Community Moving OnChapter 11
- 4 years ago
- 19
- 0
Vicki’s turn:
Marriage is everything I imagined it to be. And then some. Oh, I know that there’s a segment of the population that would look at me and my Billy and see all sorts of things wrong – me a tender exploited teen, him a predator, all that. It’s kind of in the news about sex trafficking. Matter of fact, one of the newest additions to our group was in the middle of that, hauled out of Central America to be sold off.
Camila’s lucky. They were saving her virginity for the added value she’d carry. I’m not sure of the particulars of how Dave Johnson, husband of Brindy and Carlita (but not in that order), might end up with Camila, but Haley giggles and says that she’s integrated into the bunch there.
Me, though? Happily married college graduate, okay? If you just take time to work with those facts, we’re entirely normal. Less normal is that I’m still only fourteen.
Still – married. In love. Devoted. Topsy-turvy in a way, because I’ve GOT my degree and I’m dragging, pushing, coercing, bribing and otherwise incentivizing my husband towards his own.
Oh, whatever can I do to reward good behavior?
Just as the original sisters – Cindy, Tina, Susan, Kim (MY Kim!) and their contemporaries formed an unshakable bond around ages and interests and circumstance, so have we – me, Rachel, and Terri.
It’s made kind of easy because we’re all tightly interwoven among strands of 3Sigma Robotics but we slip outside that venue and get together sometimes.
“Married life ... More to it than meets the eye,” Terri says.
Rachel sort of makes a whine. “At least when YOU acknowledge you’re married, you have the law on your side. Me ‘n’ Derek...”
“Your families recognize your marriage,” I said. “And we know exactly how long before you can legally formalize it.”
“Yeah, but it still irks me.”
“You’re the only one I know who has a husband YOUR age,” Terri said.
“Yeah,” I reinforced. “It’s rough being married to an older man...”
“Uh-huh,” Rache giggled. “Who locks whom in the apartment on Saturday morning?”
“Mutually agreed-upon,” I laughed. “Besides, this marriage thing shocks me sometimes. I mean, finding out that the perfect guy you married has a habit of leaving skid marks in his drawers”
Terri rolled her eyes while Rachel snickered. “Tina never told me THAT particular hurdle to nuptial bliss.”
“Yeah, but she told you that every couple has rough spots,” I answered. “Like Alan trimming his own toenails.”
“Yeah, but that’s Tina’s hangup. And they worked it out.”
“I worked out Billy’s skid marks, too. But the first time ... Ewww!”
Terri smiled. “Marriage involves two imperfect creatures seeking perfection in their joining.”
“Good one,” Rachel tittered. “I’m giving that one to Mom and Dad. Where’d you hear it?”
“Made it up on the spot,” my sister said.
“That’s us,” I said.
“But,” Terri stated, “we had a pretty set idea that our mates were well into our own concepts of perfection.”
“I don’t know about that ‘perfect’ thing,” Rachel said. “Just some indescribable idea that my soul wasn’t gonna be complete without HIS soul.”
“You are talking about Derek here, right?” I snickered. Derek, while he’s perfect in Rachel’s eyes, still has flashes of being an archetypical teen boy that she ignores and we see. Maybe she doesn’t ignore them. Maybe she sees them and is wired to see them as completely charming. As Dad says, ‘Never be surprised as to what causes another person’s heart to beat faster’. It’s gotta be true, otherwise everybody’d’ve been drooling over my Billy.
Bill Hardesty’s turn:
Can you say “Force of nature?” I thought perhaps you could, but it’s much more than that.
Lord, how life changes, entirely defined by (and revolving around) Vicki. I thought I was a pretty strong guy, and pretty smart, although my grades at Ditchwater U. didn’t show it.
Then came Vicki, who is putting me thru academic (and physical) “boot camp”, I suppose you’d call it. Yup, coming up on finals for the fall semester at Auburn, and I’m pulling a 4.0. Umm, yeah, and THAT has everything to do with Vicki. Calculus, physics, chemistry -- she’s done it all, multiple times. She pushes me about “reading ahead”, and doing ALL the end-of-chapter problems. Makes my head hurt, and the other students in my classes think I’m a genius.
See, it’s all about “inspiration”, which is more correctly spelled “Vicki.” Physically, she wears me out in bed, and I won’t talk about the detail, except to say that a fourteen-year-old girl has LOTS of energy -- more than a twenty-year-old guy, even on my best day.
Further on “inspiration”, lots of heads turn with bleach-blonde girls running around campus, with silicone boobs, tight T-shirts, and tramp-stamps on their backs. Then there’s Vicki, skinny, honey-blonde, sloppy Auburn T-shirts or company polos, khaki shorts. She doesn’t even try to “look” sexy, and radiates “desirable” without any of that crap. Positively incandescent. A little bit of star stuff, right there in front of me.
‘Star stuff’. I read now. As in “You NEED to read,” she says. “Not just textbooks. Fiction. History. Expand your mind to other worlds, other possibilities.” So I read. ‘Star stuff’ comes from that. I need more words to say how she affects me.
A couple of oddities I didn’t expect: There is no more “me time”. It has become “us time”, because she demands that it be this way. We sleep, shower, eat, cook (except at the Pavilion), wash dishes, clean house, do laundry, all that. All TOGETHER, all the time. Same for homework, where she teaches me (better than ANY of my teachers). She says, “The Bible says the two shall become one flesh, and I take that seriously. I don’t think we can become one MIND, but we need to work on that.”
Secondly, while we have a TV, we rarely look at it, but we DO use it for the Classical Music Channel, because we need that while cooking or eating, and doing homework problems.
Further, there’s flying. Vicki coached me thru all the ground-school exercises, and Cindy instructed me until I could solo the 152. Now I’m slowly building hours, along with Dana. We take turns, but she’s significantly ahead of me.
Now THAT is a wild story. Little kid is sixteen, already has her BSEE, and got begged to join the Auburn Women’s Soccer team, where she tore up opposing teams. I’ve never tried to play soccer, but I know a little about it. I recognize athleticism and talent when I see it, and she’s GOT it!
So, let’s see: There’s Dana who’s smarter, faster, more agile, and flight-hours ahead of me. Vicki who’s smarter, faster, more energetic than me. Cindy who’s smarter, faster, on faculty, and just advised me that I’m being transferred into the College of Engineering for the spring semester. Hmm. I’m starting to sense a common thread here, which is: If you want your career to get REAL, you’d better get hooked into the “smart girls”, somehow.
And having said THAT, you only get hooked into the “community” when THEY decide. It ain’t your choice -- it’s THEIR choice. And once they choose, YOU have no alternative.
Don Matzke’s turn:
It’s a delight to have Geno back in the office, and a bigger delight to turn over scheduling and FAA paperwork to him. Frankly, he looks MUCH healthier now than when he was here before.
It’s funny: Sonya brings him his lunch every day -- watching his cardio health, of course, and his weight. Lots of vegetables, broiled chicken, a few other things. The way she’s treating him, he’s good for another thirty years, I’ll bet.
My cardio health is better too, thanks to a certain “aerobic exercise” regimen with Teresa. No, I won’t say more.
But we have a problem at the shop: A PC-12, which Cindy characterizes: “I got a scratch-and-dent-discount on it.” Somewhere, somebody probably believes that. But nobody here is qualified to fly it. Our ATP guys aren’t familiar with the Pilatus turboprop and none of them are type-rated for the PC-24 turbojet because it’s so darned new and at that, rare. Ours will be the first any of them will ever see.
As of right now, we ‘borrow’ one of the folks from the Auburn bunch. Wally’s been in on one of those. As long as it’s cargo, we’re in the clear. Things get a bit iffy with passengers. In the PC-12 and the smaller Cessna jets, a commercial pilot can fly passengers, but the bigger planes require that airline transport pilot rating.
Geno was talking with me yesterday, when we arrived at a conclusion: We need to find “somebody new” that we can send to training classes to get rated for PC-12’s, PC-24’s, and Citations. THAT means classes in Orlando and Dallas.
Dunno how that’s gonna work. I was distracted, thinking about it at breakfast this morning, with Teresa sitting across from me. She had a worried look on her face, so I said, “Teresa, you look a bit worried. What’s going on?”
She smiled and said, “Two things, Don. First, I have an accounting exam this morning. That’s easy, but the second thing is, you’re distracted, and you’re looking worried, too. What’s going on?”
I said, “Tee, I’m trying to figure it out. We need a new pilot, somebody who’s Pilatus-rated, and it’s REALLY hard to find people who fit that qualification. Cindy has thrown us a kink, here.”
Teresa said, “Did you ask Cindy? Maybe she has an idea.”
I said, “No ma’am, I haven’t asked, but I’m pretty sure she expects us to figure it out. It’s part of why she pays us, I think.”
Teresa said, “When I hit problems that I don’t know how to fix, I call Dad. Maybe you should call him. He’s a Harrier pilot -- maybe he knows someone.”
I said, “Tee, that’s an evil idea. Do you think he’d be interested, really?”
She said, “Probably not, but he might know someone. Call him and see.”
I thought about that, all the way to the office. I stepped into Geno’s office with a fresh cup of coffee and said, “Morning, Geno. How brave are you feeling, today?”
He grinned and said, “Matzke, I know you and I strongly suspect you’re stirring up trouble. What do you have in mind?”
“Well, sir,” I smiled and said, “my new wife proposed a solution to our need for a new pilot. It’s a long shot, but it might work. Probably works best if you make the call, rather than me. If it works, this guy could be the answer to our bizjet problems.”
Geno asked, “This guy -- is he Pilatus qualified?”
I said, “Nope, but he could do the training without disrupting our pilot scheduling. And no question in my mind he could do the work -- he’s a Harrier driver.”
Geno grinned, and said, “By God, I’m just a C-141 driver, but I always wondered how those guys did it. More to the point, WHY they did it. You really think there’s a chance?”
I said, “If I call him, he’ll tell me to shit in my hat. If YOU call him, there’s a chance.”
Geno said, “Let me guess: You’re talking about Jim Hardesty?” He laughed. “Yeah, after you snagged Teresa, I suspect he’s ambivalent about you. He was smiling at the wedding, though.”
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Alan's Turn: One might imagine that in the aftermath of the restaurant robbery, things might be in a turmoil. To a certain extent, one would be right. I'm fortunate. I have immediate family, my Tina and my Terri. I have my full family, and Tina made sure that she talked with my sister about the incident. And I have the Community. "You gonna be okay, buddy?" Dan 1.0 asked. "Yeah. Am I supposed to be all weepy or something?" He shook his head. "Not like you had any choices." "You...
Dan Granger's turn: I have to laugh. I tried very hard NOT to burn bridges when I left my old job. It paid off. Steve called. "Hey, Steve, what's up?" "You ready to come back?" "Not funny, Steve." "Seriously. One of our clients specifically asked if we'd subcontract you so you can come in and do some stuff for him." "What and when?" Steve gave me the run-down. I wasn't too surprised. Big facility. I'd done a similar scope for part of it prior to moving to Alabama. Now...
The World According to Susan: I am officially ready for a break. It's almost Christmas. I almost hide when I see my math professor. That's okay, though. He almost hides when he sees Cindy. Jason's right there with me, though. He's tested out of some classes and he's gotten transferred credits for a lot of things he took for his technology degree and if he does a summer semester next summer, he just MIGHT squeeze his way onto stage with the rest of us. I hoping. He deserves it. We work...
Cindy's Turn: I finished, well, actually WE finished a Skype session with Kara. This time it was me and Nikki and Kara. I turned to Nikki. "She's a sister, you know. Should be part of the Community," Nikki said. I'm glad Nikki said it first. I don't want everybody to think I'm running this show. I'm certainly not malicious or anything, but everybody contributes in this effort. "How do we make it happen?" I asked. "She's music, not engineering." "We had Mizz Patel handling...
Bill Carmody's turn: Interesting turn of events, I think. Two years ago I had Dan Richards on my power plant project. I knew him and Alan Addison from a previous power plant project where we were engineers, all three of us, on the same project. They're technically beyond reproach. Now I'm on THEIR payroll. 'Their' is, of course, 3Sigma Engineering. We're redoing several rural substations in Georgia. I ride herd on contractors, mainly, and make sure that they adhere to plans, and I...
Beck’s turn: First thing I did when we got home is call Mom. “Hello, my lost daughter,” Mom said, using her best ‘poor me’ voice. “Did somebody go into the hospital? It is not yet Saturday.” “Mom, your GRAD-daughter...” ““GRAND daughter,” Mom corrected. “My grand-daughter the millionaire...” “Your grand-daughter the research scientist...” “What has become of her now?” “She’s holding a letter in her hands that says she’s graduated college with a degree in engineering.” “My...
Susan's turn: I'm waiting for the aliens to show up. Here's how I figure it will break down. Nikki and Cindy will work with Terri and Rachel on the Star Wars squirrel denial system. They'll actually GET that 95 gigahertz transmitter, and in the process of modulating its output so that it only severely annoys squirrels instead of cooking them on the spot out there in the yard, they'll transmit a signal into space where it will be picked up by an alien spacecraft. The aliens will come...
Bill Carmody’s turn: Yesterday’s wedding was a delight, especially watching my NEW daughter (!) and Cindy, my original daughter, looking and acting very much like twins. Can’t help but grin, just thinking about it. Both of ‘em have a little fire in their eyes, and when they’re together, you can nearly SEE the sparks flying between them. Couldn’t have asked for a more unlikely development, right up to matching green dresses they bought together for the wedding. And my phone buzzes --...
Tina's turn: "What's so funny?" my husband asked. "Stoney and Jo are coming back and they're still flyin' that Pitts." "Did they buy it?" "She says 'no', but two trips, you gotta wonder." I giggled. I know the real reason. A combination of scheduling conflicts and weather had kept us from holding the weekend airport social and landing contest. The social, however, now had a few outside participants. I mean, it was bound to happen. We don't exist in a vacuum. On any given...
Cindy’s turn: 0700 for a wake-up. The alarm caught me when it went off. Sometimes I’m drifting between sleep and awake, but not this morning. I finally got to sleep, found out that Dana’s a kicker, so I kicked back. When the alarm went off, I let it roll for a bit, listening to the whines and other sounds of the gang waking up. I killed it, turned to get out of bed, but was a bit slow. I saw a T-shirted Rachel flash by muttering “bathroom...” Well, at least with two rooms we can split the...
Tina's turn: I keep telling myself that Bot-bot is not a real pet. I only wish I knew what was going on in my little girl's mind. Parse that statement, won't you? I have a stepdaughter who's ten years younger than me, who is probably past me in some ways, academically speaking. I know she does things with technology that all of us in the community wonder about. What went on in her head that caused her to take a mobile squirrel repeller platform and convert it into a pet? Yeah, I know,...
Tim's turn: I'd be a janitor for 3Sigma after seeing how Vicki and Kim fit in here. I'm THAT happy. That whole 'divorced dad' thing is horrible. I mean, you talk with your daughter on the phone once or twice a week, trying to stay up with what's going on in her life, and then you get a week or so for Thanksgiving or Christmas and you get a few weeks in the summer. A week was BAD. I don't know little girls. Until this past year, I didn't have my own place, so we cribbed up at Mom and...
Donna's turn: Do you know how to bring on pure pandemonium in my daughter's little community? Let me tell you. Saturday nights are the big night for music. Everybody's usually there. Well, sometimes we add Stoney and Johanna, sometimes Jason and Susan are off visiting one set of impending grandparents or the other. This particular weekend, though, we're all together. Me and Bill, we have our own swing there. So we laugh and sing and dance and then there's a break and my Bill stands...
Terri's turn: I really DO love my mom. I'm speaking of my natural mom, the person who carried me for nine months, then gave birth to me. I did not and still do not understand why she left Dad for Mister Martin. I know both men and there's no comparison. Tina tells me that there are things that go on in people's hearts and heads that are not easily defined. Defined. If you define 'step-mom', it means the woman who marries your dad. That's Tina. Dictionary definitions are so...
Nikki's Turn: Mommyhood hangs over us all. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way disparaging FOUR new mommies. Let's run down the list. Susan 'n' Jason have little JW – Jason Wallace, named after him and his dad. Alan and Tina have Katherine Genevieve – after nobody in particular, but Terri is forbidden to call her Kathygen. Johanna and Stoney have Randall Stonewall, and Mister Bill and Mizz Donna have Cindy's half-sister Elise Ann, a whole two days old. I'm likely to be the next. My...
Still Nikki’s turn: I squeezed Dan’s fingers. “A bit of bad luck, this,” I said. “Baby, be so kind as to hand me my iPhone. I need to get the news out.” Dana’s turn: We’re a pretty connected group here. I mean, everybody’s always texting and posting updates during the day, so when I got one from Nikki, I knew where she was supposed to be – on campus with the munchkins. I thought I’d see another ‘you won’t believe what Terri (or Rachel or Vicki) just did’ post. It wasn’t. I’m at the...
Derek’s turn: This is trouble. Wonderful, happy, delightful, ecstatically wonderful. But trouble. I knew what was going to happen when Rachel called me to help her feed Dana’s cat. Empty apartment except for me and Rachel and the cat, and the cat gets petted while I’m sitting next to Rachel and the cat leaves and Rachel turns to me. I like kissing her. I like holding her. We talk about everything. Tara says we’re too young to have a past, but I’ve lived through a car wreck and the loss of...
Cindy’s turn: It was just another morning in the office when the phone rang and as Maddie was occupied, I answered it. “3Sigma, this is Cindy. May I help you?” “Cindy? Good, it’s you I wanted to talk to.” “Hello Mizz Patel. What’s going on today?” “Would you mind if I drive out to your office? I’d like to talk about something in private.” I noted that she didn’t have her normal happy lilt. “Of course it’s okay. You’re always welcome here.” This was unusual for her though, so I added,...
Tara’s turn: We did it. Derek and I talked. He agreed, but honestly, I’m the adult in this equation, actually his legal guardian, and he would have had to go along with my plan. However, a certain pre-teen Jewish princess seems to have gained my little brother’s eye. I think that if we HADN’T decided to move, he might’ve hitched a ride back here. The apartment. Cindy and her Dan used to live here. It belongs to the corporation. They told me I could paint it any color I wanted, but honestly,...