Chapter 10: Oh! Calcutta!

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The names and locations of embassies and consulates in this book and the descriptions of chanceries are as accurate as I could dig up for 1972-75. The names of ambassadors and government employees have all been made up because they are part of the fictional story. When the name of a historic personage is used, it is in context with the record of what that person actually said or did. This is historical FICTION, not history.

I found no evidence that Polaroid devices were installed in the embassies and consulates for the purpose of making passports, although the equipment described mostly existed. To my knowledge, the process has always involved sending the photo and the information to a service center for manufacture. The Polaroid controversy in South Africa is historic, though, and has been related as accurately as I could make it.

I DID NOT SCREW CC, though she made it pretty clear that she was available and willing. We did get some good pictures. We were each allowed to keep two of the 8x10 shots. I told her I’d send her a selection of the best black and whites when I got a chance to process and print them.

“I almost left without you,” Janet said as she drove me back to the hotel.

“You should have said something. I could have caught a cab,” I said. It was close to eleven at night and I didn’t realize the only reason she was hanging around was to take me back to the hotel.

“I thought you’d leave with CC.”

“Oh. Um...” How to be honest about this? “I won’t say it’s never happened, but I try to make a practice of not sleeping with models. Especially a model who used to be my girlfriend’s roommate. That kind of thing just gets messy.”

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t model for you.”

“Um...”

“Relax. I’m not suggesting anything. Having a relationship with an account rep from a vendor doing business with the government could get messier than getting it on with a model. Do you think you’re ready for the session tomorrow?”

“Having stepped through the process once and now trying to teach it to novices is going to be a challenge. I’m pretty sure I can stumble through the setup and creation, but I doubt I will be erudite. I should have spent this evening going over my notes,” I said.

My task for Thursday was to train three newcomers on the equipment, including setup, taking photos, and manufacturing a passport. Thankfully, I did not need to teach them to completely disassemble and reassemble everything, troubleshooting any problems along the way. I didn’t think I’d need to do that when I set things up in an embassy. From what Mr. Martin had said, there would be a space in each chancery or consulate building dedicated to the equipment. Polaroid had given a design for minimum space required. The equipment would all be set up once and that would be it.

Janet dropped me off and said she’d pick me up at eight in the morning, and not to forget that there was a dinner meeting Thursday evening. I guess that was the only reason I wasn’t leaving until Friday. This was the official dinner meeting that I was allowed to accept without paying for.

As soon as I reached my room, I called home and talked to my lovers. I had to answer questions from Ronda about CC, and was glad I’d cut the activities off where I did.

“Does Mr. Martin know that a whole bunch of supplies are being shipped to us? I don’t know how much is expected in the shipment, but I gathered it was a lot of equipment and material. The companies are geared up to start supplying as fast as we can install.”

“I’ll check. I know they keep passport supplies here in the building somewhere, because they put together passports to ship out. I’ll find out.”

She handed the phone over to Patricia.

“Toni is enrolled in preschool and she is so excited about it. There’s a Head Start program at the elementary school and she’s there half days. Then it shifts to daycare.”

“I hope they’ll let me come by and see how it runs,” I said. “All I have to do is get a morning off of work when she’s in school.”

“There will be an evening parents’ session coming up soon. In the meantime, I’ve put applications in at the Jewel Tea Store and at Piggly Wiggly. They’re both just a few blocks from the school. I don’t think I’ll have a problem getting a part time job and still be able to keep the house clean.”

“You are not relegated to being our housekeeper!” I said. “That house belongs to all of us and we will all do our share of cleaning and cooking.”

“Oh, don’t get upset,” Patricia said. “I know everyone will help, but it’s the part of our little family that I’ve taken on. And Anna is only working part time for Jordan, so depending on how busy your studio keeps her, she’ll be doing at least as much around the house as I do. But really, Nate, you and Ronda are going to be traveling just about every week. You can hardly wash the dishes if you’re eating off grape leaves in Greece. Speaking of which, Anna is bouncing beside me because she needs you to kiss her.”

She handed the phone to Anna.

“I’m afraid kissing will need to wait until Friday afternoon. Tomorrow, I have to conduct a training class.”

“I can wait until I see you at the gate. Ronda has given me your flight information and I’ll be there to pick you up,” Anna said.

“Better bring the bus. I think I’m going to have a whole bunch of equipment to transport. They’re sending it all with me.”

“Hmm. We’d better get a luggage cart. Who knows where I’ll have to park at O’Hare. I’m just missing you a lot right now.”

“What’s got you pining?” I asked.

“I think my period is due this weekend. I just want to be held and cuddled by my boyfriend.”

“Your lover will be all over that assignment,” I laughed. “Oh, I should probably go to the studio sometime this weekend and develop some photos. Do I still even have access over there?”

“Yes, but we’ve been putting together a space here where you can do some limited photoshoots and do printing and processing. You’ll like it.”

“Where do we have room for that?”

“In the boathouse. We hardly even looked in the back of the garage. We’ve all decided having a boat is unlikely in the near future, at least, so we’ll turn the back half of the garage where a boat would normally be stored into a miniature studio.”

“That’s cool. I suppose we can get enough equipment that I can do some work out there.”

“Don’t worry about it. Remember, you have a business manager.”

“Right. Okay. I love you.”

“And we all love you. Get some sleep so you can shine like a star tomorrow.”

Thursday morning, I was back at Polaroid for the first of my install practice runs. I would simply unpack and set up the equipment, talking through the setup for the person I was instructing. Then that person would set up all the equipment and we’d go through the process of creating an ID card and a passport.

As soon as the session was done, Ray and Lewis, my trainers, critiqued how I’d done and then I disassembled everything and went through it all again. The second session went until one o’clock and then we broke for lunch, served in the company cafeteria. I wasn’t sure how things were supposed to work as far as expenses went when I was eating in the company cafeteria and it seemed that everyone’s food was being provided. I’d find out if I did anything wrong soon enough.

At two, I had my next ‘trainee’ and went through the whole process again. I didn’t think the actual training I’d be conducting would go as fast as the practice sessions. In fact, this trainee had a ton of questions, which I answered to the best of my ability. After the session, I had to break everything down and, with the assistance of Ray and Lewis, prepare it for shipping. Except it wasn’t going to be shipped. I was checking it at the airport and carting it home with me, along with a couple of heavy boxes of supplies.

We wrapped up a little after five and all went out to eat at a nice steakhouse. By all, I mean Ray, Lewis, George Taylor, Janet, and me. This was definitely a celebratory dinner for all of us and I had a martini to toast with.

Friday morning, Janet picked me up one last time. We went to the office and loaded all the materials and equipment into her car with my bag, camera, props trunk, and new portfolio shots. Then she drove me to the airport. I definitely never wanted to drive in Boston. I managed to get a porter with a luggage cart to load all the equipment and boxes on and then headed to the check-in desk. There was quite a discussion about whether I would be allowed to check all the baggage until I presented my new black passport and informed them that I was on official State Department business and these items needed to get to Chicago with me.

The attitude behind the counter changed dramatically. The boxes and cases were all sealed with red security tape and I was promised they would be the first items off the aircraft in Chicago. Then I was told there was an open seat in first class if I would like to upgrade for twenty dollars. That sounded like a good deal to me and I took it, paying cash for the upgrade and not using my American Express credit card.

By one in the afternoon, I was comfortably seated in first class and headed for Chicago.

“We managed to locate the shipment and divert it to the warehouse where the other materials are stored. I think we have enough to keep us busy through the winter,” Ronda said when Anna and I picked her up at the train station.

“That’s good. We’ve got enough in the back of the bus to start a black market in fake passports,” I said. “Anna, honey, we’d better park the bus inside the garage if there’s room.”

“Just jump out and open the door. I’m not sure it locks, though. We might need to go get a padlock,” Anna said. Why on earth did they send a bunch of classified equipment home with me on the plane?

“Do we have to deal with any business over the weekend?” I asked.

“It’s one of the real benefits of working for the government,” Ronda said. “Unless we are traveling, we don’t work overtime. Yes, we have to be at the office promptly at eight o’clock, but we also leave promptly at four-thirty. We have no work on the weekend.”

“Well, the coming week will all be spent teaching you to use and install the equipment as my backup,” I sighed. “God, I missed being home with my family.”

We pulled into the drive and I opened the garage door. Patricia had parked between the house and garage in a sheltered area we had there. It wasn’t quite a carport, but it would be a lot more convenient to the house when we were carting groceries and such. Toni came running around the house to meet us as I carted my duffle bag and camera case from the garage.

“Daddy! I have a new school!”

“That’s wonderful, Toni. Have you made new friends?”

“Daddy, they don’t know numbers and letters. I help them.”

“Good for you!”

Patricia rounded the corner and gave me a hug and a kiss then picked up my luggage to take in the house.

“Love you, Babe. Come in and rub my tummy. Baby sister needs attention, too.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I got in to see an obstetrician, Dr. Randolph, this week and received a pronouncement of fit and healthy. I also received a sheaf of paper about how to prepare for a baby. I wish I’d had all that when I was pregnant with Little Miss.”

“I Little Miss,” Toni said proudly. “Mommy. Daddy. Mom Anna. Mom Ronna.” She really liked to identify each of us and confirm our relationship. “Baby sister,” she concluded, patting Patricia’s tummy.

“Well, Miss Toni, why don’t you bring Daddy into the house so we can have dinner?” Patricia said. We all headed inside.

Over dinner, we mostly heard about Toni’s first week in school and pretty Miss Thompson. It was eventually revealed—by Patricia—that Miss Thompson was a recent college grad in her first year of teaching. Toni had decided she was the same as Mommy and Daddy, so she should live with us. At my horrified expression, Anna and Ronda started laughing.

“No, we aren’t recruiting anyone and you should not take Miss Thompson’s photos. She’s at the beginning of her career, not the end, like Miss Sullivan. We might, however, invite her over for dinner one evening if it seems appropriate,” Patricia explained after Toni was in bed.

I had everything I wanted in the world in bed with me and loved each of my wives.

The rest of the weekend we spent learning more about what it meant to be homeowners. I had to go out and buy a lawnmower as soon as Ace Hardware opened, and I bought a variety of lawn implements at the same time. I spent most of the day mowing, trimming, edging, weeding, and scooping the leaves and weeds that had gathered around our dock out of the water to get rid of.

We started a list of projects we should do to improve the property and I was just hoping I lived a long enough life to get them all done. Sunday, however, Anna and I went to the boathouse where she’d done a good job of setting up a darkroom.

“Levi said the equipment from the darkroom downtown was yours and he was waiting for you to remove it so he could install new equipment for the studio he planned to rent as needed. He helped me break it all down and pack it with instructions on how it all went back together. Tell me if I didn’t get something right,” she said.

“As far as I can tell, there’s only one problem with this new darkroom,” I said.

“What?” she asked, near panic.

“You have clothes on.”

That situation was soon corrected. Anna and I spent a long time in the darkroom, processing and printing photos, and just playing with each other.

“Here’s the inventory of everything that was shipped in last week,” Mr. Martin said when he met with us Monday morning. Maybe nobody got started at Polaroid until nine or nine-thirty Mondays, but everyone in the State Department was at their desk promptly at eight o’clock. “The inventory was checked at the warehouse and everything confirmed. It’s your responsibility now. You should prepare the first shipment for your assignment next week and get it out right away.”

“We thought we’d start with the Canadian consulates,” Ronda said. “We can use the first couple of weeks to practice and smooth out the process.”

“I’d like to give you that luxury, but I can’t. You’re going to India,” Martin said. “You’ll need two complete setups shipped to Calcutta. You’ll also need setups in New Delhi, Bombay, Madras, and Hyderabad. Josie can generate all the shipping documents, but you need to tell her precisely what is needed.”

“Why two to Calcutta?” I asked.

“We have a new mission to Bangladesh, but we don’t yet have a chancery in Dacca. The Chief of Mission is running things, but I doubt the president will appoint an official ambassador until the chancery is up and running.”

“And all the others?” Ronda asked.

“The embassy is in New Delhi and that is your ingress and egress point to the west. The consulates are in the other three cities. We’re currently being flooded with requests for education visas. India is an emerging nation, the second most populous in the world. It’s likely to be a major source of immigrants to the US, just as it was to the UK before Gandhi.”

“We’re going to try to do these all in a week?” I asked.

“I expect you will take ten to fourteen days once travel time is computed. I understand you’ve been to Australia. This is just as long a trip, but you’ll fly east instead of West. The good news is that on flights of longer than eight hours, you’re allowed to travel first class. Ronda, if you don’t have the details of how to book the travel yet, Josie can direct you.”

“And do you have other specific things we’re supposed to do this week?”

“I’d like you to start doing badges for the department. Some people will balk, but I’ll issue a notice that no one will be admitted to the office after this week without a badge.”

I nodded. Martin looked at the two of us.

“Ready, set, go!” he said. Then turned and walked out the door.

“Two weeks? I thought you were only going out for a few days!” Anna said when we broke the news.

“The good news is that we’ll have five days off when we return. Then we’ll have a couple of days in the office before we have to head out on the next assignment,” Ronda said. “I’m doing my best to coordinate these schedules so we don’t get blindsided by them all the time.”

“We need all the family time we can squeeze in this week. We’re not going to leave until Monday, but that means it will be Wednesday when we finally get to Calcutta. We’ll be traveling on Thursday to Madras and then after the weekend to Bombay, Hyderabad, and finally New Delhi. We’ll fly home from there, and hopefully be here by Friday. This is going to be a real test of how smoothly I can get the training to operate and how well Ronda can keep things organized,” I said.

The family was all kind of shocked at how soon we’d be leaving and how long we’d be gone. Toni pouted all evening until I danced with her for an hour and then put her to bed. She was very clingy.

So were Anna and Patricia. And they weren’t just clingy to me, but to Ronda, as well.

I practiced breaking down and setting up the equipment each day and had a corner of our office set up for people to sit in as I took their pictures. They were all pretty surprised that it only took a couple of minutes and went away a bit happier than they’d been when they arrived. Josie was kept busy checking the names and typing the info on the template. Ronda was on calls halfway around the world trying to set the training schedule with each of the consulates. The office officially opened at eight o’clock, but we found ourselves there at seven in order to catch the people in India before they went home for the day. Somehow, we ended up with tickets for our flights and all the equipment shipped ahead of us. At least I wouldn’t be carting the equipment with me on the plane.

“The equipment and supplies are being shipped on a military transport. It isn’t subject to customs or inspection, but is taken directly to the chancery. I guess we aren’t subject to customs or inspection either,” Ronda said. “We just need to remember we are traveling on our black passports and not our green ones.”

When we got to the airport Monday morning, Ronda called Josie and Josie confirmed that all the consulates had reported in that the equipment and materials had been received. Our appointments had been confirmed.

We settled in to comfortable first class seats for the first leg. The whole transport time would be some thirty-six hours and we’d have an eleven-hour time change.

I opened my travel folder to read the bios of the people I’d be training the next two weeks. Ronda had successfully managed a full setup on Friday, so I felt like I had a real partner in this stuff. Of course, she’d be responsible for training on how to fill out the template form that was to go in the camera and talking about that process. I looked twice, thinking our travel envelope was awfully thick and wondering how much I needed to read about these people. It turned out that there was only a page on each of them. The rest of the envelope was stuffed with cash. I pulled out a 200 rupee note and looked at it.