Finding Tim
A Fourth Alternate Reality

 by: Charlie

© 2005-2008

 

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Episode 80
Staff

April was hired and went right to work. Tim had thought that he would have to give her some guidance about locating newspapers, subscribing, and getting started. But the first day she simply asked Fred, "OK, I assume that we have money for newspaper subscriptions, how to I request it?" He told her to write letters, or fill out appropriate subscription forms, and bring them to his secretary. She'd get checks written and the letters mailed. With that information she was off to the library to chase down newspapers. By the end of the week she'd subscribed to about thirty newspapers, asked to be added to the mailing list of every chamber of commerce in the state, subscribed to about a dozen magazines dealing with the state, and was in the process of tracking down high school newspapers - which she was convinced might contain some of the juiciest tidbits to add color to speeches. Over the years she turned out to be right on that!

Tim was mightily impressed. He walked into her office after about a week and found a bookshelf with a notebook for each county and each major town. Chamber of Commerce information would start each book, followed by clippings, with stuff she thought might be useful highlighted in yellow. She hadn't actually started putting any clippings in yet, as the newspapers were just beginning to arrive. But Tim looked over the small pile of clippings she'd cut out and was preparing to file. Clearly she had the right idea. April would do well. He hoped for equally promising results from AAA.

AAA had come for the planned interview, along with Arlo and Arlene's two kids, Prince and Princess. I'm not really sure that those are their given names, but they're all I've ever heard them called. At fifteen Prince was a handsome young man, tall, blond, skinny as a rail, and somewhat shy. He'd be going into the tenth grade, and his two passions in life were art and basketball. One look and you knew Princess was his sister: almost as tall, the same blond hair, equally skinny, and ready for eighth grade. She didn't confess to any passions like her brother, but admitted to being really interested in math and science. Her father assured us that not only was she interested in math and science, she was damn good at them as well.

Sid would be in tenth grade in the fall and his sister, Tish, would be in eighth. Sid was at Central High School, but with the new Red River High School the school district had built we wouldn't know Prince's school until they found housing. The same would be true for Princess. (Those names take getting used to, don't they?) But Sid and Tish seemed to be the best resources we had for introducing the two teens to Grand Forks. Sid and Tish were more than willing to play host and hostess.

Sid and Prince hit it off instantly. Their art backgrounds meshed, and they were soon off in their own little world. They soon started a game of sketching each other as they sketched each other - if you get the picture. They started in pencil and charcoal, and were working with acrylics by the middle of the week. By the end of their stay April had a magnificent portrait of Sid working intently at his easel, and Arlo and Arlene had a equally good portrait of Prince at the same task. The styles of the two pictures were remarkably different, but both portraits displayed skill far beyond the high school level. Frankly, I doubted that there were many, if any, art majors at the university who could do better.

Merle had responded to my earlier inquiry about Sid's art by giving me the name of a reputable gallery in New York that might be interested in quality art by an unknown teen artist. I suggested to both Sid and Prince that we take good quality photographs of the paintings and send them to the New York gallery. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. They agreed. I called the editor of the Dakota Student and asked the name of his best photographer. I called the girl, Jill Hilton, and asked her if she'd be willing to do a little freelance job. She agreed, came by the house, and took good photos of the pictures, the artists, and the set up that they'd used to pose/paint the pictures. We paid her $50 plus her film costs and she was very pleased, telling us that it was her first payment for photography work, other than the small stipend she got for working for the Student.

Tish and Princess got along well, just like the boys. They didn't have any major project like the boys did, but played together with delight for the week. Mona, two years but one grade younger, often joined them. Phil and Franklin helped out by providing adult supervision for the kids, so that Tim, Fred, AAA, April, and others from the university including Prexy, could spend time together. I joined in when I could. By the end of the first day we were convinced that Tim had his writing team, and by the end of the second day we told them so. For the rest of the week they stopped playing the interview game and got down to the business of planning their moves and laying out their work. Tim wanted them as quickly as possible, and they seemed eager to come.

One morning toward the end of the week Fred surprised us with an invitation to visit a small office building which was for sale not too far from the campus. It was a little run down, but the location was pretty good, and it had pretty good space. Fred said, "What do you think of the idea of Fred's Sports buying this building? I see a lot of need for office space right now: Tim's Development Staff, which Prexy is never going to find room for; the AAA writers; I hope Carl moves here soon and he's going to need temporary space; Franklin is going to need an office to work from till he gets a program going; and his dad needs space as well. You know others of the Gang are headed this way, and they may need this kind of space as well. When all this transition is over, I'll either sell the building or rent out the space."

I wasn't surprised at Fred's buying a building, it was typical of Fred's approach to life's problems: It isn't a problem if it can be solved with money. Real problems are those that money can't resolve. Don't we all wish we were in a position like that? My response to Fred was, "What's this Fred's Sports? I thought it was the Grand Forks Sporting Goods Company?"

"Andy and I have been thinking about a new name for a while now. It was clear that we weren't going to go too far with either Grand Forks in the name or a different name on each store. I've followed both of those patterns up until now, and it doesn't work. Andy and I argued over Fred's Sports, Andy's Sports, and a variety of alternatives. Andy won, and it's going to be Fred's Sports. There'll be big ads in the papers soon. But what do you think of the idea of buying this building?"

"I think you've already made up your mind, and probably have already talked to the seller. You may even own it by now. Am I right?"

"Yes. I'm closing the deal next week. What do you think?"

"I think you just solved a huge problem for Prexy, because he can only throw around the state's money, and so his problems that can only be fixed with money remain problems. And he promised Tim space for the Development Office."

Prexy said, "Amen."

Tim said, "Well, I like it. I'm going to have to have two offices: the one in Twamley Hall near Prexy and one here. OK, Triple A, what do you all think?"

Alan said, "It'll do fine. We can work anywhere. But I am looking forward to the deluxe digs that you two have been talking about building."

Arlene said, "That goes for me, too."

Arlo said, "I'm looking forward to having some input as to what a writers' suite should look like, after many years of working in pretty lousy quarters in Hollywood. The movie writers do a lot better than we TV guys."

Saturday they all went house hunting, guided by a real estate agent that Fred had suggested. When you have Fred to back your interim financing, buying a house isn't a problem. Both the Hunters and Alan had found a house by the end of the day. Prince and Princess were delighted to learn that they'd be in the same schools as Sid and Tish, and in fact would live fairly near them.

The next day we put them all on a airplane for Los Angeles, with instructions to close down there as quickly as possible and move to Grand Forks. They made it by early August, just a day after I had received a phone call from a Mr. Stilson of the New Finds Art Gallery in New York. I was able to greet Prince, and Sid, with the news that the New Finds Gallery was interested in them and their art. I'd given Stilson Sid's name and number and told him that I'd have Prince get in touch with him as soon as the move was complete. Stilson's bottom line was that he wanted to discuss putting together a debut show of their work, featuring the pair of portraits they'd done of each other, and other work. He was targeting just after Christmas, depending on the amount of art that might be available. Prince, and his entire family, were overwhelmed.

Sid and his family weren't quite so surprised by Stilson's offer. Sid's time in Washington had gotten him past being overly impressed with anybody or anything. But the idea of actually selling his art sounded wonderful. So did the possibility of a trip to New York and the chance to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. I think Stilson was a little surprised to find that Sid's main interest in New York was getting to its two most famous art museums.

There wasn't much that Tim could do about the rest of his development staff during the summer. Except for one more to be hired by Development Consulting, the rest would be on the university staff payroll. Offering those jobs would have to wait for the Trustees to approve the creation of a development office and the hiring of staff. Not acting right now wasn't Tim's forte, but he didn't have a choice, and he accepted that almost gracefully.

There was one more position to fill for Development Consulting. AAA needed a researcher who would actually visit the communities Tim would be speaking in and provide the local color AAA would need. AAA were really impressed with Tim's determination to deliver outstanding speeches, and they concurred in the value of an on the ground researcher. But it'd be a tough job - most of your life would be spent on the road in North Dakota. Tim was confident that there was someone, somewhere who'd thrive on the job. However, he confided, "Charlie, the right person is going to be a recent graduate, certainly from UND, and the good ones already have jobs."

I said, "Maybe you need to be looking for someone who either just graduated and is taking a summer course, or who's finishing at the end of summer. Anybody on campus who's still in need of a job in the fall is checking the placement office regularly. Post your job there."

He did, and about two weeks later he got an inquiry from Lenny Kidd, a theatre graduate who was working in a summer stock company in Thief River Falls for the summer but had nothing going for the fall. He was keeping in regular touch with the Placement Office, and was interested in the position. Tim told him all about what he wanted, the travel demands it'd make, and the pretty good pay that it'd provide. Lenny had asked how long a commitment he needed to make; he needed to keep himself available if the right opportunity in the theater came along. Tim told him that he could accept a short term commitment. He wouldn't be any worse off if Lenny quit in November than he was in August not having the job filled. So they agreed to a three month contract, with Tim agreeing that if "the right thing" came along for Lenny he could leave early. If at the end of three months both wanted to continue, that was fine. Tim offered to let Lenny live in Felix' old apartment on our third floor for the three months, since he was actually going to be home very little of the time, and it didn't make sense for him to have to sign a lease on a regular apartment.

Lenny turned out to be a very interesting fellow. He warmed up to us the first week he'd been with us, and told us a lot about himself. He'd starred in several of the student theatre productions at UND for the past four years, and had directed a main stage play, The Little Foxes, in his senior year. He was gay, had come out to his parents in his senior year, and they wanted nothing more to do with him. Sad. So, without his parents to back him up, nor a home to live in, he desperately needed a job at the end of his summer stock work. Development Consulting came along at just the right time.

His friends in the theater knew he was gay, and a couple of others in the theater told him they were as well. From some remarks he made, Tim and I concluded that he'd had a relationship with one or two gays in the theater, but evidently nothing had lasted. With all of his classmates having graduated, he was lonely, and we were worried that he might be lonely out on the road with his job. He said, "No, I'm going to have to meet a lot of people to do this job, and after my time in the theater I'm pretty good at that. Who knows, maybe I'll meet a partner? I doubt it, but it'll be fun looking."

Well, he was good at his job. We told him to start in Bismarck; spend a week there and get a feel for the city and how he might learn its ins and outs. His first day there he ate lunch in a little café not far from the capitol and main state office building. He made friends with a young man who worked in the Office of the Secretary of State. He knew lots of people and most of the scuttlebutt around the place, and he loved to tell stories. Lenny was able to fill pages with notes of events around the government offices that would register with a lot of Tim's possible audiences. Lenny was absolutely amazing. By the end of a week in Bismarck he knew dozens of useful people, had names for contacts in many other towns, and could keep Tim going for multiple speeches in Bismarck. And, because it was the capital, he picked up stuff about legislators that could be used in their home districts. He had to be reminded that he wasn't looking for "dirt" but rather interesting and amusing things. In the case of legislators, he was looking for positive references that Tim could use. His best tidbit was the fact that the Speaker of the House of Delegates always opened the organizational meeting with, "Every two years the citizens of North Dakota expect their legislators to hold their organizational meeting in December. You are hereby welcomed to that meeting." The use of the phrase, "You are hereby welcomed to that meeting," was an often repeated insider joke in the capital. Tim used it effectively several times meeting with groups of legislators. Knowing the inside jokes made Tim "one of the boys" and helped him immeasurably in his work with the legislature over the years. He never told them about Lenny. Since Lenny wasn't on the university payroll, he never really told anybody about Lenny. Lenny's costs were just built into what Development Consulting charged the Development Office for speech texts.

With Lenny and April hard at work, there wasn't much more that Tim could do regarding his staff until the Trustees met in the fall. He decided that he needed to put together his presentation to the Trustees, and that it had to be terrific. Well, he had three staff writers, and now they had a job. He spent a solid week with the three of them, going over the content that he had to present, making sure they understood it, listening to, and rejecting most, of their suggestions. At the end of a week, Arlo said, "OK, Tim. It's time for you to get out of the way and let the professionals do their job." Tim took the hint and headed for his office in Twamley. He was met with a smiling secretary who told him that Prexy was hoping that he'd be in, and please stop by his office.

Prexy was in a good mood. He'd been talking to Mary Robbins in the Alumni Office and getting her take on Tim's ideas. "She thinks you're fabulous - a breath of fresh air. Without saying it, she let me know that I was the old fuddy-duddy, and wasn't it great to have new blood."

Tim said, "Prexy, I happen to know that she thinks quite highly of you. But she does believe that the administration, and I guess that includes you, doesn't recognize the potential among the alumni."

"Well, she's eager to have her office transferred to a new Development Office, and thinks the idea of tearing down the old building and building something new is wonderful, especially if someone as forward-thinking as you is responsible for the design of the new building. You really sold her a bill of goods."

"I have to sell the Trustees too, you know. I have my three writers working on that presentation now. I told them their jobs are on the line."

"You shouldn't expect problems with the Trustees."

"I don't. But they need to see a really first rate presentation. They need to leave their meeting charged up about development plans for the university. And they need to write me some big checks."

"You certainly don't think small."

"You didn't hire me to think small."

"In Charlie's words, or were they your brother's, I hired you to run a roller coaster. I think I'm getting my money's worth."

"Only time will tell."

"On to my next subject."

"And that would be?"

"Dormitories."

"Dormitories? What about dormitories?"

"Are we going to have coed dormitories?"

Laughing, Tim said, "You've got to be kidding. In Grand Forks?"

"We don't have them, and we're behind the times. An awful lot of schools have some form of coed dormitories by now. In some places they're still pretty segregated, like floor by floor, other places they're mixed up in adjacent rooms."

"Room sharing?"

"No place that I'm aware of. It'll come, but not yet."

"How soon do you think that'll come?"

"On your watch. You wait and see."

"Oh, God. Am I going to be the President that approves coed sleeping arrangements?"

"I'm going to get out of town before I have to sign off on that. But we have to deal with the current request for coed dorms."

"We?"

"We."

"I'm in development."

"There's a reason your office is right near mine."

"It's summer, dorm space is all reserved for this fall. You can't start now. We have a year."

"No, we don't. The quiet dorm isn't full. Right now it's boys only. The suggestion has come from the Student Council that rather than filling it with boys who probably will either disregard or resent the quiet rules, open it to girls."

"The obvious question, bathrooms."

"There are four on each floor. The sex ratio would mean that we only had to convert one per floor. The place has six floors. We'd open three coed and keep three all male."

"So, do it."

"Is the town ready? The faculty? Alumni? The legislature? Me?"

"The quiet dorm seems like the place to start, but the demand will spread."

"What do I do when we have the first pregnant girl?"

"How many pregnancies have you had over the past few years?"

"About one a year - that we know about."

"That's not bad. You won't see a significant increase, if any, from a coed dorm. But I'd sure as Hell insist that the students on the coed floors take a good, fast sex-ed course, taught by somebody that knows what they're doing."

"Good idea; I hadn't thought of that."

"So you're going to approve this?"

"At their last meeting the Trustees ducked and left the decision to me. It has to be made before they're back in town."

"But they were open to the idea, if you approved?"

"Yes."

"Go for it."

"I will. It was pretty much inevitable. I'm going to tell the housing office to more forward this afternoon."

"The morning's shot. Lunch?"

"Sure."

"I'll call Charlie and see if he'll join us."

He called, and the three of us did eat lunch together at the Faculty Club. As we walked in we saw Dean Fry eating with three other deans. We went by their table and greeted them. Dean Lewis of the Medical School said, "Uh, oh, the triumvirate is here. What new idea are we about to have thrust upon us?"

Prexy simply said, "Coed dorms," and we walked on. He turned to me and said, "Think this place's ready for that, Charlie?"

"If they can handle Tim, they can handle coed dorms."

"Well, we're going to find out about both."

At dinner that evening Tim said, "Things're under control here. AAA wants me out of their hair so they can work on my presentation to the Trustees. It's time for our two weeks at the cabin. Fred and Marty are there, and they're ready for us."

Three days later we were headed across Minnesota. No interstates, just good old two-lane concrete. We pulled into the cabin drive about eight in the evening. Fred and Marty greeted us like long lost buddies. It was good to be back at Pike Lake, and good to have nothing that we had to do for two weeks. Tim was already feeling restless!

Anticipating that, Fred handed Tim a list of maintenance chores that needed doing and said, "Get to work on those in the morning." Tim looked relieved to have plenty to do.

Not much later we all headed to bed. Fred and Marty headed for their room, closed the door, and didn't come out until morning. They were clearly still very much in love, and not in the mood for sharing. That was OK with Tim and me; we enjoyed a relaxed sex life with just each other for the two weeks. One day was an exception. About ten days into our stay Fred came out of his bedroom stark naked and announced, "We can't go a whole Pike Lake summer with no sex. It's orgy day. Get your clothes off."

We did. It was. There wasn't much we missed. We did, however, resist throwing Fred into the poison ivy naked. We did threaten.

Another day the four of us drove up to Camp While Elk to visit Jeff and Dick. Dick had one more year at Wayne State. Jeff was adamant that the next summer, following Dick's graduation, he would come to camp as Dick's partner, living in the cabin with him. If the world couldn't deal with that, then too bad. Stanley fully backed that decision. Dick was hesitant, not wanting to be the cause of problems for Jeff with the camp. But it was pretty clear to us that Jeff was going to do what Jeff was going to do. We thought it'd work out fine, but no one could be certain.

This summer Dick was still working in the bakery, visiting camp most afternoons, and squeezing in sex with Jeff before he headed home in the early evening. They seemed exquisitely happy. Dick's mom was pleased with the arrangement and had moved bakery hours one hour later to give a little more time in the evening. Early morning customers just had to wait until 7:30 instead of 6:30 to buy warm, fresh bread.

Tim and I decided to return to Grand Forks via Canada. We headed up the North Shore Drive from Duluth - the drive we had started the winter of our honeymoon - to Canada. We spent the first night in the newly named Thunder Bay - it had been the twin ports of Fort William and Port Arthur when I had visited as a kid with my parents. The next day we headed west on the Trans-Canada Highway. It's incredible to believe, but for most of the way west from Thunder Bay we were on the only road connection between east and west Canada. Think of a nation as big as Canada with two huge halves connected by one two-lane road!

The forest was lovely. We couldn't resist stopping, more than once, and hiking into the huge forest, finding a soft spot, taking off our clothes and making love. Quiet, remote natural settings bring up our libidos; no doubt about that! That night we decided to sleep in the woods. About ten o'clock, as it was finally getting dark, we parked the car, took a couple of blankets from the trunk, and headed into the woods. We found a soft spot with lots of pine needles, threw down a blanket, stripped off our clothes, hugged each other and pulled up the blanket. We'd satisfied our libidos during the day, so we simply slept. I guess we should've been afraid of bears, moose, or something, but we had no fear at all. We woke up with the sun, took care of our libidos, walked back to the car and drove to the next town for breakfast.

We had two choices of routes to Grand Forks: We could head south near Lake of the Woods and return to the United Stated through International Falls, or we could head west to Winnipeg, and then head straight south to Grand Forks. Tim asked, "Somebody knew somebody who moved to Winnipeg. Who was it?"

"It was Harry. His high school buddy and a gay partner went to the University of Winnipeg, and they just stayed there."

"What were their names?"

"I have no idea. I don't think I ever heard last names."

"Let's call Harry and ask about them."

"How would we get in touch with Harry?"

"I'll call Mary Robbins in the Alumni Office. She has super records."

Within a half hour we were talking to Harry, over a very poor telephone connection. His friend was Art and his partner was Bill. Art was Art Hanson, and he couldn't remember Bill's name. They hadn't been in touch since high school. "But I'd love to know how they're doing. Look them up, if you can, and give them my love."

Awakened that morning by the sun, we'd moved early. We were driving into Winnipeg before noon. A phone book yielded two Art Hanson's and we got lucky on the first call. Art remembered Harry Jensen, and was eager to meet us. We invited him to join us for lunch and he agreed, suggesting a restaurant. We asked about Bill, and he said that Bill was at work and couldn't join us. He seemed a little unnerved at our talking about Bill.

We found the restaurant easily, and picked Art out of the crowd easily. Tim decided to put Art at ease right away, and introduced me as his partner, saying "We're very gay and very out."

Art said, "Obviously you know I'm gay, and have a partner Bill. But we're in the closet. To the world we're roommates. A lot of people have suspicions, but they're just guessing. Winnipeg can be unkind to openly gay pairs. We know some, and things are getting better, but Bill and I haven't been ready to go public. I envy you two."

I said, "Art, we need to level with you. We got to know Harry quite well when he dived with Tim at UND. We know about your relationship with Harry, your being caught by Harry's dad, and your eventually falling in love with Bill. We've slept with Harry as well, but he's only a little bit gay. He's happily married to Lida, a girl he met at UND. They're very happy."

"Bill knows the story as well. But he took it a little hard that I'd done so much with Harry. I'd appreciate it if that didn't become a subject of conversation with him. But you must stay with us tonight at our apartment and join us for dinner as well. I'm a good cook."

We did, and Art was a good cook. Bill was charming, and was interested in our connection to Harry. He mentioned Art and Harry's sexual adventures, much to Art's surprise, and seemed to accept it. They were eager to hear about Harry's diving, his girl, and his adventures with us.

We were equally interested in their stories. After leaving Grand Forks they'd both gotten degrees in history from the University of Winnipeg, and had gone into the antique business. To keep their shop open seven days a week, they took different days off. That's why Art had been available that morning and Bill hadn't. Tomorrow was Saturday, their big day, and both would be at work. We assured them that we'd be up and ready to go when they were, if not before. We needed to head south to Grand Forks.

Both Tim and I had wondered whether there'd be any suggestion of sex that evening, but we never picked up the slightest hint, and didn't offer any ourselves. We slept very quietly in Bill's room in his single bed - for which both of them apologized profusely, but which didn't bother Tim or me. They explained that Bill had his own room, to perpetuate the roommate fiction to visitors in their home. But Bill always slept in Art's big queen sized bed - along with Art.

When we got back to Grand Forks Tim called Harry, who was now living in Minot, and gave him a full report. He encouraged Harry and Lida to head to Winnipeg and visit. We were sure they'd be welcome.

Footnote: They did visit, that fall. They were welcome. They slept four in the queen sized bed, and Bill had the first heterosexual experience of his life.

Back in Grand Forks we started in earnest to get ready for the fall, when our jobs would officially begin. Tim met with his writing team and went over the presentation they'd prepared for the Trustees. Before they'd even hand him a copy they made him listen to a serious cautionary note: A script is only as good as its delivery. If Tim stood up and read this to the Trustees, he might as well forget about it. The script was good, but it had to become Tim's own, and be presented as if he was making it up as he went along.

Tim told me later, "Charlie, I wasn't sure just how to respond. On one hand, I was really pleased that triple-A would speak truth to me, bluntly if necessary. On the other hand, I thought this was pretty simple stuff. Did I really need a briefing like this? I decided that I wasn't being fair to them, and accepted their caution in the spirit it was presented. I answered them by saying, 'OK, guys. You're preaching to the choir. But, thank you, because I know you're just doing your job.'"

The response came from Alan, "Tim, we have been worried, and I think legitimately, that you might think that hiring a writing team was the end of your problem. We can help, but ultimately it's your job to sell yourself and your ideas. A lot of people think the job's completed when the writers are hired. We had to make sure you weren't thinking that way. We'll be delighted when you prove us wrong."

The presentation was fully developed with slides of the campus and text slides that presented key points, while avoiding the business of putting up slides and reading them to the audience. The pictures of key areas on campus were excellent. They'd done a masterful job on the script, right down to the money pitch. Tim was delighted with the whole thing. "OK, guys. Pardon me Arlene, I guess that guys isn't exactly the right word."

"It's fine with me. I can just be one of the guys."

"OK, I'll go over this between now and ten o'clock tomorrow morning. At ten you become the Trustees and I make my pitch. Then you can rip me apart, and I'll know what parts of your work I need to rip apart. See you in the morning."

Tim headed to his office and spent several hours working on the presentation. He only had to make a few minor changes in the script to make it sound more like him. He made no changes in the visuals. At ten the next morning he walked into the workroom where AAA worked, dressed in a coat and tie for a Trustees meeting, started by thanking a make-believe Prexy for his introduction and thanking the Trustees for making time in their busy schedule. He went through the presentation, hardly looking at the notebook that contained the script, while Alan controlled the slides. It was masterful. At the end all three of the AAA rose and applauded. It was clear to everyone in the room that the four of them were going to make a perfect team. Tim couldn't have been happier. He called Prexy and me, and the six of us went out for a five star lunch at the best restaurant in town. After lunch he performed again, this time with Prexy, April and me added to the audience. I was thrilled to watch my Tim deliver as good a performance as he'd ever delivered from the diving platform or the high bar. I couldn't have loved him more.

Hamilton and I discussed my plans to survey the legal community about the quality of the UND Law School and its graduates. He liked my ideas, and I spent the next little while working out details and preparing to implement the surveys in September. I also updated my class notes for my Supreme Court class. Hamilton avoided handing me routine administrative duties, saying, "Charlie, we handled all the routine without you in the past; the current staff and I'll keep it up. I want to save you for special things, and I want you to be looking for new and creative ways to assist the school. It's become a cliche, but, 'Think outside the box'. And take the time to do a lot of thinking. Right now, that's more important than doing."

It was a great invitation, and it framed my work for the coming year - teach my one course, implement the surveys, and think about the Law School. By the end of the year I would have shared a lot of ideas with Hamilton, and developed more to present during the summertime lull in activity. I was ready for a good year.

One night, about three a.m. the doorbell rang, followed by loud banging on the door. Neither Tim nor I could imagine who or what was making all the noise, but we got out of bed, slipped on bathrobes, and went downstairs. The instant Tim opened the door a crack it was pushed open and in marched Hal, followed immediately by Sue. "Tim. Charlie. Look who's here. We were sure you wouldn't have wanted us to wait until tomorrow morning to knock on your door!" With that he took first Tim and then me in his arms, lifted us up, hugged us tight, and kissed us fondly. Sue followed in the same manner, except that while she easily picked up Tim, she hugged me as I stood on the ground.

We were delighted to see them, and eventually forgave their middle of the night intrusion. After he got his wits about him, Tim said, "There's only one thing to do at three a.m. and that's go to bed. The bed's upstairs, come on." We pulled them upstairs, helped them undress, and pulled them into bed. I took Sue and Tim took Hal, and we hugged tight as we drifted off to sleep. The next morning we did what we would've done the night before had we gotten started at a reasonable hour. Any thought of Tim making it to his scheduled early morning diving practice was abandoned. For the record, I wasn't permitted to fuck Sue, for she announced that she was off the pill and wanted to be sure that any little Bruder was, in fact, a little Bruder. We experimented with most of the other forms of sexual interaction, and she finally had an orgasm with my tongue on her clit and I came with my dick just barely penetrating her anus. Tim and Hal opted for straight 69.

Phil and Franklin were settling in. With Fred's help, Franklin was working on plans to recreate Democracy House in Grand Forks. Despite the fact that North Dakota, and especially the sophisticated university town of Grand Forks, didn't think it had a drug problem, Franklin knew better, and easily identified many more candidates for Democracy House than they could possibly create spaces for. Finding a house, and getting approval, quickly ran afoul of NIMBY (it's a great idea, but Not In My BackYard). It would take him a full year to be ready for his first client.

Phil got the English teaching job in East Grand Forks, and was preparing to teach tenth and eleventh grade English to Minnesota kids that probably weren't very interested in having it taught to them. Such is the life of a teacher. With his size, Phil didn't anticipate disciplinary problems, but knew that making required English classes come alive for kids was a tough job. He hoped he was ready.

Hal would be taking up his duties as an Assistant Professor of Physical Education, and hoped to be able to help out at a local high school either coaching track or cross-country, or just working with any long distance runners they had in their program. Sue was hoping that motherhood would soon be on the horizon and wasn't looking for work. They were delighted to be back living in the same city as Tim and me - which we hadn't done since the three of them had graduated from high school. It was certainly looking like it was going to be a wonderful year for us.

Hal did make contact with the athletic directors at both of the Grand Forks high schools - Central and Red River. Red River had lost their cross country coach. A math teacher who'd helped out with the track team in spring had agreed to coach fall cross country because they were desperate; he'd be more than glad to yield the job to Hal. However, the stipend that the budget allowed for the job hardly made it worthwhile, especially for someone who'd have to make a special trip to the school to do the job - five days a week. Hal didn't mind. He was being well-paid by the university and could justify the time spent coaching cross country as gaining valuable experience for his college teaching. There were the usual background checks, filing of credentials, and so forth to take care of, but for all intents and purposes after about two hours Hal was the cross country coach for Red River High School. The athletic director and principal at Red River High were really on a high. Quite by accident, as far as they were concerned, they'd gone from having a fill-in cross country coach to having the biggest name in long distance running coaching their high school program - two time Olympic medal winner Hal Bruder. They made sure that this was a front page story of the sports section of the Grand Forks Herald.

Soon the news of Hal's appointment filtered back to St. Paul through his parents, to Coach Johnson, to his wife Phyllis. That very day Phyllis called Hal and told him that she was coming to visit that weekend, would he have some time available? Hal couldn't imagine what it was about, and Phyllis wasn't telling, but, of course, Hal had time for her. "I'll be free all weekend. When will you arrive?"

"Saturday for lunch. See you then."

Saturday came, Phyllis arrived, Sue and Hal prepared a lovely lunch and the three of them ate together. At the end of the meal Phyllis said, "Sue, I need to borrow Hal this afternoon. We're going on a long walk to have a little talk. I hope you don't mind."

Sue said, "Hal's really eager to learn what was so important that you made a special trip up here. I guess he's going to find out."

"That's right. And it isn't going to be a secret, he'll share everything with you when we get back."

The two of them set off walking. Not for nothing had Phyllis been married to a track coach, and she set a brisk pace. Since Hal was reduced to walking instead of running, he really didn't have much of an advantage over her, and they kept pace with each other very easily.

Phyllis started the conversation, "Hal, you were the most wonderful runner that Herb ever was lucky enough to coach. You know that. Now you're turning a corner; you're going to be a coach instead of the kid being coached. Herb and I owe you a very important piece of advice. I think it's so important that I wanted to talk to you personally, because I really do hope that you're going to be as exceptional a coach as you have been a runner."

"Phyllis, I really am honored that you think so highly of me. You know, I think exactly the same of Coach Johnson."

"I know you do Hal, and so do I. Herb's been a wonderful husband as well as a wonderful coach."

"So what're you here to tell me?"

"Never give up on a boy."

"That's it? 'Never give up on a boy'."

"That's it. But it's not quite that simple. Every boy - girls too, but you're going to be coaching boys, at least this year - deserves your best. Every boy deserves the benefit of the doubt. Let me tell you a little story about Herb.

"On the first day of school, about a dozen years ago I guess, a new student found Herb after school and asked him about buying running shoes. Herb asked him about his experience running, and learned that he'd only been seriously running for about three or four weeks. But he would be going out for cross country and needed to buy good running shoes. What should he buy?"

"I think I knew that kid", said Hal.

"Two people got really challenged that day, Hal. First Herb and then your mom."

"The Gang still talks about 'Buy the damn shoes'."

"I know, but the crucial moments weren't when the shoes were bought. The first critical moment was for Herb. What should he tell a kid who has virtually no chance of making a high school team unless he's run in junior high school, or at the Y, or somewhere? An awful lot of people would say that you have to be honest with a kid in that situation; discourage him; don't set him up for a fall. Maybe that's what Herb should've done. Then your mother had two chances to screw up. I think that taking you to buy the shoes wasn't that hard. She'd knew you'd run at camp, buying running shoes wasn't an unreasonable thing to do. It was that second pair! Do you have any idea how logical it would've been to say, 'Hal, we'll buy one pair and if things go well we'll buy a second pair when you need them'?"

"I know; I've thought about that a number of times."

"What would the message have been?"

"That she really didn't expect me to need the second pair of shoes."

"It might've been a self-fulfilling prophesy."

"I hope not."

"So do I. And I think not. But your mom got it right a lot of times. I remember Charlie describing how you looked when you ran into camp that last morning. It was the moment of truth for all of you - your parents, Charlie, and you. Dirty and sweaty you got the big hug you deserved. Hazel got it right, and she's been getting it right ever since. Take Hazel out of the picture and you can take those Olympic medals out as well."

"They disappear if Coach disappears as well."

"Probably so. Do you see what I'm telling you?"

"Never give up on a boy."

"Right."

"And that's so important that you made a special trip here to tell me."

"Somewhere in Grand Forks, if not this year, some year, is a boy that's going to become a man because you didn't give up on him. If my trip makes a difference for just one boy, it was worth it."

"I love you, Phyllis."

"Let's go home."

They did, and Sue had a lovely dinner prepared by the time they got there. Hal repeated the entire conversation to Sue as they ate. When it ended, Sue got up and went over to Phyllis and said, "I love you, too, Phyllis." And she kissed her. Then Sue said to Hal, "I hope you don't mind. Charlie needs me for something or other this evening, and I thought I'd just spend the night over there. Will you two be all right?"

"Sure," said Hal.

"Of course," said Phyllis.

Sue left, and Hal and Phyllis cleaned up the kitchen and then sat in the living room and talked. They reminisced about Hal's high school days, the trips to Boston, Mexico City, and Munich. They talked about the games that Herb and Phyllis had played with Hal's folks, and Tim's. Then Phyllis looked at Hal, stared at him quietly for several minutes, and then said, "Fuck me tonight, Hal, please."

"I'd love to, Phyllis."

To be continued...

 

Posted: 08/29/08