Chapter 58: The Beginning of the End

August, 1984, Chicago, Illinois

On Monday morning, after my usual routine of running, a shower, and breakfast, Kara, Sofia, and I got into my car to head to IIT. I let Sofia drive so that she could practice, and she was grateful. We arrived a bit earlier than Kara and I needed to, so that Sofia had time to make it to her 9:00am class at Loyola. Once she was safely on the El, Kara and I went to the student center to get some coffee.

"Will Sofia be OK taking the El?" Kara asked.

"She's used to using public transportation to get everywhere. It's perfectly safe to ride from here to Loyola and back, even at night. If you notice, she didn't bat an eye about it."

"True. Are we meeting for lunch?"

"Sure. Let's take our coffee and I'll show you where The Bog is. That's where we'll meet today. Other days we can head across the Dan Ryan to Bridgeport. There are a couple of diners there that I like."

"This is going to be fun! I just wish I'd started two years ago instead."

"Don't dwell on the past! If I can modify the Bible verse, don't worry about yesterday, each day has enough challenges of its own!"

She laughed, "You still know your Scriptures. That always confused my dad and Pastor Kent."

"The Devil can quote Scripture, Kara. That doesn't mean he used it properly!"

"Are YOU the Devil?" she giggled.

I chuckled, "Kent van der Meer certainly thought so. But his opinion doesn't count for much."

"No, it doesn't. Speaking of that, I noticed several books about the Orthodox Church on your bookshelf."

"And a bunch about Russia, too, I'm sure. Both are interesting topics. I went to Dave's church for Pascha, which is what they call Easter, and it was totally cool. There's something to be said for Orthodox theology and spirituality. It certainly seems to speak more to me than any other brand of Christianity I've been exposed to."

"You're thinking about church? That's pretty amazing."

"Don't read too much into it at this point. Who knows what'll happen in the future, but I will say I wouldn't mind checking out the services at the Russian Orthodox cathedral sometime."

"I'll go with you, if you want. It sounds interesting. And different."

"Let's worry about school for now. I have to keep my priorities straight; remember I work tomorrow."

"I remember. I'm coming to campus with Cindi tomorrow because you'll be at your job."

"Cool. Let's walk to your first class. Calculus, right?"

"Yes."

"Three hundred students in the same lecture hall," I chuckled.

"No!" she gasped. "That's how many were in our graduating classes!"

"I know! Your chemistry class will be the same. My advice? Sit near the front and find someone who is in your lab section to be a study and lab partner."

"That's how you met Stephie! Maybe I'll meet a guy!" she teased.

"Maybe you will. You're in a very different situation from the one you were in back home. Relax, enjoy it, and be open to new experiences."

We walked to the lecture hall, and I gave her a quick kiss and then headed to the liberal arts building for my literature class. As usual, I sat in the front, though I turned so I could see who came in. I was disappointed that I didn't see anyone I even recognized, but I was a Senior in a class that was usually taken by Sophomores and Juniors, so that didn't surprise me too much.

The professor arrived about a minute before class was to start and immediately handed out the syllabus, then took attendance. The class was structured around reading both full-texts and excerpts from works from around the globe — African, Chinese, Indian, European, South American, and North American Indian. I smiled when I saw that I'd read several of the books, including the Bhagavad Gita and The Art of War. There were a number of works I'd never heard of, such as Death and the King's Horseman by someone named Wole Soyinka.

My next class was the software design class, which was in the Computer Science building. My friends and I filled the entire first and most of the second row. When Scott Bannerman walked in, he laughed and asked if this was my posse.

"Well, Julia and Cindi here are housemates of mine and Julia is engaged to Dave. Charlie on the end of the front row is part of our regular Saturday study group at my house, and Wen, Mike, and Eric are friends. That said, I know pretty much everyone in the room because Dave and I drummed up the support for the class."

"Remember what I said, Mr. Adams, about following my program to the letter in this class."

"«Jawohl»!" I said, but refrained from giving the stiff-armed fascist salute.

There was a bit of laughter from my friends.

"OK," Scott said, "I suppose that did sound a bit hard-assed. But you remember what I told you about testing and processes. Class, as you can tell, I know Mr. Adams. He and Dave are interning at Nuvatec for their independent study courses and Senior project. I'm going to grade their work like the nastiest, meanest, and worst professor you've ever had nightmares about. For the rest of you, I want you to have fun and enjoy the class! It'll be a learning experience for all of us, given this is the very first session of this brand new class. Most of you are here because Steve or Dave asked you to sign up. I'm going to make sure you're happy that you did and that your future employers are even happier."

He handed out his syllabus and then took attendance.

"There is no textbook for this class because it's never been taught here before and I couldn't find a suitable text. That means we're going to work from lectures, worksheets, and notes that I hand out, and hopefully, by the end of the class, we'll have a draft textbook for the next semester. You'll all get credit in the book for helping me develop it, and Mr. Kallas and Mr. Adams, the textbook, will be dedicated to you; your work showed me how much you need this class!"

Everyone laughed, including Dave and me. Despite Scott's 'threat' to grade us tough, it was going to be a fun class. Scott started off describing the objectives for the course, including design, development, and testing. There would be a major course project, and we'd work in groups of three to do everything from design to delivery of the project. Each team would be part of a larger team that Dave and I would each manage. I'd have four teams, for a total of twelve plus myself. Dave and I would oversee those teams and assign tasks. I couldn't have asked for a better class given my goal of running my own company.

Scott decided to have Dave and me conduct a draft, as we both knew almost everyone in the room. I won the coin flip, and I thought my first draft choice should be Penny, but she was still in High School so I couldn't pick her. I decided to let Dave take Julia if he wanted, but if she was still available in the second round, I'd take her. For my first pick, I weighed my options and narrowed it down to Wen, Charlie, or Mike and chose Charlie. Her face lit up at being first. Dave surprised me and picked Cindi, so I selected Julia, who stuck her tongue out at Dave. Dave took Mike, then I took Wen. After that, it was people who we knew less about, but overall I was pretty happy.

The next step was dividing the large teams into sub-teams and that was a task that Dave and I had to do as 'managers'. Scott asked everyone to write up what amounted to a brief résumé and list their strengths and weaknesses. He gave everyone a form to fill out and fifteen minutes to do it. They were passed to Dave and me and our first task was to make the sub-team assignments. We'd have to do that in addition to the reading Scott assigned.

After class, I met Kara for lunch in The Bog. She'd had her calculus and chemistry classes and would have her computer science class after lunch. I wondered how Sofia had fared in her first morning of class, but I wouldn't find out until the end of the day. Kara told me that she was going to the library after her CS100 class to start on her homework so that she could ride home with Sofia and me.

After lunch, I went back to the liberal arts building for my World Religions class. I'd scanned through the textbook and this semester was about Western religions — Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I'd be taking the second semester as well, which would cover Eastern religions, African and Native American religions, and include a module on Greek, Roman, and Norse gods.

The professor was a man named Mark Agnini who said he taught at several different colleges in the area, including Elmhurst and the University of Chicago. He started by handing out a pop quiz, even before he took attendance. I looked it over and smirked. There were fifty questions, forty of which were from the Bible, and the other ten were about Islam. It took me less than ten minutes to answer the Bible questions. The only one I had to even think about was who Jonathan's best friend was. After I pondered that for a minute, I laughed and wrote down David.

The next ten questions took some thought. I knew that the Qur'an was the holy book. I knew the Five Pillars, I knew that Islam was properly translated as 'submission' or 'surrender', and that Muhammad was the last prophet, and that Jesus and Moses were both considered prophets. I knew what the Hajj was, that Sunni and Shi'ite were the main branches of Islam, but didn't know the difference between the sunnah and hadith. Professor Agnini had us swap papers and then went over the answers. Once the papers were graded, he had us hand them back to each other.

"Who got at least thirty correct?" he asked.

Of the thirty people in class, eight hands went up, including mine.

"OK. Who got at least forty correct?" he asked.

Now, only three hands were up, including mine.

"Forty-five?" he asked.

Two hands.

"Wow. That's impressive. I've never had two people get forty-five. Tell me your names and your totals."

I looked at the female student in the back row and nodded. She smiled.

"Staci Hammond, and I got forty-six."

Staci was average looking and slightly overweight. She reminded me of Tracey Jones in a way, though Staci dressed stylishly — nice jeans and an Izod top, complete with the alligator symbol. Her hair was brown and cut short in what I'd heard called a 'pageboy' style. The thing that really stood out was her killer smile.

"Steve Adams. I got forty-eight."

"Forty-eight? You know the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic scriptures that well?"

"And to some extent, Buddhist and Hindu. It's a hobby, I guess," I said. "I've read a bit of the Qur'an, and have a Muslim friend, as well as a bunch of Eastern texts suggested by my Hindu friend."

"If you both don't mind me asking, what churches do you go to?"

"I don't go to church," I said. "I was Roman Catholic, but haven't been to church for about seven years, except for a couple of weddings, and to a Greek Orthodox Church for Pascha and a baptism."

"I used to go to Faith Bible Church in Peoria," Staci said. "But I haven't gone to church since I came to IIT. I have a friend who's a Muslim, which is how I knew the answers to some of the questions about Islam."

"OK. Well, you two have a leg up on everyone else, but you didn't get perfect scores, so I guess there's something I can teach you!" he said with a grin. "And, Steve, you now hold the record for most questions answered correctly on the first-day quiz in any of my classes at any of the schools."

I smiled and nodded. This seemed as if it was going to be a fun class. After he took attendance, Mark, as he instructed us to call him, went over his requirements for class. There would be a number of short papers, usually one each week, that would be used to judge our understanding of what we'd read, as well as significant class discussion. The mid-term and final would be a combination of essay and multiple choice, but the vast majority of our grade would be discussion points.

"I award one point to you for each class that you contribute to. There are roughly forty-five classes, and thirty points will be considered perfect, because not everyone will be able to talk in every class due to limited time. Don't mistake the point count though — class participation is sixty percent of your grade. The papers are ten percent. The two tests make up the remaining part. You cannot pass this class if you sit quietly and do not participate.

"Also, in this class, there is no 'truth'. No matter what faith you are, there's going to be criticism of what you believe. I understand this might be offensive to some of you with strongly held beliefs, but I'm not here to proselytize for any faith. This class will critically examine Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. If you can't handle that, drop the class and I'll help you get into another elective.

"As for what I believe, I'm an ordained Christian minister, but I'm also a panentheist. In other words, the vast majority of Christians in history would call me a heretic. I'm quite pleased by that, too!" He grinned. "I tell you that because someone always asks, not because I'm going to try to convert you to what I believe. This class is about theology, not religion."

I was VERY sure I was going to like this class, and I wondered if Bart Nichols and Mark Agnini knew each other.

"One last point, after class, I like to get a beer at The Bog. You're welcome to join me. It won't help your grade directly, but we will discuss theology. And if any of you are ever in Hyde Park, I meet a bunch of professors and students on Friday evenings at the Woodlawn Tap for beers. If you're interested, and in the area, let me know. They're a bit lax on checking ID, so as long as you behave and don't get drunk, you under 21's can join us as well."

I suspected that he did know Bart, because Bart had mentioned the same bar.

The rest of the class was used to begin the module on Judaism, and I got my first participation point. I wondered if I could get thirty points and decided it was worth a try. I also wondered if anyone would drop the class. I took quick stock of the room so that I could see who didn't show up on Wednesday. I was pretty sure at least one person of the twenty-three in the room would drop out.

When class ended, I checked my watch and saw I had enough time before my accounting class for a beer, so I decided to go to The Bog. In fact, I thought, I probably needed a drink before accounting class! As I left the classroom, I saw Staci standing in the hallway.

"Hi," I said. "You going for a beer?"

She smiled brightly, "Of course. I guess you're the competition for the highest score in the class?"

I chuckled, "So it would seem. Bible Church, huh?"

"So sue me. I left home and left that all behind. But what's up with a Roman Catholic who knows the Bible that well?"

"I could say 'so sue me', but I've had that question from quite a few people before. Roman Catholics are not forbidden from reading the Bible and I did pay attention to the readings from the Old and New Testaments on Sundays, plus what we read in Sunday School!"

"Come on, let's go get that beer," Staci said with another bright smile.

We started walking, and I asked, "So, you just walked away from church?"

She laughed, "That's one way to put it. Another way to put it is that I was excommunicated for harlotry!"

"Oh come on! Seriously?"

"I went to Prom and stayed out all night. The fact that my virtue was intact didn't matter to the pastor. I was out all night with a guy and thus I must have surrendered to his wiles. No amount of denial mattered. The guy didn't go to our church, and I'd been dating him for six months, which was a scandal to start with. Going dancing and staying out all night was the last straw."

I chuckled, "You and my friend, Kara, should probably talk. She went to a church like that in Milford, Ohio. She got into serious trouble for dancing with me. I'm curious, are you religious?"

"Do I go to church? Not very often. Do I believe in God? Yes. Is Jesus Christ my personal savior? Yes. So yeah, I guess I am. I'm a Born Again Christian."

"A Born Again Christian who drinks beer?" I chuckled.