Chapter 2

Thursday, I went to the office where I worked most of the day with Shinkle and Henley on verifying how some complex securities code sections impacted different parts of the program. Henley was best at linking complicated flow diagrams, very tedious work. Fortunately Henley saw it as a complex game or puzzle. Once the diagrams were built and verified, Shinkle converted them into computer code. Shinkle was a phenomenal coder, probably a hundred or two hundred times faster than the average programmer. I tested Shinkle's code. The software's backward chaining feature helped, but it was a tedious job tracing and verifying the program code. I was glad to finish and go to the apartment house with Carolyn at the end of the work day.

Maria and Marietta were at the apartment when I came in. Marietta had just returned from a voice lesson and was still excited from the lesson. I felt a bit guilty that I didn't have the patience to listen very long about the lesson. After a couple of minutes with them, I left and changed into exercise clothes. I met Carolyn in the basement, where we exercised for over an hour. Carolyn knew I was anxious about spending the weekend with Karen. Carolyn didn't comment on Karen, but she pushed me hard to exercise until I was nearly exhausted. We took a walk in Central Park to cool down, and came back to the apartment building, where we separated to shower and changed clothes. Carolyn joined me for supper at my apartment. When Maria and Marietta started coming in on Thursday, I gave the apartment maid Thursdays off, so Maria fixed us supper.

To lessen my guilt for not taking the time to encourage Marietta, I invited Maria and Marietta to eat with Carolyn and me. While we ate, we talked about the Latin jazz club, where Maria, Marietta, and I planned to go and listen to a group Professor Jack recommended. Carolyn wasn't interested in going to hear jazz, especially Latin jazz, but was interested in learning more about it. My Paterson FM station played a lot of Latin jazz during the late night hours.

Maria, Marietta and I went to the club in Spanish Harlem, but we didn't stay long. Maria and Marietta went to Roselawns directly from the club to get ready for their weekend guests. I also wanted to leave early so I could get a little extra rest. I planned to go into the office early Friday morning, leave at noon, go to Macarthur, get the plane and pick up Karen. According to plan, I went to the office and ate an early lunch with Henley and Shinkle. The expert systems project was slightly ahead of where we expected. I took Shinkle to Kennedy for a flight to New Orleans, where the pilot from Barin met him and took him back to the base. From Kennedy I went to Roselawn.

At Roselawns, I picked up the guitar, a weekend travel bag, a couple of cases of wine and headed for the plane. At Macarthur, I loaded and pre-flighted the plane and then meditated in an attempt to reduce my anxiety about the weekend with Karen. I was as nervous as a whore in church.

I landed at Lincoln Park a few minutes before two. I saw Karen waiting at the general aviation terminal. She looked stunning. I took a couple of deep breaths and went to her. We embraced briefly.

"You look gorgeous." I picked up her things, and we walked to the plane.

She asked, "Is it too far out of the way to fly over Nantucket and the Vineyard?"

"We have plenty of time. We could stop in Murray's Toggery in Nantucket and see if they have Reds that would fit you. It's a Vineyard and Nantucket thing. You'll need to fade them."

We flew over the family's place at the Vineyard and on to Nantucket, where we landed and went to Murray's Toggery. Karen got a Reds skirt and shorts set. We walked around the village and took a taxi tour of the island. I showed her Mother's artist colony and gallery, and we went by Carolyn's cottage.

The fog came in while we were in the taxi, but because of my plane's instruments and my instrument rating, I didn't have a problem taking off. We were barely off when I heard a distress call for help on the airport's Unicom frequency. The parents of two teenagers, a brother and sister, feared they were lost at sea in a small sailboat. The boat didn't have any navigational aids, and the parents were concerned they couldn't get back in the fog.

I volunteered to fly loops as I went toward Long Island. I used Herm's modification of my plane's radar to scan for the small boat. I flew a crisscrossing pattern for almost thirty minutes before I got a radar blip that was likely them. They were headed southeast, which was out to sea. I reported my finding to the controller, who put me through to air-sea rescue and the Coast Guard. The airbase at Suffolk County Airport had me ping my transponder to precisely locate me. A cutter was close enough to check to see if it was the teenagers.

Because the weather was below minimums, I had to do an instrument assisted approach and landing at Suffolk County Airport. The tower talked me through it, and I landed safely. It took all my concentration as instrument landings weren't my forte. The tower gave me a well done for my part in the rescue. They relayed that the cutter had picked up the teenagers, and they were safe. Karen seemed impressed with what I had done and with the plane's ability to find the small boat. I off loaded our things from the plane to a taxi, secured and tied down the plane, and we went to the Southampton house. The fog had cleared enough for Karen to get an impressive view of the oceanfront homes and the Southampton house.

Erin met the taxi as we pulled in. I introduced Erin and Karen as I unloaded the taxi. Erin and I got Karen's and my things in the house in one trip. Karen asked Erin to put her things in the bedroom next to mine. Karen freshened up in the powder room and changed into her Reds as I took the wine to the cooler in the garage. I found and put on faded Reds pants and a knit shirt. I took Karen on a tour of the house, and then we had wine by the pool, where I grilled hamburgers and fixed Caesar salad. She ate Caesar salad with chicken breast strips, and I had Caesar salad and a couple of hamburgers. The flight back and search still had me a bit keyed up. After we ate, we took glasses of wine and strolled on the beach.

We returned at dusk. We kissed in the sand, and as Yogi said, 'It was déjà vu all over again.' For a few seconds I thought of Mary on the beach in Panama City. I hoped this time it turned out better. Another steamy kiss with Karen, and I only thought of her.

Karen was encouraging, but did nothing too forward. As it got dark, we went up to my bedroom. Karen was more beautiful undressed, and I slowly explored her body. I wanted the moment ingrained in my memory. For me, our love making approached the feeling I had with Mary. I was most satisfied. I drifted off to sleep spooned with her. About midnight I awoke.

We got up, swam naked in the pool, put on robes, and then took a walk on the beach. We made love on my spread robe on the beach, and she stayed with me the remainder of the night in my bedroom. We got up early, showered, made love, showered and dressed for breakfast beside the pool.

Erin had gotten fresh melons and fruit in addition to regular breakfast food. I cooked Belgium waffles and bacon. Karen and I had fresh fruit, bacon, the Belgium waffles and Vermont light maple syrup. We opened the umbrellas. Erin's fiancé and I carried beach umbrellas and chaise loungers out to the beach. We put pool lounger floats in the pool, put out beach towels and sun block.

Erin had everything in the house ready for the guests. They arrived a little after nine. There were two married couples, a man and his long time live in girlfriend, a man and his male companion, and Karen and me. There was a darling little boy of about three. Two of the men were radio station program managers, one was a station manager, and one was a marketing rep at a record company. The marketing rep's male friend was a sportscaster at a radio station. The female long time companion was a nurse, and one of the wives was a teacher. I liked all of them. Erin took them on a quick tour of the house, and the guests put their things away in their rooms. All the bedrooms had baths, and one had an adjoining sitting room where Erin had put a child's bed.

Erin put out a light breakfast buffet, with lots of freshly squeezed orange juice and pastries. We ate under the umbrellas around the pool and talked about differing radio formats. Most thought the top 40 format was the easiest to program, but was the most boring. They thought the country format was the most profitable, but like me, none of them especially liked country. Karen asked about jazz, which was panned as being wrong for the local demographics. Bad demographics made selling ads difficult and none of them wanted that. They liked oldies for some product lines, like financial planning, tours, and nursing homes. Sports programming generated the most income but was the most expensive programming. About ten-thirty we changed into swimsuits. I was out first and went in the pool with the child. He and I splashed and played for about fifteen minutes. Erin then sat with the boy in the guesthouse, and the rest of us went out on the beach. Karen wore a conservative one-piece suit, but looked stunning. We took canvas surf wave rider rafts out and floated in the gentle surf. After a few minutes in the cold surf, we went to the umbrellas.

Everyone spread suntan lotion on before we walked south along the beach. We waved to the neighbors, and walked for about fifteen minutes before starting back. The women tanned on the chaise lounges and most of the men rode the surf on the canvas rafts. About twelve-fifteen we walked back to the pool, rinsed off, and fixed hamburgers and polish sausage on the grill. In addition to garnishes of lettuce, tomato, cheese, and relish, we had cold pasta salad, fruit salad, potato salad, coleslaw, Bear Bryant Golden Flake kettle cooked potato chips, soft drinks, and beer. We hand cranked vanilla ice cream that we ate with strawberries over a biscuit shortcake.

After lunch, we took the windsurf boards out. Will had purchased a couple of the early windsurf boards. I had windsurfed a few times; enough to show them how to do it. All the men, Karen and one of the wives tried it. We spent much of the afternoon windsurfing, while the women tanned and watched. At four we took another walk along the beach and came back for a snack of ice cream. Most continued with the strawberry shortcake, but some put hot fudge on the ice cream. One of the couples had a Ford passenger van. We all crowded in for a van ride around Southampton, and then on to Westhampton Beach and ended up at the Suffolk County Airport. We got in the Aero Commander and took off to the south. We turned and flew north along the beach, past my house and around the northern end of Long Island. We flew southeast down the Long Island sound to the East River. The houses along the coast were most interesting. We followed the East River past the skyscrapers of Manhattan, to the Hudson. We flew over Governors Island and circled the Statue of Liberty. We turned east and flew by Coney Island then followed the Long Island barrier islands along the shore. We landed at dusk back at the airport and took the van back to the beach house. The women seemed to especially enjoy the flight.

We lit Tiki torches around the pool and four floating torches in the pool. While steaks cooked on the grill, at Karen's request, I made Caesar salad of Romaine lettuce dressed, with Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper. Erin deep fried French fries and onion rings. We had red wine, iced tea and beer for drinks. For dessert, Erin had fixed a lemon icebox pie. After we ate, I played a few tunes on the guitar, and we talked. We took a short walk on the beach and turned in early.

Karen stayed with me all night. I felt I was in heaven.

Sunday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast around the pool. I made Hollandaise sauce and fixed eggs Benedict with home fries and grits. Erin fixed scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, and sliced melons. We had English muffins, pastries, orange juice and coffee. We ate, talked and then went for a morning walk on the beach. The people left around noon.

Most had never had Caesar salad or eggs Benedict and complimented me on them. Beau had taught me to cook both, and I enjoyed cooking them. Everyone said they enjoyed the visit.

About two, Erin drove Karen and me to the airport. On the flight back to Lincoln Park, Karen said, "I enjoyed the weekend. All the people were nice, but I'm not sure they have the drive to make it. I enjoyed being with you. I'd really like to go to Martha's Vineyard for a weekend. Just us."

"We'll have to do it soon."

She said, "I'd like for us to go to some Broadway shows and out to eat some. We need to have a little fun."