A Shadow of Death in The Woods (16 page)

The next morning Bob called and asked Jack to come to his office. When he got there, Bob had coffee and coffee rolls ready at his conference table. Bob must have had the rolls made special because they had no sugar drizzle on top. Jack hated sugar on top.

Bob said, “Jack, I want to offer you the chief financial officer job with my company and focus on the two points I covered yesterday. The only problem is that I couldn’t get the board to approve the salary I wanted. I think that the salary is low but it is the best I could do. I was able to negotiate a good bonus, based on performance. The salary is $200,000 per year with a bonus that could easily be as much or more than your salary depending on your performance and the company’s performance. In addition you would get a fully supported company car of your choice; most of us like Lexuses. All you need to do it put gas in the car with a company-supplied credit card. Also you are invited to live in The Cabin apartment, with food included, where you are staying rent free but with a condition. I want you to be the manager of The Cabin. You won’t have to do much work to manage The Cabin. I have office staff here who manages the rentals and we contract out all of The Cabin grounds work, housekeeping and repairs. I just want someone on site to oversee things. Well, that is about it. Unless you want to negotiate some points, I will have a formal job offer typed up and emailed to you today. When do you think you could give me an answer?”

Jack was surprised. The salary alone was more than twice what he had been making at his last job. Living at The Cabin would be great (except for Lydia) and having it free was great. And a car? It sounded too good.

Jack said, “I don’t want to negotiate anything. It seems very generous. What about Lydia? She won’t like this at all.”

“Yeah. Leave Lydia to me. She needs to grow up. It may seem generous but the expectations are high. It will be a tough job.”

Jack replied, “Assuming you can talk Lydia into this, I can give you an answer in one day. There is no point in dragging it out.”

Said the lion tamer just before he was mauled.

Jack went back to The Cabin. He needed to think. In a couple of hours Bob’s written offer came in an email. It read just like he had outlined it. Jack thought about it all afternoon. Benjamin Franklin used to make decisions by listing all the positives on the left side of a sheet of paper and all of the negatives on the right side. He then compared the two lists and tried to find an item on the left equal in importance to an item on the right. Once he had found two items that matched, he crossed them off because they canceled, thus shortening his list. He kept doing this until he had crossed off all the items on one side. He then made his decision, based on the remaining list, which might be all positive or all negative.

Jack spent a couple of hours making two lists and crossing off items. He was left with a list of positive items. It looked like he should take the job but he wanted to hear what Lydia had to say to Bob about his staying at The Cabin. Jack was assuming if it was going to be too difficult with Lydia, he could negotiate living somewhere else.

Jack gave Bob a call and told him his thoughts. Bob was thrilled. Bob said he had talked with Lydia and everything was great with her. This was Jack’s first business dealing with Bob and his first lesson was that Bob could spread BS like soft butter. There was no way that Lydia was feeling great about Jack’s living at The Cabin. He squeezed out a concession from Bob that his job could be separate from living at The Cabin in the event it was too difficult with Lydia. Jack wrote Bob an acceptance letter with that condition and sent it via email. Jack now was employed.

He felt better. He was still lonely but now he had a job. It sounded like a challenging job and Jack was looking forward to it. Getting into a routine outside The Cabin would be good.

Chapter 24

A Truce, Sort of

I spent several days at my new job getting to know people and the systems. It was nice getting out of The Cabin during the day and coming back tired, ready for a good night’s sleep. The job was challenging but I liked everything that I saw. It was going to have a fun side to it.

The only real fly in the ointment was Lydia, or Ms. Harding, as I knew her. Bob said he had talked with her. If he said that she could put up with me, I would have sooner believed Bob. But he had said she was great with the idea. This had to be a crock. Ms. Harding was due at The Cabin tonight. I didn’t know what to expect. Maybe nothing since we successfully avoided each other most of the time.

There still was the issue of The Cat. The Cat insisted on sleeping on my bed. If I closed the door, he sat outside and meowed. This was interrupted only when he scratched on the door. I was concerned that The Cat was going to ruin the beautiful woodwork plus the meowing was maddening so I left the door open. That way The Cat could come and go as he pleased. I figured if I was going to live here, I needed to build a cat door.

I was lounging in my living room when I heard a car drive in. I had Mike install a monitor in my apartment so I could see who was arriving. I looked up and saw Ms. Harding’s car. I heard her banging the doors as she moved her weekend stuff into her apartment, the secret place.

In a few minutes The Cat started meowing and scratching on my door. I got up and opened it so he could come in. He meowed and rubbed on my leg. I picked him up and gave him a pet. That was chancy. He normally didn’t like to be picked up but on other occasions was known to attack if he was ignored. On this occasion I had guessed right and he purred to let me know about his happiness. In a few minutes he turned his head toward my bedroom. That meant that I was to put him down so he could check out the bed to see if it was still okay. It was a routine.

I was sitting, pondering the mysteries of cats when I heard a soft knock at the door. I looked up and Ms. Harding was standing at my open door.

“Hey, Ms. Harding, how are you doing? Welcome back to The Cabin. How may I help you?”

“Bob said you were going to be living here permanently.”

“Yep. That is the plan as long as you can deal with it. Do you think you can tolerate my being here?”

“Bob said I don’t have a choice.”

“Well, that is not strictly true. He agreed with me that if you could not tolerate me, I could move out but keep my job with his company but I think I would still have to be manager of The Cabin. I don’t want to stay here if it pains you too much.”

“You don’t understand Bob. He wants you to live here. He told me that I have to grow up and live with it. Is my cat in here?”

“The Cat was here a few minutes ago saying hi to me and checking out the bed. I don’t know where he is now. You know I don’t encourage him to come here. He meows at the door and scratches the door so I open the door so he won’t damage it.”

“Yeah, I understand. Look, I was thinking that maybe we should declare a truce or something.”

“Sure. That would be great, Ms. Harding.”

“You may call me Lydia.”

“Okay Lydia. Have you eaten dinner? I am cooking and you are welcome to join me. Make it a peace offering.”

Much to my amazement Lydia accepted my dinner offer. I told her to give me an hour and I went to peel some more potatoes. I already had plenty of hamburger ready to cook. We were going to have an old fashioned dinner with hamburger “steak,” mashed potatoes and baby sweetcorn. Mashed potatoes were not the norm in this region of the country. Corn was the staple here whereas potatoes were the starch of choice where I grew up. It was my purpose in life to convert these heathens by introducing them to civilized food. Then I remembered that we were having sweetcorn and I saw the inconsistency in my plan.

Lydia came back. We had a discussion about what wine goes with hamburger steak and then sat down to a peaceful dinner. She asked me about my math and physics background. I know Bob had harped on how much we had in common but I think it surprised both of us to find out how much we really did have in common. Lydia didn’t know much about physics but she had a natural curiosity. She had a deep love for logic and mathematics. I have a deep respect for logic and am a very logical person. I view mathematics as a tool set for physics and engineering rather than loving it for itself whereas Lydia loved math for math’s sake.

We chatted away while we had pie and coffee. I had baked the pie a couple of days ago but it was excellent heated up.

Lydia looked at her watch and was surprised at how late it was. She said, “Oh, my, I am sorry that I have stayed so long. I didn’t realize how quickly time had passed. I need to get to my apartment. Let me help with the dishes.”

“The dishes are no problem. I just put them in the dishwasher and presto they are done. I was hoping you would stay for a brandy. I have a question to ask you.”

We cleared the dishes and I got the brandy out. She wanted to hear my question.

“My question is: Would you be offended if I installed a cat door? I am not trying to steal your cat but as it is I have to leave my door open while you and he are in The Cabin. If I don’t, he meows constantly.”

Lydia’s face turned a little red. It was then that I realized how sensitive she was. I quickly told her that I was sorry if I was embarrassing her. The cat door was no big deal to install but I needed her permission. With my door closed it would seem less like living in a fish bowl.

True to form she saw my logic and after thinking for a minute she gave me her consent to install a cat door in my door. Next, I had to talk with Bob about putting a cat door in his door.

I was so excited about the cat door that I called Bob as soon as Lydia went back to her apartment. Bob couldn’t believe I phoned him about putting in a cat door. He said, “Look, you are the manager of The Cabin. I expect you to figure out how to handle this kind of thing. That is what a manager does. By the way, does Lydia know about cat door plan?”

“Yes, we had dinner together tonight and I asked her then.”

“Hold the phone. You had dinner with Lydia tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“How did it go?

“We had a very nice dinner and you were right; we have a lot in common. It went well and she gave me permission to call her Lydia. In fact, she did that before dinner.”

“Well, I can’t tell you how pleased I am over this development. I always knew you two could hit it off. I have a word of caution. She has problems with men so you should keep your relationship on an intellectual level.”

I assured Bob that I had remembered his earlier caution on this point. I reminded him that I was still reeling from a divorce and was not interested in a romance of any kind. Besides, why would I want to put the moves on a woman who was mad as a hatter?

We ended our conversation. I was anxious to get working on the cat door or should it be The Cat door?

I needed to think about Lydia as well. She had confused me tonight. The last time I saw her she was decidedly unfriendly. Tonight she acted almost like a normal person. Was this just an act or was it the true Lydia?

Chapter 25

Settled in The Cabin

It was hard for me to digest all of the new things coming at me. I felt like I was in a fast moving vehicle, watching my life’s scenes on billboards passing by. No sooner did I focus on one than it sped away to be replaced with a new scene. I had moved to The Cabin temporarily to gather my life together. Bob hired me. Now The Cabin was my permanent address. I had just completed my first week at my new job. It all felt strange.

People need sameness. We need routine. We aren’t as bad as cats but we are more like them than we would like to admit. If you have to make decisions all day like where are you going to sleep, how will you shave, etc., you will go crazy. I needed some routine for a while to get rid of some of this strangeness feeling.

Strange or not, it was time to move my stuff into my apartment. It was Saturday and I started moving boxes from my truck into my apartment. I cleaned off a space in the bookshelves and started pulling books out of boxes and putting them on the shelves. Things were moving along when I felt something soft brush up alongside of me. I looked down and it was The Cat rubbing on my leg. He sure was an ugly cat but I sensed a soft side to him.

Cats are cool creatures. They are even more mysterious than women. Well, maybe not. The Cat had a ferocious reputation. He apparently had bitten several people and maybe slashed a few. My assumption was that, if so, they deserved it.

I petted The Cat on top of his head where he liked it. I gave him a few pets and he responded by purring. The two most relaxing things in the world are cat purrs and books, at least for me, and I had both of them in hand at the moment. I missed my family so badly that my heart ached but at least on weekends I had a cat, sort of, and I had my books.

I thought about getting my own cat but The Cat had sort of gotten attached to me and I wasn’t sure if he would put up with another cat. Besides I had gotten attached to The Cat. We were becoming pals.

I didn’t like leaving my apartment door open so he could come it when he wanted. If I didn’t leave it open, he scratched on the door and meowed at the top of his lungs. I designed a cat door. I decided I wasn’t going to put in a commercial cat door. Lydia had one in her door and I didn’t like the looks of it. I decided to carefully cut out a panel in the door and hang it on pivots so it could swing in and out. I figured I could do that with a thin, sharp knife, leaving almost no kerf. When finished, you wouldn’t notice the cat door. I would put a piece of ferrous metal and a magnet on the door to dampen its movement. Gravity would close the door. It was going to have to wait until the following week though. First, I wanted to get all of my stuff out of the truck.

I continued to put books on the shelf and The Cat continued to supervise. If I put any of the books on the shelf in a manner that displeased The Cat, I hoped he wouldn’t do anything that would get any of my blood on the floor.

I was having a good time when I heard Lydia at the door. Not wanting to get up, I invited her in. I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. I hadn’t completely recovered from the fit she threw. I was still embarrassed about it. It reminded me of two little kids fighting over a piece of candy. Being around her was like walking on eggs. If you weren’t careful, there was going to be a disaster. Still she was Bob’s special friend and my neighbor.

She announced, “I am looking for my cat.”

I said, “He is here, helping me put books away.” Then I steeled myself for an explosion. She had accused me before of stealing her cat.

She didn’t explode. Instead she asked, “Is he bothering you?”

I didn’t know how to answer that. I could see traps no matter how I answered so I decided to go with the truth. The truth did not, as the saying would have it, set you free but it was easier to keep track of the truth than lies. Plus you didn’t have to spend time making up stories. So I said, “No, he is not causing any trouble. He has just been sitting here watching me put books away. I left the door open so he can come and go as he pleases without scratching and meowing.”

Then with a bit of pique in her voice she said, “He seems to like you a lot. Why is that?”

I said, “I have no clue. No one knows why cats do things. I can only say that I try very hard not to irritate him and I am very relaxed around cats. Cats can sense tension and they don’t like it.”

“So, you think I am tense and I irritate The Cat?”

Oh man, here it comes, a big fight over The Cat. I said, “No, I am not making any comments about you or your cat. I am just saying what I do and I have no idea whether that is why The Cat likes to hang around me. As I say, cats are mysteries.”

That seemed to placate her and I ducked another blowup. What a pain in the butt. If it was going to be like this, I was either going to break a lot of eggs or I was going to have to move out and Bob had made it clear he didn’t want me to move out.

Since it was going so well, I thought I would take the opportunity to tell her my plans about the cat door. I explained what I had in mind but I don’t think she was as impressed with the design as I was.

Lydia said, “I have been thinking about the cat door. What if I want to leave with The Cat and he is in your apartment and you are out on a run? How am I supposed to get him?”

That was a good question that I hadn’t thought about and I said so. I offered her a key to my apartment with permission to come into my apartment at any time to look for her cat. I could tell by the look on her face that she didn’t like the idea.

She said, “I don’t like going in your apartment.”

I said, “Well, it is either that or I have to keep my door open while The Cat is in The Cabin. Which way do you want to go? I have offered you my preference.”

Finally, reluctantly, she agreed to the plan. But she said, “There is no way I am giving you a key to my apartment.”

“Nor did I ask. I know about your wishes that no one go into your apartment. I will not go against your wishes.”

My thought was that Lydia was a royal pain in the butt. I had never before come across a woman such as she. She was so afraid of men that it was painful to be around her. Knowing this and knowing that it was best to get her out of my apartment, I heard myself saying, “Would you like to stay for lunch? I am having homemade beef vegetable soup with fresh-baked bread. The bread will be ready in about fifteen to twenty minutes and the soup is ready and waiting.”

To my surprise she agreed to stay for lunch. She started looking at my books while I went to wash up. When I came back, she asked, “I notice you have math books. Why is that?”

“I like reading them.”

I could see that this puzzled her. I found that a little curious since Bob had made a big point of the fact that we had math in common plus we had discussed math the previous weekend. She was a brilliant woman but maybe she didn’t always listen, especially if she didn’t want to. I reminded her that I majored in physics with a minor in math.

She asked, “If you liked math and physics so much, why are you a bean counter?”

My first reaction was to tell her I was the CFO of a large company not just a bean counter but then I thought better of it. Why pick a fight? I said, “I loved physics and math but I didn’t think I was good enough at them to make a living for myself and a family so I became a business major. There are many more jobs for business majors than for physicists. You have to be outstanding in physics to land a job.”

She seemed satisfied with that and we moved to the table where I laid out lunch. I don’t care if I did make the bread, it was great. I use a mixture of flours to give it the right consistency and flavor. The soup was excellent too. I’m not bragging. I am just telling you how it was.

Lydia was quiet and thoughtful. Periodically, she asked me math questions. It was clear that she was testing me to see what I knew and if I really was a math major. Well, test away because I not only was a math major I have also read math as a hobby since I graduated from the university. She kept making the questions harder. She often strayed into what I call pure math and I am not knowledgeable in that area, which I had made clear. I thought we had covered this area last week. Crazy woman.

I noticed that she didn’t ask many physics questions. Physics was not a strong area for her.

After lunch she offered to help wash the dishes. It was a good sign that she made the offer but with a dishwasher neither one of us was going to be washing dishes. Modern technology was going to do the deed.

Shortly after lunch she left. I realized that I had no idea why she had come over. She alleged that she was looking for The Cat but she didn’t take him with her nor did she pay any attention to him while she was here.

I also realized that I had no idea why I invited her for lunch. Maybe I am like a little boy who likes to play with fire or poke at a hornet’s nest to see what will happen. We like to think we grow up and become adults but in reality we merely grow older and more cynical. We get cynical for good reason. We have to fight entropy at every turn. Mother Nature naturally increases entropy. Increased entropy makes our lives harder. We spend a lot of time and energy lowering the entropy around us while the total entropy in the universe increases. Mother Nature is not mean. She just has her implacable rules.

I went back to enjoy the rest of the fire in the fireplace. I found the fire comforting on a cold day. I had my clothes in the bedroom and now my books on the shelf. I had my computer in the den. I was moved in.

I had everything except a family. Instead of having a family I was living alone next door to a crazy woman who had a cat that insisted on sleeping on my bed.

Welcome to The Cabin, Jack.