Chapter 16

Once we were home, I asked Missy if she was still nervous about going to see my parents on Saturday.

"No... Well, maybe some. I want to meet them. It's just that I'm afraid they won't like me. I have a friend who married a guy and his mother has hated her since she met her. I don't want that. I want your mother to be my friend."

Our lovemaking that night was somewhat subdued, but no less loving.

Week 8 - Friday

I could only hope that today was going to be a little less eventful than the last few days had been. It started off better, anyway. Missy, Brenda and I had a leisurely breakfast in the cafeteria. Our conversation completely avoided work.

Brenda was of course interested in Jason's condition, so Missy filled her in. As we were discussing the incident, Dale asked if he could join us.

"Well, I found out what Huggleston was working on," Dale said after he was seated. "Now, I have to figure out what to do about it."

"So, the little history program worked?"

"Oh, yeah. As you know, all of our drawing's file numbers start with the job number. When I looked at the drawings he had been working on yesterday, there was one that stuck out like a sore thumb. I brought it up, and it even had the name of the company it was being done for in the title block."

"Then he was doing work for an outside company. That's what I was afraid of. What are you going to do about it?"

"I guess I'm going to have to fire him. The trouble is, he's probably the best CADD operator we have."

"Let's think on it a day or two. In the meantime, call him in and talk to him. Tell him you know what he's been doing. See what he says. He may just quit. Be up front. Tell him that we're trying to figure out whether to fire him or not, and see what he has to say."

"Okay," Dale said somewhat skeptically. "I'm not sure how that will help anything, but I'll do it."

Actually, it did turn out to be a calmer day. Brenda and I managed to get two reports finished, that I had been really dreading. We also worked on guidelines for expenditures while traveling.

As we were driving home, I asked Missy what she'd like for dinner.

"I think we should go out for dinner," she said. "Then afterwards, I think we should go dancing."

"Ah, youth," I said. "Always ready to eat out, and always ready to go dancing. Us old codgers need our rest, love."

"Old codger, my ass," Missy grinned. "Remember, I saw you in action at GM. I've also seen you in action in our bedroom. If you're an old codger, then I never want to meet a young stud."

"I wasn't fishing for a compliment," I said as I squeezed her hand. "I was just kidding around. I hope you know I love you, Missy."

"Yeah, I know that. I also know that I love you, too. You know, in just a few short weeks I've come to a point where I don't know how I could live without you."

We actually had a lot of fun. We went to a Chinese place for dinner, and then to a local dance club afterwards.

For some reason, I'm a much better dancer when I'm dancing with Missy than I am with anyone else. We had a lot of fun on the fast songs, and enjoyed the cuddling on the slow ones. All in all, it was a wonderful evening.

Week 8 - Saturday

Missy and I made sweet, gentle love before we got up. We took a shower together, and enjoyed washing each other. After a light breakfast, we got ready to go to my parents' place.

Missy was in a much lighter mood this morning. I could only assume that she had come to grips with her fear of meeting my parents. The drive over only took about a half an hour and we spent it in pleasant conversation.

Mom came running out as soon as we pulled into the yard. She gave me a big hug when I got out of the car and then turned and looked expectantly at Missy.

"Mom, this is my fiancée, Missy Gerard. Missy, this is my mother, Grace," I said.

Missy extended her hand and said, "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Delany."

Mom grinned from ear to ear and said, "A handshake isn't going to cut it, Missy. My son's fiancée gets a hug." With that, she stepped forward and pulled Missy into a hug.

"I also want to get one thing straight, right from the start," Mom said. "To you, I am not 'Mrs. Delany'. To you, I'm either Grace, Gracie, or Mom. Your choice."

Now, Missy was grinning too. She hugged Mom back as hard as Mom was hugging her. "Right now, let's start with Grace," Missy said. "Later, it'll probably be Mom."

"Edward," Mom said, "You should be ashamed of yourself. You never told me she's absolutely beautiful."

"Actually, Mom, it was her mind I fell in love with first."

"Well, you have to tell me all about it. But first, I think we should go inside, so your dad can get a look at this gorgeous creature," Mom said. She turned back to Missy and added, "I let Fred look at pretty girls, as long as he remembers who he is going home with."

"I don't care how much Ed looks, Grace. I don't think I have anything to worry about there," Missy said as she hugged my arm to her.

"No, I don't expect you do," Mom said.

We went inside and Mom introduced Missy to Dad. He actually looked a lot better than the last time I saw him. Dad said hello to Missy, then he looked her over carefully.

"You know, young lady," he said, "you have your work cut out for you. Ed has been a bachelor for far too many years."

"Actually, he seems to be pretty well house-trained, Fred," Missy said.

"He may not make a mess on the carpet, honey, but he's pretty well used to having his own way. Now, me, I'm used to having Gracie run things, while pretending I'm the one in charge. She can give you pointers if you need them."

Mom slapped him on the shoulder, then bent down and kissed him on the cheek. We all talked for a while, then Dad suggested that we walk outside, and show Missy the blueberry fields.

"You seem to be doing a lot better, Dad. The last time I was here, you wouldn't have wanted to walk out to the fields."

"Well, Son, I've been going to a different physical therapist since just before you were here the last time. She works me to death, but it's helping a lot. I'm walking up to three miles a day now, and I'm regaining the use of my left arm and hand. I can pick up things with my left hand now, and I can move my fingers almost as well as I could before the stroke."

"You're awfully young to be having a stroke, Fred," Missy said. "Do they know what caused it?"

"Yeah, I'm not completely clear on it, but I seem to have a small hole between the two chambers of my heart. The one chamber has clean filtered blood in it that is pumped to the brain. The other chamber has blood that has been brought back after circulating through my body. That blood sometimes has small clots in it. Somehow, one of the small clots got through the hole into the clean blood and it was pumped into my brain."

"Can they do anything to keep it from happening again?" I asked.

"Yes, there are a couple of ways they can do it. One way is to do open heart surgery, and patch up the hole. The other way is what they are doing with me. They have me on a medicine that prevents the little clots from forming. The only problem is, I bleed like a stuck pig if I get a cut or something."

"So, except for being careful about getting cuts, you should be able to live a normal life."

"That's what they tell me. With this new therapist, I'm starting to believe it."

Mom was smiling from ear to ear as Dad talked. We showed Missy the fields of blueberry bushes, and she was impressed.

Dad wanted to tell Missy everything about blueberry farming. Mom finally cut him off before he had Missy bored to tears.

We actually had a great afternoon. Missy seemed to fit right in, and she looked relaxed. I know she was a hit with Mom and Dad. Mom made fried chicken with all of the fixings for dinner, and we had (of course) blueberry pie for desert. I told Mom and dad what Missy's dad had said about loving blueberries, but that all they'd ever seen were about the size of a pea.

"We'll send them a case when they're ripe," Dad said. "I'll make sure they're big ones."

I grinned and said, "Just a normal run, dad. If you send them all the really big ones, they'll freak out."

It started to get late, at least by my parent's standards, so we said we were going to bed.

"I'm putting you guys in the guest room," Mom said. "Your old room still has a single bed in it, Ed. That's a little small, even for two young lovers."

I had to laugh. "So my room is still the same as when I left? How about Tina's room? Is it still the same too?"

Mom blushed then said, "Yes, it's still the same, too. She's going to be here in the morning. I told her you were bringing over your fiancée, she about flipped out."

"How's she doing, Mom? I know it hit her pretty hard when Bob left her."

"Well, she's pretty well gotten over Bob's leaving, but she's having a rough time of it. She really doesn't have any training or skills, and she has two kids to raise."

"Where's she working?"

"She's a clerk at the 7-11. She makes enough to pay their rent and utilities and to buy food, but that's about it. We bought them an old car, and your dad keeps it running for her. It's not a great life for them."

Later, when we were snuggled in bed, Missy said, "You've never talked about your sister. Why's that?"

"Tina and I had a falling out when she got married. She was only eighteen. I never liked her husband, and I didn't trust him. I didn't tell her that, but I did try to talk her out of marrying him. Then I tried to talk her into waiting a couple of years so she could get some kind of training, that would have let her get a better job than being a clerk at the 7-11. This made her mad and we had a fight."

"And you never saw her again?"

"Oh, yeah, I saw them. I went to their wedding. By the time I saw them again, almost four years later, both of their kids had been born. Bob had already started acting like I was afraid he was going to act, from the start. I don't know what their life was like when they were by themselves; but that day, at least, he was verbally abusive to her."

"And... ?"

"I called him on it. He threw a punch at me, and I decked him. Of course, Tina took his side and she told me she never wanted to see me again."

"I'm so sorry, honey. You do know that's a classic syndrome for a battered wife though, don't you? They take their husband's part even though he's beating and abusing them. They lie for him and make excuses to themselves for him. They tell themselves he really loves them, but that he just has a hard time showing it."

"Well, that's certainly the way she acted. I haven't seen her since I knocked the bastard down. James was two years old at the time, and Cindi was about six months. He'll be around seven years old now, and she'll be five. I feel bad that they don't even know their Uncle Ed."

"Well, maybe we can make up for that, now. Is there any way we can help her, Ed? Could we get her on at Belding?"