MARRIED... trying to adapt (Part 48e)

Final semester exams were less than two weeks away and Elle was full tilt into studying for them. Even though Dr F had cut off the number of tests he was going to use for his paper he felt that all tests submitted, even if late, should be scored. When I pulled out a couple of hundred more she absolutely refused to help. I felt it was useless to argue with her so finished them off that night by myself. I’ll admit I was glad to see them all gone although I had no idea what I was going to do to replace the income.

I went to Harry’s on Saturday and, as it was a nice day, we ended up exposing all the yearlings to the racetrack. That was interesting! By the time we finished up it was almost dark. Harry asked me to stay late and collect the garbage. I was exhausted and couldn’t wait to get home but how could I say no after Harry had made a special trip to reset my trailer and not charged me for it. Vi had told me that her sister had moved into the park with her 17 year old son but I hadn’t yet met her. It didn’t take long to find her. Hers was the trailer with all the boxes piled up behind it. I remember cussing about having to crush them up to get them to fit into the wagon. I was just about done when this very attractive woman approached with a few more boxes. I was more interested in finishing up and getting home than making her acquaintance at the time but she just marched right up and said her name was Stephanie. I shook her hand and kept on crushing the boxes. Then a boy who could’ve been my twin appeared out of the darkness. It was her son, Levi. I said ”Hi“ and got on the tractor and drove off.

Elle was concerned about my being late and when I explained she still seemed upset. Josh had delivered our groceries and I hadn’t been there to pay for them and that also upset her. It was getting to the point that even some really trivial things bothered her. She wouldn’t let me turn the TV on and insisted that I study along with her. I really didn’t have a choice. It was really hard transitioning from life in the fraternity during the week to life at home with Elle on the weekends.

The only thing out of the ordinary that took place from that time up to the end of final exams was in getting a call from one of my father’s best friends. I’d known both he and his wife (who was a distant relative) all my life but hadn’t seen or talked with him since Elle and I married. He offered congratulations and asked for our address so that they could send us a wedding gift. Then he really surprised me and asked if there was any way I could meet with him in the city during intersession (the period between semesters). Surprisingly, with our poor financial status, I replied ”yes“ without even asking why. When I told Elle she was mad that I’d be spending money to go to the city and didn’t even know why. We had settled on a Tuesday and I took the 4+ hour trip to the city with the knowledge that I’d actually exceeded my much needed and required 2.0 grade point average. That pretty much guaranteed I’d get the loan for my tuition. I think I slept most of the way.

The man I was meeting, John, was a professor of literature at one of the major universities located in the city. He was well known in both the newspaper business as well as literary circles. He met me at the train station and we took a taxi to The Players, an elitist men's club. It was mostly small talk on the cab trip there and after we arrived he gave me a brief history of the club. It had been around for a long time and some former Presidents had been members. I couldn’t believe the opulence of the interior. We actually arrived a little after the busy lunch hour and I remember him apologizing that there weren’t too many ”noted“ people still there. He asked the maitre d' just who was still there and one was John Steinbeck. I didn’t actually see him as he was in another room at the time. Even without seeing him I was overwhelmed.

After we ordered John told me that the main purpose for the meeting was to discuss the situation between me and my family. He put me right at ease by saying that, in spite of his ”love“ for my mother and father, he felt they were totally wrong. He acknowledged that the source of the problem was my grandmother and, to a lesser extent, my grandfather. As much as he admired my grandfather he was most upset that, in a conversation with him, he’d admitted that he’d never really met Elle. I knew, on a personal basis, that my grandfather admired John as well. What I heard next was hard to fathom. He told me that if Elle and I would come home during our Spring break he would ”broker“ a meeting with my grandparents. That, initially, excited me but, in thinking about how Elle would react to the suggestion, I quickly became apprehensive. John saw that and stated that it was just a suggestion but one that he wanted me to think seriously about. He quickly changed to the second reason for our meeting.

With his ties to the newspaper business he wanted to give me what we now call a ”heads up“. Democrats had ruled the State for decades but in the November election had been pretty much run out of both the State Assembly and Senate as well as the for the governor. To combat that, the ”lame duck“ legislators and governor convened a special session and crammed through a whole series of spending bills designed to create problems for the incoming legislators and governor. John gave me a number of leads to follow up on the background of what had happened. Since my concentration within my Economic major was Public Finance he felt I could use it to my advantage. I was amazed at just how corrupt politics really was and I hadn’t even begun to do the deep research on the matter. I don’t think I’d ever been as enthusiastic about any subject since I’d arrived at college. I truly couldn’t wait to start digging. As we were leaving John took me into another room that had books lining all the walls. There were a few people there and he pointed to a man sitting at a table and told me that it was Arthur Miller. That truly impressed me especially since I'd read his play, Death of a Salesman, during Summer school.

I didn’t get back to the trailer and Elle until it was after 10pm. She was asleep and even though I didn’t think she’d be interested, I woke her up. It took her a while to get focused but I know I impressed her with the enthusiasm I expressed about what John had told me. Of course I didn’t bring up the subject of going home to meet with my grandparents. In spite of her initially being upset with my trip to the city it was obvious to me that she now approved of it and I was ”rewarded“ in a very special way.

To be continued...