After an insufferably long silence, Nancy asked her sons, “Do you have any questions or anything?”
Arnesto shuffled his feet. This was the moment he had been waiting for. Okay, here goes. “Actually, I have some good news. I got accepted early admission.” The other Modestos turned to look at him.
“What do you mean? When do you start?” Nancy asked.
“Next week.” Crap! Why did I say next week? I leave in two days. I’m choking, hold it together!
“What?! What do you mean, you’re leaving next week? What about your last year of high school? What about your diploma? Your friends? Karl, what do you have to say about this?!” Arnesto had difficulty keeping track of his mother’s rapid-fire questioning, but wanted to have the answers ready, should he once again be allowed to speak.
“How are you going to pay for this?” Karl asked pragmatically. “We have a little bit of money saved up, but with our situation—”
“That’s the best part. I got a full ride! Full scholarship, stipend, the works. It’s all paid for!” There was no scholarship, but Arnesto had already taken care of the first semester with his gambling winnings. He had enough to cover at least three semesters after that, with plenty more opportunities to win more money during that time.
“Do you still plan on studying computers? Programmers only make about eighteen thousand a year.”
Arnesto fought the urge to laugh. “I believe I’ll find a way to make it work.”
“What about your brother?” Nancy asked.
“Are you going to miss me, Ger? Do you want me to stick around another year so you and I can hang out all the time?” Arnesto’s sarcasm was peeking through. He couldn’t help it; anyone else’s parents would have been proud. But not his. No, they had to put up a stink about everything, even something as impressive as this.
“No!” Gerald said. At least his brother was — in his own way — on his side.
“You know I was going to go away to college next year, right? What’s the big deal?” Arnesto asked.
“Why didn’t you tell us? Karl, what do you have to say about this?” Nancy asked. Arnesto was grateful he wasn’t given the chance to answer, as he still hadn’t come up with a good response. The answer he had given Pete, “I just got in,” was no longer true; he had known for months.
“I’ll still be around, too,” Arnesto said before Karl could speak. It’s only an hour away.” More like an hour and a half and still not nearly fucking far enough. “I can come back and hang out with you every weekend, Mom.” It was a threat.
“That’s not the point,” she said.
“Or if you really don’t want me to go, I won’t go. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should spend another year here at home. Of course, the school said they can’t guarantee I’ll get the scholarship again next year. So, I’ll have to pick up extra shifts at the hospital. It won’t be easy, but it shouldn’t affect my grades too much if I’m careful. I was excited about going, but if it means that much to you, I can stick around here another year.” You mess with my life, I mess with YOU.
“Now hold on,” Karl said at last. “Your mother and I need to discuss this privately.”
“Not tonight. I can’t deal with anymore tonight,” she said.
“Don’t do anything until we discuss it. Now goodnight, both of you,” Karl said.
Arnesto turned and walked out the door. As he walked toward his room, he smiled to himself. He knew his parents. There would be no discussion.
He had won.
Freedom of Assembly
Arnesto’s Dorm Room
Tuesday, September 5, 1989
Afternoon
Freedom. Though he was still a minor at seventeen and therefore not truly independent, it was close enough. He was at long last out of the house and it was sweeeeeet.
No more getting up at 6:30 every damn morning (which is ridiculous for teenagers) to get to homeroom by 7:30. Now he had one class at 9:00 a.m. twice a week in his own dorm building and everything else was at least two hours after that. No more lectures from his parents, at least until he visited them again. No more getting grounded every time Gerald decided to start a fight with him.
Just like high school, college was easier the second time around, though the disparity was less. Having been a professional programmer for countless years in his previous life helped with his programming classes, however, he was having to relearn languages he had only ever used in college. He was used to C++, Python, and Java, but was now being forced to relearn LISP, ADA, and Fortran 77. He also had to take Assembly language programming, which, if it was any easier this time around, didn’t reflect in his grades.
Then there was the matter of his wife. He didn’t know what to do about her. First of all, he couldn’t even find her. He was a year ahead of schedule and wasn’t destined to meet her for another thirteen to fourteen months. He was pretty sure she was taking classes at the time, but if she was, he never saw her around campus. He periodically stopped by Mona’s, the restaurant where she worked, or at least would a year from then, but still didn’t see her. And he had another problem — he still had some growing up to do. Literally.
Arnesto was a late developer. Though he was her type — there was no question about that — would she, a nineteen-year-old hottie, still find seventeen-year-old, five-feet-seven Arnesto as attractive as she would a year from now when he was five inches taller? Hadn’t she once confided in him that she preferred tall guys? And even if they did start dating, they were at different points in their lives. Would they still hit it off? More importantly, would she still be willing to sleep with him? Great. One of the primary reasons for coming to college early, and he might wind up having to wait anyway. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out for her.
Weeks passed without any luck. New England was getting colder by the day. He could have called Mona’s to see if Katrina was working, but that felt too creepy. Besides, what if he then came in and somebody recognized his voice? How would he explain that? So, if he wanted to see her, he had to leave the warmth of his dorm, walk a half mile to the only campus parking lot for which he had a pass, drive downtown, find a place to park, then peer into the front window of Mona’s to see if he could spot her. By the time that failed and he reversed the process, it was a good forty-five minutes wasted.
He knew where she lived, too. Or would soon. He had also lived there, only a couple months after they had started dating. Still, he couldn’t risk stalking her like that. Then again, was it really stalking knowing how she would feel about him?
Soon, it was Thanksgiving, and Arnesto and his brother Gerald were invited to an awkward Thanksgiving dinner at their dad’s apartment. At least he would get to spend part of the weekend with Pete.
He went over the next day. While the rest of Pete’s family was at the mall enjoying Black Friday, Pete had stayed home. He invited Arnesto downstairs into his father’s office.
“Check it out, my dad got it through work,” Pete said.
“Wow, is that a 486?!”
“Yup! Twenty-five megahertz, four megs of RAM, forty-megabyte hard drive, both five-and-a-quarter and three-and-a-half inch floppy drives.”
“Damn! That must have cost several grand.”
“Go ahead, boot it up.” Pete grabbed another chair while Arnesto sat down at the keyboard.
Arnesto turned on the machine and waited for its long load time to complete. “Windows two point one?”