One Step Back, Two Steps Up

Part IV

The four sat quietly in the car as Larry drove through the streets of Chicago, en route to their Caldwell Avenue apartments.  Larry seemed lost in thought as his expression remained sloped and he peered though the windshield.  Jennifer sat next to him, looking worriedly in his direction more often than naught, but not quite knowing how to ask him what was on his mind.  Sitting behind Jennifer was Mary Anne, who remained agitated by Becky Jo’s actions and glared out the window on her right.  She was regretting not giving Becky Jo a piece of her mind for her obvious mental undressing of Balki.  What made Mary Anne even more disgusted was that Becky Jo’s interest in Balki was purely physical – she hadn’t even been interested in him enough to get his name correct.  Balki, meanwhile, sat in silence, feeling the tension within the confines of the car.  He was worried about all of his friends, and was not quite sure why there was such a strong stillness.

Balki’s upbringing was naturally geared towards communication, and he was quite uncomfortable to be witnessing such a silence.  He began to think his friends were hurting, and he felt it was time to adjust the mood.   

“Cousin,” he began with an upbeat lilt in his voice, “what say we go to Antoine’s Cajun Kitchen for dinner?  I think a full tummy of Antoine’s special Ay Carumba Jambalaya is just what the Doc Martins ordered!”

“Thanks, Balki,” Larry responded without much tone, “but I don’t know if I’m really up to eating right now.”

Balki turned to his girlfriend.  “How about you, lamb of my life?”

“No, thanks, Balki.”

“Jennifer?”

Jennifer looked back to Balki, who arched his eyebrows at her.  She got the message and tried to help Balki alleviate their friends from their distractions.  “Oh, yes, I think that’s a great idea.  Don’t you, Larry?”

Larry stared straight ahead, his eyes not fully open.  A moment later, he turned to Jennifer.  “I’m sorry, Jennifer.  Did you say something?”  He looked back through the windshield.

“Larry, are you alright?”

“I guess so.”

“Cousin, what troubling you is?” Balki asked.

Larry let out a deep sigh.  “She did it again.  Becky Jo Quinn still has that step on me.  She’s still beating me in everything.”  He shook his head.  “I’m still just ‘Mudflap’ Appleton.”

“Oh, Cousin, that’s no true!  You don’t have gut flab!”

“Mudflap,” Larry reiterated, embarrassed to think that Jennifer would imagine him with a little extra weight in his midsection.  “Not gut flab!”

“Larry,” Jennifer began sternly, “how many times do we have to tell you that you don’t have to take a second seat to Becky Jo?  As a matter of fact, I don’t see what the big deal is about her!  She’s obnoxious, arrogant, self-serving and rude.  As far as I’m concerned, she couldn’t compare to you on her best day!”

“Jennifer’s right, Cousin.  Why you want to compare yourself to Becky Jo Quinn?”

“Balki, didn’t you hear the last thing she said to me?”  Larry retorted.  “She said I haven’t changed a bit since high school.”

“You mean you haven’t gotten any taller?  Cousin, I could have told you that, and I never even knew you back then!

“No, she was saying that she still thinks of me as a stumbling, bumbling fool that can’t finish first in anything.  She was saying that she’s better than me and always will be.  She was saying I’ll never be good enough.”

“Why do you care what she thinks?” Jennifer interrogated. “What is so important about her opinion?  Don’t our opinions mean more to you than hers?”

“Well, of course they do.”

“So what’s the big deal about Becky Jo Quinn and her fabulous opinion?”

Larry sighed heavily.  “Because it wasn’t just her opinion.  It was never just her opinion.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Back in high school, there were a lot more Becky Jo Quinns in my class.  Pretty much everyone was another Becky Jo Quinn.  No matter what I did or how well I did it, a lot of the other kids made me feel like it wasn’t good enough.  It was always so important to me to prove everyone wrong, to show them I wasn’t ‘Mudflap’ Appleton.”  Larry paused.  “But that day never came.  I tried really hard, but I always came up one step short.”

“Oh, Cousin.”

Jennifer reached over and touched Larry’s arm.  “Larry,” she began tenderly, “you shouldn’t have to worry about what those kids thought.  You shouldn’t have to worry about Becky Jo Quinn.  Just look at yourself.  You’re a wonderful man, you’re doing what you always wanted to do and you’re doing it extremely well, and there are three people in this car who care deeply about you.”

“And you’ve got us, too!” Balki exclaimed, leaning over Larry’s seat and hugging his cousin. “So that makes six of us who care about you!”  He lowered his voice.  “Although I don’t know where Jennifer see the other three people.”

Larry couldn’t help but to chuckle.  “Alright, alright, I see your point.”

“So, do you feel better now?”  Jennifer asked.

“A little.  But there’s still something that’s really bothering me.”

“What is it?”

“It was one thing for her to be miserable to me tonight, but she was pretty rude to all of you as well.  There was no reason for that.”

“There was no reason for her to treat you poorly either.”

“It’s different when it comes to me and Becky Jo.  We went to school together and she was always somewhat snide to me.  Although, she sure seems to have become worse.  But she only met the three of you tonight, yet she still took it upon herself to treat you like dirt.  And for what reason?  Because you’re friends of mine?”  He shook his head.  “That, I can’t understand.”

“Cousin, she don’t seem as bad as you say.”

“Balki, she completely ignored Jennifer and Mary Anne, and she looked at you like you were nothing more than a slab of beef.”

Balki’s eyes widened.  “She’s a cannibal?  She wanted to eat Balki?”

“No, no,” Larry said quickly, trying to quell his cousin’s fear.  “I mean she only looked at your physical prowess.”

“But I’m not wearing a prowess.  I don’t even know if I own one!”

“She only saw you as a sexual object!” he clarified.  “It was very disrespectful.  Didn’t you notice how angry Mary Anne was?”

Balki turned to face his quiet girlfriend, who’s eyes met those of Balki.  “Mary Anne, you are angry?”

“Oh, Balki,” Mary Anne said quietly, “I was never angry with you.  I was angry at Becky Jo.”

“’Was’?”  Jennifer repeated.  “You’re not angry anymore?”

“No.  I’ve been sitting back here, thinking about it, and you know what?  I feel sorry for Becky Jo.”

“You do?”  Larry questioned.

“Sure.  She has to be number one at everything, which means she has no room for failure.  That’s a lot of pressure she’s put on herself.  The sad thing is, she’ll never be perfect and she’ll never always be number one, and that must make her very unhappy.”

“Not only that,” Balki added, “but she no have anyone to love.  If she only look at me the way you say she do, then she must be starved for love and affection.  She must be very lonely.”

“And she’ll always be lonely,” Mary Anne continued.  “She didn’t get Balki’s name right once.  That means the value of other people and their feelings don’t mean much to her.  I can’t imagine anyone could love someone like that.”

“That’s right,” Jennifer realized.  “And she goes through life making other people feel bad so she can feel better about herself.  Instead of reacting to anything positively, she’s trained herself to come back with a negative reply.”  She smiled as she looked at her boyfriend.  “Larry, don’t you see?  Becky Jo Quinn is the way she is because that’s all she’s got.  It’s all about being number one.”

“Well, she sure does a good job at it,” Larry replied.

“Sure she does.  She’s got the high profile job, the power and the money -- and that’s all.  There’s spite in everything she says and does, and I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be around that.”  Jennifer lowered her voice.  “Larry, all these years you’ve felt second best to Becky Jo Quinn, when the fact of the matter is that you have so much more than she’ll ever have.  Everything she has is superficial.  There’s no substance there.”

“It’s just like that episode of Three’s Company!” Balki exclaimed.  “Jack’s brother came to town for a visit, and Jack was really upset because, when they were growing up together, Jack’s brother was always the best in everything.  So when his brother visited, Jack still felt like he was second Falana, until Chrissy talked about cake!”

“Talked about cake?”  Larry questioned.

“Yes!  Chrissy said Jack’s brother was a cake that was all icing, and that Jack was a cake with a lot of layers.  And that’s what you are, Cousin!”

“I’m a cake??”

“No, you’re all layers,” Jennifer said.  “Larry, you’ve never been second to Becky Jo.  I don’t even think she’s ever been in the running.”

“I don’t think she could run in the shoes she was wearing tonight,” Balki returned.

“You shouldn’t feel beaten by her, Larry,” Mary Anne began.  “You should feel bad for her.  Do you know why she’s wanted to be better than you all this time?  Because you have things she’s never had, and probably never will.  Being better than you is her only way to prove to herself that she doesn’t miss the things she doesn’t have.”

Larry pondered a moment.  “I guess I never thought of it that way.”  A few moments later, he slowed the car and pulled over to the side of the road.

“Cousin?  What you are doing?”

Larry pulled his wallet out of his inside blazer pocket as his friends watched closely.  He unfolded the billfold, pulled out an old newspaper clipping that was tattered at the edges and held it up for his friends to read.  Jennifer turned on the light overhead then read the headline aloud.  “Quinn Captures Spelling Bee Championship.”

“Is that her in the picture?” Mary Anne said, squinting at the faded article.

“It sure is,” Larry replied softly, pointing to a small figure behind Becky Jo.  “And there I am, the runner-up.”  He smirked.  “Didn’t even get a mention in the article.  It always used to bother me so much.  It was the perfect symbol of how it was with Becky Jo Quinn.”  There was a slight pause.  “Suddenly, it’s lost all meaning.”  He tilted the article towards him and looked down at it.  “In your face, Becky Jo Quinn,” he said quietly.  Larry then gently crumpled up the paper and held it out to Jennifer.  “Would you mind?”

Jennifer smiled brightly and accepted the clipping.  “I’d be happy to.”  She leaned over and kissed Larry on the lips before placing the article in her purse for discarding later.

“Well, I don’t know about the rest of you,” Larry announced, “but suddenly, I’m famished.  Anyone for some Ay Carumba Jambalaya?”

“Count me in!”

“Me, too!”  Mary Anne sang.

“Wild horseradishes couldn’t keep me away!”  Balki exclaimed.

Larry pulled his vehicle back onto the road, made a U-turn and headed towards Antoine’s Cajun Kitchen.  As the New York-bound PSM corporate jet taking off from O’Hara International Airport shredded through the sky overhead, Larry and his friends glided freely down the road in the opposite direction.

THE END