Chapter 2

There was only one week of term left. Andrew had accommodation for another week and had also paid to leave his stuff in his room over both the Christmas and Easter vacations. He would only be taking one bag back to Edinburgh with him. The last class of his course was on November 30^th and all classes were finished by Friday December 2^nd with accommodation provided until the 9^th. Andrew’s issue was he had told both the staff at the hospital as well as some of the patients that he would be there on the 11^th, he had got his weeks wrong. One night at dinner he overheard an older post grad student explaining that you could pay for additional nights, so for a few extra quid he had two additional nights and would leave the College on the morning of the 11^th, volunteer at the hospital and then start the journey home to Edinburgh. It wasn’t ideal but it was his own fault. Andrew was thinking all this through in his head as he swam the morning after walking Judy home and contemplated the vacation. He knew he was fine with the coursework from the term, but staying a week after classes finished would allow him the chance to not just review the term but to read ahead for the next one.

Andrew knew that he came across as the most boring student ever, he did study too much but it was something that he enjoyed and, at some deeper level, needed. Mhairi’s words also came back to him as well, he needed to switch off, to find something that would ultimately take the place of studying. It was time to seriously embrace a hobby that would occupy him especially in the evenings. His camera and photography were the most obvious choice. He used to take his camera everywhere with him, he had boxes and albums of pictures, the memorable sessions with Tanvi and June, the wonderful day with Nikki and Fran, there were lots of photos that he had taken over the years.

Of course for the last six months nearly all his photography had been the modelling sessions with Maggie, mostly outdoors. If he did bring his camera back to College with him next term he would need to get back into the habit of shooting ‘normal’ shots. It would probably be even more of a difference given the plans the three of them had made for the winter break. But the landscape of the Fens was very different to Edinburgh and Scotland generally. He may not get the chance to use the camera much given the constraints of time but it would be good to have the option. Thinking about Edinburgh and photography not only reminded him of Maggie but also Suzanne. There were rolls and rolls of film of Suzanne from their vacation, always dressed but in everything from little sundresses to skimpy bikinis. The later were spectacular, Suzanne relaxed and flirty, tanned and voluptuous. Hmm.

The other possibility was his computer. Lack of time meant that he had done very limited programming during the term, he was always studying and although he had used it to tabulate results in VisiCalc, it was just gathering dust most of the time. Music and computing had been so much a part of his life at school, his two main hobbies, and now he was barely doing either. One more example of his constant need to maintain balance.

Andrew assumed that most people would leave the weekend after classes finished and so the College, at least the undergraduate parts would be quiet. It was something to bring up as mealtime conversation with his friends. What he did not expect was so many offers of visits and staying with his friends. Navya, Helena, Pedro, Nigel and, surprisingly, Justin all offered if he wanted to visit them before returning to Edinburgh or coming down early and then going up to College in January together. Andrew was taken aback and a bit overwhelmed. He thanked Pedro but they agreed to delay until Easter, Andrew would bring his passport and would go to Ferrol with him for part of the Easter break. In the end it was almost decided for him. Nigel, Justin and Navya were all leaving first thing on the Saturday morning as soon as classes finished and Andrew had to be at Addenbrooke’s on the Sunday whereas Helena’s parents were flying back from holiday on the Saturday and would not be in Cambridge until Sunday. He got her to push the pickup time back until 2.00 and figured he would go in early to the ward. It was Sunday and there were limited surgical rounds then. The agreement with Helena was that he would stay until Wednesday and then come back to College for a couple of days before finally heading north.

As for the other three Andrew decided to give Rupashi some space and not freak her out by showing up at her house. They had met regularly during the term and despite some limited but intense snogging he could tell that she was struggling with the whole concept of being attracted to a white non-Hindu. Navya understood and Andrew told her he would come and stay at Easter if the offer was still open. As he learned about the expectations of children of Indian parents he wasn’t sure that their parents would be overly enthusiastic about the idea. So he talked to Nigel and Justin about staying with them in January. They could come back up to College on the 14^th of January so it would be the second week of the month that he could stay. Justin made it easy, he had the space so Andrew would crash with Nigel at the beginning of the week and then the pair of them would stay with Justin for the last couple of days and then drive with Justin and his Dad back to College. Andrew did wonder about the space for all Nigel’s stuff but hey, that wasn’t his issue. Of course, the quid pro quo meant that he would have a stream of visitors in Edinburgh during the summer, and Andrew found himself pleased at the prospect. This was part of what university was all about, and the thing he was most shit at doing. So everything was set, he had one more week of classes, three weekends at Addenbrooke’s and would be back in Edinburgh late on the night of December 11^th.

All the logistics of life taken care of, Andrew made sure he finished the term as strong as he had started. The final lab was a complicated set up so they were working in pairs. The issue of plagiarism was known and watched for but was not the all-encompassing issue that it became in later years. Nothing was online, there was no such thing as online, you looked things up on microfiches and if you want to copy something you had to copy it out longhand from the book. Lab work in pairs was an area where the Engineering Department watched to make sure that both students were totally involved in the design and setup of the apparatus and then conducted the experiments separately. He and Olivia had no issue and just took turnabout with the readings from the experiments and then wrote up their results separately. Olivia was fun, helpful and very hard working but at the end of the day she went west to Newnham and Andrew went north to Trinity. She had relaxed a little over the term but had taken a few weeks to get over being cavalierly cast out of her initial lab group. They compiled their results separately, helped by the fact they did not socialise at all outside the Department. With this last lab done it was just the last lectures and supervisions and Andrew would be done for the term.

After the last hockey game of the year the team celebrated their overall 4-3 record. The toast was ‘at least we didn’t lose to Newnham 4-0’. There were a good group of guys who had fun, played hard but never took it too seriously. Exactly what Andrew needed and what a lot of the team needed. They had a reputation amongst the Colleges of not taking the game very seriously but played hard, and always mocked the second elevens who played like it was the fucking Olympics. St. John’s being the most prominent example.

Andrew was at the pool early and got into one of his mindless swims, not very fast but able to be sustained for a long time. With classes almost over and the term having gone well he was thinking about the break, specifically the three days with Helena and her family. They were close now, a little flirty and touchy, but still living their own lives. They knew what they had, almost a fall-back position and fucked every couple of weeks. Here he was about to meet Judy and all he was thinking about was fucking Helena. At this rate he was going to leave the pool embarrassing himself. But Helena and Navya made university better for him, they kept him grounded, took the piss relentlessly and in Navya’s case flirted quite determinedly in an utterly asexual sort of way. It was as if she was trying out her moves on him. The biggest issue to her flirting was that she bumped and ground against Andrew’s thigh as opposed to his groin which negated the impact. Between the two of them he had a couple of good friends that he saw nearly every day. Andrew thought about Judy and his instinct was that she was lonely, missing her family and that he was more of a friendly face than anything else. He would talk to her later in the day and see how she was doing. Come Saturday she would be at Heathrow for the first flight home to New York.

Thinking about Judy and how she was missing her family led Andrew to thinking about his own family. Things were not good with his parents, there was no point in pretending otherwise. Other than a single letter there had been no communication between them. Andrew’s annoyance at the situation had resulted in him asking about Scott but making no mention or enquiry about Rowan. It was petty but he couldn’t help himself. He guessed his parents were kind and loving but in selfish way that worked for them. In fact as he thought about it he hoped they were kind and loving, there wasn’t much evidence based on the way they treated him. How many of the family issues, the emotionally remote dynamic, were due to him, the impossible son? The son who needed nothing, who had paid off their mortgage, paid his own way through school and university. He hoped his parents were proud of him, but Brian and even Jim Barnes were much more vocal in their praise of him than either of his parents. As he thought about it, he wasn’t sure the last time they said they were proud of him. But Andrew knew that he had to shoulder a lot of the blame. He had deceived his father into signing the licencing agreements, not that his father had cared to read any of them, but still. He had a flat in Edinburgh that they didn’t even know about, again as a result of them being upset with him in the house. Andrew took Suzanne with him to buy the flat, to buy the furniture and furnishings. She had played the role of his wife, it never occurred to him to ask his mother or father to do that with him. And his six weeks at home were already down to four and he hadn’t even left Cambridge yet. He had no idea what to make of it all, but they were definitely not the Scottish version of The Waltons. He looked up and saw that it was 2.55, also saw that Judy was in the gallery so pulled himself out of the pool and went to change. He was showered and out in the foyer at 3.01, another reminder of the benefits of short hair.

“Well if it isn’t the human torpedo. I came early and you were metronomic, back and forth. I can also see why you have the body you do, when you came out the pool it brought back lots of memories of London, especially the next morning.”

Judy’s smile was radiant, it was good to see her looking so much happier.

“So we are not going to coyly step around our first meeting then?”

“Oh don’t be silly Andrew. This from the man who stood naked in the room, pulled a condom on and then sat down and said ‘come and get it’.”

Judy was on a roll.

“I admit I did. But I did have this smoking hot Art History student naked in my bed and I wanted to see her sashay across the room before impaling herself upon my magnificence.”

Even Andrew couldn’t keep a straight face for that and they both burst out laughing.

“Only you can make sex so fun, do you know that? Impaling herself upon your magnificence. Hah!”

It was probably just as well there were no little old ladies around just at that moment. Judy wanted to sit and chat so he took her to Peggy’s café, it was close by and was usually quiet at this time on a Saturday.

“Hello Andrew.”

“Hello Peggy, this is my friend Judy from the States, an exchange student. Two students in at once doesn’t exceed the rules, does it?”

“Ha, ha, funny man. Nice to meet you Judy. How on earth do you know this crazy Scotsman?”

“Hello, nice to meet you too. I met Andrew in London over the summer. Finally ran him to ground last week so we are catching up.”

“There is no soup left but I do have some pie and I can do a sandwich as well.”

“One sandwich and two slices of pie please Maggie.”

They grabbed a seat and she looked at him.

“Well, how are you so friendly with a blue-collar café worker?”

She had to explain what blue collar meant.

“Oh, working class. I come here every morning on the way back to College after my swim.”

“Every morning.”

Sometimes Andrew forgot who knew which part of the story. So he quickly went over the swimming every day and lentil soup for breakfast part of his routine.

“Lentil soup for breakfast!”

This from a nation that eats gravel for breakfast.

“Yes luv, every morning. We don’t get many students down here but this one comes in before term even starts and asks me to make him lentil soup every morning. He has been eating lentil soup for breakfast for how long now Andrew?”

“At the end of January it will be five years Peggy.”

She just walked away shaking her head.

“Andrew, I understand you swim every morning and you eat lentil soup for breakfast but why.”

Ah, another thing he had not mentioned, it was just a one night stand.

“Five years ago I was in hospital undergoing treatment for skin cancer. It was January that I finally got the all clear. When I was released the leaflets all said eat lots of protein especially vegetable protein, so Mum made huge pots of lentil soup and I had it breakfast, lunch and dinner until I went back to school and then I just had it for breakfast and dinner. When I came here I got Peggy to make it for me.”

Judy just looked at him.

“Wow, there is so much I don’t know about you.”

So they talked for an hour and a half, bought some more pie, but Peggy left them in peace. It was nice to catch up and again Andrew tried to make Judy talk as much as him. He signed her in to College and she joined the table at dinner not that Andrew got a chance to talk to her much. Justin was all over her, once he knew she was also reading Art History. The two of them were in their own little world and hit it off really well. They had friends of friends in common and Andrew was pleased that Judy was making some new friends. He felt a hand on his leg and turned to Helena’s smiling face.

“You okay?”

“Very. I am happy that she is making some friends.”

The smile in her eyes told their own story.

“Later.”

He mouthed quietly. She nodded. They were a large loud group in the common room that night. Judy chatted away with several people, including another American who was reading NatSci and was in his second year. At the end of the night Judy came up to Andrew looking a little sheepish.

“I can’t believe the time. I have hardly spoken to you all night. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I am glad you have had a nice night and you seem to have made a few new friends.”

Judy looked at her feet and mumbled. Andrew had to get her to repeat it.

“Would you be okay if Justin walked me back to the College?”

His smile was broad and genuine.

“Of course I am fine. You are my friend. Just be gentle with him.”

Her smile was wide and the whack richly deserved. She and Justin left and Helena and the rest of the group looked at him.

“What? Have you seen Justin so animated and happy so far this term? She is a friend and so is he. Hopefully the wedding is here rather than the States so that we can all go.”

Some of the group left to get ready to head out, it was the last Saturday of term for most of them and soon it was just Helena and him.

“You really okay?”

“Yes. Let’s be blunt, she was not the love of my life, she is American and proud of it; and Jewish and that is important to her. This would have been a dalliance, was a dalliance, nothing more. I am pleased that she had a fun night and seemed to have made some friends. She told me she was lonely when I spoke to her on Tuesday, maybe meeting us was what she needed to break out the shell.”