Mindy
Copyright 1991-1993 By Ed Howdershelt
ISBN:1585059420
http://abintrapress.tripod.com
A Quick Introduction
I had work-related reasons (an understatement of the situation) to leave Germany for a while. While we were working on a drug bust that spanned three countries, I was a witness to a murder. The Turkish "suspect" had escaped arrest, so I was ordered back to the U.S. for safekeeping. My employers placed me on indefinite standby due to the politics involved, so I visited family near Dallas, Texas, to wait until I was summoned to testify or work elsewhere.
I had been involved with a group of people who camp out and play in the woods with homemade armor, swords, and shields back in Germany. When I discovered a similar group in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area, I was happy to get reinvolved. At one of this group's open events in Grapevine, Texas, I met a lady named Mindy and her best friend, Diane. We managed to blend our own events into those already in progress.
Mindy has had much to say and contribute during the writing of this recollection, but Diane couldn't contribute. She died of cancer in 1997. We miss you, Diane.
Chapter One
A Midsummer Renaissance Event in Texas is a hot and dusty affair, but most everybody manages to have a good time. It amounts to lots of people trying to dress and act as they believe people would have in the middle ages and related times. Many of us also use it as an excuse to get out and party at a campground on a long weekend.
After a few hours of trading techniques with some of the other "knights" at just such an event, I put down my sword and shield near the tavern booth and started peeling off my homemade armor as the "tavern wench" filled my mug with "ale" (probably Lone Star beer) from a concealed tap. By three in the afternoon I'd had enough pummeling and pounding in the heat. I was off the lists, anyway. These had been personal-challenge matches that could get you noticed, but weren't worth real brownie points toward rank.
"Need help with the straps?" came a feminine voice from behind me. I noted that she wasn't using archaic, 'thee & thou' form of English and figured she was taking a break from it all, too. I turned to see a rather tall blonde in a green dress standing with hands clasped behind her, a questioning look in her lovely green eyes that were nearly on a level with my own. What I could see of her arms and shoulders told me she was neither skinny or fat under that heavy, Elizabethan-style costume.
"No, thank you, MiLady. I used Velcro," I said, yanking two wide straps to let my chest armor fall off. Damn, it felt good to be rid of the extra weight. I stretched and reached for my beer. "But I'd be happy to help you with yours. How do you women spend all day in those outfits in this heat? May I get you something?" I waved at the tavern booth.
"We don't stay in them all day, of course," she said, and nodding at my beer, "One of those would be nice. Your armor isn't made of steel, is it?"
"Nope. Aluminum. More precisely, old road-signs, personally recycled." I lifted a piece to show her the underside of what once was a 'one-way' sign, then ordered her a beer.
"Interesting," she said, "What we do in the name of fun, isn't it?" She made a point of noticing that her bodice needed re-tied and busied herself with performing that task while awaiting my next comment. As expected, I watched her tie it as I answered her.
"If you mean making armor to wear while performing strenuous combative exercises or wearing heavily-layered, Elizabethan-style costumes in the middle of a Texas summer, then, yes, it is. If what you really meant was, 'did I steal a bunch of road signs', then the answer is no, I didn't. They were all damaged, replaced, and sent to be scrapped."
She smiled slightly, tightened and patted her new bow knot into place between her breasts, and then, as if slightly shocked by her own suspicions, said, "Well, far be it from me to question the honor of a knight, Sir. How might I make it up to you?"
I pretended to have to think about that a moment, then said, "Well, MiLady, if you truly wish to atone, you could accompany me to the feast tonight. I could then focus on your loveliness and ignore the banality and bravado so common to such events. Even the king would have to forgive my inattention if a woman as lovely as you were to be my companion at the feast table."
She assimilated my answer for a moment, then grinned and said, "Oooo, that came out very well indeed. And with a straight face, too."
"Aha, you think it's a line. Well, consider this: The king has a new girlfriend, so I'm not worried about incurring his attention, anyway. Since you are very lovely and they can be very banal at feasts, I can't think that even one word was misspoken."
"It was still a line of fluff, MiLord, but I liked it. Certainly, sir, I'd be happy to accompany you to the feast if I may bring a lady friend." She made a small curtsey.
I took her hand as it was offered for a kiss and felt the familiar mental nudge as her name came to me during our touching. "You're Mindy," I said, "A lovely name. I'm Ed."
Some people don't react well to being identified by touch, but Mindy handled it well enough. She didn't try to break contact, but she tensed and her eyes narrowed a bit. "Cute trick," she said, "But you could have overheard it or asked someone about me."
"Absolutely possible," I said, "I'd imagine that many have asked about you. Green eyes, blonde hair, beautiful... Yup. I'm pretty sure they have."
Her skepticism was unabated. After a moment's hard gaze, she said, "That approach probably scares some people away, you know."
I smiled and said, "I didn't approach you, you approached me, and it only scares the uninteresting people. Those who can think have to question unusual things. Fearful people and those who don't think or question are generally rather dull company."
Mindy digested this bit of opinion for a moment. "I'm not afraid of you and I'm questioning. Are you going to tell me how you got my name?"
"You saw it happen. Test me on someone you know I've never met."
Mindy regarded me carefully for a moment or two as she sipped her beer. "You can bet I'll do that. Got any other tricks in store?"
"Tricks? Well, no... But would you settle for a treat, instead?"
I saw an 'Oh, no, here comes the REAL bullshit' look cross her face. She sighed and asked, "A treat? Dare I ask what that might be?"
"No need. I'll tell. You also sort of told me you like gin and bitter lemon or lime. I know who has some gin I can trade for and we can liberate a lime from the feast table." I shouldered my armor. "Let's dump this stuff at my tent and wander around a bit."
Mindy didn't bat an eye, she just picked up my sword and said, "We can get some clean ice and cups at my tent." She gave me an 'I'll see your bet and raise you' look. I smiled at her and started walking toward my tent.
Did I mention it was hot? It had to be a hundred degrees in the shade, but there were a couple of "knights" battling with swords and shields as we passed the field. Mindy didn't seem interested, which made me wonder what about me had caught her attention. I'm not one of those overly-muscled hunks at 6'2" and 178 pounds, and since my day had largely been spent on the battlefield, she couldn't have spotted either my sparkling personality or incisive intellect. Or even my modesty... We didn't talk much as we wound our way to my tent, but as I was changing my shirt she asked, "What else did you pick up about me?"
I took a moment to douse my head and chest with cool water before answering. "You're 34, sort-of single, you have no kids, and I saw a painting in there." I saw her eyes widen in my shaving mirror as I dried myself, but when I turned, she pretended skepticism and fanned herself with an events-program. "You saw a painting when you touched me?"
"Yup, something Egyptian-looking, with bright colors. On a stand."
"An easel," she said, "Don't you have any doubts? That maybe you might be just a little bit wrong about some small thing along the line?"
"Not this sort of thing, and I would like to see that painting."
"Why," she asked skeptically, "Just to see if there really is one?"
"Nope. It's at your apartment, about half-finished." I could see she was having trouble adding something up.
"So you're into Egyptian art?"
I grinned slightly. "No, not particularly."
"Then why do you want to see it?"
As I buttoned my shirt, I smiled and said, "Because it's in your apartment, Mindy, and seeing it would mean being there with you, and that would mean you think well of me."
Mindy laughed aloud. "Think well of you? Think well of you? You think I'm going to take you home with me because I think well of you?"
When her laughter died, I said, "You certainly wouldn't if you didn't, would you?"
"Oh, well, no, I guess not. That's a good point, Ed." She laughed again.
"You'll consider letting me see that painting, then?"
She was really laughing, now. I gave her a questioning look.
"Oh, it's just," she said, "That you seem to be trying to con ME into asking YOU to come up and see MY etchings."
I summoned up my most innocent, thoughtful look and said, "Yes, well, I suppose it could appear that way, wouldn't it?"
If anything, Mindy's laughter increased. She grabbed my towel to dry her face and sat with her face buried in the towel, laughing. A rather portly woman passing by saw her apparently sobbing into a towel and stormed over with a couple of similarly-indignant friends to ask in a rather accusatory tone if everything was alright, already glaring daggers at me.
I grinned innocently and shrugged. Mindy looked up, saw them prepared to draw and quarter me for supposed offenses of word or deed, and howled with laughter, falling backwards off the cooler. She wound up wedged between the tent screening and the cooler. I moved to help her up, but she caught sight of the three women looking pretty damned confused, and the gales of laughter started all over again. I settled for helping her to lie on her side behind the cooler for the moment.
The three women drifted slowly away with the kind of glance-backs normally reserved for people of dubious sanity. As her laughter began to fade, I handed Mindy a freshly dampened towel and asked, "Are you gonna survive this?"
She rolled flat on her back and breathed deeply. Elizabethan costumes tend to lend themselves well to deep-breathing, I noted with appreciation.
Mindy noted my appreciation. "What? Am I untied or something?"
"Ah, no. I was just, um..., entranced by your costume."
"Entranced, huh? Oh, well, you're supposed to be. These outfits do show a lot of cleavage, don't they?" She glanced down her front.
"Well, now that you call my attention to it..."
"Oh, shut up," she said, "You'll just get me started laughing again." I helped her back up onto the cooler, where she sat recovering for a few moments. "Now," she said, "What about those drinks?"
People were staring at us as we left my tent and wandered in search of Lodnar's tent. Some of the ladies were giggling as we passed, so it seemed reasonable that the tale had not only been told, it had likely been embellished a bit in each telling.
"What do you think they heard?" I asked Mindy.
"Something more than the truth, from the sound of them."
"Seems likely. Do we do anything about it?"
"What's to do? They'll believe what they want, right or wrong."
I made a deal with Lodnar for a huge bottle of gin, then we dropped byMindy's tent for ice. A husky guy still half-dressed in armor was standing just inside the tentflap, facing the interior. I glanced at Mindy. Was this going to be an old, or a current, boyfriend?
Mindy reached through the tentflap and slapped his armored leg to secure his attention. Her action reminded me of someone handling a horse in a stall. Mindy's tone was demanding as she asked, "Bryce, why the hell are you in our tent? Where's Diane?"
"Diane told me that someone told her you were in trouble in some guy's tent. Is this the guy?" He sounded eager to do something, anything on her behalf.
"Bryce, STAY," commanded Mindy. Bryce's eyes narrowed, but he didn't move. "I wasn't in trouble and it obviously wasn't this tent. This guy's a friend. Where's Diane?"
"She's a feast volunteer," he replied sullenly, "She's busy at the tables."
"Well, why don't you go tell her I don't need rescued. We'll go over there a little later."
The guy glared at me as he pushed past me and left the tent, fairly stomping down the trail. I looked at Mindy, but she waved me off. "I wasn't too hard on him. He's been after Diane and/or me for a year, and he has a talent for being a real ass. He was about to try to heroically impress me just now, using you."
"I gathered that. Mind telling me why you can order him around the way you did? He didn't like it, but he followed orders."
"He knows I can take him, for one thing. He'd love for me to take him, in another sense. Or Diane. He'd be happy with either of us. It'll never happen, though. Diane uses him as a choreboy at events, which just keeps his hopes up. That can make people mean when they've had enough of it, and he's already got a mean streak. I don't encourage him at all."
"What an absolute cad," I said, grinning, "Maybe it's because you're both beautiful?"
"She's very good looking. Did you pull that out of my head, too?"
Cold and sharp, the first slug of gin-laced Coke raced to the bottom. It wasn't what I usually drink, but wasn't too bad, surprisingly enough. I reminded myself to be careful.
"No," I said, "I didn't. It was a real, live guess."
Chapter Two
We sipped gin and talked away the two hours or so before the feast was to start, probing each other now and then with things said or asked. Mindy spoke her mind without much hesitation. She also asked rather candid questions, I discovered.
A couple of kids ran past the tent. "You have any of those?" asked Mindy, "You aren't extremely short, fat, or ugly," she said, "So why aren't you here with a wife or girlfriend?"
"No kids. I got fixed back in 1971. I'm not married, I've only been back from Germany about a month, and I haven't met anyone else who really grabbed my attention."
Our cups were almost empty. I dosed each with ice and gin and poured in the Coke. Mindy looked as if she were making her mind up about something, then asked," 'Else'? That means I've managed to grab your attention?" It was a direct question without a hint of frivolity in her tone. I stopped pouring her new drink and looked up at her. Mindy's gaze was rock-steady as she waited for the answer.
I looked in her eyes and said simply, "Yes, you have," then I finished pouring and capped the bottle. There was an awkward silence as we sipped our new drinks, so I tried to break it with, "And you? You're tall and beautiful. How have you evaded motherhood?"
Her silence didn't break immediately. She regarded me thoughtfully another few moments before appearing to make up her mind yet again. There was a hint of nervousness about Mindy as she spoke. "I'm not ready for children in my life and I'm not exactly alone," she said, "Diane and I are very, uhm, close."
I considered that. "Close enough that she has to approve of me?"
Mindy made a wry grin. "You could definitely say that."
"Lovers?" Mindy nodded. I asked, "And if she doesn't approve?"
"I think she will," Mindy said with a small grin.
I considered that for a moment. "I'm not looking for flattery, Mindy; I'm looking for an answer, here. Would Diane agree or approve because she liked me or because you wanted me enough to ask her?"
"Either or both, probably. Would that matter?"
"It would to me. I like you a lot, Mindy, but you've shown me how strong-willed and commanding you can be. I wouldn't want you to force Diane to allow me aboard your relationship." I could see anger forming in her face at my words, but it suddenly faded, replaced with a look of bemused amazement.
Mindy laughed. "I'm going to make her sit down before I tell her you said that."
"I wasn't trying to be funny, Mindy."
"Don't worry, you weren't," she said, then laughed again, "But her reaction will be. She doesn't think men like you exist."
"Huh?" I'm sure I sounded real intelligent just about then.
"Yeah," said Mindy, "Diane doesn't believe in men like you." She was really laughing, now. "Boy, will she be surprised. Look, I'll explain later, when I can breathe again."
I smiled and nodded and sipped my gin, wondering if I really wanted into this, after all. Diane sounded like a woman bitter from her experiences, and my real interest was Mindy, anyway, but I had a feeling that it would be a 'both or neither' situation. We'd been sitting cross-legged, facing each other. I decided to stretch and just powered myself straight up to a standing position. Mindy rearranged her skirt a bit, then did the same, meeting my gaze.
"Where to?" she asked, dusting herself off.
I almost said, "Don't worry, I'm not trying to escape." Instead, common sense won out and I said, "Just loosening up."
Mindy didn't seem to do things with the delicateness of most women. Small things had tipped me off that she was unusual, but then she did something specific. Her ice had lumped up in her glass, so she poured a little of the gin on her fingers, wiped her hand on the underside of her skirt, reached into her cup to grab the floating lump, and looked up at me as she squeezed it hard enough to shatter the ice-blob back into little bits. I wondered if it was her way of telling me not to try to escape.
"Mindy," said an approaching woman, "You're gonna scare that poor boy if you haven't already." She was about as tall as Mindy and looked about 40, with long brown hair and a confident stride. She came to within two feet of me and stood looking at me.
Mindy introduced us with, "Diane, meet Ed. Ed, Diane." She looked meaningfully at Diane and said, "I'd just love for us all to be friends."
Diane stood near Mindy with her hands on her hips. Her left eyebrow raised slightly in mild surprise as she looked from Mindy to me. She didn't bother with archaic English when she said softly, "Is that so, now? What makes you so special, I wonder?"
She extended her hand for a handshake, not a courtly kiss. As we touched, her eyes widened a bit and she looked briefly at our clasped hands. I felt a pushing sensation in my mind, and my eyes widened, too. I pushed back a little, grinning at her as I discovered in her touch a creature like me in at least one respect. After a moment Diane grinned back at me. We just stood there, holding hands and grinning silently at each other, for some seconds before Mindy passed a hand between us and said, "Hey! What's going on here, guys?"
Diane let go of my hand, leaned over and kissed Mindy's cheek, and said, "Gotta run. Feast's on in a few minutes. Don't lose him."
She then retrieved something from their tent and quickly strode back the way she'd come. Mindy looked somewhat confused.
I was still grinning as I took her hand to lead her toward the tables. "I think she likes me," I said. Mindy stopped us and stared at me for a moment.
"I know she likes you," she said, "The question is why?. Diane's not fond of men in general; Ed. She just uses them now and then for free labor."
I tried to get us moving again by stepping forward. "Maybe it was something I said."
Mindy was irritated and unwilling to proceed. She poked me in the chest with a finger. "Yo...
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