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

Kirk seemed to have a stable loving relationship with Farrah, but then the mysterious young girl appeared that Kirk admired. Who was she?

  Earthquake! And other non-earth-shattering events.

Cue: Love the One You’re With https://youtu.be/SY4HI_vqf0c

Kirk and Farrah went on a lot of dates, but like the outing at the park and the fair, they didn’t break the bank like Linda inadvertently tried to do. During the early winter, the big movie, one of the first big disaster movies ended up being Earthquake.  Like Towering Inferno, it was a big production movie with big star names and proto-special effects. But those weren’t the reasons Earthquake became a very popular movie for movie-goers that year, the main reason for a big box office draw was that theaters incorporated the new, exciting technological Sensurround effect.

The Sensurround feature was a theater add-on to create a more realistic, sensory experience for moviegoers. Truthfully, Sensurround became a short-lived sensation used only in the movies Earthquake, Midway, and Roller Coaster.  Basically, it incorporated huge speakers with giant woofers that utilized an extended range bass for deep, deep low-frequency noise and vibration cued from the movie. As advertised, an exhilarating ear-rattling, chest-throbbing, seat-vibrating effect was experienced by movie goers.

 Actually, it worked quite well, in fact so well that some older theaters had to stop using Sensurround because the vibrations began cracking the plaster in the walls and ceilings, so basically, over time it would wreck the theaters. In one case, they installed nets to catch falling (real) debris from the ceiling and in another case, the vibration proved so intense that it knocked items off shelves in a next door convenience store.

When Kirk and Farrah went to the big city to see the movie with its’ so-called spectacular effects, the couple felt they attended a real, live special event. It wasn’t a premier or special showing, but as they stood out in front of the old theater house on the busy sidewalk with all the other movie goers all abuzz in anticipation, it was expected by all to be like no other movie that any of them had ever been to.  The new effect was an event all in itself.

Not quite knowing what quite to expect, the excited couple entered and sat down with their popcorn in the packed theater. They watched the coming attractions and so on with no inkling to what this special Sensurround might feel like.

As Earthquake opened nothing of note happened just the unfolding of the usual plot build up with the actors setting up situations for the imminent disaster with seismologists’ arguments over alerting the public or not about an impending major earthquake in Los Angeles.  Just about when the theater audience nearly forgot about the special effects being in the movie and of course not expecting anything outright frightening yet, the movie makers decided to give the audience a taste of what was yet to come. And it was enough to make the audience jump right out of their seats!  With a shock they experienced the first blast of Sensurround!

The movie showed the actors experiencing a pre-earthquake shock with a quick, short, very loud, seat vibrating, ear vibrating blast. Shocked gasps and stifled screams came from across the audience followed by nervous chuckles. Wow! It was cool! Everyone looked around to see what everyone else thought. Of course, Kirk and Farrah looked at each other with sort of grim smiles while snuggling closer thinking it was all pretty great!

As the movie progressed, the pre-shocks came more often and louder until the “big one” which was the earthquake of the movie’s title. The quake began destroying the skyscrapers, one of which held the main action scenes covered in the movie’s story, stranding all those people up there in menacing peril. Some actors fell out of broken windows and missing outside walls falling to their untimely Hollywood scripted deaths. The scenes, to watch, were quite horrendous with all the noise and vibration to go along with it.

 During the “big one,” the Sensurround’s effects became super loud and strong just like an earthquake, though it went on and on to what seemed like a very loooonnng time. Just like the earthquake depicted. One of the actors suffered a heart attack during a rescue scene, and Kirk wondered if just watching the movie might induce a cardiac arrest because some in the audience held their chests or plugged their ears in response to the body-shaking vibrations. Of course, after the major earth quake, Los Angeles was completely destroyed which some critics calling the scene a welcome sight. The sickos. But what an experience from that movie! Just one of those events that Kirk and his love Farrah enjoyed together.

  Anyway, to be clear, Farrah was not the type of young woman who enjoyed the bar scene whether drinking or not. She would rather sit at home with TV or in a quiet café and sip coffee with soft music and chat. Kirk was okay with that and spent many times with Farrah doing just that. However, on the other hand, Kirk still liked to go bar hopping with his buddies from high school. There were plenty of drunken nights and times hanging out at bars with women Kirk didn’t know. There were no one-night stands for shy with women Kirk because he still didn’t know how all that sex interaction worked, so he avoided those messy, uncomfortable sexual situations. Not that he didn’t really want to….

A Bar Hop Mess

For a while, there was a rather tight group of five or six guys who went out and did the bar thing on a regular basis. It was fun getting slap happy drunk trying to make the moves on unfamiliar women with some of the guys saying that they got lucky afterwards. But who’s to say what really happened?  Like stated above, not Kirk, no way. Anyway, this tight group stuck together for a while.

One night after hitting the bars, they all decided they needed to go eat something. They ended up at a hot dog place of all the possibilities out there. So getting a bit rowdy there was big talk all around by all of them definitely under the influence while scarfing down hot dogs.  One of the guys, actually Kirk’s friend who he rode bicycles with to driver education and was on the wrestling team with Kirk back in the day, said he could drink any concoction they could come up. Really! No one knows why anyone would say such a thing, but there was the challenge. The glove had been slapped down on the table and so, the challenge was accepted.

In half a glass of Coke, they all pitched in. They added catsup, mustard, relish, sugar salt, pepper, and more. When there was nothing left to add, they set it down in front of the unwitting braggart who looked at the unholy gloppy mess with sickening trepidation. Taking a deep breath, he picked up the glass and put back about half of the mess before�"he exploded!  The guy spewed the mess everywhere and continued to do so until the shop’s manager came and threw the whole group of young sick or laughing men out with shouted threats of police calls and lawsuits.

This is leading to something associated with Kirk’s love life, so read on. Well, it seemed the group pretty much disbanded after that. Oddly, the braggart, one regular of the group of guys and a friend of Kirk’s was never seen or heard from again, though truthfully, no one tracked him down the self-centered b******s they were.

A Change in Behavior

Anyway, Kirk cut his bar time after that to spend more time with Farrah which suited them both just fine. Once in a while Kirk would need to blow off steam at a bar and would go with one other friend for company. It just so happened that this friend ran into another friend of his from a nearby town. This out of town friend commenced to be Kirk’s new drinking buddy. So making connections, Kirk found out where this guy lived and set up another bar night.

The mysterious chick Identified!

Cue: A Girl Like You https://youtu.be/6oqJ0JpMj6I

Going to the new friend’s house, Kirk was ready for a boys’ night out, but a sight behind the new friend’s house stopped Kirk dead in his tracks. There she was, the mysterious chick, the Lolita girl that he had admired two times before. Interestingly, she came towards him from feeding her horse, so she said, tromping through the deep snow in big boots, work clothes, and a dirty coat, but there was no mistaken identity, it was her. This girl was the short, young girl with her long blond hair flowing out from under a knit cap, still with the rosy cheeks, brown eyes, and the alluring overbite. Wondering, Kirk had heard stories about those notorious horse girls.

Not wearing boots suited to the task, Kirk tromped through the deep snow closer to her because he had to find out her name.

“Hey you!” Kirk said, pointing to her. “I’ve seen you before�"a couple times, what’s your name?”

Simply, she said, “Sarah Elizabeth.”

 “Sarah Elizabeth, yeah,” Kirk repeated and became tongue tied in her midst. “Ah, I’ve seen you before, and ah�"”      

“I know,” Sarah Elizabeth said, “I’ve seen you too�"Kirk.”

Surprisingly him, she actually knew of him, his name!   

They chatted a few minutes before her brother tromped out ready to go to a bar. Kirk didn’t want to leave right then, but her brother seemed in a hurry to leave and besides, Kirk didn’t really want him to know that he was interested in his little sister. Kirk thought a lot about Sara Elizabeth that night, but he thought in due respect to Farrah, it would be wrong to ask Sarah out on a date while he was going steady. Nevertheless, despite his better judgement, Kirk couldn’t forget about young, alluring Sarah.

Farrah had been a nurse trainee for a couple years as she went to school and after graduating, worked odd hours, basically whatever they offered her because she was a newbie and super dedicated. She’d work anywhere from 24 hours on and 24 hours off or a stretch of all-nighters or any sort of schedule they threw at her. She was okay with that, though Kirk was not. Meanwhile, Kirk started working nights for a while, and so eventually, they got together at odd times.   

During a period when Kirk was especially busy with his stock car and work, Farrah went out and bought a car nearly matching Kirk’s. The car was from the same manufacturer and the exact same color as Kirk’s car only in a sedan model. The reveal Farrah made with the car hit Kirk as a demeaning surprise. Kirk didn’t appreciate Farrah’s symbolic gesture of a matching car for a loving couple at all because he deemed that he should have gone with her to evaluate the car and deal with the seller when she bought the car. In fact, Kirk got a bit mean with Farrah about her car purchase, which of course wasn’t the response she expected from him. She then went on to explain that her mother’s boyfriend had gone with her to purchase the car, so she wouldn’t get taken. That fact sure didn’t add to Kirk’s resentment on the purchase one bit. 

 Sarah Elizabeth

         One night, Kirk was invited by Sarah Elizabeth’s brother for a house party. Kirk thought it would be awesome to see Sarah again, though her brother didn’t indicate that she’d be there and he didn’t ask. Kirk thought probably she wasn’t mentioned because the brother didn’t think Kirk would be interested, and of course Sarah was a bit younger than the party crowd. That first part couldn’t be farther from the truth�"Kirk would love to see her again, and knew she could be the center of attraction at the party because of her age and looks. Kirk readily accepted the invitation though home parties generally were less fun than nightclubs and bars. 

                Kirk arrived and found the parents weren’t there and neither was Sarah Elizabeth. Kirk was a bit bummed out, but joined the basement party where loud rock music and loud voices emanated. There was plenty to drink from hard stuff to the usual iced down beer, but there were mostly guys there friends of the brother that Kirk didn’t recognize. He stayed put on the corner couch and slowly milked his beer. As the night waned, Kirk thought about leaving because he didn’t want to get inebriated for the drive home and not much was happening. Then she, Sarah appeared! With a boy. Bummer.

                Sarah Elizabeth lit up the room with her presence, Kirk thinking that she gave off a ripple of energy that ignited the place. Kirk decided to stay put with his beer a little longer, but almost instantly Sarah Elizabeth noticed him and gave him the cutest smile before being pulled away to dance with the guy. The only couple dancing, by the way, Kirk just watched her and saw that she eyed him once in a while. Yet, Kirk sat there still just taking the view in because after all, he wasn’t the dancing type. He harbored confusing thoughts of Farrah not being there with him and yet there Sarah Elizabeth was giving him ‘the look’ once in a while. To be clear, not flirting by any means but just subtle looks of appreciation, at least that’s what Kirk supposed. The night went on very uneventfully until he quietly and calmly decided to disappear into the night.  

Another Toboggan Ride

                Growing up with steerable runner sleds, Kirk never cared for toboggans all that much especially after being towed behind the snowmobile episode. Nevertheless, Farrah’s family had a toboggan and she thought it would be fun to go to the park for a few rides down the hill. Kirk gave in and they went to the park, the same park mentioned in the Dee episode.

Because of the steepness of the hill road that goes down to the lake in the summer, the park closes the access road to traffic and opens it for sledding. Quite wide open with about three car lanes width the hill descends quite fast with a rolling hump halfway down before emptying into an open area.

 So starting off, Kirk held the toboggan fast while Farrah got situated in front of him. He held her tight and pushed off. The toboggan proved pretty fast and fun especially going over the hump. After several runs with tired legs from walking up, Kirk noticed a narrow drainage ditch that emptied into the hill area. There were multiple tracks from sleds in the ditch. At the top, Kirk mentioned it to Farrah and being the agreeable woman she was, she agreed. That makes sense, huh?

Anyway, dragging the toboggan behind them they trudged along the upper road to where the lawn area funneled into the drainage ditch. The picnic table nearby, ironically, was the exact same table where Kirk and Dee went steady and subsequently broke up. Kirk eyed the table but let all his thoughts from the old, painful matter go. He eyed the sled tracks that headed down steeply into the drainage ditch. From their upper vantage point, the run looked pretty narrow with banks and/or trees on the sides. Farrah looked at Kirk like she doubted that the run would be a good idea. Kirk couldn’t back down from a simple sledding challenge now could he?

So they loaded up and hung on as Kirk pushed off. Gaining speed, Kirk dragged his hands from side to side to keep them headed straight into the ditch. He should’ve dragged both hands to slow them down, but he just let them fly down the steep hill in what seemed like supersonic speed. Trees flew past like blurs as they hung on. Again in fast timing, Kirk would drag one hand then the other to keep them on track. Suddenly, they hit an especially flat, slick area and toboggan started going sideways. In a frantic response, Kirk dug in his heel on that side that should have corrected their slid, but instead the toboggan spun the other way around and went completely sideways. The tail end of the toboggan caught the bank and digging in it nearly stopped them instantly. In consequence, the toboggan and the couple flipped into the air and spilled across and down the ditch. As they say, Farrah and Kirk were asses over teakettle. Do they say that, really? So they were half connected to the toboggan and half falling, rolling and tumbling, until they eventually stopped separated by a couple yards. Farrah just lay there�"motionless. Shocked, Kirk thought the worse seeing her like that.

Kirk, his knee throbbing and his hand aching, pulled himself together and moved down slope to Farrah as fast as he could. In the moments it took to reach her, Farrah rolled over on her side, rubbing her butt, hip, and thigh. Kirk asked Farrah if she was okay. She nodded but continued to rub her thigh saying that it was really painful. Kirk helped her to her feet, but she let out a gasp when she put weight on her leg.

Asking the question, Farrah assured Kirk that nothing was broken but had taken a direct hit on the frozen bank with her butt and hip. Kirk assessed his own condition and realized the back of his head hurt, his knee ached which is when he noticed his ripped jeans, and oddly his left hand was numb. He worked the hand the best he could, but it really hurt. After slowly, painfully dragging the toboggan back to the car, they drove to Farrah’s home where she submerged in a hot bath to soak her soreness out.  Kirk wished her good recovery and went home himself.

The next day, Farrah said she had bruises and contusions on her hip and butt, though she would be fine. Kirk still had a numb hand especially the outside edge. After a week of complaining about his aching hand, Farrah convinced him to get it looked at. Come to find out after the X-Rays, Kirk had broken his hand. After setting the bone back, the doctor put a splint on his hand. He had to live with that for a few weeks. Toboggans: Kirk never did like ‘em! And of course, he was never the same about toboggans after that disaster. 

Back to Snowmobiling

With time, everybody returned to normal, but what was normal for Kirk?  Sarah Elizabeth became a constant topic on his mind especially when Farrah worked her long nursing hours. Just in a way to get to know Sarah Elizabeth better, Kirk called her up. They chatted for a while and Kirk thought she seemed a very agreeable young girl. Of course, being underage there would be no bar hopping or nightclub outings as a way to get to know each other. Kind of a return to his first dates with UltraViolet, Kirk asked if she wanted to go snowmobiling. Sarah readily accepted.

Picking her up at her house, Sarah Elizabeth came prepared with her snow suit, a helmet, warm gloves, and a mysterious paper bag. He didn’t ask; she didn’t tell. So they went back to his house, suited up, got the machine fired up, and she stowed the bag in the trunk. By that time, Kirk could tell that the bag held a bottle of something. He figured Coke wouldn’t freeze even with temperatures well below freezing and let it go at that.

They sped off; the cold wind chill bit at their exposed necks and cheeks, but it felt refreshing as it usually does when you first start. After a while when a person starts getting frost nip, the cold ain’t all that refreshing anymore. The night sky was completely cloud-free and the nearly full moon shone bright enough to cast nice crisp shadows in the fresh snow. Motoring across barren farm fields they cruised along at a pretty fast clip making their way through gaps and gates in the fences and crossing a few side roads. Sarah snuggled up close with her arms around his waist. Kirk patted her hands in appreciation.  In one transition near a road and stream intersection, they crossed into a swampy area with the stretch extremely flat with just a few reeds sticking out of the snow. Ice!

Kirk punched the throttle and the track spun fast with engine revving up, and they fish-tailed a bit on the slippery surface. Just when he thought they were safe the rear of the sled suddenly dropped with the machine breaking through the ice. Kirk knew the water couldn’t be deep but glancing back there definitely was some water below, but there was no saying how deep it was.

Kirk knew that getting bogged down, literally, with the snowmobile stopping in broken-through ice would mean pushing by hand with feet down in the mud. He didn’t like that thought! Getting on the throttle again, they gained speed though the back end kept riding up on top and then breaking through the ice over and over in rapid repetition. Sarah Elizabeth hung on to Kirk tighter.

To lessen the weight in the rear, he slid forward as far as he could bringing her with him forward on the seat. The sled began to lose traction, the engine growling away as the track churned out smashed ice and mud in a gurgling spray behind them. Kirk thought they were doomed to pushing when abruptly the ice ended, and they were on solid snow with soil underneath. The machine dug in and accelerated so fast they had to hang on to not get thrown off the back. Seeing they were on solid snow again, they slowed to enter a nearby grove of trees. Kirk took a deep breath, stopped the machine, and turned it off.

“Whew! That was close,” Kirk said, turning to sit sideways.

“I didn’t think the water was too deep back there,” Sarah Elizabeth said. “I watched over your shoulder when we went in and saw those weeds sticking out.”

Kirk chuckled. “No, it sure wasn’t deep, but I didn’t want to get off and push in the muddy water if we stopped.” He said pointing back at their track that showed muddy ice still sloshing and spreading across the unbroken ice surface from the open channel they made in it.    

“Good time for this,” Sarah Elizabeth said, pulling out the bottle.

She slipped the bag off revealing a bottle of Boone’s Farm Wild Mountain Wine. She handed it to him; he twisted the top off and being a gentleman gave it back. Sarah took a good swig before handing it back. Kirk smiled and tipped the bottle back. Like grape soda pop, the wine tasted really good out there despite being ice cold wine in the ice cold atmosphere. After chatting for a while and emptying half the bottle, Sarah Elizabeth kneeled on the seat and planted a warm, soft kiss on Kirk’s lips. Taken aback, Kirk wasn’t expecting that even though he saw it coming but recovering quickly, he returned the favor with vigor. With the freezing cold, the full moon, the sweet wine, and a sweet girl, what else could he do?

After a couple more kisses interspersed with a few sips of wine, they re-donned their helmets and took off. Kirk smiled behind his face shield as he thought Sarah Elizabeth snuggled even closer as they headed home. What an incredible first date indeed, though, he wondered, where would this relationship, a second one with this young girl lead him?

Kirk had read about love triangles, but never in his wildest dreams that he’d be involved in a love triangle. After the dust settled, Kirk would never be the same.

For weeks, Kirk lived life torn between Farrah, the age-appropriate, loyal gentlewoman, and Sarah Elizabeth, the exciting teeny-bopper Lolita.   

Cue: Did you ever have to make up your Mind? https://youtu.be/txTEhgReZUA