Eunice headed off to her bedroom, closing the door behind her, and lying down on her bed, letting her mind roll. Jeff’s death had come as a surprise to her, but not a shock; she’d been expecting it to come sooner or later. While she and Eric had done about all they could to make him comfortable the last couple years, he hadn’t been happy about things and they’d both known it. Now at least he was released from that suffering, and she was relieved that it was over. While she’d had her solemn moments, she hadn’t cried for Jeff, at least not yet today, although there had been plenty of tears the last two years when she remembered the active, loving man he had been up until the stroke. She knew she might never cry over his death, but would likely do so over losing the man he’d once been.

She and Jeff had shared a lot in over fifty years. Eric might know a lot of it, but he could never know all of it. Those were her memories of Jeff to keep.

Saturday, August 23, 1958

Eric’s return from his adventures in the east pretty well brought an end to the summer; soon he and Jeff were working on plans to move into their off-campus apartment at Meriwether College. Eunice got drawn into the project, too; the guys were aware that there might be a few things that would demand a woman’s touch.

As it turned out, the apartment was pretty much a student-level bachelor pad; after all, it had been one for some time, and in that respect Jeff and Eric were not much different from those who had lived there before, and those who would most likely come afterwards. It was a small basement, and the ceilings were low; while there were two tiny bedrooms and a bathroom with a rather primitive shower, the living room and kitchen were all one room, and that one not large. Still, both Jeff and Eric were happy with it; the bathroom was in the apartment, not up the hall; there were an old but working refrigerator and gas stove. There were no noisy neighbors, and best of all there was no housemaster looking over their shoulders every time they turned around. Jeff could keep his legally purchased rum, vodka, and bourbon out on the shelf with no pretense of hiding it, and Eric could keep beer in the refrigerator the same way. It was world of difference from living in the dorm like they’d done the previous three years.

The apartment came with minimal furnishings – a couple of rather lumpy three-quarter beds, a ratty sofa and chair, and a kitchen table with three wobbly chairs. After considering things a bit, they decided that there was no point in bringing too much stuff from Wychbold since they’d have to either throw it away or haul it back in a few months. The Harrington attic provided most of what they needed, such as sets of sheets and blankets that were a little too worn to use, but too good to throw away, some towels and washcloths that met the same description. There were also some cooking and eating utensils that had been removed from regular service around the Harrington household. Jeff’s mother Alice was actually more useful in finding most of what they needed to set up the apartment than Jeff was.

It was also pretty clear that cooking was going to be minimal around the apartment; it was going to involve a lot of hot dogs, a lot of cans, and maybe some frozen TV dinners for variety. Even with an old black and white console TV that didn’t work very well and some boxes of canned food – some of it also scavenged from shelves around the Harrington house – it still didn’t come to a full car load for the Nash. There was even room for Eunice to ride along when they hauled everything up to Meriwether College a few days before school opened. “I guess it’ll be all right for a few months,” Eunice whispered to Jeff at one point when Eric was outside. “But I hope we can do better than this when it’s just you and me, maybe next year.”

“I think we’re going to be able to do that,” Jeff agreed, “and don’t ever think I’m not looking forward to it.”

Eric was conspicuous by his absence the weekend the girls actually moved back into the dorm; there was a race at Elkhart Lake, well up in Wisconsin. It made a perfectly good excuse to not have to deal with Donna until he was able to do it on his own terms. Thus it was that Jeff loaded a few final things of his own in the Nash, then drove over to Amherst to pick up Eunice and take her back to school – her father was glad to be relieved of the duty. After all, the Dexters had a pretty good idea of where things were headed between the two although nothing formal had been announced yet.

At the last minute, Donna called Eunice to tell her that her parents couldn’t bring her up to Meriwether until the next day. That meant that Jeff and Eunice had to haul her things up to her room and then set them up on one of the few days that guys were allowed in the girls’ dorm. “You know,” Eunice smiled after he got the last load up to her room, and she had part of it unpacked, “there’s no point in doing any more of this right now, or staying here by myself tonight. With neither Eric nor Donna here and everything being messed up by people moving in, there’s no reason I couldn’t stay in the apartment with you tonight.”

“I was sort of thinking the same thing,” he grinned. “Like I’ve been telling you, I’m ready when you’re ready.”

“I still don’t know if I’m ready,” she shook her head. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t get close to it. Let’s just skip getting my stuff set up for now. That way I can look busy when Donna gets here tomorrow.”

“Talked me into it,” he smiled.

Thus it was that the first meal eaten in the apartment was canned spaghetti Eunice warmed in a saucepan, and they washed down with a couple of Eric’s beers while they talked about their upcoming classes and what would happen with their friends when they met up. “From what I can tell, Donna is pretty willing to make up with Eric,” she reported. “And I think she’s going to be willing to go out of her way to do it.”

“I wish I could say that it’s going to be that easy with Eric,” Jeff replied. “I suspect Donna is going to have to go a little further than she planned if she wants to get anywhere with him. But I don’t know. It could be all lovey-dovey, or it could be World War Three.”

“I hope it’s not the latter. I mean, if it is, things could get really uncomfortable for us.”

“If it happens, it happens,” Jeff sighed. “I don’t think it’ll be too bad with Eric, but we might have to walk a little softly around Donna.”

“All the same, I’d really rather not have to do tiptoe around her.”

Afterward, they watched a little TV, but the reception was lousy so they didn’t watch for long. “Nuts to this,” Eunice said finally. “We’re just putting off what we both really want to do. Jeff, like we’ve been talking, I don’t think I’m quite ready to go all the way yet, but I think I’m getting close to it. I don’t think we’re going to wind up waiting until we get married, even if we decide to get married next spring, but I think just touching and cuddling and sleeping next to each other tonight will be enough for now. We’ll probably get some other chances to be together, but it may be a long time before we can actually spend the night together again.”

“Eunice,” he smiled. “As far as I’m concerned, what you want is what you get.”

“All right,” she grinned. “But let me use the bathroom for a minute to get ready.”

There was nothing much Jeff could do but wait. He was ready all right, more ready than he would have admitted to Eunice, but he didn’t want to mess up anything with her, either. Finally, she came out of the bathroom, wearing only the bikini that she’d first worn on the beach at Pokagon months before; it was not the last time he’d seen her wearing it. “Jeff,” she smiled. “I know you’ve wanted to take this off me all summer long. Now you get your chance.”

“Believe me,” he laughed. “It will be my pleasure.”

It turned out to be a considerable pleasure for both of them, and they took an enjoyable period while getting to the point where they were nude with each other for the first time. “Wow,” she said, looking at him. “That’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen.”

“From what I saw in locker rooms when I had phys. ed. in high school, I’d have to say it’s about average,” he laughed. “But when have you ever seen another one?”

“Just on babies,” she giggled. “But now you’re going to have me wondering for a while whether it’s going to fit in me. I guess maybe we’d better not try to find out for a while, but I’m really looking forward to trying it on for size. I have to say that I like what I see.”

“Eunice, I have to say that I really like what I see, too, and yes, I’m looking forward to when we can try it out for real.”

So they wound up spending the night together in the nude, sleeping cozily in the narrow bed. They did some of the kissing and touching and other things they’d done to each other from time to time over the summer, and now went further without clothes in the way. As agreed, they didn’t go all the way, but got close to it. Neither of them had any reason to complain, at least this time.

Sunday, August 24, 1958

It was hot toward the middle of the next day when Donna carried the first of the loads up the stairs to their second-floor room, her parents tailing along behind with their arms full, too. She knew that the normally rigid dress code around Meriwether was relaxed a little for move-in days, so she was wearing shorts and a sleeveless blouse that would have been considered very improper at any other time. She found the door to the room wide open, and a small fan in the window was trying to relieve some of the hopeless stuffiness.

Eunice was there, like Donna had expected; she was wearing one of the playsuits that she’d taken to wearing over the summer. She noticed right away that she’d let her hair grow out a little, and had a little curl in the ends, so she looked more than a little prettier than she had back in the spring. “Oh, you’re here,” Eunice said. “I was beginning to wonder.”

“My aunt Charlene was visiting for the weekend,” Donna explained. “That messed up my coming up yesterday, and I didn’t think she was ever going to leave this morning.”

“Well, you made it here,” Eunice grinned. “That’s what counts. I wasn’t doing much of anything, so I’ll be glad to help you haul things.”

“I see you’re already unpacked.”

“Yes, Jeff brought me up yesterday like we planned,” Eunice grinned. “But I think your unpacking will go easier without me having to do it at the same time. Let’s go get another load.”

Donna’s parents’ DeSoto was pretty well packed; as usual, Donna had brought a lot of clothes with her, and it took time to get everything up to the room, even with the four of them working on it. Donna really wanted to sit Eunice down and ask her a few questions, especially about Eric, but while her parents were around wasn’t a good time. Her mother tried to help her get things unpacked and put away; Donna couldn’t just ask her to leave, even though she knew she would have go through and rearrange things the way she wanted after they left. It was a pain in the neck, and Donna hoped this would be the last time it happened, however the future happened to work out.

Finally, with a little bit of subtle urging her parents were on the road for Meridian, and Donna felt a big weight come off her shoulders as she stood on the curb and waved goodbye. Once they were out of sight she went back into the dorm, got a couple Cokes from the machine in the lounge, and went back up to the room, wondering a little bit about Eunice. She seemed pretty perky for it being such a hot day, and Donna couldn’t help wonder what that was all about.

She got back to the room, to find Eunice sitting directly in front of the fan to cool off a little bit. “Here,” Eunice said. “I’ll get out of the way and let it blow on you for a while. You look pretty sweaty!”

“That’s nothing compared to how I feel,” Donna replied as she handed Eunice one of the Cokes. “God, it’s an oven in here. Now I’ve got to go back through and undo about half of what my mother did, and I sure don’t feel like doing it right now.”

“Why don’t you relax and cool off a bit, and try to remember that we only have eight more months here.”

“That will be a relief,” she sighed. “I remember being excited to be able to go to college, but I think I’m going to be more excited to leave. So if Jeff brought you up here, I guess that means you’ve seen him. Is Eric here yet?”

“No, Jeff said Eric went to some sports car race over in Wisconsin. He said he didn’t think Eric would be back before midnight.”

“Doesn’t he have to move in, get registered, and all?”

“Jeff said Eric came up late in the week to do it. There’s an advantage to them living off campus, after all. Jeff would have been just as happy to come up earlier with him, but he had to wait for the dorms to open yesterday so he could bring me up.”

“Darn it. I’d hoped I could talk to Eric before classes got under way. Have you seen him?”

“He got back, oh, a week and a half ago. The three of us sat around one evening right after he got back and he told us about some of the things he’d done. Sailing and rock climbing and racing the Triumph, mostly. It sounded like he had fun.”

“Did he talk about wanting to see me?”

“Very little,” Eunice replied honestly. “I got the impression from Jeff that they’d talked about it some more after I left, and I would be surprised if they hadn’t. But Jeff didn’t tell me anything about what they said.”

“Not surprising, I guess,” Donna shrugged. “Eunice, you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve kicked myself for acting so badly last spring. I have to apologize to Eric, and I mean not just a little.”

“You’re still interested in him, then?”

“I guess I’d have to say that,” Donna sighed. “Darn it, he is a nice guy, and I screwed it up. I, uh, you remember Jerry, don’t you?”

“Unfortunately.”

“I sure wish I didn’t. A couple weeks ago I got so bored that I agreed to go to the Saturday night dance up at the lake with him. Big mistake. He got pretty drunk, and was all hands. I didn’t want to ride home with him. I finally hitched a ride home with a couple of my high school friends. That told me just how much I was missing Eric. I want to put things back together with him if I can.”

“I hate to say this, but maybe it would be best if you didn’t get your hopes up too far. I got the impression that Eric has, uh, changed a bit since last spring. He had a pretty good summer and I’m sure it’s affected how he looks at things.”

“I was afraid of that. You’re saying that you think there’s not much hope?”

“I didn’t say that,” Eunice smiled. “I’m just saying you’d better not be expecting him to come running if you smile at him. You’d better plan on more than just saying you’re sorry.”

“I guess I’ll do what I have to,” Donna shook her head. “But I guess it’s all up in the air until I can talk to him. So what’s happening with you and Jeff? I get the impression you’ve gotten pretty close.”

“It’s coming along quite nicely,” Eunice smiled, and Donna could see something in that smile that said her roommate was understating things a lot. “We’ve talked a lot about what comes next, and just between you and me, don’t be surprised to see me wearing a diamond ring some one of these days.”

“I guess if that’s what you want,” Donna nodded. “Jeff is a nice enough guy. I like him, and I’m glad you like him, but somehow I don’t think I’d want to marry him. Eric, uh, he appeals to me more, if you know what I mean.”

“So we’re different people. Don’t get me wrong, I like Eric, but I think Jeff is more the kind of guy I really want to spend my life with.”

“Good for you. I just wish it was that simple for me.”

A few days later, Donna came to Eunice, acting more than a little sheepish. She stumbled around for a moment, looking for the words to say. “Eunice,” she finally managed. “Could I ask you for a little favor?”

“So long as it’s not too drastic,” Eunice replied.

“It’s just, uh, it’s just a little awkward,” Donna blushed. “I want to sign out for the weekend. I want to tell the housemother that Eric is taking me home to get a few things I forgot.”

“And you don’t want your parents to know,” Eunice said with a twinkle in her eye. “Am I right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Donna stammered. “Eric and I had a long talk, and, uh, the upshot of it is that I’m going to go to a race at Waterford Hills this weekend with him. It’s a multiple-day deal, and I, uh . . . ”

“I get the picture,” Eunice nodded, a smile on her face, and not for the reason Donna might have been thinking. “This is sort of a tryout to make up for that race last spring.”

“Uh, yeah, kinda.”

“Don’t worry, Donna. I’ll keep your secret. You and Eric have fun.”

“Damn it,” she said. “I don’t want to have to do it this way, but it looks like the only way it stands a chance of working. I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do, I just know I need to do it.”

Needless to say, both Jeff and Eunice were thrilled at the news that Eric and Donna were bot taking off for the weekend. They’d expected to get an opportunity to spend some time alone together in the apartment sooner or later, but two nights back to back and this soon were almost too much to wish for. But it happened anyway, and they were not about to let the chance go past them.

It took a little juggling around to be able to do it and not look suspicious, at least to the housemother, but it was no real trick. The only fly in the ointment was that Eunice had an eleven o’clock class on Friday, but the plan was to sign out and “officially” take off with Jeff right afterwards, and “officially” drive down to Amherst.

“The only problem is that we’d probably better not be seen around campus all weekend,” Jeff pointed out as they quietly made their plans while walking across the Meriwether quad on Thursday. “Or even around town.”

“That doesn’t seem like a problem to me. I don’t see any reason to go out of the apartment all weekend, unless maybe it catches fire.” She grinned and went on, “In fact, I don’t see any great need to get dressed all weekend.”

“I can’t say as I see any need to either.”

A little after noon on Friday Jeff picked her up outside the dorm. She was wearing one of her playsuits, this time with a Meriwether-proper length skirt, and trying to look very demure. Of course, they didn’t get anywhere near the highway and drove straight to the apartment, where Jeff parked the Nash in the alley behind the building so it couldn’t be seen from the street. Only when the door was closed and locked behind them did their reserve break, and they fell into a hot kiss. “Wow,” he told her. “I never dreamed we’d get the chance this soon.”

“I didn’t either. Donna didn’t say much about what she and Eric had talked about, but I guess she decided she was going to do what she had to do to get him back.”

“That was about the way I heard it from Eric,” he agreed. “I’m a little surprised she went for it.”

“I am, too. I guess she had her doubts, but she wanted to do it bad enough. I hope they have fun and it works well for them.”

“I do, too,” he agreed. “I mean, Eric didn’t say anything specific about what they were planning, except for the racing, but if they’re going to be sharing a motel room I guess he didn’t have to. But what happens is up to them, I guess. So what do you want to do all weekend?”

“What do you think?” she smiled. “Look, I don’t know exactly how to say this, but I was a little sorry we didn’t do it last weekend when we had the chance. I was wondering when we were going to be able to do this again. Now that this has been dropped in our laps, I think the time has come to take advantage of it.”

“Do you mean what I think you’re saying?”

“Yes, I do,” she said seriously. “I’ve been right on the edge of wanting to do it, but I think this deal with Donna and Eric was enough to put me over the edge. The time has come, Jeff. I don’t want to be a virgin any longer.”

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to. I mean, we could put it off.”

“I don’t want to put it off any longer. If I do, I’m just going to worry even more about whether we should do it at all. If we’ve done it, that means I won’t have to worry about it any longer. Now undress me and take me to bed before I change my mind.”

They took their time, enjoying themselves every inch of the way; it was nearly an hour later before he asked her if she wanted to change her mind at the last minute. “No,” she said. “I’m not going to chicken out now.”

“All right,” he smiled. “Here we go!”

Their first time was a little awkward but not exceptionally so, since they’d worked up close to that point in the past, and not just the previous weekend. He could tell that she hurt a little as he entered her for the first time, but she didn’t say anything about it until he was all the way in. “I feel so full!” she told him. “It feels wonderful.”

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