Chapter 2

I managed to pass the rest of the school week without any further radar evasion failures. As we gathered our belongings after Friday’s lecture, Kathy sidled up next to me, and asked, “So, where are you going to take me, so as to sweep me off my feet, and work your evil wiles upon innocent, defenseless little me?” She accompanied this with a wide eyed, waif-like moue, as if she was indeed the innocent lass she pretended to be.

I paused, and answered her. “I think I’ll take you to Greektown. There are some restaurants there I really enjoy. It might be nice to have a meal there without a handie talkie on the table, threatening to interrupt the meal with every bite!”

She swayed back and forth as if a child. “And then?”

I was practical. “Then, to my luxury bachelor apartment, so we can listen to soft music, turn the lights down low, and then fling ourselves into the passions of ... Cranial Nerves!”

She made a pout. “I thought you had debauchery and occasions of sin on your dirty little mind! What happened to the sins the flesh might lead us to?”

I smiled. “Well, if we complete our studying tonight, and I get you home to your family at a reasonable hour, then we will have nothing to distract us from those sins of the flesh, tomorrow, right? And, relaxed with no studying hanging over our heads, and well rested, well, I suppose I could entice you, then, into any sort of debauchery you might desire, right?”

She observed, “Let’s find a phone, and I’ll call my mom. Don’t go far, she’ll want to talk to you. She doesn’t want her favorite daughter to come to an ill end!”

So, that’s how I came to be introduced to Mrs. Edwards. Over the phone, she sounded cordial, yet a bit reserved. She, oh, so casually, asked how I occupied myself, when I wasn’t in school, and I told her I was a fire department medic, for Da City. She asked a few more questions, and wound up with her closer. “Now, Mark, you will get my baby home tonight at a decent hour, won’t you”

“Mrs. Edwards, I certainly will!”

“Thank you. In our household, for our unmarried daughters dating a fellow we haven’t met, we expect that to be around 10 pm.”

“Yes, Ma’am! I expect we’ll take a break from studying to go out for dinner, and finish up in plenty of time to have her home by then. Has she told you we anticipate going out tomorrow? That’s part of why we want to grind out the homework, tonight.”

“Yes, Mark, she has. Another reason to have her home by 10 is so we have an opportunity to get acquainted.”

“Yes, Ma’am! Ten o’clock, sounds like a plan. Would you like to talk to Kathy again?”

“Yes, please. I look forward to meeting you in person.”

I handed the phone to Kathy. She stuck out her tongue at me, and started to talk to her mother.

Once they had concluded their conversation, she turned to me. “Ten o’clock? What, am I still in high school?”

I stood up for her mother. “Well, you know, for all she knows, I’m an unconvicted axe murderer, and simply see nursing school as a target rich environment. Who knows, you might be my next victim!”, which I followed with a maniacal cackle.

“Oh, you! Where are you parked? Mom dropped me off today, before she went out to run her errands. Let’s go. Dealing with your silliness is giving me an appetite! Feed me, before you chop me up into little bits!”

We parked, and went into Olympia, my favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant. The food was always hot and fresh tasting, with enough tang for my Anglo palate to know I was eating exotically. The plates were heaped with food (an important consideration given my work/sleep/school/work schedule). Kathy tasted from my plate of soutzoyki (a ground lamb patty on a bed of rice, topped with tomato sauce), and dug into her own gyros plate. Once we had finished, we carried the left overs home, enough for another couple of meals.

Once there, I locked the door behind us, and settled in next to her on my sofa. We looked out on the wooded back yard of the facing property. I lived one block north of Boston Boulevard, which, at one time, had been where the auto industry executives had their homes. Homes on Boston had large lots, and had been built in a style and of a size that suited a captain of industry, and allowed for serving staff to maintain the property. This led to heavily treed lots and, if you did not know the history of the area, and the trees were fully leafed out, well, it appeared to a casual glance to be a arboreal park just across the street, rather than somebody’s imposing home.

So, Kathy “oohed” and”aahhhed” at the pretty sylvan view I enjoyed. My home, of course, was far more pedestrian, being a two flat, on a rather narrower street. Still, I got to enjoy the view, along with the changing colors in the autumn foliage change, and did not have to rake the leaves. Kathy was suitably impressed, pressing in against my side.

We conversed until I had to pay my caffeine debt, and departed for the bathroom. Once I had zipped up and washed up, I went to return to her side, only to discover her absent from the living room. I walked through the flat, wondering where she might have gotten off to, until I found her sprawled seductively across my bed.

“I wondered how long until you figured out I was hot and waiting for you in the bedroom”, was her greeting.

“Overly warm, or anticipating some sort of seduction?” was my reply, as I lay down next to her.

“Oh, silly white boy! You know the sort of heat I’m looking for!”

“And, I want to roll around with you, too. But, we have this test on cranial nerves on Tuesday, and we have to study tonight. Otherwise, we will have to study tomorrow, and I can think of things I would much rather be doing with you, than studying tomorrow.”

She cut a cute pout. “I thought you couldn’t wait to play with my soft brown body?”

“Oh, I very, very much want to play with you, in any and every way that you want me to. But, THAT will have to wait until two things happen!”

“What two things are they?”

I paused, as if considering. “Well, first, we need to finish that studying. I believe that we can complete that in plenty of time to get you home around 9:30.”

She sat up, indignation pouring from her as if it had been dumped out onto her head. “9:30! I thought you and my mother had decided upon 10 o’clock!”

“Yes, we did. So, simply as a review, you remember that you are Black, right? Now, when the new boyfriend, whom she has never met, and, must I remind you, is very, very white, brings you home to your mother, clothing unruffled, a full half hour early, and then lingers to undergo her interrogation willingly, even enthusiastically, will that not demonstrate that said new boyfriend will respect her darling daughter...”

Kathy interrupted with, “Her FAVORITE daughter!”

I continued. “Her only daughter, and not distract her from her schoolwork, and will respect mother’s own boundaries? And, having convinced her of that, will we not have an easier time of it, having her approval for spending time together? And that sets the stage for my second point. If we get all this book-work done tonight, and get you home early, then tomorrow, we can have a leisurely day to explore, and talk, and generally not rush or stress. And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is my evil plan!”

She pouted for another moment. “So, you have me all hot and willing, here on your bed, and you don’t want to fool around even the least little bit?”

“Nope.”

She looked startled. “You don’t?”

“Oh, hell yes I do! You are wrong as you can be. I’m simply willing to wait until tomorrow, after we’ve completed our studying, studying we could be progressing on even as we speak, and after I’ve been interrogated by your mother, tonight. That will allow me an unhurried catalog of your feminine attributes, and give me the time to appreciate you, and those assets, deliberately and thoroughly.”

I rolled off the bed, reached out my hand in invitation, and led her to the dining room. We opened our books, and pulled out our notebooks. She took better notes than I, and I comprehended the material in the book better. Having a seemingly bottomless capacity for trivia, I presented a couple of mnemonics for keeping straight the names and functions of the cranial nerves, and she straightened me out regarding what the prof had said would be the highlights of the exam.

The time passed, as a moment. I was a little startled by the insistent ringing of the alarm that I had set for 9:00 pm, as we were finishing up the chapters assigned for reading. Standing, I shut off the clamor, and reached for Kathy, drawing her near, and breathing in her scent. She molded herself to me, and I hardened, anticipating tomorrow’s delights. “Let’s pack up, and get on the road. We did well on the studying, and I think just a little more review will leave us set pretty nicely for the test. After that, let Dr. Clark do her worst!”

Kathy sighed. “I don’t wanna! I wanna just stay here, and let you hold me. I wanna sleep in your arms, feel you breathe against me. Let me stay! I wanna stay!”