Chapter 9: The Best Six Months of my Life

“Mom, I had a request from Naomi while we were traveling. She wants to meet you and Dad.”

“She does? Why?” My mother was completely mystified, if not apprehensive.

“Uhhm, well, we got talking and she was curious about me and how I was raised and it just seemed to come up,” I stammered, unconvincingly I’m sure. “She doesn’t have any parents or relatives, just her guardians.”

My mother gave me a long, silent stare of curiosity. “I thought she was just a study partner.”

“No ... she’s a project partner and we’re working on developing a computerized scheduling program for Crook College. It’s worth five credits for me if we pull it off, as well as getting me a seat in the computer science classes. Those are hard to come by,” I explained.

“So ... how did the subject of how you were raised come up?” Mom persisted.

I glanced over at Dad and I could see a knowing smirk as he listened in on our conversation.

“We got talking about our teenage years ... and comparing notes,” I managed, hoping it was enough.

“Joel, is she more than just a study and project partner. I notice Teresa is gone, so is Naomi her replacement?”

“Well ... yeah, I guess she is,” I admitted.

“Then, yes, I’d like to meet her,” Mom said right away. “Why don’t you call her and invite her to dinner tonight?”

“Yeah ... I’ll do that. We’re taking today off since we got so much done on our trip. I’ll call her this morning.”

I glanced at Dad and his grin told me that I’d fallen right into mother’s trap. You’d think by now I would have learned. Oh well, I don’t expect fireworks. Actually, I was more worried about meeting Naomi’s guardians than the other way around.

“Oh, that’s very nice of your mother. I’d like love to skip cooking dinner for one tonight.”

I could hear the humor in her voice. She loved the idea of meeting my mother and digging out all the dirt on me. I’d already figured out I wouldn’t get any sympathy from Dad.

I offered to pick her up, but she declined and said she’d drive herself. I gave her the address and she was sure she wouldn’t have any problem finding our home.

The doorbell rang just after three thirty that afternoon and Dad was first to get to the door. I wish I could have seen the look on his face when he first saw Naomi, but his back was to me. The fact that it took him a couple of seconds to react was enough to convince me he was surprised at the vision before him.

“You must be Naomi,” he finally said. “Please come in.” Dad recovered enough to step back and hold the door open for her. I saw the familiar knowing smile on her face as she entered. Dad offered to take her light jacket and I was right there to welcome her to our home.

“You didn’t have any trouble finding our place?” I asked.

“None at all,” her smile graced me.

“Naomi, this is my father, Mark Timmins. Dad this is Naomi Schaefer.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Timmins,” Naomi said.

I heard Mom approaching from the kitchen and she arrived to stand beside me.

“And this is my mother, Janet. Mom, meet Naomi.”

“How nice to meet you, Naomi. Joel tells me you are a student at Crook College and the two of you are working on a project together.”

Naomi glanced at me, the smile never leaving her face and said, “Yes. Joel will be a big part of our success, I’m positive. He’s the common sense one that keeps me focused on the important stuff and doesn’t let me get distracted.”

“Oh,” Mother said somewhat surprised. “Well, that nice to hear.” She glanced at me then back to Naomi.

“Joel can be pretty single-minded,” Dad joined in. “He really impressed a lot of people last summer with his dedication to clearing up our packaging inventory.”

“I’m still living on that single accomplishment,” I chuckled.

“From what Marcus Conradi told me, it was a very impressive accomplishment,” Naomi said.

The conversation drifted into where our guest was from and what her interests were. Thankfully, mother didn’t get into her personal or family life at this point. After a bit, Mother asked if she would like anything to drink and Naomi settled on tea. Mom scurried back to the kitchen and I knew she would also serve some cookies. Dad was a cookie hound, so we always had a good supply. Naomi followed Mom into the kitchen and I turned to Dad.

“I guess you were surprised when you first saw her,” I suggested.

I think he was going to say something, but he held back before, “No ... I wasn’t surprised that she was a very attractive young lady. You aren’t exactly a homely little boy.”

“Well, I was surprised. But then, she wasn’t what I expected when I was offered the chance to team up with a college student to get this project up and running. I had visions of the typical female nerd, but as you can see, she’s light years away from that.”

“No doubt about it,” Dad chuckled. “Any other interests outside of the project?”

“She’s a skier, so we’ll probably do that together,” I said.

“Hmmm. That should get you a lot of attention from some of the other guys and gals at school,” Dad said with a smirk.

“Possibly. Teresa took one look at her and threw in the towel right then and there,” I noted. “I wasn’t intending to dump her, but she took the matter right out of my hands. So ... I’ll just have to struggle through with Naomi,” I sighed.

That got a good laugh out of Dad. “Yeah ... yeah ... the sacrifices you have to make.”

It was long before I could hear laughter coming out of the kitchen. I had a feeling I was going to hear about this afterwards but for now everyone was getting along just great, which was my earnest hope. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t like Naomi as a person but she certainly can intimidate people; both men and women.

Dad wanted to hear more about our project, so I spent some time explaining what we were looking for and why it was necessary. He understood completely. Scheduling at his plant was an important job and resources were finite. Plus, it was extremely seasonal, so flexible planning was very much required. His company did theirs manually, not yet adopting computer assistance. However, both of us could see the day when a program to convert their manual system might be important.

“Maybe that’s a project for you some day, Joel. You did so well with the inventory, I wonder if there’s an Off-The-Shelf program for plant scheduling.”

“I’m sure there’s more than one, Dad. I’d be happy to have a look and see what’s available. You don’t need anything too complex. You want something simple to use that anyone can operate. Maybe that’s a summer job for me?” I hinted.

Dad had a thoughtful look about him. “Maybe it is at that. If it’s not too much trouble, your idea of looking for something sounds like a good one. I don’t want to take you away from your normal schoolwork, or your project, but it would be interesting to see just what we can find that would suit us.”

“Is Dana Milner still doing the scheduling?” I asked.

“Yes. She would a good person to work with if you find something that might fit.”

“Okay, that’s good. I know Dana and we get along great. Is there any kind of budget for this?”

“Only a common sense one. If we can find something that’s off the shelf, a few hundred dollars is not an obstacle. We’re going to be growing, so scheduling will be an issue.”