It was suggested that Gail should be in a more "targeted" environment, which Doris was more than willing to do. The only problem was that the nearest school that could handle Gail's math talents was in a town nearly two hundred miles away – something that had both of them in anguish until I told them that as much as I'd miss them, the important thing was Gail's education. And just to make my point, I went on to tell them that if they stayed and threw away the one-in-a-million chance to get Gail into the proper environment, it would upset me so bad that I wouldn't want anything to do with them anyway… so they might as well go. I was mostly bluffing, but they didn't know that; the threat itself was enough to make them realize what kind of opportunity was being handed to them. With a lot of tears and hugs, and after a final bout of lovemaking with each of them, they left in late summer so that Gail could start the next academic year in the new school.
That was several years ago. Both of them have taken the time to keep me informed on how things are going for them:
Gail got her Doctorate with a thesis on something called "chaos theory", which she explained to me well enough for me to understand that it's way past my meager math skills.
Doris found a new job, and learned that she really got along well with one of her co-workers. The two of them eventually became something of an item, and the expectation is that they'll be getting married before long.
I'm still driving a cab, and giving rides to the shelter to women that need them – and remembering a particular woman and her little girl…