Chapter 36: My Life\'s Journey

July, 1983, Chicago, Illinois

I woke up early on the First of July, because my body clock was still set to Swedish time. The flight back had been long but uneventful, and I was happy that the businessman in the seat next to me hadn't wanted to talk. I read, wrote some longhand journal entries, ate, and generally relaxed while the plane zipped over the Atlantic. I'd come home, taken a sauna, eaten a light meal, and gone straight to bed, not bothering to check messages, look at the mail that Jackie had left on my desk, or deal with anything else. I did call Stephie and Stephanie to let them know I was home safely and confirmed with Stephanie that she'd arrive on Sunday.

I went for a run just after 5:00am, then came home and showered. I called Karin and Sofia to let them know I was safely home, then walked to the bakery to get a bagel and coffee, and as I walked, I planned my day. I'd seen Jackie's note saying that she and Cindi would be coming to Chicago later in the day with their parents to look for furniture for their rooms, and they'd arrive sometime around 11:00am. I decided that once I'd eaten, I'd go to Jewel and do my grocery shopping.

After eating my light breakfast, I walked to Theo's house to collect my envelopes and check in with him. Nothing major was going on, though he said that there were going to be some new computers to install in the next couple of weeks. I let him know I'd be around and headed back to my house.

When I arrived back at the house, I started making a grocery list. I needed something for dinner with Anala on Saturday, then food for Stephanie's visit, plus all the things that I needed to stock that I had used up before my trip. The list grew quite lengthy, and included things like toilet paper, laundry soap, and other essentials. The trip to Jewel for the shopping and putting everything away took a full two hours. Once I'd finished that, I went through the mail and wrote out checks for the bills, then checked my answering machine.

I had a few messages on the machine — Jennifer confirming her flight information, Becky letting me know the same thing that Theo had told me, Rosie looking for a time to get together, and Gerald Brown checking to make sure everything was OK. I returned the call to Gerald and after I hung up, I called the photographer to confirm a July 15th appointment to take pictures of the basement now that I had the pool table and bar stools.

I called Becky and let her know I was home and promised we'd have lunch later in the month. It was too early to call Jennifer, so I made a note to do that later. I wasn't in the mood to call Rosie, nor did I really have time to see her in the next several weeks, so I decided to ignore that message.

I checked the clock and saw that I had time to get my laundry started, so I did that, then started dusting and sweeping the floors. I had the windows open to air out the house because the temperature was in the mid-60s. It would get up into the 80s by mid-afternoon and I'd need to turn on the air conditioning at that point.

Jackie, Cindi, and their parents arrived just after 11:00am in Cindi's family's station wagon. I gave the Phelan and the Spanos families a tour of the house, listening to repeated comments about how nice of a place it was and how amazed they were that I owned a house such as this. The dads took some measurements and discussed options for furniture while the girls and their moms discussed how they'd arrange the rooms and what colors they would like. In between the decorating talks, the men were dispatched to carry in Jackie's drafting table, which they put in the study room as we'd discussed and agreed.

"I'll bring the roll-top desk when I come down for school. It looks like there'll be enough room in here."

The discussions about furniture in their room continued over lunch and once they'd settled on some basic ideas, the six of them headed out to visit several furniture stores that I'd listed from the Yellow Pages. I chose to stay home and finish doing my laundry and cleaning. About 4:00pm the girls and their parents arrived home, and Mr. Spanos was driving a U-Haul truck.

"We obviously couldn't put everything in the station wagon, so my dad rented a truck," Jackie said as I went out to help them unload everything.

It took about thirty minutes and when we had everything upstairs, it dawned on me that Anala wanted me to get a low table for the sitting room and I had no way of putting something like that in my car, and didn't want to wait for delivery. I asked Mr. Spanos if it would be possible to borrow the truck, and he handed me the keys. Jackie offered to come with me while her dad and Mr. Spanos assembled the beds. We headed to the furniture store where I'd bought the original furniture for my apartment to look for a low table.

"I had planned to stay with you when I came to Chicago but because my parents and Cindi's parents decided to all come, I'll have to take a rain check," she smiled.

"You did get a night of sleeping with me before school ended," I smirked.

"I was unconscious! That doesn't count!" Jackie said with a grin.

"True. But it did technically meet the request."

"I think I'm going to want an actual night to sleep with you after just regular lovemaking, if you're OK with that," she said.

"We can probably work something out, maybe later in July?" I said.

"We're leaving next Wednesday for Canada, and we'll be there for two weeks, so that might not work. I'll call you when we get home."

"Sounds good," I said.

Unfortunately, I didn't find what I was looking for at the furniture store, but another customer suggested I check out Pier 1 Imports and gave me directions to get there. The suggestion paid dividends because I found exactly what I was looking for — a low teak table. While walking through the store, I found some cool-looking wicker basket chairs with fluffy cushions that I decided that I had to have. I also found a narrow standing shelf where I could put the statues and lingam-yoni stones that Anala had said she was going to get for me. I purchased the table, shelving unit, and two of the chairs. They would fit perfectly with my decor plans for the 'Eastern' themed room. A stock boy from the store helped me load everything into the truck and we headed home.

By the time we arrived, Mr. Phelan and Mr. Spanos had everything assembled and the room was arranged. They helped me carry my purchases into the sitting room and then Mr. and Mrs. Spanos left to return the truck. I went upstairs to the bedroom and saw that each girl had bought a full-sized bed, as well as matching dressers. They had opted for different, but complementary, colors for their comforters, as well as for the small throw rugs that would go next to the bed.

When the Cindy and her dad arrived back at the house after returning the truck, Mr. Phelan suggested that we go for dinner and the girls opted for Chicago-style pizza. We had a nice dinner at Connie's and then went back to the house. I gave the girls each a house key and a room key, and hugged each of them goodbye.

"Thanks again for checking on the house," I said to Jackie. "I appreciate it!"

"You're welcome! See you at the end of the Summer, if not before!"

"See you in August," Cindi said.

I shook hands with their dads and they all got into the station wagon and drove off. I went upstairs and locked the door to their room, and put the key back on the rack. I went to my office and sat down at the Apple IIe and fired it up. I typed in my journal for a couple of hours, then called Anala to confirm our plans for the following day. Finally, I called Jennifer to let her know I'd received her message, and that I was looking forward to seeing her in a week.

On Saturday morning when I woke up I went out for a run, then fixed myself breakfast. While I ate, I made a list of things that I needed or wanted to do before school started. The first thing I thought of, I didn't bother writing down. I simply picked up the phone and called the Chicago Tribune to start delivery of the daily newspaper. Once that task was completed, I sat back down with my breakfast and wrote out my list, got up to get my list of furniture and other items from my office, and after I finished eating, drank two cups of coffee while I worked on my list.

When I finished, I grabbed a book and sat on the couch to read for a bit. When it was late enough, I called the Blanchards' to check on Kara. I spoke to Nancy for about five minutes and then she put Kara on the phone.

"Hi, Steve," she said.

"Hi, Kara, how are things going?"

"Fine, I guess. I've been seeing Doctor Mercer every week, like you wanted."

"Good! I'm glad to hear that."

"How was your trip and the wedding?"

"It was pretty good. Katt and Mikael went to Switzerland on their honeymoon. They'll be back to start skating in about a week."

"That sounds nice."

"Have you been seeing Susie?" I asked.

"Yes. She visits me on Sundays after church. I'm glad you told me to call her."

I winced and realized that I would have to be very careful how I phrased any suggestions to her. If I thought I had failed to set limits for her, I couldn't risk going overboard and have her feeling that I now could tell her what to do!

"And work is going OK?"

"Yes, it's fine," Kara replied. "Everyone there is nice."

"How is Steve Bear doing?"

She giggled! Kara actually giggled! I felt that was a good sign.

"He's fine. I like having him sleep with me. He stays in my room now."

That was, perhaps, the best news I'd heard in months. Perhaps Doctor Mercer was making some progress.

"Great! I'll talk to you in a few weeks, OK?"

"Yes," Kara replied. "I like talking to you."

We said 'goodbye' and hung up. I wondered if she'd begun to come to terms with what had happened, or if she was just pulling out of her funk. The former would be the best, but the second would be OK as well. Either way, progress was good.

I made my lunch, ate, and then cleaned up the kitchen. After showering and changing, I headed to Bridgeport to pick up Anala. When I went to the door, we hugged briefly, and she asked me to wait. Less than a minute later, she put her shoes on and picked up a box that we put in the back of the car.

"Are we going shopping?" she asked.

"That was the plan. I bought a few things already, like the table. Some friends were here and had a truck, so I took advantage of that because my car is small. Why don't we go look at the room, then we can figure out what else we might need."

Anala agreed, and we drove to the house. I carried the box in and we went to what I was going to call the 'Indian' room. At Anala's behest, I opened the box and began removing the items. The incense bowl and the statue of Krishna went on the low table, just like at Anala's apartment. The lingam-yoni stones, and the statues of Shakti and Shiva, went onto the shelving unit. At the bottom of the box I found two boxes of cedar incense sticks which I set on the bottom shelf. There was a small box at the bottom of the larger box that I took out last.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Open it!" she instructed.

I did and found a bronze statue of Loki that was about 10" tall.

"Loki?" I grinned. "He doesn't exactly fit the decor of the room. I'd need to go more old Norse with skin rugs, a fireplace, wood paneling, that kind of thing.

"Put him on the shelf with the other idols. Hindus have thousands of gods. I don't think Shiva will be upset with Loki, given they have some things in common!"

I put the Loki figure on the second shelf, below the two Indian figures.

"Thanks. That was a nice thought!"

"You'll need some pillows, some candles and something to hold them, and a couple of floor lamps with dimmers. Putting some Hindu art on the walls would be good, too."

"Any idea where we can find those things? I mean the art, obviously, the other stuff. I think I know a few places."

"Actually, there's a shop run by a friend of my parents that caters to Hindus. It's not far from where we meet for religious services — Thatcher Road in Downers Grove. That's about twenty minutes from my parents' house in Woodridge, and I'd estimate about an hour from here."

"We have plenty of time if they're open on Saturdays."

"They are. Did you know that there's a similar shop with Russian things not far from there in Lisle?" she asked.

"No, I didn't. Where is it?"

"On Ogden Avenue. It's called Maison Russe. I thought of you the other day when I was with my parents. We drove past the store and, of course, I remembered you telling me about your friend Tatyana and how you were interested in Russian things."

"Very cool," I said. "Let's head over to the shop you mentioned."

We drove out to Downers Grove, and following Anala's precise directions, found the shop. I parked in the street in front of the building and we went inside. We were immediately greeted by a small Indian man who spoke to Anala in an Indian language, and then to me in precise, formal British English. Anala explained what we were looking for and followed him around the store as he pointed out the various types of fabric for pillows, candle holders, and artwork that he had available.

"Anala, I'm not up on what's appropriate or not appropriate for a traditional Indian household. I think I'm going to have to let you make the selections."

"How much budget do you have to work with?" she asked quietly.

I considered what I could reasonably spend on decorating the room and what I absolutely needed to purchase for a few other rooms and whispered an amount into her ear. She nodded and about an hour later she had selected eight floor pillows, a dozen candle holders in various sizes, including two that were about four feet tall that could stand on the floor, and three modest, medium-sized tapestries to hang on the wall.

Anala spoke rapid-fire with the shopkeeper in what I assumed was their native language, clearly haggling over the price. They went back and forth a few times, then she turned to me and told me the agreed-upon amount, which was less than I had given her as a budget. I paid cash for the items and then the three of us carried everything out to the car. It was a tight fit, but I managed to squeeze all the pillows into the Trans Am using the trunk and back seats. I put the candle holders on the floorboard behind the front seats, and Anala placed the carefully rolled-up tapestries on top of the pillows in the back seat. We thanked the shopkeeper and headed back to the house.