Chapter 6: A New Semester and a New Job, Part I

January, 1984, Chicago, Illinois

On Monday morning, I was up early and practiced my karate kata and did some basic exercises. After I showered, I went to the kitchen to make breakfast and noticed a light snow falling. So far, there was just a dusting on the browned grass, but the forecast called for light snow all day. I'd be heading to IIT alone, as I was the only one with an 8:00am class.

I was fairly happy with my schedule, even though I had an early-morning class. Being an early riser, it didn't bother me, though I was a bit melancholy because Stephie was supposed to be in all three classes that I would have on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As it was, none of my friends were in any of the classes. At least Dave would be in the Tuesday night database class.

Just as I was leaving the kitchen, Katy came in to make her breakfast. I smiled at her and she smiled back, but nothing was said. It was going to be an interesting semester for sure. I went back to my room, put my books and notepads into my leather bag, then went downstairs and put on my shoes, coat and gloves. I debated which hat to wear and decided to go for the KGB «ушанка», wondering what kind of response I'd receive.

I found out immediately on walking into my Introduction to Business class when a stocky guy with sandy-blonde hair greeted me.

«Доброе утро, товарищ!» (Good morning, Comrade!).

"Sorry, I don't speak Russian," I grinned. "This was a gift from a friend of mine."

"A friend in the «Комитет государственной безопасности»?" he chuckled.

"No, from the daughter of the Russian Trade Attaché in Washington. I do have a KGB Colonel's uniform that did come from a friend in the KGB, though. I wore it for Halloween."

"I'm Andrei," he laughed, holding out his hand.

"And your father's name?" I grinned as I shook his hand.

"Paul," he smiled.

"Good morning, Andrei Pavlovich. I am Stephen Rayevich. If I may call you Andrushka, you may call me Stepa," I chuckled.

"OK. OK. You made your point. Are you a Russophile or an émigré?"

"Russophile. You?"

"My grandparents on my father's side emigrated from Russia in 1917. My dad thought it was important that we all speak Russian, and most people at church do."

"Then I suspect you're Orthodox, and most likely members of Holy Virgin in Des Plaines."

"No, but that is our cathedral. We go to a church in Carol Stream. How the heck do you know that? Are you Orthodox?"

"No, but a good friend of mine is, and I've been to the Greek cathedral for Pascha services. I've also read The Orthodox Church by Bishop KALLISTOS."

The professor walked in just then and I grabbed a seat in the front row. Even taking a seat after most of the other students, one was available. I scanned the room, and it looked like mostly Freshmen, nervous and excited at the same time. True to IIT form, in the class of thirty, there were only four girls. My new Russian friend was sitting in the back, flanked by two of them.

I could tell from the first sentence the professor spoke that this class was going to be boring as hell. And as I reviewed the syllabus that he handed out, I decided that my sister was right — I'd make sure I hired other people to run the business day-to-day. I'd rather spend my time programming as I'd done when we had Four Dimensional Software.

When class finished, I stopped to talk to Andrei. He was a Freshman who lived in Wheaton and commuted to IIT each day. His major was aeronautical engineering and he, like Dave, attended church every Sunday. We seemed to hit it off pretty well, and I let him know I was available if he needed help with CS100. We parted, and I went to get a cup of coffee from the student center and then walked back to find the classroom for my American History class.

I was quite early, and the room was empty, so I took a seat in the front row and took out my business textbook and started reading the assignment. Slowly, other students filed in and once again I saw that it was mostly Freshmen, though right before the professor walked in, Wen Zhao came into the room and took a seat beside me. We said 'hello', but didn't have time to talk further before class began.

This history class was a continuation of the class I'd taken the previous Spring, and the professor was the same University of Glasgow graduate that I'd had for that class. This one covered the period from 1840 to 1970, which was a lot of material for a single-semester course. When the syllabus was handed out, I saw that there was a large amount of optional, but suggested reading. I realized immediately that I was going to have to put in a lot of time in this class to maintain my straight-A average, but it was a topic I loved, so that would make it easier. The problem would be finding the time to read, given my crazy schedule. I'd be spending Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons reading, for sure.

When class finished, I realized that I was on my own for lunch for the first time since Freshman year, and that had been short-lived because Stephie and I started having lunch together fairly early in the semester. I asked Wen if she'd join me, but she begged off because her meal plan required her to eat at the cafeteria. I offered to buy her lunch, but she declined. I thought about going to Sig Eps to eat with Dave and Julia or Theta Xi to eat with Mike, but didn't want to just drop in unannounced. I decided to walk over to Bridgeport and go to the diner where Candace worked.

"Hi, Steve!" Candace called out when I walked in and sat down. "Long time no see and no hear!"

"Becky and I aren't meeting anymore and I have been crazy busy. This semester is going to be even crazier; I'm doing an internship two days a week in Downers Grove."

"That's cool. What do you want today?" she asked with a wink.

I chuckled, "Well, I could say 'two breasts with a side of thighs, but I'll have the cheeseburger and fries, plus a Coke."

"I think I've heard that one a hundred times just in the past month!"

"I didn't figure it was original. How's school going?"

"Pretty good. I finish up in May. How about you?"

"One more year after this one. Then out into the cruel world to slave away for forty years or so!"

She put my order in and then went to take orders from other diners. When my food was ready, she brought it to the table.

"If you're not busy some weekend, call me. I'd like to get together, if you want to."

"We'll see, but please don't count on it, Candy. I'm pretty busy and I'm working on putting things back together with my High School sweetheart."

Actually, I could have said my three High School sweethearts — Jennifer, Kara, and Bethany — but I didn't.

"What happened to that girl from Georgia?"

"She went back to Georgia. It was the right thing for her to do. It's fine because I'm really focusing on school and work this semester, and really don't have time for a girlfriend. The girl I just mentioned is at Stanford out in California now. She'll move here when she graduates."

"I hope it works out. If you change your mind, let me know. Will you be coming for lunch very often?"

I chuckled, "Is that an offer?"

"Absolutely! But you know what I meant."

"Probably once a week or so. I don't have anyone to regularly eat with right now due to everyone's schedules."

She left the table to serve other customers, and I ate in silence. When I finished my meal, I paid the check and left my usual tip. I said 'goodbye' to Candy and told her I'd probably see her in a week. I walked back to campus in the light snow and went into the engineering building. I found the correct classroom and took a seat in the front row. I didn't have long to wait for the class to start and when the professor walked in, I glanced around the room and saw several faces that I recognized but nobody that I knew well. I sighed and took out a notepad and pencil.

The professor, a short, balding man in his late fifties, handed out the syllabus and then went over the goals for the class. While the title of the class was 'Engineering Ethics', the course was a full-blown ethics course, with case studies drawn from engineering and science. He started off the discussion immediately after taking attendance by asking a hypothetical question.

"Suppose, Mr.," he consulted his attendance sheet, "Adams, that you are working for a car company. You discover that there is a minor flaw in the design of the vehicle. The flaw will likely lead to ten deaths a year. The cost to fix it is $100 per vehicle. The cost to pay the lawsuits works out to $5 per vehicle. What do you recommend the company do?"

"I'd say if you are aware of a potentially fatal defect, and it's in your power to fix it, you need to fix it. If you can't fix it, then you need to make it clear to the person buying the car that the risk exists. I realize that you asked me, more or less, to weigh profits against lives, and for me personally, I can't do that."

"You're the engineer. Your boss says that senior management decided, on the advice of attorneys, to not say anything and not fix it, and just pay out the lawsuits. What do you do? Do you leak it to the press? Become a whistleblower?"

I chuckled, "That's easy for me to say sitting here in class. Yes, of course. On the other hand, if I had a wife, a mortgage, and a couple of kids, and they depended on my income from the job, I'd certainly have a much harder time deciding what to do."

"Very good. You've just summarized the entire semester. Unfortunately for you and your classmates, I can't just give you an A and let you go on your way. If you'll take the packets that I've given you and turn to the first page, we'll begin with a survey of the Greek philosophers. Any of you who've taken an introduction to philosophy may be bored, but please hang in there!"

I decided that I liked this professor. At each step, he'd consult his attendance sheet and call on someone to answer some hypothetical question based on what he'd just talked about. Even though I'd taken several philosophy courses, I wasn't bored, though I felt bad for a few of the students who managed to tie themselves in knots trying to answer his questions. I had two years' worth of Sunday philosophy with my friends that had helped me order my thoughts on things like this.

"Class, your first assignment is to read the handout on 'Lifeboat ethics' as proposed by Garrett Hardin. You'll find several questions at the end. You might find some of the questions a bit shocking, such as the idea of when cannibalism becomes OK and if it's OK to deny food and water to a sick individual and give it to a healthy one. Just try your best to answer. There are no right or wrong answers. You'll be graded on your reasoning and how you defend your choices. See you Wednesday!"

I gathered my things and realized this class was going to provide quite a bit of fodder for our Sunday discussions. I'd just have to be careful to only raise topics after I'd done my homework, so that it didn't seem as if I was trying to use the group to succeed. After all, that just wouldn't be ethical!

I walked to my car and, after brushing the snow off the windows, drove home. I made myself some tea and took the teapot and cup into the Indian room and sat down to read. I got in a couple of hours of reading before it was time to make dinner. Jackie came into the kitchen to help and we quickly got everything going, then sat down with cups of hot cocoa to wait.

"How are things with Jamie?" I asked.

"Right where we left off, but that might actually change."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. He asked me to think about moving in with him after he graduates. Well, assuming he gets a job."

"Interesting. I thought you guys hadn't been together."

She laughed, "We haven't. That's why I was so surprised. I asked him if that was his backhanded way of asking me to go to bed with him. He actually blushed!"

"Direct as always, Jackie," I grinned, "What did you say?"

"I told him I'd think about it. I really like living here. But I do want to see if Jamie and I can make things work. Hell, I've been trying for more than a year now! When do I have to tell you if I'll be here in the Fall?"

"Let's call it August 1st. That's before Sofia gets here, and if you move out, I'll ask Cindi if she'll room with Sofia. And I'm sure there are other girls that would want to move in, like Charlie. But it would have to be cool with Cindi."

"So no chance you'll let Sofia stay with you?"

"Oh, who the hell knows? I'm not promising anything to anyone, including Sofia. I'd have to talk THAT through with Jennifer. And it sure would upset Elyse, Bethany, and anyone else who might come to visit, especially given Sofia isn't likely to go home except maybe at Christmas and for the Summer."

"So that would cramp your style?" Jackie asked with a knowing smile.

"You could look at it that way. But I am not interested in going steady with anyone. Not in the near term, anyway."

Julia came in to see if we needed help and I asked her to set the table, as dinner was almost ready. When she finished, we called everyone to dinner and sat down to eat. When we finished, Katy and Cindi cleaned up and I went upstairs to change into my gi, because I was going to karate on Mondays instead of Tuesdays. Given the snow and cold, I planned to drive to the dojo, even though it was less than eight blocks away.

Fortunately, I'd paid just enough attention to practice over break so as not to earn the ire of Sensei Jim. He asked if I'd heard from Stephie and I told him that I had and that she was doing well. I also let him know that she'd started going to a dojo near Georgia Tech and he was happy to hear that. When class ended, I drove home and showered, and went to my study.

There were a couple of pieces of mail on my desk and I noticed the answering machine flashing. I opened the two bills and set them aside, then listened to the message.

I sighed and pressed the button to erase the messages. I decided to simply ignore the message. I didn't want to get into an argument with Becky, and her request to get together wasn't something I was particularly interested in. I realized I wasn't following my own maxim of simply telling the truth, and I'd need to do that the next time I talked to her. But not now.