physical condition is concerned, it’s medically impossible for me to become comfortable sexually the way the Program mandates I should become. You know, it’s kind of like requiring me to pick up a 200 kilogram barbell and lift it over my head. True, I have the muscles to raise something over my head, but I don’t have the physical resources to handle that amount of weight.”
Bob looked at me thoughtfully. “Very interesting metaphor, Kevin. And it’s the actual key to what we need to do. Very good thinking. This gets us into the area of ability/disability and not social performance or even achievement, like a swimming test would be. What you are alluding to is sort of like requiring a paraplegic to rise from his wheelchair and walk a hundred feet unassisted, right? A physical impossibility for that person. So let’s explore this, using legs as the substitute for a penis. Non-working legs filling in for an effectively non-working penis, sorry for that, by the way. Is there a substitute way a paraplegic could demonstrate his becoming comfortable with his body’s ability to walk if he can’t demonstrate walking? Demonstrating any use of his legs? Even standing on them? This is a disability issue that is well covered by both state and federal laws: the Americans with Disabilities Act from 1990 is still in effect and has a long history of being upheld by the Court.
“The ADA basically says that no person with a disability may be denied public or private access to employment, education, housing, and public services and defines a disability as a physical or mental condition that can substantially impair a major life activity of the individual. Seems to me that one can successfully argue that sexual performance is one such ‘major life activity’ since the Program guidelines go out of the way to make that very point. Education is specifically mentioned in the law, and obviously graduation is a culmination of the education process.
“I also seem to recall that the ADA specifically requires that public schools are to provide to children with disabilities an education appropriate to their needs and abilities in the least restrictive environment. So denying a person graduation because their disability precludes them from demonstrating a certain competence, one that is not at all related to their courses of study but an ancillary, added-on requirement, is a denial of the right for an education. So your legal adult status isn’t the controlling issue, it’s actually your impairment. You can’t demonstrate the required competence because of a protected physical disability.
“This is way simpler than I thought it would be—I’m actually a bit sorry, I’d love to engage the adult-minor issue but we can also deal with that as a distractor and rile up the bureaucrats some with it.”
“Excuse me, sir, a thought?” I interrupted. “Isn’t Denise’s situation almost identical? Her medical condition is just as much as a disability as mine, right?”
“Oh my, Kevin, you’re exactly right,” he exclaimed, looking at me intently. “Son, you should be sitting at this desk. I was so intent on playing cute with the stupid Program rules and using them to get what we need that I neglected to consider the basic question. Using interpretative techniques is how we handle corporate law, that’s our firm’s specialty, so my thinking tends to run in those channels. Here we’re dealing with laws, not contracts, so using one federal law to challenge another is way the best choice. Using the ADA too gives us a legal arsenal, not just a weapon, my friend. I like the way you think... if you decide to go into law, you’d be very successful. You have an analytic mind and seem to be detail-oriented; these are good skills for an attorney.” He grinned broadly. “And a host of other occupations too, by the way.
“Back to the issue—ah, issues now. Yes, this is the proper avenue of attack, but on several fronts. Using the ADA is primary; our ability to demonstrate that a ‘life disability’ exists is the key and fortunately the published Program objectives actually help us greatly there. Then the Program exemption rules and the other rules in that booklet come into play; who interprets their provisions and how specific terms are to be defined. Denise, you shouldn’t worry that you’ll be forced to do anything next week. Before the week’s over I’ll have paperwork delivered to your school that will stop them cold if they try anything. Besides, you’ve got your protector here too, it seems. He’s done a good job so far.”
She nodded and made a grateful gesture.
“Kevin, your instincts seem to be good. Just don’t get too far out on a limb and get carried away. If something happens that disturbs your sense of rightness, try to delay taking any action until you can get it sorted out. You can call me at any time. If I’m not available, an associate can help you. Everyone in my firm is top-notch so you can be assured of good answers. Ok? Good. Now what I’ll do is to prepare a warning letter to the school district’s attorney putting the district on notice that indications have appeared that certain district policies are in violation of the ADA. That these issues pertain to the district’s duty to provide an unimpaired public education to Miss Denise Roberts and Mr Kevin Coris, and if the district fails to provide unimpaired access to such education, the following will happen as a consequence: 1) Injunctive relief shall be immediately sought from a court of competent jurisdiction; 2) A federal proceeding shall be initiated to compel the district to observe the relevant provisions of the ADA; 3) A civil proceeding shall be initiated to assure that the named individuals are not hindered in their rights to obtain an education unencumbered by requirements not directly related to that education; 4) A class action proceeding shall be initiated, the class being all students similarly situated, to ensure that members of that class are afforded their rights under the ADA.”
Bob was writing as he was making that list. Denise was listening with an expression of wonder. I was similarly impressed. Wow, this is heavy stuff!
Bob said, almost to himself, “We’ll need to tweak the wording somewhat, but this looks good.” He looked up. “This has been fun but we need to wrap it up now. Is there anything more that’s quick? Don’t hit me with another biggie today,” he grinned.
“Well, some of us students will be meeting tomorrow to discuss ways we can organize for a kind of self-protection for the kids on the Program. I’ll take notes and email them to you so you can see what we come up with,” I said.
“Sounds good. Kevin, Denise, so pleased to meet both of you. Kevin, it’s been an honor and a real pleasure to finally be able to chat with you, and Denise, again, please consider that therapy,” he said, coming around the desk and shaking my hand.
He reached for Denise’s hand but she reached up and hugged him, saying, “Thank you so much, sir. You’ve made me happier than I’ve been for the past two years. Thank you.”
We left Bob’s office and went down to the first floor. Denise was quiet and thoughtful and I didn’t want to break into her solitude. When we reached the ground floor, she turned to me, grabbed my arms, and turned me to face her. Then she pinched me!
“Woah! What was that for?”
“You’re unreal. I needed to see if you are real. I can’t believe that anyone could be like you. You’re not a superhero, you’re a grownup masquerading as a kid! You even had Mr Charlesworth treating you as an equal! Like he was your good buddy! Who are you, really?”
“Denise, I’m only a kid, really. How I am is a result of how I was raised, I guess. I never thought of myself as a kid—you see, I lived in a guarded world all my life, surrounded by adults, generally at an embassy, and rarely had much extended contact with anyone my age. All my ‘playmates’”—I made quotes with my fingers—“were adults, so I kind of tailored my playing to what they were doing. I guess I was a good mimic and they enjoyed having me around. So I picked up all kinds of adult mannerisms and also while keeping company with my folks, I listened to conversations they had with diplomats, executives, and even some world leaders; maybe it rubbed off on me. Then I told you about the Eastern Arts training. You grow up fast with those mental training regimens. And it develops this incredible self-confidence in you—I do this kind of mental ‘reset’—it’s called ‘centering’—and I feel serene and powerful; I become hyper-aware of everything and it gives me a real advantage over anyone around me, it seems. That’s what Bob and I did with each other at first. You saw how we reacted—it was a Mexican standoff,” I chuckled. “So we had the same training and that made a bond between us, that’s all.”
I turned to the outer door and pulled her along. “We’ve got to get you home now; you said by 6?”
“Yeah.” While we walked she continued, “Another thing. All day long I’ve been on this emotional train wreck and with events racing along I couldn’t stop to think at all. About us. Kevin, why me? Why are you doing all this for me? You saw me for maybe two minutes and immediately came running to my rescue. God, I can’t believe that was only a few hours ago. You knew—know—nothing at all about me, just an incident in my life a few years ago, and what you’ve done has really saved my life totally—and if I haven’t thanked you in the last few minutes, let me say it again.” She kissed my hand.
“Denise, I don’t really know. I’ve thought about it too. When the ape dragged you into that office I somehow felt drawn to you in a way I can’t describe. Not sexual, not your appearance—although I think you’re gorgeous—” she giggled “thanks”—“something about your personality or essence or aura just attracted me; you know about the Eastern ideas about qi, life energy?”
“Um, heard the word, I think... not sure what it is.”
“Ok, well, I guess the Western analog is ‘empathy’ but that’s a very incomplete idea of what feeling someone else’s qi is like. So that made me pay closer attention to you and then I felt the need, no, compelled, to help.”
“Um, but...”
“No, don’t interrupt—this is important. When I was growing up I had few friends my age. There just weren’t any kids around and there’s no real mixing between locals and embassy kids; it’s just too dangerous. You’re actually the very first person my age with whom I’ve had any serious interaction, except for one brief but disastrous relationship in Korea, so maybe that’s another factor. But I know about your problems and now you know mine, so you can be absolutely certain that I have no sexual designs on you whatever. But if you’d like, I’d really love to remain as your friend.”
We had reached my car and I helped her get in.
“Kevin, that’s so sweet; of course I’ll be your friend!” She giggled (I could get hooked on that sound). “I’m still in total awe of you, though, and don’t see how my little insignificant self could be an attraction for you...”
“Denise, you’re neither little nor insignificant. I feel you have a very great internal strength, it was your emotional power that projected your qi—blasted it, really, out of you when you were dragged into Fletcher’s office. I think I could have felt it even outside of his room! It washed over me in a way I still can’t understand. I can still feel your aura, it’s an interesting sensation, and again, I can’t fully describe what’s happening.”
“Um. This is so weird. I also feel drawn to you in some way, but I thought it was more like hero-worship. I told you that you’re awesome, but the part of the word I really mean is ‘awe’—I’m in awe of you. And not just for what you’ve done for me, which is awesome too. You’ve got this total self-possession, total coolness, total unflappability, and you can be totally polite one second and the next you’re demolishing someone either verbally or physically. When I’m with you I feel like I’m inside a whirlwind and never know where it’ll take me next.”
“I assure you that’s not who I am. This whole day—no, it’s this whole weird Program thing—had me completely off balance and I kept getting hit with unfamiliar stimuli and just had a knee-jerk reaction. My sahyun—uh, master—would be completely disappointed in me, I showed an almost total lack of self-control. But wow, I had fun doing it, though!”
She laughed. “Fun watching, too. Ok, we’re getting close to the school and not far from my house. I only live about ten blocks away now. Next left turn.”
“Denise, before I forget, please do forget about Bob’s remark about my money, ok? If that becomes common knowledge, my life will be a compete disaster—I’ll have all kinds of undesirables chasing me. I’m really a very modest, frugal person. Would you please?”
“Certainly. I saw how embarrassed you were when he let that slip.”
We got to her house and I waited for her to reach her door. She waved to me, blew me a kiss, and went inside. Then I drove home, famished and totally exhausted from the day’s stress.
Outside Aunt Helene’s house stood a police cruiser.
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