A fantasy alternative to a humdrum life
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Eighteen year old Ted Watkins was a senior in high school. He ranked very close to the middle of his class academically. He was not that interested in sports. He blended into the middle of the crowd at school, not calling much attention to himself. His father worked in a large factory maintaining and repairing the industrial machinery associated with making automobiles. His mom worked behind the counter in a bakery.
Ted picked up his mechanical skill from his father, but was interested in cars and trucks. He started out at about age ten learning from his father how to change oil in the family car and expanded his knowledge from there. When his dad had purchased the family car he had also purchased a maintenance manual for the car. Ted read it from cover to cover. It wasn't too long and he was changing oil for his grandparents, aunts, uncles and neighbors. Then he branched out into doing tune-ups and replacing worn-out brakes. When some of his regular customers would buy a new car, he would buy a maintenance manual for that car and read the manual quite thoroughly. Ted had quite a business going on the side. If he did not have and could not afford the proper tools for a job, he would tell his customer and refer them to a reliable repair shop. But when Ted accepted a job, his customers knew it would be done right.
Ted had no interest in going on to college. He enjoyed math and science well enough and took the college prep pre-calculus course his senior year and had also taken biology, chemistry and physics. He was enrolled in a vocational curriculum. That meant that half of the school day was spent in a different building where the industrial ed courses were taught. Ted wanted to become a diesel mechanic, but the closest offering to that was automobile mechanics, so he took that. But because he had taught himself a lot of things over the years, they let him take some metals machining and electronics classes as well. The down-side to this was that he did not spend a lot of time with college-prep students, and he didn't spend a lot of time with auto mechanics students. He didn't spend much time with metals machining students or with electronics students. He was not on any athletic teams. So he had a lot of acquaintances, but not that many friends.
Carol Mather was a bright 18 year old. She had no plans for going to college. She attended the vocational school as a business student. Her math interests centered around accounting and bookkeeping. She learned a number of computer programs that were used in business and was fluent in them. She had taken some computer programming courses as well. Her vocational aim was to become an executive secretary for a CEO or COO of a large corporation.
Carol, too, did not have as many friends as you might expect her to have. She was one of those girls who, in grade school, carried a lot of "baby fat" around her waist. A lot of girls lost that when they hit puberty. Not Carol. So she was not cheerleader material. Nor could she keep up with the athletic girls when trying out for a team. Her clothes were not stylish. Many were bought at a second hand store and she fit better in women's sizes than she did in juniors. All her clothes looked like they were a size or two too big. Because she did not take college prep courses she did not hang out with the college prep crowd, and because she was such a superior student, most of the vocational education students were a little bit intimidated by her even though she tried to be nice to everyone.
She was a big girl: tall -- 5'10" with wide hips and broad shoulders. If she would wear heels, she would be taller than most of the guys in her class. No one knew if she even owned a pair of heels,
but that made little difference. She overheard, more than once, a guy saying that he'd rather not go on a date than go on a date with Carol.
If you asked someone who though he knew Ted, he might say that he thought Ted was afraid of girls. That wasn't quite it. Ted was afraid of himself. As soon as puberty hit, Ted had discovered masturbation. He masturbated several times a day. He felt guilty about it. He was also very worried
that if he would start going out with a girl, he would not be able to control himself and would maybe do in real life some of the things he imagined in his fantasies. So rather than put himself in that position, he simply didn't date, and when asked about it, smiled and said that he was a confirmed bachelor.
While Carol did not look the part, nor had she ever given anyone the impression that she was "boy crazy," she also had a very high sex drive. She would "diddle herself to sleep" (her term) more often than not. That, and the fantasies that went with it also filled her with guilt. Her parents had kept a tight reign on her, not wanting her to get in over her head during her dating years, but now wondered that maybe they had been to restrictive, because she had not gone on any dates at all.
Prom at their school was held shortly after Easter. In the lunch room the guys would talk about who they were going to ask. "Confirmed bachelor" Ted was told that he could not sit this one out. Ted even switched tables at lunch to try to avoid the question, but was unsuccessful. He then changed his excuse from being a "confirmed bachelor" to: he didn't know any girls to ask out. All the college prep girls had been asked, and there weren't any girls in auto mechanics, metals machining or electronics.
Just then, Carol walked by the lunch table. When she was out of earshot, one of the guys said, "Why don't you ask Carol? She's not that bad. You're tall enough that you will still be taller than her even if she wears heels. And after all, you're not asking her to marry you -- just go to prom. She'd be better than nothing."
Ted was not so sure. But that night as they were getting on a bus that would take them back from the vocational school to the high school, it just so happened that when Ted got on the bus the only seat left vacant was the one next to Carol. "Is this seat taken?" he asked.
Carol shook her head, "No."
Ted sat down next to her. The bus pulled out of the parking lot and drove several blocks towards the high school. Ted mumbled to her, "I don't suppose you'd go to the prom with me." They rode another block. He looked at her as though maybe he was expecting her to answer.
She looked at him. "Are you asking me?"