Chapter 2

Mark was registered to substitute teach at Truman High School and also at Kennedy High School. In going to their web page he could list the days he was available to sub. When he received notice from one school that he was needed he would negate his availability at the other school. While he hadn’t tracked it, he would say that he was subbing about one day every two weeks. His frequency of teaching didn’t affect his sales of energy units as JG Electronics was not geared up to do more installations. Today he was asked to sub at Kennedy.

After stopping to pick up a sandwich and soda for lunch he parked his car and walked into the school. The administrator in charge of the subs gave him his classroom assignment. He was subbing for Ms. Underwood as she had called in sick. He had subbed for her before and found her lesson plans to be up to date and specific as to what needed to be covered.

His teaching of the morning classes followed what to him had become a normal routine. Some students were eager to learn and some students were not so eager. Of the former, if they were called on he tried not to embarrass them but he made the point that they needed to be prepared for class.

There was no problem with the morning classes.

For lunch, Mark would go to the teacher’s lounge where he would find a newspaper or take a magazine from the rack to read and eat the sandwich he had purchased. He would look to sit at an unoccupied table and not bother anyone.

The afternoon classes were trouble-free and at two-thirty Mark was walking out of school heading home. On the drive, he did have some thoughts about Gloria and was looking forward to his Saturday dinner date with her. He watched the local news on the television during the week and saw her being interviewed twice about what was going on in the legislature. She was wearing her signature off-white business suit in explaining what her positions were on certain matters.

Armed with his map that indicated where he had been previously, Mark when he wasn’t subbing drove out into the far outlying area of Austin looking for houses or businesses he would cold call to see if they were interested in purchasing an energy unit. For the most part, these were farmhouses he was looking for which had enough land associated with them so there was no regulation or objection to installing a wind turbine fan with an eight-foot in diameter fan mounted on a thirty-foot pole.

On Friday Mark thought it was a successful week with him selling one energy unit and having two other persons who said they were interested. They seemed honestly sincere when they said they would seriously think about doing it.

Saturday evening finally had come thought Mark as he was pressing the doorbell to Gloria’s condo. In opening her door, he noticed that she had ditched her off-white business suit for a form-fitting dress. He had to admit she had a nice figure with deceivingly nice-sized breasts. Picking up a purse she said she was ready to go.

The weather was nice for the short walk to Riley’s.

As the hostess was showing them to their table, Gloria stopped briefly at another table and said hello to an older man who was dining with a lady that was considerably younger than the man.

When they were seated Mark asked Gloria to who she said hello?

“That was Senator Lloyd Carson, a colleague of mine.”

“He is dining with his wife?”

“Oh no, that lady is just one of the staffers. His wife is back at home holding down the fort taking care of their three children.”

They ordered a drink and perused the menu. When the waitress brought them the drinks they place their order.

Mark had a nice time dining with Gloria. Both of them kept to the promise of not discussing politics and he could see she caught herself a few times as she was about to break that rule. He made a point to look into her eyes as opposed to her dress’s tempting V neckline.

The chair Mark was sitting on was positioned in such a manner that in looking over Gloria’s right shoulder he could observe Senator Carson and his staffer. When their entrée was being served, Mark saw the Senator and the lady stand up and leave.

“You should know Gloria that I fancy myself to be a fairly good reader of a person’s body language. It’s a skill I discovered that I have in seeing how people act since thirty percent of what a person says is non-verbal. I have tried to further develop that skill by reading every book on the subject that I could find along with watching and studying every video on YouTube on body language. I am telling you this because while we were talking I could see the good Senator Carson and it’s my opinion there is more going on between him and that staffer.”

“I am sure you are wrong in saying that.”

“Maybe I am, but that is my opinion based on what I was seeing.”

The both of them lingered over a second cup of coffee but finally agreed to go saying they had a nice time. Doing the short walk back to the condo she commented on it being a clear night because of all the stars they could see.