Chapter 2

The dinner was excellent. It was some sort of fancy French food that I had never heard of, but it really tasted good. There was wine to go with it, and I had never experienced that before. It looked like they had put on the dog for me, and I was shocked when I was told that Janice had done all of the cooking, with only some minor help from her mother.

Most of the dinner conversation was in generalities like the weather, etc. The rest was monopolized by me extolling the virtues of the food. I was completely honest when I said that this was the best food that I'd had in years! It seemed that the Williams family never got tired of listening to me brag on Janice and her skill at cooking. We finally finished eating dessert about 9:00 PM. Bill and I adjourned to the living room and talked baseball and football while the ladies cleaned up.

That took about 30 minutes, they had a dishwasher, and the women came into the living room. Janice commented that it was too late to go anywhere; we should just sit in the living room and talk. From the looks I got from her parents, I was not about to dispute her decision. Helen spent some time grilling me about my schooling and future plans, but it was the sort of thing that any mother would want to know about a potential suitor for her daughter. Bill kept quiet, which I appreciated.

About 10:00 PM, Helen looked daggers at Bill and announced that it was time for them to go to bed. Bill looked a little surprised, but realized what his wife had in mind. He reached into his pocket and handed Janice the keys to his car. "Honey, you and Jimmy can sit here talking as long as you like. Use the car to take him home after you get through. I don't like the idea of him wandering the streets alone at night, even if he does look strong enough to take care of himself. It's too easy to get mugged after midnight. You take care when you get home, too." With that, the two parents headed upstairs. Both Janice and I really appreciated that!

I am a little over 6' tall and weigh about 190 pounds. I could give any unarmed mugger a run for his money and would probably come out ahead, but nowadays, too many muggers carry weapons. Other than my size, I don't look all that threatening. I just look like 95% of the male population my size with brown hair and regular features. I don't think that I could be called handsome, but I am not ugly, either. Janice seems to like the way I look, and that is all I cared about.

Anyway, Janice and I sat side by side on the sofa and talked about many things. Mostly, I just answered her questions. I wanted her to know as much as possible about me as soon as possible. I was anxious for her to form a solid opinion about me, even if it was one that I ultimately would not like. That woman really turned me on, and I was in a hurry to progress beyond hand-holding. However, I did not want to frighten her off by being too aggressive. I tried to steer a middle course and show myself to be taken with her, but not too demanding.

We talked for about two hours, the last hour with my arm around her shoulders. But I was very careful to keep my hand in a position that her parents would approve of, should they walk in on us. It was after midnight, and we both were getting a little bit groggy for want of sleep. Janice was the one who broke up our conversation by saying that she needed to drive me home while she was still reasonably alert. I am sure that my disappointment showed, but I did not argue with her.

There was no hanky-panky while she was driving. It was a both-hands-on-the-wheel, businesslike drive, and we arrived at my boarding house without problems. One of the high points of the evening was when Janice kissed me goodnight on the lips. No tongue was involved from either side, but it was obvious to me that she had meant what she said about enjoying the evening.

Luckily, Mrs. Jones had given me a key to the front door, so I did not have to wake anybody when I went in. Janice made it home okay, and, from later reports, we both had trouble getting to sleep, but we slept well once we did.

Sunday, I killed time by attending a White Sox game. As expected, they lost to the Yankees by a large margin, but I have forgotten the score. I got back to my room in time to enjoy some of Mrs. Jones cooking, but I do have to admit that it was not in the same class as that fixed by Janice on Saturday.

I went to work on Monday looking forward to seeing Janice, and we talked for about 10 minutes before I went into the shop to work. This week, I was going to start learning how to use the electronic diagnosis equipment. Jay Hamilton, the shop leader, was going to start me out on a Ford that had some kind of fuel injector problem. That was supposed to be a straight forward repair job. All I was supposed to do was to follow the instructions in the manual. Once we found the problem, which was probably a plugged jet, we would get down to the mechanic's work of fixing it.

Jay was very meticulous in teaching me how to set up the machine and run the start up tests before doing the actual diagnosis. The work was pretty straight forward, but Jay had me tear down the set up and start over three times before he was satisfied that I knew what I was doing. I didn't get mad at him, because I knew how important it was to do things right with these machines to get them to tell us exactly what the problem was. Anyway, by the third try, Jay was satisfied, and he was ready for the actual diagnosis run.

However, Jay called a halt. It was almost break time, and he did not want to start teaching before the break and then have to resume after the break. I certainly did not argue with him, so we stopped early and made our way to the coffee machine. We had just drawn our coffee when another mechanic, Joey Alito, ambled up. "Well, if it isn't Jimmy Brinkley. How is the brown-nosing working out? We all know that you are sucking up to the boss' daughter. Are you looking to become our boss by the end of your third week here?"

My infatuation with Janice appeared to have become common knowledge around the shop. I didn't know that, but it was bound to come out pretty soon, so I had not worried about it. However, Joey's remarks were a bit too much for me to take. I said, "Joey, if that was meant to be a joke, it went way too far. Please back off. On the other hand, if you were serious about your comments, see me behind the shop after work, and we will discuss the situation in more detail."

Both Jay and Joey looked in wonder at me, but Joey started to sputter. Finally, he said, "Hey, Jimmy, that was supposed to be funny. I'm sorry that it didn't come out that way." He put out his hand and said, "I was just kidding. Okay?"

I shook his hand and figured that was the end of the confrontation. Later events proved that not to be the case. After Jay and I walked away from the other men, Jay said, "Jimmy, I think you handled that bit of stupidity on Joey's part very well. Nevertheless, Joey is the kind to bear a grudge, so you probably need to keep an eye out for him for the next month or so."

I was surprised by Jay's comment, but he knew the men in the shop a hell of a lot better than I did, so I figured that I had better remember what he said. Nothing of any import happened the rest of the day, and I took every opportunity to spend a minute or two with Janice.

Jay made absolutely sure that I knew every step in analyzing the problem with the fuel injectors, and that was what the machine said was the problem. For those who don't know, Ford has a bad habit of designing cars that need to have the motor removed to do the simplest things, even to changing spark plugs. Well, this motor was going to have to come out so that I could reach some of the places on it that needed replacement or adjustment. Jay had me remove the hood and do the other things that afternoon so that I could devote the entire day, Tuesday, to repairing the motor. By the time I left that afternoon, I had done everything to get ready. I noticed an odd thing, though: Joey left that day after I did.