Tall Tom Tales Told

Through this bit, you'll probably think I lost my mind to believe some of what you're about to read. Indeed, it's probably true. On the rare occasion that my mind wanders back to the times with Allison, I wonder what was in the air since no rational person would either believe or endure the nonsense I tolerated.

I figure there are a couple of factors that worked in Allison's favor to make me stick around. One that I didn't figure out for quite some time, though I consciously noticed it fairly quickly, was that she bore a strong resemblance to Juliet, hence she was a sort of rebound, though I hadn't, in the beginning, "officially" broken it off with Juliet. The other was that I was just lonely.

You'll have to note that at this time, I'd come home from being in the military for 2 1/2 years. There, I had a group of people I was close to and was friends with. When I came home, I did have my family, but no one else. I worked alone at the Salvation Army because that's what the bell ringer job is. You probably never considered that when you see them out there, but it is in reality a very lonely position because you don't work with the people in the store, and truth be told, I was often shoved into a corner and told to be quiet.

The idea that someone showed me some measure of attention meant something to me. To an extent, the clear fact that she was stringing me along and lying to me didn't really matter. I had a friend. Ok, so not much of one, but still, I wasn't alone. Didn't even matter that for the majority of the time I knew her, there was no romance at all. We were the accursed "just friends."

And so it begins...

Between the time I saw her in the employment office and meeting with her, I was continuing to work on a musical for Theatre Tulsa and was traveling downtown to the Williams theatre at the PAC. She had managed to acquire a job as a concierge at a hotel in Broken Arrow. During the snowstorm that happened that year, she got to stay in an empty room at that hotel rather than drive back and forth.

It was in the hotel that I successfully derailed any chance of a normal relationship with her since I managed to spill that I had been hooked on Juliet in Colorado, and she took that piece of information so seriously that she did not want to be anything but friends, although some part of her also did not want to let me out of her sight either. It was like she wanted to keep me in her reach, but didn't want to actually initiate anything.

Over the course of the next month, she called, and I went over to her house, and we talked or watched TV or played video games (provided I brought my system which was incredibly rare), but 90% of it was just talk. Kind of weird when I think about it on how little we actually did. These times got to the point where they lasted all night, and it was one evening when it got to be 3am, and she said I should just stay over there at her house rather than drive home. I agreed and got me a palette in the living room.

Death of a relationship, part 2, after the lights were out, and she tried sneaking back into the living room. Whatever her original intent was, I don't know, but I thought it would be amusing to tackle her, which I did so quickly, she had no time to react. We stayed there, on the floor, face to face for a very long moment. If there were ever a time to actually kiss her, that was it...and I didn't. Again, the big chicken in me came out, and I did not act. Had I acted, that whole time might have changed, but I didn't. Oh well.

I almost wrote "that's where normal ended," but you have to admit that things weren't entirely normal. After all, it was never just us, you may recall. No, we had Hedy with us 100% of the time. Yeah, that's not 99.9%. That's 100%. She was always there. The only time she wasn't, she was in the bathroom or doing something else in the house, but she was always there. How many guys are lucky enough to go out with a girl and her troll? Yeah, that troll can get mean.

Anyway, if we'd been remotely normal, it was about to climb the diving board and start bouncing. I use that piece of the analogy because this first bit ranks as not quite off the deep end yet. Once you hear it, you'll wonder how much worse it could get, but it does get worse.

I mentioned at one time that I'd seen Phantom of the Opera twice. Once was in Colorado. The other was during this time. I bought the three of us (yeah, the three of us) tickets in the nosebleed section of the theatre to watch it. But before that happened, Allison declared that she'd been going through a talent agency and they actually got her a part as a chorus extra in the touring Phantom for the time it was in Tulsa. Wow, thought I. How cool. After all, how am I supposed to know whether or not touring shows hire local help to fill out their numbers?

She told me a few stories about her time backstage, and then began speaking about the star of the show; the guy who played the Phantom. His name I don't mind sharing since he's a public figure. He would be Thomas James O'Leary. I got to know him simply as Tom. Well, hold on. I never met the guy. Never. Not once. I wouldn't recognize him from anyone else if walked right up to me, but I got to know the name because Allison got to know him during the show. In fact, she started messing with him. They enjoyed a very friendly banter.

She told tales of the drama between her and the woman who played Christine who she said had a thing for Tom, and continued to get pissy when Tom showed affections to Allison and not her. And to make this whole tale more convincing, she moved off the touring Phantom in Tulsa and was replaced after several stories of hers where things got very heated and nasty. Hell of a coincidence to not be true, right?

Her story got a slight breakdown one evening, however, when I wanted to talk to her for some reason, and I decided to visit her at the theatre where she was "working." I went in the stage door and asked security for her, stating she was in Phantom. I didn't realize I'd done this until the guard pointed it out, but on that day, I looked like a total Phantom junkie. I had my Phantom T-shirt on, and I had a pin of the mask on as well. Anyway, obviously she wasn't on the list despite the fact that she told me she would be.

I went to her house, and she was there. She said she was surprised I went up there, and that she was told she wasn't needed tonight. Odd, I thought, since most people work every show when it's on.

Well, the Tom thing didn't stop when the show left town. No, now she and Tom are in a long distance relationship, although he seems to be free to fly down and see her...whenever I'm not around. He's like Santa Claus. She was just telling me all these wonderful things they did and that he bought a house in Tulsa over at Crown Point (high dollar neighborhood) and then he took her to New York.

Now, she didn't really need much to substantiate these stories since I never checked on her. I just stayed home. Who knows what I would have learned if I'd done a few PI moves on the whole situation? Besides, watching her house would have been pointless; she never left when she was there, and her car would have been in the drive way since they "always took his."

Let's throw something else into the mix. During this time frame, I went through more jobs than I've had since. Had (in this order, and I hope I remember) trumpet tutor, pizza delivery, lot porter, assembly worker, lawn mower, pizza delivery again, and cashier. Allison was the catalyst for gaining and/or losing almost every one of those jobs. She got me the assembly job, for example, after she and Hedy started working there. I applied and got in just fine. Then they wanted me to hang with them after they got fired which started to count off my days missed limit. On the third day, I was given the choice to leave the job or stay and work. I left to hang with them. The crappy part of that is that I happened to apply at this temp agency some seven years later, and they still had the records on me and told me they would be unable to hire me. Oh well. No big loss.

Let's make the Tom thing even weirder, shall we? What? That's possible? Oh, I haven't even gotten started. This will prove once and for all that I was completely off my nut during this time period. You see, when I continue this chilling tale of strange events, Tom will talk to me...through Allison.