Chapter 2

A few months later I ran into Barb. More accurately, she ran into me, her cart rammed mine as I exited the frozen food aisle. To make a long story a little shorter, we met, we dated, she got pregnant, and we got married. Betty and dad were not happy, but I was. I had always lusted after Barb and now she was mine. To keep what I did for the military a secret, I told Barb and everyone else that I worked with electronics in a factory. That was sort of true. You made things in a factory, and I made things.

Less than two weeks after we married, she had a miscarriage I was upset but Barb seemed to take the event in stride.

“We can always have another kid down the road,” she said, “but I’ll need a break for awhile.”

Two years later she was still unwilling to have a child, and I was getting the deep chill treatment more often than not. I had to make frequent trips to navy and air force bases to fine tune those devices that I had invented, and it did not seem to bother Barb at all. All her affection seemed to be directed at Fu fu, a dog the size of a rat, with the temperament of Attila the Hun. Except for people he was used to, he was a yappy little ankle nipper. Me, he hated, and the feeling was mutual.