Schuyler Square Day 99 Twenty Years Earlier...

1992


A paper route. What a bummer. Peter Van Husen was 16-years old, too old for a baby pants paper route but so far that was the only job he'd been able to find in Schuyler Square. The pay sucked and the hours were even worse but as his father said--repeatedly--it was better than nothing. 


Peter steered his bike down the last street on his route and Mary Austin's house. He always saved Mary's house for last because more often than not Mary would be just getting up when he delivered the paper and once in a while she invited him in for a cup of coffee. Although Peter didn't really like coffee--it was too bitter--he did like Mary. She was pretty and always talked to him like he was an adult instead of a no-nothing teenager, the way most adults talked to him.


"Good morning, Peter." Mary was waiting for him on her front porch. "Do you have any good news for me today?"


She said the same thing every day but Peter didn't mind. He thought it was kind of cute. "Just the same old stuff the newspaper always prints," he replied. He secretly thought the only thing people read in the paper was the obituaries and the comics but he didn't say that to Mary. She probably read the whole thing, even the editorials. She seemed pretty smart to him. 


"Would you like a cup of coffee? I just made a fresh pot."


"OK." Peter left his bike on Mary's front yard and followed her inside. In her kitchen he sat down at the table and watched as she filled two yellow mugs with coffee, adding cream and sugar to his. Mary sat down at the table and Peter noticed that her eyes were all red like she'd been crying. He felt a little awkward and wasn't sure if he should ask her what was wrong. He decided not to. In his limited experience, Peter had noticed that most girls seemed to cry a lot. At least, his mom always did.


"Peter," Mary said suddenly, "Did you know that Loni Anderson and Burt Reynolds are breaking up?"


Peter shook his head. "That's too bad," he replied. "I like Burt Reynolds. Smokey and the Bandit is probably my all time favorite movie."


Mary pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of the pocket of her robe. Spreading it out on the table, she showed it to Peter. It was a picture of Burt Reynolds standing next to someone, a woman--Peter could tell by her big hooters--but the woman's head was cut off. He guessed the woman had to be Loni Anderson. "What's that?" he asked.


Mary started sniffing. "I don't really know. I found it rolled up in my newspaper yesterday between the sports section and the classifieds. I was hoping that you could tell me how it got there, Peter."