Norman Allan : the story
book two: secrets
footnotes

Chapter One:

* This is a bit of a fiction: he'd be proud

** What did your therapist say? He said it bordered on impropriety. He said when someone has been abused, they are hurting, and you betray their trust again !

1.Lies My Father Told Me tell this story

1a. 1995

1b. No. That was a later massage therapist.

1c. oral, anal, ...

2. was Big Momma there at the party?

3. as I recall

(there are a couple of anecdotes that were written here in the first draft that I now moved into the footnotes: click)

and that's so Ted-like like      love       I really have to tell your story

My sister's telling of the last time she saw Ted, as I recall, correct me if I'm wrong,

My father used to tell a story about how, on the several occasions when he was close to death, his Grandfather would appear at the foot of his bed and say, "Not yet, Alan," which was very reassuring. Though Ted's Grandfather had died when Ted (Alan) was only four years old, Ted credited his Zedda's love, care and attention with his own emotional survival. His Zedda was the most important positive influence in his young life. (1)
      When we were children, Ted was not particularly nurturing: but later he became a good friend, my best friend, and he was even closer to Julie. (They'd generally spend a half hour every day on the phone together (their professions overlapped and they talked about their work, and stuff, and they sometimes worked together)).

Now, some years after Ted's death (1a), Julie was on an airplane that ran into really serious turbulence. The plane fell a thousand, two thousand feet. The oxygen masks tumbled down out of there holders. Everyone thought they were going to die. Julie recalled Ted's story about his Grandfather's reassuring 'not-yets'. "I wonder if Ted will appear for me?" she thought and looked up the aisle in the panic stricken airplane and, sure enough, there he was standing by the bulkhead. Only he didn't say, "Not yet." He stood there and he beckoned - he gestured "come," it was fine on the other side, that there was nothing to fear.

As Julie told the story to me over the phone she spoke with some chagrin. I burst out laughing and she followed into laughter, remembering she had laughed at the time. Ted was not going to miss an opportunity where a jest might teach a deep lesson..

Tell the story of Ted and Lea and the vodka?
     I was pissed with Ted over his coming on to Lea. I'd introduced her (before hand) as a hoped for romance. "Look at her as a daughter-in-law," I said. 'Course, we it never happened (Lea and me). So, I guess, he thought she was fair game - she'd passed on me. She liked Ted, worked as his secretary several years. Massaged him.
     Of course he fantasized. Do I tell the wanker's story? Later. "It was the whisky kiss," he confessed.
     "Whisky kiss?" I asked Lea.
     "Well, he wasn't allowed to drink," she explained.
     Did he draft a romantic farce where she came on to him? (1b)
     I was bitching to Julie about Ted coming on to Lea. around this time, and Julie exclaimed, explained  "Oh, it's like putting a bottle of whisky on the table of an alcoholic and saying, 'I'm going to step out of the room for a while, but remember, that's my bottle. Don't touch it.' "