Chapter 9

The next morning started with a little soft music on the clock radio, a wake-up snuggle, and then it was off to business at hand. Forty-five minutes later I was kissing my wife as I headed out the door and she waited on a school bus.

I drove up the road, thinking all was good with the world, mulling over the idea that I'd left a new fifteen year old wife waiting on a school bus. I didn't get too far, though, before my phone chimed that tune that was "Nikki": "Fur Elise".

"Hello, cutie," I said.

"Hi, love of my life," her voice chimed. "Just reminding you to give that meat market a call."

"Thank you," I said. "I'll call 'em. They'll fix us up." I knew a good meat market that would give us a great hunk of pork for Nikki's debut dinner with the family.

"I'm glad you called, too..."

"Why?" she asked.

"SO I can hear your voice one more time and tell you that I love you."

Purrs are audible. "Thank you, Honey," she said. "I love you too. I'll talk to you later. I see the bus up the road."

"'Kay, baby. Bye." I settled back into the routine of the drive, musing over the idea that while waiting to go to school, Nikki was thinking about our plans for the weekend. I was, too. I loved my new little doll, and I wanted to believe that the rest of my family would be as enchanted as I was.

I didn't roll directly to the office. First stop was inside one of my client facilities. I drove down roads with huge vessels and pipes and whistling, screaming processes going on, arriving at a new substation. I had four technicians working among a herd of electricians. I stopped by and chatted with each of my techs, assessing the work's progress and the individual's understanding of what he was doing.

Finally, I located my lead guy.

"Hey, Kev," I said.

He was smiling when he turned around. "Hey, Dan! What's up?"

"You tell me," I countered. "You're ass-deep in alligators here."

"Nah! I'd much rather this than cleaning a bunch of forty-year old crap on a maintenance outage. This is gonna be a nice sub when it's done."

It was good to see somebody enthusiastic about his work. Kevin was one.

"You finding anything?"

He grinned. "We ALWAYS find things. Look at this. I think I know what we need to do, but I just want to verify it while you're here." He showed me one of a sheaf of drawings, pointing out a perfectly normal equipment configuration. He further pointed out that if we hadn't considered it in light of our specific application, things would've been WRONG. Embarassing. Easily fixed, but embarrassing.

"You're absolutely right. Great catch! Just make sure that you make red pen changes to the electrician's drawings before they wire to it. And test it completely when they're done. Don't wanna..."

"Would've tripped first time we loaded up, huh?" he said.

"You got that right. Red faces. Hollering. Finger-pointing."

He laughed.

"Yeah, I can laugh now, too. I caught it on another job, marked up two sets of drawings, gave one to the electrical foreman, and his guy STILL found an old one to wire from."

"And you didn't catch it in testing?"

"Lead tech was..."

"Grady," Kevin said. "I think he's pencil-whipped stuff on me, but nothing I could nail down. I was gonna talk to you..."

"About Grady?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna need a good tech and helper next week for the outdoor stuff. I'd rather not get Grady."

"I'll see what I can do," I said. I filed that 'pencil-whipping' comment away. Much of our business had to do with meticulously testing equipment and systems and recording findings. The idea of giving results without actually doing the tests, or changing the results from actual values, that was inexcusable.

Leaving the actual work, I drove back through the facility and visited the client's lead electrical engineer and engaged in a little discussion of the work we were doing, upcoming work ("You KNOW you're getting this, don't you?") and a fair amount of good-natured discussion about domesticated (him) versus feral (me) engineers. I was 'feral' because unlike him, I didn't have a single place to call home. We managed to stretch conversation to include lunch, on my company expense account, naturally. I drove my buddy back into the plant and dropped him at this office, visited my crew one more time, then drove to my own office.

I pulled into the front parking lot of our building, next to Steve's SUV, and walked into the office.

"That you, Dan?" I heard him call.

"Yeah."

"Thought so." Steve recognized the clatter of the diesel idle from my truck. "How's InChem?"

"Rockin' right along," I said. "Took their engineer to lunch. He's happy. You know what they have coming for the rest of the year, huh?"

"Yeah. We'll stay busy there."

"Give the plant to Kevin. He'll take care of it. I can pop in every now and then, bill a few hours, talk to Doogie." "Doogie" was Douglas Stratton, the engineer I had lunch with. He DID look young for his actual age and responsibilities. His co-workers tagged him early on, and like many nick-names at work, it stuck. And went universal.

"You think Kevin's ready to handle it?"

"Real question is why YOU don't."

"I didn't say that," he back-pedalled. "Just that he's..."

"The guy that Doogie asked for on this substation project. He's more than technically capable, and he knows his limits. He'll call if he has questions, you and I will know EXACTLY what's going on, and honestly, he'll think it's a promotion. Bump 'im hard next pay raise."

"Done," Steve said.

"When's Becky getting back?" I asked. Becky Young was our office administrator. Her house took some damage during the hurricane and was unlivable while the repairs were being made. She was living with her sister in the next state.

"A week, she says. I'm ready. She's VPN'ed to the company system for opening jobs and stuff, but I'm going crazy here. SHE'S gonna have flowers waiting when she gets back."

"Good! Absence makes the heart grow fonder," I laughed. 'Fond' was how we ALL felt about Becky, all five feet two and two hundred and twenty pounds of her, smile and attitude, dedication and competence, soft heart and sharp tongue. "I'll be glad to see 'er back."

"Until she starts in on your billing and report backlog," he laughed.

"Yeah, I know ... I can blame it on the hurricane."

"Yeah, you can. It won't work, though..." by now, I was stretched in a chair in Steve's office. "Did Kevin mention when they're gonna start on the outdoor equipment?"

"Said he was going to need a tech and a helper next week."

Steve smiled. That was a couple of thousand dollars a day on the ledger.

"Before you smile too damned big, he asked that we NOT send Grady. Said he thinks Grady's been pencil-whipping reports."

"Oh, I NEED this shit, Dan," Steve whined.

"Yeah, we all do, don't we?" I sighed.

"You know, if we have this guy who doesn't work well with others, and we can't trust on his own..." Steve sighed. "HR ain't gonna like it ... We really don't have anything concrete."

"If he's faking reports, he'll trip over his own feet. The guy's not bright enough to do a good job of faking things. If I find something, you need to back me up. He'll be gone."

"I'll back you up."

I picked a candy from the jar on Steve's desk and was peeling the wrapper.

"So, you an' Nikki? Thing's okay? Are you freakin' insane?"

"Whaddaya mean, 'insane'?"

"She's, like A KID!"

"Oh, hell, Steve, I knew sooner or later you'd get nosey." I fixed my eye on his.

Steve bridged his fingers together, elbows on his desk. "Dan, you an' me, we've been bumpin' together in this biz for years. I'd say we're friends. I just worry. I mean, we all have, you know ... She's not pregnant or somethin'?"

"Damn, you're a subtle devil, ain't you?"

"I'm sorry, Dan, but it's killin' me..."

"Sorta like me comin' over that desk?"

His eyes widened fast. He stuttered, "D-d-Dan?"

"Oh, cool off, asshole," I said. "Sad thing is that Nikki's probably getting the same thing at school now. No, she's NOT pregnant."

"So why'd you marry 'er?"

"Steve, you and I've worked those out of town jobs, right?"

"Yeah, I remember a couple?"

"Where was Dan? After work?"

"Dinner. Maybe a beer. Then your hotel room."

"That's part of the story. I don't chase tail, bud. That's like a dog chasin' cars. If he catches one, then what?"

"But fifteen?"

"Curious fifteen. Funny how a number might be so significant in one context, and insignificant in another."

"You really DID rescue her from a building?" he asked.

"Yes. Had to take a Sawzall to cut some structure out of the way. If I hadn't been there, I don't know if she'd be alive today."

"Oooookayyyy," he said. "But marryin' 'er. That's..."

"Just crazy enough to work. She's smart. Very mature for her age, more mature that a lot of women with a lot more years on them."

His eyebrow raised.

I caught it. "No, I didn't seduce her. She didn't seduce me. After the roads opened, I took her to Houston to buy her enough clothes and stuff so she'd at least have that. She thought I was tryin' to get her ready to move out. I guess, in a way, I was." I sighed, remembering the day. "She asked how long she could stay there. I told her she could stay as long as she needed to. She asked how long I wanted her to stay. I looked in her eyes, Steve. And I told her that I wanted her there forever."

"Damn, boy," he said. "You sound like a chick flick."

"I know it sounds sappy. But dammit, she just fits soooo well ... she's not just one of those little airhead bimbos. Innocent..."

"You mean..." Raised that eyebrow again.

I just nodded. "The lady is worthy of respect," I said. "She didn't whine and cry. When I started working she started taking care of the house without me even mentioning it. That was BEFORE we decided to get married. After that, when I started working in the field again, she spent her day listening to classical music and reading when I was out, meal was waiting when I came in the door. Hell, man, I was MARRIED to a woman who didn't do THAT!"

"Okay, okay ... so who's exploiting who?"

I smiled. "We both are. Any more personal questions?"

"No, that's about it, buddy. You know I wish you the best of luck. We need to get together, at least you an' Nikki an' me an' Carole. Maybe some of the techs and their wives."

"I don't want Nikki catching crap, Steve."

"I don't think anyone would do that, Dan. She seems to be pretty quick on her feet, and she's personable."

"Thanks, Steve, ' I said. "Of course, she's meeting my family in person for the first time this weekend. I may be missing either a wife OR a family, come Monday."

"You know you expect things to be fine, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. My family loves me. And from the conversations with my sister, they think a lot of Nikki, after the initial shock. Reminds me. I need to make a phone call"