Serial: "Hawkins County" Chapter 2 - 1970's Americana

"Hawkins County" has a dual story line until well into the second act. You have already met Pat O'Connor, the delinquent teenage boy on the run from the law. The premise of his story line: Can Pat O'Connor continue to elude capture by law enforcement for probation violation? Now in chapter 2, you will meet Jack Johnson, a nerdy college student whose life becomes enmeshed with Pat O'Connor's in way the two can not yet imagine. This is the second story line and character development, with Jack Johnson being the antagonist to the protagonist Pat O'Connor.

The band just finished "The Limbo Rock" as the Hamm's beer clock registered twelve midnight. By now, Jack's reception was down to just Marianne, him, Dave, and Rosie Martin. Dave grew up with Jack; they were good friends ever since grade school and even were roommates for a while at the Frat House at college. Decked out as he was in his Green Beret dress uniform, Dave looked quite nifty at the graduation and now at the reception. He and Jack were reliving the Sister Mary Louise story. 

Sister Mary Louise, or Sister Louie, as the kids called her behind her back, taught physics at the high school Jack and Dave attended. One of Sister Louie's favorite times of the year was when she taught the chapter on static electricity. The nun would haul out this little hand cranked generator from someplace and run a long, bare wire off of it, then teach the textbook stuff like usual, but it was obvious she could hardly wait to get to the lab assignment. When her moment came, she had all the students line up and grab hold of the wire, which they, like the sheep they were, all did because Sister Louie told them to and because everybody knew nuns would never even think of doing anything to hurt you. They took a vow or something about that. She would make light banter as she started cranking the generator, slowly at first, then faster and faster, until it produced an electrical charge. The kids closest to the generator felt little more than a tingle as the current entered their bodies through one hand and exited back to the wire through the other, but the poor schmuck who was on the end of the wire, that was a different story. He had no way to pass the current on so instead, he grounded it and got enough of an electric shock to lift him right off the ground, or so it seemed. He would drop the wire and flop around, shaking his tingling hands in dismay. Sister Louie really enjoyed that part and it always made her cackle with delight. That Sister Louie, she was a character, all right. They laughed at the memory, for a memory was all that remained of it now. 

"Hey, do the Sucipiat," Dave said. 

In response to the request, Jack launched into the tongue twister from the Latin Rite Mass he and Dave learned when they were alter boys. "Yeah, Father Dominus Vobiscum, you remember him, we called him father Dom, he comes up to me and he says, "Orate, Fratres."

Marianne nudged Rosie. "Aurora Borealis, did you say?"

Jack ignored her rather than honor that one with a reply. He knew Marianne was just showing off because she was liquored up and had an audience. "So I says back to him, I says, 'Sucipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis, ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui, ad utilitatem quoque nostrum, totiusque ecclesiae sui sanctae.'" He shrugged nonchalantly at the trio of open-mouthed faces that stared back at him. 

"And the horse you rode in on," Dave said. 

"What does all that mumbo-jumbo mean?" Rosie asked. It occurred to her that Jack must be one of those Idiot Savants she heard about on TV. 

"Haven't the foggiest idea what it means," Jack said. "They just taught me how to say it back in the sixth grade. They never taught me what it meant."

"Sure, you remember that crap from sixth grade, but what did you do yesterday?" Marianne asked.

"Yesterday, hmm   " Jack scratched his chin as he puzzled over that one. (to be continued)

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