Chapter 34

Jason's turn:

My name's Ellerbee. Jason Ellerbee. I've always wanted to do that, you know, like "Bond. James Bond."

I honestly sometimes wonder how I got here. What a strange and wonderful situation. Let's see:

I was on this project in Alabama. It's what I do: industrial electricity, but a lot more than an electrician. Not quite an engineer, but almost. I've helped a lot of engineers understand what they're dealing with, me and my technology degree instead of an engineering degree. Over the last few years I've managed to get a good rep, and so when I called about this project, I ended up talking to Dan Richards, a real engineer whom I've worked with before, and I showed up as lead technician on his job. That's fun. Rented myself a little apartment for the duration of the project, and got on with life.

It was a good project. Dan tackled the whole power system, and I was right there with him, along with a couple of other technicians, setting things up, testing them, proving them out. I love my job.

Dan's a good guy to work for, as was Bill Carmody, the project manager.

Dan surprised me, though. A bit into the project, he brings this little redheaded girl in for a site visit. Then there's her whole class, and I help with the show, at least for the electrical stuff. And then he announces that he's MARRIED that fourteen year old red-headed girl. That almost freaked me out. Fourteen is the stuff you go to jail for, but he was MARRIED to her. And she showed up at least once a week, wearing a hard hat with her name on it, and a pocket protector, just like Dan's (and mine). On several of those visits, I went to lunch with them, and I noticed what she talked about and how she questioned things and I understood that to her, Cindy, age was an almost irrelevant number.

So that's Dan and Cindy. My friends.

A fact of life is that construction jobs end, and ours was winding down when Dan sold me off to Tennessee. He'd worked with Alan Addison before and told me what the work was. Wasn't nearly as involved as the powerhouse we'd just finished, but work is work, and it was a lot closer to my home in Texas than what I'd previously had lined up.

So I showed up in Tennessee. I walked into the office trailer on Day One and met Alan. Nice guy. We talked about work. We laughed about Dan a little, and then he invited me to dinner with him and his wife. I thought that was nice.

You see, I'm divorced. That's why I'm on the road, at least one of the reasons. I was married right out of college. I was working hard to make money so that my wife and I could get a nice house and all that, but it meant that I was gone some overnights, some weekends, some long hours, and one day I came home and there was a note on the table. Wife was gone. Along with most of our savings. I wish I could say I was happy about her departure but I wasn't. In retrospect, we never really connected. But we were comfortable. It's nice having somebody to share your space, to be there, even if many weekends she wants to be at HER parents, and all that.

But she was gone. And it wasn't hard for me to make a phone call or two and so I was gone too, and I was going from one project to the next, making good money. But I was single.

I don't do bars. I just can't. I hate the smoke. I hate the fake people. I hate the noise. Mom and Dad raised a good Baptist boy. Plus, I'm, well, I had the word 'geek' sneered at me all through high school. I guess that's why when Abby acted interested in me in college, I fell head over heels for her. So when I moved to the Tennessee job, I figured more library and church social time was in the cards.

But having company for dinner was nice. So I show up at the prescribed place, and I see Alan, and he's sitting at the table with this kind of tall almost redheaded girl, and this shorter, softer-looking blonde thing with the bluest eyes.

"This is my wife, Tina," Alan said, introducing the tall girl, "and her friend Susan."

And when Susan touched my hand to shake it, I thought I'd been scuffing my feet on carpet. It was like a shock. I met Susan.

Now, you understand that Dan's Cindy cutie had already impressed me as to exactly how wrong I could be about people, and how one's assumptions can prove horribly wrong. So here I was, sitting at a table with this engineer whom I'd been told I could respect, and HE'S married to a teenaged girl. Well, at least SHE'S seventeen. And her friend, another high school girl, a blonde, no less. I figured we'd be in for conversations about fashions and social life and contemporary music.

Sometimes it takes me a couple of tries to learn a lesson. First off, Susan used the word 'multicultural' in the proper context. Then she and Tina jumped right in on me, questioning me about my education, and I had to explain why I had a technology degree instead of an engineering degree. "Listened to bad advice from my loser buddies," I said, figuring that I would cap off that line of thought. Wrong again. They asked me why I didn't go back and change it.

I guess Alan saw the look on my face when he explained that Tina and Susan were Cindy's new sisters and that they were in the top five of their graduating class in high school. A little light went off, way back in my head. Cute. And smart. And smiling.

"So what happened with that whole 'dumb blonde' thing," I asked Susan.

She could've taken that wrong. But she didn't. It was, instead, the first time I made her giggle, and she said, "I, sir, am the EXCEPTION that proves the rule!"

Indeed! We had a good conversation and a good meal and I had their idea of a community explained to me: Alan and Tina, Cindy and Dan, and Susan, at least through college. I looked at Susan. She was maybe five-three or five-four, chin height to me. Yes, blonde hair, straight, shoulder-length, and no darkness at the part like she'd bleached it to get that color. She wasn't big-breasted, and she carried probably twenty extra pounds that made her very pleasantly curvy. And she could carry on a conversation.

And Alan's conversation confirmed that I was under consideration for a new business with him and Dan, centered around this community.

I went home that night thinking. Lots of thinking. Because one of the things I was thinking about was this cute blonde high school girl and how her face was made to smile.

The next day, I asked about Susan at lunch, and I think it made Alan nervous. "She's eighteen," he said.

It was strictly an accident that I walked into a restaurant two days later and caught Tina and Alan and Susan and her parents. The girls waved me over to join them. I had a paperback book in my back pocket. I'd planned on reading while I ate by myself. I laid the book on the table and we had a good conversation about science fiction and about a dozen other subjects. Susan's mom and dad sounded like 'good people', as my dad would say.

The next time I saw Susan was when I'd invited Tina and Alan to dinner. Alan called Tina from the office and she explained the situation. Susan and Tina were working on their high school term papers together. I wasn't going to be a stick in the mud.

"Uh, Jason," Alan said, "about Susan ... I kind of feel responsible for her..."

"Alan, what makes you even say anything?" I asked.

"The look on your face when you heard her name."

"Uh, Alan, I would NEVER ... It's just the idea that I don't feel like the odd man out..." I REALLY need to practice some inscrutability, that's what I need.

He explained, "Susan's ... Tina says that Susan's kind of naïve ... And she's my wife's friend, and MY friend, and her parents..."

"I get the picture, Alan. But I'm not like that..."

"Okay ... sorry if I ascribed a motive..."

"No, you're a good guy, Alan. Just being careful. I would be, too, you know ... If I was in your shoes."

I met them for dinner at the only Italian restaurant in thirty miles. Yes, Susan was smiling, and yes, I smiled back, and yes, I wondered if some of that smile was because of me. I felt like it was two couples at the table. Susan was engaging, and we had some discussion about Robert Heinlein, among other things.

Over the next couple of weeks it was like that. I kept bumping into Susan and I finally called Tina and asked her the question that I couldn't figure out.

"Hi, Tina," I said.

"Hi, Jason!" she answered, like she was expecting the call. "What's up?"

"Susan," I said. "You're her best friend, right?"

"I think so. We're sisters, actually."

That tickles me, the 'sister' thing. "So your sister Susan ... Does she talk about me?"

"A little, I guess," Tina said. "She said it's interesting that y'all read the same books, and stuff like that."

"D'ya think she LIKES me?"

"Oh gosh, Jason, I don't know ... yes, she likes you ... you're a nice guy," she said.

"I mean, 'likes me' likes me ... you know..." I couldn't make myself come out and ask. Nerd. Social skill level zero.

Tina's giggle told me what her words wouldn't say. The next day, Susan told Tina to give her my phone number.

We talked on the phone that night. I explained to Susan that I was very much aware of the difference in our ages. She giggled and reminded me that her best friend was a year younger than her and was married to a guy ten years older than me. Or even bigger gap, Cindy and Dan.

"So you're kind of thinking that maybe we could date?" I asked.

Susan giggled. "Mmmm-huh. I think we could..."

"What would your parents think about that?" I asked. "I don't think we should sneak around."

"Then you ought to come meet them. Introduce yourself."

"I'd do that. You sure you want me to?"

She giggled again. "Yeah. I want you to. Then we can date."

That settled it. The next day after work I drove to Susan's house and knocked on the front door. Susan let me in and took my HAND and brought me to meet her mom and dad in their den.

"Daddy," Susan said, "Jason wants to talk to you and Mom."

Sometimes I get really nervous, usually in social settings. This was one of those times. But I took a deep breath and said, "Mister Mike, Mizz Kathy, I'd like permission to court your daughter."

I did a quick look at three faces. Susan was beaming. Mike and Kathy were shocked. Mike's jaw dropped.

"You WHAT?!?" he blurted.

"I'd like to date Susan. She's smart and nice and pretty and I'd like to date her."

They could see Susan and they could tell that she was expecting a 'yes' answer. Mizz Kathy punched Mike. "Mike, look! He's got a job. He's been to college. His pants fit. He's not wearing his hat sideways."

"I have to ask," I said. "I know I'm a lot older than she is, but I like 'er, and she seems to like me, and I don't want to sneak around. And if you folks have something against us dating, I'd rather find out now..."

Mike started laughing. "Oh, no, son. THAT guy she brought home, what, Susan, two months ago? I had something against HIM. You're a positive trend."

"So that's a 'yes'?"

"That's a 'yes'," Kathy said. "Susan..."

"I know, Mom. He's different." My Susan (yes, I was turning that 'My Susan' thought over in my mind. Why else would I be here?) smiled and hugged her mom. Then her dad. And then ME!

My knees almost buckled.

"Sit down here!" she said, patting the sofa beside her as she sat.

I obeyed. Apparently I was too far away because she smiled and scooted closer. And took my hand lacing her fingers between mine. Seems like Jason now has a girlfriend, and she was not one that was the least bit ashamed to show it.

That evening I drove myself and Susan to dinner at a restaurant. We were in my truck. Her mom and dad were in their car. And we met Tina and Alan there. That's when Alan found out that Susan and I were dating. Apparently Tina had been advised of the situation earlier by Susan.

That's one thing I learned about my girl and her sisters: they happily spread good news among themselves and apparently Susan dating me was good news.

We had a good time at dinner. Nobody was upset, at least not outwardly, about the news. Alan nailed me the next day and I restated my assertion that I was a man of honor, especially towards a kitten like Susan.

"She's kind of naïve," Alan said.

"In some ways, maybe, but she's a world-class mind, and she's cute as a bug, and I'll be damned if I ever do anything to hurt her." I was serious. I know what it's like to be hurt. Alan's a good guy. He worries about people and he has protective feelings for Susan.