Chapter 1

It wasn't until months later that I realized that Friday night in later November was a turning point in my life. After enjoying a late dinner with friends, I walked back to my car. It was 10:30 at night and the streets were packed with people enjoying a Friday night on the town. After a long week at work, all I wanted was to go home and go to bed.

I had parked 5 blocks away from the restaurant to avoid the traffic. I had grown up in the area and knew all the streets like the back of my hand. Rather than walking along the major streets to get back to my car, I decided to take a shortcut to my car. Turning down a side street I saw her. She was sitting in a small park, really nothing more than some grass and tree surrounded by the buildings of the city. Her back was propped up against a tree and she had her knees pulled up against her chest. Her long black hair was dirty and tangled. It was a cool night and she was wearing a black coat. She had pulled the coat around her legs as much as she could. From the parts of her legs that we visible I could see that she had on a pair of dark blue leggings. There was a small red plastic bowl beside her that was similar to the one I had eaten my cereal out of that morning. She looked tired and hungry.

As I got closer she glanced in my direction with a look of hope on her face. Before I even reached her, her look became resigned and she tucked her head back into her knees. I was wearing a simple blue polo shirt, khaki slacks and a light tan jacket, nothing that would indicate how much money I actually have. I'm not normally a very impulsive person but I decided on this occasion to try and help.

"I'm sorry but I don't have any change on me," I said, stopping on the sidewalk in front of her. Her face fell further into the valley between her legs. "But we can go get something to eat if you'd like."

Her head pulled away from her legs, a small light of hope in her eyes. "Thank you." she whispered as we set off down the street toward a dinner that I've eaten at often.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Mary," she replied coolly but didn't say anything else. I looked over at her. She had a small smile on her face but her hands were nervously fidgeting with the hem of her coat. Before I had time to ask her anything else we reached the dinner. I held the door open and followed her in.

"Dr. Ed," Charlie said from the counter, "how're things."

"Can't complain, Charlie." I replied walking to a booth along the wall.

As Mary slid into the booth I handed her a menu. "Everything's good here," I told her, "Get whatever you want."

She looked up at me, "Anything?"

"Anything." A young waitress I'd never met came over to take our drink order. "I'll just have a coffee, black, no sugar."

"You never change, do you doc?" I heard Charlie yell from the Kitchen.

"You know I don't want to spoil the awful taste of your coffee," I teased back right back.

The waitress looked at Mary. "I'll have the spaghetti, a garden salad and a coke please." Only expecting a drink order, the waitress quickly produced a pad of paper and wrote it all down as she retreated into the kitchen.

"You're only getting a coffee?" Mary asked with a confused look on her face.

"Yeah. I just had a dinner with some old friends."

"Oh." Mary looked thoughtful for a moment. "Why did that guy call you Dr. Ed?"

"That's just Charlie. I used to come here after school almost every day when I was in college. When I finally graduated Charlie starting calling me Dr. Ed."

"Are you actually a doctor?"

"Actually yes, but not a medical doctor."

"PhD?" she asked.

"Yup. Now I'm a professor of physics."

Her eyes got really wide. "Really? I wish I were smart enough to do something like that." Her voice trailed off as she looked down at the table.

"Anyone can do it, really. You just have to put your mind to it and study until your brain hurts every night."

"I can't. Look at me."

"What do you mean? I see a young woman who's down on her luck. I teach people every day and I can tell you that anyone can do it if they put their mind to it. Sure, it takes a little luck to get into the big named school, but almost anyone can get into my little college."

Her eye looked sad, "I'm 26 and I have never had any luck. At least not since I left home when my mom got married."

"You ran away?"

"No. I mean left. My step father made a pass at me when I was 17. I told my mom and she didn't believe me. So I left before he could do anything."

"I'm sorry. Where did you go?"

"Where could I go? My friends couldn't support me, they were just high school students and their parents didn't want another mouth to feed so I ended up out here. I got a job at McDonald's, but you can't afford an apartment on what they pay."

"So you've lived on the street since you were 17?"

"No. I had an apartment for a while."

"Did you find a better job?"

"After a while of living on the street I learned that I could make a lot more money by finding guys to sleep with." Her voice had become hard. "Guys pay a lot better than McDonald's."

"You're a prostitute?" I asked as innocently as I could.

"Not anymore. I gave it up 3 months ago." She didn't volunteer any more information and I saw the waitress approaching with her food. As soon as the plate was on the table, Mary dug into the food.

"You can slow down you know. They're not going to take it bad in five minutes." I said with a smile trying to lighten the mood. Mary blushed but kept eating. As Mary continued to eat, I examined Mary's clothes. They were all older and had been well used but they were very well maintained. The hems on the sleeves were starting to fray but there were no tears or major stains anywhere on the shirt.

"So what do you want?" Mary asked, startling me out of my thoughts. She was looking at me with a dark look on her face.

"What?"

"What do you want from me? No one does anything without wanting something." Mary started to look nervous but still determined.

"You don't owe me anything, Mary. I'm a teacher which means I help people. Tonight I chose to help you."

"Nothing's that simple."

"This is. You really don't owe me anything." Mary's face broke and tears began to well up in her eyes. Her face was a mix of emotions. She had been through so much in her life that she had nearly lost faith in people.

"Do you want help?" I blurted out before I knew what I was saying.

"Huh?" she mumbled, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"Do you want help getting your life together?"

"What can you do? Can you make someone hire a used up ex-whore? Can you make someone give me an apartment for free?"

"You're not a used up ex-whore," I said with more force that I intended. Mary shrank away from me. "You did what you had to do to survive. Seems to me that you managed the situation better than I could have. Let's face it, guys wouldn't pay me nearly as much to sleep with them," I said with a smile. The tears were still flowing but a saw a small smile come to her lips. "No, I can't make someone hire you, but I can hire you myself."

"You?" She said looking up. Her voice took on an icy edge. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing like that. Listen, I live in a big house by myself but most of my time is spent working. My place is rarely clean and you can't even imagine my diet. Here's my thought. You can stay in my home office. It used to be bedroom and we can make it one again. Instead of paying me rent, you can take care of my home. In addition to that, I'll pay you an additional $200 a week."

"Sorta like a maid?" Mary said, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"Exactly! Sorta like a maid, except there's one more condition." The glimmer of hope began to fade. "I also want to you go back to school. You need to get your GED and you need to go to college."

"I can't afford college."

"We'll worry about that later."

"If I do all those things I wouldn't need to be your maid anymore."

"Exactly!"

"But how does that help you?"

"My house will be cleaner between now and then. Besides, like I said earlier, I like helping people."

"I don't understand why you are doing this for me."

"I simply want to help you. Don't think it's going to be easy for you though. You have to do your best in school, keep the house clean and fix dinners. That will be a lot of work for you."

"I'll try my best," she said softly.

"That's all I ask. I'm guessing you'd like to move in tonight?"

"Can I?" the glimmer of hope in her eyes had fully bloomed.

"Sure, but you'll have to sleep on a cot in the office or on the couch in the living room until we can get things rearranged in the office tomorrow."

"You know I sleep on the ground in the woods, right? A cot and blanket would be an improvement."

"Good point," I said laughing. "Is there anything you need to get before we head to my house?"

"I have everything I own on me."

"Well then, let's go." I laid a twenty on the table knowing that it would cover the meal and a sizable tip for the waitress. After promising Charlie that I would stop back in soon, Mary and I left the diner, walked two blocks down the street to my car and headed for my house.

"Before I forget," I said as I was unlocking my front door, "I have a security system in the house."

"Seriously?" she asked. "This is the nicest neighborhood I've seen in years. Why would you need a security system?"

"My house was robbed 6 months ago. They made off with a lot. TVs, all my computers, as well as some of the jewelry my mom handed down to 'the future Mrs. Ed' in her will. After I lost all that I went a bit overboard and had wireless security camera placed around the house."

"Everywhere?" Mary asked, sounding worried but a bit curious.

"Of course not. I do have some tact. I obviously didn't put any in my bedroom or in the bathrooms. There is, however, a camera in the office since that's where all my computers are right now."

"Computers? Plural? How many do you have?"

"Right now I have four. My specialty is computational modeling. In order to do that I need multiple high-end computers. I also have a laptop for email, surfing the web, writing paper and the like. When we rearrange the office into a bedroom tomorrow we can remove the camera so you won't have to worry about it."

"Okay. So basically if I screw something up in the house, someone, somewhere, is going to see it and tell you and I'm going to get thrown out."

"Probably not. First off the videos are stored on a data server I have in the basement. The only person with access to that server is me. The videos also only exist for a week before they are overwritten unless I download them. I just need evidence in case there is another break in so I can get my stuff back. Don't worry about me tracking everything you do, I don't have the time to go looking through all the videos."

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know."

"Now that that's out of the way, let me give you the grand tour." Leading her to the right, "This is the dining room."