Entry 19611118 - Backstory 4 - Dinner and a Movie, Part II

_November 18, 1961, Milford, Ohio_


Fran quickly pulled her blouse over her chest and began buttoning the buttons while Ben opened the door and got out.

"Can I help you, Deputy?" Ben asked.

"Your driver's license, please. And the young lady's as well."

Ben fished his wallet from his pocket, then extracted his license and handed it to the deputy. Fran finished buttoning her blouse, pulled her shawl around her shoulders, then got out of the car.

"Pretty far from home, Benjamin," the Deputy said.

"My girl is from Milford," Ben replied.

"Your license?" he asked Fran.

"I don't have one."

"How old are you?" the Deputy asked.

"Sixteen," she replied nervously.

"What's your name?"

"Fran. Fran Sorkin."

"You live in Milford?"

"On Brandon Avenue."

"You kids are on private property without permission. Didn't you see the 'No Trespassing' sign?"

"No, Sir," Ben replied, honestly, as he hadn't seen the sign.

"I'd ask what you were doing here, but it was pretty obvious from the young lady's blouse. Where were you two supposed to be tonight, Fran"

"Dinner and a movie," she replied.

The deputy made a point of scanning the area.

"Doesn't look like a drive-in theater to me, Benjamin. Does it look like one to you?"

"No, Sir."

"Then I suggest you two be where you're supposed to be. Don't let me catch you here again, or I'll have to run the young lady home and you can explain it to her father. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes, Sir!" Ben exclaimed.

"Then have a good evening."

As the deputy turned to walk away, Ben thought that it had been about to be a VERY good evening, until the deputy had interrupted things. Now, most likely, they'd end up watching the cartoons and the short, and then the entire feature, which was not how he'd planned the evening to go. He waited until the deputy got into his cruiser and backed out of the gravel road before he wordlessly helped Fran into the passenger's seat. He went around and got into the driver's seat, started the car, and backed it down the gravel road.

Fran thought about asking Ben to take her home, but that would only lead to all kinds of questions - questions she didn't want to answer. It would also ensure her dad never let her see Ben again, or likely even allow her to talk to him.

"Do you think someone saw us and called it in?" Fran asked as Ben drove back along Overlook Drive.

"I think he might just have been patrolling. There was never a 'No Trespassing' sign before. Whoever owns the farm probably spotted some other kids there and then put up the signs."

"We can't ever go there again! If he took me home, I'd be in big trouble with my dad."

"It wouldn't be too keen for me, either," Ben replied. "I mean from my dad. I don't even want to think about what YOUR dad would do. Do you still want to see the movie?"

"Yes. The Old Lady is going to quiz me like they did Joyce Brothers on _The $64,000 Question_!"

"It's amazing a woman could know so much about boxing. I would have guessed she was one of the ones who cheated, but it doesn't look like they fed her answers like they did that Charles van Doren guy on the other show."

"_Twenty-One_," Fran replied. "My dad said that was completely rigged almost from the start. That man lost his job because of the scandal."

"What do you watch?" Ben asked as he turned left onto Klondyke and carefully navigated the sharp turns on the steep incline.

"A couple of new shows - _Ben Casey_ and _The Dick Van Dyke Show_. They just started last month. Have you seen them?"

"No. What are they about?"

"_Ben Casey_ is about a doctor and is shown on Monday nights, and I'm allowed to stay up and watch, even though it starts at 10:00pm; _The Dick Van Dyke Show_ is about a writer for a TV comedy series and is shown on Tuesday night. What do you watch?"

"_Wide World of Sports_ and _My Three Sons_. Have you seen that one?"

"Yes, though Thursday night we usually have our family game night when we play cards or _Monopoly_, so we don't usually have the television on. What about _Andy Griffith_?"

"We watch that," Ben said. "I don't think the sheriffs around here are like that. Nor the deputies."

"This one seemed pretty nice. He could have insisted on taking me home because I didn't have a license. I think he might have been worried that I wasn't sixteen."

"He didn't see us doing anything that could get either of us in trouble with the law, just our dads."

"If you turn on Route 131 you can turn left on Wolfpen, which is where the new High School is being built. That will take you to Route 28. Turn right, and the drive-in is a couple of miles east on the right."

"I checked the map, but I had planned to take 28 from downtown Milford before we decided to go for a drive."

Fran almost laughed because the LAST thing boys wanted was a girl giving them directions. She remembered a trip to Pittsburgh when she was little, and her dad specifically asking a waitress at a diner if there was a guy who could give him directions. She'd been eight, and decided then and there she'd learn how to read a map.

"I can read maps," Fran said. "I can be your navigator, like on airplanes."

"How did you learn to read a map?"

"I taught myself! It's not difficult! I'm good at geography, too."

And other things, too, but most girls pretended not to know stuff like that, or about cars or motorcycles or planes to keep the boys from being shown up. It was like Doctor Joyce brothers and boxing - everyone had thought she'd cheated because she was a girl. And it turned out, she was WAY smarter than the guys who ran the show who tried to trip her up.

"What do you want to do when you graduate?"

"Go to college. I'm going to study philosophy and psychology, and maybe become a psychologist."

"Does your mom work?"

"No, but so what? Women can do anything a man can do!"

Ben almost asked if she could piss standing up, but decided against it as all that would do was make her angry, and if he was going to achieve his goal, that was the wrong thing to do. In fact, agreeing with her was probably the best course of action.

"Of course they can," he replied.

"Don't patronize me, Benjamin Goldfeder!" Fran exclaimed. "You'd have sounded more convincing if you told that Deputy we were having a Garden Society meeting!"

"I didn't mean it to sound that way!" Ben protested.

"But you don't believe it! Could our congregation have a female rabbi?"

"Well, no," he admitted.

"What about a female President?"

"Uh, sure."

"Would YOU vote for a woman for President?"

Not in a million years, Ben thought. He'd managed to get in trouble by _agreeing_ with Fran, which made no sense, but then again, he found that what girls thought often made no sense at all.

"I'm only seventeen," he replied defensively, hoping that would save him.

"And in 1964, would you vote for a woman who ran against President Kennedy?"

"It would depend on who it was."

"Right," Fran said, shaking her head.

Ben decided is best course of action was to just be quiet for a bit, then change the subject and hope Fran dropped it. If she didn't, he knew there was no chance he'd even get a make-out session, let alone anything else. He followed Fran's directions which were impeccable, and they listened to the radio.

When they arrived at the drive-in, he paid the 'car' fee, and they found a spot towards in one of the back rows, where other teenagers were parked. That meant a long walk to the concession stand, which was by the screen, but also afforded a bit of privacy in that it would be darker because the screen was further away.

"I wish we could stay for the second feature," Ben said. "I really want to see _The Guns of Navarone_."

"My dad was already nervous about us coming to the drive-in, so there was no way I was asking to be home well after midnight! He'd lose his mind!"

"Are you doing anything tomorrow?"

"I don't have any specific plans. Why?"

"Maybe we could have lunch and then ice cream at Graeter's."

And maybe she'd agree to go back to his house which would be empty because his parents would be out for the day and his younger brother would take $2 to disappear for an hour and not rat him out to his parents."

"You can ask my dad when we get home. He'll be waiting up for us."

Ben agreed and at the concession stand they got a bucket of popcorn and two Cokes, then walked back to the car. They settled in, Ben put the speaker in his window, and pulled a blanket from the back seat. It was just cold enough to need it, even if nothing was going to happen underneath it.

And that was the case, as Fran allowed Ben to put his arm around her, but otherwise insisted on watching the cartoons, the short, and _The Parent Trap_. Ben was frustrated, but he didn't realize that Fran was just as frustrated, but she was also worried about her mom quizzing her AND about being caught by the Sheriff's deputy. Bed did get a 'good night' kiss from her before they went into the house so he could speak with her dad.

"Mr. Sorkin, would it be OK for me to take Fran to lunch and for ice cream tomorrow? I'd pick her up around 11:00am and have her back by 3:00pm at the latest."

Joshua Sorkin looked Ben directly in the eyes and didn't see anything which concerned him.

"That would be OK," he said. "I'll walk you to the door."

Ben was glad he'd asked for the 'good night' kiss BEFORE they'd come inside, as it was obvious that Mr. Sorkin was ensuring there wouldn't be one after.

"Good night, Fran," Ben said.

"Good night, Ben," Fran replied.

When her dad and Ben went to the front door, Fran went to her room to drop her purse and take off her shawl so she could begin getting ready for bed. She wasn't surprised when her mom showed up at the door.

"How was the movie?" Esther Sorkin inquired.

"Fine, Mom," Fran replied. "Can we talk about it at breakfast? I'm tired and want to go to bed."

"Ben behaved like a gentleman?"

"Yes, Mom," she replied, hoping she didn't sound as exasperated as she felt.

"Frannie, we love you and that's why we look out for you."

And interfered in her life, too! But Fran wasn't going to say that.

"I know, Mom. We had dinner, saw the movie, and I'm home on time. And yes, we watched the entire movie, which you'll find out at breakfast."

Esther smiled, "I'm sure you watched."

Fran suppressed a groan because she realized her mom had no intention of quizzing her, but had said that solely to ensure that Fran DID watch the movie. Now she knew for next time. Well, unless her mom was being sneaky and wouldn't ask THIS time, but would next time to try to catch her out. The fact that her mom was so suspicious made Fran suspicious, but she had no way to find out if her mom had acted in an 'unladylike' manner when she was sixteen.

"Good night, Mom."

"Good night, Fran."

Esther left and Fran removed her shawl, shut the door to her room, and removed her blouse and skirt. She put on her housecoat and went to the bathroom to wash the makeup from her face and perform her usual bedtime routine. When she finished, she went back to her room, closed and locked the door, then took off her housecoat, bra, and panties. She examined herself in the mirror, then put on a fresh pair of panties and her nightgown, took some tissues from the box on her desk, turned off the light, then climbed into bed.

She closed her eyes and began gently rubbing that spot between her legs, thinking of Ben, and what it would have felt like to have him inside her.


_November 19, 1961, Milford, Ohio_

"How was the movie?" Fran's little sister Elizabeth asked, with a smirk, and then made kissing sounds.

"Elizabeth!" Esther reprimanded. "Your sister behaves like a proper young lady, just as we expect you to!"

'Hah!' Elizabeth thought. If her mom only knew about the game they'd played at her friend Patricia's birthday party! But there was no way she was going to say anything or do anything to give her mom a clue that she'd let Kenny Burnside put his hand inside her panties and she'd put her hand in HIS boxers. Unfortunately, the party had ended before it got REALLY interesting. Next time she was going to suggest they play 'Seven Minutes in Heaven' again, though she didn't want to spin a Coke bottle for who she got to go to heaven with! That's how she ended up making out with Kenny, but there were boys who were toads she had no intention of kissing!

"The movie was fine," Fran replied. "It was a very funny story about two twins who didn't know they were twins meeting at summer camp. Their parents had split up and the twins, after teasing each other and playing tricks on one another, find out who they are. They then set about getting their parents back together. In the end, they succeed."

Esther smiled as she knew why Fran had given the details.

"What are you doing today, Fran?" Elizabeth asked.

"Ben is taking me to lunch and then to Graeter's."

"No fair!" Elizabeth protested. "I want to go to Graeter's!"

"You are NOT tagging along on my date!" Fran declared. "Go on your own date!"

"When she's sixteen," Esther said.

Elizabeth knew better than to protest, because if she did, that would lead to a question about which boy she liked, and that was a question Elizabeth didn't want to answer. She knew any boy she named would instantly be a suspect in her dad's mind, and that was the last thing she wanted. Not to mention the fact that there were three or four boys she thought were totally cool and would be fun to go on a date with.

"You could always ask Mom or Dad to take you," Fran suggested.

"Could we, Mom?" Elizabeth begged. "Please?"

"Let me talk to your father," Esther said. "Now, eat your breakfast."

The girls finished their breakfast, and after helping clean up the kitchen, Fran went to her room to read, while her mom and Elizabeth went to the sewing room. Fran read until 10:30am, when she got ready for her date with Ben, putting on a white, pleated skirt and a red blouse, and wrapping her shoulders in a while shawl. When she went to the living room, her dad had the television on, waiting for the football game to start.

"Who's playing, Daddy?" Fran asked, even though she didn't really care.

"The New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers," he replied. "I'd like to see the Cleveland game, but CBS doesn't have the rights to their games."

The doorbell rang, and Joshua got up to answer it, as Fran knew he would. She waited until her dad brought Ben into the living room, and after Ben confirmed their plans, he and Fran were allowed to leave the house. Ben helped her into the passenger seat, then walked around to get into the driver's seat. He started the car and backed out of the Sorkin's driveway. As he pulled away from the house, he decided to just say what he'd planned.

"My parents are out for the afternoon," he said, hoping Fran understood the implied invitation.

"What about lunch and ice cream?" she asked.

"We could eat at my house and then get ice cream after..."

Fran felt the now-familiar tingle between her legs and heat in the pit of her stomach, and her desire overwhelmed her such that there was only one thing to say.

"Yes."