Secret Agent Man

"If you get paperbacks, the dollar will go farther and if one gets lost, it's not a total loss."

"That's a good idea," she said, "I'll keep that in mind."

He followed her into the workroom where several hundred books were piled up on a table. "These are the new reference books that I got in."

"How did you make your choices?" he asked, looking over the selections.

"There's a couple of catalogs that list new books, all suggested by colleges."

Jim picked one up. "This is good; I read this one this summer while I was at Loyola."

"It's been on the best seller list for about six months. I'm glad that you approve."

"I'd love to stay and talk but I'm kind of tired for some reason and I want to go home."

"All right, I'll see you Friday. What time?"

"I'll pick you up around five."

He went out to the parking lot and saw that he had a flat tire. "Damn it," he said under his breath, looking at the deflated rubber. Opening up his trunk, he took out a can of Fix-it Flat and inflated the tire, then drove over to his mechanic on Prairie Avenue.

A short while later, Izzy, the mechanic, told him that someone had cut the tire valve, creating a slow leak. Other than an inconvenience, there was no real damage to the car.

"Thanks," Jim said, giving Izzy twenty dollars for his time. He knew who had done it but couldn't prove it. He stopped at the auto shop and bought a couple of new cans of Fix-it Flat and then went home. What to do, he wasn't sure except to wonder about it. He could put a camera on the car and get evidence and decided that's what he would do.

*****

That Friday, he picked up Mary and drove the two of them to Islands. After getting a table, he ordered ice tea and when Mary nodded, said, "Make that two, please.

"It's been a tough week for me," he said, explaining about the tire and the student. "I know he did it, just can't prove it right now, but I will. Meanwhile, I'm going to park somewhere else."

The teas arrived and he put four sugars into his, wishing he could control his sweet tooth. More exercise when he got home, he knew, the exercise bike going to get a workout.

"I'm writing that grant proposal, the one I told you about," Mary volunteered. "I hope that it gets picked up." She stirred her sugar into the drink.

"Who are you sending it to?" he asked.

"Ahmanson. The principal said that they have been generous to us in the past and I'm working with Brother Juneman to make sure that everything is as it should be."

"Great. How much are you asking for?"

"Eighty thousand... spread out over four years."

"Sounds doable, I think, but what do I know?" He laughed. "I'll have the "Longboarder" it's a good basic burger."

"Me, too," she said, handing the menu to the approaching server.

Fifteen minutes later, they were quietly eating, the Thousand Island dressing dripping onto their plates. "Mmmmm," she murmured, "this is really good. So, Sunday, Sandra has to bake a loaf of bread, huh?"

"Yeah, it should be fun. I got the recipe from Sunset magazine, so it should turn out nice."

"You just want a bunch of bread to eat, you don't fool me!"

"Do you want dessert?"

"I baked a cake, chocolate, and got some ice cream to go with it."

"Great, I love chocolate cake."

He asked for the check and after paying, they left for her house. A short time later he was sitting in the kitchen, looking at a large slice of cake with vanilla ice cream alongside. "Wow! This looks fantastic." He put a fork to the cake and ate a piece. "Oh, this is so good."

"I'm glad you like it. Sandra is having a sleep-over, if you'd like to stay late."

"I'd like that very much."

They finished eating and then she took him by the hand and led him into the bedroom.

*****

She kissed him goodbye at two in the morning, a smile on her face, holding her nightgown closed with one hand and locking the door with the other. She was falling in love with him, she knew, and hadn't felt this way since before she got married. Mary looked into the hall mirror, touching her eyes, wondering if there were any lines. Time to go to bed, she said to herself, somewhat tired after five hours of lovemaking.

*****

"You look happy," said Sandra, the next morning when she came home. "Did you have a nice date?"

"Yes, I did," Mary answered, a shy smile on her face, her ears a little red.

"Mother! Well, how about that? Mother's got a boyfriend, mother's got a boyfriend..." Sandra laughed and hugged her mother. "Good for you."

"Laugh all you want, you have to bake a loaf of bread, you know."

The next three hours were taken up by baking two loaves of bread. Sandra wrapped one in a paper bag and they had the other one for dinner. "This is really good," she said. "I'm glad that Mr. Cravens had us do this. I really like his class, we do all kinds of neat stuff."

*****

The beginning of the week found the sophomore class bringing in loaves of bread, making fun of those whose bread had failed to rise and were light brown bricks. Grading was simple: A if it turned out well, C if it was a brick, F if you didn't do it.

Jones and two other students didn't do the assignment, receiving an F for the activity. With the computer grading program, grades were instantly updated and posted, making Jones ineligible to play as the quarter came to an end. Jim knew that things were going to come to a head.

*****

"You know, this is going to cause some problems. He's our star player." The physics teacher expressed his concern.

"I thought it was the quarterback. This kid is no good, really, off the field. He's been nothing but trouble since day one." Jim was tired of teachers who bent over backwards to athletes who thought they were gods. "I'm not backing down, he's been a pain in the ass the whole time."

Two days later, Mr. and Mrs. Jones were at school, demanding a meeting with him. He agreed, as long as the head coach and the dean were also in attendance.

"You don't seem to understand, Mr. Cravens, that football is his chance for college," the father belligerently said. "You seem to have it in for my son."

Jim waited for the man to finish, using his FBI training to control the meeting. "I sent you a letter last month regarding your son's behavior in my class and his problems with attendance. I sent a copy to the coach and the dean but never received a reply from you."

"I never got no letter." The man looked at his son, the anger now directed at his boy. "What did you do with that letter?" he demanded.

His son had no answer, looking down at the floor, now realizing that things were not going well.

Jim passed a new copy of the letter to the man who read it, his face turning red the farther he got. Without warning, he hit the boy across the face, knocking him off his chair. "Get up, boy, I'll knock you down again."

The dean and the coach both rose from their chairs, getting between the boy and his father. "Please sit down, Mr. Jones. Hitting your son won't help things."

The man stood there and then slowly sat down, his head on his hands. "I work two jobs and this is the thanks I get. There's no reason for this."

The mother sat there, quietly, afraid, it seemed, of her husband's temper. A long discussion took place, with the final decision being that the boy would drop the class and make it up during the summer and would sit out the rest of the season. Jim was satisfied with that. He looked at his watch; it was after 6 pm, a very long day full of frustration.

He drove slowly home and microwaved a burrito, not having the hunger for anything more. He sat in the den, eating the burrito and waited for NCIS to come on. He was still so tired.

*****

Mary sent him an inter-school email, inviting him to dinner Friday night. He answered, saying he would love to go and felt a little better as the day went on. He spent the rest of the week talking about jellyfish, sea anemones and corals. The week's film was about the Great Barrier Reef.

*****

He brought a bottle of Asti Spumante to have with dinner, the Italian sparkling wine that he really liked. Mary was serving steaks, salad and her chocolate cake that was turning out to be his favorite. He was glad he wasn't going to the playoff game, not wanting to have people look at him as the reason Jones wasn't playing.

"It's been a rough week for you, hasn't it?" she asked. "I'm sorry. The whole school has been talking about what happened."

He kissed her as he walked in, handing her the chilled bottle of wine. "A little something," he said.

"Sandra went to the game to watch Joe play. She'll be home later. It's an adult evening." She smiled and kissed him back.

"How's that grant proposal coming?"

"It's been received and I got a letter telling me they're considering it. That's good, right?"

"Very much," he replied, hoping that it would be approved. It would be a good feather in her cap to have her proposal accepted.

The steaks were grilling on the back porch, the savory smell coming in the kitchen window. "That smells so good," he said, "I can't wait."

Soon, they were eating and talking, looking forward to the Thanksgiving break. "This teaching is as hard as the FBI but I got to shoot back with the Bureau." He laughed, what else could he do?

After dinner, they sat on the living room couch, kissing and cuddling and holding each other until finally they heard the rattle of Sandra's key in the door.

"We won... barely... 27-24," said Sandra. "Joe got sacked three times, carrying the ball."

"That's too bad, honey," said Mary. "But at least we won."

"I don't know if next week will be any better and it's the Friday after Thanksgiving. I hope that it's a home game. Well, good night, I'm going to bed."

Sandra left the room and Jim looked at his watch. It was almost midnight. "I better be going," he said, "thanks for dinner."

The couple kissed at the door and he left to go home. As Mary closed the door, she hoped that her romance was going to blossom into a full love-affair. She walked over to the photograph of her husband in his Marine dress uniform and said a prayer. "I still love you, you know, I'll always love you," she said to the picture, "but I'm so lonely and he seems like a nice man, someone you would have called a friend."

*****

The next day, Jim was paying the neighbor boy twenty dollars for mowing the lawn when Sandra drove up and brought him the rest of the chocolate cake. "There's been a lot of talk about what happened with Jones and they're saying we're going to lose without him."

"Sandra, I can't help that. He brought it on himself. You can do the work and show up on time, why can't he?"

"I know, it's just... oh, I don't know... people talk, you know?" She clearly was uncomfortable speaking about it, wishing that the conflict had never happened. Her boyfriend, the quarterback, was having a hard time without his favorite receiver.

"Yes, I do," he replied. "Can I offer you some lemonade. I made it myself from my own trees."

"Thanks, yes, I'd like that." She appreciated the change in conversation.

They went into the house and he poured a tall glass of lemonade for her, adding crushed ice. "This is really good," she said, taking a sip. "Thanks."

"We're going to do the Annelids and Mollusks next, you know, worms, clams, snails, octopi... all the slimy stuff... they're actually very intelligent; so we're going to have some dissections. Should be fun, I think. Would you like to go to the pier with me and buy them?"

"Oh, yes, that would be fun. Would we go today?"

"No, next week, Sunday would be good. We could have lunch on the pier and then get the squid."

"Great, I can't wait. I really enjoyed the whale watch."

"Wonderful. Don't forget to ask your mom."

Sandra left and he reviewed his notes for the upcoming week. He checked his film collection, pulling the "Life on Earth" DVDs for the topics to be covered, hoping that his students would find them as interesting as he did.

He called the physic teacher on the phone and asked him if he wanted to go to the USC game and was disappointed when he turned him down, saying he was leaving town for the weekend.

He then called Mary and asked her if she wanted to go to dinner and she readily agreed. He said he'd pick her up at four o'clock. "Have you been to Sion's Mexican Restaurant in Manhattan Beach?" he asked, "It's supposed to be very good."

"Yes, I've had their chimichangas and they were wonderful."

At four o'clock, he picked her up and they drove south on Sepulveda toward the restaurant, Jan and Dean playing on the radio. "Did Sandra talk to you about next Sunday?" he asked.

"Yes, that'll be fine. I'm glad she's taking an interest in things. Ever since her father died... well, you know, it's been rough. Maybe she'll be a biologist."

"I can imagine. It'll be fun, we're getting about a hundred squid to dissect. It's much cheaper to just go to the pier and get them than to buy them from a scientific supply company. Also, there's no formaldehyde to worry about."

At the restaurant, she ordered the chimichangas and he ordered the seafood burrito. Once again, they had ice tea to drink.

"I notice that you carry your gun with you on the weekend, like now. Is there a reason?"

"Force of habit, I guess. Former law enforcement officers can continue to carry their weapons. After what happened in Morro Bay, I don't leave without it. I leave it at home during the week, though, not taking it to school."

Their food finally came and they were quiet for a while, eating the food and drinking the tea.

"I don't want to sound forward," she started, "but where do you see us going?"

He put down his fork and looked at her, smiling. "I'd like to pursue the relationship as far as it goes. I really like you... no, I'm in love with you and would like... well, you know."

She reached across the table and held his hand. "I'm in love with you, too. I never thought I'd love another after my husband was killed but then I met you and my life changed."

"I'm glad." He took her hand and kissed it. "I love you," he said. He smiled, then dipped a tortilla chip into the guacamole and passed it to her lips. "I love you very much."

*****

On Monday, he went to the bank and got his mother's wedding rings out of the safety deposit box. The antique engagement ring had one large center diamond and ten smaller ones around it. That evening, he went to Mary's house and asked her formally to marry him, pledging his love to her.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes," she said, crying, the tears running down her cheeks. "I so love you." She ran into the bedroom. "Sandra, look! Oh, look what I have! We're going to be married."

Mother and daughter hugged and jumped up and down and then Sandra hugged Jim. "Can I call you Dad?"

"If it's OK with your mom. I don't want to disrespect your father."

Mary just smiled, nodding her head in agreement.

*****

Two days later, Jim was called into the principal's office. "You wanted to see me?" he asked.

Father Clemens sat behind his wide wooden desk, a worried look on his face. "Yes, please close the door... There's been talk that you are having an improper relationship with one of your students, Sandra Brownly, seeing her outside of school and having her over to your house."

Jim laughed. "You're not serious, are you? I'm engaged to her mother and there's nothing improper going on. Who's talking? They deserve a punch in the nose."

"You're engaged. Well, that changes things, doesn't it? I'm sorry but you know I have to chase down these things, especially these days with so much other things going on. I'm sorry, I should have known better with you." The principal got up, shook Jim's hand and patted him on the back. "Congratulations. She's a good woman and should make you a good wife. It was tough, losing her husband like she did but now there's you, isn't there?"

Jim and the priest continued with small talk, essentially asking how things were going and how different it was from being in the FBI and that he had heard good things from the parents on how interesting his class was for the students.

Jim was relieved that was all the principal wanted. As much as they had a friendly relationship, no one liked being called to the principal's office.

He stopped at the library and told Mary what had happened, asking her if anyone had said something to her. "No," she answered, it was the first she had heard of it. "I wonder," she said, "if it was that Jones boy. Sandra hasn't told anyone about seeing you at your house. Someone must be watching."

"Hadn't thought of that... maybe you're right. Well, don't know what I can do about it now." He looked around and seeing no one in sight, kissed her. "I'll see you tomorrow."

He drove home and after eating dinner, prepared his lecture for the next day. Soon, he thought, he would come home to a family instead of an empty house.

*****

"When do you want to get married?" he asked Mary, knowing that any extended honeymoon would have to wait until school let out in the summer.

"Tomorrow," she answered, laughing. "No, really, as soon as you want. I can't wait, really."

"We can get Father Clemens to do the ceremony, is that all right?"

"That would be nice. Do you think he'll do it?"

"Yeah, I think he would feel he owes me. I'll talk to him tomorrow, OK?"

"Yes, darling, tomorrow is fine. Come over for spaghetti, tonight."

"Why don't you come over to my house. You haven't seen it and I know you're renting, so..."

"OK, we'll do that. I'll bring the spaghetti."

*****

That late afternoon, Mary and Sandra came to Jim's house and fixed dinner while Jim was preparing the next day's lesson. After they ate, he gave them the nickel tour of the house, showing what was there and giving Sandra her choice of the two guest bedrooms. Conversation about what to do with their furniture filled the rest of the evening and most of it would fit into the house without too much problem. What she decided not to keep was to be donated to a home for battered women.

The next day, they went to Father Clemens and asked him to celebrate the wedding for them, at Christmas Eve, ensuring they would always have the day off to enjoy.

The football season finally came to an end in early December with a trip to the finals, all worries about having a disappointment gone as the team won handily, 53-27.

*****

Time went by quickly as the couple waited for the Christmas holidays. Jim had asked John Kline to be his best man and Sandra was to be the maid of honor. A week before the wedding, Mary's furniture was moved to Jim's house. Jim made sure that a photo of Mary's lost husband would always be in a place of honor in the living room. He respected the man who had been a major part of his new family's life.

When the day finally arrived, most of the sophomore class and many of the upper-class girls came to witness the wedding, causing the ceremony to be moved to the group instruction room for the chapel was too small.

Mary was lovely in an off-white gown and instead of a veil, wore flowers in her hair. Jim and John wore matching light blue tuxedos and Sandra had a light blue dress. The reception was in the school cafeteria with a buffet offered by the PTA. Mary was so happy, crying with joy as the school community came together to celebrate with the newly married couple.

Afterwards, they drove home and after changing their clothes, relaxed. The living room was lit by the glow of the Christmas tree and gifts below were waiting for the new family to open them. Jim had gone to the bank and had gotten his mother's pearls to give to Sandra and was happy when he saw her eyes widen with surprise. She gave him a big hug and cried.

"Please don't cry," he asked.

"You've been so nice to me, I can't help it."

He put National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation" into the player and they sat and watched the film, eating some fruitcake from the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas and eggnog. The film was over at ten and Jim yawned, saying, "I guess it's time to go to sleep, Santa's on his way."