Dear reader:
This story is a response to challenge by H2Owader for new authors to submit stories. What follows is my first submission and is one way H2Owader's story could continue. Some sex, but that's not the focal point.
I do have several stories planned and would appreciate your comments. As with most authors/readers I do have my biases that will be reflected in my stories. Some of these are: infidelity doesn't pay (you can't hide it forever!), I DON'T get excited with the idea of someone else with my lady, revenge can be appealing (but it is chancy, hard to control, and can get out of hand). That said, life is complex and life happens! You can hypothesize forever but until shit happens you can't REALLY say how you will respond.
BEGINNINGS
What now? I was getting angry at Beverly because she seemed to be willing to do almost anything with me to get her education. I could see the hard core of pride she has that was keeping her from going to work at the Swan, but she seemed more than willing to do the same types of things with me. I was uncomfortable with her hard, brutally frank negotiations… I guess that's why I threw out the marriage idea.
Now I was angry at myself! It would be nothing for me to help her financially – how had we got to the point of her either being my personal whore or her marrying me? I knew what she wanted, and what she was and wasn't willing to do to get it. What did I want? I wasn't really ready for marriage, let alone one that was a sham. I was uncomfortable with the thought of using her; I had no problem getting all the sex I needed. As I thought about it I realized that I admired her spunk and her goals.
I was teaching because I loved the challenge of forming young minds, the spark in too few of their eyes as they came out of their shells and started WANTING to learn. I taught history because it was really my one passion. Too few students went further that what I could give them; here was a chance to help one person do that. I knew then that I wanted to see how far she could go, and as long as she made solid progress I would help her. I needed to think it out more so I wasn't going to tell her all at once what I was thinking.
"Beverly, let's hold off talking more about it now. I want you to do the homework I asked you, and also to write a letter on your goals: why you want to be a teacher, and why history?" I added, "Don't worry about anything else now, it just confuses the issues – stay focused on what you want to do and why, don't think about the how."
Looking embarrassed, Beverly replied "okay Mr. Reed. Do I give the info back to you?"
"No more of this Mr. Reed! School is over now, you're an adult now that you are 18, and you can call me James. As I mentioned I will have a guy work with you. Call him later when you have everything ready. His name is Mark Braxton, here is his card. Like I said, he should be professional with you at all times. If he isn't, call me at once… here is my card also." With that he shook hands with her and showed her to the door.
THE PLAN
As James thought about their conversation, it occurred to him that his school might be better that the ones they had talked about. It had an excellent History program, with degrees up to Doctorate. James had attended the Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo for his Masters and came to be good friends with one of his professors, Al Trent. Al was a jovial guy, bushy beard, brilliant mind, and a total passion for history. He was still teaching in the Graduate Department of History at WMU. Al had a wife of 30 years and four daughters, ranging from 18-28. Al was one of the few persons that knew of James wealth and how he had come into it. After considering it for a few more minutes, he knew what he wanted to do.
James called Al, and told him what he wanted to do with Beverly. He had checked into Beverly's background and found out how hard she had it growing up. He passed some of this info on to Al, and without going into detail told how her passion for learning history and wanting to teach had impressed him and he wanted to help her. At the same time he told Al how he wanted to use some of his money for something useful (not to mention that donating money would make his money managers ecstatic!).
"Al, I'll be frank with you, I know it's late for the admissions process, but I think we can work something out. What I propose is to fund two professorships, one in undergraduate and one in graduate history at WMU. I will also establish 5 scholarships for new history teachers for the Western Michigan area. If they teach in a high school in Western Michigan, I will also pay them a stipend of $20,000 each year for up to five years. Finally I will fund two interns in the History department, one graduate and one undergrad. I don't want to use one of the scholarships for Beverly, but I do want her to be given one of the internships without her knowledge of how she got it. I think it's important that she earns money on her own to enhance her sense of self worth. Do you think we can make this work?"
"James, it won't be easy, but let's give it a shot. Setting up the scholarships and funding the professorships will take time; I suggest that you also throw in a fairly sizeable, immediate non-qualified donation to the school. That shows good intentions while we work everything out."
"Here's another suggestion, given what you have told me about this young lady, I think it would be a great idea to have her stay with us for the first year. We have plenty of room and it would be good for her to spend time with my girls. It would keep her from being by herself and getting too lonely and would give her an immediate circle of friends. The girls can kind of keep an eye on her and I could guide her in the right classes, etc. Maybe she could come over for a few days in about two weeks and we can see how it might work out, and my wife can help her walk the paperwork through. Remember, Sara volunteers for the Dean of Students. As you know there is a bus that would make it fairly easy for Beverly to go back and forth. I think it's about a three hour trip".
"Al, that's a great idea. Why don't I come over next week, take you and your family to dinner and talk it over. You can set me up with some meetings and we can get the ball rolling. I agree with the immediate donation thought – how about $100,000 to kick things off. I think you have a great idea with Beverly; I'll set it up for her to visit. I got the idea for this from talking to her, but it does give me a chance to return some of what you gave me. I didn't have the money while I was at school and it was really a challenge. Without both your challenge and inspiration driving me, I don't think I could have finished.
BEVERLY
Leaving the meeting with Mr. Reed, Beverly was mortified. First was the way she had acted: she had talked to James like she was some kind of slut. Reflecting on what she had said, she blushed furiously. Then when he abruptly stopped the discussion at the end and sent her off to do the research, Beverly felt rejected, that she wasn't appealing to James. This hurt her vanity even though she knew she was being foolish. She had become more attracted to him, really a crush, with each class she took. He treated her with respect and encouragement; he gave her faith in herself: that she could overcome her background and become someone. Now she had blown it.
Feeling she was wasting her time she went to the school to pull the data together for her meeting with Mark Braxton. The cost information was easy to get from the schools' web sites. She also did a comparison of their history programs hoping this might impress James. In looking over the results of her research, it became clear to her that her goals were too fuzzy – getting out of Baldwin and having pride in her accomplishments should be byproducts of what she wanted to do. She realized that she really loved history; the stories of people and places fascinated her. She felt compelled by the thought of giving to others what she had received from James.
As she started to put down these thoughts into the goals James had asked her for she drifted off thinking about how hard her life had been. Her dad had worked for a small logging company that went to pockets of hardwood left over from the huge forests decimated in the 1800's. Occasionally he would have to further north to harvest white pines. He was out of work a lot, and when he did work he was away for several weeks at a time. She remembered her mom as being slight and very pretty. As she grew older she realized her mom was drinking all the time and when she was about ten her mom started bringing men home. This terrified Beverly and she locked herself in her room whenever her dad wasn't home.