Never the Same IC#8 Kirk's Love Life: Part Four

Kirk’s existing circumstances weighed heavily upon him, i.e. his lack of a steady girlfriend—again. He eventually reunites with a old friend and discovers someone new and exciting.

A bleak period�"then what?

Cue: “Uncertain Smile” https://youtu.be/5bErFXjUGvQ

After Aggressive Violet, Impatient Babe, Unfaithful Dee, and Renouncing Bonnie, Kirk just didn’t know how to treat women anymore. But he really never was sure on how to handle a relationship in the first place and so with his failures with women buoyed by his inexperience, shyness and innocence, Kirk went loveless.

Kirk now felt sure that women couldn’t be true to one man in long-term relationships. Yet, on the other hand, he wanted to love, be loved, but that proved difficult with his nagging rationalizing that it was his underlying fault, not the women’s, in all of his failed relationships. His friends bragged about their scores with women and their so-called expertise in the art of love making, but Kirk, the eternally shy and innocent and careful young man, he was especially careful not to fall headfirst into love making a fatal mistake like he did with Dee. He had hoped mature woman Bonnie would be a long-standing, albeit long-distance relationship and show him the methodology to the ways of love making, but that never happened. It occurred to him that women did not want to lead or teach the way in love making; they expected the man to know how and make sex happen if it were in the cards. In retrospect that made logical sense to him. So that’s where we stand in Kirk’s love life.

After Bonnie, the following year proved a tough go of things for young man Kirk at least when it came to women, but that’s not to say he wasn’t busy. He skated along for a short while until his father pushed him into making a “life choice” by either getting a “real job” so Kirk could pay back all the money his father paid for Kirk’s college or make a commitment to work the farm and be a farmer like his father. Being a farmer was the very last thing Kirk wanted to be. He had other plans�"bigger plans even though he didn’t really know what those big plans might be just then, he only wanted to be different than what country boy Kirk might be destined to be. He had to do different things with his life other than what was available in his small rural town.

So Kirk did what interested him. He immersed himself in cars�"working on cars at his job at the dealership and working on cars at home. We’ll delve deeper into Kirk’s cars later in another episode, but for here, it’s included just to let you know that it ended up being a dry period for Kirk and women in serious relationships.

As time went on, Kirk began to date a little with a brief fling with that tattletale girl, Sandra, who had a crush on him back in high school and had told him about Dee’s cheating, but Sandra ended up being a bit weird in undefined behaviors and awfully clingy at the same time. Kirk wouldn’t put up with that for long. After the first few dates and his subsequent sudden dropping, he refused to take her up on her many, many calls for reconciliation.

 Then, there was Linda, a domestic woman who came from the middle class ‘burbs. Linda was the stylish friend of Kirk’s friend’s girlfriend. Got that? Linda was okay, but she was eager to point out Kirk’s less than tasteful manner of daily dress, the ever-present grease under his fingernails, and his oft time slip of table manners. Linda could have become a model or actress because she was a really pretty girl, well-proportioned with striking blue eyes with a perfectly coifed strawberry blonde hairdo at all times, but she was not one of the types who would hang out at the garage while the man friend worked on cars. Not really Kirk’s type, but then again, what kind of girl was his type?

 Why’d that relationship with Linda ever begin? Kirk didn’t know, maybe it was a favor to his friend. Anyway, the relationship didn’t last long because Linda cost Kirk a lot of money, which he didn’t have to blow on her world of high-end bars, movies, and restaurants. Kirk would rather spend his hard-earned cash on fast cars and performance parts. One day, he very coldly cut that relationship off abruptly as well and refused to take her many, many calls of a promise of a hot date. Kirk had been down that road not long before. The romance situation hadn’t improved for the young man.

And so life for Kirk went along without any real romantic relationships, seemingly burnt and/or hurt by his history with women in general. He re-buried himself into work and working on his personal cars to keep them in order for the warm seasons. As clear, dry roads to run and race his cool cars ended with the onset of cold winter, he turned back to snowmobiling.  Kirk never stopped enjoying snowmobiling every winter. Remember back with Violet? One winter in particular, he began riding more often with his old buddies ripping up the county’s trails on fast sleds.

On one fun eventful night, Kirk had the bright idea of being towed by his buddy on a machine while he sat on a toboggan. Well, it sounded fun before they started. Hanging onto the side ropes with his toes tucked into the ropes on the toboggan’s front loop, they took off�"wide open. Maybe on flat ground the idea would have worked okay and been fun, but right away the buddy took them on the snowdrifts along a hedgerow.

Hedgerow snowdrifts are fun to ride with just the machine because you can jump a drift and then drop down to smash through the next drift and repeat.  Big fun leaps abound with heavy exciting blasts of snow. Well, on the pulled-behind toboggan, Kirk found himself going upward into the air when the snowmobile went down and vice versa. It was fun�"at first. He was more or less flapping in the breeze! After the second jump with the snow freeze-blasting his face, Kirk flipped over upside down. And he stayed upside down, being pulled, up and then through the drifts one after another. He couldn’t bail off even after letting go because his toes remained caught in the toboggan’s front ropes. His buddy didn’t stop either despite Kirk becoming an upside down abominable snowman on a bouncing, slithering toboggan.

When the friend finally did stop, Kirk was a frozen stiff with snow plastering his face and stuffing his riding suit completely. He had snow everywhere down inside his shirt, pants and underwear. He must have weighed an additional thirty pounds in snow that was melting icy cold against his skin. Luckily, they were near the buddy’s home. Kirk shed his clothes, warmed up and dried off in front of the stove with a cup of hot chocolate. This little tale is slightly off topic in this Kirk and women episode, but there is a snowmobile connection coming up.

So, sometimes during the nice long snowy winter, Kirk and his buddies often met up for some group riding usually with four or five of them. On one of these rides they rode to another friend’s house to see if he was going to ride. It just so happened that the friend prepared to ride at that time with another guy who Kirk didn’t know.

Cue: “I Saw Her Standing There”  https://youtu.be/oxwAB3SECtc

Well, he, the guy Kirk didn’t know, had a girl passenger. She was a short young girl, packed tight into her riding suit. She wore her very long blond hair outside her suit in long golden waves. Her hair fell across her face, framing her wide, rosy cheeks in an attractive manner. With a smile, she displayed a very alluring overbite that was very fashionable at the time. Kirk thought she was very attractive despite the unflattering snowmobile suit. For some unknown, possible mystical, reason, Kirk sensed a potent sensual aura about her. Perhaps she was a Lolita in a snowmobile suit.

 As it went, those two snowmobilers with the girl passenger took off to a destination Kirk and his group didn’t approve of.  As the others rode off, Kirk asked his friend who the girl was, and all he got for an answer were shrugs. He watched the other sleds roar away the girls blonde hair streaming out behind until they disappeared in a cloud of kicked up snow. Imprinting her visage on his mind, Kirk punched one big heavy-gloved mitten into the other. He didn’t know why seeing her ride away bugged him at the time, but by early summer he had almost forgotten about her.

At a party in a friend’s garage, the usual gang had gathered up for some loud rock music and a bunch of Schmidt’s Beer, the chosen brand drunk by the group. Anyway, well into the night an unfamiliar car, a nice, big, luxury car pulled up and an unfamiliar guy rolled out along with a cloud of heavy blue smoke. The smell of Weed drifted over the group as they eyed each other. Just a moment later, a small, good-looking chick exited the big car as well. With long blonde hair preceding her head-down exit, the chick crawled out.

Standing up, she dressed in a desirable bohemian manner wearing a flowing gauzy dress in earth tones that revealed nothing and a wide-brimmed floppy hat that her long blonde hair flowed down from. Kirk thought her look was very sensual and seductive. Her expression and demeanor indicated she was very much under the influence. Someone passed a beer to the guy while the audience watched as the chick silently, sedately danced slowly and smoothly in ebb and flow repetition to the music. It was her, the Lolita chick again! 

And once again, his friends had no idea who she was when he asked. Kirk attempted to ask the guy with her who instantly began getting irate and tight-lipped about whom she was. Kirk stepped over to talk to her himself, but the guy grabbed his arm to restrain him. At the same time, Kirk detected her piquant scent of patchouli. The fragrance, in itself, seemed intoxicatingly sensual to Kirk, who, very under the influence himself, began a quick boil in being restrained by this strange guy. His friends must have noticed his clenched fists because they pulled Kirk away. Stopped in his tracks, Kirk watched the guy drag the girl back into the car, and they squealed off. Kirk stood there in wonder about that little chick.  It would be sometime before Kirk solved the enigma of that little mysterious voluptuous chick.

Cue: “Green-Eyed Lady”  https://youtu.be/i_i7PKdQJU4

Farrah! The fairest and gentlest of them all.

Knowing Farrah from earlier in his college days as a friend and nearly a lover, it was easy for Kirk for take up a relationship with her a couple years after those first few fleeting days together.

At school, Farrah was best known by a childish nickname that Kirk never used. He thought that the nickname was probably cute when she was a child and fun as a preteen, but now as an adult, the nickname just wasn’t her, and he thought it downright demeaning for genteel Farrah.  So Kirk never called her by the nickname; to him she was Farrah and that was that.

Farrah had blossomed into a woman in the couple years since Kirk had spent time with her. She looked and acted the epitome of a high class gentlewoman.  An athlete, she was tall and slim. Soft spoken, she was smart, fun, and intelligent. To top off her appearance with the best possible attribute to Kirk, Farrah was a redhead with soft red freckles and sparkling green eyes that laughed when she spoke. 

They began spending time together mainly at low-key parties and dinner engagements with her folks. Kirk really thought he could like Farrah a lot, and Farrah seemed to enjoy his company as well. Farrah had always been a dedicated student in school and since then took up training as a nurse. After a while together, they took up making out again, but not anything serious or sexual. They each just seemed to enjoy some tender loving contact. Kirk decided during these times together that Farrah’s red hair felt as delicate as silk and her skin as soft as velvet. Kirk was falling fast….   

Affair de Coerce

One day, Farrah and Kirk’s days off coincided so they decided to go on a road trip. After a bit of contemplating, they decided to head out to the scenic state park. Jumping into the Firebird they sped off. Farrah, in her steadfast loyal commitment to Kirk, sat as close to him as anyone could back in those days. This meant she sat on the hard metal-topped center console, so the couple could ride shoulder to shoulder making it easy to steal a kiss now and then. Damn, those lovable soft supple lips of hers Kirk immensely enjoyed!

It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day for a walk in the park and walk the trails they did. They took in the waterfalls sharing a kiss or two, walked the trails arm in arm and drove the park’s roads with Kirk enjoying the loud Firebird echoing through the gorge with a gorgeous loving loyal woman sitting close. Whenever he looked aside at Farrah she’d squeeze a bit closer to him meeting his look with a warm loving gaze. A beautiful day, a wonderful day, a perfect day.

Right after leaving the park as the sun edged lower to a lovely sunset, they stopped to fill up on gas which had to be done often in a high performance car like Kirk drove. The station actually had an attendant pumping gas. Well, he had apparently watched the couple kissing inside the car as he filled up the gas. Kirk got out of the car to pay the man. In a complimentary tone and a knowing smile, the man told Kirk that he and Farrah really had it going on and guessed that they must have just gotten married. Kirk smiled and thanked the man.

With a fluttering heart, Kirk sat down behind the wheel with a sigh and a smile. Farrah uncharacteristically wrapped one soft hand around Kirk’s neck, pulled him in and kissed him long and hard. When they came up for air, Kirk noticed the gas station attendant standing halfway to the office taking in the action. Farrah smiled her warmest smile at Kirk who had to smile and kiss her again. He knew a real mature love had seeped back into his life. 

A Trip to the Fair

Again, like every year since he went as a child, the county fair came around in the autumn. It had been many years since his escape from his mother and the dreaded health building and at least a few years had passed since the painful marching band. It had even been a couple years since the fair provided a dreaded warning for the impending school year.

No, that year Kirk would still have those lingering memories, but he took his love Farrah to the fair and a bit different that time because they would go in the evening. After dark, the fair was a place all aglow with bright lights, voices of the crowd, and amplified hawking voices. No matter where they went in the park whether the furry animal pens, educational displays or taking in the art or garden work performed by 4-H kids you could see the bright, noisy Midway rides rotating, rising and careening above the fair.     

      Fair, gentle Farrah oohed and aah-ed over the small animals like rabbits, guinea pigs, and fancy chickens and ducks. She studied the educational displays with the focus of a professor and even convinced Kirk to walk through the health building.

Kirk had a bit of a twinge at the sight of it and walking in the door, but knowing he wasn’t going to be forced into blood draws or stuck with a vaccine he agreed without a word or hesitation because Farrah had no clue to the childhood trauma he experienced there. Nurse Farrah was in her element taking in the medical displays and chatting now and then with the nurses or practitioners who happened to be free to talk at that later hour.

Kirk meanwhile instantly recalled the bad old days when a couple children who had been helped into the building began screaming. Kirk briefly thought that as a brave appearing adult man he could maybe speak softly to the children and convince them to accept whatever their parents planned because it was in their best health interest. Naaaaahh, he should tell those kids to run away while they still had a chance like he did! Like described in an earlier episode, Kirk was never the same after the childhood health building incident.

As the dark night surrounded the brightly lit county fair, the couple headed to the Midway.  Wanting to impress his fair maiden, Kirk played the cliché games like shooting, water cannon, and ring toss games. He yielded a couple stuffed animals for Farrah, and she seemed quite impressed even though the uncoordinated, insecure Kirk thought that any other guy could do better. Nevertheless, they did the usual favorite fair food items like sugar-powdered elephant ears and heavily buttered popcorn. Farrah turned down the cotton candy stating she had plenty enough already. Well, the big draw at the fair for most Midway dwellers was the huge double Ferris wheel.

Kirk never had a strong stomach for any of the whirly, bouncy type of rides but thought he could handle the big wheel. Farrah agreed to the ride. After a good little wait, they loaded up with Kirk examining the safety bar and the metal screen seats and floor as the only protections from falling from way the hell up there.  So away they went. At first, the operator just put riders on the same wheel as Kirk and Farrah sat on with one short movement upward at a time. Even though they were well below treetop level Kirk wouldn’t say he enjoyed the constant rocking of the seat with the starting and stopping. Farrah just sat quietly holding hands with him with his other arm calmly around her shoulder.  Suddenly, his calm composure flew away.

Without warning, the wheel they were on began rotating continuously while swinging up to the upper position way the hell up there. And it continued to spin at that extreme highest point as they then loaded the bottom wheel. No doubt the view was beautiful above the buildings and trees being able to see the whole fair to over the city and lake shore. Trying to be nonchalant, Kirk changed from holding Farrah’s hand to grabbing a tight grip on the seat and at the same time tried not to hang on to Farrah too tightly, yet she didn’t appear bothered being up there at all.

 To avert his attention, Kirk studied the structure that held up the wheels and noticed the fact that a Volkswagen spare tire driving on the center cylinder was what made the whole thing turn. Kirk, using his automotive point-of-view, pointed out the Ferris wheel’s drive. The fact that he knew that setup made the Ferris wheel turn when they were like five stories in the air sure didn’t make him feel any more secure!

Well, the fun part began after the other wheel got fully loaded. So that was when both wheels turned while swapping upper and lower positions. On the upswing rotation with a pretty fast altitude gain Kirk probably turned a bit green. He tried to take it all in stride by looking around with a smile, but he didn’t even want to look at Farrah.

 Actually when it finally slowed down, which seemed like an awfully long ride, Kirk felt glad it was over and they disembarked. Walking away, his legs felt a bit wobbly. Kirk wrapped his arm around Farrah’s waist, pulled her close, and gave her a nice kiss. She returned the favor. Ending the night, they endured the usual departing traffic jam. Lit by the flattering low dashboard lights, fair Farrah snuggled up tightly against Kirk as he drove them home. 

Suddenly, Kirk experienced a shock when the vision of the little chick appeared in his mind’s eye. He wanted to shake her out, but the more he tried…