MULLIGAN 9

Terri and I had met at an outing.  In Coronado.  Maybe the greatest place in the country.

"Lookin' good, good lookin'."  It wasn't my line.  It was directed at Terri as she and I had our initial meeting interrupted by an actor or model who seemed to have designs for Terri.  He might have even found her his equal.  She was that, as he said, good lookin'.

"Ericson, this is Manny, my brother.  Computer software."

"Ericson Chambers.  Glad to meet you."

"And your line of work?"

"I didn't say,  did I?"

"No, you didn't," acting parental.

"I didn't think I did."

"Oh, let's go, Eric.  There are lots of goodies with my name on them." 

"Nice meeting you, Manny."  It was one of those formality lies.

I had worked in the San Diego Charger front office for going on  three years.  It's funny, because that's about the only sport I didn't play.  Mainly because it conflicted with my Midwest high school golf season.  But I liked to think myself a student of the game.

But why I was hired was to investigate the possibilities of moving the franchise to Anaheim or even Chula Vista.  San Clemente was even a long shot, but viable option to the messy lease at Qualcom.

As soon as I revealed I was with the Chargers, favors were asked.  Luxury suites--"I've followed them since the days of Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, and I've never got to sit in one of those boxes," I was once told.  Even though Billie played for the Jets and not the Chargers.  Tickets, memorabilia, events.  I guess I had fielded  all the requests from all kinds.

Terri even got into the act,"What exactly do you do, Eric?"

I thought she had gone from Ericson to Eric pretty quickly, but hey.  "Tell me more about UCSD."

"Pre-med major graduating in May."

"Major?"

"Bios Logos.  Biology with a minor in Physiology."

"Brains to go with that beauty."

"Let's eat.  I'm famished."

"Let's get out of here."

"We just can't leave.  We have to be seen, you know."

"Believe me, as soon as you arrived, we were both seen."

I didn't know how prophetic my words were at the time.

It was a color picture.  Artwork of some kind, it appeared.  It was a face shot of Judy Garland's daughter, Liza Minnelli.

"How the heck would she know about that?" I thought to myself.

"DuQuoin, I believe."

"The State Fair around Labor Day."

"Oh, I know."

Sometimes when you wait it out, time passes so slowly.  Other times so fast that you can't think of a retort.  And sometimes, you could experience it both ways.

This was one of those times.  I knew better than to ask what it all meant.  Shelledy's the one who first brought up DuQuoin, a small town in Southern Illinois about 40 miles from my hometown.  They hosted The Hambeltonian, a world class harness race that drew thousands to the otherwise sleepy village.  Along with racing was top notch entertainment including Liza.

I knew she knew the context of the picture.  I could see she had more in her lap.  I wasn't about to reveal anymore than absolutely necessary.

"Ok, what else do you know?"

"Oh no.  You tell me."

"Great show.  Last date.  What else is there to tell?"

She said nothing.  She took the Liza picture and carefully placed it on the bottom of the stack.  The one on top revealed Lauren and me dancing at Prom.

Or at yet another clandestine moment in my high school days.

 MULLIGAN 7

That was Marc and Kiss was big.  So, by the way, (you know some say by the by--I never got that) was he.  At 6'10", he was the primary reason we went to the State Tournament.  Averaging over 17 points a game and 9 rebounds, he was just short of what was later called a double double.  And that was his average.

"The cat, man.  It's a Gene Simmons."

"Have your folks seen it?"

"Not yet, but what're they gonna do?  He's cool."

Marc always had a slanted idea about coolness.

"How far, man, did you get with her?"

"Not saying. Tired of you askin'." 

"We're going out, you know."

"No, I didn't know."

"I guess you don't talk much to Lauren then,"

"Why should I?"

"Just thought you should know."

"Has she seen Space (the Cat)?"

"Naugh."

"She won't like it either."

"Like Space knows.  Like Space cares."

"I don't know.  You may be the only one that likes it."

"Like Lauren, huh?"

He knew where to injure me.