This one is pure fantasy. Nothing like it ever happened, but what if it did?
I was nearly 40 when I went to work for a start-up as a member of their engineering staff. The pay was okay, but what made it interesting was the stock plan. I knew most start-ups don't make it past two years. Fortunately, this one did, and when they got acquired by a much larger company, I had a big payday. I stay on for another few years as I planned my "retirement."
On my last day, which happened to be my forty-sixth birthday, my boss and a dozen or so co-workers took me to dinner at my favorite steakhouse. Ravi, my boss, asked casually, "What's next for you, Jack?"
"I start my new job on August 19."
"Oh? So soon? Six weeks off? I thought you'd travel, have a little fun. You're not going to work for one of our competitors, I hope." He was joking; he knew very well I'd never do that.
"I have a trip to Ireland planned," I replied, "but the job is at the community college a couple of miles from my house."
"I always figured you might go back to teaching. You've talked about it a few times," said Anne, a senior engineer in our group. She knew I had taught for a couple of years right after I finished my doctorate.
"And you were right. That was my plan all along, share what I have learned and how I learned it."
"Any idea what courses you'll have?" asked An Wang.
"I'll be in the math department, since they don't have real engineering, so calculus, for sure. Probably introductory programming, as well." There had been a big software component in my work, and it came easily to me.
"You ought to remarry," Anne added, "Now that you have the time." It wasn't a hint; she was happily married.
"Not any time soon," was all I could come up with. That was a sore point, although she didn't know it. My wife had left me because she didn't like the long hours and, being competitive, the fact that I was so successful. She never considered that my success was our success. From other things she said, she felt like she was competing with work for my attention, and losing. If she had stayed she could have reaped the rewards of that work, but last I heard she had moved to the west coast and remarried.
"Just be careful around all those cute freshman girls," she half-joked.
***
I fit in well with the academics and the students. It was more relaxed than actually doing engineering, and the community college didn't have the pressure a research university has. People were friendly and helpful. My second day on campus, a couple of weeks before classes started, I was in my office getting my computer set up when Ward, another lecturer in math, dropped in. He asked what I would be teaching and when I told him, promised to give me a link to his material. We talked about the school; he had been there for six years, but he had climbed the corporate ladder, then bailed with a golden parachute. I figured, correctly as I later learned, that he was just a few years older than me.
Ward and I became good friends over the course of that first year, dropping in on each other during office hours, meeting for the occasional lunch, things like that. We commiserated about our poor students and celebrated the good ones, and even more the ones who didn't think they were good at math until they "got it."
One day in late March of my second semester he dropped by just as I was finishing a discussion with one of my top students, a tall, busty, very beautiful brunette. When she was out of earshot he said, "Wow. Hard not to notice her."
I replied, "Oh yes. That's why I keep my door open during office hours. I wouldn't want to throw away my new career for a few of hours of fun."
"A few hours? You're a better man than most."
I changed the subject, having already said more than intended. "Why do some of them have such difficulty with reading the details of an assignment? Not her but a lot of the others."
He changed it back. "Do you ever get the hots for some of these cuties?"
"Sure. But they're off limits. Do you?"
"Of course. But I want to live to see my daughter graduate, and if I did anything stupid my wife would literally kill me." His daughter, Patti, was about to graduate high school and would be taking classes at our college in the fall.
"You're wife is pretty easy on the eyes, speaking of things hard not to notice, so I can't see you have any complaints." I had met her twice, once at a faculty event and once when she and Patti came to campus for lunch. Linda was very attractive and seemed very nice. Patti was an awkward, tomboyish late teenager, tall, gangly, rather flat-chested, with short brown hair.
"Yeah, Linda's great, but I think all of us men look. It's just in our nature."
I had to agree. "It's fun to look. At least none of them have come on to me for a better grade." What I didn't tell him was that I had the occasional dalliance with a widowed high school teacher named Sandy who was 12 years older than me. We were each other's "booty call," and enjoyed time together. She wasn't ready for another relationship but needed the sex, a similar position to me, and she was a lot of fun in bed. She felt a little guilty about it, which was part of the reason we only got together every few weeks. Getting some pleasure with her helped me not to look at the students.
He got a text, looked at his phone, and had to leave. We had similar conversations occasionally, as well as the usual about the material, grading problems, and the like.
We saw less of each other during the summer. He taught two classes and I didn't teach, taking the time to travel and do some writing. We would still go to lunch occasionally when I was in town.
When August rolled around I got my class roster for the introductory programming course and saw that Ward's daughter was on it. I texted him to let him know. He wrote back, "Yeah, I told her to take you. Will you be around tomorrow?"
I replied that I would, and he said they would be there at noon. We agreed to have lunch at the dining hall on campus.
Patty had changed over her senior year. She was a little less shy this time and smiled more. She looked pretty much the same in some ways, but a little taller and not quite so flat. I drew her out on what interested her, and a lot of those things confirmed the tomboy demeanor. She liked hiking, archery, knives, science fiction, and building things. She showed me a picture of some shelves she had built in her room, and told me about the computer she had built from parts she bought. I figured she would fit right in.
At the end of the third week of classes Ward dropped in during my office hours. "Patti really likes your class," he said, pulling up a chair.
"Glad to hear that. She's a great student. So my weird humor doesn't annoy her?"
"Nah. She says it keeps her awake."
"Oh good. I hate it when students fall asleep. They make so much noise when they crash to the floor."
He just chuckled and said, "She likes you, too, Jack. You never get annoyed at anyone, never put anyone down for not understanding."
"Thanks for that feedback, my friend."
Patti came to office hours twice during that semester. Once was for help with one of the programming assignments, and the other was for help with math. That time I wondered aloud why she came to me, but not in a way that would tell her not to. "My math teacher can be hard to understand, and you're always so clear." I smiled. That felt good, and I knew I wasn't everyone's favorite teacher. I was considered tough, but not for her.
