Since then we've had two others. Jason, born September 20, 1997, also looks like Nina though there is at least a hint of my facial features in his form.
Megan, born October 3, 1998 is the baby of the family. God help her, she looks just like me. There's no denying paternity there.
I spend my days watching these children, caring for them on the days that Nina is at work. My life is happy. There is little else I'd rather do. I go fishing at least once a week. I go hunting once a year. I go to Mariners games in Seattle at least three times a season. I've replaced my single engine plane with a twin engine capable of holding ten. Trips to Las Vegas or Reno occur frequently.
I spend about three hours a week monitoring my investments. I was able to take huge advantage of many initial public offerings, especially over the last four years. I got in on America Online, Amazon.com, E-bay, and many other Internet stocks that went through the roof. The Stevens' family holdings have nearly tripled in the last five years. On the day I type these words our net worth is just a hair over eleven million dollars. A good thing because I've now reached the point where my pre-knowledge has run out. Obviously I've gained considerable knowledge of stocks and investments so I'll keep some money in the market but I'm planning to begin shifting the bulk of our holdings over to CDs, Mutual Funds, Treasury bonds, and other safe, quiet storage vessels.
Nina works her shifts and is a very popular doctor among the staff and her coworkers. But at the same time her superiors consider her somewhat of a pain in the ass. She doesn't work any of the many overtime shifts that are offered to her. She doesn't write papers for publication in the hospital journal. She doesn't participate in the education or training of the area's paramedics. She goes to work, does the job that she loves, and then comes home to the family that she loves.
Mike took the test for the Spokane Fire Department in June of 1985. By then he had a year of being their courier and two semesters of Fire Technology classes from the community college under his belt. He'd worked out obsessively throughout the year in fire station workout rooms and his body was an efficient, well-honed machine. He passed the written test in the high nineties but it was the physical agility test, the combat challenge, that was his shining moment. He didn't just break the previous record, he shattered it by more than eighteen seconds. His oral boards were just a formality at that point.
Early that August, while Nina and I were still sharing my old bedroom prepatory to heading back to Seattle, Mike entered the fire academy. On November 3 he was given his first assignment; an engine company very near where a girl named Julie had once thrown me out of her car. It was the busiest station in Spokane and he spent eighteen months there.
Once his probation period was up he began taking more Fire Tech courses. He collected his associate's degree in 1987 and then transferred to State College. By 1990 he held a bachelors degree.
He continued to date Maggie throughout the year prior to his hire. Unfortunately when he made the discovery as a rookie firefighter of how damn easy it was to get laid when the public adored you, he gave Maggie the old, "I think we should see other people" speech. I heard all of this from Nina, who corresponded in letters and phonecalls with Maggie. It was very apparent that Maggie did not take the speech well.
I felt sad for both of them, part of me wondering what Mike was thinking – it was obvious how he felt about her – the other half knowing exactly what he was thinking and what organ he was doing it with. Mike went on something of a rampage, very similar to what I'd done upon my recycling with exactly the same sort of blindness. I didn't interfere, didn't try to talk him out of what he was doing. I knew he wouldn't listen to me. I only hoped he would catch himself before it was too late.
Maggie was in her first year of nursing school when they broke up. She grieved for a while and then carried on, beginning to date again after a few months. She drifted back into her pattern of changing boyfriends as often as she changed her socks for about six months. She then began to date a radiology tech that she'd met during her hospital time.
They became a couple. Maggie wrote letters to Nina telling how happy she was. I read the letters and had to agree with Nina's assessment that they sounded entirely too cheery, too forced. They sounded like Maggie was trying to convince herself that she was happy.
The radiology tech asked Maggie to marry him a week before she graduated from nursing school. He didn't put a ring on her finger with his mouth, nor did he put one in a glass of champagne. In fact, he didn't even HAVE a ring when he conversationally brought up the subject of marriage to her.
Maggie said yes to him immediately. Two days later they went and picked out a ring together. The one that she liked cost more than he cared to spend so he asked her is she would mind pitching in a little for it. After all, money was tight, the republicans were fucking up the economy, etc. She pitched in. She tried to make the whole thing sound romantic in her letter but the underlying bitterness and disappointment were plainly visible between the lines.
She told Nina about their plans. They were going to get married as soon as possible, as soon as she secured employment as a nurse. He was going to quit his job and start a medical billing business that he could operate from their home.
Neither Nina nor myself had ever met this radiology tech but it certainly sounded to us like he was someone looking for a free ride. We wondered how Maggie could not see this too. Nina briefly mentioned this possibility during a phone conversation and Maggie blew up at her, slamming the phone down in anger. They made up a few days later but Maggie made it clear what the rules were: no more talking about her radiology tech.
I was forced to wonder if Maggie was following along her fated path. I hadn't known her at all in my previous life, nurse or not a nurse, she hadn't worked in any of the ERs, but I rather suspected that she was.
It was two weeks after the engagement notice, a week after her graduation, when Mike called me at our small apartment. He was in tears. We talked for more than an hour and he poured out his heart to me. He told me how much he loved Maggie, how stupid he'd been, and how he'd now lost her because he'd realized this too late.
I calmed him down – believe me, I was able to sympathize – and told him that he might be right, that it might be too late. I also told him that he didn't have a hair on his ass if he didn't at least TRY to get her back if that was how he felt about her. Even if he were still ultimately rejected he would at least not have to spend his life wondering if he COULD have. He asked how he could go about doing that.
"Do you want to marry her?" I asked him. "Is that what your goal is?"
"Yes," he answered without the slightest hesitation.
"Then in order for you to have any chance at all you're going to have to move quickly. Very quickly. You're going to have to be aggressively romantic."
"Aggressively romantic?"
I explained what that meant. We discussed a few different approaches to the problem and eventually Mike arrived at a course of action.
"Good luck," I told him after the details were worked out.
"What do you think my chances are?"
I didn't like to lie to my friends but in this case I made an exception. "About fifty-fifty."
Armed with information that I'd taken out of Maggie's latest letter to Nina, Mike was waiting for her when she emerged from a job interview at Holy Family Hospital – interestingly enough the same hospital where I'd performed a similar mission for Nina. Perhaps it was fitting. He proclaimed his love for her right there in the parking lot. He told her how wrong, how stupid he'd been. Finally he dropped to one knee and offered her an engagement ring. He told her that he would marry her that night, that hour. It was a very risky move on his part but it paid off.