Breaking the Rule

Now that Fred was nearly retired, he decided that he should enroll in a course in history at the local community college. He very much wanted to keep his mind active, as he had too many friends of his age who became what we would call (but not to their faces) ‘brain dead’ after they had retired.

It was quite difficult for him to enroll in the course. The administrators of the local college were very strict, and created very inflexible rules for a number of things. As he had never gone to college before, he had to have an appointment with the dean to explain why it was that he should be considered an appropriate student. He prepared himself well. He brought with him a list of all the history books he had read over the last year or so, and explained what each one of them was about. It was a very demanding interview. He also had to bring with him a copy of the marks that he had received in high school a very long time ago. It was two days later that he was informed by the dean’s secretary (they must have had a meeting) informing him that he had been accepted by the college.

When he picked up his copy of the course program, he noticed that the name of the teacher of the course, had the first name Janet. That was a special name to him, as his first and deepest love in high school had that name. They had a strong relationship for year. But she left town to go to a prestigious university far away when she graduated, and he never saw or heard from her again. That next year he married Martha, who divorced him for another after only a few years time. He never remarried.

Walking into the Room to See a Surprise

When Fred walked into the classroom, he looked at the teacher and was quickly certain that she was the Janet from his high school days, now an older woman with a different last name. She looked in his direction at about the same time and smiled in his direction. She recognized him too. Both of them were amazed.

She turned out to be a good teacher too. He knew that he would learn a lot from her. At the end of the class, he walked up to the front of the room. She took a few steps in his direction. They almost hugged each other, but something held her back.

She asked him whether he had a class now. He told her that hers was the only class that he was taking. He said that he needed something for his brain to do now that he was recently retired, and he was interested in learning history.

She told him that she would like to talk to him, to ‘catch up’ with his life, and also fill him in about what had happened to hers.. She then told him that the college had a very strict policy on ‘fraternizing’ as it was put between teachers and students. That meant that the two of them could not speak openly about their past relationship in the office that she shared with various other professors, or go to the doughnut shop nearby that they were both familiar with from their past history. There was another class soon to come in, so they could not talk about there past there either.

As the two of them began to head out of the room, Janet quickly wrote down her e-mail address and phone number, and asked him to write his as well. He did so quickly, smiling as he did so. In their minds, they both hugged each other, no arms, just thoughts involved, both hoping that that would change.

Their First Phone Call

Early that night they had their first phone call. It was a long one. They had a lot of catching up to do. The first shared subject was their marital history. It was history for both of them. Their marital partners had long ago abandoned them. Both of them lived on their own. Neither had any children, their partners had not wanted any.

They joked about the college administrators tapping their phones. Janet said that she half-believed that if it were legal for them to do so, they would certainly do it.

They Are Seen

By the end of the call, the two of them had decided that they would go to the local doughnut shop that was roughly equally apart from their two homes. They ate, drank coffee, and laughed a lot about the memories that they shared. What they did not see was David, a college administrator who came into the shop but just to pick up a doughnut and a coffee, not to sit at a table like the two old friends were doing.

He saw them, and he knew that Fred was in her history class. He was going to give her a very hard time for breaking the rules like this. It made him half-smile, because he liked to exercise his power, particular in his relationship with teachers.

The next day he walked into the office that Janet shared with her peers. He was glad to see that Janet was not alone in her office. Other teachers were there too. His words were within seconds spoken.

“So yesterday I saw you in the doughnut shop with one of your male students. You seemed like a very cozy couple. You should know that such behaviour is against our rules. What do you have to say about this?

Janet was silent for a few seconds, but she was fast and creative with her response.

“The man that you saw me with is my husband. We were in high school together, and were boyfriend and girlfriend at that time. Over the summer we met up again, and came to realize why we were so close as teenagers. In a short period of time, we got married, something we should have done a long time ago. I did not change my name, as I am proud of my family.”

David was aghast, and found it hard to come up with a fitting response. In a non-committal response, he weakly said, ‘Well congratulations’. He then briskly turned around and hustled out of the office.

Janet’s co-workers just smiled at her, wondering why she had not told them about this change in her life.

She then e-mailed Fred as quickly as she could. He responded with a “right on.” It would not be long before a lie became a truth. In the meantime they violated the strict rule with great joy.