Chapter 17

I woke to my alarm. I got up, showered and met Agnes in front of her dorm. “Happy Monday, dear lady.”

“Happy Monday to you, my Viking. Lt’s go have breakfast.” We left holding hands for the cafeteria.

Once inside, we quickly filled our trays and found a small table. Agnes took my hand and I asked a quick blessing for our meal and the day. We ate watching each other joyfully. We finished in plenty of time and I refilled our coffee cups. We had time to get our books and make our classes easily. We left. I dropped Agnes off at her dorm and continued to mine.

I picked up my books noticing that Carl was still in bed. He didn’t have a class for hours. I left and met Agnes in front of her dorm. We walked to English and sat down in adjacent seats.

The class started with a lecture and then the professor led a discussion of our reading for the class. It was on Hamlet and I laid low. Agnes spoke up showing that she knew the play and liked it. I had read it but guys talking to skulls wasn’t my thing. After some discussion with others, we were lectured again. He wanted to talk about Jonathon Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” and how that might relate to modern life.

Since it was satire, I felt more comfortable in joining in the discussion. One of my favorites was the Yahoos who delved in the mud for pretty stones. I mentioned how it compared with the materialism of today. The professor liked that which didn’t surprise me. I carefully expanded upon that theme with help from others until the end of class. For Wednesday’s class, we had a short paper to write on any excerpt to either the play or the book. The syllabus suggested five pages typed (printed). Agnes and I talked about it on our way to lunch. She was going to write on Hamlet. She said, “But I guess you will write on Gulliver’s Travels?”

“I don’t know. Hambone is an interesting subject.’

“Eric, you’re a yahoo. Don’t ask for trouble.”

“Who, me?”

“Yes, you.”

We walked into the cafeteria laughing. We pulled our trays and loaded some lunch on them. We sat across from each other at the end of a long table. Very soon, we were joined by some friends including Amanda and Carl. It was a fun meal. After it was over, we waked together to our classes. I dropped Agnes off at her history class and went on to geography. After geography, I went to history. After history, I met Agnes on “our” sofa in the common room. We sat close. After kissing, we went over our study needs with emphasis on the reading we needed to do. That took us to supper time.

We went to supper and ate with our friends. After supper, Agnes and I studied those items that would require writing. I pulled my small computer notebook and wrote out my paper for English. I printed it on the printer in the girls’ dorm. We were ready for tomorrow and for Wednesday as well. It was late and we kissed each other good night. I went to my room and to bed.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday went by similarly. It was routine but enjoyable. Friday would be different with our first biology lab. We went to it and played with a frog. We were told that we would dissect another few different animals during the semester. We did our frog as partners. Once finished, we left. We sat in the common room for a bit before going to lunch at our usual time. Lunch and afterwards went as usual. I met Agnes at the common room after pulling my wagon around. We loaded her case and dirty cloths as well as my case. We got in and left with Agnes giving directions.

Finally, I went down a long country road and then turned onto a dirt drive that went to a farmhouse at the end of the drive. Agnes parents and brothers were waiting for us. Not surprisingly, they were all tall though none were redheads though their hair was brown with red highlights.

As I pulled up, her family rushed the passenger side of my wagon, opened the door, and took turns hugging and kissing Agnes. She had been pulled out while I walked around the back of my wagon. By the time I got to her, they had subsided. She said, “Mom, Dad, Jimmy, Aaron, this is Eric Daniels, my personal Viking. Eric, this is my family.”

All of them were tall though I could see where Agnes’ beauty originated. Her mother was beautiful with a great figure. Her father shook my hand while her mother hugged me and kissed my cheek. It felt a lot like Agnes just not the emotional content that we now had. Her brothers each shook my hand. Like their father, they were both husky.

Jimmy said in a low voice, “I’ve got to leave. I play football and it’s a home game or the coach would have been really mad that I’m not already there.” He shook my hand again and left to climb into an old pickup and head out.