When We Were Young With Our Corvettes - Vol 4
Chapter 73– Tim Morgon and The Prison of Socrates
Jennifer needed some time to think. It had caught her completely off guard. Realizing this, John had been very patient. He had expected her to be overjoyed with the news of the big promotion,and when she broke into tears he concluded that it was her way of showing surprise and excitement… shocked…finding the reward for her hard work a bit overwhelming… just too much for her to absorb all at once. And maybe she was a little frightened, too. He admired her purely honest reaction…she had always been a favorite of his, and he remembered how proud he felt earlier in the year,like a father, when she had received so much praise from the operations executive vice president in home office (chapter 48). She had been put on a “fast track”and even though she knew it, she just hadn’t thought it would happen this fast, he decided. He could understand those emotions and wasn’t disturbed by her reaction. He didn’t know there was another reason.
“I want you to go into personnel where Sally is waiting to give you all the details…then I want you to take the rest of the day off…just to get more comfortable with the idea and to talk with some of your confidants. You are a very capable young manager with a bright future…so stop worrying whether you can measure-up and just be thrilled. We all know you’ll be a big hit in Sacramento. We can talk more about it tomorrow.”
From where I sat, I could see when she walked out of John’s corner office…she was heading in my direction, her wet eyes having soon caught mine. But she stopped suddenly, realizing that it would raise a lot of speculation if she were seen “socializing” with me out on the floor, especially if she were crying. So she turned and hurried towards personnel, glancing back once as if to say “I need to talk with you.” I would have to pretend I didn’t already know.
I had spent the morning working on a draft of a final report covering the results a claim audit we had just completed in Phoenix. I’d left my desk only once…to help the nice lady who ran the Ozalid copy machine fill the ammonia tank…even with the venting, the fumes were terrible. She never asked the “blue shirts” (maintenance) to help her;only me and I would never say “no” because when she baked filled-cookies, she always gave me extras (strawberry and apricot). I wasn’t gone long, but when I got back I found that someone had placed a sealed envelope inside my audit work-papers… it was a note written in Jennifer’s hand.
“I am so screwed-up…I daydream about you and wonder what it would be like to be with you all the time. When you’re traveling, I make-up reasons to leave my office so that I can pass by your desk…and wonder where you are and if you’re having a good day. And when I know you’re going to be here, I dress up for you and wonder what you’ll think when you see me. But isn’t it tragically ironic that I just want to be with you…and you’ve created the very reason I can’t. Its cause and effect. You discovered the fraud…and now they want me to move to Sacramento.”
I knew that she had feelings, but she’d never expressed them like this before. She had once talked about marriage after our trip to Catalina Island, but we had been drinking gallons of vino tinto and I just didn’t pick-up on it….had sort of laughed it off.
I read the note again and headed for her office…neither she nor her secretary were there… the lights were off and the blinds were pulled. I then found Sally in personnel, who waived me into her office and shut the door. She and I also had an off-and-on again “relationship”…but she was best friends with Jennifer and she didn’t mince any words.
“This is about you, you know…and your unwillingness to commit to a relationship. This girl is in love…just like I was…and you are not going to let her pass-up this promotion. You are going to do everything in your power to get her back on course and keep her positive about this move.”
“You don’t have to tell me to do that,” I said, a little sheepishly. “I know things haven’t exactly worked out for us…but I will make you this promise… she will go to Sacramento, happily and enthusiastically”
“Not by telling her a bunch of lies that will only hurt her later?”
“No, by telling her the truth about how I feel about her”
Sally, with those deep dimples, just stared at me without saying a word. Here was a divorced lady, older than me,who knew first-hand about life’s successes and setbacks, and what it meant to truly love and have it unrequited. She reached-up and put her arms around my neck and drew me close.
”Well, I’ll be darned,” she whispered, “you do care…and she has no idea, does she?”
“Probably not with any clarity…but that is going to change…that’s why I’m so sure she’ll go.”
“She went home to think some things over…why don’t you go and find her, and tell her how much you…….” I didn’t let her finish. I was already out the door.
The Vette bounded out of the company parking lot onto Fourth Street and took the entrance ramp to the Santa Ana Freeway going north. It was now the lunch hour so traffic was thin and we were sailing in the fast lane…the top was back and the exhaust was rumbling, louder still under the overpasses where the sounds echoed off the concrete abutments… the unforgettable smell of orange blossoms and eucalyptus filling the Southern California air. Bitchin!
Her car was parked in front of her apartment in Seal Beach. I pulled in behind and took the stairs two at a time up to her door…then I rang the bell.
She was barefooted, and wearing a ratty pair of shorts and an old T-shirt…she had just showered and her hair was still wet…she was so beautiful…and when she saw me she started to cry.
Jennifer needed some time to think. It had caught her completely off guard. Realizing this, John had been very patient. He had expected her to be overjoyed with the news of the big promotion,and when she broke into tears he concluded that it was her way of showing surprise and excitement… shocked…finding the reward for her hard work a bit overwhelming… just too much for her to absorb all at once. And maybe she was a little frightened, too. He admired her purely honest reaction…she had always been a favorite of his, and he remembered how proud he felt earlier in the year,like a father, when she had received so much praise from the operations executive vice president in home office (chapter 48). She had been put on a “fast track”and even though she knew it, she just hadn’t thought it would happen this fast, he decided. He could understand those emotions and wasn’t disturbed by her reaction. He didn’t know there was another reason.
“I want you to go into personnel where Sally is waiting to give you all the details…then I want you to take the rest of the day off…just to get more comfortable with the idea and to talk with some of your confidants. You are a very capable young manager with a bright future…so stop worrying whether you can measure-up and just be thrilled. We all know you’ll be a big hit in Sacramento. We can talk more about it tomorrow.”
From where I sat, I could see when she walked out of John’s corner office…she was heading in my direction, her wet eyes having soon caught mine. But she stopped suddenly, realizing that it would raise a lot of speculation if she were seen “socializing” with me out on the floor, especially if she were crying. So she turned and hurried towards personnel, glancing back once as if to say “I need to talk with you.” I would have to pretend I didn’t already know.
I had spent the morning working on a draft of a final report covering the results a claim audit we had just completed in Phoenix. I’d left my desk only once…to help the nice lady who ran the Ozalid copy machine fill the ammonia tank…even with the venting, the fumes were terrible. She never asked the “blue shirts” (maintenance) to help her;only me and I would never say “no” because when she baked filled-cookies, she always gave me extras (strawberry and apricot). I wasn’t gone long, but when I got back I found that someone had placed a sealed envelope inside my audit work-papers… it was a note written in Jennifer’s hand.
“I am so screwed-up…I daydream about you and wonder what it would be like to be with you all the time. When you’re traveling, I make-up reasons to leave my office so that I can pass by your desk…and wonder where you are and if you’re having a good day. And when I know you’re going to be here, I dress up for you and wonder what you’ll think when you see me. But isn’t it tragically ironic that I just want to be with you…and you’ve created the very reason I can’t. Its cause and effect. You discovered the fraud…and now they want me to move to Sacramento.”
I knew that she had feelings, but she’d never expressed them like this before. She had once talked about marriage after our trip to Catalina Island, but we had been drinking gallons of vino tinto and I just didn’t pick-up on it….had sort of laughed it off.
I read the note again and headed for her office…neither she nor her secretary were there… the lights were off and the blinds were pulled. I then found Sally in personnel, who waived me into her office and shut the door. She and I also had an off-and-on again “relationship”…but she was best friends with Jennifer and she didn’t mince any words.
“This is about you, you know…and your unwillingness to commit to a relationship. This girl is in love…just like I was…and you are not going to let her pass-up this promotion. You are going to do everything in your power to get her back on course and keep her positive about this move.”
“You don’t have to tell me to do that,” I said, a little sheepishly. “I know things haven’t exactly worked out for us…but I will make you this promise… she will go to Sacramento, happily and enthusiastically”
“Not by telling her a bunch of lies that will only hurt her later?”
“No, by telling her the truth about how I feel about her”
Sally, with those deep dimples, just stared at me without saying a word. Here was a divorced lady, older than me,who knew first-hand about life’s successes and setbacks, and what it meant to truly love and have it unrequited. She reached-up and put her arms around my neck and drew me close.
”Well, I’ll be darned,” she whispered, “you do care…and she has no idea, does she?”
“Probably not with any clarity…but that is going to change…that’s why I’m so sure she’ll go.”
“She went home to think some things over…why don’t you go and find her, and tell her how much you…….” I didn’t let her finish. I was already out the door.
The Vette bounded out of the company parking lot onto Fourth Street and took the entrance ramp to the Santa Ana Freeway going north. It was now the lunch hour so traffic was thin and we were sailing in the fast lane…the top was back and the exhaust was rumbling, louder still under the overpasses where the sounds echoed off the concrete abutments… the unforgettable smell of orange blossoms and eucalyptus filling the Southern California air. Bitchin!
Her car was parked in front of her apartment in Seal Beach. I pulled in behind and took the stairs two at a time up to her door…then I rang the bell.
She was barefooted, and wearing a ratty pair of shorts and an old T-shirt…she had just showered and her hair was still wet…she was so beautiful…and when she saw me she started to cry.
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