Author's Note:
This chapter picks up where chapter five ended; the story continues here.
I hope you'll enjoy the unwinding saga of Neil, Kat, Amy and the folks they meet along the way. I'd like to ask, please help me to improve on future stories. Leave a note about how you reacted to the story. Also, if you are interested in proof or a beta reader, please reach out to me; I'd like to hear from you. As always, all the players are over 21 in this fictional character study.
Chapter 6 What's next doc?
"Neil? What's with Ru? I thought you told me that he's a heading dog and not a retriever?"
"Amy, or more fully, isn't it Amelia? You're funny; then again, that was kinda funny. Kathleen? In many ways, she has reinvented herself. There aren't that many people that hold two terminal degrees. She's a very complex woman, someone who was lost in a world where she didn't see herself fitting in. I just hope that the time she spent in school gave her a sense of being and direction. Anyway, you had asked what she was like. Now that you've encountered her, what do you think?"
"Well, for sure she dresses well, then again nobody here wears designer anything. If what you got covering your ass don't come from Wally's Palace down the road, it ain't happening. That and her attitude was, at best off-putting. Also, a little bell in the back of my head started ringing really loud. That bell goes off when I run into a woman who is at the least bi, if not a full-on lesbian. You never asked, and until now, I had no reason to say anything. But in the distant past, I played for the other team. That little girl needs to do a lot of growing up. Honestly, babe, she strikes me as very insecure and unsure of herself. The way I see it, the only place she might be working here is over at the art college. If she comes across to the students there, as she did to us, then she'll be dead in the water. Hey, Neil? Let's get home; I need something that only you have."
I had to chuckle at that.
"What! You stinkin' old dog."
"Nothing darling, nothing at all. Miss Amy? Have I told you lately how much I love being with you?"
"Mister, don't even think you can smooth talk your way out of the dog house you and Ru live in."
"Ya know, when I first met Sandy and Charlie, well, both of them intimidated the hell of me. I don't recall what Charlie started to say or do. Anyway, Sandy came down on him like five tons of bricks, and he just lit up with a huge grin."
"Tell you what, the next time they are over, and this would work better yet if Cathy and Carl were there too. I can suggest that the three of us menfolk go out to the shed cause I have an excellent bottle of bourbon that I'd be delighted to share with my good friends. Step back and watch the fireworks. Cathy will tell Carl that he'll be walking home, and when he gets there, he can sleep with the dogs' cause that's what he is. Charlie will try to explain to Sandy why that is a most excellent idea. Then he'll start to walk towards the door and the shed. Sandy will remind him that she has the keys to the car and the house. So he'll be walking home with his buddy, and since it took him so long to walk home, she will have locked the place up and have gone to bed. After that, she'll oh so sweetly call out, nighters, my fair-haired boy, that is if you still had some hair left on your head, hope all the bugs don't eat you up while your sleeping outside again. Yes, Amy, like you, all of our wives run us, and yes, we love it cause we love you each in our own way. That, my dear, is the god's honest truth."
We were lying in bed curled up next to each other like a couple of newlyweds. "Honey, real simple my man, you are the best, and I love you. But if you go out to the shed to sample that bottle of bourbon with your buddies and don't invite me along, you'll be sleeping with Ru after I kick your ass. Does that work for my sweets?"
A few weeks later, all of us were having dinner together when Sally chimed in, "so Amy? Hear you and Neil met his former sweetie. What do you think of her?"
"I'm sure she is a very talented artist and very intelligent too. However, seems to me that she does have a very high opinion of herself."
"Amy, that's an excellent way of saying it. She's in the administration here at the art school and teaching an advanced color theory class. The folks there at UC wanted to keep her there so she wouldn't inflict herself on us ordinary folk. But that's often the problem that very high IQ people have. They cannot relate to the rest of us mere mortals like the bozo twins over there."
Sandy offered her experiences with Kat, or is it now Kathleen, while she was attending UC. From what she said, the two of them became very close to each other. Kat had lost or didn't know either of her parents. She felt almost abandoned even though her aunt and uncle had taken her in and ultimately adopted her. She'd often mentioned her fantasy of a man coming along on a white horse to carry her off. That fantasy is open to all kinds of interpretations, few of which are good. UC did a great job adding to her talent pool; Kat's problem is using all her skills and talents. Honestly, I think at first, she will fumble and stumble about. Which, I believe, is what happened when you met her. Amy? Might you say that Kat came across as being defensive? Kat does that with me often, and I will call her out for doing that, by the way. She is feeling her along new paths that are unfamiliar to her. These paths have new rules and expectations of her. Kat has been in school for basically the past eight years, and being out here in the real world is new to her."