By the time I got to college, higher education was in a major decline. I went to Portland State University, one of the few operating colleges in the country. Portland still had electricity and a semi-functioning economy. People from all over the former United States traveled to Portland for their education. For myself, I just traveled from the suburbs to the downtown. The commute was easy; I just went with mom or dad. The edge of the campus was about a mile from their office. It was quick to walk or take a bus to school. During my commutes, I did get my share of Portland's famous 164 rainy days per year, especially since both the rain and my studies took a break for the summer.
My freshman year was harder than I expected. I suppose that it was a mistake to think that college would be an extension of high school. For me, the first month of college was a big wake-up call. The computer science department insisted that first-year students take an impossible load for the first term. I took English Composition I, World History, Calculus I, Physics I, and Introduction to Engineering. The thing that drove me crazy was that none of this was necessary to help my work for my parents. All of this was some grotesque idea of an academic torture chamber designed to see who could take the pressure. I suppose the idea was to winnow out the losers before wasting any precious space in a class with a professor from the computer science department.
It quickly became clear that my plan to be a commuter student was a mistake. I was not able to get enough study time. I needed rides at inconvenient times. My parents had a creative solution. There was a wing of their office building with a break room, some bathrooms, a shower, and two rooms with locking doors where people could sleep for the night if they were on some round-the-clock project. My mom gave me a set of keys and an ID card so that I could use these facilities.
Using my parents' workplace as a substitute dorm room was somewhat awkward, especially when there was a round-the-clock project going on. But compared to other students, my situation was so much better. I learned how to avoid any embarrassing issues. I kept only enough clothing and other items to last a week. As much as possible, I ate in the cafeteria so that I was not using the break room for major food preparation. It was difficult to be cooking a meal when the staff just wanted a snack or some coffee.
There were some advantages to spending the evenings (and sleeping) at a business. I learned what the staff was doing, and they learned what I was doing. The staff seemed to be impressed at how hard I was working. Occasionally they helped me with my subjects. I learned that most of the programmers were also good at calculus and were good teachers. I helped set up virtual machines, rewired test networks, and configured some test databases for them. I did not do that much, but it was enough to show that I was willing and able to pitch in when they got overwhelmed by simple tasks. I know my parents were concerned that my presence was a distraction. They were thrilled that I was making myself useful now and then.
My social life was virtually nonexistent that fall term. It was a matter of academic survival. I had yet to learn that getting allies was a good way to get across the finish line. The truth was that I met a lot of students, and pursued virtually no friendships. I will say that there were several students who I ignored who turned out to be great friends once I started building a network of friends.
In my second semester, I was talking about one of our assignments with a fellow student. She just said, “Let's work together on the assignment. It will not work out for you to be in my dorm room. Which dorm do you live in?” I said, “I live at home and mid-week I live in a break room at a local business.” She did not believe me at all. I knew I could get into trouble, but I did want to show Faith Winters that I was telling the truth. Instead of eating at the cafeteria, I took her to a Thai restaurant. Then I walked down the block with her to a modest two-story building. I used my key and ID card to get in. Fortunately, there was no after-hours project that night; the building was ours. I showed her my wing, the bathrooms, shower, sleeping rooms, and break room that collectively was my dorm area. There were two sleeping rooms, each with two single beds. She quietly said, “This is so unusual, but I can see how it helps cut costs for your family. A dorm can be rather expensive in this economy.” I did not want to say that my parents could have afforded to pay for a dorm room; they just thought it was an unnecessary expense.
Even though it was already 6:30 in the evening, we spent over 4 hours on our project. During that time, I did ask Faith about who she was dating. She was extraordinarily beautiful, and I expected her to tell me about her main guy. She laughed and said, “You need to learn a lot about life, young man. Black men do not appreciate females who are accomplished, especially in math, science, or computers. They do not like tall women, and they have a strong preference for light skinned women.” I was very surprised. I just said, “Why, you are so beautiful.” She just looked me in the eye and said, “You are the first guy not in my family ever to say that.” She cried a little bit. As we worked, we shared numerous stories. We each decided that the details of the other were unbelievably hysterical. Our backgrounds were equally confusing to other people. Somehow, we instantly understood each other. Somehow, we managed to get the project done.
We got too tired to walk back to her dorm. She was too scared to sleep in a room by herself in what she called a haunted building. So we each slept in one of the small beds in the same room. Nothing sexual happened; we were both so tired. I knew that I had made many mistakes this year. I had not seen the advantage of study partners. I just assumed that everyone I saw was already paired up, and so why bother? I realized that I was an exotic entity. I was the guy who studied in a company break room. Being half-Chinese and half-German did not hurt matters at all. And I had the most beautiful freshman girl sleeping with me in a tiny room set aside for workers who were at the edge of exhaustion. In the morning, I told her that the first workers come in at 7:30. So we took quick private showers, collected our things, and left around 7:10. I did make a big pot of coffee. I knew it would be drained quickly before another hour was gone. Faith was wide-eyed that I had access to all the computers and facilities. I just said that I liked it when the workers could help me with my math, and I could help them set up virtual computers. Faith just looked at me as if I was a magician. I did not want to burst her bubble. To me, she was the most exotic thing I had ever encountered. She was very smart, very funny, and full of amazing stories. I will go into more detail later in this story. Let's just say that I was very much in love.
There was one big downside. It was just 12 days before the end of our freshman year. We would be spending the summer apart. We had summer jobs in different states. I decided to keep my new friend a secret from my family through the summer. I did talk to her once or twice a week. I could not wait for my sophomore year.
On the day before classes started, I met up with Faith. We just hugged each other for five minutes and spent a few hours talking. I talked Faith into visiting my family that weekend. I called my family to say that I was coming home for the weekend with a friend I met at the end of my last year.
Faith talked a friend into giving us a ride to my house on Friday. My parents were very gracious but were obviously surprised when their college boy came home with an ebony beauty. Faith was very charming and well spoken. I am sure she noticed the surprise on my parents' faces when she walked into the house. The evening went surprisingly well. I have to admit that I started to learn things about Faith that I had not already known. I did know that her family was from the Los Angeles area, that Faith mentioned that her mother and her mother's uncle were very smart and that Faith's father had created a chain of auto repair shops; but that was about all I knew about her family.
During the dinner, my parents started asking about Faith's family. We all knew that college was expensive, and there was no such thing as a college loan anymore. So who was paying the bills? She said her parents were able to afford it. She started to tell this amazing story. She explained, “My great-uncle spent a lot of time on the internet before the collapses on what was then called conspiracy websites. He told my mother that any money in a bank account or a standard investment would be lost. My mother was very frugal. She lived in a tiny house that was fully paid up in the San Fernando Valley. She lived on the fringes of Hollywood. She had a few bit parts, she gave voice and acting lessons, and she gathered and arranged for the production of masses of costumes. She said that she had no steady job, but she was always busy since she underbid everyone else. Once she was on the job, she found ways of making them sweeter for herself. Anyway, she listened to her uncle and converted all of her savings into gold, silver, and diamonds before the first financial collapse. While everyone else lost everything, she now had a small fortune. She sensed that her holdings would soon be declared contraband and she would be subject to arrest.”
She had our full attention. Somehow I had some difficulty picturing this black woman sneaking around Los Angeles with a forbidden cargo of valuables which were all acquired by scrimping and saving. I remember thinking how racist I was since I was kept thinking that her mom sounded white. I tried very hard to say nothing that would betray my assumptions about people. Faith continued, “My mother knew she needed to finance a business. The trouble was that just about everything was failing. She finally realized that with the collapse of the car manufacturing business, that auto repair business had a bright future. She somehow got hooked up with my dad, who ran a small, but successful repair shop. They got married, and my mother's capital infusion allowed the business to expand. They now have ten locations around Los Angeles. If you talked to them, they would say they were not rich, but they never have any problem paying for my school fees.”
My mother told her story, “I met Chris's dad in college. We got an idea of how to better support local businesses. That is how we founded River Valley Systems. We were able to expand quite a bit after they pulled the plug on the web portion of the internet. We wrote software so that special client programs could get product details from business in a web-like user interface. Underneath, the whole thing runs on specially encoded e-mail. We give the consumer client software away for free, and charge businesses a fair amount to allow their inventory to be examined by the user. Essentially, we link up a product database with e-mail software. We have to keep changing things since the people who run things keep changing the rules as to what is allowed and what is not allowed. Sometimes I just wish we were poor and the internet was running like it did in the old days. But then we would not be able to send Chris to college. Just like your parents, we do not feel rich. But we can pay for the things we want.”
Somehow the subject of diamonds came up. I remember this clearly because Faith explained that her mother was able to sell her diamonds before the large crash in the price of diamonds. She said, “My mother always remarked about the huge difference between the purchase and the selling price for diamonds. Diamonds were a bad investment for the short term and the long term. She said that the only advantages of diamonds were for those situations when you needed to hide all your wealth up your ass. Otherwise, something else is always a better deal!” My father sputtered a bit and just said, “That is not very romantic. I just cannot see that being the catchphrase for jewelry stores when they advertise on the radio or on billboards.” I just remembered laughing so long at that. I did notice that my sister Jennie did not seem to like the joke. Perhaps she still wanted to get a big engagement ring someday. I wish I could have explained to her all the ways that the world had changed.
Somehow Faith mentioned that she had visited River Valley Systems. My father asked about it, and Faith said that she had slept there since it had gotten too late for her to get to the dorm. My father was quick to react. He said, “You slept with Chris at our company? When did this happen?” He started to look very scared. I said, “We were studying together. If you want, I can give you the exact date when we had the joint study session. It was about two weeks before the end of classes in the spring. We slept in separate beds and did not touch each other. Why are you getting so upset?” My father replied, “We have strict sexual conduct rules for our business. If anyone saw you there together, we could have a big lawsuit. Oh, I do not care if you sleep together. You are adults. You can sleep together in this house if you want, but you cannot be together in one of the bedrooms at work ever, ever.”
Faith looked down. I think this was all too much, too soon. I said quietly, “We have not slept together. I would rather not discuss sleeping arrangements, but Faith can sleep in my bedroom, and I can sleep in a spare bedroom or a couch. On the night in question, no one saw us, except some security tapes which I presume have been erased by now. We left about 30 minutes before the first employees come in. The only hint I left that we were there was a fresh pot of coffee, which I usually make before I leave. If someone measured the coffee in the pot, they could guess that two people drank from the pot previously. I do not think that will be the basis of any lawsuits.”
My mom spoke quietly and softly, “We all regret the limitations that the sleeping pod at work puts on your social life. Perhaps we can find a very inexpensive car for you to allow both of you more choices. Faith is most welcome to visit our business when paid staff or we are also present. And of course, you cannot be behind a closed door, ever.” Faith just said, “Of course, that makes plenty of sense.” I was angry since this was all too much airing of personal behavior before Faith and I had a chance to discuss much between ourselves. I did not disagree with anything they said. I knew my parents were always afraid of some small thing which would cause them to lose their business. I just wish there was a good way for me to tell them to take it down a notch.
If I was afraid that my parents would not like Faith, that was not an issue. They seemed to fall in love with her as much as I did. Only later did I realize their true motivation. It was as if they viewed a devotion to computers as a religion. They were terrified that I would marry outside the faith. Well, here I had a genuine computer nerd as a potential partner, who also had the right first name (at least for this pun). They wanted me to step into their shoes to keep the business going. If I had a partner who had interests elsewhere, I might have to leave or sell the business when they were gone. They were afraid of leaving Jennie without any support. Their love and concern for the welfare of Jennie lead them to go way out of their way to welcome Faith Winters into their family. There was a flipside which would cast a shadow for years. Jennie started to resent Faith almost from the beginning since she was taking up so much of our parents' focus.
That night we both ended up sleeping in my old room. She got the bed, and I got the floor. But we did snuggle up together a bit before falling asleep. I remember thinking that all was well in the world.
I do remember Faith being nervous about me meeting her new sophomore roommate. I knew that her name was Connie Hu, so I figured I would get along well since I was half-Chinese. I was a bit surprised walking into the room to see two students, one at the desk, reading from a book and asking questions, and one lying on the bed answering the questions. Neither one had a shirt or top on. Faith asked, “Hey, you are making my new boyfriend nervous, could you both put on a shirt?” The one on the bed said, “Faith, is this Chris?” I guessed she was Connie since she looked Chinese. While she was asking that she put on a shirt. The other student, just said quietly, “Mistress, hand me a shirt if you want me to wear one.” Connie tossed a shirt, and we all faced each other. I was glad that I was staring at the floor when Faith looked at me to see if I was staring at her roommates. Faith made the introductions. The woman at the desk was named Terry. Somehow no one mentioned her last name. I realized she had on a slave collar. I asked, “Are you a slave?” Connie answered, saying, “Yes, she belongs to my family. She is my tutor and friend.”
It finally dawned on me that Terry had addressed Connie as “Mistress.” I just said, “Can we at least address each other by their first name?” I was outraged that someone was being held as property. I thought the use of the word “belongs” in this context was obscene. I looked at Terry and said, “Have you ever been raped?” Connie started to yell. Terry raised both of her hands until Connie was quiet.
Terry said, “Let me answer this question if you please since I am being asked about my consent to sexual relations. I will freely admit that other people in my situation do not have the power to give any consent. But for me, lack of consent has been a rare situation. There is no hiding that Connie and I are very good friends. She always asks me about sex, and I do have the right to refuse. Let me make an analogy. Some people take long trips by buying a ticket for the first leg of the trip, and just see how things work out. Others carefully book, pay for, and plan their trips ahead of time. Some journeys are better than others. Chris, you and I will have similar journeys through life. Both of us will pay dearly for housing, transportation, and food. A small amount will be left over for miscellaneous possessions and personal delights. My journey is prepaid and pre-planned. Your journey is ‘pay as you go.’ You can handle money and make many decisions. I am free of concerns about the cash supply and making decisions, though I do wish to be consulted on these matters. I know you will point out that if I have a cruel or thoughtless owner, I can face deep hardship. Thus I need to be very careful in all aspects of my ownership. For example, if I were to learn that Connie's parents did not approve of our sexual relationship, I would do my best to help Connie find a solution to the situation since I would be at risk of being sold at auction. If I knew that Connie's parents faced financial problems, I would help Connie understand that we needed to raise money as fast as we could.”
I sucked in some air. Terry paused so that Connie could respond. Connie said, “You are right. It is in our best interest that we stay together. If someone offered me five million dollars for your heart, lungs, and liver, I would turn them down.” Terry just said, “That is the nicest thing you have ever said to me. Come over so you can kiss me.” At that point, Faith and I noticed that Terry had a small chain on her ankle so she could not get up from the desk. I just said, “People on prepaid trips do not need to be chained to a desk.” Terry just said, “Oh yes. The chain is Connie's way of saying that sexy time is over and now we need to work on Analytic Geometry. I know how much Connie has been looking forward to meeting Chris. I hope I have been pleasant, and not been too much of a distraction.”
Faith started to shake her head. She asked, “Why are you saying pre-pay? No slave is being prepaid for anything. They just have to work for no wages.” I said, “Think about it. If you are deeply in debt and cannot pay it back, the debt is wiped clean in exchange for the value of all your future wages. In that sense, you are being prepaid for a lifetime of work. Even if you are born into slavery, there is an implied promise to pay your expenses as long as your work justifies the expenses. She is very cynical, saying that a free person has little bargaining power to increase their wages. She is hinting that the slave, with their constant interaction with their owner, achieves similar leverage to increase their living standards.”
Then I turned to Terry. I said, “Terry, you are quite pleasant. It appears that you are only looking at things from your point of view. When I was in middle school, I lost about five good friends due to the enslavement of their families. I never saw them again. So I do admit to being heavily biased against slavery. I am glad you are in a good position.” Terry said, “My family had a good income. My parents used the income to build up substantial debt. We came to a point where debt was not accepted or acceptable anymore. As you said, every debt had to be settled. The result was that members of my family are in the prepaid labor pool. I think I am lucky since very few slaves ever go to college. And here I am in college, in love, and you are right, in chains. These are not bitter chains. They bind me to a life of learning, of love, and of teaching. I look forward with eagerness to that which lies ahead.”
After the “slavery debate,” we had a good discussion about who we were as people. Connie was pretty lively. Her grandparents were from China, and her parents were raised in America. They did approve of her relationship since it kept Connie focused on her coursework. The plus was that Connie was not about to get pregnant in college or be the subject of scandal as long as she was discreet outside of the dorm room. I thought Faith would object to having an extra roommate, but she did not seem to mind at all. She was scared of my reaction. I just figured that if no dorm rules were being broken, it was up to them to work out the complicated roommate issues. There were advantages when she wanted me to spend the night being intimate. It was easy to focus on your partner, and not on what was happening in the other bed. It was a very cozy relationship, and we all agreed that we had nothing to hide from each other. I learned to shed my inhibitions about clothing. Both Faith and Connie had to be a bit careful in what they said to their parents. I learned not to mention a word to anyone or to raise an eyebrow since a single hint could compromise our situation.
It turned out that Terry was a very good tutor. She helped Faith and me quite a number of times. Sometimes we walked with Terry to different places around campus as a favor since she had to be supervised at all times. Theoretically, she needed to have a leash attached to her collar, but we just put a small leather loop around her wrist, and no one gave us any problems. We visited my parents' business a few times with Terry. One staff person remarked that it was hard to find good programming talent in the prepaid labor pool. I wondered why that was.
Faith told me that sometimes Connie took Terry to all-girl parties on campus in a way that seemed humiliating. Terry would be wearing a leash, a collar, hot pants, and bare feet. The parties were pretty wild, and Terry was not the only one who was topless. Faith said she always took off her shirt to show solidarity with Terry. I did ask Terry about it, and she opened up, “I love playing this role. I go into the party fairly submissive, and then really loosen up. I get to say and do the most outrageous things. I make Connie bring me drinks and food. Sometimes I make her find people to come to talk to me. Sometimes Connie locks me to something. I play act that I have stolen the key and free myself. Some people act like I am committing the biggest crime ever. Sometimes Connie loses the leash. I yell at her saying things like, ‘I am practically naked without a leash!’ Just talking about this makes me laugh; it is the funniest shit you ever saw. For me, the most important result is that everyone at our female-only parties respects me very much. They are all very grateful when I assist them with their academics. By now, most of our friends know we are just acting, and they love it. So they watch us intently. If we didn't do this, no one would pay any attention to us. By being outrageous, we are the center of attention. I know that Connie loves this play-acting, and my main mission in life is to make Connie happy. So Mr. Grumpy, am I being exploited? Or are we exploiting everyone's sense of humor?”
I was not sure how to handle this. I did notice that Terry was treated with great respect all over the campus. I decided to let Connie, Terry, and Faith play all their silly roles. I also decided that I never get invited to the really fun parties. My main takeaway was not to judge people by how things appeared. I quietly urged Faith to loosen up and have a little bit more fun with things. I told Faith, “At the next dance, keep her shirt on and go steal Terry away from Connie. Dance with her and ask her if she would prefer to be dressed differently. She might surprise you.” Faith later admitted that I was right about how Connie and Terry were the life of the party.
On an errand away from Connie, I asked Terry, “I know you are happy in your life situation. But do you want your children to grow up on a prepaid basis, and your grandchildren? Don't you wish that they will all have the ability to choose their partners, to choose their work, and to choose their sexual encounters?” Terry started to cry. She said softly, “There is no human being that does not know how to answer those questions. You know that.” It was hard to see her crying. I did not dare ask if she discussed these issues with Connie. It was too easy to say that the problem with the pre-collapse society is that everyone wanted to be rich. In the end, almost everyone got to be dirt poor. A highly regimented society was sure rough for those on the bottom.
Our course load was lighter for the sophomore year. More of my classes were related to computer programming. College no longer felt like a big waste of time. Faith had a lot of friends; I got to know them and many of their friends. So through Faith and Connie, I ended up the year with a large pool of friends and activities.
Faith and I both worked at my parents' business for the summer. Faith did take a month off near the end of the summer to visit her family in Los Angeles. We worked on a new way to archive information on distributed systems so that we could save on bandwidth. Essentially we were playing around with the structure of how emails were sent to make things cheaper. If anyone audited these e-mails, they would see them disappear and then reappear in mysterious ways. The one thing that kept the company legal was that we had been dealing with plain vanilla emails as a platform for everything. Thus this project was more than a little bit risky.
The project was a success, largely due to Faith's abilities as a programmer. I worked very hard to keep up. By the end of the summer, Faith was fully a part of the family. The lack of a marriage certificate was just a minor paperwork issue.
The playfulness of our sophomore year seemed to melt away. My parents wanted Faith and me to promise to work in the company as soon as we graduated. Faith's parents did not like this plan at all. Faith's father was especially negative. Faith later told me that he was thinking that, “Chris and his parents were trying to enslave Faith.” Finally, Faith called her family and learned that her mother's sisters were the strongest force against my family and me. Faith invited her parents and her mother's three sisters to a Thanksgiving meal at my house.
The trip from Los Angeles to Portland was not easy. There was some terrorist activity which delayed the train, making the trip two days longer. Instead of arriving two days before Thanksgiving, it arrived at noon. My parents sent two limousines to pick them up from the train station. Anyway, Faith's family arrived at my parents' house tired, hungry, and thirsty. While everyone was pleasant, it was clear that Faith's aunts were certain that they were in some remote corner of the world. Jennie said some things that did not sit well. She started talking about how Portland was a center of education. The usual explanation was that the abundant hydroelectric power in the region allowed the universities to be open continuously since before the collapses.
Phyllis, the oldest of Faith's aunts, was the least traveled of the group. She could not grasp that there was any place on earth better than Los Angeles. These remarks did not go over very well. It did not take long to start the big argument about Faith. All three of Faith's aunts wanted her to come back to Los Angeles once her education was done. It was clear that they could see no value in education, much less a technical education. I tried to tell them how skilled a computer programmer Faith was.
I suppose that I should mention that the entire family was employed at the chain of auto repair shops. The aunts were all managers at the three busiest locations. They had a singular focus on building and protecting the business. Faith turned to her mother and asked her opinion of Faith's life choices. Helen Winters said, “Honey, when I walk into church with Ben, everybody knows me and who we are. We are respected. It took a lot to get to where we are. We sent you to college to pursue your dreams. You want to be a computer programmer. I know how you feel about that. But where I come from, people would say, ‘Are you a computer programmer? Aren't they the people who brought down our lives?’ We trusted the ATMs. One day every single one of them stopped working.’ I know you want to help rebuild our society. But in our neighborhoods, people just want their cars rebuilt, not their computer networks.” Faith was in tears. She sobbed, “I have worked very hard day and night so you can be proud of me.”
Helen said, “I am proud of you. I want you to do what you want to do. I know you intend to marry Chris. I like him, and I like his family. I want you to be free to take whatever job or start any company you want. I know my husband believes the same as I.” She glared at Ben, signaling that he had better not say a word, except to nod to his wife's remarks. She added, “My sisters all want to wreck your relationship, and drag you in chains back to Los Angeles.”
I should say that there were additional people at the table. One of my mother's sisters, Faith's roommates (they could not travel to Denver for Thanksgiving), and one of Jennie's friends were also there. The remark about chains caused Connie to stare, and Terry to look down at her plate. Very sweetly, Helen reached over to hold Terry's hand; she said, “Child, I am sorry for my very poor choice of words. You are not the one I am speaking of.” Helen turned to Faith and said, “Why don't we all agree that we leave the life choices of Faith totally out of this discussion. However, there is a financial side to all of this. We are paying for your fine college education. If you have your heart set on living here in Portland, and not helping our family business, then I do not see why we should keep paying for your education. We will pay through the end of your junior year. If you want to live the life you have described, you are welcome to do so. We will attend your wedding with a big smile. We will adore our grandchildren. We will visit you as often as we can. We just will ask someone else to cover your expenses for your senior year.”
That was a very interesting, life-changing moment. Faith's aunts looked like they wanted to have me killed so that they could find another suitor. I do not think they wanted to come to our wedding. My parents had a “don't worry about a thing” expression, holding up their hands to prevent Faith or me from saying anything. Jennie looked shocked. She sensed what was coming next. It was more evidence that her parents would do anything for Faith, and they were not helping her at all. Jennie got up from the table and ran from the room. For the first time, I started to see the difficulties of balancing my future wife and my sister. At that time, I had no idea how enormous this struggle would turn out to be.
Faith knew she had to respond. She talked quietly and calmly, “Well, this is a bit of a surprise to me. I am going to surprise you by saying that I like your proposal. You are giving me a seven-month time window to decide. Be aware that you also have a seven-month window to rescind your ultimatum. Forgive me if I do not discuss this matter with anyone for the next several months, as we have plenty of time to come to the point of agreement. Right now, this is a time of Thanksgiving. I give thanks that I am on the auction block and that there is a bidding war between two established family businesses. I may be the only person in the FUSA in that position.” She turned towards Terry and added, “Outside of those in the prepaid labor pool, that is. Terry, like you, I am in love and I am in college. These are two rare things in our nation right now. Terry, I hope that you also find yourself facing two or more great opportunities which bid for your attention.”
True to her word, Faith did not discuss the money issues until March. Faith and I did go on a trip to Los Angeles to discuss possible opportunities in the Los Angeles area. It was a fairly bleak situation. There were many poorly trained, poorly paid computer programmers in the Los Angeles area. We could have mounted a major effort to overhaul the company garages, but that would have required a massive investment which did not seem possible. In the degraded infrastructure of Los Angeles, just about any project or expansion took lots of capital. Helen and Ben were very clever about using their capital to keep their business afloat. The more we learned, the more we found that it was a miracle that Faith had three years of college funding. It was clear that they very much wanted to make the investment they put into Faith's education pay for itself. How that would happen eluded us.
In March, my parents sat down with Faith. They said that they could pay for Faith's senior year without any problems. This amount would be deducted from my portion of the will. At the point that my parents passed on, I would have paid for Faith's final year at college. I did not see the problem with that at all.
While Faith's family had formally stated that they supported Faith's choices, it was clear that this was not entirely true. Phone calls and contact from Los Angeles started to drop off. In September we made our engagement official. We planned the wedding to be a week after spring graduation. We made our plans to be as frugal as possible. Faith was just going to pick out her favorite dress and add a crown of flowers for the wedding. We found a church that we could rent that was one block from a bar that was famous for its sandwiches. I do not think we thought about pictures or a honeymoon. We planned on having only one assistant, Terry, who would perform all tasks of a bridesmaid and the best man.
Three months before the wedding, Terry, Connie, Faith, and I got drunk at a bar. Connie said, “You guys need to be faithful to each other until death does you part. Why not experience a sexual fling now before you sign the marriage license?” Faith asked what she meant. Connie answered, “You are on good terms with Terry. Why don't you both have sex with Terry? It will be an amazing experience, and it will help your marriage off to a wonderful start.” Faith just said, “Connie, we are all a bit drunk. Have you asked Terry, or are you offering her to us without her permission?” Terry lowered her eyes and said, “I have no problem with this. I look forward to this experience. I hope you do as well.” I just said, “Wait. Stop for a moment. Connie, you need to have as much skin in the game as Terry does. Can we swap partners so that we all get a new partner for one night? That way, what Terry experiences is what Connie experiences. If Connie does not want to do this, then this goes no further.” Terry said, “You work out the arrangements. I will be present in body and in mind. But could I point out that we have not figured out if it is Connie or I that gets Chris?” Faith suggested, “You should flip a coin for Chris. We will do this in a hotel room tomorrow night. Chris, you cover the hotel bill, since these fine ladies are providing our entertainment.”
Connie agreed. Terry got to flip the coin since she was the person who pointed out that it was necessary. Based on the coin flip, I got Terry, and Faith got Connie. The next night, we met early at the same bar. We all ate well and drank well. We walked through the rain to the hotel and booked two adjacent rooms. It all seemed a bit strange since we were all such good friends. I was drunk, and in a hotel room with a very nice and compliant woman. Did I feel guilty of taking advantage of her? Not really. I was glad she was not in any form of restraints. I do not think I could have handled that at all. I turned off the lights. I decided that it would be rude to ask her about her preferences or her choices for a sexual partner. I just focused on her and her needs.
We all had smiles when we met in the morning at the hotel breakfast bar. I passed the hand strap to Connie. I said, “Thank you, ladies, for the permission to have a unique experience. I cannot believe that I needed the consent of three women to engage in one sexual indiscretion.” Faith said, “Thank you, Terry, for lending me your Mistress for the night. I do believe that I am now in love with my college roommate.” Terry just added, “Congratulations on getting married. Last night I felt very special. You guys are the best.” Connie looked exhausted. After some silence, she said, “I think I need a day or so to recover. I am hoping we can find a way to do that again sometime.”
No one objected to that idea. So there were a few more occasions when we swapped around in the dorm room. I know that I slept with Connie at least once. I could not imagine what it was like keeping up with her sexual appetite for more than one night. I had a deeper appreciation of Terry. She did so much for Connie. I always wondered if Connie was aware how hard Terry worked day and night to please her Mistress. I was getting curious about a number of things. I did ask Faith if she was regretting getting married to a man. She just said, “Don't get insecure. You are my one and only love. I just think a little bit of extra dessert around the edges makes the main course so much more fun. You need to trust me.” I was nervous about what would happen when we all parted ways after we received our college diplomas.
About two months before graduation, I was woken up at my sleeping pod at my parents' company. I got dressed and opened the bedroom door. There were two police officers and two key staff from the company. One officer said, “There is no easy way to tell you this. Both of your parents died about an hour ago in an automobile accident just north of town. These fine people have volunteered to drive you to your parents' house so you can comfort your sister.” I called Faith and told her the news. We picked her up on the way home.