Chapter 37

Terri nailed Tina on the phone after Tina got out of school. My phone rang. Terri saw the display. "It's Tina!"

"Answer it, then."

"Hi, Tina!" Pause. "Uh-huh!" Pause. "No, they won't let me be in second grade." The last statement was all done up in 'sad little girl'. Pause for effect, then squeal! "The lady, Mizz Callirosa, SHE says I'm WAAAAAY past second grade!"

I heard the returning squeal through the phone.

"Hurry home. I wanna be happy an' YOU need to be here for THAT!"

Okay, you tell me how happy YOU'D be to hear that conversation between your daughter and your teen-aged wife. I know how I am: damned happy.

The weekend came and between me and Jason and our mates, we got US moved to Jason's place and Jason's stuff moved to my trailer.

"I ain't gotta worry about what I might find behind the sofa, do I?" I asked.

"Alannnnnn!" Tina squealed. "I'm SURE!"

"You know how those single guys are," I said, watching Susan for the next reaction.

"The only thing SINGLE about MY Jason is that we have four more weeks. Right, honey?" she said, cooing up against him. Jason looked like he was in heaven. Well, check that. He could see heaven from where he was sitting, and he knew he'd BE in heaven a few Saturdays from now.

As for us, with the move to Jason's apartment, we got to spread out a little bit. All three of us still ended up on the sofa in the evenings, or the recliner. Good recliner, held all three of us, although I was little bit cramped with one of the loves of my life balanced on each leg, leaning into me. Fortunately, Terri stayed for only a bit before bounding away to other interests.

We quickly settled into the expanded space. Tina's school was a downhill slide and so was Terri's. I was interested in Terri's schooling.

"Daddy," she said, and I knew manipulation was taking place, because she was seven (Almost EIGHT!) and 'Daddy' had sometimes changed to the much more sophisticated and mature 'Dad'. She was experimenting with the technique this time. "Dad, the teacher read the letter from Mizz Callirosa. I don't think she believed it. Made me read out loud. A SECOND grade book. The only words that had two syllables (Syllables? In the second grade? She figured out "syllables"?) ended in 'ing'." Little darlin' continued, "and addition. If I have two apples and you have two apples, how many apples do we have together. PUH-LEEZE!"

"Angel, please tell me you didn't say that to her."

She tossed me a look from those blue eyes and backed into Tina's arms. "No, daddy. But I've been looking at those things and seeing something."

"Tell your dad what you see, Terri," Tina said.

Terri took a deep breath. "Well, I saw that if you take 2+2, that makes four, right? And 2+4 makes six. So four is TWO twos. And six is THREE twos. And then I tried it with threes and fours. And you know, it just works like that."

Tina kissed Terri on the crown of her head. "Terri, has anybody ever shown you that?"

"Nobody." She shook her head, realized she had THAT haircut, and gave it one more vigorous shake.

Tina looked at me. "Your daughter has discovered multiplication on her own." She sighed. "Whatever you do, don't let her NEAR Cindy."

"Or Nikki," I said. "Both of 'em are scary."

"And YOU'RE not? You and Susan?"

"I'll admit to a bit of that, me an' Susan both, but..."

"Y'all are talkin' like I'm not here," Terri piped.

"Sorry, princess," I said. "I'm trying to put a number to my surprise."

"Uh, Dad," she said, "it's just school stuff."

Tina fielded that one. "Yes, baby, but you have to be careful. A lot of people have a very hard time doing second grade work. You're a bit special, and I'm not using the word 'special' to mean you CAN'T do things, you're special in that you CAN do things."

"That's good, right? I mean, YOU an' Cindy an' Nikki an' Susan, y'all all do things easier than a lot of people."

"Yes, but listen to us, baby. Just because you CAN do that, you've got to be careful not to show off. Just do what you can do and be nice to people. Like Cindy and Nikki do. They both help other kids learn things."

My turn. "Baby, showing off is going to make people unhappy. You don't want to do that in front of most people."

Okay, that was Terri's school issue. Yes, I did get a phone call from her teacher.

"Mister Addison, do you realize how precocious she is?"

"Yes ma'am. Mizz Callirosa said that in her letter."

"I don't think Mary had the whole picture. Terri tells me she will be in school in Alabama next year?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Please tell me you will look into putting her in a good school."

"Thank you for your concern, Missus Sorensen. Did Terri tell you about her step-mom?"

"Noooo, I don't think she mentioned her."

"Her stepmom is almost eighteen. Going to college next year. She, uh, my wife, is brilliant in the tightest definition of the word. She has three friends, one, maybe two, of whom are certified geniuses, and we, me, Terri and my wife Tina, and those girls and their husbands, are starting a new business in Auburn, Alabama this summer. I don't think we'll have a problem seeing that Terri gets an education. We might have a problem getting traditional schools to recognize it."

"I believe you," she said. "I'd imagine she reads better than most of the fifth grade, at least, and math ... tell me, did she explain to you about how multiplication works? I didn't teach that. My kids are still doing single-digit addition. She just made a leap..."

"That's my Terri," I said.

"Well, I will try my best to give her SOMETHING, Mister Addison, but she's way past second grade. It's a good thing she likes to read. I let her go into the library."

But that wasn't the only student I had in school. Happily, though, I didn't have to worry about that other one, either. She'd come home with Terri in the front seat beside her, Susan following in her own car, and the three of them would be entertaining themselves when Jason and I got off work.

Half the time, Susan and Jason ended up at the apartment with us, and the other half of the time, they were at Susan's house.

Susan confided in Tina, "I'm afraid that if I go to that trailer with 'im, we won't stop. Tina ... it's ... getting ... very ... difficult. But I promised myself. And Mom and Grandma."

Tina told me that one evening when we were in bed. "Alan, she's liable to kill 'im!"

Nah," I said, "He's younger than me and I survived YOU!"

She flopped backward against me so I could encircle her with my arm. "Oh, gosh, yes! We ... Oh, baby, it was soooo wonderful..." she sighed. "I hope it's that good with her and Jason."

Fortunately the floorplan of the apartment had accounted for the idea of privacy for the master bedroom, so we could make a little noise when we made love. We still skipped nights, though, when I got the 'Daddy, can I sleep in the bed with you an' Tina? Hmmmm? Please?"

Okay, so that was a minus in the Alan and Tina 'do it every night' score. But then a Saturday came and Susan and Jason announced, "Guys, we're borrowin' Terri."

"Borrowin' Terri?" I asked.

"Yeah," Susan giggled. "There's an animated movie out that Jason wants to go see, and we need Terri so he won't be embarrassed to stand in line and buy tickets."

Terri was looking at me. "Can I, Daddy?"

Manipulated. "Of course," I said. I started to reach for my wallet.

"Nuh-uh," Susan said. "We got it. And we won't be back with her until after nine, because we're gonna go eat first, then the movie. I hope y'all don't get bored." She gave me and Tina a theatrical wink.

Virginal teens should NOT leer like that.

After they left, my young wife pushed me back against the door. "Alan, you know how much I've wanted to scream when we make love?"

I nodded. "Me too."

"Then I think we've been handed the opportunity to make each other scream," she said. "I for one do not intend to let it pass."

And we took advantage of the opportunity. And each other. Several times. Our last one came in a flurry of hot, sweaty, doggie style, something she loved partly because of the animal aspect of it, partly because she knew that it was a guaranteed orgasm for me. And if it was my THIRD of the evening, I lasted quite well.

We were both barely conscious after that one. "It's after eight, baby," she said, her voice groggy. "We should shower. YOU smell like SEX!"

So a bit after nine, there was knock on the door, and a pajama-clad Tina retrieved our daughter. Susan was in the living room. I heard, "I hope you two weren't bored."

Tina changed the subject. "Did Jason enjoy the movie?"

Terri said, "He did. He laughed. He's almost embarrassing."

Susan was smiling. "My guy. What can I say? He's different. In the very best way!"

And it was the last week of school. Tina and Susan finished the final exams. Nothing to do but wait, now. I got Terri out of school with a report card that said that she's satisfactorily completed second grade.

And a hand-written note.

"Dear Mr. Addison-

Terri has been fun. I wish I could have had her all year, but then I would not have had time for the other students. My husband says that it's like having a Formula One racer in the garage and having to drive a Honda Civic to work. She is indeed special. You need to find a way to give her wings.

Please let me know how she fares.

Mrs. Jaqueline Sorensen"

"She's a third grader now, Alan," Tina said, stroking Terri's hair. "Third grade, going on high school."

Monday was graduation rehearsals for high school. I endured the squeals of Susan and Tina in their graduation garb.

On Tuesday I went to the airport to check on the plane. I had spent a bit of time locating a kiddie seat for our Cessna 182. It gave us the ability to carry four adults, Terri, and a minimal bit of baggage and be pretty close to the weight limits for the aircraft, but that was good enough. I had to go see the job that Charley had done installing it.

"It'll take care of 'er, Alan," he said. "You can remove it really easy." He showed me, then laughed. "You're an engineer. You can figure this stuff out."

Wednesday at noon we were at the airfield, loading up. Terri was buckled into the back seat, Susan and Jason giggling in the middle and me, I was in the right front seat, Tina being the pilot, me being the loser of 'rock-paper-scissors'. Again.

I paid attention on take-off. "I can feel the load," Tina said. "We're heavy."

"Right under gross. We could've left some fuel, but it's a hassle to drain the tanks." But we were off the ground and climbing, angling to the south, into Alabama to watch a fourteen year old redhead graduate from high school.

"She's really gonna do it," Susan said. "You know how scary that is?"

"Oh, if you'd had your head in the game, baby, you could've done that," Jason told her.

"Oh, I don't know," Susan said. "Did you look at some of the math she's into? I mean, I kinda get a flash of understanding here and there, but Cindy ... And Nikki ... they're askin' Nikki to go to Auburn the first week of June."

"We're goin' in June," Tina said.

"Yeah, but they want us to take tests. They just INTERVIEWED Cindy." Susan sighed. "But then, I've talked to Cindy about some of that stuff."