Have you ever felt that you were compelled to do something very particular, but for no apparent reason, as if your very future depended on that action but you didn't know why? That is how I feel about writing this story. It has to be written. I can only conjecture as to the reason. Maybe it's to give closure to the past or maybe it's to stop the subtle punishments that I have been living with since I was a child.

I feel as though I am only half a person living with enormous potential but without any possibility of achieving a breakthrough.  My mind is full of thoughts that never end up as anything worthwhile. It's as if those thoughts get lost on the way down, like a light that becomes dimmer the farther it gets from its' source. I suppose that is why I love writing. It gives me a chance to lend permanence to those thoughts instead of allowing them to disappear into the unknown. Maybe as I keep writing, the answers will become clearer as I slowly march closer to the source of what has consistently anguished within me.

Telling Big Al that I would be leaving was not going to be easy. He was as close to a father as I'd had since Pa died. Before I had met Betty, he was the only one who ever saw any potential in me. I owed him a lot, but not enough that I would be so foolish as to turn down the opportunity being given to me by Betty's family.

It was a scorching hot day in Orange County. The air had a stale dryness that made it difficult to breath. Is it just me or was the air and sky different back in the sixties? To me the colors in the sixties seemed duller, the sky a lighter shade of blue, the air hazier, and the summers, far warmer than now while today it's the reverse. The colors are brighter and sharper, it's easier to see through the air and while the summers may be hotter today, it doesn't feel that way.  Maybe it's me.

I walked into Big Al's and as usual he was sitting behind his desk at the back of the store counting the day's receipts. By the look of the stack, it had been a good day and I hadn't even been working.

"Sit down son," Big Al said to me as he saw me walk in.

I sat down ready to begin the speech that I had memorized in my mind the entire day.

"How are?" he asked while puffing away on his Marlboro.

"I'm good."

"Terrific. Adam, I have good news for you," Big Al said in a deep booming voice.

"Can it wait for just a moment?" I said. "I have something important to tell you."

"Let me go first. I'm sure that what you have to say won't seem so important after this."

Big Al had peaked my curiosity. "Shoot," I coolly said to him.

"You know that I always felt it was my job to look after you after your father had died, and I believe I've done a pretty good job of it. I mean, look at you. You're making a good living, you have a great car, you seem happy. It's time for you to take the next step in life." Big Al put out his cigarette and leaned back in his chair.

"The next step?" I asked.

"That's right. It's time for you to think about your future or did you want to be a salesman forever?"

"That's what I wanted to tell you," I tried to interrupt but Big Al just kept on talking.

"I couldn't do that to your father. He was a salesman his whole life and I'm sure if he was still around he'd want more for you." Big Al took a deep breath to gather in his thoughts. "That's why I want you and Tom to manage this place and eventually take it over from me."

I was floored. Big Al wanted Tom and I to be Big Al. I suppose it would take the two us to fill his shoes, literally. Big Al saw the look of shock on my face. "I think you're a great kid," he continued, "but I know you could never handle this type of business on your own. No offense Adam but numbers have never been your thing."

He was right. Maybe the bank isn't looking so good right now, I thought, as Big Al continued. "That's why I want Tom with you. He'll be the inside man handling the books and the suppliers while I want you being in charge of all the salesman in the store as well as shooting for the big accounts. I think it's time Big Al went corporate. Those big companies need carpets and drapes too. I've been talking to my bank and they're finally willing to give me the credit I need to handle the biggies. So what do you say? Oh, and by the way, I'm going to start you boys out at nine thousand dollars."

I looked at big kind, generous Al. I thought about how I could spend the rest of my life working everyday with my best friend Tom. Then I thought about the nine thousand dollars that was nearly double the average salary back then. There's no a way that a personal banker makes that kind of money.

"Have you spoken to Tom about this?" I asked.

"He's all for it. He's already given me a hundred ways he would improve the place. I told him, slowdown there. First you're going to run it my way. Once you can do that we'll talk about how we can improve the place."

"Then I can safely say you've got your dream team. We're going to take Big Al's into the seventies and beyond." We shook hands. The deal was done.

I headed back to Tom's, where I was still living and would be until I got married. Tom must be flipping out right now. We're going to be business owners! .....Business owners. That last thought made the drive back to Tom's completely awesome. Adam Baker was on top of the world. As I pulled off the freeway I decided to treat myself to a root beer at the A&W drive-through. A&W was the place my pa used to take me when he felt I deserved something special. Wow, pa was always in my head.

The lineup at the drive-through was four cars deep. I remember because Baby Please Don't Go by Them was blasting on my radio. I looked in front to see how many cars were ahead of me to make sure there was enough time to hear the whole song before it was my turn to order.

Beep! Beep! From behind me a horn was blaring. I turned around and four female co-eds were waving at me from their Mustang convertible.

"Hi Adam," said an absolutely perfect blond in a distinctively friendly southern accent from the back seat.

I waved back politely having had absolutely no idea who the girl was.

"Your right, he is cute," said the driver, a short haired brunette, to the girl who waved at me.

How could I forget a beautiful girl like that? I thought to myself as I racked my brain trying to remember her.

"What'ya up to?" I asked her, hoping that the more she spoke the easier it might make it for me to remember her.

"I'm a freshman at USC," she replied as she lifted her arms straight up into the air, "first squad cheerleader!" All four girls started singing:

🎼Fight in for ol' SC
Our men fight on to victory.🎼

This was killing me, four cheerleaders were giving me a private viewing, they thought I was cute and I had no clue who any of them were. However, since she was a freshman, I realized she must have been around eighteen years old. All of those girls were much too young for me to have dated; still the dumbfounded look on my face must have been priceless.

"Sandy graduated last year," the blond in the back seat said to me, and then it clicked.

"Little Charlotte!" I blurted our loudly. I had taken out her sister, Sandy, on quite a few dates a couple of years ago. She was also a USC cheerleader and was easily the greatest sex I'd ever had, including Betty. Well, with Betty it was different, more sensual and less – for lack of a better word, animal. Sandy was a wild one. I have no idea why I ever stopped seeing her. I suppose it was because I was too busy going from girl to girl to realize what I was doing.

"You didn't recognize me, did you?" she said to me.

"To be completely honest, no. Wow you filled out nicely."
The other girls laughed.

"What ever happened to your old Pontiac?" she asked me.

"You remember that car?"

"How could I forget?" she said to me. "You used to drive me and Sandy to the Orange Julius in that thing before you would drop me off at my friends' house on the way to the beach. I had the biggest crush on you back then."

Wow.

"Welc...to A&...can....take..your order?" America is going to put a man on the moon and yet nobody can figure out a way to make a speaker clear enough to hear what they're saying.

It was my turn to order. "I'll have a burger and a large root beer," I said to the metal grill, "and I'm paying for the car behind me."

You'll have....p...in..ide.

"I'll come in and pay inside."

After I took care of the bill I hopped into the car with the girls.
"That's awfully sweet," Charlotte said to me as she sipped on her root beer.

"You didn't have to do that," said the cute driver.

"If I didn't pay for you girls then what kind of a guy would I be?" I asked them. "Us guys have responsibilities that come with being around gorgeous cheerleaders. I'm just doing my part."

"We'll Adam," Charlotte said to me, "no good deed should go unrewarded." She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and then she whispered in my ear, "I'm old enough now for you to take me to the beach."

Again, wow, and all of a sudden my newly developed conscience kicked in. I had a Betty, and a Billy. This is as far as it could ever go. I swear my insides were crying.

"I sort of, well, um, have a steady girlfriend," I said to Charlotte.

"Sort of doesn't sound very serious," she replied.

Right now I wish I didn't have a girlfriend but it's another part of the responsibilities that come with being a man. I have to do the exact opposite of what I want to do no matter how much it kills me.

Charlotte took a pen from her purse and wrote down her phone number and on small scrap of paper.

"I still have that crush on you," she said to me as she placed the paper in my hand then she leaned over and gave me another kiss on the cheek.