Chapter 11 — The Happy Times
May 1974
It was Friday and it had been almost a week since Hildy returned to Rochester for her Aunt Mildred's birthday.. Jim had just finished his last final exam and returned to his apartment. The days of Rich being his room mate were waning and Jim was thinking that the two of them might make a final tour of the bars that they had frequented throughout their academic careers.
As he fixed himself a sandwich Jim was remembering the prior Sunday taking Ashley back to her apartment as the purple Duster made tracks in the opposite direction. As the Rustmobile meandered through the College Town streets on its way to Ashley's apartment he had expected a 'thank you' or some kind of acknowledgment. He wondered if Ashley might have been angry. Maybe she had been hoping to be gang raped and masturbated upon while in a drunken stupor, in which case she should have told him to butt out.
As they were waiting at a red light he remembered what Hildy had said to him as they were watching over Ashley the night before:
"I know what that feels like, to be looked at and laughed at and shamed. To be the subject in everyone's joke, for everyone to be talking about you in the worst way. It's worse than humiliating. It makes you feel like you're nothing."
So, as Ashley said nothing Jim decided to say nothing, also. Jim saw Rich's car parked in front of a building and he knew that he had found Ashley's apartment and that Rich and Chelsea were still there.
He stopped and Ashley opened her door and climbed out. She was clutching the brown, paper grocery store bag with her underwear and shoes. Jim watched her stumble and as she did one of the straps on her gown broke and her boobs fell out of the gown.
She pulled the fabric up over them and made her way at last to the front door. Jim felt a little guilty as he thought about the argument at dinner the night before and the irony of it all, but he didn't laugh.
She knocked and in a few minutes Chelsea came to the door in a bathrobe. Ashley followed Chelsea inside and Jim drove away.
As his thoughts drifted back to the present he wondered what Ashley had said to Rich and Chelsea about everything that happened. As Rich later told Jim, Ashley didn't say much. Jim accepted that because he knew that she hadn't remembered very much.
"Maybe, someday it will start coming back to her in bits and pieces. Maybe—but I hope not."
As Jim was chewing his sandwich and thinking about all these things the phone rang. He thought it might be Rich calling but it was Professor Stark's secretary.
"Nothing special," she said, "just come as you are as soon as you can."
He asked her the purpose, but she just said that she only knew that the Professor wanted to see him.
"Maybe it's a last pitch for the Master's Program. At this point I might take him up on it."
He looked at himself in the mirror and decided if the secretary had been able to see him as she spoke she might have omitted the 'as you are' part.
"I'll make myself look like I should have looked when she said 'as you are'."
He went into the bathroom to shave and comb his hair. He found a clean sport shirt on a hanger in his closet and a pair of khakis. He traded his sneakers for a pair of loafers.
*************
Jim walked into the ante room of Professor Stark's office where his secretary had her desk. The Professor's office door was closed.
"They're waiting for you inside," she said. "Go right in."
"They?"
He walked past the secretary's desk, declining to ask her who else was in the inner office. He knocked on the door and opened it.
"Come in, Jim," the Professor said as he sat at his meeting table. "Come right in."
Jim looked around. Professor Stark was seated at the head of the table. To his right was an empty chair that Jim assumed was reserved for him. In the two chairs on the Professor's left were the two men whom from Douglas Chemical whom he met in his interview over a month before.
Jim walked further into to the office and the three men stood up.
"You remember Gerry Tyler and Frank Cutler from Douglas Chemical?" Professor Stark asked.
"Of course," Jim replied. "Nice to see you again, Mr. Tyler—Mr. Cutler. Always good to see you Professor Stark."
He shook hands with the three men. They saw the elastic bandage on his right wrist.
"What do we have here?" Mr. Tyler asked.
"I strained it at a track meet the other day," Jim said.
"Jim is a pole vaulter on the University Track Team," Professor Stark explained.
"I'd forgotten about that," Cutler said.
"Interesting," Mr. Tyler said, "how does a person find time for athletics in addition to designing Bromine Plants and all the other work a Chem E. student has to do?"
"Jim is at the top of this year's class," Professor stark interjected.
"I found that it's not that hard," Jim answered, "especially with track because I can schedule most of my workouts in the early morning. It's just necessary to plan ahead for what needs to be done and budget time for everything."
"Budgeting time," Mr. Tyler said. "It's a good lead-in to what we need to discuss today. So, let's have a seat and get down to business."
Each man took his chair at the conference table. Mr. Cutler took a manila folder out of his briefcase but did not open it. Mr. Tyler led the discussion.
"I think I told you last time that I liked your Bromine Project," he said. "George said that it's the best project of the year. Of course you earned an "A" on it."
"I didn't know that, sir," Jim replied. "I would say that when I turned it in I believed it was my best effort. Of course Professor Stark helped me a lot."
"Don't be so modest, young man," Mr. Tyler said. "I just reviewed it again before you arrived. It's an excellent piece of work by any standard."
When Mr. Tyler called Jim 'young man' it made him remember the incident in MacIver's Bar when Hildy's father had called him 'young fella'. Then, the appellation had served to buttress his resentment. But Mr. Tyler gave him the opposite feeling.
"I guess it depends who is doing the talking," Jim thought. "One man I respect and the other I am unable to respect. Words mean little, but the person behind the words means everything."
Jim realized he was daydreaming while something important was going on. He snapped back to attention.
"Like I said, a top-quality job by any standard."
The older man paused for a second and then began to speak again.
"We'd like to make you an offer. You would be a fine addition to Douglas. Of course, you would do well, too," he said. "Are you still interested?"
"I believe so, sir," Jim said. "Of course, it depends on the details. I have a chance to stay at Campbell another year for my Masters and..."
"That's why we think you'll be interested in this offer," Cutler broke in.
"Here it is, Jim," Mr. Tyler said. "It's different than our standard job offer. It's something that we're trying out for the first time. It's the reason we took so long in getting back to you. So let me lay it out for you."
"I'm ready," Jim said.
Mr. Tyler took a deep breath and began.
"Our company is planning a major expansion," Mr. Tyler began "but, not this year. In two or three years we'll need a lot of engineering talent—the best we can get—well on the road to their Masters and PE licenses. You'll be a big part of it, but we want to put you on hold for a year."
"I appreciate it sir, but..." Jim began.
"Listen to the rest, Jim," Professor Stark interjected.
"Of course, at some time in the future we would want you to have a Master's Degree," Mr. Tyler went on. "Our thought is to have you stay here at Campbell next year and do your Master's right away. After that we'll bring you out to Douglas and put you to work. What do you think?"
"I hadn't expected anything like this," Jim said. "I need to think..."
"There's more," Cutler broke in. "Listen to the rest of it."
"Douglas would be willing to pay your tuition and furnish you an adequate stipend for your living expenses. It wouldn't be at your regular salary, of course. We would ask you to concentrate your major in Plant Design. Do you have an idea of what your design thesis might be?"
"I just turned in my final project," Jim said, "I haven't thought new projects yet."
"We'd like you to do something on an upgrade to the isocyanate production process. We're projecting a major move forward on polyurethane products and we have to improve our isocyanate process to improve our source of that starter compound."
"I think that would be a project with some meat on the bones," Jim said.
"We're contracting with George as a consultant on the overall project. You will be working with him as a Research Assistant in addition to your course work and thesis. You will also be asked to TA a course because Douglas and the College of Engineering are sharing the cost of your tuition."
"Which course?" Jim asked.
"Hasn't been decided yet, for sure," Professor Stark said.
"On top of all that, we want you to take and pass Part A of the PE exam. Also, we're asking that you sign the rights to your Bromine plant design to us," Mr. Tyler said.
"You're going to use my design?"
"Maybe, and it also allows us to classify some of what we're paying you as the purchase price of the sale of your design rights to us, rather than as salary to an employee. You have to remember that this is a new concept of recruiting that we're trying and a lot of people had to review it, so there are a lot of fingerprints on the details."
Mr. Tyler nodded at Cutler who opened the manila folder in front of him.
"Here are the numbers," he said. "If you work for Douglas for five years you won't be asked to repay your tuition. If you leave before then, we would ask for a proportional repayment. It's all explained in the contract I brought."
Mr. Cutler pointed out the applicable clauses. Jim looked at the salary and stipend numbers and they were better than good.
"We'll bring you out to Douglas from mid-June through mid-August for an orientation," Mr. Tyler explained. "Then you'll be back here to start school. What do you say?"
"You'll have an expense account when you're traveling in addition to your regular payment," Cutler added.
Jim looked at the men and then at the contract in front of him.
"I hate to ask for too much," Jim said.
"All we can do is say 'no'," Cutler said.
"The fact is, sir," Jim began, "is that I'm just about out of money. My car would never make it out to Michigan. Any chance of an advance on my stipend?"
