I met Cindy Albee during the second semester of our junior year at Florida State. Cindy was pursuing a double degree - one in education and one in business administration. I was pursuing a degree in Engineering. I wanted to be able to show my parents my diploma with my name, Todd Anderson, on it. I would be the first one in my family to ever graduate from college.
Cindy's dream was to be a schoolteacher and eventually transition into the administrative section of education. She explained to me that she had chosen education because her parents had both been teachers and then school principals. Over the years, many of their former students had told Cindy how much they loved her parents, so she wanted to follow in their footsteps. The philosophy that her parents instilled in her from a very early age was that people should strive to learn something new every day.
I totally agreed with her parents' sentiment about education because it wasn't too dissimilar from what my parents taught me. My parents owned a small farm and had six kids. My mom and dad were always looking for ways to save a dollar. My dad drilled into me that it was better to learn how to fix a problem rather than to pay someone else to do it. Now, I am in college, not only learning as much as I can from my teachers but also figuring out ways to pay my way. Obviously, my parents didn't have any money to pay for my college education. I was pursuing a degree in engineering because I was a wiz with math and science, and it just seemed the natural way to go.
To help pay my way, I had landed a job with a tutoring service in town and worked about twenty hours a week. I still had to take out student loans, but the job kept those to a minimum. I had visions of designing beautiful buildings. Ultimately, I would discard that dream and adopt a new one. But that comes later in the story.
I first met Cindy when we had been thrown together in a group project for a political science class. However, I noticed her the first day of class but didn't dare to believe that she would ever be interested in anyone like me. She was beautiful - five foot six, a Rubenesque figure, and long blond hair. She also had a way about her that made you want to please her. All the athletes and "super cool" guys flocked around her. Cindy dated many of them but never seemed serious about anyone.
About halfway through the semester our political science professor informed us that he was breaking the class up into five groups of six to work on a special project. I was initially unhappy. I had worked on group projects in high school, and it always seemed there were one or two of our group who didn't do any work. Yet, when Cindy was assigned to my group, my feelings changed one hundred and eighty degrees.
"Hi, I'm Cindy Brandon," she said to me as she stuck out her hand.
"I'm, I'm, umm, Todd Anderson," I stammered.
"You don't sound very sure of that," Cindy laughed.
I didn't want to look like a complete dork, so I quickly pulled out my wallet and looked at my driver's license. "No, no," I chuckled, "I'm definitely Todd Anderson." Then I showed her my license. She laughed aloud and that began our relationship.
Our assignment in this political science class was to take a famous Supreme Court case, which was assigned by the professor, and dissect it. We not only had to explain what the case was about but also explain the decision, discuss whether it had been a good one, and defend that belief.
We were assigned Marbury vs. Madison, which was the first major case that the Supreme Court ruled on, and it had far-lasting results. The ruling had self-limited the powers of the Supreme Court so that they couldn't become more powerful than the administrative or the legislative branches of the government. That decision made the Supreme Court what it is today.
As it turned out, the other four members of our group were a bunch of slugs. Three were members of the football team, and the fourth dropped out of school just before the end of the semester. Cindy and I had to research and write the entire report. I should have been annoyed that the other members of our group had bailed on us, but I was thrilled because I got to spend a lot of time with Cindy.
We got along so well that we started dating and then became exclusive. I hadn't dated a lot when I was in high school or college, as I never had much money. But that didn't matter to Cindy. She was happy to sit and watch TV with me or go for a walk. Going on a picnic or to the museum was a big date for us. I fell hopelessly in love with Cindy, and she seemed equally smitten with me. We were married right after graduation.
Life was mostly great for the first five years of our marriage. The sex was great; our new house was small, but it was everything we wanted. Since our house was in a new development, we soon had lots of friends, and our social life was a lot of fun. Cindy got a job as an eighth-grade teacher in a middle school in northern Palm Beach County. I accepted a job with one of the larger engineering firms in South Florida. However, as the years passed, I discovered that I really didn't like engineering.
As the junior engineer in the firm, I got all the crappy assignments. So, to distract myself from the boredom at work, I signed up to get my master's degree. I was sure that once I had my master's, my pay would increase, and I'd be assigned to more interesting projects. However, all I got was a $500 bonus. I was disappointed, but I said to myself, "fuck them," I was going to continue and get a PhD.
Aside from my job being boring, I couldn't complain too much. Cindy's job was going great, and we were very much in love. Financially, we were doing well, and we talked about having a baby. But as the saying goes, "All good things must end."
The first bit of unwelcome news was when my boss informed me that I was being transferred from design to inspections. What little design work I had been doing was boring enough, but inspections were even worse.
The second piece of news, that, at the time, I thought was good news was that Cindy was moving to a new school, West Jupiter High School, to head up the guidance department. This promotion would later turn out to be a disaster.
The third hammer to drop on my life was the appointment of Brock Turner as the principal at Cindy's school. He was a black former NFL player. Brock had played for five seasons with three different teams. Dallas drafted him in the third round as an inside linebacker but traded him after two seasons, which was strange because he had two good seasons with Dallas. In Seattle, Brock again only lasted two years despite playing well. Then he was traded to Philadelphia, where he had another good season, but his ankle was shattered in a playoff game. Philadelphia released him, and because of the severity of his injury, his career was over.
When Brock realized his football career was over, he tried his hand at television because he was a tremendously charismatic individual. Unfortunately, that charisma didn't translate to the small screen. For whatever reason, his charisma came across as arrogance on television. He was quickly and quietly let go. Then he took a job with a regional bank as a customer service officer. The bank was thrilled with him, but after about nine months, Brock quit. He hated being stuck in an office, so he looked for something new to do. He finally took a job as a gym teacher and football coach for a suburban Philadelphia high school. Brock stayed for three years and moved from being a gym teacher to Assistant Principal and head coach of the football team. But the football team only did so, so. For the three years Brock coached, they had a winning record but never advanced in the postseason.
When the principal at Cindy's school retired, Brock applied and was given the job. For the first year, I talked more about Brock than Cindy did. I mean, he was a former NFL player. I was in awe of him until I finally met him in person. I found him to be a self-centered narcissist.
On the other hand, his wife, April, was charming, intelligent, and somewhat shy. She was also gorgeous. April reminded me of a smaller but much prettier version of Whitney Houston. I couldn't understand what she saw in Brock. Still, most of the school staff were enthralled by him, including my wife.
I tried to subtly tell my wife that her boss was basically a "pussy hound." Cindy just laughed and teased me that I was jealous.
I decided to be honest. "Yes, I am a little jealous. He's bigger than me, and fitter than me, and was a professional football player."
Cindy hugged me and told me, "You don't ever have to be jealous. He's only a couple of inches taller than you, and when it comes to fitness, you're no slouch. So, what if he was a football player, I married you." She had mollified me, and our lives went on.
Despite my discomfort being around Brock, my wife insisted on dragging me to every school function, where we always seemed to wind up sitting with Principal Turner and his wife, April. I was able to talk to her occasionally at these events, and I learned that Brock and April had been married for three years and had a little girl, Tiffany.
It was at one of these events that I learned what a true asshole Brock Turner was. If Cindy thought I was jealous, I wouldn't have held a candle to Brock when it came to April. The incident happened at the school district's Christmas party. Brock had just asked my wife to dance without asking me. I found that disrespectful, and I was a little annoyed that Cindy didn't even look to see if I was okay with that. I watched for a bit, and Brock was holding my wife at a respectful distance. I slid over next to April so I could talk with her. Brock and Cindy stayed on the floor for three straight dances, but I didn't notice because I was having a wonderful conversation with April. I learned that she was a part-time professor at the local community college that had just recently been upgraded to a four-year college. She taught French and German. Her mother's parent had emigrated from the Congo to France, and her father was German. Shortly before April was born, her parents emigrated to the United States.
Since the college only recently upgraded to a four-year college, they were in the process of filling out their teaching positions. April was hoping that her part-time position would lead to a full-time position as an associate professor. As our conversation continued, she showed me pictures of their daughter, who looked like a miniature version of April. I laughed as April told me one story after another of many cute things that Tiffany had done.
