What do they wear in Topeka, Kansas?

From Chapter One, Page 15


Todd asked, “What did you do for the first time tonight?”

“It happened at my job. I work part-time at a hotel and…”

Michelle jumped in: “It’s the Days Inn on Main Street.”

Todd raised his eyebrows. “I know it well.”

I looked at him strangely. “You do?”

Todd looks over at Roger, who was snuggling with his fiancée Lori. The two guys just laughed. I blushed for some unknown reason.

Betty wasn’t interested in their nonsense. She said to me: “Nevermind them. What did you do, Joseph?”

“Oh, now I can’t tell you. I’m embarrassed.”

Todd put his hand on my leg. It super-charged me. “Don’t be embarrassed. You can tell us. You’re not among strangers here.”

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and said it: “I took off all my clothes and swam naked in the hotel swimming pool.”

The room erupted in laughter and applause. Well, almost everyone. Michelle just rolled her eyes and started working on her toenails.

Todd squeezed my leg. “Joseph, I think you’re gonna like the night club I work at just fine.”

I just smiled at him. Totally enamored. It was very easy talking to him.

“Listen, I gotta run out to my car and get my bag. It’s almost time to go to bed. Are you staying over, too?”

The question caught me off-guard. I started stuttering. “Oh, no…I have to go home myself. By myself. I mean…”

Todd shrugged. “Too bad.” He smiled and left the house to go to his car.

Oh, what I wouldn’t have given at that moment to not have a home to go to. To be a homeless orphan without a room or a bed.

I looked at Roger and Betty with wide eyes. “He is so cool!”

Roger yawned. “Yeah, he’s a trip all right.”

“Can we really go to his nightclub, Betty?”

Betty stumped out her cigarette and smiled at me. She knew something I didn’t. (Or did I?) “Sure. I think it would be fun.”

“And Michelle – you’ll go, too?”

Michelle was asleep – snoring.

I ran my fingers through my hair which was still damp from my impromptu skinny dip in the hotel swimming pool. “Well, even if Michelle doesn’t want to go – I’m going!”

And then a sudden, horrible thought struck me.

Betty was concerned. “What’s wrong?”

I bit my lip. “I just hope I have the right thing to wear. What do they wear in Topeka, Kansas?”