Serena Tempted

This is post 22 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here

Serena examined the toe of her sneaker. “Mom made me,” she said, in a low voice. She continued more plaintively. “What am I supposed to do? My whole youth group decided to go.” She indicated a number of people in T-shirts like hers who were standing nearby. “You think I’m just gonna stand up in front of them and my parents and our pastor and everyone and say, ‘I think you’re ignorant about the Bible and I’m not going’? Oh yeah. That’d go over real well.”
Stephen looked at her face, raised towards his in appeal. Then he put an arm around her shoulders. “Come on, Serena,” he said in her ear. “You’re not a lemming. Listen. The professor and Lizzy and I are going to sneak over the line and join the parade the first chance we get. For once in your life, be your own person. Come with us. Your parents love you. They’ll get over it.”
“Yeah, come on. We’re gonna be on TV, Serena,” piped up Lizzy, who had heard the end of the conversation.
Serena smiled down at the little girl, and then looked up at Stephen and giggled. “I might do it, just to see their faces. Oh my God, if Dad saw me on the news!”
“That’s the spirit,” Stephen said, giving her an encouraging squeeze.

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Explanations

This is post 21 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here

Mrs. Mayfield shook her head and looked admiringly from Lizzy to Stephen. “She’s a darling. Aren’t you, angel? And you are obviously great with kids, Steve.” Lizzy took refuge behind Stephen, who briefly considered doing the same behind Bennett. “Professor,” Serena’s mother continued, in a lower tone, “Don’t you think this scene is just a little—adult—for a small child? Maybe you haven’t been before, but let me tell you, these—people—get up to some pretty X-rated antics.”
Bennett expressed a polite interest, and in an undertone, Serena’s mother filled him in on incidents of preceding years, thereby giving her daughter a chance to clarify matters with Stephen.
“What are you doing here? I thought your dad was—you know.”
“Just as you know as ever,” Stephen said. “We got lost. What’s your excuse? I thought you said you were, you know, open-minded.”

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Introductions

This is post 20 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here

“Hi Stephen,” Mrs. Mayfield said brightly. “It’s great to see so many young people involved, isn’t it? I see you brought your little sister. Hi, cutie!” She waved down at Lizzy and made a face.
“Hi,” Lizzy said, ignoring the face. “Who’re they, Steve?”
“Oh!” Stephen said. “Uh—Lizzy, Professor Bennett, this is my—friend, Serena, from school, and her mom, Mrs. Mayfield. This is Professor Bennett, my, um—”
“Friend of his father, Mrs. Mayfield, Serena,” Bennett broke in, coming to the boy’s rescue. “And this is my granddaughter, Lizzy.”

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Serena Protests

This is post 19 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here

Suddenly, though, they were hailed. “Steve!” shrieked an excited female voice. “Over here! Look, Mom, it’s Steve!”
The crowd, which had been swelling, surged forward at that moment, pushing them toward the girl. She was buxom and blond, not tall, but more fully developed than a girl that young had a right to be, Bennett observed, with a flash of irritation at his own decrepitude.
“Serena!” Stephen exclaimed, turning pink. “What are you doing here?”
She smiled and raised her eyebrows. “Duhh. Protesting?” She pointed to the sign her mother was holding up, and the mother turned it so they could see both sides. One read, “Homosexuality is a SIN.” The other said, “‘Take a walk with me—Love, Jesus.’”

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Toe-ing the Line*

*This post has a filthy word in it.

This is post 18 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here

Stephen straightened up like a soldier, his mouth set grimly. “No. I want to go, now. But it’s just—why are they all against us?”
Bennett took a deep breath and began to explain, as tactfully as possible, at the same time separating “us” into more specifically accurate components, but Stephen interrupted. “No. I don’t mean, ‘Why are these assholes—excuse me—here?’ I mean, ‘Where’s the other side?’ Don’t they usually come out for these things, too?”
They soon found out. Arriving at City Center, they discovered that the parade was already moving on its route, and they were caught on the side designated for anti-gay protesters. Bennett waved his permit in vain at the stolid policeman.
“I keep telling you. Ya gotta go to the end of the line at Enders Station and catch up from there. No one across the yellow line.” He chewed ferociously on his gum and looked from Bennett to the two children with deep disapproval.
“Come on,” Stephen said, in an undertone, shooting the officer a resentful look. “We’ll find a way.” They drifted to the back of the crowd, looking for a less vigilant guardian. Bennett did not look hard. He was happy to fade into obscurity.

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KKK**

**This post contains very offensive language that does not reflect the views of the author.

This is post 17 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here

The man recoiled abruptly. His mouth twisted, and he leaned forward, spitting into Bennett’s face. “You queers make me sick. This ain’t a country for perverts and kikes and niggers and spics. This is God’s country, and one day us God-fearing white Americans are gonna take it back.” He turned on the heel of his snakeskin boot and strode away.
“Hey!” Bennett said loudly, carried away in spite of himself.
But Stephen caught his sleeve. “Did you see what he was carrying?’ he asked in a low voice. “He’s got a hood. A white hood.”
“But why was he so mad, Steve?” Lizzy asked. “We don’t even have any kites.”
“We’ll explain later,” Bennett said, taking her free hand and patting it. He looked at Stephen hopefully—the boy was obviously shaken. “We can still go back,” he suggested, sotto voce.

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Onward Christian Soldiers

This is post 16 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here

All too soon, Bennett felt, they found themselves among spectators. He was glad Lizzy could not read the placards they carried: “God Hates Queers”; “AIDS: Scurge [sic.] of Evil”; assorted biblical verses; and the tried and true “Repent! The End is at Hand.”
They continued their descent, making a few turns and heading for City Center, the renovated downtown area. Bennett had not been able to locate Gwen’s map of the parade route, but every parade passed through here sooner or later. The crowd became denser. A group of nuns in blue habits walked by, nodding affably. They were complaining about the weather and fanning each other with their large cardboard signs. On the steps of the Endersburg Museum of Industry a heavy-set man whose T-shirt proclaimed him a bowler for Jesus exhorted his celestial patron in the flat, heavy accents of the Plains states, while his sober audience, doubtless fellow bowlers and their spouses, silently bowed their heads.
A pleasant, bearded fellow fell in with them and winked at Lizzy. “Zat yer grampa?” he asked indicating Bennett with his head.
“Yes,” she said boldly, flattered by the attention. She looked around the man, hoping he was accompanied by a TV crew.
“And who’s this?” he asked, jerking a thumb in Stephen’s direction.
“That’s Steve.”
“Zat yer brother?”
“No. He’s Grampa’s friend.” Stephen smiled tentatively, and Bennett patted him on the shoulder in a fatherly way.

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Qualified Relief

This is post 15 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

At first the car ride was a relief, after the screaming. Downtown Endersburg, however, was difficult to negotiate. Traffic toward the parade had long since reached its destination, but the maze of one-way streets was now blocked off in what seemed to Bennett the deliberately stochastic plan of a madman. It was not easy to ratchet his IQ up to the requisite level with Lizzy enthusiastically gabbling from the backseat. Stephen had made another error in judgment when he pointed out a van from a local TV station on a side street. The little girl was practically bursting out of her booster seat at the prospect of appearing on her favorite medium.
Stephen somewhat redeemed himself, however, by suggesting they park at Robert’s and Jack’s apartment building, which was not far from the parade route, and by adding his ingenuity to Robert’s to help get them there.
From the apartments, which were up on a small hill, the trio disembarked and began to walk downwards. It was hot and stifling, but Bennett rolled up his sleeves and tried not to think about it. Lizzy capered about, swinging on Stephen’s arm and keeping an eye out for TV cameras. Stephen seemed unusually preoccupied, responding only briefly and sporadically to Lizzy’s many queries.

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Decidedly Negative

This is post 14 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

“I wanna go. Why didn’t Grandma take me?”
Stephen looked uncertainly at Bennett, who shifted apprehensively. “It’s a very grown-up parade, Lizzy. You wouldn’t like it. It’ll be much more fun here playing musical chairs with Stephen.” A note of pleading crept into Bennett’s voice as Lizzy’s face clouded over. “Besides, how could you go off and leave your poor old Grampa all alone?”
“I wanna go,” Lizzy repeated. “And you and Steve could go too. Please Steve? Pretty please?”
Stephen again looked at Bennett, who shook his head firmly. “No. Absolutely not. That is no place for children.”

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Very Young Love

This is post 13 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

At dinner that night she interrupted Gwen’s rather strained monologue about the PFLAG table they were planning for the pre-parade festival to say, “I’m gonna marry Steve when I grow up.” There was a shocked silence. It was the longest sentence they had ever heard her utter on a non-electronic subject.
After that, Lizzy and Stephen got into the habit of playing different kinds of music for each other and reacting to them. When she began to tire of that, Stephen introduced her to musical chairs, (a game she had never played before), but with the twist that one had to dance around the chairs, following a leader who decided what sort of dance was appropriate for what music. This game went best with more than two players, but by this time Gwen was positively jealous of all the fun Stephen seemed to be having with her grandchild, and Bennett therefore had no choice but to participate. Surprisingly, he was a resounding success at the game, as his moves tended to be the most ridiculously ungainly; and although he did not admit it, he rather enjoyed his newfound popularity.
On the day of the Gay Pride Festival and Parade, however, Lizzy immediately noticed that Grandma was not there to participate in their interpretive rendition of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. It was Stephen who made the mistake of telling her that Grandma had gone to a parade. Grateful though he was toward the lad, Bennett could have strangled him.

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Emptying the Mind

This is post 12 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

Stephen lay down obediently on the worn Persian carpet in the living room, and Lizzy began imitating the recording she knew so well. “Close your eyes,” she began, in a fake, flat, grown-up voice.
Stephen recognized the genre. “Oh God! I can’t see!” he screamed in mock horror.
“ShhHHHhhh!” Lizzy said, imitating the sound of the surf on the CD. “Tweet! Tweet!”
Stephen put his hands over his ears and writhed in mock agonies. “Not the boring nature sounds! No! Please!”
“Relax,” she continued relentlessly, stifling more laughter. “Empty your mind.”
“Oh no! What’s going on? I can’t think! It’s all—a—blank . . . ” Stephen wound down like a broken record player and lay inert. Lizzy collapsed on top of him, her gloating cackle finally dissolving into the long-suppressed giggles.

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Yanni and Guided Mutation

This is post 11 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

“You know. Boring stuff. Yanni, guided mutation.”
Stephen took a seat, lowering his face to her level. “Hmm. That’s a tough one. I doubt Professor Bennett is a big Yanni fan, and I don’t know the Guise of Mutation group. Doesn’t exactly sound peaceful to me.”
After some confused discussion, which threatened to become acrimonious, Lizzy stamped her foot and yelled, “O. k.! I will do the mutation. You be the prisoner. Lie down!”

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Lizzy the Onion

This is post 10 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

“What are you gonna do to me?” Lizzy asked, wriggling with delicious horror.
An evil smile spread over Stephen’s regular features. “First, ve vill twist you like a pretzel vis yo-gah; zen ve vill BORE you. Ha ha ha! Tell me, my leetle flowair”—his accent got crazier as they went along—“haf you evair heard of zee—lotus poseetion?”
“Wait! Wait! I wanna be an onion!” Lizzy shrieked, freeing herself from his clutches.
It took him a moment to realize she meant “minion.” She carefully removed the tiara and set it on the coffee table. “First,” she said, imitating his delivery, “ve haf zee boring CD! Ha ha ha!”
“What would that be?” Stephen inquired in his real voice. Professor Bennett had asked him to try to get her to listen to some classical music, and the boy sensed opportunity knocking.

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Capturing the Princess

This is post 9 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

A few minutes later, Lizzy allowed her persona to be temporarily overpowered by Rasputin’s nefarious hypnosis. “Tell me—tell me the secret of your power,” Stephen intoned, stretching his hand toward the tiara.
“No! Never!” Lizzy said defiantly, overcoming the giggles.
“Very well then. Ve vill see if you feel differently after a little session in my torture chambers.” Stephen snapped his fingers, summoning imaginary minions. “Seize her!”

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Subjugating Princess Power

This is post 8 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

She nodded. “NOW can we play?”
“O. k.,” Stephen said. “But only on one condition.”
“What?” she said suspiciously.
“This time you let the evil Rasputin get you in his clutches—just for a little while. Like in that episode you told me about. Remember? When Princess Power fights Prince Evrymon because Rasputin makes her think he’s a Dino-bot?”

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Fun with Yoga

This is post 7 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

As Gwen and Bennett agreed that Stephen was practically a second Annie Sullivan, and paid him accordingly, he was soon back.
“Oh, I think I’m having a Princess Power outage,” he groaned, in response to the inevitable exhortations. “What else do people do for fun at your house?”
“Boring stuff,” Lizzy pouted, her brow furrowing.
“Like what?”
“Yoga,” she said, the same way she would have said, “Liver.”
“Eww. Really?” Stephen said, sympathetically.

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A Magic Tiara

This is post 6 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

“I know,” Steve said. “Why don’t we look at the DVD case, and when I point to a character, you explain what they do, o. k.?”
“O. k.,” Lizzy agreed, happy to get even this close to an electronic medium. In the doorway she paused, however. “Are you sure you didn’t bring a Game-Boy?”
As he had not, he spent his afternoon learning about Princess Power’s magic tiara and all the different ways she could use it in her fight against the evil Rasputin and his minions. Lizzy was disappointed in the tiara they made out of cardboard and foil; as she repeatedly pointed out, they could have got a much neater looking one with sound effects at Wal-Mart. On the other hand, when he put on Gwen’s poncho and tried to block Lizzy from the Emerald Cave (actually the kitchen) by hypnotizing her with one of her Princess Power official necklaces, she allowed that he was quite convincing, and his death throes when zapped by the tiara sent her into fits of giggles.

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Another Weirdo?

This is post 5 of Section V. To begin at the beginning, go here. Section II begins here. Section III begins here. Section IV begins here, and Section V begins here.

Stephen appeared to ponder this. “Well, o. k.,” he said doubtfully. “But let me tell you, I am so bad at computer games I think you better tell me all about the game first. Whoa!” he said, flinging up a hand as she launched into incoherent floods of explanation. “Let’s start with the main characters. Who are they, what do they try to do, and why?”
Lizzy sighed heavily. “Too hard to explain. I think we should watch the video.”
“But see,” Stephen said, “I need to know how to play the game. So I thought we could sort of act it out.”
Lizzy looked at him appraisingly. He had seemed cool, but maybe he was just weird.

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