Never The Same #71 Kirk Gets Excited and Probably in Trouble

Even Kirk, with his passionate, one-minded focus on building a new stock car, planned an exciting break from his labors but caused an upheaval in his relationships.

   

 

Cue: “Both Sides Now” https://youtu.be/yXr2EFomFkU?si=ZvbEvFAm8dDVBGnJ

 

             Kirk conjectured that Sarah knew of his relationship with Farrah, but on the other hand, he didn’t think Farrah knew about Sarah. Or did she? Kirk in all reality, didn’t have a clue to what goes unsaid within social connections, women’s intuitions, and so on, and probably Kirk wearing Farrah’s ring on a chain around his neck tipped Sarah off? Probably if she saw it. We know Kirk didn’t learn much about girls over the few years since he gained the courage to interact with girls. Kirk not being overly smart about how women thought and acted when other women were involved with their boys; so, until someone blew up on Kirk, the status quo of his relationships remained in effect. This situation happened to be maintained for quite some time and thereby keeping Kirk out of trouble with his women friends.  Hence the one of the two main focuses of this episode.

            On the other focus, Kirk’s musical tastes ran high brow compared to those classic hard rockers he hung out with in high school. He listened to the Quad radio station WPHD so he could hear the newest progressive rock music that he liked and often purchased. It just so happened that Kirk moseyed on into his favorite record store as he did on rare occasions to check out those albums featured on WPHD that he heard on his little garage radio as he worked. Well, he spotted a poster for his number one favorite band that happened to be Yes. What he didn’t realize right off the bat was that the poster advertised that the band was coming to town like in two weekends! He inquired about tickets and found that he had to drive downtown to the big city to purchase said tickets right at the venue where they were performing.

            The next evening, he made the cruise in his Firebird downtown and picked up two tickets, quite sure that Farrah would accompany him to the concert even though he didn’t ask her ahead of time. Kirk didn’t see her that particular evening because she was working AGAIN, but when he did finally see her which was after a few days, he whipped the tickets out of his pocket.

            “Hey babe! We’re going to a concert!” Kirk announced with glee.

            Red-headed beauty Farrah didn’t appear too excited over the news. “Really? When is it?”

            “A week from Saturday night. It’ll be a great time cuz’ this band doesn’t come around here very often so it’s guaranteed to be a stellar event!”

            “Ah,” Farrah prudently stalled. “I’m working that weekend, Kirk. Sorry, I can’t go with you.”

            Kirk incredulously paused. “C’mon, you can take the one night off. It’s an event. A big event. One we can enjoy together. I don’t ask you to take off from work�"ever!”

            Farrah instantly looked a bit peeved for some reason over his statement, but she seemed to shake it aside. “Yes, you don’t ask at all, but no, I can’t go. You should’ve told me earlier, maybe I could’ve gone with you, but the hospital makes up the schedule a month ahead and they can’t change it.”

            “Well. Geez. They have to be able to change the schedule. People get sick, hurt, have personal events come up unexpectedly to reschedule, so c’mon, just ask them�"no, tell them!”

            Farrah looked away appearing a little misty eyed. She slowly shook her pretty red-coiffed head. “I’m sorry Kirk, I just can’t do it.”

            “But I bought these two tickets.”

            “I’m sure one of your friends would like to go�"maybe Dan or Mack?”

            “Maybe,” Kirk said low to the ground, but his thoughts went spinning in another direction, someone else. “I don’t think they’re fans of the band.” Thinking they were more of the top ten type of rock fans such as bar rock.

            Certainly, Kirk felt angry about Farrah’s resolve to be so dedicated to her work�"always. He couldn’t understand it or imagine being so committed to one’s work or any occupation or organization for that matter even though we know Kirk was one for perseverance and loyalty to his own endeavors himself, so he should have understood. 

            “Fine, Farrah. Have a good night,” Kirk said rather shortly. He spun on his heel and left her standing there.

            “Kirk. Kirk! Are we okay?” Farrah called to him.

            “Yeah, yeah, we’re okay. I’ll see you later,” Kirk said, over his shoulder.

            Kirk attempted to calm himself down over Farrah’s refusal to take a day off for something he was really truly interested in, besides stock car racing, something they could enjoy together, but unquestionably and putting it bluntly, he was highly pissed off at her. He knew it would be better for both of them for him to walk away from her rather than sticking around and saying something he’d surely regret. By the time he sat down in his Firebird he knew exactly what he would do. He started the car and made a beeline to Sarah Elizabeth’s house which really wasn’t all that far away.

            Surprisingly, Sarah met Kirk in the driveway. She probably heard him coming from a mile off because of his habit of aggressively downshifting when coming to a stop or in sharp turns like into the driveway. Another possibility was perhaps Sarah’s father complained because the television fuzzed out whenever the Firebird drew close. As he got out of the car with Sarah standing there right there, he wondered why she just happened to meet him out there.

            “Hey Sarah, fancy meeting you out here,” Kirk said, in a much improved, a better upbeat mood than a few minutes earlier when he had departed Farrah’s.

            “Ah, yeah,” Sarah said, straight faced. “I live here, you know.”

            “I mean meeting me out here as I drove in, just now.”

            “I knew what you meant. I was just messing with you. Yeah, I could hear you heading this way some time before you showed. I happened to be heading back from the barn,” she said with a gesture.

            “Oh. Right. No sneaking up on you, huh?”

            “A highly unlikely possibility,” Sarah said succinctly with a smile.

            “Okay next time I’ll be stealthier and try to coast in from a couple miles up the road�"maybe catch you off guard. It won’t give you any time to hide the other boys in your stash.”

            “You know I don’t want anyone else.”

            “Er, ah, right,” Kirk stammered thinking about implications involved in his ongoing girl dilemma.

            “So, what’s up? What brings you over here after being scarce for some time now?”

            “Oh yeah. Right. What’ya doing a week from this Saturday.”

            “Oh, nothing I can’t move around. Why?”

            “I got two tickets for the Yes concert that Saturday night. Wanna’ go with me?”

            “Yeah, of course. I heard they were playing, but, but what about�"her?”

            Kirk cringed now knowing that she indeed knew about Farrah, which he figured she did, but now confirming it twisted him up inside. “She can’t go.”

            “Yes! I’ll go!” Sarah said enthusiastically. “So, you’re actually taking me out on a real honest-to-goodness date?”

            Kirk experienced another cringe. “No, it’s not a date. It’s just a concert�"and we’re going to watch it�"together.”

            “In other words, you’re taking me on a date to a concert.”

            Kirk looked at the ground and kicked a pebble. “Yeah�"I guess so, if you look at it that way.” 

            “Wow! I’m sure it’ll be great!” Sarah exclaimed while beaming with genuine excitement and anticipation.

            The sometime twosome hung out for a while that evening, though nothing of note came up in their chat. Later, when Kirk drove home, he wondered if asking Sarah to the concert was the right thing to do. Would he regret it? Would she take it that they were on the verge of being a “thing,” a steady couple again? Now, Kirk felt torn about his spur-of-the-moment decision. Perhaps if he had sat on Farrah’s refusal to take off from work a day or so, he wouldn’t have asked Sarah, but it was too late now. It was a decision impulsively made on the fly perhaps in an annoyed reprisal against Farrah. Kirk pondered that distinct possibility which only bothered him even more.  Would Farrah find out? Most assuredly. Would it mean an untimely end to his relationship with lovely, stately Farrah? Probably.

            Would Kirk be Never the Same? We’ll see…