Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 22:33:14 -0600 Reply-To: "Robert A. Gansler" Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: "Robert A. Gansler" Subject: Saturday, What A Day (Part 1 of 2) Saturday, What A Day Part 1 of 2 A ContiNEWity Story by Bob Gansler He is immortal, born in the Highlands of Scotland almost 400 years ago. He is not alone. There are others like him - some good, some evil. For centuries, he has battled the forces of darkness with holy ground his only refuge. He cannot die unless you take his head and with it his power. In the end, there can be only one. He is Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander. THE DOJO December 24, 1995 Duncan hummed some Christmas carols while he walked from his Thunderbird into the building. The Christmas spirit was upon him. He had experienced over four hundred of them during his long Immortal life, but every holiday season was special to him. It was one thing that he had not grown tired of over the centuries. He started the first verse of "Silent Night" as he got into the elevator. He was finished with it by the time it reached the dojo. He walked through the empty workout area. The dojo was closed today, so nobody was there working out. Still the smell of sweat hung in the air. Duncan had a few administrative things to take care of here before he went back to the house. As Duncan walked into the office, he noticed that there was a brightly-colored box on top of the desk. "Hmm, I wonder who did that?" Duncan wondered silently. Richie and Amanda were going to meet him at the house later tonight. He took the box and sat back in the deskchair. He carefully opened the envelope that was attached to the box. Inside was a simple white piece of paper that read --- "To: Mac From: Joe Merry Christmas" "Joe?" Duncan was somewhat surprised. He had never received a Christmas present from his Watcher before. "I didn't get him anything." Duncan frowned. "I guess I'll pick him up something at one of the after-Christmas sales. Duncan removed the bow and began to shred the colored rapping paper. The white box that was inside was opened just as quickly revealing its contents - a collection of compact discs. Duncan took them out one by one. He recognized the discs as being part of a collection of music being offered on one of those late night infomercials - "Great Hits of the 50's and 60's." At the bottom of the box was another note from Joe. It read "Here's some old music for you, Mac. Well, at least it's old music for some of us. Happy Holidays!" Duncan was a little bit embarrassed. It was a very nice gift. He would have to do something a little more special than picking up some discounted item for Joe. For now, however, he wanted to see what golden musical treasures these discs contained. Duncan looked through the song titles on the back of the albums. "Hey, this is some great stuff," he thought. Two songs on disc three caught his eye. Songs number five and six caught his eye - "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets and "I Found My Thrill" by Fats Domino. Suddenly Duncan's memory was jarred ."I remember those tunes, there was that one Saturday night in Milwaukee ..." INSPIRATION POINT - MILWAUKEE 1960 There were a multitude of cars parked along the cliff of Inspiration Point. The scenery that lay to the east -the full moon hovering over the gentle waves of Lake Michigan - was lost to the occupants of the fleet of cars. They were more interested in making out than in making comments about the picturesque scenery. Off to the north side of the large group of cars was a yellow hot rod. Inside a red-haired boy and a blond-haired girl were engaged in a deep discussion. " ... and the policeman says 'OK, but I'm going to have to ask for the gorilla's license.' Get it?" The girl laughed and pushed back on her seat so hard that it inclined about 45 degrees from its former vertical position. "Oh, Ralph, you're so funny." Ralph took advantage of the opportunity and started to lean over. "I still go it." He gently put his right hand behind her neck and kissed her. The girl kissed back. "Oh, Ralph tell me another joke." "Later, Donna." Ralph replied. "My lips need to relax from joke-telling with some kissing." "Oh, OK" Donna agreed and kissed Ralph some more. With his left hand he turned on the radio softly. Without even looking, he tuned it to WOKY because he knew they would be playing the right type of music. As the station came in, "I Found My Thrill" began its unmistakable sound. Ralph thought about mentioning to Donna that this was Richie's favorite song, but he figured he could tell her later when his lips weren't otherwise engaged. Ralph leaned over some more and continued to kiss her passionately. He lost his balance and rolled over onto Donna, getting his left pinned between the gear shift and the dashboard. Just south of Inspiration Point, Duncan lazily drove along Lake Drive in his T-Bird, admiring the expensive houses that had the lake as their backdrop. He liked the sight. It was very relaxing. His inner peace was shattered as he heard a scream. "Ralph! Get offa me! You're hurting me!" Duncan followed the sound of the continued protestations until he found a yellow hot rod. He parked the car T-Bird and walked over the hot rod. He opened the driver's side door and found Ralph in a jumbled heap on top of Donna. Ralph's red sweater was covering part of his face. It looked as if he had been trying to take it off. Both Ralph and Donna looked at Duncan after he opened the door. They were both speechless for a second, and Donna's eyes widened considerably. "Do you mind?" Ralph yelled. "Oh, hell-o." Donna said encouragingly. "Is there a problem here?" Duncan asked. He looked at Donna "I heard you yelling." Donna started to speak, but couldn't get anything out. Ralph continued to wriggle, trying to free himself from the ever-increasingly trapped position he was making for himself. "Oh, no. There's no real problem here, Mr. Handsome," Donna finally managed to blurt out. "Me and Ralph were kissing and he sort of got his leg stuck and started crunching me against the seat." "I see." Duncan could tell that all that these two were involved with was some innocent kissing. "Let me give you a hand. He managed to untangle Ralph from the human knot that Ralph into which Ralph had transformed himself. "There you go." Ralph crawled back to his side of the car and then outside. He stretched out his neck a little bit. "Thanks, mister, but I had the situation covered." Duncan smiled, "Oh, I'm sure you did." Donna got up and out of the car as well. She rested her chin on the hood and stared at Duncan with a definite smitten look. "Thanks, mister. You're like a knight in shining armor saving a maiden in distress." Duncan tried to avoid her stare "Or something." He sighed. "If both of you are OK, I'll leave you to whatever." He strolled back through the moonlit night to the T-Bird and drove off. Ralph and Donna got back into the car. Ralph leaned over to continue what they had started. "Where were we?" he asked with fake-innocence. Donna pushed him away. "I can't do this anymore, Ralph." Ralph's face boiled with red, though not as red as his hair, "Whaddaya mean?" "You're a nice guy and kinda cute, but that guy was simply gorgeous." She crossed her arms and bowed her head. "Take me home please, Ralph." EAST SIDE OF MILWAUKEE 1960 Duncan headed west along Silver Spring Drive. He heard a church bell ring from up a few blocks ahead. "Music," he thought and turned on the radio. The radio came to life. " ... is Milwaukee Braves baseball on WTMJ, AM 620. Stay tuned as Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews, Warren Spahn and the rest of the Braves take on Cincinnati Reds." Duncan looked at some of the pedestrians. A fair number of them were wearing Braves' paraphernalia of some sort - caps, T-shirts, and sweat-shirts. "They certainly love the Braves here. The team will probably never leave with such support," Duncan thought. He reached a stop sign and was seized with a strong sensation. It was not from the presence of another Immortal but rather by an intense hunger pang. His nose picked out what probably caused it - the unmistakable scent of a burger joint. He looked to the south to see the likely source of it. It was a small round restaurant situated next to a German-looking building with the sign "Bavarian Soccer Club" in front. He could not make out what the sign above the Burger joint said. All he could see was a big neon "A" with something smaller written underneath it. He took a left turn and drove down Port Washington Drive. As he got close, he could read what the name of the place. It was called "Arnold's." Bob Gansler rgansler@facstaff.wisc.edu "Colleagues at the lab, they all thought they he was crazy, don't know where he's at, his formulas to them are crazy." - The Hollies =========================================================================