Becoming Antonia Part 22.

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“Yeah, I’m fine. But I have to tell you lady, you hit harder than they did when I tried out for the Bruins.” he said with a laugh.

“Boston? Good thing you didn’t tell me that earlier. Or else I would have really hit you.” I said to him with a giggle. “Go Sabers!” I shouted and heard a “right on!” come from one of the others.


Becoming Antonia Part 22.

By; Toni

 

Once I got home from Sal’s, I broke down. Here I was alone, since Sarah had taken dad to a doctor’s appointment, and the house was empty. I didn’t have anything to do but sit there and cry. I can’t really describe the emotions. It wasn’t sadness, or stress, at least, not by themselves. There was a mix of those, combined with excitement. I was free. I could now do everything I always wanted to. I had more money than I could possibly spend in this lifetime, but I knew I should proceed with caution. I didn’t have a job, which that meant I didn’t have any new money coming in. So I had to be careful not to fall into the trap that I’ve heard about with people who come into a great deal of money. I shouldn’t go and blow it all. I hope what I set up with Marilyn would help with future plans.

The idea struck me that Dad and I had always talked about moving and selling the house if we ever had the money. So I got online, and started searching to see what was out there. First thing I did was do a web search for gay marriage laws. Have you ever noticed just how many porn sites are out there on the net? Of the million or so sites that were found, I was able to eliminate all but three by refining my search to exclude the terms ‘porn’ and ‘fucking’. This left me with a couple of sites that didn’t really have the information I was looking for, and the main site for ‘www.stateline.org’.

I hit the mother load with that one. I was able to find out that Sal had done his homework when he told me back in the hospital that Massachusetts, which has recognized same-sex marriage since 2004. Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, California, and New Hampshire have created legal unions that, while not called marriages, are explicitly defined as offering all the rights and responsibilities of marriage under state law to same-sex couples. Maine, Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Oregon and Washington have created legal unions for same-sex couples that offer varying subsets of the rights and responsibilities of marriage under the laws of those jurisdictions. Either that, or move to Canada. Hating the snow, and never having liked going to California when I was working in racing, I looked at New Mexico, since they have no official state policy on the subject. I found out that the education system was pretty good there. Almost on par with what we had in New York State, so that was a plus. Then I went to find out what land was going for. I found a little plot just outside Santa Fe, that was well within the price range I was thinking of.

After a quick print out of what I’d found, so I could share it with the other two main players in this game, that has become my life, I went and started to find what kind of presents I could find for my wife to be and my father. Sarah had always told me that she liked the looks of the early ‘50's Mercuries, but that she didn’t like ‘flash’ as she put it. Basically, she wanted one that was restored, and not given the whole ‘chopped and slammed’ look that’s become almost a main stay of car shows today. I ended up finding a ‘mild custom’ on a site I knew had older cars, and after a quick call to the number listed, I struck a deal with the owner. I told him that I’d call him tomorrow to let him know where to ship the car, then went to find something for dad.

I already had the one car sitting at my friend’s shop, but I wanted it to be special. I called John and told him I wanted to loose the small block and told him to find one of the new Hemi’s to put in the car. I told him to find the complete drive train out of a new Charger or Magnum, complete with wiring harness, and put that in the car. He agreed and after mentioning something about finally coming to my senses, he said he’d get right on it. So I took a nap.

I woke up when dad and Sarah came home, so before they could get comfortable, I told them about what had happened, and made them come with me to go car shopping. It was kind of funny to watch us all pull into the big dealership near Syracuse that had every franchise, except for Chevy. Two of us driving beat-down minivans, being followed by dad’s Jeep. We found a sales person, and I already knew what I wanted to buy, so I let Sarah and dad make their choices. Sarah ended up with a Toyota Camry, and dad got a new Grand Cherokee. I couldn’t really fault the choices, since dad always liked the way the Jeep’s drove, and Sarah liked the good milage she knew she would get with the Toyota. Once the deals were made on their cars, I went over to Dodge and got my truck. Just like the one in my dream, it was dark green, and yup, you guessed it, HEMI!

I paid with the check, Marilyn gave me, and once we waited for them to do the final prep on our new rides, we were headed for home, but first, we stopped for dinner. It was at the restaurant that I noticed the funniest thing about the new cars. Dad’s was burgundy, Sarah’s was a metallic white, and mine was green. Parked just in that order I couldn’t help but laugh when you think that my last name is of Italian decent. We ate, without much problem, and then headed for the old homestead. I thought it would be a good time to lay out my plan to my fiancé and father, so I grabbed my notes, and met them in the kitchen.

“I’ve been doing some research and came up with a plan.” I told them as I handed Sarah what I found on the schools and gave dad, what I’d come up with about Santa Fe. “The schools in New Mexico are about on par with those around here. But there’s something better. There is a private school in Santa Fe that has the highest college graduation rate of any school in the country. It seems that every student who graduates from the school in Laughlin, goes on and graduates in the top percent of their college class.” I said to my wife to be. “And New Mexico doesn’t have any legislation baring same sex marriage.”

“Alright hun, but what do we do about a place to live?” she asked me, trying to hid a smile.

“Well that’s what dad’s reading.” I told her and turned to him. “The land there isn’t really that expensive, and Santa Fe isn’t that far away to do anything you want. You’re an hour outside of Reno, and Tahoe. So we’d be about how it is here, except we won’t have to worry about snow, unless we want to take a trip to Tahoe in the winter.”

“But what about this house?” he asked me.

“It’s already taken care of.” I said beaming with pride. “The bank should be calling tomorrow to tell you that the mortgage is all paid off.”

“You’re screwing with me.” he said in shock.

“No dad. It’s real. I got my check from the college today, that’s why we all got new cars. But before I did that, I made sure the bills were all paid off. And I set up some investments. Oh, and don’t worry about your doctors. I did some checking, and they have the best nephrologists in the country in Los Alamos. So your kidney will be well taken care of, and the stroke clinic at New Mexico State’s medical center is the best. So we’ll be able to keep you around to see your grand-kids for a long time.”

He knew I was right, and everything was set, or so I thought. The phone call I got from one of the guys threw a little monkey-wrench into the works. One of my fraternity brothers called to find out if it was true about me being turned into a woman.

“Yeah Phantom, why?” I asked over the phone.

“Well, my sister is playing semi-pro hockey for a team, out in New Mexico, and they need a good defense-man, er, woman as the case were.”

“So what’s that got to do with me?”

“Well, you always were a good enforcer when we’d play intermural in college...”

“And you want to know if I’d play for her team.”

“Actually I wanted to call to see if what Opiee had told me was true first. But yeah, they do need some help.”

“I’ll have to think about it. When do you need to know by?” I asked him as Sarah and dad gave me the funniest looks.

“Well, they’re taking a couple of months off for the summer, but they need an answer by August.”

“I’ll get back to you, I have a lot of shit happening right now man.” I told him, knowing that I’d have a couple of months before I had to give an answer since it was only the start of June.

We ended the call like that, with him almost begging me to say yes. I know he’s always loved his sister to the point that he’d do just about anything, legal that is, for her. Just as I hung the phone up, I got another call, and just shook my head.

“Grand Central Station.” I said into the receiver, not really caring who was on the other end.

“I take it that you’ve had a busy day?” came Jen’s voice.

“Yeah, you could say that Jen.” I told her back with a giggle.

“You need to talk about it?” she asked. “I’ve been getting funny vibes all day and was wondering if everything was alright.”

“Have you ever had one of those days where you want to shoot half the people in your life and hug the other half?”

“That good huh?” she asked with a slight giggle. “Tell you what, I’m passing through your neck of the woods right now, how about we go and talk.”

“That would be nice. I could use another point of view right now.”

“I’ll be there in a couple minutes.”

And, with that, I told Sarah and dad that I’d be going out for a couple of minutes. They were both pretty cool about it, since Sarah knew I’d tell her everything once I got home, and Jen had already told her about herself, so she thought it was good for me to talk with someone who had gone through some of the things I was experiencing.

It didn’t take long for Jen to show up, and we headed out in her minivan. This struck me as nothing but funny that such a big star, who could drive just about anything on the planet, had an old Dodge truck, and a minivan for her vehicles. But I guess she uses it to never forget where she came from. That and besides, who would ever look for a star of her caliber to drive a baby blue minivan, or an old red Dodge truck?

“Alright, fill me in.” she said bluntly, as we headed down the road.

“Ah, where to start?” I asked myself out loud. “How about when I went back to work, I almost got gang raped, by five guys, only to be saved by my crew leader and one of the other guys on my crew. Then as I was trying to go home, one of the guys tried to hit me in the parking lot, only to bury his truck in the guard house. But that didn’t stop him. He came at me with a knife, and I had to throw the hammer I keep on my motorcycle at him. Which got me fired for violence.” I could see that she was starting to get upset, so I quickly moved on. “Then once I went to my lawyer’s office with my notice of termination, he gave me the check from my settlement with the college, of which, I invested half. The other half went toward paying bills, and making sure my fiancé and dad had new cars to drive. The rest I put in the bank, and figure I can live quite nicely off the interest. And the corker of the day was when one of my fraternity brothers asked me, that since I was now a woman, if I’d play hockey for his sister’s semi pro team.” I told her, then took a deep breath. “How’s that for a quick recap of the past two days?”

She looked at me for a moment with a straight face, before asking, “You really threw a hammer at a guy at work?”

“It was the only thing I had available to defend myself.” I told her sheepishly.

“Remind me to stay on your good side girl.” she told me, as she pulled into the parking lot of Sweet Inspirations. “How about some icecream?”

“That would be good right now.” I told her with a smile.

Once we had our orders we found a table and started to eat and talk a bit, just watching the classic cars come in and out of the parking lot. Since it was summer, it was nice to see all the old cars being dug out of storage again.

“So how do you feel about everything that’s happened?” she asked me between bites of her ‘Death by Chocolate’ sundae.

“That’s a bit hard to narrow down Jen. So much has happened, I’m not sure how I feel.”

“Alright, how do you feel about getting fired?”

“I think it sucks.” I told her bluntly.

“Is it more about not having a job, or the circumstances behind why you don’t have a job?”

“It’s more the why, then the actual outcome.” I told her between bites of my ‘Black and White.’ “I mean, I was thinking of quitting anyway, but until I threatened to sue them, they weren’t going to fire the five guys who accosted me.”

“You’re serious?” she asked in shock. “The weren’t going to do anything?”

“Well, the guy I hit with the hammer was the same guy who was caught with his pants down. He’s going to be serving jail time, but the other four were pretty much going to get off scot-free.”

“So I take it, you raising a stink put an end to that right?”

“I told the plant manager that my lawyer would love to hear that I was being fired for defending myself when the guys who attacked me were still working there.”

“I’m sure that would be worth a million or two if they’d called your bluff.” she said with a smile.

“It’s not about the money.” I told her. “It’s more about being fair. Fair is fair, and that wasn’t fair. If I’m fired for defending myself, then the guys who provoked it all should be canned too.”

“I agree with you 100%. But what comes next?”

“I don’t know. Probably just find something to occupy my days while I help my wife to be raise our child.” I told her.

“What about hockey?” she asked me with a smile. “If I remember, you used to almost live in your old hockey jersey at the radio station.”

“Yeah, I did. But, you and I could both probably fit in that thing together now.” I said, giggling.

“Do you miss playing, Toni?”

“I haven’t played in over ten years Jen. And that was a pickup game at college.”

“It’s just like riding a bike.”

“I don’t know if I could play the same game I used to.”

“How’s that?” she asked confused slightly.

“Well, I used to be an enforcer. I was the one out there who would lay the hits on the other team.”

“And you’re worried that being smaller, you won’t be able to do that any more?”

“Kind of. I mean I know I can still skate, but I just don’t see myself being that intimidating anymore.” I said as I felt the tears start to well up in my eyes. “The old me never would have had to deal with five guys trying to rape him.”

“No, I guess he wouldn’t have.” she told me as she reached out and took my hand in her’s. “But you can’t let what some scum-bags do to you, dictate how you live your life. Come on, I have an idea.” she told me as she handed me a napkin and threw our empty dishes away.

“Where are we going?” I asked sniffling.

“It’s a surprise.”

“Allow me to explain to you how I feel about surprises.”

“Hate them with a passion, eh?”

“Bingo.”

“You’ll like this one, come on.”

I did as she said, since I was in no shape to walk home. My mind started racing as she started heading south toward Syracuse, and refused to tell me where she was taking me. I kept asking, and she kept saying it was a surprise. She was right, it was a surprise, when she pulled into the Cicero ‘Twin Rinks’ skating complex. It’s one of only two places open in the summer where you can ice-skate around here.

“You’re kidding right?” I asked her as I stepped out of her van.

“Nope. We’re going to skate.”

“But I don’t have any of my gear with me.” I protested.

“It’s alright, they have skates you can borrow.”

I just kept shaking my head as we made our way inside, and we each got a pair of skates from the rental shop. It was a bit strange at first, since I haven’t worn rental skates since I was a kid learning to skate. But I guess I had no other choice, since Jen obviously wasn’t going to let me go home until she proved, whatever she was going to prove to me.

We made our way to an almost empty rink and I have to admit, it felt like I’d never left the ice, once I got out there. I made a quick couple of laps at pace, and skating backwards for a bit, before I noticed that Jen was still holding onto the boards, inching her way around the ice.

“You’ve never skated before have you?” I asked her, trying to hold back a giggle.

“Nope. Never done this in my life.”

“Alright, come on, hold my hand, and I’ll help you.” I told her as she grabbed onto me. “Just spread your feet a bit and keep your weight on the insides of your blades.”

She actually started to get the hang of it, after a while of having a death grip on my arm. With my coaxing, she finally let go, and made it the length of the ice, before she fell, crashing into the boards. I raced over to her, and found she was laughing at the whole experience. It was about that time that a group of kids that looked about college aged, showed up and started a game of hockey. I helped Jen off the ice, and we watched a bit.

Not long after the game started, one of the players got hurt, and as his friends helped him off the ice, to his waiting parents, we could hear one of the other guys complaining that they’d have to end the game.

“My friend here knows how to play.” Jen informed them, which caused me to feel myself turning all sorts of shades of red.

“I can’t do this Jen.” I whispered to her, as one of the guys came over with a stick, some gloves and a helmet that he said should fit. Feeling trapped, what could I do?

I took the gear and went out on the ice. The game was going pretty well, and I was learning where my teammates, skill levels were pretty quickly. Then it happened. On a break away, I got hit with an open ice check. Having been knocked on my ass and bouncing off the boards, I got mad. I knew who did it, and waited for my shot. The guy who had checked me, was struggling with the puck in the corner. He never saw me coming, and I leveled him. Actually, I suppose level wouldn’t be the right word to use, when you hit someone so hard, they break through the glass at the top of the boards.

His friends all looked at me in shock, and I was worried that I’d just killed the kid. That was until he stumbled to his feet, and while he looked dazed, he was alright. We all decided that we should call it a game, and went back to take off our skates.

“Wow, lady, no one’s ever hit Chip like that before.” one of the boys told me as I gave back my borrowed gear.

“Sorry.” I said to the guy who’d checked me.

“Don’t be. That was a good hit, and besides, I kind of leveled you earlier.” he told me rubbing his neck.

“Are you alright?” I asked him, concerned that I’d injured the poor boy.

“Yeah, I’m fine. But I have to tell you lady, you hit harder than they did when I tried out for the Bruins.” he said with a laugh.

“Boston? Good thing you didn’t tell me that earlier. Or else I would have really hit you.” I said to him with a giggle. “Go Sabers!” I shouted and heard a “right on!” come from one of the others.

After I settled up with the rink manager for the glass I helped break, we headed back for my house, and I could tell Jen was about to burst with excitement.

“So how did you like that?”

“It was like going home again.” I told her with a grin.

“Still don’t think you can play your old game?”

“Nope. Now if the kid had told me he tried out for Pittsburgh, and I hit harder then they did, I’d consider it. The Bruins are a bunch of wussies.” I told her with a giggle.

“Come on, seriously, that was as hard a hit as I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, I kind of felt bad when I thought the kid was hurt.”

“But he wasn’t. And I’d also like to point out, that he gave you a cheap shot earlier in the game.”

“Alright, you win. I’ll play hockey.” I said with a sigh. “I’ll at least try out.”

“Atta’ girl.” Jen told me with a smile, as we finally pulled into my driveway.

“So, you’re going to come visit me in New Mexico right?” I asked her.

“NEW MEXICO!” she asked me in shock. “What’s in New Mexico?”

“That’s where the team is. And coincidentally, that’s where Sarah and I were looking to move anyway, since they don’t have any legislation barring same sex marriage.”

“Alright, looks like I’ll be making a trip or two to New Mexico.” she told me with a grin. “Out of curiosity, where in New Mexico?”

“I found a little plot of land for sale just outside of Santa Fe.” I told her as I got ready to head back into the house. “They have pretty good schools there, and The doctors will be able to make sure my father sees his grand kid, for a long time. Why?”

“Oh, nothing, just I know some people there. They run a beautiful health spa, and I think you’d like the assistant to the lady who runs the place. Nice kid, with a good head on her shoulders.” she said then winked at me. “Maybe I’ll introduce you sometime.”

“We’ll see. Maybe if things go well with the team, I can talk them into using the Spa you know of, exclusively, as a rehabilitation location.”

"That's a possibility. Um... Toni... I've got to let you know that I'm going to start filming on a couple of movies back to back. I'll be out in California for maybe as long as a year or so. If you want to call I promise that I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. I just don't want you to think that I'm trying to avoid you or anything like that."

"I understand, Jen."

"If you're going out to LA I have a home out there and you're welcome come out for a visit. I'm taking Gertie and Gillie with me on this trip and I'll let her know that you're welcome there at any time." Jen handed me a small envelope. "That contains the information on how to find my place. Please don't give that information out."

"I won't Jen."

We said our good-byes and I headed inside, to find my dad and fiancé, in a spirited game of pinochle. I simply kissed them both, took a shower, and went to bed for some well deserved sleep. After the last couple of day’s I’ve had, I needed it.

To Be Continued.

Jen Stevens appears courtesy of Bob Arnold. All rights reserved.

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Comments

Becoming Antonia

Another great chapter Toni, and it is good to see the use of Jen Stevens (thank you Bob arnold)in this way. I know this is a work of fiction but I just can't help but point out that it is way more than hour from Santa Fe, NM to the Reno, Tahoe area. Please don't take this as critisism, as I think you are a great writer and I do not want you to feel that I am saying this to make you upset I just don't like to see inaccuracies in stories even if they are fiction.

Melanie

riding with my father

You've obviously never been in a car with that man. It's really surprising to me that he has managed to live as long as he has, and not killed anyone with a car. If the speed limit is 65, count on dad setting the cruse at 90, or more. So ANYTHING is an hour a way, for dad.

Syracuse to Buffalo in about 2 hours. For those of you not from upstate NY, its about 300 miles. At 65MPH, a normal, SANE person, can do it in about 3&1/2.

Much love, for the highway patrol.
Toni

your father

What I should have said is it is roughly 1000 miles even I can't make it in an hour and I drive fast myself. lol

Melanie

May I say...

The Bruins!! Ugh... My favorite hocket teams are the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Hartford Whalers! :)

TGSine --958

Whalers

Actually if you look back to chapter 17, to the pic in the title, the Hockey Jerseys of the fraternity are OLD Hartford Away Jerseys....

Much love, for my Sablers!
Toni

Thanks for Hockey

I'm not surprised Jen showed up; it sounds like there are some familiar faces out there that Toni might like to meet. I hope the hockey line plays out, I've been a fan of the US Women Hockey since the lockout when they won the World Championship in Sweden. Toni, thanks for your stories, they are fun.