Chapter 2

Over the next months, I won’t characterize the frequency of phone calls from Lena as sporadic, just not really consistent. I relished them. Really did. She’s bright. After the pall of Dad’s passing wore away, she became more light-hearted and funny. Email was a thing, too, all very benign – pictures flowing both ways – me of my worksite and the surrounding area, hers being cute things she found on the Internet to share, pensive notes on school and home.

Halfway through, I found myself beginning to fear that one day I’d get one that said, “Dear Jay – I met this guy...”

I guess I pressed the subject.

I’m glad she didn’t reply to that note with a phone call. I don’t know that I might not have gone stupid.

Okay, I read that one with a catch in my throat. Now she’d ruled out everybody up to the age of eighteen. That left college guys. It was approaching graduation time for Lena. Her grades kept her at the top of the class, maybe not the valedictorian, but certainly in the very top tiers. Conversations with her told me that she wasn’t the recipient of social promotions. She had a vocabulary and thought processes to go along with the grades.

And she wasn’t talking about college.

Lena-

College! It’s getting close. I know you can do late registration, but you risk not getting the classes or schedules you want.

Jay

I hated the response I received.

That warranted my return message.

Lena-

This is not the news I wanted to hear. Call me as soon as you can.

Jay

I hit ‘send’. In five minutes the phone buzzed its way through Lena’s ringtone.

“Hey, Lena,” I said.

“Hi, Jay,” she said softly. “I guess I know what this is about.”

“College, Lena. Your future. Yes.”

“What I said in my email, that’s what happened. I know what you told me when I first found out about the money. I was just gonna help a little – a couple of thousand. Then Dad’s old truck blew an engine. Bills. Always bills. Jobs are just starting to pick up so Dad can find steady work, but when they weren’t around, Mom and Dad went pretty deep into a hole. What was I supposed to do? They raised me. I live there.”

I sighed. “You did what you had to do. Your parents raised a good daughter. I’d’ve probably done the same thing, sweetie,” I said. Yes. Pet name. “So now you’re planning...”

“To go to work after I graduate. Darla’s dad is an office whatever for this big industrial supply house. They were planning on putting an entry-level analyst on the payroll starting in June, because they knew that there would be graduates looking...”

“Lots of college grads, baby,” I said. Another pet name. I caught myself. I might be pushing it.

“I helped Darla get over a couple of hurdles. Her dad knows this. Darla’s going to college. He said he’d get me an inside track to that job if I wanted it. Darla’s going to intern with them over the summer. If I work out, I get a permanent job.”

“Lena,” I said, “That’s the curse of small success. You get something that will get you by, and you stop there. Don’t get trapped.”

“It has too much going for it, Jay. I could make enough to actually get out, maybe split an apartment with another girl, like I planned before...”

“That fell through. Your friends got the apartment, one of them immediately moved a boyfriend in and she got pregnant.”

“In retrospect, all too predictable,” she said.

“So naturally you’re thinking about doing the same thing and expecting different results.”

“I’m trying to find somebody like me, Jay.”

“There IS nobody like you, Lena.”

“I’m not all that, Jay.”

“You are, Lena. You can’t see it because you’re on the inside looking out.”

“Nobody else notices, Jay.”

“They do. One day somebody will...” I said it, inwardly hoping either that I was wrong or that I’d have a pistol in the ear of the guy that did.

“I don’t have choices, Jay. Another month...”

“I got your graduation invitation.”

“You said you’d be here.”

“And I will.”

More conversations over the next couple of weeks, she’s the one that broached the idea that she’d forever be tied down if she stayed with her mom and dad, and slowly she started considering the idea of starting anew somewhere else.

“That’s VERY difficult, Lena,” I said. “Move to a new town, get a job, set up housekeeping ... All on a shoestring. Difficult.”

There was a tone of silent desperation in her voice. “I’m trying to think of something. Make something happen. There’s got to be a way.”

“Lean on me, Lena. Whatever I can do...”

That’s not an easy note to take to bed. First, that a good friend was facing an apparently hopeless situation for a future, second, that I had an imagined feeling growing past the ‘help a young friend’ stage, over Lena.

The next three weeks went by, the dying stages of Phase One of my project. The general contractor knew my desire to take a couple of weeks from the middle of May. My boss came to talk with me.

“Jay, you ARE coming back for Phase Two, right?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I said.

“The GANTT chart says we won’t actually NEED you until middle of June, soonest. Can’t keep you on the payroll. Is that going to be a problem?”

“No. I’m good. Still got the apartment. And the astronomical salary you guys give me, I was able to save TWO jars full of quarters.”

“Smartass.”

“You always did have stellar interpersonal skills. One reason I’m staying,” I laughed.

“I appreciate the continuity. We’re losing a lot of people,” he said.

I’m an electrical guy. I distinctly felt a current start to flow in the light bulb circuit in my head.

“How about your documents analyst?” I already knew she was leaving when I asked, but one must adhere to form.

“She’s gone. Her husband’s one of the process guys, right?”

“Yeah. He’s pulling up for a job in Galveston, Texas.”

“Imagine that – leaving the scenic state of Missouri to go to that fetid swamp.”

“You LIVED a hundred miles up the coast from that fetid swamp.”

“You know the difference between Louisiana and a steaming pile of shit, Andy?”

Andy knows my sense of humor. He steels himself. “I’ll regret this, but tell me.”

I smiled. “The difference between Louisiana and a steaming pile of shit is the Texas state line.”

“Old,” Andy grimaced. “First time I heard it, it was the Sabine River.” The Sabine River is a big part of the line that divides Louisiana and Texas, so the joke would still work well, but I didn’t expect Andy to know it.

“You said you wanted to get back home for a week or two anyway. Go. Visit old friends and family. That’s what I’m doing. See you back here on Monday, the third week of June.”

“Nothing like a construction site in the summer,” I said. “Now, back to my question about that records analyst.”

“You got somebody?”

“I might.”

“Interest me,” he said.

“Eighteen. Graduates high school in a couple of weeks. I’m going to watch her do it.”

“No experience.”

“She has been part-timing in retail. She does things in the office. Smart. Like a 3.9 GPA. Sciences. Math. Computer-literate, past the point Livy was, for damned sure. She’ll learn fast.”

“Risky.”

“I don’t even know if she’s interested,” I said. “But if I can get ‘er...”

“Here’s how we’ll do it,” he said. “YOU, my Cajun friend, are going to be her supervisor. You train ‘er.”

“Extra pay?”

“Oh, hell no. Off the books. Docs clerk is under the project engineer’s umbrella, but I’ll explain the situation. I hope it works.”

Inwardly I thought ‘I hope SHE takes the opportunity.’ “If she tries, Andy, she’ll succeed.”

“How well do you know this girl?”

“She’s my dad’s next door neighbor. I met ‘er when they moved next door. She’s been helping Dad right up until the end. Very responsible. Mature for her years. Smart. Kind of dead-ended where she is, though.”

Old Andy’s eyes softened. “Giving a kid a chance. Mighty decent of you.”

“I try.”

“No, I’m serious. You weren’t on Leslie’s scoreboard.”

Leslie was what we call a ‘plant 10’, a girl who might be a five or six anywhere outside an industrial site. She fucked just about anybody who’d buy her a couple of dinners and a few drinks. Made herself available to me. I declined. One – morals. Two – rumors that one of her ‘partners’ had somehow picked up a strain of gonorrhea that took a flamethrower to kill.

“Not what I’m looking for, bud. You know me better.”

“I did after I heard you turned Leslie down. You got that apartment. You could’ve had a full-time Leslie.”

“Leslie got herself forty miles of dick off this project,” I said. “She’s got the morals of a cat in heat, and for heaven’s sake, she puts makeup on with a trowel...”

“So you stuff ‘er in the shower, scrub ‘er down, and THEN fuck ‘er.”

“Man, I love it when you’re subtle. But no. I’d rather have my time to myself, take off exploring on weekends.”

“I heard she could suck-start a Harley,” he laughed.

“Admirable skillset, I’m sure. Not exactly what my lifestyle is open for, though.”

The Monday before Lena’s Thursday graduation I had my truck packed with clothes and computer and other niceties. A hotel room, mid-range in price and amenities, was booked for my stay. I hit the road early in the morning, timing my drive to arrive at Lena’s in time for dinner.

Lena knew my itinerary.