Before I continue I should give you the reader, a fact that I did not include in the first part. This lovely dream's name, is Julia.
Over that weekend shared in my dorm room we had numerous moments of intense sex, and intimate conversations about our lives. It came easily to us and the conversations never felt forced. Besides the intimate details I will not share at this point, she told me that she had two sisters, both of which were older than her and in college as well. However, they went to the Univ. of Iowa where one, Justine, was in the Bachelor's program for pre-med, and Jewell was studying Engineering. I found out that though she loved her sisters and that they shared nearly everything they did, they did not have her love for literature or teaching. They had a close knit family from the northern suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul but all three had chosen Iowa colleges over homestate ones. Her Mother and Father had both been Doctors. Her Father had been a Heart Surgeon, and Her Mother had been a Pediatrics Specialist. Having had the girls at a later stage in their lives and with all three now off to college, they had moved from the city to a Lake about forty miles northwest of Duluth to begin their retirement.
I shared my life of struggles having been raised by a single Mother. I grew up in the southern suburbs of Detroit and my Mother struggled at times to make ends meet. My mother brought me out here to Iowa when she took an administrative job with the city's school system, where we now live. I had wanted to play sports in High School but in one summer between ninth and tenth grade I had grown from 5'7" to 6'3". It took two years of physical therapy, pain pills, and muscle relaxers as I worked to help my muscles catch up with my bones. Everything was a was foggy, painful blur for me until I was cleared to stop the medications and begin to live as a normal 17yr old in mid October of my senior year. By then football was nearly over. So instead I decided to focus and try to get a scholarship. I knew in our financial situation I could get assistance, but I loathed the thought of student loans. I excelled at programming (before it became IT) and switched my interest from architecture to computers. I got a few local organization scholarships but nothing to keep me from taking out a couple of student loans.
I had always written and this new woman in my life renewed my love for the written word. And though I did not know it then, I would change my major before Christmas break to Literature.
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After that weekend we were inseparable. We were either in her room, my room, or the library. Despite the sex, which was wonderful, we were both focused on why we were there. A week before Thanksgiving as we cuddled on her bed she asked, "George, what are your plans for Thanksgiving?"
"Well, I had thought about bringing you home with me to surprise my Mother."
She propped herself up on one elbow and looked into my eyes with an ear to ear grin, "REALLY?"
I chuckled, "Yeah, why? Is it so odd that I'd want to show you off to my Mother, my friends, and what used to be my little world?" I said as I tilted her head upwards with a curled finger under her chin and kissed her softly.
"Well, no, but I asked if you could come home with me. Mom and Dad said yes."
"Hmmm," I stalled, thinking, "perhaps, I could go there if I had you with me for Christmas." I was hesitant to go and meet her parents, while sounding nice from her tales about them, they also seemed a bit intimidating.
"I guess, but we always have a family gathering on Christmas Eve. Maybe I could fly down on a red eye or early Christmas morning . . . " she trailed off as I could see her working things out in her mind.
"I'll tell you what, sit tight," I said as I leaned over her and lifted the phone from the table and pulled the cord over her shoulder and dropped it to her side. I punched in the ten digits and waited for it to ring. It was answered on the seventh ring as I was about to hang up.
"Hello?"
"Hi Ma, how are you doing?" I asked wanting to know as I had felt I had been remiss in calling her enough.
"Good. What's that I hear in your voice?" she asked intuitively.
"Love Mom."
Julia sucked in her breath in surprise as neither of us had used that word yet.
"I knew it. Something had to be happening to make your calls become infrequent. Tell me about her," she asked enthusiastically.
"Well, I am kind of surprised actually. She is such a beautiful woman and so unlike anything I thought I had wanted before." I was watching Julia's face as I talked.
I laughed, "Yes Mom, she's blonde. And Damn smart! Plus she is sexy, and has such a fine, wonderfully shaped a- OUCH!"
Julia slugged me.
"Hey, I was going to say attitude."
"Yeah, right. I hope she hit you hard," my Mother laughed.
"Yes she did! I'm going to get a bruise from that."
She continued, "So besides telling me about her fine attitude, what else do you need to say, or ask?"
"Well, her parents would like me to come up there for Thanksgiving, but for before you say anything I'll only go if I get her to spend Christmas break with us from Christmas day until we come back here," I said then added, "That way I get the better of the deal the with longer holiday and the two people I love."
"Has she talked to her parents about that yet? "
"No, that was our next call."
"Well, I'd like to see you, but I know how it is. I love you. Call me back when you know."
"Okay. Love you too."
I hung up and looked at Julia and said, "Oh man, I feel like such an ass."
"Why?" she asked snuggling back into me.
"Because, I haven't been back to visit since the weekend before we stunk up my dorm room."
"We could go tomorrow morning," she suggested, but sounded like she already was already planning on it.
She called her parents and told them what we had worked out, and while not entirely happy with it, they caved in feeling that, if it made their baby girl happy, why should they make her feel otherwise. I also found out we would not be taking the bus, but by flying out of Cedar Rapids then to Minneapolis, where we would take a smaller connecting flight to Duluth where there would be a rental car waiting for us. I tried to argue out of pride, but her father genuinely insisted that we need not travel that way.
We went to dinner and then came back and finished our papers, and assignments. Everything done, we settled into each others arms under the covers, and as I leaned over to kiss her goodnight, she said, "I love you."
"And I, love you as well.."
I feel asleep with a warm smile on my face and a soft warm breath on my chest.
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We woke early and put a change of clothes for us in my backpack. We were on the road by 6:30am for the hour and a half drive Drive south along Hwy 61. Julia sighed as she took in the endless scenery of corn and soybeans. I looked over and said, "I know there is a lot of not much out there, but I assure you that there are a lot of wonderful things to see in Iowa besides me." She laughed and smiled, those eyes causing me to ignore the road for a brief moment and suddenly the car broke into violent shakes and loud rumbling sounds. Julia jumped and let out a little shriek, but I laughed it off and steered back onto the freeway.