Chapter 51

Susan's Turn:

I didn't get my summer vacation. I'm supposed to get a summer vacation, you know, because I'm a student. At least that was the shine I laid on some of my classmates in summer classes. To be honest, ever since I was old enough to be useful, I worked a lot with either Mom or Dad in their businesses. Mom had me doing data entry and learning the basics of bookkeeping and Dad had me filing and filling envelopes and stuff until I talked him into letting me out into the shop area.

The first time I came home with grease embedded under my nails, Mom threw a fit; well, as much of a fit as I ever saw between her and Dad, but Dad explained that I'd been pushing him for something hands-on and he just gave in. "She's got your powers of persuasion," he told Mom. That's how Dad wins.

But now I'm in college and it's NOTHING like the 'college' that Mom and Dad talked about, or not anybody else I know. First, I'll graduate after TWO years, not four, and that's with my baccalaureate, not an associate degree, and it's in electrical engineering, not Womyn's Studies or some such stuff.

I know some of my high school classmates who're getting into some of that. Not me. Summers in Dad's business gave me a taste for how things work, and then I fell in with the wrong sort of people, finding myself up to my eyeballs in electrical engineering, so I just naturally succumbed.

And married one. Well, technically speaking Jason's right beside me. He has a four year degree in engineering technology and he's going after that double-E, electrical engineering, because he just SHOULD.

And that's why I'm walking up to the back door of 3Sigma today. Jason's trying to cover too much.

Today all three of our engineers are in. Time for what we call back home a 'Come to Jesus' meeting. I open the back door and stand in the hall. "Guys, we have to talk."

It's OUR business, and the day-to-day ebb and flow is rather informal. I see Beck stick her head around the corner. "Do you need me?"

"Not really, Beck," I said. "But you're welcome to sit in. I need to talk work schedules with the guys."

By this time Alan and both Dans are looking at me.

"What's up?" Alan questioned.

"We need to talk," I said. Got three serious but questioning looks. "Let's sit at the table."

"Ohhhh, REALLY serious," Dan 1.0 said. "The table..."

"Yes. Cindy married you because of your heightened levels of perception," I retorted.

Dan 2.0 laughed. "Give a smart-assed answer, you become the target."

So we're in our conference room. "Okay," Alan said. "What's up? You pregnant?"

I stuck my tongue at him. "Buddy, if I was pregnant, your wives would've told you. No, it's about Jason."

"Tina told me something," Alan said. "What are you going to tell us?"

"He's working too hard on everything. He's having a bit of trouble with his classes, and I think that he should hold off on the work hours, but..."

"But he worries about holding up his end of the business," Dan 1.0 said.

"I should've known," I told them. "No secrets here."

Dan 1.0 smiled at me. "Do you keep secrets from YOUR husband?"

I shook my head. "So what's the solution? If everybody knows, then there's bound to be a solution in the works."

"Your husband is hard-headed," Alan replied. "We keep telling him to back off, that we've got the work covered, especially since we've picked up more technicians, but he's afraid that nobody's as thorough as he is."

"I know," I answered. "He is a bit of a perfectionist. That's why it's tearing him apart when he doesn't get perfect scores in class. He told me that there's zero tolerance in the real world, that mistakes make people's lights go out."

"I think I've heard that speech a time or two," Cindy's Dan said.

"As have I," Alan added. "But we don't want to kill your husband, Susan."

"We have that in common," I countered, "Or if I kill him, it won't be from his work or his class loads."

"Whatever happened to sweet, innocent little Susan?" Alan laughed.

"I have the same happy lifestyle as each of your wives enjoy, and I wish to keep it that way."

"Then believe us when we tell you and him that he can cut back harder on the billable hours. Really. He's already more of a field supervisor than a hands-on technician anyway."

"You'll tell 'im that?"

"Yes," Dan 2.0 said. "And YOU can tell him that. Seriously, kiddo, we want you both to be happy. He's a great bit of our happy little world."

"He IS my happy little world," I affirmed. "I worry about him, you know."

"As a good little wifey should," Dan 2.0 said. "But don't feel alone. We all watch out for one another."

"I know," I said. "Nikki says that we all succeed together." I looked up and saw Terri standing just outside the door. "Hey, Terri-dactyl!"

"Is it safe in here?" she asked.

"Why wouldn't it be?" I returned.

"Mizz Beck says y'all're having a big meeting..."

"Just talking about how we're working together. Nothing wrong at all."

By this time Terri was next to her dad. He bent over and kissed the top of her head. "Trying to make Jason's life a little easier, baby," Alan explained.

"Oh," Terri spoke. "I know some of that. I told him that he needs to be more studenty."

"'Studenty?' Where'd that come from?" Alan asked her.

"I suppose I made it up," Terri giggled. "It means acting in the fashion of a student."

"And 'studious' wouldn't work? It's a real word," her dad rebounded.

"No, Dad," she explained. "'Studious' carries a meaning of a student being more active in his studies. I think it applies to people who are only students. Jason's more than just a student, so he has both a student life and a working life, and he needs to be more studenty."

"Oh, I see," Alan said. "Is that a Cindy thing?"

Terri gets this delightful look of exasperation sometimes. She used it on her dad. "No, Dad," she said patiently. "I came up with it by myself, although I'm sure it's been done before. I just never saw it."

Now Mizz Beck's head popped in the door. "Now you see why Tina and I think she needs more campus time."

"I always wanted my daughter to go to college," Alan said.

"Of course you expected her to be eighteen," Nikki's Dan tossed at him.

"I'm the only normal one in the bunch," I whined.

Beck laughed. "Susan, you don't get to claim 'normal' either, dear."

"Oh, Mizz Beck, you an' me, we're just caught up in this vortex."

"Yes, we are," Beck said. She turned to Terri. "Where's Rachel?"

"In the front office on the computer. She's writing some paragraphs of our paper on arthropods. I get to read 'em, then I write and she gets to read."

Terri's still a hoot. One of my school acquaintances said her nephew lived with them for a while when the kid's mom was sick and the dad was deployed overseas. "It was fun for a while, but when the 'new' wore off, the kid was a big pain." Terri's not a pain. Terri's a big bundle of happy 'what's gonna happen next.'

"You're being a good little dinosaur," I said. I should have been better prepared.

Terri's face got that 'serious student' look. "Pterodactyls are not dinosaurs. They are contemporaries of the dinosaurs, as are things like dimetrodons. You know, that's those big sailback lizards. Neither of them conform to the definition of a dinosaur, which includes the specification that their legs are vertical and do not sprawl. That's why alligators are not considered little dinosaurs." She smiled. "They never were."

What could I do? I opened my arms and beckoned for the inevitable hug.

"Was that too much?" she asked. "I'm not supposed to be a know-it-all."

I kissed her cheek. "You're my Terri!"

" ... with a 'p'..."

"Of course. And you operate within the specified limits attributed to puh-Terris everywhere." I pronounced the 'p' and received the giggle from her.

Now I had Terri sitting on my thigh, I had Beck in there, and the three engineers, husbands of my best friends. That's a whole roomful of friends there. "So we have path through this little thicket?" I asked.

Smiles all around.

"Come on, little 'not a dinosaur'! See if Rachel's finished, put the document on the server and let's go to the house. We're doing domestic chemistry this afternoon."

The kid bounced off my lap, headed up the hall. I told the group, "I'll talk to Jason. And thank you for being friends."

Alan spoke for the group. "We want Jason to succeed. That's all. You're part of his success in more ways than one."

Beck and I walked up the short hall. Terri was looking over Rachel's shoulder. "I've got about half a paragraph to go," Rachel said. "I'll be there."

Beck smiled proudly. "My third grade daughter knows more about paragraphs and grammar than a lot of high school kids." Terri stepped against my thigh. Beck touched Terri's sassy blonde tresses. "This is part of the reason."

Terri and I headed to the apartment. "What manner of alchemy are we concocting today," the elf asked.

"You need to lay off Terry Pratchett for a while, munchkin," I said. "It's coloring your speech."

"And you spell 'color' with a 'u'," she giggled. "I know, but I love the way that language can be altered to fit a situation."

"You're really having fun with it, aren't you?"

"I am. I know, that's not the way with some kids. But it is with me." She connected those blue eyes with mine. "It's just about like that with all of us. So what are we cooking?"

"Something inexplicable, but one of Jason's favourite things."

She giggled. "Tina says you're his favourite thing."

"You know what she means."

"I think I do. Best friend. And I guess that marriage means there's more to it than laughing at the same movies."

Tiptoe here, Susan. Tender young child. "There is. When you're married, there's more than just holding hands." Of course, eight was just a number on a timeline of physical age. Mentally...

"I sort of understand. I know that the black blocks on the community calendar mean that somebody's in a 'do not disturb' mode. Physical love, I think that's the term."

"Where'd you get that term?"

"I can't tell you exactly. I read it somewhere, or maybe I caught it in a conversation. But it's about love, and love is a terribly complex subject." She looked into my eyes, expecting answers.

"I know," I said as I unlocked the door to the apartment. "Tina says you've talked with her."

Little blonde head bounced in the affirmative. "And Cindy. And Nikki. And you. And Mizz Beck."

"Was Rachel in on the conversation with Mizz Beck?"

"Yes. Because one of the other kids we do those home-school outings with, he said we were in love. Me and Rache."

"And that's not quite accurate," I said. "There's 'love' and there's 'in love', and those are separate things."

We were in the kitchen. I opened the pantry.