We were all apprehensive about our fate. It was 3:10 A.M. when I reached for Jerry’s flailing arm and happened to notice his wristwatch and the time. It had taken 10 minutes to get us into our pants and into the car. We were already over two hours late and we still had a 15 minute drive to contemplate how we would be received at the Pettersen home.
Huley was doing her best to put herself together, giving her hair several short brushes before pushing the brush into her handbag and snapping it shut. Jerry and Petri were talking in monotones, encouraging each other to be brave.
As we approached the cul-de-sac we saw the front of the house flooded with light spilling over into the neighbor’s yards. Huley dropped the five combs she had removed from her hair and groaned.
Jerry’s Volkswagen was parked in back of Huley’s Corvette and there was another car on the drive.
“What time is it?” Petri asked.
“3:35,” Jerry reported, sounding like he was talking in his sleep.
Huley’s hand went to the door handle as if she was going to jump out the minute I stopped.
“Wait, I’ll go in with you,” I said as gently as I could manage.
“No, you go home. It will be better that way.”
“Huley, let’s not argue about it. I’m coming in.”
I ran around the car to help Huley but she was already out. She wouldn’t take my hand on the way to the door. I followed, wanting to sing or whistle. Jerry and Petri were close behind us.
As she reached for the doorknob the door swung open and Ollie reached out to pull her inside. His right hand slashed across Huley’s face sending her reeling towards the staircase. Thinking she was going to fall I dashed in front of her father to try to catch her but not in time. She had bumped her head on the banister.
For the next five minutes the entryway to the Pettersen home became a screaming tear-filled flood of insane shouting. Ollie’s voice rose above the rest of us, drowning out our efforts to explain why we had arrived over two hours late.
“Stop it!” Rosita came between us, holding her arms up to protect us from Ollie who had his arm raised. He must have heard Rosita or seen her because he dropped his fist to his side and glared at me and at Huley, the blue vein in his forehead very visible.
Huley melted into my arms, sobbing. I whispered to her, saying that it was over, asking her if she was alright, and trying to comfort her. She sobbed, feeling limp in my arms. Petri joined our little huddle, sympathizing with Huley.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered in Huley’s ear. She pulled her face from mine, her eyes streaming with tears, searching my face. “Thank you for coming in with me,” she whispered.
Rosita was swishing past us. “We’ll go in here,” she said, opening the door to the seldom used front room.
I guided Huley to one of two sofas and sat next to her. She buried her face against mine. Rosita had left the room but I was very much aware of Ollie’s presence. He stood over us fists clenched and although I did not look up I suspected his jaw was clenched also. I took a deep breath, trying to think of something to say.
Rosita returned with an ice pack, a warm cloth and a box of tissues. She placed the cloth on Huley’s cheek and the ice pack on her forehead before turning her attention to Ollie.
“You sit there,” she instructed, pointing to a chair nearest to me.
“You two sit over there,” Rosita said to Jerry and Petri, pointing to the sofa on the other side of the large room.
It had become quiet. Rosita surveyed the room before leaving once more. When she returned she handed Huley a bottle of aspirin and a glass of water. Huley took two aspirin and drank most of the water before I stopped her. My head was aching from the two glasses of punch that I had consumed. I washed down one aspirin with the remaining water.
Rosita chose to remain next to her daughter, wanting to take her in her arms but Huley would not move from my side.
Ollie paced the floor, not ready to sit in the chair his wife had assigned him. He lectured each of us individually and as a group. He made accusations and leveled charges, saying that we could not be trusted and that we would all pay for our failure to respect his orders.
“We drank too much,” Petri admitted. Ollie and Rosita turned to her.
“Randy took us to a motel to get cleaned up. We had been sick and messed up our jeans. He washed them and let us get some sleep but I guess we didn’t wake up on time,” she spoke boldly.
She went on to explain about the party being held in a small vacant house, deferring to me to tell about the cramped space and how someone had spiked the punch with a mixture of cheep liquors.
Ollie attempted to interrupt us, wanting clarification about how all four of us slept in one bed. He raised his voice when he repeated what Petri had said about our pants drying in the bathroom, making Huley shudder. But even Huley laughed when Petri said that she had slept between two guys for the first time in her life.
Petri’s comment sent Ollie into another tirade but by that time he had lost his audience. It was after 4 A.M. and Rosita had heard enough to satisfy her that nothing serious had happened.
“Give it a rest Ollie,” Rosita warned her husband.
But I couldn’t let it rest. Buoyed by Petri’s humorous remark about sleeping between two guys for the first time I became daring. I could not let Ollie off without an apology to Huley.
Removing the cloth from Huley’s cheek and the icepack from her forehead I turned her head so that Ollie could see her reddened cheek and the bump on her forehead. “You struck your daughter Mr. Pettersen. It left a mark. You may as well have put a cigarette out on her butt.”
“I don’t think that’s a fair comparison Randy,” Rosita was saying but I was not paying attention to her or to Huley who was looking at me, aghast. I was more interested in how Ollie’s face was drained of color, making the blue vein more pronounced.
“That’s preposterous, I would never do a thing like that,” Ollie labored to say before rising to his full height and announcing to me, “you’re no longer welcome here.”
“Don’t pay any attention to him Randy,” Rosita was quick to say. Then to her husband, “apologize to your daughter for hitting her. You should have given them a chance to explain why they were late.”
Seeing that Ollie was not inclined to apologize Rosita ended the meeting, ushering us out of the room into the entrance way.
Ollie was heading down the long hall towards the rear of the house as the rest of us said our goodbyes. Rosita and Petri were steering Huley to the stairway when I said, “Goodnight Tess, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Ollie turned when he heard me call his daughter Tess. There was a mixture of bewilderment and shock on his face. He stood motionless as I pulled the door closed behind Jerry and myself.