Chapter 29

Monday, July 5, 10:45 a.m.

Sam didn't use the siren, but he still stayed with Madeleine until nearly 5 a.m. They didn't sleep much, but Sam felt more awake and alive than he'd felt in months -- maybe years. Sure, he'd probably run down early in the day, and feel the physical strain of his first night of romance in -- God! Never mind how long!

But for now, oh, wow! Life was good!

Even aside from the sex (are you kidding, Sam said to himself -- "Aside from the sex... !") Even aside from the sex, Madeleine was an absolute wonder. She had been relaxed, interested in their conversation and extraordinarily direct.

At one point she had said "Have you never been married, Sam?"

Sam had, indeed, been married. He seldom spoke of it, 'hadn't shared it with any of his friends or colleagues in Twin Rivers during the whole time he'd been there.

He found himself telling Madeleine everything.

"I met her at the University of Michigan," he said, "in undergrad. We were both juniors, 'both from Michigan. I came from Iron River, a small town in the Upper Peninsula. She was from Midland. Bigger town -- industrial. Dow Chemical? 'But a pretty nice town. 'Money there. I used to go home with her, weekends, Thanksgiving... It was a world apart from life in Iron River. Her dad was some kind of high executive with Dow. Their house... Well, it was the biggest damned house I'd ever been inside of, I'll tell you.

"Academically, Michigan is one of the best of the state universities. You see a lot of rich kids there; kids who could have gone to Harvard or something, but they knew they didn't have to. Anyway, Gloria was one of the rich kids, but she wasn't there for the academics. She was a good-enough student, I guess, but mainly she was just experiencing campus life.

"She was a tiny thing, a cute-as-a-button, little blonde cheerleader-type. She'd actually been a cheerleader, in high school. I was enthralled. I towered over her. 'Most everybody did, of course -- I don't think she was even five feet tall -- but she made me feel like a big, protective bear.

"Anyway, she was a social butterfly and into campus activities, and I'm this scholarship student, humping for grades and buried in the library. When she showed a little interest in me, I could hardly believe my luck!

"Her dad was a little cool toward me. His assessment -- pretty accurate, actually -- was that I was just this no-background second-generation square-head from the Peninsula, with no resources, no social graces, probably no future... Rich guys really hate it when their little girl brings home some geek who doesn't know which fork to use.

"Anyhow, at school I was in a three-man, and then later a two-man, competition for her attentions, and I worked hard at it. I was... determined to win her, even though even I thought the other guys were more -- suitable.

"It surprised me, but she stayed interested, 'kept on dragging me up to Midland with her. I thought, sometimes, maybe she was just trying to irritate the old man. But he gradually warmed to me a little. When I won the full scholarship to Duke Law, I think he decided she could have done worse."

"Boy," Madeleine said. "When it comes to self-deprecation, you're the champ."

"No, no. Really, I think I've got a very clear image of what was going on, with her and with her father. 'S'funny, when he started actually liking me, I think I almost lost her."

"But you didn't."

"Nope. It took us a long time, but by now, we had started sleeping together. Things were -- different then. This was, like, the mid-80s. The country had been through the drug culture and the hippy movement and Viet Nam and all that, and although things had reverted a little bit toward the old culture, there was still plenty of free-and-easy sexuality in our age group -- and in the universities.

"But to two midwestern kids in college, it was still possible to be naive and inexperienced. She wasn't a virgin, but -- her whole experience with sex had been a couple of incompetent jocks back in high school.

"I had even less experience, none, basically, but I was what you might call a student of sexuality. I had learned a lot from the literature. Despite my lack of practical know-how, when we finally had sex, it was, surprisingly, pretty successful. I think she'd kind of given up on it as a source of pleasure for herself. 'Turns out she'd been wrong. She liked it. And I got the credit for her awakening, as it were.

Madeleine laughed softly. "You're so modest! Don't forget -- I've been there, and done that! You are a wickedly talented man in the bedroom, Mr. Chief Deputy Wicks!"

"Aw, shucks, M'am," Sam said. "T'wern't nuthin'."

But Sam turned serious again. He had started telling his story and now he wanted to get through all of it. "You remember how it is at that age," he said. "Hell -- for you, it was like, last Tuesday!... We thought that we'd invented sex. 'Couldn't get enough. We were seniors, both scheduled to graduate that coming spring. It was cold as hell in Ann Arbor and it was tough, 'finding a place we could be together. At the time, that seemed a good enough reason to run away and get married. That's what we did. 'Drove over to Indiana on a long week-end, 'got married, drove back, and rented a grungy apartment for $135 bucks a month.

"Well, I thought her father was going to have a hemorrhage, but Gloria's mother talked him down. She came down to see us, almost went into shock when she saw the dump we were living in, and promptly wrote out a check.

"I didn't feel too hot about being subsidized, but it was pretty clear I wasn't going to be supporting Gloria anytime soon. I stayed quiet and we took the money. Luckily, my law school fellowship was a straight academic grant -- they didn't care whether we had money of our own or not. Thanks to Gloria's parents, we were looking at a comfortable three-year run.