Surprise

He was surprised when a vehicle finally pulled over to pick him up. He had been thumbing for a ride for over an hour and was to the point of giving it up, but he had no other options to get to the place he was offered to crash overnight.

He was even more surprised to find that the driver was a pretty young woman with a friendly smile and just a bit too much makeup. She was very charming and chatty, he thought almost too familiar.

He was back in the area where he had gone to high school for a year or so before heading off to university and new adventures. Unfortunately his dreams about the future and and some vague notion about how he would be a part of changing the world for the better got derailed. He was only a mediocre student, partly because he really didn't have any idea what he was working toward for his future. His parents' goal was that he graduate high school and go to university. Beyond that he had no idea what to do.

Universities anticipate that students often end up in university with no idea how to focus their education and work toward a realistic outcome, so they assign students with advisors, typically professors that the students take classes with.

He took a history class with a professor who had no social skills and was to put it bluntly a nerd. He hated the classes because the professor did nothing but sit at his desk and read from his notes for an hour and a half three classes a week.

Much to his frustration and disappointment this was the professor who was assigned to be his advisor. What the hell? He had to meet with his advisor twice a week and they could barely even make small talk. The advisor had nothing to offer. They would sit and drink stale luke warm coffee and try to have a conversation. He had to ask all the questions and try to keep some semblance of a conversation going. he did at least get some sense of who his advisor was as a person, which was even more disheartening.

He found out that his advisor rented a room at the university during the week then took the train home to live with his mother during the weekend and holidays. The man had no friends or social life. He had never travelled or been part of any social circles or associations. All he had done in his life was study and spend his off time with his mother. What the hell could he offer in terms of advice about life and goals and options? Eventually the twice weekly meetings petered out and finally just ended.

So he just spent the rest of the year just cruising by and barely getting the marks he needed to g on to his second year.

The academic year ended and he found a summer job for minimum wage and went about the routine of applying for student loans and grants, which was pretty much a sure thing for just about every student at that time. Only it wasn't for him. He was declined for student loans or grants. Apparently because his mother went to work and his father had a pension so they were supposed to be able to pay for his education. They were living pay check to pay check.

So he had to work. He pumped gas, worked in a bar and helped out as an assistant installing carpets and flooring. One Sunday afternoon sitting in the quiet gas bar he looked out over the farm field and the blue sky with puffy white clouds and he could not imagine living the rest of his life this way, working dead end jobs in a small dying town. he knew he had to somehow get back to university so he could get an education and have a better life.

He knew that he could never save enough money working these minimum wage jobs. He had to come up with a plan.

He was in a little town in a farming community. He started to observe the farmers and what they were doing to earn a living. It occurred to him that a lot of the farmers raised cattle. he thought if he could buy some cows and raise them on a pasture he could fatten them up over the summer and then sell them in the fall and maybe make enough money to go back to school.

So he rented ten acres of pasture land and fenced it off and built a small barn with scraps of lumber and cheap doors and shingles. Enough to protect the cows in bad weather. Then he went to cattle sales and put in low bids, but enough to get a half dozen cows. and his plan worked.

In the fall before school went in he sold his now fat cows and got enough money to pay his tuition and finally also managed to get a grant. At night he worked cleaning the student union building. In the mean time he worked hard on his studies and got involved in student government. It finally seemed like things were coming together.

And as the years went on he got the life he thought he wanted. He was successful and went the usual route of divorce and job changes and all the other stuff that seems to be pretty normal these days.

But then when he was working in a senior management job he met the wrong woman. Before he knew it she had moved into his house and was manipulating his entire life. Yet he was entirely under her spell. And that is when his life blew apart. She got him drunk then called the police to have him locked up for the night.

A few weeks later he found out she was having affairs with several other men. The argued and he left and drove down to the local bar where he drank two doubles before deciding he better go back home. Mistakenly he thought he was ok to drive the six blocks back home. But he was not aware that she had called the police to tell them he was at the bar and would likely drive back home. He left the bar and got in his car and was immediately arrested.

The long and the short of it is he lost his license and his job and was kicked out of his house because this woman told the police that she was afraid of him.

Finally by that point he realized that this woman was trouble with a capital T. So he left that town as fast as he could. The only place he could think of to go was back to that little town that he had left years ago. At least he could find some place to crash while he tried to figure out what to do next.

It was when he was hitchhiking back to the little town that the young woman stopped and picked him up. as they drove and chatted he realized that she was flirting with him. As they talked she admitted that she remembered him from high school and had a crush on him. He was surprised, because he did not remember her at all. As they arrived in the little town she invited him in for a drink. Why not he thought, I have nothing better to do and he was kind of flattered and thought maybe it would be an interesting evening.

So they had a few drinks and one thing led to another and he slept with her. He fell into a nice comfortable sleep. Then suddenly she was shaking him and telling he had to leave quickly. He was con fused and asked her what was going on,

She said her husband would be arriving home soon. What?

He said to her that he thought she was single and she had never even hinted that she was married. She said she wanted out of her marriage and that now she could make that happen because she was going to tell her husband when he got home that she had slept with someone while he was working,

He was stunned, he had been manipulated again. He said you aren't going to tell him who you slept with are you?

Well she said that is my guarantee that I can end my marriage. Well he said what if he doesn't even know who I am. Then I can stay out of this.

But she said, he does know who you are very well. Surprise, my husband is your cousin!