Radio Tease #4: Kiz

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Kiz called me the first week I started working the six to midnight shift at KZZO-FM in Clovis, NM in March of 1987. We started talking about music and she really seemed to be interested in me. She called a few more times over the next week. We decided to finally meet. At first, we were going to meet at the mall. Then something happened and she couldn't leave the house, so she just had me come over to her house during the afternoon.

Prior to our first meeting, she had told me quite a bit about herself. She had already been married and divorced. It was with some guy from the Air Force. During the time after they had gotten married, she became pregnant and lost the baby. (She mentioned that it might have been twins.) She never told me what led to the divorce.

I drove to her house, got out of the car and started walking toward the front door. Before I could even knock, she opened the door and was kind of laughing. She had long, strawberry-blonde hair (which she colored that way). She wore rose-colored glasses and was about 5'1". She was very cute. Inside the living room were her younger brother and two sisters, Perd, Chez and Pid. I didn't know her siblings were going to be there or be so involved in our "date."

Kiz and I sat on the couch in the living room and started talking. She told me that when she called me the first time, she felt like starting up with someone new and she liked how my voice sounded on the radio. Pid kept interrupting us to make some smart-aleck comment. She was a pest. I remember that we went into the kitchen at one point and Perd was typing some passage from a book. He was using the red ink side of the typewriter ribbon. Chez never said anything the whole time I was there. When we walked into the kitchen, she immediately walked into the living room.

One of the things she showed me was her wedding album. The ceremony was held in the living room of her house. I can only imagine that the reception was held in the kitchen. It seemed like her family members were the only ones in attendance.

(One thing I should point out is that it wasn't uncommon for members of the military to quickly get married as many of them didn't like living in the dorms and actually having a family would get them moved into decent housing. Some would convince somebody naive that they were the love of their life and others would propose a marriage of convenience.)

While we were back sitting on the couch, Kiz' mother came out. She saw me and motioned to Kiz to follow her into the kitchen. She came back a little bit later. She said her mother asked if she was going to go out with me. She told her she didn't know. My chances didn't look good at that point.

(I found out later that the mother was actually her step-mother and Perd was her step-brother. Her father had recently married her after finding her in the personal ads in the back of a grocery tabloid.)

I went home pretty soon after and told Kiz I looked forward to talking to her again. She called me at work a few more times. One of the things she told me was that she had been sexually active for the last couple of years. She talked about how she got into a sort of sexual hijinks competition with this other girl at school. She had gone after Kiz' boyfriend and told him that she was better at sex than Kiz. Afterwards, he told the girl that no, Kiz was better. That wound up being the guy she got married to. This made me realize why her step-mother was so concerned about my presence that day.

One night, Kiz invited me over to the house. It was raining. The parents weren't there. After I got to the house, Chez said, "If my Dad comes home and finds you here, he will kill you!" "Uh, okay." "I AM NOT KIDDING! HE HAS A GUN AND HE WILL KILL YOU RIGHT HERE!" I stuck around for about an hour before leaving. Their parents never did come home while I was there.

One Sunday night, Kiz sent me a dedication on "Love Songs on the Zoo." Mr. W said that she wanted to tell me that she hoped that we would be able to get together soon. I saw this as a sign of optimism because she was willing to admit publically that she liked me.

Whenever I tried to call Kiz, her parents would sometimes answer. When that happened, I just hung up the phone. Once I called and Pid picked up. She told me it was a funny thing that every time the phone rang, if her parents answered it, whoever was calling would hang up. But if one of the kids answered, they wouldn't hang up. I guess I wasn't the only person doing that. However, I would feel really bad as a parent if no one was calling to talk to me. It would be like I had no social life.

Sometime later, Kiz told me she and her sisters were going to hang out at the park and she invited me to come along. At one point, we were at the swimming pool and Kiz started talking to this guy who was there. It was obvious that he was flirting with her. At one point, Chez asked me if I would loan her a dollar. I happened to have one, so I gave it to her. Later, Chez and I were alone on a park bench while Kiz and Pid were running around. I asked Chez if Kiz ever said anything about liking me. Chez said that Kiz told her that she thought I was kind of cute, but never said if she wanted to go out with me. She also said that there were other guys trying to date her. I thanked Chez for the information and told her she didn't need to worry about paying my back that dollar.

One night, Kiz was staying overnight at a friend's house, kind of a slumber party. She asked me to bring them a pizza. I brought them one. When I went inside the house, Kiz was there and she was only wearing her underwear, as were the other two girls. I only got to hang around for about five minutes because they weren't supposed to have any boys there. As I pulled out of the driveway, I saw another car pulling in. I think it was more boys that they had invited over.

One day, I tried calling Kiz, but Chez told me she was at the mall. I quickly ran across the street. I looked through the whole mall and I finally saw her in Walmart, but she was heading out the front door. I ran out and called to her. She turned around. "Hi, Kiz!" "I CAN'T TALK RIGHT NOW. MY DAD IS WAITING FOR ME IN THE CAR!" I ran back inside the store.

So yeah, I was definitely getting mixed signals. Not long after that, I called her, but Chez picked up the phone. She told me that Kiz had moved out of the house and in with her new boyfriend. All she told me about the boyfriend was that he was Italian and he looked like Sean Penn. She also told me that she had slept with that guy from the swimming pool, but that wasn't who she moved in with. A few weeks earlier, I had loaned Kiz a couple of books. I asked Chez if she could get Kiz to get those books back to me.

A couple of weeks later, Kiz showed up at my apartment with the books. (I had told her where I lived.) At this point, I had a girlfriend. Kiz knew about this because I told Chez about her. Kiz was under the impression I was living with my girlfriend. I never told Chez that. We didn't talk for very much. I showed her the apartment and then she left.

Now, this is where I usually write, "...and I never saw her again." But that was not the case with Kiz. I certainly was not expecting it at the time, but meeting Kiz had a major impact on my life for the next 15 years, and that was without ever being romantically involved with her or even really friends. She's going to show up plenty more times in future posts for a long time to come.

But I'm going to quickly cut to the chase and tell you what happened to her. She wound up getting pregnant by "Sean Penn." She had his child, but did not marry him. She then had two more children from a different father. She got her tubes tied because she didn't want any more children. Then she had her children taken away by CPS and her parents got temporary custody of them. To provide a more stable household in the eyes of CPS, she married the guy she was living with at the time. She got the kids back and divorced that guy. Then, she married someone else and moved to Artesia. I saw her and her husband there a couple of times. She finally seemed like she had settled into her role as a wife and mother.

I think she remained in Artesia for a long time. Judging by her Facebook profiles (she has two for some reasion), she may have gotten divorced from the guy in Artesia (as she now goes by her maiden name) and she lives in Roswell. Her oldest child will be turning 27 next month. It looks like one of her daughters had a child herself.

I was able to find her first husband on Facebook. I can't tell much from his profile, except that he now lives in Missouri, which was where he went to high school. He appears to have lived in a few towns in that state without residing in any of the larger cities.

But I'll bet Kiz affected my life way more than his.