Chapter 19: The Pacific Northwest

July 1982, Chicago, Illinois

On Sunday morning after breakfast, Kara packed her things, said goodbye to her mom, and followed me to my car. I drove to the Spencers’ to pick up my things, where I thanked Trudy and reminded her that I’d be back on Friday. Kara and I took my bags to the car, loaded them in the trunk, and set off for Chicago. As usual, the drive was uneventful. I had encountered neither traffic nor an accident, nor been pulled over a single time despite all the back-and-forth trips. Of course, the radar detector that Bethany and Gene had given me certainly had helped with that last one.

When we arrived at the apartment, I got the mail from the box, saw that there was no note from the mailman to pick up anything at the post office, and walked upstairs with Kara. I thought about carrying her over the threshold, but decided against it. I’d save that for when she actually moved in with me. I unlocked the door, and we walked inside. Kara dropped her bag, turned, and kissed me hard, then went to use the bathroom.

I noticed the light on the answering machine blinking and played the two messages. The first one was from Tatyana, saying that she’d call me in Ohio. That call I’d received and answered. The second was from Becky asking me to call her. I went to the kitchen and quickly dialed her number.

“Hi, it’s Steve,” I said.

“Hi! I need some help with a program that’s not working properly.”

I had her explain the issue to me, realized exactly what the problem was and told her that I’d fix it and send her a disk by mail because I couldn’t meet with her before getting on a plane in the morning. I told her I’d see her sometime in August, because I’d be busy traveling until the 6th.

“Who was that?” Kara asked when I hung up.

“Just someone who’s helping me take care of my customers over the Summer. I need to do a quick change to a program and then run to the post office to mail the disk, because I won’t have time to install the fix before we leave tomorrow morning.”

“Oh, OK. What time is the flight?”

“6:10am. We need to be at the airport by 5:00am, which means leaving here by about 4:15am.”

“Then we need to be in bed early!” she giggled.

“Yes, and we have to pack tonight. But, right now I need to run over to my friend’s place and pick up some money he owes me. Will you be OK for twenty minutes?”

“Can I come with you?”

That created a set of risks that I wasn’t interested in contemplating.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t think he wants anyone to know about this. It’s no big deal, Honey. I’ll be right back.”

“OK,” she said, but she didn’t sound happy.

I quickly walked to Theo’s place and was happy to see he was home. He handed me the expected envelope and said there hadn’t been any issues with the computers at the brothel, nor with the betting system. He did say again that he had something he wanted me to do when school started again. I asked what it was.

“Collect and pay bets at the fraternity houses. We’ve never, ever had a problem with them, but I need someone reliable. It’s not dangerous, and you never, ever, take your piece with you. Those kids always pay. There’s one really big gambler, mostly loses but wins pretty big sometimes. Otherwise, it’s mostly small time. We pay and collect on Tuesdays. You don’t take the bets, just get the money. I’ll drop an envelope at your place early on Tuesday morning with the list. I can just put it in the slot in your mailbox.”

“Sounds easy enough. And if they don’t pay?”

“It’s funny. The college kids at the IIT fraternities always pay. We don’t take bets from students in the dorms because we had a lot of welshers. And it’s not worth trying to collect $20 from a kid who can hide in the dorms.”

I headed back to the apartment and put the envelope in the lockbox I kept in the drawer of my desk. I did take out $150 to take with me to Seattle for spending money. I went back to the living room, where Kara was stretched out on the couch.

“I need about half an hour to fix the program, then we can walk to the post office to drop it in the box. It’s a good thing I have a floppy mailer and postage, because it’s Sunday!”

I sat down at the Apple, fired it up, and loaded the program. Kara turned on the stereo and got a Coke from the fridge and pulled a chair over to watch me. I found the spot in the program where I knew the error had to be and after staring at the code for ten minutes, I saw the mistake. I wasn’t checking to see if the input exceeded the length of the field for a name. But that only prevented the error; it didn’t totally solve the problem. I could easily fix the error, but if I needed to expand the field length, I’d have to write a program to update the database for every client. That maintenance routine was something we needed, but not something I could finish in a few hours.

I fixed the error, put in comments in the code noting that it fixed the crash but also enforced a limit on how long the string entry could be. I wrote a quick note in my programming notebook and then tested my change. If you tried to type more than 25 characters in the field, it would beep and stop you, which was far better than the crash. Once I was satisfied, I opened the text file that had the documentation and described the field limits that I’d put in. I saved it, and the changed program, onto two fresh disks and then put them both in the floppy disk mailer. I added sufficient postage and addressed it to ‘RVH’ at her school address. I was glad that it was a street address and suite number that didn’t mention the college, because that could have been awkward with Kara practically watching over my shoulder.

“OK. All done. Let’s take a walk to the post office so I can drop this in the box.”

We walked to the post office, then came back to the apartment. I checked to see what I had in the way of ingredients for dinner and realized that I had almost nothing in the fridge because of all the time I’d been away. Kara quickly agreed when I suggested that we go to Connie’s Pizza for dinner. As I expected, Kara loved the deep-dish pizza. When we’d finished eating, we headed back to the apartment.

“Can you make pizza like we just had?” Kara asked.

“I just need to get the heavy cast iron pan to make it in. My oven isn’t really right for it, I but I think I can compensate for that. You really need to put the pan on the hot surface, not a rack. I’ll get a pizza stone, which should help.”

“I’m constantly amazed at how good you are at cooking. It’s not your best talent, though!” she smirked.

“And what would that be?” I asked innocently.

“You darn well know what it is! It’s what every girl in the fifty States and a couple of countries wants from you!”

“My wit and charm?” I asked, deadpan.

“It sure isn’t your stand-up comedy! Now, let’s go to bed and you can show me!”

I took her hand and led her to my room. We quickly undressed and made love, slowly, passionately. This was just the second night Kara had spent in this bed with me. I had hoped it would be our bed from this point forward, but that was not to be. I cuddled her tightly, and we both fell asleep, despite the relatively early hour.

On Monday morning, we awoke with the alarm, quickly showered, ate a rushed breakfast of cereal, juice, and toast, then headed for the airport. I parked in the long-term lot and we caught the tram for the United terminal. We got our boarding passes and quickly went through security. Because we’d only be gone a few days, we each managed with a carry-on, though Kara had her purse with her as well. We boarded the Boeing 727 at 5:55am and the plane pushed back at 6:10am and we were quickly on our way west to Seattle.

“Steve,” Kara said, about halfway into the flight, “I never asked. Where are we sleeping?”

“Jennifer said they have a guest room, though I never asked if her parents were OK with you and me sleeping together. I suspect it will be OK because they allowed Jennifer and me to use her bed and eventually allowed me to spend the night with her.”

“I hope so! I don’t want to sleep in separate beds unless we absolutely have to.”

“Me neither. But if it’s a problem for her parents, I can always sacrifice and sleep with Jennifer,” I grinned.

“No chance, mister! I’ll sleep in her room if that has to happen!” she declared with a silly smile. “Did you know this is my first time on a plane?!”

“You know, I never thought to ask! You didn’t seem nervous or anything.”

“No, it’s fun! And you’ve done it a lot, even flying over the ocean a few times.”

“Well, I don’t know if I’d say a lot, I flew a few times when I was really little, then in 1974 when we went to Florida, and then not again until I went to Sweden. This flight is only about half as long as that one.”

“So we’ll get there about 10:00am?” she asked.

“Well, yes and no. About 10:00am Chicago time, but 8:00am Seattle time. The time zones can really mess you up, especially going to Europe.”

“I guess I need to change my watch, then,” Kara said.

We both adjusted our watches, and about four hours after we’d left Chicago, we began our descent into Seattle-Tacoma Airport. We landed about ten minutes late, but because we didn’t have to wait for bags, we could walk right out to the arrivals hall where Jennifer was waiting for us. She waved when she saw us and walked over, hugging me with a chaste kiss on the cheek, and then she hugged Kara.

“My car is just outside in the short term lot,” Jennifer said, waving us after her. “We live about twenty-five minutes from here.”

We walked out to her 1981 Ford Escort and I let Kara sit in the front with Jennifer. Jennifer asked about the flight and if there was anything special we wanted to do. She suggested a trip to the Space Needle. I’d been there in the Summer of 1972 when I’d traveled with my family all over the western US, Mexico, and Canada, but thought it was a great suggestion. She asked about our return flight and I told her it was at 4:00pm on the 15th. I let Kara know that we’d land around 10:00pm Chicago time because of the time change going the other way.

When we got to Jennifer’s house in suburban Seattle, her mom was waiting for us with tea. Kara and I both used the bathroom, and then we all sat down to chat. Jennifer’s dad was at work, and would be home about 5:30pm. Mrs. Block hoped that we’d have dinner with them and I quickly agreed. We spent a couple of hours talking, just catching up on everything that had gone on in our lives, and then we had lunch.

“Kara, I’d like to talk to Steve privately, if you don’t mind,” Mrs. Block said when we finished lunch.

“I don’t mind, Mrs. Block. I know he’s going to talk to Jennifer one-on-one quite a bit, so I was prepared.”

“Let’s go up to my room, Kara,” Jennifer suggested, and the two of them walked up the stairs.

“How is she, Mrs. Block?” I asked after she handed me a cup of coffee.

“School is fine. She had mostly A’s and few B’s for her Freshman year. I think you know she had a pretty bad break-up with Jocelyn after she saw you.”

“Yes, I know about that,” I said. “I kind of forced the issue.”

“Don’t feel guilty. Jocelyn was a bad influence on Jennifer. She put some really crazy ideas in Jennifer’s head, especially about you. Jennifer has some new friends and her roommate is very nice. They’ll be rooming together again next year. I am a bit concerned about you bringing Kara with you. I think Jennifer was hurt by that.”

I sighed, “I’m sure that’s true. But I had to do it, both for Jennifer and for Kara. If I came alone, despite my determination not to, I might well have ended up being intimate with Jennifer again or, if not, at least giving her the impression that she and I had a future together as something other than friends. As sad as I am to say it, after everything we meant to each other, that just doesn’t seem possible.

“I brought Kara for the same reason. She’s very understanding of my female friends, including Jennifer, but she was supremely worried that somehow Jennifer would convince me to be with her again. No amount of promises made Kara comfortable. Remember, I promised to bring her here even before Jennifer came to see me in Chicago. It was a close thing in Chicago. We both almost gave in to the feelings we have for each other, but in the end, we avoided making that huge mistake.”

“But you and Jennifer made love when she visited you last Summer!” Mrs. Block objected. “I thought things had changed for the better. Well, until she got involved with radical feminism.”

“Making love was part of our healing process. I don’t think it was a mistake and I don’t think I misled Jennifer at all. At that point, just like today, Kara and I are a couple and committed to being together. And, even forgetting all of that, I’m sure Jennifer told you that Kara’s dad died about a month and a half ago. I left her in Milford to go to Sweden. I’d planned that trip for so long, I didn’t want to cancel it. I cut it basically in half, for her, and I didn’t want to leave Kara again.”

Mrs. Block sipped her coffee and nodded, “Robert and I had hoped that you two could get past your problems, but it certainly doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen. She hid so many things from you over the years that it’s probably too much to overcome.”

“I still love your daughter very much and she still means a lot to me. I’ve forgiven her for what she’s done and we’ve talked it through. All I can offer her is my friendship.”

“Well, I would never, ever wish you ill, but we’d be delighted if something changed.”

“So would Jennifer,” I said with a grin. “I wanted to thank you for your hospitality, too. I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome here any time, Steve. Even if you bring a competitor for my daughter’s affections!”

“Thanks,” I chuckled. “Do you have a problem with us sharing the guest room?”

“No. You’re both adults and you make your own choices. Remember, we gave you a lot of freedom with Jennifer even before you two were adults.”