Her mother began expanding on the tales related in the diary. “You’re going to let me tell it, right, Doc?”
“I will only chime in with corrections or supplementary details." Ariel imagined there were going to be a lot of those.
“Fine, Doc. corrections and details only. So let me set the stage. It was the spring of 1994. Bill Clinton was President, and the governor was…well, it doesn’t really matter, he doesn’t come into it anyway, I was just creating the mood. Bill Clinton, and The Lion King, that was 1994, right, Doc?" Her father shrugged. He did that a lot. “And the Olympics, right? The crazy figure skater, the one who hit the other one with a lead pipe? Tanya Tucker, wasn’t that her name?”
Now her father sighed. He did that a lot, too. “Tanya Tucker is a country singer, Sheryl.”
“Oh, right,” her mother said. “I knew that. ’Stand By Your Man.’” She almost sang the words, producing another sigh from her father.
“Tammy Wynette sang that. Tanya Tucker sang,” her father paused for a moment, clearly trying, and failing, to recall a song Tanya Tucker had sung. It was strange to see him come up empty; that almost never happened. “Well, I’m sure she sang a lot of songs, but that’s neither here nor there. You were thinking of Tonya Harding, and it was her boyfriend who actually hit the other skater with a lead pipe.”
“Whatever. Like I said, I’m just setting the mood. The Lion King, and Bill Clinton, and Tonya Harding, and wasn’t Fraiser on TV? You used to get so annoyed at that show, Doc.”
This time her father growled. “Must you mention that miserable program? It made a mockery of my profession! Fraiser Crane was completely unrepresentative of a practicing psychiatrist, and his brother was even worse! It should never have been allowed on the air!”
“Moving on,” her mother said breezily, “Spring of 1994. Bill Clinton, The Lion King, Tonya Harding, Fraiser, and then there we were, me and your father…”
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