birth parents...

Gianna De Persiis Vona

Marcus Schmitt's reaction to accidentally making out with one of his best friends after an over-zealous ice hockey game was to decide to find his birth parents. Of course, he could justify the entire incident by sighting an over consumption of cheap beer and the raised adrenaline brought on by his teams unexpected win; but what he could not explain away was the trembling that began in his loins and spread up into his heart with such speed and overwhelming intensity that he realized, despite the beer and the adrenaline, that he had never felt this way before and, if he continued on in his current life path, (engaged to be married to Janine Vandyke), it was quite likely that he would never feel this way again.

It was a freak accident, one that might never have taken place, as far as Marcus could tell, if the stadium lights had not gone out. The entire team was in the locker room, celebrating their rare victory with the remnants of a post party keg that Joe, the goalie, had smuggled in through the fire exit when the ref was out checking the ice. They were polishing it off quick, with sloppy, manly slugs, knocking back the beer straight from the tap, while they clapped each other on the back and whooped and hollered like it was the lottery they had won and not just some amateur hockey match. When the lights went out there was a sharp scream of surprise that could have come from anywhere, and that no one would later fess up to. And then, before Marcus has a chance to gain his bearings, the dark so thick he couldn't even see his own jockey strap, which happened to be the only thing he had on outside of his socks, he was locking lips with his best friend, Daniel Davenport.

This was so unprecedented, so totally out of nowhere, that Marcus couldn't rightly say afterwards who had initiated it or why, for that matter, it had even happened in the first place. Daniel was going to be his best man, for Christ's sake, they had already been fitted for their tuxedos. This making out in the locker room in the dark, both of them covered in beer, sweat, and not much else was so unexpected that their was nothing Marcus could do when the lights flashed back on but slam the front of his body up against a row of lockers in an instinctual gesture to disguise his erection, and do his best to pretend that what had undeniably taken place, had not taken place at all.

When he got home he took a shower, and then crawled into bed next to Janine who mumbled something about the caterer, and don't forget the folding chairs, and then rolled away from him, and was back to sleep before he had a chance to formulate a reply. As a computer programmer, Marcus worked at home so he had plenty of time during the following days to contemplate what he now thought of in his mind as "the incident", and to try and decide what should be done. The most logical answer was, of course, nothing. Nothing should be done. It was a freak thing, something to do with the sudden darkness, the beer, and the un-anticipated win that had done something strange to his libido. It was confusion, that was all, just a sort of general and momentary psychological disturbance. Still, it was a worrisome one, and he couldn't help feeling a little bit afraid, afraid that maybe his marriage to Janine was some sort of horrible error, and that he had mistakenly believed he was in love with her only because he had never known any better.

Marcus was big on analogies, and it occurred to him that what if Janine was like vanilla ice cream, if vanilla was the only flavor you had ever had - you would think it was incredible, the best thing ever - but then what if you suddenly had a bite of peppermint stick? Maybe you didn't even know there was such a thing as peppermint stick until you tried a bite, and then all of a sudden vanilla would have context and the context, when compared to peppermint stick, was just bound to be a little disappointing. So, he decided that he would find his birth parents before the wedding. Just in case. Not that this would necessarily solve his problem or sooth his doubts, not that what happened in the locker room had anything to do with genetics. Marcus was a computer programmer, and a good one - not an idiot. It just made him wonder, that's all, in a way he had never wondered before, where he actually came from. Sure, he came from Sacramento, he had a father named Lloyd and a mother named Susan, both of whom loved him very much. He knew all that. But where did he really come from? From whose loins had he sprung? And how would those loins feel about him if he were to marry vanilla, or if he were to destroy his own life over one taste of peppermint stick?

When Marcus told his parents of his intentions they reacted as he suspected they would. His mother tried valiantly not to cry, and then cried anyway while telling him that it was perfectly understandable, and she didn't feel in the least bit threatened, and he should go right ahead and not even consider feeling at all guilty. His father coughed roughly into his hand a couple of times, and then said that he didn't see what Marcus would need to do something like that for, as he was bound to be disappointed, but if that's what Marcus needed to do then he didn't suppose there was anything he could very well do to stop him - Marcus being a grown up man and all of that. Though, Lloyd pointed out, with the wedding only six weeks away, he didn't see what the hurry was all about. Poor timing was what it was. Weren't they all busy enough? And then what? Would the birth parents, should Marcus be able to locate them, have to be invited to the wedding? This was an idea that Marcus had not even considered, and which sent his mother into a renewed fit of tears that she did her best to muffle behind her hand. Janine called up Lloyd and Susan distraught over the whole "find my birth parents" thing. And why now, only six weeks before the wedding? The three of them, on conference call, agreed that something was going on. But none of it made any sense, as all Marcus would talk about was ice cream, and they failed to see where ice cream fit into any of this.