---

This is the fifth chapter is a series of six stories.

---

The events that took place in the month after hearing the words “I’m pregnant” whispered in the front seat of Mindy’s Nova became a blur that Kelly could barely recall.

Kelly and Mindy got married in a small ceremony at the Tarrant County Courthouse in downtown Fort Worth prior to Labor Day.  Mindy had wanted to tell her parents, Medford and Meriel McKinney, about the pregnancy by herself.  Kelly didn’t argue.  The fact that they would marry was apparently never up for debate.  “I’ll be goddamned if we’ll do it in the Methodist Church,” Mr. McKinney had said.  “And only a bare number of guests will be invited to the reception.  This entire thing needs to be kept as low key as possible.”

Of course, based on Medford McKinney’s position at General Motors and his and his wife’s status in Fort Worth society, low key meant something completely different to him than most.  The reception that took place in the backyard of their estate in Westover Hills would have made the front page of the Stockton Telegram-Dispatch back in Fort Stockton.  Guests sipping on their drinks served from a huge figurine that looked like a naked cherub, the mimosas being squirted out of his little penis and into the fountain below.  The metaphor was not lost.  Guests had the good taste to keep comments about Mindy already having a bun in the oven to low whispers and away from the immediate family.

---

---

Kelly called Mindy’s father ‘Dad’ once.  It was made clear that was to never happen again.  He was ‘Mr. McKinney’ and always would be.  Mr. and Mrs. McKinney barely tolerated their new family member, putting up with him only because of the situation their daughter found herself in.  He would always be “the kid from Fort Stockton” who’d tarnished their little girl’s reputation and ruined her future.

“Nonetheless,” Mr. McKinney said, “we’ve got to put as much lipstick on this pig as we possibly can.”  Kelly’s employment at Six Flags came to an abrupt halt and he found himself working at the General Motors plant in Arlington.  “I’m certainly not screwing together Oldsmobiles on the production floor,” he told his mother when he called her to tell her he’d been married.  “I’ve got a job in the accounting office.  I don’t know a thing about accounting, but I wear a clean white shirt and tie to work every day.  I’m learning.”

A house was rented in Ridglea Country Club Estates for the young couple.  Even on Kelly’s ample salary counting beans in the bowels of the GM factory they couldn’t have afforded such a place.  However, the return address on the Thank You cards was important to the McKinney’s, so Mr. McKinney paid the rent.  “Keep that old Ford of yours in the garage,” he told Kelly.  “We’re a GM family.  And god knows what the neighbors would think if they saw that old thing in your driveway.  The help drives better cars than that.”

So that suitable appearances could be maintained on the transportation front, one of the very first 1964’s off the line at the Arlington plant was procured for use by the newlyweds.  Mindy kept her 1963 Chevy II Nova SS convertible, but a Teal Mist and Arctic White 1964 Buick Skylark Coupe 5-Speed was provided for Kelly’s daily commute from Fort Worth to his job at the plant.  Features included a heater and defroster, push-button radio, power steering, power-assisted drum brakes, front bucket seats, a dual-outlet exhaust, and 14″ Rallye wheels.

Of course Kelly had no say in how the car was ordered, but did enjoy the fact that the car was equipped with power steering and that braking was handled by power-assisted drums at all four corners. 

Kelly rarely saw his aunt and uncle in Grand Prairie after the wedding; they hadn’t been invited to the ceremony.  Toby, his cousin, stood as best man for the service, but only because that was the one thing Kelly had insisted on throughout the whole thing.  Once or twice that fall the two of them met at The Bull Pen after Kelly got off work at the plant, to get caught up.

“So how’s married life treating you?” Toby asked the first time.

“Well, I really don’t know what to make of it to be honest,” Kelly replied.  “Of course I don’t have anything to compare it to.  My own folks’ marriage was not ideal.  But mine is not quite what I expected.”

“How so?” Toby asked.

Kelly looked around to be sure nobody was sitting close enough to hear what he said.  “I guess I thought there would be sex.  I mean, we’re married now.”

Toby wasn’t sure how to reply.  Finally, he said, “You mean you guys aren’t bumping fuzz?”

“No.  Not at all.  Just that one time on Skull Island when she got pregnant.”  Kelly was hesitant to admit to the fact.

“I’m going to forget you said anything about Skull Island.  But you’re married now.  Why not?”  Toby was confused.

“Mindy says it could hurt the baby.  She says we’ll have to wait till after it comes.”  Toby looked down into his Dr. Pepper like there might be an answer floating amongst the ice cubes.

“No handjobs?  Nothing?” Toby was surprised he asked, but was generously curious.

“Only the ones I enjoy alone.” Kelly answered.

There was a long pause where neither cousin was exactly sure what to say next.

“Well, the new Buick is nice, I guess.” Toby said.  Kelly wasn’t sure if he was offering that up as a genuine consolation or trying to share some humor in a situation neither of them understood.

Kelly would occasionally come home to find a group of people in his house he didn’t recognize, only to discover they were some kind of reunion parties.  Mindy would invite former friends and cast members from the Southern Palace to come over and catch up.  Kelly would wander in and attempt to be a part of things, but really didn’t have any connection to anyone there except Mindy.  And even with Mindy, the connection seemed to be minimal.

When the group had consumed a few drinks and would break into one of the songs they’d performed at the Southern Palace shows, Kelly would make his way to the sliding glass doors and slip out to the patio in the backyard.  At one point he was joined by Boyce Beaumont, the only black guy in the cast.  “I suppose in a way, you and I are the only people that don’t fully belong,” he said.  “Kind of funny to not belong in your own home, isn’t it?”

Contemplating that thought and sitting in the butterfly chair on his patio, Kelly heard his wife and Duke Denison break out into song, singing Johnny Reb and Diamond Deb from one of the productions they’d performed during the summer just passed.  The way they looked at each other when she sang, “Leave it all on the battlefield, but bring the best parts back home at the end of the day.  I’ll be waiting for you wrapped in nothing but Confederate gray,” made Kelly wonder if Duke really played for the other side.  And he didn’t mean the Union.

In late November Kelly and Mindy were having brunch with her parents at the club, always an uncomfortable time.  The talk initially centered on rumors that Ford was coming to market with some type of new car loosely based on the compact Falcon.  “Probably going to just be a miniature version of the Edsel,” Mr. McKinney joked.  “If there is an untapped part of the market out there, General Motors would have found it and exploited it by now.  You can be damn sure of that.”

Neither Mindy nor her mother cared anything about the car industry, but that’s generally all Mr. McKinney could find to talk about.  Kelly, struggling to learn the numbers end of the business, tried to find common ground to discuss, but it wasn’t really a discussion Mr. McKinney was looking for.  Kelly tried to go a different direction.

“I’ve heard President Kennedy is coming to town in a week or so.  I thought it might be fun to take off and Mindy and I go to Dallas to see if we can get a look at him and Jackie when they do the parade through town.”

There was an icy silence that hung in the air heavier than the smell of the Oysters Rockefeller on Mr. McKinney’s plate.  “We’re Republicans, Son,” he said.  “We wouldn’t piss on John Kennedy if he was on fire five feet from us.  We damn well do not take off work to see that Hollywood Communist drive his fancy Ford through the streets of Dallas.” 

There was no more discussion of the presidential visit.  That is, of course, until Walter Cronkite broke in as Mindy was watching As the World Turns on November 22nd alerting the housewives of America that the president had been shot.  She called Kelly at work and asked him if he’d be home early due to the news.

The events that followed seemed to just continue the drama that had defined Kelly Kerr’s entire year.  Days of nonstop news coverage about the killing of the president.  The accused assassin went to high school at Arlington Heights High School, just blocks away from where Kelly and Mindy lived.  Sitting in front of the Sylvania color console TV Mr. McKinney had gifted to Mindy for her birthday, they watched the alleged assassin himself be killed on live TV in the basement of the Dallas Police Headquarters.  Despite the fact that it was all anyone talked about, Mr. McKinney only said, “Johnson was probably behind the whole thing.  Probably figured that was the only way he’d ever get in.  He’s going to cram this whole Civil Rights thing down our throats now, you mark my words.”

The political talk had all died down by early April.  At the club for brunch, Kelly noted that the Ford Mustang that had just debuted sold 22,000 copies on the very first day.  “I read that Ford estimated they’d sell 150,000 of them by the end of the year.  But with the response so far, they’re talking about doubling those estimates,” Kelly said.  His statement had the exact effect on his father-in-law he’d anticipated.  The old man started turning red and the veins in his neck bulged at first.  Then they visibly throbbed.  The sight of it gave Kelly the only satisfaction he’d received in months.

The only thing that distracted Kelly from enjoying the look on Medford McKinney’s face was the sound of the large sterling silver knife being dropped on the fine china plated in front of his wife.  She looked startled, maybe even frightened.  “It’s time.  Get me to the hospital.”

---

---