Oscar Meyers Part 2: Academia By Lazlo Zalezac Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2005 Chapter 23 “It’s hard to believe that she’s been gone for only a week,” Oscar said pushing some kernels of corn around on his plate with his fork. “I know. I really miss her,” Debbie said watching Oscar. Convinced that Oscar wasn’t telling her the entire story about his visit to William, she asked, “So tell me about William Redman Carter.” “He seems nice enough.” Frustrated by the lack of information, Debbie said, “You spent six hours alone with him. What did you talk about for that entire time?” “We talked the first ten or fifteen minutes I was there and then we just sort of ignored each other for the rest of the time,” Oscar answered without looking at his girlfriend. It sounded stupid when he described the day like that. To keep himself distracted, he lined up a dozen kernels of corn into a row on his plate. “I don’t believe it. You’ve got to be kidding.” “Nope,” Oscar answered. “You’re so curious about him that you ask anyone who talks to him all kinds of questions, but the moment you’re alone with him you ignore him,” Debbie said incredulous. She couldn’t count how many times she had listened to Oscar grill the Reverend Leroy Jones about William. “You sound just like his girlfriend, Lucy,” Oscar commented. “What was the conversation like over dinner?” “No one said much of anything,” Oscar answered. It seemed like every attempt to start a conversation around the dinner table failed miserably. Frowning as he tried to create a second row of corn, he said, “It was pretty horrible.” “Stop playing with your corn! You only play with your food when you’re trying to avoid a topic of conversation,” Debbie said. “I’m not trying to avoid the topic; the conversation has run its course. There’s nothing more I can add to it,” Oscar said. He swept the kernels of corn across the plate. He sighed and said, “Georgia will be here in half an hour. You can grill her for a change. She’ll tell you the same thing.” Georgia arrived right on schedule. She sat down next to Debbie and gave her a big hug while ignoring Oscar. The two women talked for the next five minutes about the great meeting between William and Oscar. He watched them exchange half sentences thinking that if some network specialist ever found how to encrypt so much information into half message packets that all future bandwidth problems would be solved. After she had gotten the full story, Debbie turned to Oscar and asked, “Did you really stare at the grass for five and a half hours without saying a word to him?” “That’s what I’ve been telling you,” Oscar growled in frustration. Gesturing towards Oscar with both hands, Georgia said, “That’s right, they stared at the grass for five and a half hours without saying a word to each other.” Turning to Georgia, Oscar asked, “So what is he like?” Ignoring Oscar’s question, Georgia turned to Debbie and asked, “Do you know what the first thing William asked me after Oscar left?” Debbie looked over at Oscar and grinned as he focused on Georgia to hear the answer. Confident that she knew the answer, she said, “So what is he like?” “Exactly! Can you imagine that? I thought Lucy was going to strangle him,” Georgia said throwing her hands up in the air. Frowning, Oscar asked, “So what is he like?” Giving him a look that was meant to get him to shut up, Debbie said, “You know that’s the only question he’s going to be asking you for a week.” “I know. William was the same,” Georgia said. Shaking her head in obvious confusion by the men’s behavior, she said, “The entire week he was asking me about Oscar.” “I could have told you that he would do that,” Oscar said with a shrug. It seemed to him that each had seen the essence of the other, but didn’t trust what they saw. They each wanted to hear the opinions of others to validate what they had seen. Georgia rose and hugged Oscar. She said, “It’s good to see you again. I missed you.” “I missed you too,” Oscar said before turning the hug into a passionate kiss. He was hoping to turn the kiss into a visit to his room. Breathless, Georgia said, “That’s enough for now. I need to talk with Debbie alone for a while.” Her comment reminded him of the reason why Georgia had gone to visit at William’s house. He hoped that she had resolved some of her issues and said, “Go ahead. I’ll just sit here and wonder about William.” “Do that,” Georgia said shaking her head. Oscar watched the pair of them leave. They could have talked in front of him and he wouldn’t have understood half of what they said to each other. Looking at the clock, he realized it was too early to head to class and there wasn’t enough time to do much of anything else. He looked around trying to decide what to do with a spare half hour. Oliver sat down and looked at Oscar long enough that the younger man became uncomfortable. Finally, Oliver asked, “What is it with you and William?” The source of the question made Oscar reconsider giving the trite answer. Instead, he asked, “Why?” “For some reason, I see a black thread connecting the two of you,” he answered giving voice to an observation based upon his gift. He shrugged, “When I see lovers, I see a golden thread running between them. When I see good friends, the thread is silver. Sometimes, I see people who absolutely hate each other and there is a red thread that connects them. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a black thread.” “I don’t know how to interpret your threads,” Oscar answered feeling just as baffled by the idea of a black thread as it appeared Oliver was. “I’d like to understand your relationship with him.” “Same here,” Oscar replied very serious. He bit his lower lip and wrinkled his brow in concentration. Finally, he said, “In a very strange way, William and I are competitors. There’s only one spot in the universe and we are each competing for it.” “What spot is that?” “I don’t know. You say that he’s a prophet of sorts and he says that I’m to bring peace to the Middle East. You’d think that we each have our place, but somehow we interfere with each other,” Oscar said. It was the closest he could put into words what he meant. Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “You tell me. In what way does the fate of a fortune teller interfere with the fate of a guy who is going to blow up the Middle East?” “Who said that you are going to blow up the Middle East?” Snorting, Oscar asked, “How else will there ever be peace there?” “Did you read the biography of John Carter?” Oliver asked. “Yes, it was very interesting. It gave me a lot of insights into the Carter Clan,” Oscar answered. “What did you think about the sections that I marked?” Shrugging, Oscar said, “It makes me wonder what it would be like to know when you’re going to die.” Shaking his head, Oliver asked, “What would you do if the Gods and Goddesses were to ask you to die on their behalf?” “I’d do it without hesitation.” “Why?” Getting serious, Oscar said, “When I was under attack in Afghanistan, there was no way I could have survived without the intervention of the God. My life since then has been a gift and what a gift it has been. I don’t break things anymore. You have no idea how much that means to me. “I’ve gotten to love two women who are drop dead gorgeous. There isn’t a man alive who wouldn’t love to have two women who look like them in their life. I can’t even begin to tell you how great they make me feel. “I’ve been allowed to see things that I didn’t think possible for me to see. I’ve seen exotic locations, sunrises and sunsets over the desert, and good people learning how to be better people. I actually got to spend a year looking at fifty naked women almost every day. That is a nerd’s ultimate fantasy and, before I began my service, I was the ultimate nerd. “I am well satisfied by what they’ve done for me. I’ll gladly give up my life if they ask it of me. What kind of person would I be if I were to turn my back on them after all they’ve done?” “Interesting,” Oliver said. Sighing, Oscar said, “It will be good to return to my service as a warrior. As much as I enjoy studying religion, I don’t think that my studies can lead anywhere. I mean, can you imagine what would happen if I tried to convert the Middle East to Druidism?” “You’d last about fifteen seconds,” Oliver replied with a laugh. He knew that would be true. Oscar glanced at the clock and said, “I better get to class. I and all zero of my classmates are studying the Holy Grail.” “Ah, King Arthur.” “Not entirely. It seems that rumors persist that the Knights Templar had something to do with the Holy Grail,” Oscar said with a shrug. Keeping all these different legends distinct seemed to be an impossible task. Frowning, he said, “Everyone who was anyone in Europe over the past two thousand years claimed their power was based on some sort of religious artifact from the times of Christ. At least people won’t be digging up the bodies of Druids in the future to steal some body part so that they can claim they own a great relic.” “Cremation does tend to make that a little difficult,” Oliver said disgusted at the idea of someone praying to his thighbone. Oscar drifted off to class leaving Oliver at the table thinking morbid thoughts. This year was particularly difficult for Oscar. The first year, he had been surrounded by people. The second year, he had Sandy as a roommate and spent a lot of time with her. This year, he was basically alone. Sandy’s program had heated up and she was occasionally traveling to attend lectures by modern philosophers. His roommate was majoring in physics and was always off with his classmates working in the lab or studying. He still had two classes with other students, a home economics class and a health class. Neither was the kind of class that their name suggested. Oscar had initially protested taking the classes, but after a week into them he was glad to be taking them. He particularly enjoyed the study groups since it gave him a chance to interact with people again. The health class was not the typical health class. Although first aid was taught, so was the ability to recognize many common ailments. They wouldn’t be doctors, but they could diagnose, based on physical symptoms, hundreds of common health problems they would encounter in their lives outside of the campus. The course didn’t stop there; it also went on to cover the health care system in horrible detail. The home economics class wasn’t about cooking and sewing. It was about the economics of running a household. It wasn’t a business class, but covered all of the practical things about businesses that a person living in the United States needed to know. This covered everything from how to arrange bail from a bail bonds business to how to invest money via a brokerage firm. It wasn’t a government class, but covered all of the government agencies and their responsibilities. His favorite study group, of all that he had ever been in, was the home economics study group. Every Monday they were given a different case study to work out how to improve the situation of a family or business. They would spend the entire week working out a solution. There was always lively debate about various approaches to the problem. Sitting down, he asked, “What are we working on this week?” “Well, our family is in pretty bad shape financially. We have a husband, a wife, and a kid who is eight years old and in public school. The husband earns twenty six thousand a year as a janitor in a public school and the wife earns an additional eight thousand in a day care center. They are renting an apartment, have a five thousand dollar credit card debt at twenty-four percent interest, and the wife’s father just had a stroke,” answered Mark handing over a sheet with additional facts about the household. Looking over the sheet, Oscar said, “No savings, lots of bills, and no retirement fund. This is rough.” Abby frowned when she looked at the picture of the apartment complex in which the family lived. She glanced over at the fact sheet and said, “It gets worse. They live in a pit in the middle of a high cost of living area. No chance of ever purchasing a house on that kind of income.” “They are not going to move because of the wife’s father,” Mark said. “She’s not going to be able to change jobs without having to get child care for after school with the kid,” Abby said. “He’s not going to be able to make much more than that with his education and job skills. He does have health insurance though,” Oscar commented. He was trying to build up a mental image of the family of three struggling to make ends meet under the conditions presented. Odds were good that they didn’t manage to live from paycheck to paycheck. There were probably three or four days of the month when they had no money. He watched Mark dig through the box of material that had been given their study group. “Here’s a copy of the local paper for each of us. I guess we’ll have to look at what opportunities there are to move to a lower cost apartment, improve their income, and perhaps trade-off an asset or two,” Mark said as he handed out a section of a newspaper to each person. Oscar read the name of the city off the top of the newspaper. He groaned and said, “San Diego?” “Yes. He’s lucky to have the job,” Mark said. He knew that the area limited the chances of the husband picking up temporary work that would bring in some extra cash. There were enough undocumented workers competing for the quick cash jobs. Sam, short for Samantha, asked, “Is this one of those exercises in which we can’t succeed?” Looking over at the black haired beauty, Mark answered, “We can’t fail. According to what the instructor said, these cases are drawn from real people’s lives. We have to help them in some way.” Shaking his head, Oscar said, “There has to be some way to help them, but I fear that it would require changing the neighborhood they live in, the places that employ them, and the government services available to them.” “There aren’t any government services available to them. They make too much money,” Sam said. “The first thing we have to do is get their credit card debt refinanced. That will free up about sixty dollars a month,” Mark said. He knew it wasn’t much, but it was the difference between having spaghetti every night and occasionally having a meal with real meat in it. “His car is eighteen years old. Even with fusion power, there are a lot of parts that can break. I bet he’s spending another hundred or two a month just keeping it running,” Sam said. “Maybe he should give up the car and use public transportation?” “Why have him give up the car?” “It’s not just the cost of repairs, but also auto insurance. He could easily free up four hundred a month by giving up the car,” Mark said. “I don’t know about that. A car in southern California is pretty much a necessity,” Sam countered. Oscar thought about the difference between need and want. The car made life a lot simpler, but it wasn’t really a necessity. There were options that could help the situation. He said, “Have them give up the car and buy scooters. They would both be able to get to their jobs without much difficulty. It would still allow them to carry things with them so they could still do grocery shopping and other errands. They could use public transportation to go visit the father.” Sam leaned forward and said, “They could get rid of that debt with the increased savings. It would take them about eighteen months.” “Earlier, don’t forget that they’d get something for selling the car. They’d be able to eat better,” Oscar said. “If I were them, I wouldn’t do it,” declared Abby. “Why?” “A car symbolizes a lot of things. Selling the car and buying a scooter is just as good as surrendering,” Abby said. Shaking her head, she said, “You are asking them to give up the one thing that probably makes their life easier. They live in a crummy neighborhood paying too much in rent, they work in dead-end jobs, and now you want them to give up the one thing they own? It is not going to happen.” “But the money…” “It’s not money, it’s the lifestyle. If you can fix that, then you can fix the rest,” Abby declared interrupting Sam. “What do you mean?” “Look, they can trim back in a dozen little areas. They can eat the cheap noodles twice a week and save seven dollars a week on groceries. They can drop their cable television and save forty dollars a month. They can sit at home on the weekends and do nothing. That could save them another ten bucks a week. We can cut back their costs so that they can save seven hundred dollars a month. “Each of those actions only impoverishes them more in their eyes. That’s the real problem. You have to make them feel like they are improving their life today, not eighteen months in the future. For all they know, eighteen months in the future they’ll be in debt trying to pay off a funeral for her father. They see themselves living in poverty today and for the rest of their lives,” Abby explained. She sat back with her arms folded challenging them to disagree with her. “If they don’t get more money soon, they’ll be forced to move into a worse neighborhood. That won’t be good.” Shrugging his shoulders, Oscar said, “The father and son could go fishing on weekends. It doesn’t cost that much. They come home with a fish or two and they have saved a bit on the food bill. The wife has a chance to fix things up around the house so their living conditions improve a little.” “They could create a babysitting pool with their neighbors so that they can get one or two nights a month away from the house without the kid. It would give them a chance to go for walks along the beach, catch a movie, or even just eat ice cream at a local ice cream shop,” Sam added. She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Refinancing the credit card debt will give them more than enough money to pay for those things.” Listening to the conversation, Mark said, “It seems to me like we have two completely different solutions. One is to fix their underlying problems while making them miserable and the other is to make them feel better about their problems without eliminating the source. There has to be a middle ground.” Grinning, Abby said, “You have to let them keep the car.” “Okay,” Mark said, “Abby, you look at ways to improve their lifestyle. Sam, you look for ways to increase their spending power. Oscar, why don’t you check out the government services that are available in the area.” Abby asked, “What are you going to do?” “Supervise?” Mark answered. After everyone finished laughing, he answered, “I’m going to check out the business opportunities that are in the area.” “Sounds good to me,” Oscar said. He would look through the web to identify the city, county, state, and federal programs that might apply to this family. He asked, “Do you want me to check out the non-profits?” “Sure, that would be good.” The group broke up to pursue their own individual tasks for the project. Oscar headed off to find Georgia. She’d been back three days and he hadn’t been able to talk with her except for a few minutes at a time. He headed towards her office. Halfway down the hall, a figure came out of one of the offices. Frowning, Oscar asked, “William?” The young man turned and looked at Oscar. He smiled at the look of shock and said, “Oscar.” “What are you going here?” “I’m here to see you,” William answered. Lucy had let him know that if she heard one more question about Oscar that she’d scream. “Why?” “My girlfriend suggested it,” William said with a shrug. Glancing down the hall, Oscar said, “I understand.” “I thought you would. Oliver just told me that Georgia was begging him to order you to come visit me.” Smiling, Oscar shrugged his shoulders and said, “I guess I have been bugging her a bit.” “Where would you like to talk?” “I don’t care,” Oscar said. “How about the first year dining room?” William asked. He figured that there would be lots of quiet times, but they would have something better to look at than the grass in the yard. Oscar followed William to the first year dining room. Their entrance created quite a stir among the students. Ignoring their reactions, William went over to one of the tables and took a seat where he could watch the people in the room. Looking around the room, William said, “When I was a student here, I was a lot younger. The sight of so many naked bodies did nothing for me. The effect is much different today.” Oscar sat beside him and looked at the naked students. Settling into his chair, Oscar said, “I imagine that the experience would be much different if you were to be introduced to the first year protocol today.” “There’s no question about that,” William replied. He adjusted his pants so that he was more comfortable. He wondered how Lucy would react in that situation. After a minute of silence, Oscar said, “Oliver told me that you and I are connected by a black thread. He doesn’t have any idea what it means.” “Interesting,” William commented. He looked over at Oscar and thought about the possible connections between them. After a minute, he said, “It seems to me like we are both trying to hold the same spot in the universe when only one of us can hold it.” Oscar nodded and said, “I told him we were competitors for the same place in the universe. Of course, I asked him what a fortune teller and the man who is going to blow up the Middle East have in common.” The comment made William laugh. He’d never heard himself referred to as a fortune teller. Looking at Oscar, he said, “First a soldier, then a scholar. I wonder what is next for you.” “Don’t you know?” Oscar asked. “I know that you are going to bring peace to the Middle East. I have no idea how you are going to do it,” William said shaking his head. He wished he knew what bound their fates together. Licking his lips nervously, Oscar said, “I hate to say this, but I’m beginning to believe you.” “Are you taking home economics now?” “Yes.” “That’s such a great course,” William said. Feeling much more at ease around Oscar than ever before, he asked, “What are you working on?” Oscar, feeling a lot more relaxed, said, “We have a family of three in a horrible economic situation as our case study this week.”