Chapter 29: Sacked for a Safety

November 28, 1981, Chicago, Illinois

“What about your parents?” I asked. “I don’t want to create problems.”

“They’ll be out for the afternoon, and I’m eighteen so it really is up to me.”

“And your dad is my landlord for another eight months or so. Let’s just be careful and not do anything that’s foolish. Would you like to go on a date tonight?”

“Yes!”

I smiled, we exchanged a soft kiss, and then walked back to the laundromat to wait for the washer to finish. When it did, I transferred everything to a dryer, and then Lily and I headed for Jewel to do my weekly shopping. Once we finished at Jewel, we walked back to the laundromat, took my clothes from the dryer, folded them, then made our way back to the house. Lily went inside her house and I went up to the apartment and started putting away the groceries. Lily joined me two minutes later and helped by putting away my clothes.

“Mom and Dad are gone,” she said once we both finished.

“Lunch first?”

“Bed first! That way the worst possible scenario is they catch us eating lunch!”

I took her hand and led her to the bed. We quickly shed our clothes, got into bed, and spent an hour fooling around before we showered, dressed, changed the sheets, and then began preparing lunch.

“I only have two sets of sheets,” I said. “I’ll need to do laundry before the weekend if we keep our Wednesday dinner date.”

“Let me take them to the house. There’s plenty of time to do a load on the quick cycle and dry them before my parents get home.”

“OK,” I agreed.

She gathered the soiled sheets and disappeared for a few minutes. I finished making our sandwiches and by the time she returned, I had the plates on the table, along with chips and pickles, and two bottles of Coke.

“Did you want to see a movie tonight?” I asked.

“Sure! How about Ragtime?”

“What’s it about?”

“New York City in the early 1900s. It has Jimmy Cagney, so I can’t imagine it would be bad.”

“Wow! He has to be in his 80s! Sure, I’m game. Dinner beforehand?”

“How about one of the places in Chinatown?”

“Absolutely!” I agreed.

“Did anything interesting happen while I was giving you the cold shoulder and silent treatment?”

“Not really. Nothing much has changed at work.”

“Did that ‘Suit’, as you call him, ever see you?”

“No, but I think they have much bigger fish to fry. And it’s not like I’m going to move up in the next months. Well, I will, to mailroom supervisor, but not to a runner or some other position like that.”

“But that’s a sure thing, right?”

“Well, assuming Nick finishes law school, the position will be open and my boss has made it pretty clear he wants me in that position. Until I get the memo from Personnel that has my new title and new salary, it’s not a done deal. And right now, there’s so much work to do, I can’t really worry about anything else. Hopefully, we’ll get a new person in January. That’s how Mr. Nelson says it has worked in the past when they had layoffs.”

“So, just wait?”

“Yes. But I have a job, so I’m OK with waiting.”

When we finished our lunch, I cleaned up while Lily went to move the sheets from the washer to the dryer.

“It’s too cold to stay outside,” I said when Lily returned. “And I don’t think your parents would appreciate us being in the apartment.”

“Or probably the house,” Lily said. “The dryer will be done in about thirty minutes. When it’s done, we could go to Julie’s house to hang out. She’s home and so are her parents. I’ll leave a note for my parents saying that we’re at her house, and that we’re going to dinner and a movie. That’ll be OK with them. My mom will be very happy.”

“And your dad?”

“He likes you, but I think every teenage girl’s dad is nervous when she has her first boyfriend.”

“Probably. I don’t have much experience in that regard. Bev and I hung out together from the time we were little.”

“Did he know?”

“Eventually, I think, but I had the idea he more or less expected it to happen at some point. We didn’t talk about it, but I’m pretty sure Bev’s mom knew.”

“Did yours?”

“Mom and I talked about everything.”

“And she never dated?”

I shook my head, “Her one and only date was the same day she got pregnant with me.”

“Do you know why?”

“I think being a single mom in 1963 would make it tough, and after that, she was focused on raising me.”

“Would you be OK with her dating?”

“I never thought about it, but I don’t think I’d have a problem with it, so long as the guy treated her right. I don’t really need a dad at this point.”

“I guess if you’ve gone eighteen years without one, it wouldn’t really be a priority.”

“Bev’s dad was a ... surrogate, I guess. I went to him when I needed an adult male opinion on something. He taught me to hunt and how to work on cars.”

“It seems like you and Bev were a perfect couple.”

I’d wondered why Lily had been asking questions about Bev, and it suddenly dawned on me — she was concerned about me seeing Bev when I went home.

“I suppose, but Bev always knew I’d be leaving Goshen as soon as I could, and she was a year behind me in school, so there was no way she could leave with me. I’m pretty sure I told you she started dating right away, and I think that’s obvious from what happened after I left. And if you’re concerned I’m going to get back together with her, I’m not. First, we were just friends. Yes, we fooled around, but it was never anything more than two horny teenagers doing what horny teenagers do. I care for her, sure, and I’ll help her if I can, but you’re my girlfriend, not Bev.”

“Sorry,” Lily said quietly.

“Don’t be! If we don’t talk about stuff like this, we’ll end up right back where we were for the last two weeks, or worse. If something bothers you, tell me and we can talk about it. If you don’t, this will never work.”

Lily sighed, “I guess I’m not as low-maintenance as I thought.”

I held out my arms and she melted into them.

“It’s fine,” I soothed. “We’re both learning. Starter boyfriend and girlfriend, remember?”

“Yes. You’re sure you aren’t mad at me?”

“Positive.”

December 1, 1981, Chicago, Illinois

“How did it go?” Anala asked when I joined her at our usual spot in Bridgeport on Tuesday evening.

“Exactly as I’d hoped,” I replied. “We spent Saturday together, as well as Sunday afternoon, and I had dinner at her house with her parents.”

“I hope you talked about your relationship.”

“We did. And I discovered that Lily was actually concerned about Bev.”

“Which makes sense, given that you have strong feelings for Bev, even if you were ‘just friends’.”

“You say that like it was more than that,” I replied.

“You grew up together, discovered that she was a girl, and acted the way anyone would expect. Historically, that was sufficient to end up married. The idea of ‘romantic love’ is a very late development, and one that has its origins in the Western Chivalric system.”

“Well, however it started, I was never in love with Bev, and I’m certainly not now. I care for her, and want to help her, but we were never a couple.”

“By modern, Western standards.”

“Obviously, given that’s the time and place I live! If I’d grown up in India or wherever, then I’d have a different view, I’m sure. But I didn’t. The books you had me read were interesting, and gave me a broader view of the world than the one I had growing up in Ohio. What I read was valuable, and helped me immensely, but I’m a small-town American living in a big American city. It’s who I am. And yes, I want to be in love with the person I marry.”

“And yet a huge percentage of marriages end up in divorce.”

“I think you had me read too much,” I chuckled. “That’s the ‘fallacy of division’ which infers that something which is true of the whole, in this case, society, must also be true of the parts, in this case, an individual. Your logic says something along the lines of ‘because divorce is very common, Jonathan is likely to get divorced’. That’s a logical fallacy.”

“Impressive,” Anala said with a smile. “And yes, making that direct inference would be an error, but what I was trying to say is that widespread divorce is a symptom of a Western approach to marriage.”

“Is it? Or is it that the suffrage movement and easy access to birth control pills leads to this result? There were far fewer divorces before either of those came about.”

“What have you been reading?”

“The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, The Economist, and a book on Western Civilization that I found at the library.”

“Why that one?”

“Because I realized, reading the books you recommended, that I didn’t really know the origins of what amounts to American philosophy.”

“You really should have gone to college.”

I shrugged, “I have to play the cards life dealt me and make the best of them. That’s what I’m doing. Nobody owes me anything and I want to make my own way. I’ll point out that in January, I will be going to college, something I never imagined I’d do even six months ago.”

“And the help you received from your uncle?”

“One of the cards I was dealt, but that was a one-time thing. Now it’s up to me. Yes, there will be others who provide help or guidance, but in the end, it comes down to what I do with it.”

“That’s true, though it reflects a very individualist philosophy, which is typically American.”

“Maybe that’s because I’m typically American!”

“The lone cowboy out to conquer the Wild West.”

“I’ve never ridden a horse in my life!” I protested.

“But you understand the metaphor, right? The ‘Marlboro Man’ is a good example. Strong, independent, and with rugged good looks. The very epitome of the American ideal of individualism.”

“I’m not going to take up smoking, that’s for sure!”

“But you see my point, right?”

“Yes, of course. And you understand mine, right? That while there is some value in the material you gave me, I’m an American and I’m going to be American.”

“A perfect example of why we’re incompatible.”

“Yes, of course, but we’re friends.”

“So is everything back the way it was?”

“Better, because she agreed she wouldn’t give me the cold shoulder or the silent treatment in the future. Frankly, if she did that, then we’d be through.”

“You told her that?”

“Yes, directly. I think you know I prefer to just be up front and clear about everything.”

“Which will suit you well in your chosen career, so long as you’re tactful.”

I laughed, “Do you know the guys who I call Suits? Tact is the LAST thing on their minds. But I do know how to pick my battles.”

“So, now that all your problems are solved, what’s your plan?”

I laughed softly and shook my head, “Not even close. But for right now, things are on the right track, though I’m wise enough to know they won’t stay that way. And when that happens, I’ll deal with the problem and find a solution. I learned how to do it by watching my mom from the time I was old enough to begin understanding.”

When we finished our coffee, I headed home to review my practice portfolio and read my newspapers.

December 12, 1981, Chicago, Illinois

“We missed you!” Maria exclaimed when Lily and I arrived at Tom’s apartment on Saturday afternoon.

“I’m sorry about that,” Lily replied apologetically.

“No need to apologize,” Maria replied. “You’re here now and that’s all that matters.”

“Thanks.”

Stuart arrived a few minutes later with a bleach-blonde who looked like she was fifteen, but I was positive she was at least seventeen, as I couldn’t imagine Stuart, a fireman, taking that risk.

“This is Sylvia Ochoa,” Stuart said. “She’s a nursing student at Loyola.”

Everyone greeted her, and Tom checked on her likes and dislikes with regard to toppings for pizza.

“How’s that new gig, Dustin?” Stuart asked once he had a beer in his hand.

“So far, so good,” Dustin replied.

“What’s the gig?” I asked.

“Publicity shots for Marshall Fields. You know, the windows and the crowds. It’s a nice two-week gig that pays really well. I have a wedding tomorrow afternoon at the Greek Orthodox cathedral.”

“How many weddings do you do a year?”

“Probably around thirty. It’s mostly quiet during the Winter. This one at the Greek Church was a surprise, because usually they don’t allow weddings between November 15th and Christmas, or during Lent.”

“So what’s with this one?” Tom asked.

“A ‘shotgun’ wedding. They bent the rules to make sure the parents are married before the kid pops out.”

“Sylvia, what year are you in?” Lily asked.

“This is my first. Where do you go to college?”

“High School Senior,” Lily replied. “I’ll be going to UICC next Fall.”

“What are you going to study?”

“I’m undecided, but I have time. What’s nursing school like?”

“Right now it’s all lectures and reading, kind of ‘medical school light’, I guess. Next year we start doing practical work, either in a hospital or a doctor’s office.”

“Is it difficult?”

“Lots of memorization, really. Right now the focus is on anatomy.”

“That’s for sure!” Stuart declared, putting his arm around Sylvia and pulling her tight against his hip.

I noticed she pulled back slightly, and wondered if this was actually their first date.

“How did you guys meet?” I asked.

“We go to the same church,” Sylvia said. “It’s the same one Maria goes to.”

“I didn’t know you went to church, Stuart,” I said.

“A couple of times a month with my mom. It keeps her happy and only costs me forty-five minutes or so on Sunday morning. There’s no way I could go every week given my shift schedule.”

The conversation drifted to work, school, paramedic training, and the lousy season the Bears were having. At 4-10, they’d been out of the playoffs by week six, and had no prospects of improving anytime soon. The pizzas arrived and after everyone got a drink, we sat down in the living room to eat.

“I’m going to put on the game,” Tom said.

“Which game?” Sylvia asked.

“The Independence Bowl — Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. Tomorrow it’s Tennessee and Wisconsin in the Garden State Bowl.”

During the first quarter, things looked really good for Oklahoma State, and they led 10-3 at the start of the second quarter, when the wheels came off and they gave up seventeen unanswered points, to be down 20-10 at the half. Things didn’t improve much, as the Aggies scored thirteen in the second half, while the Cowboys would score on a late touchdown, after which they failed to convert. The final score was 33-16, and was no surprise, given that Texas A&M had out-rushed Oklahoma State 223-70.

“That could have been even worse except for that interception,” Stuart said.

“If you all want to come over to watch the Bears play the Raiders, you’re all welcome,” Tom offered.

“Think your parents will be OK with it?” I asked Lily.

“Is it an early or late game?” she asked,

“They’re playing in Oakland,” Tom replied.

“I’ll need to ask, because we’d miss Sunday dinner.”

“Jonathan, just buzz me and let me know if you’re coming or not. It’s OK to call tomorrow, if you need to.”

“Cool. We’ll be here if Lily’s parents are cool with it, otherwise we’ll have dinner with them.”

“Where do you live, Jonathan?” Sylvia asked.

“In an apartment over Lily’s parents’ garage on Polk in University Village.”

“Where are you from?”

“Goshen, Ohio. My uncle arranged for a job for me with a friend of his. I work in the mailroom and plan to move up.”

“And he’s going to do it” Lily declared, squeezing my arm.

“Nice cheering section!” Stuart declared.

“We need to get going,” I said. “I promised Lily ice cream before I take her home.”

We thanked Tom and Maria, said ‘goodbye’ to Stuart and Sylvia, and left the apartment.

“Did you get a creepy feeling about Stuart and Sylvia?” Lily asked once we were at the L stop.

“I saw her kind of recoil when he pulled her close,” I replied.

“I’m betting we don’t see her again.”

“I suspect you’re right.”

December 13, 1981, Chicago, Illinois

“Think they have ANY chance?” Tom asked when Vince Evans handed off to Matt Suhey for the for the first play from scrimmage.

“Nope,” Stuart declared.

He was sitting next to Kelly, the girl he’d been seeing a few weeks earlier. He didn’t say anything about Sylvia, and I wasn’t about to ask.

Suhey had a good run off-tackle to the right for around twelve yards, but then the next play, a handoff to Walter Payton was stopped for no gain.

“You know, with Payton and Suhey in the backfield, if the Bears could build a strong D, they could dominate with a ball-control system. Payton has had six-straight thousand-yard years.”

The next play was a long pass from Evans to wide receiver Brian Baschnagel, putting the Bears on the Raiders’ 45-yard line.

“Nice drive so far,” Stuart observed.

“Don’t jinx them!” Tom warned.

After a good run by Suhey, the Bears were guilty of holding on the following play, which otherwise would have gained a first down. The penalty was only ten yards, because the rules had changed the penalty from fifteen yards.