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	All the Trouble You Need by Jervy Tervalon  "A new suit? Who's this white girl that has you so sprung?" Ned asked Jordan, as Jordan admired himself in the bathroom mirror.      "I told you she's just a friend."      "Man, man, man.  You got women out the woodwork. Poor little Sophia's calling every day and that other chick, Freak Mama Mary calls looking for you and all you do is act moony and mope over this new chick."       "Sophia knows I'm busy working on my thesis."      "Yeah, you busy.  Had the car washed, your hair styled, a new used suit, flowers... please, you busy in love."       "Ned, as usual you don't know what's happening."      "All right, then you don't mind if I ask Sophia out?"  Jordan stopped primping long enough to cut his eyes at Ned.      "That's... up to you.  If Sophia wants to go out with you what can I do about it?  I don't have papers on her."      "Cool. Soon as you out the door I'll call her up.  What's the number?"      "F-U-C-K Y-O-U!", Jordan said, and returned to trimming his beard.       Ned ignored him and continued on.      "See, you really think you're Don Juan. All the women  are yours."      "Here, I'll give you Mary's number. She likes a strong black man."      Jordan quickly scribbled a number and tossed it to Ned. "You know I can't use that."      "Suit yourself. Just remember with her it's a sex thang. She has needs." Ned waved him off and Jordan headed for the car, but before he shut the door he darted back in and caught Ned peering at Mary's number.   "Busted!" Jordan said. Ned shrugged in defeat. After driving lost on the poorly marked and lit rural roads of Hope Ranch he found her address through sheer luck, a posting for a house for sale saved him from an awkward call for more directions. She lived in a southern colonial, concealed almost completely by a huge holly hedge. Jordan parked and walked the long path to her house discovering to his dismay, he had gas and at the door, to add to his nerves, was a glass oval set in a wooden frame. He knocked and waited, hating being robbed of the few minutes he had to himself. He saw Daphne hurrying down the stairs to the oddly furnished living room. Even more shocking was that it wasn't Daphne rushing to meet him, it was her mother; pretty, grey and thinner. She smiled at him through the glass door as she unlocked it.      "Jordan?  Come on in.  I'm Amy Daniels, Daphne's mother," she said, extending her hand.      "Please to meet you."      "She's just about ready. She speaks so often of you I feel we've meet." This was new to Jordan. While he had dated a number of white girls he had yet to meet anyone's parents. In his circle of university friends, everyone was from somewhere else but now all the women he felt strongly towards had too much family.       "The pleasure's mine," Jordan said, shaking her hand. She lead him to a couch in the jungle theme living room, green walls and plenty of plants, even a lemon tree with lemons; horrific wooden busts lined the mantle above the fireplace and a frightening fan like sculpture, five feet high, nothing but eyes and fangs.      "Would you care for a drink?"      "Water would be nice."  Jordan watched her walk away thinking that she seemed at ease and friendly, but he wondered how comfortable she was with his blackness. She returned with a goblet of ice water with a slice of lemon.       "Now, let me hurry up Daphne. She always runs late." She didn't have to; Daphne came down the stairs in a burgundy dress which looked to be satin and she wore a pearl necklace. She looked beautiful. He watched her with unbroken attention as she made her way to him.       "Ready?" she asked, smiling as though he was running late.      "Yeah, how about the Tokyo Inn?" Daphne seemed surprised at the suggestion but it quickly disappeared. "That's fine with me."      "We don't have to go there."      "No, I insist."      Jordan shrugged. *    *     *
*    *     * At first they rode in awkward silence.  He was too nervous to make small talk but he knew he had to if the night wasn't going to die early.      "Nice home you have."      "My grandfather left it to my mother. I have a very nice bedroom that opens to the ocean on one side, the mountains the other. I miss it when I travel."      "You travel a lot?"      "I haven't been home for more than a few days in the last eight years."      "Why's that?"      "My old boyfriend is a concert promoter. We went everywhere."      The boyfriend. There had to be one lurking in the wings.      "My grandmother was an actress and she lost a great role because she was ill.  Clark Cable came to pay a visit and they had tea in my bedroom."      "Clark in your bedroom, cool."      "And earlier I ran away at fifteen with my girlfriend and saw the world. I had one of my parent's cars and pretty much we lived in it until they caught up with me and took it."      "That's wild."       "We ran away because we wanted to do wild things. We spent more time trying to keep wild things from happening."      "I ran away to college," Jordan said.      "I was too possessed with my own idea of the world to do that." Jordan paused waiting for Daphne to elaborate but she didn't and he didn't push it. Inside, the restaurant was near empty. This is just what he wanted, the quiet serenity that slow business offered. They waitress seated them next to a fifty gallon aquarium, a convenient seat to watch the bright colored salt water fish.       "Dinner," he said. She smiled but it was so slight he couldn't be sure.      "So about this boyfriend, are you still seeing him?"      "No," she said. This time he was certain she smiled.      "Good, I thought all pretty women came equipped with jealous boyfriends." The waitress appeared and Daphne suggested they order the large bottle of sake, and odd ball sushi he had never been inclined to try, like uni, quail egg and octopus but only the octopus he had trouble eating. It seemed like potent, fish flavored bubble gum that lasted longer than he could stand.      "How do you like being a student again," he asked, deftly shooting the octopus from his mouth to napkin.      "I like it. I was working in Westwood as a secretary, and that wasn't any fun."      "Why?" "I'm not... the kind of person who should have jobs like that. I can't be counted on.  If it's not life or death I don't care very much. Being fired isn't the worse thing. I sort of like it." Things were sure different for her, Jordan thought. If he stopped working he'd be living in a shopping cart before sun down. He thought of the situation at the English department. One more quarter and he's toast.       "What's wrong?  You seem preoccupied." Daphne said.      "I'm thinking of work. It's depressing."      "Work is depressing." He felt angry with himself for having allowed himself to think of work. It was a no win situation.       "I've always liked the Tokyo Inn. It's not loud like some of the other sushi bars," he said, changing the subject.      "I used to come here often but I stopped."      "Why?"      Daphne smiled oddly.      "My old boyfriend liked to come here when we were in town. He reserved one of the private rooms and I brought along my girlfriend. I had to use the rest room.  When I returned they were making love." The story seemed so unbelievable to Jordan that he wanted to laugh.      "What did you do?"       "I shut the sliding door," she said.      Jordan didn't know what to think. She told the story as though she was talking about someone else.       "You must have been pretty pissed off."      "I was hurt but my boyfriend had great powers of suggestion. I think he was a hypnotist. He said I shouldn't get upset. Jealousy is stupid and a waste. The expression of love in whatever form is what life's about."      "You believed him?"       "Yes, at first. But later I became depressed. I thought I was flawed for being jealous and undeserving of his affection. I thought about my soul a lot. No matter what happened to me at least I could keep that pure."      “How old were you?"      "Sixteen."      "How old was he?"      "Thirty-five or thirty-six."      "I would have killed him."      "What?"      "He's lucky someone didn't shoot him."      "Very lucky. He made a lot enemies."      "See, if I had a daughter and someone like that decided he was going to spend his time dogging her I'd wait until he came home and drive my car over him a few times." She grimaced. Then she was silent for a long moment. "My mother tried talking to him. At that time I was so mesmerized that my girlfriend smuggled me back to my parents knowing that if I saw him again I'd be as pathetic as before. My  parents immediately sent me to stay with relatives in England.  Somehow he found out about the plan and he was determined to follow me and tried to badger my mother into giving him my number. My mother tried to talk him into leaving me alone. She tried threatening him with the police but by the time. She finished talking to him she was almost seduced. She hung up and refused to answer the phone for weeks.      "What happened to him?"      "Last I heard he was in jail."      "Good."      Though he felt flattered that she would tell so many of the private details of her life, she seemed too detached. It made him a little nervous.      "You must trust me to tell all this."      "I do..." Suddenly awkward, she paused as if she were searching for the next word.      "A walk on the beach?" she asked, almost blurting it out.      "Yeah, sounds great."  Jordan took out a few twenties to pay the bill but she shoved the bills into his shirt pocket.      "Let me," she said and put her own bills onto the table.      "That's generous of you," Jordan said as they made their way outside. At the beach the night was warm and the stars out. After reaching the pier they continued on to where the big waves broke against and over the seawall. She stopped and pointed to the waves. "The water is glowing." Every time a wave broke, the foam glowed bright green. "I think they call that bio-luminescence, something to do with plankton. It only happens once or twice a year. I read that in "Believe Or Not."  So near but he couldn't bring himself to touch her. Further up they saw that behind the pier the tide was out. They hopped down and walked to where boats were stranded in sand near the wooden seawall. Jordan again tried to find the nerve to kiss her, sensing she waited patiently for something to happen. "May I kiss you?" he finally heard himself asking in a voice that seemed unlike his own. Without hesitation she kissed him. A perfect intimacy, in a perfect setting, holding onto her, wanting to remember. Afterward, they walked hand in hand to the car. He wasn't letting go of her now, touching her hair, brushing her arm the drive to her house.  There, she quietly led him through the dark house to the guest room behind the stairwell. She turned on the light and stretched out on the narrow bed. Again, he froze, incapable of moving a muscle but she took control, rubbing his shoulders, guiding him down next to her. There she kissed him again, passionately. Arousal finally thawed him. He ran his hands along her body but they were on the wrong page. He realized she had drifted off. Now what?  What to do, watch her sleep or... he leaned over and kissed her again. She woke.       "You'd better go. I'd love for you to stay but I've been home only three months.  I don't want to disappoint my parents so soon." Jordan sighed. "Last thing I want to do is get you in trouble," with less than conviction.  She walked him through the jungle like living room to the glass door and waved good bye. He watched her retreat up the stairs to the security of the second floor.  Only people with money could feel comfortable with the whole world able to look into their living room like it was a gold fish bowl or some human aquarium, he thought. He drove home feeling elated at how well things had gone but there was something else, an uneasiness. There were too many mysterious angles to Daphne to be totally love struck.    *    *     *
*    *    * The Christmas eve anticipation of lovely late evening drives, or a weekend rendezvous to Pismo Beach Motel where they'd be too deep under the covers to find daylight or see a wave crashing against the surf, died pretty suddenly when she didn't show up for his class. The five students who did come to class must have seen the disappointment in his eyes or maybe they couldn't because as they discussed the Makioka Sisters he craned his neck at all the footsteps echoing in from the hallway. Obviously, he couldn't think straight enough to bullshit the rest of the hour. He dismissed them early and hurried to the car and drove like a fool to Hope Ranch, flooring it along those narrow roads until he reached her driveway. Now what?  Roar on up to the house and rap on that stupid glass door until she opened it and shout, "Where the fuck were you!" or "One date and you're ditching class?" Then in the rear view mirror a car slowed as if it were going to turn in. Jordan took off in a rubber burning getaway. Home, he tried calling her but the phone rang unanswered. Maybe he read the date all wrong; what he thought of as being a romantic evening, meant nothing to her.  Finally, it came time to meet Ned in the gym for the B-Ball pick up game but he had to struggle to resist continuing to call her, or another drive to spy on her house. Through a act of painful self discipline he pulled himself from the phone. He'd wait for Thursday.  Thursday. Two juniors and three seniors but no Daphne. This time he held class to the bitter end, and moped through office hours wondering just how silly he was to get himself in such a situation. No judgment, that was clear. Oh no, the last thing he needed, a student showing up to discuss a tedious essay but then he looked up to see Sophia in a short mini skirt looking very nervous.     "Hi Jordan" she said, standing in the threshold of the office. He pulled a chair out for her.      "I've been meaning to call you but things have gotten really busy."      "I know this isn't any of my business but I heard you've found a new girlfriend."       "Well, there's nothing to that."      "So, you're not seeing anyone?"      "No, nothing serious."      Sophia brightened at his reassurance.      "I want to invite you to dinner," Sophia said, shyly.      "That sounds great but I'll take you. Make amends for being so flaky." Sophia kissed him good bye and as he slid his arms around her he took note of how good she felt.      "How about tonight?"      "Great!" she said.      After another brief kiss she hurried to class. Jordan arrived home to find a flower arrangement on the kitchen table. The flowers were exotically unfamiliar; vibrant and intensely tropical. Beside one particularly phallic looking pistil he came across the card: "Sorry I missed class. Family crisis?will explain more soon." Daphne, here at the house and he missed her!  Ned as usual was on the steps of their run down bungalow, lost in the daily sketching of the Taco Bell across Milpas; one in a unlimited series, he liked to say.      "Ned!"      Ned ignored him and continued with the nearly completed sketch.      "You saw Daphne?"       "I'm making art here. Talk to me later."      "Ned!"      "Man, you just gotta know now?"      "Yeah, now."      Ned sighed and put down his pad.      "She just dropped those flowers off, gave me a big sloppy kiss and took off." Jordan laughed and clapped his hands together.      "So, what did you think. She looks good, huh?"      "I see why you're so hot on her. She's got some great legs, I mean if you like white girl legs. Plus, she's real pleasant. Not stuck up like I thought she'd be."      "Yeah, she's not stuck up. Flaky, yeah. Stuck up, no."      "What?  She blew off another meeting?"      "Yeah."      "Oh, so she's making sweet with for that good grade without doing the work.  That's why you're not supposed to be dating your students."      "Yeah, right. It's easy giving advice."       "It's easy to see she's playing you."      "I'm going to straighten this out."      "Good. She wants you to call her about tonight."      "What's tonight?"      "I dunno. She just said she wants to talk to you about tonight."      "I'm seeing Sophia tonight,"       "Cool, show some resolve." Jordan shrugged and returned to the house, determined not to call Daphne.  She made him too nervous to keep this up.

Swab the Deck    Screamin' Jay Hawkins