Chapter 33

Wednesday was going to be one of those 'parent-teacher' open house events. I called Jim.

"Sure, you OUGHT to go," he said. "You're interested. The science teacher knows you. And Cindy's YOUR responsibility. I'll be there. Ann'll be there. And YOU should be."

"Okay, ' I said. "Work clothes okay, or should I wear a suit?"

Jim laughed. "I've seen what you work in, buddy. You're gonna be at the upper third of the scale."

Cindy was watching me as Jim and I talked. "Told ya," she snickered.

"We'll be there, then," I said.

"Good! Why don't ya'll come over for dinner before we go?" Jim asked.

"You want pizza?" I countered.

"Oh, gosh, no," he answered. "Ann's got stuff in the freezer. Lasagna might be nice, don't'cha think?"

"Lasagna tomorrow at the Hardesty's?" I asked Cindy.

Her red hair bounced as she nodded in the affirmative.

"We'll be there," I said.

Tuesday and Wednesday passed without incident. I knew that the day was soon coming when we'd have to fire up the two gas turbines and put steam on the steam turbine, and for the first time, my generators would have to actually make electricity, but that wasn't on the agenda just yet.

So Wednesday after work, I collected a little redheaded cutie and hauled her off to dinner with our friends. After dinner, we traveled to the middle school in separate vehicles and walked in together. Jim took off to perform his functions as school guidance counselor and Ann did the same as music teacher. Teresa went with Ann.

I let Cindy guide me around. Her science teacher was somebody' I'd met previously, having guided him and his 'honors' class on a tour of the construction site.

"Hey, Mr. Hollis," I said, shaking his hand.

"Hello, Mr. Richards. Good seeing you again. How's the project?" Hollis said.

"A few weeks from going on line," I said. "Two hundred or so megawatts."

"Sounds like fun," he said.

"Has been. Did Cindy tell you about programming the control system?"

"She mentioned it," he said. "Like she understood what she was doing."

"Impressed the instrumentation engineer," I said. "He wanted to hire her."

"I bet," Hollis said. "She's definitely in a class of her own."

"That's our Cindy," I said.

"Yeah ... when she popped up with a wedding band, it was a bit hard for a lot of people to swallow," he admitted. "But she sure doesn't fit the whole 'abused little girl' thing."

"I know," I said. "But I can understand how it looks to some folks. But she's unique."

"Yeah," he said. "But it was the talk of the teacher's lounge for a while."

Another mom and dad walked up so Cindy pulled me up the hall to talk with her English teacher. The English teacher called the Social Studies teacher over and we talked about Cindy's participation in the Social Studies Fair, a month in the future.

"Her work?" one of the two asked. Mrs. Greenlee was her Social Studies teacher.

"Hundred percent," I said. "How's she sound in class?"

"Like it's no surprise that she'd come up with something like that," the other said. "Precocious is one thing. Having brains behind it is another." That was Mrs. Turbermann, her English teacher.

She glanced at the wedding band on my ring finger. Her face clouded. She glanced around to see who was in the vicinity. Just me, Cindy, and her fellow teacher. Her voice lowered. "That marriage thing, though..."

Cindy chimed in, "Mizz Turbermann, Dan's an engineer, and you should see him in HIS element. He works like YOU, because he loves what he's doing. It's a good quality. He's a teacher to me. That's another good quality. He showed me that there is life outside of where I came from. And you KNOW where I came from. Everybody kinda knew about Mom. And..."

Mrs. Turbermann spoke, "Fourteen years old..."

"Mizz Turbermann, does Cindy do ANYTHING like a standard fourteen year old? Really?" I asked gently.

"Mister Richards, you have to admit..." Mrs. Greenlee started.

"That she's a unique creature in a situation where everybody is put off balance by her..." I looked at Cindy. She was smiling, green eyes calm, which was more than I could say for the heart thrashing in my chest. I continued, "and I found myself falling for her and killing myself because she WAS only fourteen. That she and I decided to marry is still astounding to me. But we ARE married."

Cindy coolly added, "Mizz Greenlee, how many pregnant girls in school this year?

"Fourteen," admitted Mrs. Greenlee.

Cindy put on a disarming smile. "I'm NOT! And I AM married. Completely and totally devoted to HIM and he is to ME."

"And all I want to do is watch her climb to the stars. Like you do," I said. "Good teachers want that."

Mrs. Turbermann sighed. "She IS a pleasure to work with. Not that she needs much work..."

"You see her in the classroom. I wish you could've seen her Monday working with one of the other engineers out at my job," I said. "She impresses people out there, too."

Cindy smiled. "Learning. And doing things with it, that's fun!"

Next stop up the hall was the math teacher. Cindy did the introduction. "This is Mizz Crockett, my math teacher. Mizz Crockett, this is my husband, Dan Richards."

"You're the one responsible for HER?" Mrs. Crockett smiled. "I haven't taught her a thing since September. She's my assistant."

"I told her to make herself useful," I said.

"She has," the teacher said. "She makes ME able to do a better job."

Cindy stood close to me, holding my hand, smiling.

We waved at Jim as he navigated up the hall past us.

Cindy wanted to show me the library, and we found it almost deserted. And that's where the skirmish took place. I mean, every place you looked you saw kids holding mom or dad's hand. Well at least a few. You know how many teens want the world to believe they're just too cool to associate too closely with parents. You'd think that Cindy holding MY hand wouldn't be any more significant than that, despite the fact that I wasn't Mom or Dad, or in a few cases, grandparent. But we were husband and wife, a fact almost universally known.

And apparently not universally accepted.

We walked into the library, smiling and holding hands. Cindy started to introduce us: "This is Mizz Chambers, our librarian, and this is Dan Richards, my husb..."

"I KNOW what he is," Mrs. Chambers said through tight lips.

"Excuse me?!?" I said. "I'm her husband. Engineer."

"I think you KNOW what I mean," she said.

"I'm not sure I do, Mizz Chambers."

She eyed Cindy. "You think that takin' a fourteen year old for a wife..."

"Oh, I see where you're heading. Let's get something straight up front. I didn't "take" Cindy. We agreed. She had a horrible life up until last August, and her mom left her with a nice person who became her guardian. I was just her friend, nothing more. She wanted a tutor. I can do that. We found out pretty quick that she's NOT your standard fourteen year old. But SHE makes her own choices."

"She's FOURTEEN. That's too young to make those choices." Mrs. Chambers hissed.

"Mizz Chambers," I said, fighting to maintain composure, "I know people who are FORTY that aren't mentally prepared to make those choices. I'm sure YOU do, too. Age is simply ONE factor."

"It's just immoral," she said. "Wrong."

"Mizz Chambers," I said, "do you read your Bible?"

"I certainly do," she sniffed. "What's that got to do with THIS?"

"Oh, I dunno ... You know the story of David? You know, killed Goliath. Wrote the Psalms. King of Israel. That guy?"

"OF course," she said.

"What's the name of his last wife?" I asked.

"I don't remember."

She was backpedalling now. I kept on. "I remember. It was a young lady named Abishag. He was old. She was very young. You want more of the story?"

She glared at me, silent.

"Let me tell you, then. She joined him in his old age, and the bible says "he knew her not". Mizz Chambers, there are many reasons why people get married. Two people giving companionship and comfort to one another is as good as any."

She caught her breath. "You're saying that you and Cindy..."

"I'm saying nothing. We're MARRIED. I can show you the papers. And what we do inside that marriage is OUR business. On the outside, to anyone who cares, we are a couple. You know Cindy. You know why she doesn't spend much time in the library some days, right? Why's that?"

She sniffed and admitted, "She tutors other kids..."

"Has Cindy ever gotten into trouble in this school? Any unseemly behavior? I mean, her being a married woman and what, 'knowledgeable in the ways of the world', and all that..." I was on a roll. This was MY Cindy we were talking about here.

"No. I don't believe she has."

"Has she ever flaunted her status, married OR academic?"

"No. she hasn't. But she ... Shot..."

"I'm sorry, Mizz Chambers, but perhaps you'd prefer that she be found molested and dead instead of what happened?"

"I didn't say that," she said.

"Then what DO you say? Please, I'm trying to understand. You have this particular little redheaded girl who's an outstanding student and by your admission, a pretty decent human being, and YOU'RE upset that she's MARRIED?" I took a deep breath. Time to trot out a statistic. "Mizz Chambers, how many pregnant girls in school this year?"

Nailed her. "Nine or ten, I think..." she said.

"I heard fourteen. Babies up for adoption. Or raised by mom's who're still kids themselves. Or by grandparents who apparently weren't doing too good a job of raising kids themselves." I looked at Cindy, her face neutral. "Cindy, are you pregnant, sweetness?"

Cindy's red hair splayed out as she shook her head. "Nope. No, ma'am."

Time to soften up. "Mizz Chambers, I appreciate you being concerned about these kids. Somebody needs to be concerned. But please, save your energy for some of the others. They need help, for sure. Cindy's doing just fine."

"B-but..." Mrs. Chambers stuttered.

"Mizz Chambers," Cindy said softly, "I appreciate you caring enough to say something. But we're okay. Really!"

Mrs. Chambers straightened up and drew a deep breath. "It's just VERY discomforting, Mr. Richards."

"I can imagine," I said. "Jim Hardesty's our best friend, him and Mizz Ann. Can you imagine how hard it was for us to break the news to him? Liked to've killed me. One doesn't like to lose good friends." I put my best 'come on over to MY side' smile on. "Now, can we say we're past this?"

She didn't look all that convinced, but she said, "Yes. I suppose."

"Now," I said, "how much fun is it running a school library?"

I was asking about HER world, and her eyes softened. "It's gotten so different, Mr. Richards..."

"Please, I'm Dan," I smiled.

"Yes. Certainly. Dan. They can find so much stuff on line, it makes my reference section seem archaic."

"Ah, yes, all the Google and Wikipedia answers," I said.

"Don't get me wrong," she said, "I wish it was like that when I was in school..." Mrs. Chambers was probably mid-fifties. "But I'm trying to keep this place relevant, and kids have no attention spans any more..."

"Cindy?" I asked.

"I'm researching my project. I enjoy going through the real books, but the latest data..."

"See?" Mrs. Chambers said, "And SHE is actually working the system..."

Finally we bid good-bye to the librarian and walked back up the hall, running into Jim and the Principal.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Cindy did her smile. "Hi, Mister Bresser. Hi Mister Jim!"

"Hi, folks," I said.

"Well, what'd'you think of our school now, Mister Richards?" Bresser asked.

"I'm sorry this is the first time I got to walk around and talk to people," I apologized. "You got some good folks."

"Mostly," he said. He looked at Cindy. "I wish we could keep Cindy. She's an addition to the staff more than she is a student. And she's the first one I've had graduate from high school out of the eighth grade, too."

Cindy grinned.

Another family walked up. The apparent dad was dressed in suit and tie and the mom was in a two-piece business dress. Maintaining a carefully measured detachment distance was a blonde teen a couple of inches taller and twenty pounds heavier than Cindy.

Cindy recognized her. "Hi, Kaylee! Dan, this is Kaylee. We have classes together. Kaylee, this is Dan. My husband."

That statement left me pondering exactly how it DID sound to other people.

Kaylee smiled, not too big, but a smile, still. "Hi, Mister Dan!" she motioned to her parents. Mom and Dad, this is Cindy. The one I told you about! She's been helping me in math class. And this is her husband, Mister Dan."

The daddy stepped forward, hand extended. "When I'm not Dad, I'm Don Spears. And mom here is my wife Barbara."

We shook hands. "I'm Dan Richards. Engineer on that new powerplant on the other side of town."

"Great," Don smiled. "I'm an attorney. Barb's a bank manager. You two've been subject of some discussion, you know."

'Here we go again, ' I thought. I said, "I can only imagine." And I did a subdued smile. Trying NOT to look like the cat that ate the canary, all five feet two inches of her.

"Even in Alabama fourteen year old brides are rare," Barb said.

Thankfully Jim stepped in. "And so are fourteen year old high school grads. Cindy's rather unique."

"D'ya hear that," Kaylee said, elbowing Cindy, "You're unique!"

"On top of everything else," Cindy said, feigning disappointment.

"Mommmm! I TOLD you Cindy's the reason I get A's in math. She's MY friend."

I caught Cindy's expression. Satisfaction.

The two girls stood side by side, a sweet-looking pair.

Jim whispered to Don, "IQ measures on the Richter Scale. Never saw one before. May never see one again. But there she is..."

I folded my arms. "Jim! Shhhhh! Her head'll swell..."

Barb and Don looked at him, then me. Jim said, "That's the GOOD part. That HASN'T happened."

Don said, "Honestly? Kaylee was asking me an' Barb for help on the math thing, and I couldn't do that any more, and Barb..."

"I MANAGE a bank. I don't do those problems any more. But I was trying. And then it stopped. Don an' I waited. We expected our precious daughter to bring home a horrible report card, and she surprised us. Said Cindy was helping out in class and took time to help her."

"That pleases me," I said. "I was a nerd in school and I remember how it was. I didn't want her picked on, and I talked with her about using her powers for good, not evil..."

Don laughed. "I'm afraid I wasn't that self-disciplined. It's good somebody is..."

As we stood there talking, Cindy and Kaylee waved and chatted with several other classmates, and I was introduced more times, shook dozens of hands, and finally I saw Ann walking up the hall toward us. The evening was ending.

Cindy and I were soon in the truck headed home. As soon as her door closed, she lept across the cab and kissed me, just a quick peck on the lips.

"Don't go doing something that's gonna get me lynched," I said.

"Oh, yeah, you horrible thing, molestin' teens an' stuff..." She sat back. "I had no idea Mizz Chambers was that uptight about me."

"Kind of surprised me, too, baby. I wasn't' worried about me, I was worried about you. I don't want YOU suffering because of..."

"Because I'm MARRIED to you?"

"It's that 'fourteen-forty' thing, baby. Some people just can't see past it. Some are young, some are older."