Chapter 12

Susan's turn:

I am an engineer. Mom and Dad both have college degrees, both in business, but I have an engineering degree. They were proud of me. They were proud of my husband who was in the receiving line ahead of me to get HIS degree.

Getting a degree is not the news that made their decade, though.

That would be my positive pregnancy test. Mine? No, OURS! I stopped taking the Pill a couple of cycles ago. It was NOT a unilateral decision. I know all sorts of stories about accidental pregnancies – like it's an 'accident' when two hormone-charged teens discover sex without bothering to discover birth control. Or the 'if I'm pregnant he'll HAVE to marry me' kind.

This was premeditated.

When Jason and I first got the idea that marriage just might be in the future for us, we talked about having children. It was scary for me, because I REALLY liked Jason and I could see him as my mate, but if he didn't want kids ... I wanted ... And that desire was very important to me.

You can imagine my relief when I brought the subject up and he jumped on it. "Of course. My perfect wife would want kids. One or two, at least..."

So naturally, we're married and we waited almost two years while we did the college thing and I went with him on jobs and had a wonderful life together, and then with graduation staring us in the face, we decided it was time.

I got off the Pill. It tickled me, because first off, our sex life has been HOT, but when Jason knew we were 'trying', he was an animal. I graphed it. Last two months, 26% increase in frequency of HIS orgasms. That's like 40% more for me.

Those stupid girls who thought they knew all about sex and marriage in high school used to hold forth that after about six months, that was it – everybody's done everything and it's all the same and it's boring.

Sooooo wrong ... If anything, we know each other. I can be myself and know that Jason's totally enthralled and aroused – every time. And that, Bunkie, is a LOT of times.

That's why my diary has that table – I wanted to see if things slacked up. They didn't and it's bidirectional. Sometimes it's ME starting it. Sometimes it's Jason. And every time it's good.

Susan is a very happy girl in that regard.

So we 'tried' for two months and Bingo!!! Second period after I dropped the Pill, I had a punctuation failure. No period. Those new home pregnancy tests are supposed to detect a pregnancy really early. When I missed the first day of my normally prompt period, I used one of those tests. It was positive.

Jason was on a cloud.

The funny part, though, was that almost simultaneously with MY discovery, my Tina missed her period. She went to the doctor because her Alan had a vasectomy and there was NO WAY that she could be pregnant.

That is, for a certain set of 'no way'. Unfortunately, or rather, fortunately for Tina and Alan, there's a tiny chance of spontaneous reversal or recanalization. Guess who hit the lottery in sperm production after vasectomy? If you picked Alan and Tina, you're a winner.

I was pretty much a 'given'. Jason and I are at the perfect age, healthy, and there's no reason we couldn't. Tina and Alan are a surprise.

It's Alan's fault, though. You see, he saved Grandma Desai in that armed robbery attempt and ever since then he's her hero. She says she's been making offerings to Shiva for Alan and pouring cream on a lingam. I had to look that up, and when I did, I laughed out loud.

"What's funny, love?" Jason asked.

"I just looked up 'lingam' online. It's a DONG!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes! And she pours cream over it as an offering..."

Jason laughed. "And she did that for Alan? It worked, huh?"

"Boy, did it ever!"

I'm looking at Jason sitting there. He's just taken his workboots off and he's relaxing and it's somehow making me... "Uh, you know what else I found about it?"

"No telling," he said. Jason suspects something though. He looks at me, smiling. "What else?"

"Usually a lingam is displayed with a yoni. Wanna guess what a yoni represents?"

"I've been telling you all along that I worship you," he said. "Now do you believe me? My own personal yoni?"

"I think it's time for some devotions," I said.

I'm already pregnant, so this one is purely for the fun of it. Oh well, ALL of them were for the fun of it. Just one of them turned out to be serious. I don't know which one. There are so many. Cindy asked me if I knew which one. I told her that when you eat a whole can of beans, you don't know which one made you fart.

Jason turned red. I don't usually use coarse language, but sometimes it fits.

Later, Cindy caught me. "You're sooo evil, Susan. That 'bean' comment..."

"Oh, come on, Cindy. You teed it up. I had to swing."

"Good one!"

"Wasn't original," I said. "I read it somewhere. Just put in storage for one day..."

"And I set up the straight line for you..." She grinned. "So, d'ya FEEL anything different?"

"I'm not sure," I said. "It's ... knowing it's there ... I might be imagining things. I feel a bit satisfied..."

"Smug, maybe?"

I looked at Cindy's face. My sister, just as sure as if Mom brought 'er home wrapped in a blanket. "Cindy, not smug. Not at all. It's a great adventure, sort of like all the adventures you and Tina and Nikki have put me through. And Jason. Especially Jason..."

"You met your match..."

"Like YOU did," I said.

"Yeah. Dan ... Dammit! Now I'm thinking about him..."

"Poor guy's in for another rape?"

"Oh, yeah," she said, smiling. "I got a little research time in the lab, then..."

"I'm going over drawings in the office. They insist I get some CAD time..."

"Our husbands are such slave-drivers," she said.

"Oh, I knowwww." I giggled. Other engineers from outside our community work with us now and they haven't gotten used to the ebb and flow in our office.

"Kids!" Harry Franklin said. He's a mechanical engineer we brought in for a project. "I never saw kids in an engineering office."

"Hi, Mister Harry," Terri told him. "My card..."

He read her card. Looked up at Alan. I was there. "This is a joke, right?"

"Terri, call Bot-bot. Show Mister Harry."

"Bot-bot?"

"You didn't look at the 'extracurricular activities' tab on our website, did you?" I asked him.

"Well, noooo."

"Should have," I giggled.

"Bot-bot's coming," Terri said.

We could hear the electric whine of Bot-bot's tracks. He turned the corner, saw Terri, beeped happily.

"Bot-bot," Terri said, "New face! Mister Harry Franklin."

Bot-bot beeped happy sounds as his head stalk rose. I knew Bot-bot was adding Harry's photos to his facial recognition bank.

"Bot-bot, come sit," Terri said.

The robot whirred to her side and lowered his back end, like a dog at his master's side.

"You're kidding."

"I am a Google associate development engineer," Terri said. "They came to talk with me."

"You're kidding." Harry looked at the rest of us for some kind of sign that we were pulling a joke on him.

"Nope," I said. "Bot-bot started from an idea about keeping squirrels off the bird feeder. You oughta see the militarized version at work." I giggled. "In the back yard by the feeder, 'pink squirrel' is NOT a girlie cocktail."

"I need to watch those videos," he said.

"You see why we let kids run around the office now?" I giggled.

He looked at Terri. Smiled. Terri smiled right back. "Alan, did you, like, live next to a nuclear reactor?"

Before her dad had a chance to reply, "Neutrino shower," Terri giggled. "That's the current hypothesis."

"You have a vocabulary."

"Thank you, sir," Terri said. "I would be interested in what you're going to do on your project. I promise that if I ask too many questions, you can tell me to go away..."

"You can ask," he said.

"Rachel, too?"

His eyes flashed around the room. "There's another one?!?"

We're getting to be legends. I know that I have nothing to do with the genetics of the pTerri-dactyl (Darn that Johanna for coming up with THAT nickname! It's so perfect, I should've thought of it!) but I'm in on the 'nurture' part of the 'nature versus nurture' continuum. Mom says Terri reminds her of me when I was that age. I only wish...

That's one layer of security in my life. I keep in touch with some of the kids who graduated with me in Tennessee and two years out from high school, it's awfully spotty for some of them. Out of the dozen I bother to watch, two of the boys and one girl are still living at home.

Three aren't in college. One of those has a full-time job that doesn't pay enough for her to move out on her own. Those in college are working at it, but seriously, a degree in mass communications or the generic 'business administration' doesn't carry the cachet of my bachelor's in electrical engineering, even if I DIDN'T have 3Sigma.

Yes, I've had job offers. It's always one of the utility companies that Jason and I have worked with. One old manager said, "I'll hire BOTH of you..." and that was before we actually graduated. We were on college's 'spring break' and we were working on a rush upgrade project in one of his substations. "We'll wait..." he said.

Jason talked to Alan and Cindy's Dan. He related the conversation to me later.

"If that's what you want," Alan said, "Go for it. Stable."

"But talk to Tim Duncan ... Or Dan 2.0. There's another side to stability. Tim tried..." Dan said.

"It's in his blood," added Alan. "It might be in yours..."

"I owe 3Sigma..." Jason said.

"No, you don't. We've made our money on you. We appreciate your efforts. You and Susan are family, not slaves, though ... But don't be disappointed at the money they offer."

"I'd be too far from Susan's sisters," Jason said. "There's NOTHING out there like this."

Alan laughed. "You got that part right. I never imagined..."

"Still, you know, it's flattering," Jason said.

"Jason, you're one that hasn't had to look for a job since college the first time around. You had a great reputation when I picked you up," Dan 1.0 said. "And then I passed you off to Alan and he took you without question. And now, as an engineer, you're more valuable than ever. You're running our field techs now. You can get your hands on the equipment any time you want. And you and Susan, it'd leave a big hole in this place..."

That's what Jason told me.

"They're right, you know," he said. "It's as much family as the family back in Texas."

"Or Tennessee," I added. "And where better to raise our children?"

I wasn't pregnant when that conversation happened, but I was just fresh off the Pill, so the kid was coming, sooner or later. And we talked about where to raise our progeny...