Barry was running the phone system on the third floor of the main house that year. I used my knowledge of running twisted pair phone cable and rearranged telephones for both Joe and myself. By mid-week I got my first letter from Marilyn, a syrupy love letter that made several references to the fun we had in Ocean City. She used strawberry scented stationery with little hearts all over it, the sort of thing a fourteen year old girl uses in junior high.
Back when I rubbed that lamp, I still had those letters from college from her, stuffed in the back of a file cabinet. Some things you don't throw out.
I called her at her home after I read her letter a few times. We talked for about half an hour, until Bradley came in and I hung up. No way did I need him hearing me talking to her. We discussed when we could see each other again. She couldn't say anything openly, since I think she was talking on the kitchen telephone, but when I asked her if she had gone to Planned Parenthood, she said, "First thing I did Monday morning." That made me smile. We decided to wait a few weeks until after school started before trying a visit. I was to travel to Utica to meet the Lefleur family. The plan was to do this in about three weeks.
That didn't work out. Three weeks out I caught the flu, along with about half the house and RPI. I could barely make my way down the stairs to the bathroom, let alone a hundred miles across the state. By the time I recovered enough the next weekend, Marilyn had a cold. We put things off another weekend.
Scholastically, I was taking all senior level math courses by now, with a grad level Information Theory course tossed in for good measure. The grad courses weren't going to be a problem. What I was worried about was my doctoral dissertation. It was already pretty definite that Professor Rhineburg was going to be my thesis adviser, and we made the relationship formal. He taught my class on Information Theory, and it looked like that was going to be my area of specialty.
The nice thing about RPI for grad studies is that they don't pin you into neat little boxes. They specialize in interdisciplinary studies. Many students do degrees mixing engineering and a science, or two different scientific disciplines. If somebody could think up a way to mix chemical engineering and French literature, and find a way to sell it to the academic committee, they'd be allowed to get a degree in it. I was thinking of mixing two different fields of Set Theory together, probably Information Theory and Topology, both of which I had always found fascinating.
This time around I kept my vices under much better control. Last time I had spent a lot of time smoking dope with Andy Kowalchuk, and not spending any time on school work. I cut that shit way back, not out of any moral difficulty with it, but simply because it was too distracting. I remembered back when I went to grad school the first time. Suddenly I was going to work days and school nights and I was commuting to grad school. Later, when I got married and had kids, it really hit me, just how much time I had wasted goofing off. By putting even a little effort into time management, and not being stoned 24/7, I actually was able to go to class and learn a thing or two. I went from a C average to straight As.
Eventually both Marilyn and I were healthy, and it was my turn to visit her. I let Marilyn give me directions to her house (which were wrong, in any case; like I said, she can't find her way out of a paper bag) but I already knew perfectly well how to get there. Friday afternoon I packed my trusty B4 and tossed it into the Galaxie, and headed out for a road trip.
It wasn't really all that ridiculously far. I ran down 787 to 90, and then over to the Thruway. From there you go straight west to Exit 31, which dumps you off in North Utica. Cross over the river into Utica and get on 5S going west, and stay on it after it turns into 69. The Lefleurs had a farm about halfway between Utica and the Oriskany battlefield, but they didn't run a farm. Instead they had about fifty acres that they used to run Lefleur Homes, a mobile home dealership.
It took me about two hours to get there, since the speed limit was now at 55. I pulled into the parking lot about four or so. I parked next to the Lefleur's farmhouse and out in front of the double-wide trailer they used for an office, and got out and stretched. It really felt like going back in time! I had spent gargantuan amounts of time here professionally before. I swore to myself that would not be repeated!
I was standing there a few feet from my car, just looking around and taking it all in, when suddenly I hear, "Carling! Carling!" I looked around and smiled to see a little brunette whirlwind come running across the parking lot. Marilyn was dressed in jeans and a tee shirt and sneakers and was calling my name as she ran towards me. I grinned and she didn't even slow down, she just jumped into my arms and wrapped herself around me. "I've missed you, I've missed you!", she said repeatedly, in between kissing me.
I just laughed. It was a good thing I was in shape and working out, because Marilyn was completely off the ground, her arms wrapped around my neck and her legs up around my waist. My hands were under her butt and holding her up as I kissed her back. "I guess you did miss me!", I told her.
"I did, I did, I did!", Marilyn replied, kissing me even more.
I started slowly walking towards the house, still carrying her. "You know, this isn't the easiest way to carry a person."
"If you loved me, you'd carry me!"
I snorted at that. "If that's the case, we're making a small adjustment!" I moved to drop her and Marilyn squealed and lowered her feet to the ground. I simply bent forward and grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up and over my shoulder like a sack of cement.
Marilyn squawked! "Put me down!"
"Hey, I love you, so I have to carry you." I gave her a loud smack on the bottom and continued towards the house, with her squirming and fighting me all the way to the door. I looked the house over as I approached. Marilyn's mother was watching us through the kitchen window, and one of her brothers was looking at us through the glass in the door.
"Put me down!", she demanded. I simply shifted her around a touch, freed up a hand, and opened the door to the house. Her brother laughed and scampered away, and I carried Marilyn inside. I dumped her unceremoniously inside the door.
I leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. "That will teach you to challenge me on something."
"Very funny!"
Her little brother came romping up, and I recognized him as Michael, who must have been about five or six at the time. He held his hands up to me and said, "Pick me up." Marilyn looked quite amused at this, so I picked him up. I lifted him up to eye level, and then higher, over my head.
"Now what?", I asked.
"Put me down!" I put him down, and he repeated, "Pick me up!" I picked him back up.
"He's your problem now.", commented his sister. Marilyn left me in the living room with her brother and went off to the kitchen.
"Put me down!" "Pick me up!" "Put me down!" Michael was having a grand old time, with me using him as a set of free weights.