Chapter 14

The next few months were busy for Jennifer, if a little routine.

She had her normal level of work at Lambdatron, and there were a couple of interesting projects she was deeply involved with. Over the years she had slowly moved away from direct involvement in such projects, and now tended to supervise things rather than having her hands right on them. In a way this was a little frustrating, because she had always enjoyed the direct involvement, but on the other hand supervision would be a little easier to manage when the time came that she had to do it from a distance.

When the time came – and she was sure it would come – perhaps she could manage to wrangle a project now and then that she could work on directly up at the Bar H Bar without having to be involved with the office very much. Whether that would work remained to be seen, and there was no way of telling about it until it could be tried in practice.

While Jennifer was comfortably busy at the office, she was rarely frantically busy with the need to work nights and weekends. That only happened when there was a big rush on a project or when things got into trouble. Her evenings and weekends were mostly her own, and she had things of her own to do.

Always at the head of her list was taking off to see Will, although she couldn’t do it every weekend. Sometimes she had things to do in Phoenix, and sometimes Will had things to do for the Air Force. Sometimes the weather was not favorable, even for flying that distance on instruments. Even when things were otherwise clear, sometimes neither of the big planes were available. Going to Keesler in Magic Carpet seemed a little ridiculous considering the time required. While the little Cessna was faster than it had been with the smaller engine, it still wasn’t as fast as Songbird, let alone Skyhook. One weekend she did make the run with Songbird, and it seemed like it took much too long for the amount of time she was able to spend with her husband.

So she didn’t get to see him as much as she had hoped. Sometimes she missed only one weekend, but another time she had to miss three before she could take the trip. However it worked out, spending the time with Will at Claudia and Cindy’s house was sweet, and they always had a good time. They usually spent some time talking about the new house they wanted to build and some of the things they wanted to do with it. While actually building it might still be years off, they wanted to have their ideas pretty well thought out when the time actually came.

In spite of Will having grown up on the Bar H Bar, the location his father had proposed for the new house was a little unfamiliar to him and questions kept coming up. One weekend Jennifer flew Magic Carpet up to the ranch, where she took loads of photos and some measurements, and asked his folks plenty of questions. It was always good to talk to his parents; she got to do it all too rarely. She had spent over a dozen years estranged from her own parents, and relations with them were not very warm even now, so in that time Duane and Ellen Hoffman had become something of surrogate parents to her.

While there was a short path where she could land Magic Carpet, it was not good enough for a larger plane. Having a good airstrip right at the ranch seemed to be a key to her being able to live there, so she took a hard look at what Will’s father had proposed. It was totally unusable now, thanks to sagebrush, rocks, and the like, but he said those obstacles could be easily dealt with when the time came. “It’ll just take a small bulldozer and a little time,” he assured her. “Maybe when we have the dozer in here we can clean up a few problems on the road in here, and the track out to the cabin, too.”

The result would probably be usable if a little marginal under normal conditions for Songbird, but taking Skyhook in there would be out of the question.

While she was on the ranch that trip she flew out to the cabin and landed there. She had not been back since she and Will had spent a week there in the summer. There were some things she wanted to take back to Phoenix, although much of what she’d taken in there on that trip could be left there until the next time she and Will were there. The little cabin still seemed like home to her, even though Will wasn’t with her, and she couldn’t help but feel a little sorry that it wouldn’t be figuring very much into their plans for moving up to the ranch and would probably mostly remain a place for weekend getaways. Both she and Will had given some consideration to building the new house there, but it was obvious that the new place had to be closer to the main ranch buildings because that was where much of the ranch work had to be done.

Since she had some time to spare, on her way back to Phoenix Jennifer flew Magic Carpet into the Redlite Ranch, to see George and Shirley and to see how things were going. They were going pretty well, with nothing major to bring to her attention, so her stop was a brief one with some coffee involved.

After all the time she had spent there over the years the place was very familiar – it was just that this time she had not been there on what had been her sideline business for so long. As she flew back to Phoenix, Jennifer felt just a little bit strange in that she had no desire to do it any longer. It seemed part of her past; while she had mostly enjoyed what she had done there, she realized she didn’t want to do it anymore. While she knew she would be back at the place every now and then, it would be on a different level with different things to accomplish, and she was satisfied with it. She had moved on in her life, although what she was moving on to seemed to be a little unclear.

As the weeks went by Jennifer didn’t lack for things to do in her spare time. The big project that she had to deal with was the book that Norma had pushed her into doing, even though it had been her idea in the first place.

Jennifer was a good technical writer; in her job at Lambdatron she had to be, but in a sense this project was more like writing a research paper back as an undergrad, rather than a technical paper. Norma had been right in that there were a number of articles and pamphlets available to advise girls how to handle the business, let alone articles on the Internet. The problem was that none of them fitted her vision of the book very well. Some of the things she picked up there seemed like sound advice, considering that she had never had anything practical to do with that part of the business, but there were things that seemed just downright wrong to her, too. There were other things that, while not exactly wrong, didn’t strike her as exactly right either. But then, considering the limited range of her experience, she knew she could be wrong about that.

After some research, she came to the conclusion that she needed to organize her notes and knock together a rough draft so she could have some experts pick it apart. She had no lack of experts available to her, both up at the Redlite Ranch and the people Norma was in contact with.

So the writing went slowly, but it filled some hours that could have been pretty dull and lonesome otherwise. That made her feel a little strange; only rarely in her past before marrying Will had she felt bored in her off hours. As much as anything, that told her how much her life had changed when she hung up her spike heels and got married. Even so, she knew that this was transitional; things would be different again when she was living full-time with Will, hopefully in little more than a year.

More than once she reflected how the lives of her friends Jon and Tanisha had changed after they’d had Barbie, and in October added a little boy named Billy to the family. That event made her consider once again the possibility of having children of her own. That would mean an even bigger change to her life than the one she’d already had. She had come about to the point of conceding that it would probably happen to her, and in the not too far distant future, but the reality of it still seemed a little elusive.

The one thing she made up her mind about was that she didn’t want to get started having kids until she was living full-time with Will, and after they’d had the chance to settle into each other a bit. While she loved Will more intensely than she could have imagined, she knew that living with him could expose difficulties that would have to be resolved.

As it happened, the weekend following Billy’s birth was one where Jennifer flew to Biloxi to spend a couple days with Will. While, as always, they had a warm and loving time in bed, they actually spent the majority of the time just hanging out together. Some of it was over some sweet tea on an unseasonably warm afternoon on the verandah of Claudia and Cindy’s place, which is where Jennifer decided to share her thoughts about children with her husband.

“I kin get along with that,” Will said in his normal Nevada cowboy way of speaking after she had said her piece. “Miz Hoffman, we been married almost a year now, and in that time we ain’t spent a total of much more than a month together. I think we’re gonna get along just fine when we’re livin’ together, but there ain’t no doubt in my mind that we’re gonna have to file some rough edges offen each other. Don’t you never forget that it’s gonna be as much different for me as it will be for you, and in case you’re wonderin’, I’m lookin’ forward to workin’ that stuff out, too.”

“It’s going to be strange,” she replied. “But it’s not going to be the only thing that’s changed in my life in the last couple of years.”

“I ’spect it’s gonna be an even bigger change for me than it will be for you. Miz Hoffman, I guess you know I ain’t never liked the Air Force very much, and would rather be out on the ranch. But I guess I’ve got used to bein’ in the Air Force, and it’s gonna be real different to not be. With all that happenin’, I ain’t real anxious to have kids right away, although I still want to have them, so puttin’ it off for a little while so’s we can get used to livin’ with each other seems like a good idea to me. ’Sides, if I wind up gettin’ outa the Air Force it’s gonna take us a while to get the house built up at the ranch and gettin’ settled in there.”

“All I can say to that is that we probably ought to think about holding onto the condo in Phoenix for a while. I’ll probably be down there for Lambdatron from time to time, and I don’t want to even think about actually having a child born out on the ranch with no medical services around. I think I’d rather be in Phoenix for that.”

“Don’t necessarily have to be that way,” Will shrugged. “It didn’t bother Mama none, but I guess that was what she was used to. But this one we can do your way.”

As Jennifer pointed Skyhook back toward Phoenix late the next afternoon, she found herself reflecting that unless something unexpected happened, she was going to be taking a swing at motherhood sometime in the not too far distant future. It was something that had been little more than a distant and unlikely prospect for her ever since she left high school, and she wondered just how good a mother she would be. Babies and children were something she had very little experience with, but that was something she could solve, and the simplest answer was to spend more time with Tanisha and Jon to learn something about taking care of little ones. It would at least get her in touch with what could be her own future.

Along in the middle of the morning the next day at the office, Stan made an appearance. After a little small talk about how well her weekend had gone – not that there was much about it that she cared to share with him – he asked, “Are you doing anything important that you can’t put down for the next few days?”

“Not really,” she shrugged. “I don’t want to say I’m looking for make-work projects, but for the next few days I don’t have to give a lot of attention to the things I’ve got going now.”

“Good,” he said. “I’ve got something I need to drop in someone’s lap, and it might as well be yours. We’re cooperating on an R and D project with a company in Fukushima, Japan, Hirayama Industries. They seem to be chasing their tail on a few things, and I’m thinking that someone from here needs to stick their nose in there to see what’s going on and maybe inject some outside thinking. It’s right down your alley. I can’t see it taking more than a week or so, at least this trip, but it might not be the last time we have to send someone there.”

“I suppose I could make the trip, but I thought we were going to keep me in the office because of my reputation.”

“Normally I would say yes to that, but this is a little different. I doubt if anyone in Japan knows much about Learjet Jenn or Fast World, so it seems like we could get away with it. We really don’t have anyone better qualified to send anyway. On top of that, there’s a production facility in Taiwan we use for a couple of things on an ongoing basis, and someone needs to stick their noses in on them just to let them know we still care. That’ll probably just be a plant tour and a little schmoozing.”

“Well, I suppose,” she sighed. “You know I don’t like flying commercial unless I have to, but even if I were willing to take Skyhook out of the country, Japan would be out of range anyway.”

“All right, I’ll get Angela to set up the flights and make the other arrangements. I’m guessing she ought to be able to come up with something for Wednesday, and we ought to have you back by the end of next week.”

“If it drags on a little longer than that, it’ll be fine,” she sighed. “Will is expecting to have to work the weekend after next, so I wouldn’t be going to Biloxi anyway.”

It was something that had to be done, and she felt she could do it. Early Wednesday morning Jennifer got on an airliner in Phoenix, bound for Seattle, where she would change planes for the flight on to Japan. With good reason she had been nervous about flying commercially since the hijacking a year and a half before, and even a comfortable first-class seat didn’t help this time. She spent most of the flight with her laptop on her knees, working on her book project; it would give her something to do in the evenings.

She had been in Japan before, although not to this company. From what she understood, she probably wouldn’t have all that much to do but as soon as she got to Fukushima she discovered some areas where she could really be useful. She actually got to do some hands-on engineering, which was something of a relief. She spent ten- and twelve-hour days for a week working on the project, and by the time she was done things were back on track. That didn’t leave her much time to enjoy the cultural facets of the country, but she had been exposed to them before. It seemed likely that she would have to be back there sometime in the future, and were it for not seeing Will it would have made for a refreshing break.

Counting travel time the stop in Taiwan wound up taking three more days, and it was another day for her flight back across the Pacific, so her chances of going to Biloxi to see Will would have been shot even if he had been available that weekend. They had exchanged e-mails and phone calls right along, although it wasn’t as good as being there.

They managed to get together the following weekend, though. As always, it was good to see him again, and in spite of the fact that it was now November it was warm enough that they managed to spend some time on a nearby beach and have a couple of good ethnic meals. That gave Jennifer the thought that she really ought to take some time to learn something about cooking before they were living together full time in a home of their own. That was something she knew Tanisha could not help her with very much, but Nanci, who was back living with them while she attended Black Mesa College, might be able to step in and help out.

The big thing that happened that weekend was that Will announced that he had been able to arrange for leave right around Christmas. It wouldn’t fit the holidays perfectly, but would do well enough for them to once again spend the holidays at the cabin, now for the third year in a row, and be there for their first anniversary, which was fast approaching. It hardly seemed like it had been a year, and the fact that they had been together so little just made the feeling more acute.

With Will still being in Biloxi, it fell to Jennifer to make the arrangements for the holiday. Since Songbird was scheduled during part of the period, Magic Carpet was going to have to be put to use again. Like the summer before, Jennifer had to make a trip in the bigger airplane a couple of days ahead of time to haul food and other items they would want at the cabin, along with giving it a once-over to get it ready and for putting up a few holiday decorations. Other than figuring out what she wanted to take, the trip went well, and she even had enough time to stop off at the Redlite Ranch again, just to see what was happening. Things were fairly busy there, although there was a drop-off in business expected right around Christmas.

Not surprisingly, Christmas was usually one of the deadest days of the year around the place, and a lot of girls took off for the holidays, even if it was in the middle of a shift. George had always had a small Christmas party for those left behind, and Jennifer had been there often enough in past years. None of them had been much of a Christmas, but it was better than sitting in her condo eating microwave pizza. It wasn’t something she wanted to do again if she didn’t have to.

Of course she told George what she was planning, and they invited her to drop by for the Christmas Party this year. “Thanks for the offer,” she said. “But we’re planning on being at Will’s folks for dinner.”

“I’m planning on being there, too,” Shirley announced.

“Would you like me to drop by and pick you up?” Jennifer asked. “I could even do it the night before.”

“It’d be nice if you could,” the older woman replied. “I don’t get out to the ranch as much as I would like, and if there’s any day they can get along without me here, it’d be Christmas.”

“You go on,” George told her. “I’m pretty sure the place will be here when you get back.”

A few days later Jennifer fired up Skyhook once again and pointed it eastward. The flight to Biloxi was routine, and once again Will was waiting for her when she taxied it up to the general aviation terminal at the commercial airport. This time, though, he had a couple of small bags with him, and after fueling the Learjet and a quick stop at a rest room the two of them were heading back toward Phoenix.

“You know,” Will commented as they climbed to cruising altitude, “by the standards of a few years ago that ain’t been bad duty, but however it turns out I’m gonna be almighty glad to have it over with. If it works out that I can stay in the Air Force that’s fine, but if I can’t, that’s fine too.”

They spent the night at Jennifer’s condo again, and early the next morning they were in Magic Carpet, heading for the ranch. They did things a little differently this time, flying directly to the main ranch buildings, where it had been arranged for Will to borrow a pickup truck for a few days so they could get around on the ground. As he left down the rough track to the cabin, Jennifer flew the little Cessna out to the dry lake; she was there in enough time to have a fire going in the wood stove to warm the place up a little before he arrived.

The cabin always had seemed a little primitive in the warmer months, but it seemed cozy indeed with a fire in the stove and another one in the fireplace, and to have it lit with kerosene lanterns in the shorter days of winter. It was, after all, their place, and it seemed more so in the winter than the summer.

So much in her life that seemed important had happened at the cabin or nearby – falling in love with Will at the little waterpocket up the draw years before, although she hadn’t really realized it at the time. Their sweet time together here two Christmases before, when Will had given the cabin to her as a token of how they felt about each other, and then their wedding a year ago, followed by the Christmas honeymoon that they’d enjoyed here. All of that made the prospect of being there this Christmas even more sweet to her.

Will seemed to feel it, too. “Lordy, it’s good to be home,” he said as he took Jennifer in his arms. “Happy anniversary, Miz Hoffman. It don’t seem like it’s been a year, but I guess it has. We gotta get through another year, but then however it works out we won’t have to be apart very much.”

“I’m looking forward to it more than you can possibly imagine. Happy anniversary, Will. Here’s to many more of them.”

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