Chapter 16: Decisions

Thursday afternoon after history, Anne and Mary drove to the mall. They wandered through the aisles, selected a toaster oven and looked at several big, colorful throw pillows.

Mary plumped one fat cushion that was at least a yard square. "I wouldn't mind getting laid on top of this."

"If we buy it, you probably will. More than once." Immediately, Mary put the pillow in their basket. Anne added more like it.

"What if they don't agree? Maybe they'll hate each other."

"Terrible. Only leaves us two guys... Wonder which two?" They looked at each other and chuckled. "But, at least we could return the pillows."

"Yeah. Guess we'd be okay."

After the mall, to the supermarket for juice, English muffins, jam and butter. A stop at a liquor store for beer. At home, they fixed up a shelf as a mini-kitchen. By suppertime, they had heard nothing from the men, so they went to the Union alone. Their four men were at a table in a corner, talking and laughing. The two women sat out of sight, not hiding, simply by themselves. A girl from Mary's humanities section and her date joined them and they chatted pleasantly through the meal. When they were finished and ready to leave, the men had moved to the coffee bar, still talking earnestly, but with frequent laughter.

About ten, the phone rang. "Anne Stilwell. Hi, Saul, how'd it go? You're on the speaker."

"Went fine, Anne. You guys pick good men, myself included, of course. Turns out Tom used to do sports coverage on my swim team. We'll plan to show up after classes tomorrow. Okay?

Mary called out, "All four of you? Great."

"Surely you never doubted. But, you know what really clinched it?"

"What?" Anne asked.

"Those incredible English muffins for breakfast."

"Saul, I'm going to kill you."

"Okay. Just don't make me suffer. 'Bye Anne. 'Bye Mary."

Friday noon, by coincidence, they all showed up at the Union at about the same time. They ate together and went off to North College. They took their time, frisking through the leaves that were piled beside the walks.

"I never knew people piled the leaves up," Mary said. "Comes of living in the wilderness."

"They even take them away," Tom said. "Save them until the spring. Probably re-use half of them. You could get a job pasting them back on."

Mary stuffed a wad of leaves down the back of his jacket.

"Now, now. Don't underestimate recycling," Alex said. "They compost the leaves and use them as fertilizer. Smells better than cow shit."

Mary advanced on him threateningly, but he ran ahead. He was waiting for them at the top of the stairs.

They settled down to work, using Alex's work plan they had begun two days earlier. While history was the first subject, exams in economics and humanities had been announced for the coming week, and statistics, business and English the following week.

"Just in time," was Tom's reaction. "This is going to save my ass."

"We're not. You are."

"As long as I save it somehow. I've been doing the work, but there are lots of holes."

Before they knew it, it was time for supper, and they set out for the Union. As they came out of the room, two girls from further up the floor came by in tight jeans and clunky shoes.

"Hi, you guys!" said the one with the frizzy hair. "You having a party tonight?" Her friend was all eyes at the four men. "Can we come?"

Will took the lead. "Uh, well, it's not a party, see? We're studying for the hour exams next week. You want to join us? History tonight, humanities tomorrow and Sunday. If we have any time left, economics."

The other girl stopped chewing gum and said, "Yeah. Right. Well, there's a party on the second floor, if you wanna come." She giggled, and they ran downstairs ahead of the group. "Studying he says. My ass," she half-whispered to her girlfriend.

Will muttered, "Chewing gum. The industry that made cows out of American women. It's clear you can't think and chew gum at the same time."

"Speak for yourself, Will," Alex said. "But that one doesn't try."

They ate dinner, chatted in the coffee bar, went back and resumed work.

About nine, there was a knock at the door. Anne put her book down and opened the door. Two men she recognized from the floor below stood outside, cans of beer in their hands, smirks on their faces.

"Yes?"

"Hi, come join the party. Room 220. Louise said we should come up and ask. You're invited."

"Hey, thanks a lot. But, see, we're working tonight."

"Aw, come on. It's Friday, for Christ's sake," the other said.

Anne opened the door wider. The four men made themselves visible.

"I'm really sorry. We're working for next week's exams. Maybe another time."

"Say, it's all right. You got your own party. Thought you might want to join us."