Second Time Around

Chapter 3 - Exploring the Possibilities

By Arli J

Edited by Radio Rancher
Based on Characters from Pinochle, by E Walk

I woke up about 5:30, a bit disoriented at finding myself on the couch. Gradually, I remembered the night before and my conversation with Gregg. I grabbed my robe off the back of the chair, where I had left it, and stumbled out to the kitchen. I grabbed a cup of cold coffee from the night before (I'm too cheap to throw it out and make fresh, and too lazy to warm it in the microwave) and sat at the table in the dim glow of the night light. My mind gradually cleared, and I started planning for the day ahead.

Let's see, we're meeting Beau and his family for breakfast at 8:00; then he wants us to go with him to the meeting with the president of the university. I wonder why. Gregg might be involved, since his son is also attending the school, but why me? Oh, well, when Beau commands, we lesser mortals obey. Simple law of physics.

Beau said the meeting shouldn't last longer than an hour. Our appointment to see the building is at 2:30, so that gives us time to look around town, so Gregg can see what he's getting himself into. It's going to be fun, watching him as he sees the local characters for the first time. He'll probably think he is on another planet or in some sort of time warp. Ithaca can be quite a jolting experience, specially for someone from the Midwest. Between the students, both high school and college, who hang out on the Commons, the wannabe musicians strumming their guitars and singing off key, and the people released on the streets when the mental hospital up the lake was closed, it can be an unnerving experience for a stranger in town. This should be an interesting day!

I poured the remaining cold coffee into a pitcher (I really am too cheap to just throw it away!) and put on a fresh pot. Then I went into the bathroom to shower and shave, so the bathroom would be clear when Gregg gets up. I decided that I would dress while he was in the bathroom getting ready, since my clothes were all in the bedroom. I didn't think of that last night.

About 6:30 I tapped on the bedroom door. "Gregg, you might want to get up and get ready to go. We have to meet Beau at 8:00." I heard a mumbled reply, so I went back to the kitchen and poured two cups of coffee. I didn't need any lights now, because the sun was coming up, and the kitchen was flooded with pale sunlight.

I heard the bedroom door open, then the bathroom door close. A few minutes later, Gregg stumbled out to the kitchen. Oh, good! He's as foggy in the morning as I am! I set a cup of coffee in front of him and sat down with my own fresh cup. He just sat there, blinking like an owl caught in the beam of a flashlight. I love it! Someone else who doesn't want cheerful conversation first thing in the morning. He took a couple of tentative sips of his coffee and tried to focus his eyes on me. " G' mornin'."

"Good morning! Did you sleep well?" He processed this for a few seconds, then nodded.

"I hated to wake you, because I know you must be tired after the day you had yesterday, but we have to meet Beau at eight." He nodded again. I think I'm really going to like this guy!

We sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping on our coffee, before he stood up. "Guess I'd better get moving - if I can." He plodded off in the direction of the bathroom, still clinging to his coffee cup.

I headed to the bedroom to get dressed, then came back and straightened up the couch. I folded my blankets and took them and the pillow to the bedroom, where I tossed them on the unmade bed. Then I went back to the kitchen and poured myself another cup of coffee. A few minutes later, Gregg joined me and poured a cup for himself. He looked more alive now.

"Well, I think I might make it through the day. I'm really awake now. I somehow managed to turn the hot water in the shower off before I turned off the cold. Let me tell you, that really opens your eyes!" I couldn't help laughing; I've done the same thing a few times.

We finished getting ready and drove up to the campus. I parked behind the Statler, and we went in. The desk clerk gave us the number of Beau's room and directions on how to get there. He was on the first floor, so we walked back through the hall and knocked.

"Well, good morning, guys! Glad to see you're here, and on time. I've ordered breakfast from room service, so I'll call the boys and get them over here." Beau was operating at full bore already this morning. He went to the phone and called the boys' room, telling them to hurry up and come to his room.

Becca came out of the bathroom, looking radiant and dressed in a very simple, but elegant pants suit. She greeted us with a big smile and a kiss on the cheek. "Good morning, guys! I'm so glad you could come." She took a seat on one of the two loveseats in the sitting room of the suite and motioned for us to come in and sit down. Beau sat down next to her and looked around. "There are only four chairs at the table. I'm going to have to call the desk and see if we can get two more." He went to the phone and made the call. "They'll be here in a couple of minutes." He rejoined his wife on the loveseat. "So, Gregg, how did you survive the trip? Is Harley taking good care of you? If not, I want to know. I'll fire his butt in a heartbeat!" He grinned, that warm, crooked Beau grin that was almost his trademark.

"No, no! He's gone way out of his way to make me comfortable. He even gave up his bedroom for me, and he's sleeping on the couch."

There was a knock on the door. Beau answered it; a hotel employee stood there with two chairs. "Thanks. Just leave them here; we'll take care of them." He reached in his pocket and gave the man a tip. I didn't see the denomination of the bill he handed the man, but I know it wasn't a one. Beau has always been generous, particularly to people who serve him in any way.

He brought the chairs into the sitting room and placed them at the table. It looked as if it would be a bit crowded, but it was only for breakfast. There was another knock at the door. It was Ben and Grant, followed by the room service person with a huge cart of food on covered platters and table settings for six. The room service clerk quickly set the table and placed the covered trays in the middle. Beau handed him a bill, and he left with his cart.

"Let's eat! We've got a meeting with the president at 9:00." Beau seated Becca, then sat down beside her. The rest of us took our places, and there was little conversation while we enjoyed the fine food for which the Statler Hotel is noted. When we finished, Beau called room service to ask them to clear the table. Then he turned to me. "Our meeting is in Day Hall. Do you know where that is? We've only got about fifteen minutes to make the meeting, and I really don't want to be late."

"You won't be. Day Hall is on the other side of the street, just up the block from here. It would be easier to walk than to try to find parking places. Cornell is very strict about parking. Most of the time you have to park in one of the lots around the edge of campus and take the shuttle bus to wherever you are going on campus."

"Fine. Let's get moving." Beau herded us out of the room, and we left by the front door of the Statler and strolled up the street to Day Hall for our meeting with President Skorton.

When we arrived, Beau checked at the information desk and led us up the stairs to the President's office. We went in, and he introduced our party to the receptionist. She picked up the phone, and in a minute or so a distinguished looking gentleman emerged from what appeared to be a conference room. He introduced himself as David Skorton and led us into the room, where a number of people were seated at a large conference table. President Skorton asked us to be seated and to introduce ourselves to the assembled Board.

Beau made the introductions. I went into shock when he introduced me as his business representative in Ithaca. This had never been mentioned, and I had no idea what he had in mind.

I was already a bit off balance when Beau began to explain to the President and the Board why he wanted to meet with them. But when he casually announced that he was prepared to donate ten million dollars to the University, if they would meet a couple of requests he had, I almost choked. Ten million dollars?

His conditions were simple. First, he insisted that the new Social Sciences building be named Tillison Hall, in honor of the late Dr. Agatha Tillison, who had been such an influence in his life. Also, he wanted assurance that the boys would have adjoining rooms, with the bathroom between them. I wasn't too sure about that one. As I remember the freshman dorms, the rooms are all doubles, so the best the boys could hope for was to be assigned as roommates. Also, there was only one communal bathroom on each floor. Well, we would just have to see what sort of a response they would offer.

Beau did make it clear that, if the University was unwilling to meet his requests, Ben and Grant might decide to attend another school where Ben had been accepted, with scholarships. When asked, Ben listed some of the most prestigious schools in the country, but stated that he was interested in Cornell for his own personal reasons.

President Skorton assured Beau that the Board would give his proposal thorough consideration, and we left the meeting. As we walked back to the Statler, Beau announced to me that he was planning to put me on his payroll as his Ithaca representative. But he and Becca had a couple of meetings to attend. The boys had been sent on a campus tour with a couple of very pretty coeds. Gregg and I were on our own, with instructions to be back in Beau's suite at 5:30 for cocktails. My head was spinning.

We went out to our cars, after agreeing to meet again for dinner. Beau and Becca went in one direction, and Gregg and I turned down the hill toward the main part of town.

I glanced over at Gregg. "How are you feeling? Are you up for a little walk? Parking in Ithaca can be a problem, and I hate paying the prices at the parking garages, so I usually park a little way out of the center of town on a side street and walk from there."

"That's fine with me. I'm not quite that decrepit yet." He grinned at me.

I found a parking place about six blocks from the center of town, and we walked from there, enjoying the warm summer sun. When we reached the Commons, I stopped for a moment. "Well, here it is. The business heart of downtown Ithaca. Sadly, most of the business has moved out of the city to malls on the edge of town. People prefer to shop there, since just about anything you need is there, under one roof, and there is plenty of free parking. Downtown has become a sort of college boutique, with specialty shops catering to the needs and interests of the students and their families. But I think it might be a good location for you, since you have the kind of store that will draw students and townies alike."

Gregg looked around. "It's really a pretty town. All the stores are freshly painted, and the planters down the center, with the trees and the flowers, make it quite attractive, a nice place to stroll and shop."

"That, it is. And, despite the fact that most of the stores are quite trendy, there is a lot of shopping traffic. People enjoy just strolling around the Commons and browsing in windows. That alone will bring business into your store."

"Speaking of which, where is 'my store'?" I noticed that he was beginning to look a little excited by the possibilities.

"It's just up the Commons a little way, in the first block. When they built the Commons, they took out two blocks of State Street, the main street of town, and two blocks of Tioga Street which crosses State. So the Commons is rather T-shaped. Center Ithaca, the big new building up there, crosses what used to be Tioga Street and extends up to Aurora Street, the next cross street."

"I can't get used to all the hills around the town. It's so different from where I've been living for the past forty years."

"Yeah, that's probably a big shock for you. Ithaca is built in a bowl. The only way you can get out of town without going uphill is to take a boat up the lake. This area, the Finger Lakes, was formed by glaciers pushing down from Canada. The glaciers dug long trenches, spread out rather like fingers, hence the name. The Iroquois, the Native people who lived here before the Europeans came, believed that the lakes were formed when the Great Spirit pressed His hand down on the land. They considered the area blessed by His touch."

"The lake looks almost like a river, as we saw it from the plane coming in. How long is it?"

"Cayuga, the central lake, where Ithaca is located, is the longest, about forty-three miles, but Seneca, the next lake to the west, is about forty-one miles long. Seneca is wider, though."

"The names are interesting. Where do they come from?"

"Most of them are named for the Iroquois nations that lived on them. The Iroquois were a band of, originally five, then six nations. Each nation had its own territory and its own rulers. For a long time, the nations didn't get along, and there were border wars. They really banded together, on the side of the English, in the Revolutionary War."

"Wow! There's a lot of history in this area, isn't there?"

"Yes, and there are more legends and myths than actual history. Central New York is a strange place, I guess by the standards of people from other parts of the country, but it is a very interesting place to live."

"So, where is 'my store'?"

"Come on, and I'll show you." We walked about half a block up the Commons, and I directed him to a vacant store. Looking up, we could see the windows of the two floors above it. Some of the buildings on the street were three stories, some four. Gregg stepped into the recessed doorway and peered into the empty store.

"Oh, this is perfect. It's a little bigger than my store in Fremont, but I think it will do very nicely. It looks as if there is a back room, as well. That would be great for storage and for a workshop to carve puppets."

"Well, we'll find out in a little while. It's about 11:00 now, and we don't have to meet Sally here until 2:30. How would you like to just walk around and get an idea of the downtown area.?"

"That sounds like fun. I've been so busy the last few weeks, then the trip yesterday, that I haven't had a chance to just slow down and 'smell the roses,' as they say."

We strolled along the Commons, from one end to the other, both sides of the street, and Gregg had to stop and investigate every store along the way. "Oh, they have a Subway, too. I like Subway sandwiches."

"Well, that answers one question I was going to ask you. We can go there for lunch, whenever you're hungry, since it's only about a block away from 'your store.'"

When we reached the west end of the Commons, I suggested, "Just a block down this street, Cayuga, is the DeWitt Mall. It's in the old building where I attended high school. The district built a new high school some years back, on the 'Goose Pasture,' a tract of swamp land close to the lake. Then they decided to put in an underground lecture hall and an in-ground swimming pool. I really don't know what they were thinking when they planned it. I taught there for a couple of years, and the first year the lecture hall filled up to ground level during the spring run-off, and the swimming pool was flooded with run-off water and had to be drained, cleaned and refilled." I've kind of lost track of what's going on, so I don't know if they fixed the problem, or if they're still having problems. It wouldn't have been myfirst choice of location for a high school."

We continued walking down the street. When we came to the Mall, I asked Gregg if he wanted to go in and look around. "Maybe later. It's too nice outside today. Is that a park just past this building?"

"Yes, DeWitt Park, named for Simeon DeWitt, one of the early movers and shakers in this area. And, unless it has been removed in the last few years, there is still a law on the books against pasturing your cow in the park."

"He laughed. "Are there that many cows in Ithaca?"

"Not any more. But this was a small village for many years, and the residents kept cows, pigs and chickens. As recently as when I was growing up here - and that's not as recent as I would like to think! - a few people on the North Side still kept a few chickens in their back yards."

"I think this is going to be an interesting place to live."

"Do you mean 'interesting' as in the Chinese curse: "May you have an interesting life"?

"Not at all. It's just so different from what I'm used to."

"To give you an idea of what the natives think, I just saw a bumper sticker the other day: 'Ithaca, 10 square miles surrounded by reality.'"

Gregg laughed; he seemed much more relaxed today. I was really glad to see that. I was increasingly aware of the feelings growing in me. I wanted to know Gregg better. I was already beginning to like him, and I hoped so much that he would like me, too.

We strolled slowly around the park, looking at the war memorials, the statues, and some of the people passing by. We found a bench in the shade; it was getting quite warm now. We just sat there, chatting, nothing of importance, just a comfortable exchange between friends. And it seemed we were becoming friends. He was relaxed with me, and he joked about things.

Oh, Harley, you're getting into something deeper than you may be ready to deal with. Watch yourself!