Part 116, Chapter 1926
Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Twenty-Six
19th August 1969
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Much to Hillary’s surprise, the apartment was mostly as she had left it the afternoon before. She had been expecting to find the place completely trashed, so not finding it a smoldering ruin was totally welcome. Velma was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and watching Nigel playing in a length of plastic tubing that she had found somewhere.
“I admit it, you were right, and I was wrong” Velma said as soon as she saw Hillary.
“About what?” Hillary asked.
“The party” Velma replied, “It was a stupid idea, but I just wanted to do something fun before next semester started and everyone got too busy.”
“What happened?” Hillary asked.
“I threw everyone out early” Velma said, “Things were just awful, and I wanted to be alone.”
“I’m surprised by that you were looking forward to the party for the last few weeks” Hillary said, “You invited your friends, those two men you liked.”
“Bill and Brad are not likely to come around here again anytime soon” Velma replied. Something about the way she said it put Hillary’s back up.
“Did they get into a fight over you?” Hillary asked.
“No” Velma said, “It seems that they were more interested in each other than they ever were in me. I walked in on them going at it.”
“It, as in…?” Hillary asked, half afraid of the answer.
“Brad screwing Bill” Velma said in an exasperated tone, “Anally.”
“I see” Hillary replied, not really caring for the visual that brought to mind. She didn’t care personally if someone was gay or not, but the two individuals involved though…
“I swear the East Coast is not what I was expecting” Velma said, “Being someone’s perspective beard was not what I thought I was dealing with.”
“You are from Los Angeles” Hillary said, “I understand that this sort of thing is not quite as hidden out there as it is here.”
“If you say so” Velma replied, “And you clearly don’t know much about Los Angeles.”
“You said you were from Hollywood” Hillary said, wondering what Velma meant.
“North Hollywood” Velma replied, “That is a world away from what people imagine California is like and I didn’t move there until I was five.”
“What is the difference?”
“Being dirt poor in L.A. is only somewhat better than being dirt poor elsewhere” Velma said, “As it was, I was only one of a handful of students at my high school who wasn’t Mexican.”
“You went to UCLA though” Hillary said. As much as she disliked it personally, she was acutely aware of how those without money tended not to advance into higher education. Which made Velma’s presence in Cambridge extremely unlikely.
“More like Santa Monica City College for two years before transferring and I only got into UCLA because my mother got a job working at the Medical Center” Velma replied, “Scoring extremely high in the LSATs and having a nice sob story about dragging yourself up from poverty for the admissions board will do you wonders.”
Hillary had had no idea about any of that. Then again, she had never asked.
“Is there anything else I should know?”
“Nothing really” Velma replied, “You might want to consider buying new sheets for your bed though.”
Fort Drum, New York
As the last few days before Ritchie was going to depart for California passed, the more he noticed that everyone was talking about Major Parker. It seemed that Parker was being close mouthed with everyone about what was going on and there were rumors flying around as speculation ran wild. One was that he was planning on going back to Langley, another was that Parker was leaving for a woman from a country that no one in either the Military or the CIA were thrilled with. With their team having stood down pending restructuring, there was plenty of time to speculate about matters like that
Ritchie knew the truth though, mostly because he had asked Parker himself. Everyone else had not bothered to do that. They either lacked the courage to do it themselves or enjoyed gossiping. What Parker had to say seemed simple enough, he had gotten a better offer. MGM was making a new James Bond movie and he had been hired to be a Consultant by the Production Team to help lend an air of authenticity to the action sequences of the film. Parker could make more during a few weeks of filming than he could over the next decade in the Army and there was the prospect of other work as the other big-name studios would be looking to hire him. Of course, working for MGM in England would put him only a few hours away from a particular German Lady who Parker wanted to spend a lot more time with, in the future preferably without the Agency breathing down his neck.
For Ritchie, that opened a whole new realm of possibilities that he had not considered. Would having the cache from having been in the Green Beret open doors for him in Hollywood? Or was that just for Officers like Parker? He already knew that had opened a door into the highly questionable career move that was ahead of him, one that involved him going back to school as soon as he got back to L.A. If being in the Army had taught him anything, it was that having a plan B was always welcome.
19th August 1969
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Much to Hillary’s surprise, the apartment was mostly as she had left it the afternoon before. She had been expecting to find the place completely trashed, so not finding it a smoldering ruin was totally welcome. Velma was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and watching Nigel playing in a length of plastic tubing that she had found somewhere.
“I admit it, you were right, and I was wrong” Velma said as soon as she saw Hillary.
“About what?” Hillary asked.
“The party” Velma replied, “It was a stupid idea, but I just wanted to do something fun before next semester started and everyone got too busy.”
“What happened?” Hillary asked.
“I threw everyone out early” Velma said, “Things were just awful, and I wanted to be alone.”
“I’m surprised by that you were looking forward to the party for the last few weeks” Hillary said, “You invited your friends, those two men you liked.”
“Bill and Brad are not likely to come around here again anytime soon” Velma replied. Something about the way she said it put Hillary’s back up.
“Did they get into a fight over you?” Hillary asked.
“No” Velma said, “It seems that they were more interested in each other than they ever were in me. I walked in on them going at it.”
“It, as in…?” Hillary asked, half afraid of the answer.
“Brad screwing Bill” Velma said in an exasperated tone, “Anally.”
“I see” Hillary replied, not really caring for the visual that brought to mind. She didn’t care personally if someone was gay or not, but the two individuals involved though…
“I swear the East Coast is not what I was expecting” Velma said, “Being someone’s perspective beard was not what I thought I was dealing with.”
“You are from Los Angeles” Hillary said, “I understand that this sort of thing is not quite as hidden out there as it is here.”
“If you say so” Velma replied, “And you clearly don’t know much about Los Angeles.”
“You said you were from Hollywood” Hillary said, wondering what Velma meant.
“North Hollywood” Velma replied, “That is a world away from what people imagine California is like and I didn’t move there until I was five.”
“What is the difference?”
“Being dirt poor in L.A. is only somewhat better than being dirt poor elsewhere” Velma said, “As it was, I was only one of a handful of students at my high school who wasn’t Mexican.”
“You went to UCLA though” Hillary said. As much as she disliked it personally, she was acutely aware of how those without money tended not to advance into higher education. Which made Velma’s presence in Cambridge extremely unlikely.
“More like Santa Monica City College for two years before transferring and I only got into UCLA because my mother got a job working at the Medical Center” Velma replied, “Scoring extremely high in the LSATs and having a nice sob story about dragging yourself up from poverty for the admissions board will do you wonders.”
Hillary had had no idea about any of that. Then again, she had never asked.
“Is there anything else I should know?”
“Nothing really” Velma replied, “You might want to consider buying new sheets for your bed though.”
Fort Drum, New York
As the last few days before Ritchie was going to depart for California passed, the more he noticed that everyone was talking about Major Parker. It seemed that Parker was being close mouthed with everyone about what was going on and there were rumors flying around as speculation ran wild. One was that he was planning on going back to Langley, another was that Parker was leaving for a woman from a country that no one in either the Military or the CIA were thrilled with. With their team having stood down pending restructuring, there was plenty of time to speculate about matters like that
Ritchie knew the truth though, mostly because he had asked Parker himself. Everyone else had not bothered to do that. They either lacked the courage to do it themselves or enjoyed gossiping. What Parker had to say seemed simple enough, he had gotten a better offer. MGM was making a new James Bond movie and he had been hired to be a Consultant by the Production Team to help lend an air of authenticity to the action sequences of the film. Parker could make more during a few weeks of filming than he could over the next decade in the Army and there was the prospect of other work as the other big-name studios would be looking to hire him. Of course, working for MGM in England would put him only a few hours away from a particular German Lady who Parker wanted to spend a lot more time with, in the future preferably without the Agency breathing down his neck.
For Ritchie, that opened a whole new realm of possibilities that he had not considered. Would having the cache from having been in the Green Beret open doors for him in Hollywood? Or was that just for Officers like Parker? He already knew that had opened a door into the highly questionable career move that was ahead of him, one that involved him going back to school as soon as he got back to L.A. If being in the Army had taught him anything, it was that having a plan B was always welcome.
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