ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 132 - SUMMER

JUNE 30, 2009
MONDAY
3:00PM

The sound of gravel could be heard crunching, as the DeSoto sped up the drive.

The driver's door was flung open, and seconds later William was in the house.

"Elizabeth!"

"I'm in here."

"Guess what?" William called out excitedly, as he bounded into the kitchen.

"What?"

"Professor Wittman offered me a job being his teacher’s assistant during the Summer II session."

"He did?"

"Yeah, he saw me as I was leaving today and asked me if I'd be interested."

"I didn't know professors had T.A.'s during the summer," Buffy said, surprised.

"He told me they usually don't, but he's in the middle of having some sort of medical treatments, and his wife hasn’t been well, either, so he’s not having a very easy time of it at all. That’s why the university agreed to lem him hire someone.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I told him I’d be interested, but that I had to talk to you about it first.”

“But you want to?” Buffy asked.

William nodded, “I think so. The pay is better than at either Montessori or the library, and I’d get somewhere between 25 – 35 hours a week. At least until the end of Summer II. After that, who knows if he’d still need an assistant or if he’d still want it to be me,” William said, shrugging.

He continued, “If I do, I’m not sure which class I’ll be able to fit around that, if at all. I might just take an online course instead. Oh, and I’m thinking I’ll probably have to just quit my job at the library for now. I could probably still be able to do the outdoor work for Montessori in the evening or morning,” he looked over at Buffy, “back to where I started, eh?”

“You sure you’d want to go and get all sweaty with the outdoor stuff with Montessori after working all day?”

“Well, I could always work at the library instead, but I think I’d rather like the diversion, after grading papers and helping with lesson plans, which is what he said I would be doing. Maybe helping him make some lecture notes and such. What do you think? I hate to give up either job, if this is only going to last for a little over a month or so...”

“I don’t know,” Buffy said, “I think that Montessori would be glad to have you whenever you could work for them. Even if you didn’t work for them for a month, I think they’d still want you back, if you were available. The library likes you, too, but I don’t know if they’d have such a lenient policy.”

William nodded his head, “Guess I’d better think it all over, eh, luv?”

She nodded, “By the way, what class is Wittman teaching this time?”

“Classical Literature in the 18th and 19th Centuries,” he replied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The summer progressed, and William and Buffy went to school; William to his new job as Professor Wittman’s T.A.; hers at Montessori. William also found a course called Painting with Watercolors, offered early in the morning, twice weekly, and which he could fit in before the starting time of his job there.

Both Montessori and the library told him they’d work around his schedule, so two nights a week he worked at the library for a couple of hours. For Montessori, he worked one evening per week; and every other Saturday or Sunday, whatever day best fit his schedule.

Buffy found it strangely disconcerting to be going off every morning to school, without William. She’d sometimes look out the windows of her classroom almost wistfully, thinking she was going to see him out and about, as she had for the last 9 months. She felt like that after school too, when she’d always met up with him at the library, before they went home together.

The first week, he drove over from San Marcos on his lunch hour every day, just to see her for about 20 minutes, before having to turn around and drive right back. Buffy knew he did it because it made them both feel good to touch bases with each other in the middle of the day, but she also didn’t want him to have to be so hurried, so she told him he needn’t come every day. After that, he only did so occasionally. They also found a nice little park, about half way between the two towns, so a couple of times a week, they would meet there at lunchtime.

They worked, sparred, fenced, and planted botowerower and vegetable gardens. She didn't have any eye for details as far as what type of flower should go where for maximum effect, or for a three-season effect; she just liked what she liked. William, on the other hand, drove them to nursery and garden centers, looked up information on gardening, and bought books on the subject. He wound up doing most of the layout, though he made sure to buy most of the flowers that she liked, even if they didn't exactly fit into a planned garden.

He wanted to make many of the beds raised, so he asked Clem to help him build those. Although William groused at having to buy 'dirt,' Buffy convinced him that it would be infinitely easier and less time consuming, than having to dig it all out of the hard ground. Luckily, they were able to borrow an old beat-up truck, which Edna still owned, for transporting the fifty 40lb. bags of dirt from the nursery to their garden. This dirt would be their top 6 - 8 inches.

When it was finished, and all the flowers and vegetables had been planted, it looked really great, and Buffy was appreciative that he had such a good eye for beauty.

Clem decided that he also wanted a couple of raised beds, and so William helped him with his, too.

"You know, Buffy, in the fall we could can some of the tomatoes and other vegetables for the winter," Clem suggested.

"Uh...yeah. Well...I'm not sure I'm the canning type," Buffy said. In fact, she'd once seen a sign that really epitomized her attitude on the whole domestic thing. It had read: 'The only thing domestic about me, is that I live indoors.' That was more or less, her motto.

"Well, it's not that hard, but if you don't want to, I can probably can some of your vegetables for you," Clem offered.

"You don't have to do that, I mean, it's not that hard or expensive to just buy them when I need them."

But Clem insisted that if he was going to can for himself, he might as well do it for them, too.

She sighed. William and Clem were certainly more domestic than she ever was or probably would be.

Oh, well.

The three of them shared a lot of dinners that summer, mostly cooked on a small gas grill and served around their new outdoor table and chairs. The guys would inevitably talk, not about sports or such, but about home repairs. One weekend, they'd finally made a plan to finish the bathroom floor, but first they sanded the old, rough wood-hewn walls, and Buffy was finally able to paint them, something she'd never done before. Part of it was that she didn't want to change anything as it had been from the time she'd come up there with him. Maybe if she'd lived there alone for another 5 years, she might have changed her mind and made it more to her liking, but except for little changes, it had pained her to think of changing things from the way he'd had them.

However, now that the 'he' in question was here and all for updating things, she had no problem what-so-ever with the proposed changes. New floor and paint in bathroom. Check. New toilet eventually. Check and double check! Vampires didn\eed eed much in the way of toilets, and this one had obviously been put in as a second thought. Well, nevermind that. New and improved kitchen cabinets and floor, eventually. Check and check!

They'd taken a long weekend over July 4th, to drive up the coast and visit some places that sounded interesting, as well as visiting some vineyards, making it as far as Big Sur. Dawn and John had gone with them. They'd splurged and come back with half a case of their favorite new wine.

Buffy never saw the picture William had drawn that night again. When she'd asked about it, he'd told her that he'd accidentally ruined it, when his teacup had tipped over onto it. In the interim, he'd made her lots of other lovely pictures, some even in the same pose, but in modern clothes. She was going to ask him if he could do that, why not of the dress, but she knew there was something about that, which disturbed him. She had further proof of that, when she leaned down to vacuum underneath their bed, and the box was gone completely. She decided to not push the subject any further.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JULY 26, 2009
SATURDAY
10:00PM

"So, now I think you must agree that A Midsummer Night's Dream is the funnier play," William said to John, as the four of them walked out of The Olde Globe Theatre, having just seen the Taming of the Shrew.

"Hmm...I'll let you know over coffee," John said, adding good naturedly, "if you’ll buy."

"Agreed," William said, as they wandered towards Starbucks.

The tickets for the play had originally been for June, but due to some construction going on at The Olde Globe, the date had been changed.

"Hmm..." Buffy said as they approached the coffee shop, "looks different than it did last time."

"Maybe it wasn't just The Olde Globe that was getting a facelift; maybe it was all of Balboa Park," Dawn suggested.

Buffy shrugged.

They ordered their favorites again; an Iced Latte with skim milk for Buffy, Espresso for John, an Iced Mocha for William, and an Iced Vanilla Mocha for Dawn, and took their seats.

There were two guys behind the counter this time; Eddie and Ralph, both law students from SDSU. This time when the buzzer went off, Eddie immediately went to the back office.

"I heard it," said Aaron to Eddie, as he adjusted the monitors. His heart sped up, as he spotted the two persons of immediate interest who had been there a couple of months before. Again, they were with two other people.

"How long have they been here?"

"About 2 minutes, if that long," Eddie replied.

"Okay, here's the plan..."

"So, what do you say now, John?"

"Okay, William, I give! I think that you're right. Overall, A Midsummer Night's Dream is the funnier of the two plays, both written and performed. But that's only because it's a bit more textured. I still say Taming of the Shrew is good, even better for just guffaws."

William grinned, "How about you girls, what do you think?"

Buffy moaned, looking at Dawn, "They want us to remember back to what we saw in May? Okay, I think I have to put my money with A Midsummer Night's Dream, too," she said, smiling at William, who smiled back at her, pleased.

"Dawn?" John asked.

"Uh...yeah, Midsummer Night's Dream. Sorry, honey."

John threw up his hands; "The majority has spoken, alas!"

They talked some more about the plays and other things.

"So, same plan as before? You guys going to follow us to Julian?" William asked.

"Sure, sounds good," John answered.

Buffy got up from her seat, "I'm going to make a pit stop before we get going," she said, looking at Dawn.

"Yes, sister, I'll go with you," Dawn grinned, "you know, it's really pathetic, she can't go to the bathroom by herself."

William and John grinned, knowing how it was with the girls.

"I'll have you know that I go to the bathroom by myself all the time, isn't that so, William?"

"Well..." he said, blushing as he thought of how they were both sometimes in and out the bathroom, regardless of what the other happened to be up to at the moment. He cleared his throat, "Yes, that's correct," he said, ng tng this line of discussion was at an end.

John was laughing as the girls walked off.

"For a minute there, Buffy, I thought William was going to give us T.M.I.," Dawn said, rolling her eyes.

"Uh-uh, he knows better than that," she laughed, as they walked into the bathroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"William, how about I pick up us some of their house coffee for tomorrow morning and some of those scones they have in the case over there?" John asked, pointing to the right of the cash register.

"That’d be very nice, but unnecessary, really. We have both coffee and tea at the house."

"I know you do, I just want to do this, that alright?"

William nodded and John got up and walked to the counter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This looks like our shot," Aaron said, getting up, “now, get out there and distract them.”

Eddie nodded and left the office.

Aarent ent to the back of the room, and got an empty garbage bag and put it into the spare garbage cart. He opened the closet and unzipped a garment bag and slipped on the maintenance jumpsuit and cap that Wolfram & Hart had provided. Lastly, he put on a mustache and a pair of black rimmed glasses. He opened the back door to the store and pulled the garbage cart through it.

Eddie came up to the counter and nodded to Ralph to take the new customer's order, while he waited on John.

"What flavors are these scones?" John asked.

"Hmm, let's see. Blueberry, apple, and pineapple."

"William," John called over to him, "what's your pleasure? Blueberry, apple, or pineapple?"

"Would you like a taste?" Eddie asked.

"Sure, if you have some samples, I don't want you to..."

"No, that's fine, we'll be getting some new ones in tomorrow morning, anyway," Eddie said, taking three of the scones out of the case."

John shrugged, as he turned around to William, motioning him over with his hand.

William set down his coffee cup and walked over to the case, just as Eddie was handing out small pieces of the scones for them to taste.

Aaron, who had been watching from around the corner, saw the perfect opening, and wheeled the cart into the cafe. With a glance at the counter and towards the bathrooms, he quickly picked up the four coffee cups off the table, and tossed them into the special garbage bag, then turned around to leave.

Just then, Buffy and Dawn were coming out of the bathroom.

"Shit!" Dawn said.

"What's shit?"

"That guy just threw away our drinks," Dawn said, pointing at the man, now wheeling the cart out the door, "and mine was practically full! You'd think he'd have known they belonged to someone, since our jackets are on the backs of the chairs, wouldn't you?"

Buffy looked, a couple of their programs from the play were also there.

"Hey!" Buffy said, heading over to the door, where the man was about to leave with his garbage cart.

Aaron ignored her, but Buffy caught up with him and tapped him on the arm, "Hey! I'm talking to you, what's the big idea, taking our drinks?" Buffy asked.

John and William turned from the counter, as they heard Butalktalking.

Aaron whirled around and glared at her, unable to think of what to say. Buffy repeated herself, noting both the nervousness, and hostile body language.

"Miss?" Eddie called from the counter. " Um... he's deaf, he doesn't speak either. I'm sure he just made a mistake, we'll be glad to replace all your drinks for free."

"Oh...I'm sorry," Buffy mumbled, as she watched Aaron hurrying out doo door, pushing the cart.

Buffy turned and walked ove the the counter.

"I'm sorry about that, Miss," Eddie said, "he's a bit slow, too. Doesn't always notice things other people would."

"Like the fact that someone has left their table for a moment?"

"We'll be happy to replace all your drinks, if you'll just tell me what you had," Eddie repeated, a nervous smile pasted on his face, while Ralph looked on nervously, as well.

"Never mind, I don't want anything else, but you guys can, if you want," Buffy said, curtly.

William came over and put his arm around her, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing. Can we just get out of here?" Buffy said, her tone sharper than she intended, the incident having upset her for some reason she couldn't define.

William nodded curtly and withdrew his arm, “Of course,” then looked at the others.

"I'm ready," Dawn said, shrugging and looked over at John.

"That's fine," he said, picking up the bag, containing the coffee and scones.

They got their jackets and walked outside.

"See you guys in Julian," William said, when him and Buffy got to their car.

"See you then," Dawn said, looking over quizzically at Buffy, who ignored the look.

William didn’t say much as he drove them out of San Diego. He commented that John and Dawn were right behind them, after losing them for a few minutes. Other than that, he pretty much kept his eyes on the road.

“I’m sorry,” Buffy said, once they got on the hiy.
y.

“For what?”

“For snapping at you back there, at Starbucks.”

He patted her leg, letting her know that he wasn’t upset about it. She put her head on his shoulder, and closed her eyes, trying to forget about the stupid incident.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11:30PM

“We’re home,” William said, gently shaking her.

“Huh? What? Oh, I didn’t realize I’d dozed off. Seems that's all I do when you drive us back from San Diego.”

“That's okay, I don't mind. No wonder you wanted to leave, you were exhausted, although the coffee may have helped with that,” he grinned.

“Yeah, probably,” she said, lightly, as she got out of the car.

John and Dawn were already out of theirs, holding their overnight bags.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once again, they played cards and board games. This time, Dawn brought a Trvial Pursuit, Shakespeare Edition, which of course, her and Buffy sucked at, while John and William had no problem.

While they played, John and Dawn asked William about his new job at the university, and he eagerly talked about it and the class he was taking.

A couple of hours later, the girls were in the kitchen putting away the night's collection of cups, plates, etc., when Buffy looked over at Dawn.

"You know that thing that happened at Starbucks? That was really weird."

"What? That guy who took our drinks thing?" Dawn asked.

She nodded, "Yeah, he seemed...I don't know, like really anxious when I confronted him."

"He's deaf, he probably gets his signals crossed all the time..."

"No, Dawn. It was something else about it. And I don't think he was deaf, either."

"Why?"

"Because he paused when I first called out to him, then kept going."

"Are you sure?"

Buffy nodded, "About 95% sure. And when that guy at the counter called to me to tell me about it, I saw him turn his head the same time I turned mine."

"Maybe he just turned his when you turned yours? I m lot lots of deaf people have to use their other senses, so maybe he saw you."

"I don't know, it seemed like he turned his before me, or at least at the same time. It was just...the whole thing just seemed off somehow."

"Back to seeing elephantsen ien it's just coffee?"

"I guess. I hope so,” Buffy said, “I really hope so.”

END CHAPTER 132