Shadows of Passion

By David Scott

The emotional and sexual romantic relationship between student Harry  Richards and teacher Cindy La Forge grows exponentially. Readers are given a tour de force of how the intense relationship between Cindy and Harry evolves. Backstories include Cindy'

• Language: English
• Publisher: Global Summit House
• Release date: Apr 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638216537

David Scott

Professor David Scott, PhD, MA, Adv DipEd, BA, PGCE, is Professor of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, Institute of Education, University of London. Previously, he served as Acting Dean of Teaching and Learning, Acting Head of the Centre for Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Director of the International Institute for Education Leadership and Professor of Educational Leadership and Learning, University of Lincoln.

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Copyright © 2021 David Scott.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

ISBN: 978-1-63821-655-1 (Paperback Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-63821-656-8 (Hardcover Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-63821-653-7 (E-book Edition)

Some characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to the real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Book Ordering Information

Phone Number: 315 288-7939 ext. 1000 or 347-901-4920

Email: [e-mail]

Global Summit House

www.globalsummithouse.com

contentS

Chapter 1:    High School Senior

Chapter 2:    Auburn Field Trip

Chapter 3:    Senior Prom

Chapter 4:    A Deeper Relationship

Chapter 5:    Filing for Divorce

Chapter 6:    Negative Serendipity

Chapter 7:    McDow Avenue

Chapter 8:    Psychological Profiles

Chapter 9:    Blackmail

Chapter 10:    Private Detectives

Chapter 11:    Dating

Chapter 12:    Madison Lot

Chapter 13:    Monte Sano

Chapter 14:    Dropping By

Chapter 15:    Bluffing

Chapter 16:    Harvey’s

Chapter 17:    FBI Visits

Chapter 18:    Red Alert

Chapter 19:    Plans

Chapter 20:    Another Cold Case

Chapter 21:    Gilded Cage

Chapter 22:    College Freshman

Chapter 23:    Secret Testimony

Chapter 24:    Glenn Avenue

Chapter 25:    Pillow Talk

Chapter 26:    Connecting the Dots

Chapter 27:    Munich and Paris

Chapter 28:    Sherrod Avenue

Chapter 29:    More Pillow Talk

Chapter 30:    Poets

Chapter 31:    Breaking Down

Chapter 32:    Breaking Out

Chapter 33:    Baby on Board

Chapter 34:    Leaving on a Jet Plane

chapter 1

High School Senior

Harold Harry Richards is an emotionally sensitive, introverted, and shy seventeen-year-old teenager with passive-aggressive tendencies. He is capable of flying off the handle at the drop of a hat and returning to his drowsy torpor just as fast. He is a mix of precocious curiosity and insight and crippling ignorance. He has an affinity for insatiably reading about history.

Harry is scheduled to graduate from Butler High School in Huntsville, Alabama in May 1973.

He endures social challenges including a recent nerve-racking date with a neighborhood girl Rita Fowler. This date was arranged by his mother and his date’s mother. His mother was trying to help by having him go on a date with a neighborhood girl he could later take to the Senior Prom. After the date Harry wrote Rita a letter pledging his love. Rita’s mom told Harry’s mom he had been awkward during his date with her daughter. Imagine their astonishment, Rita’s mom said, after they read Harry’s letter.

Harry’s parents try to dismiss his behavioral oddities. His father once told him he was a strange kid. That could be passed off as the momentary annoyance of any parent raising a teenager.

His family suffered a tragedy in 1964 when his youngest sister passed away from pneumonia when Harry was nine. Any preexisting negative family dynamics were exacerbated by this sad event.

Harry finds short-term redemption from life’s travails during visits to his mother’s relatives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana twice a year. He fixates on places and objects and draws emotional security from them. He is attached to his maternal grandparent’s house and a cousin’s house. He loves the smell of Community brand dark roast coffee brewing in the morning in his grandparent’s home.

His parents told him college applications for admission in the fall of 1973 would be due in January, 1973. He recently eavesdropped in on them hearing them decide they will cash in some of their US Savings Bonds to pay for his first semester college tuition.

Harry knows he will have to take the SAT. He is already brooding about it. Chronic exam anxiety torpedoes his ability to think calmly and clearly when taking tests.

He has always had to do things with reluctance everyone else asserted was important. Harry was bullied into a preconditional program to become a Boy Scout called the Webelos. He failed a knot tying qualification test and was released. Another time he provisionally made the Little League baseball team. Assigned to left field he dropped a line drive hit in the ninth inning losing a key game for his team the Highland Eagles. When he remained hitless, he was benched for the duration of the season.

His life has consisted of other similar shortfalls when he did not conform to his parent’s or society’s expectations. He is despised by the cool kids who all sit at the same cafeteria table together. Harry has known he is different from most people since his childhood.

Mrs. Cindy LaForge née McGee is a 29-year-old just hired as the German teacher at Butler High School.

Marley McGee née Müller, Cindy’s mother, is of German extraction with dual American-German citizenship. She and her sister Rosa immigrated together from Germany fleeing economic depression and political turmoil seeking a better life in America. They arrived in New York City in 1932. Marley stayed in America, became a naturalized American citizen, and married native New Yorker Ralph McGee in 1938. She anglicized her first name from Marlie to Marley.

Rosa got homesick, went back to Munich, and married Reinhard Schneider. Reinhard was killed during World War Two. She never remarried and never had children. During the war Rosa was in Germany and Marley was in America. Cindy McGee was born in New York in February, 1943.

Her father Ralph McGee played clarinet in the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was on the road half the time. For that reason, Ralph and Marley been planning to move from New York to Philadelphia when he got throat cancer. He died in 1952 when Cindy was nine. After his death Cindy retreated more and more into a world of make believe. After his death a devastated Marley spiraled into morbid grief. When Cindy was a sophomore at Purdue University in 1963 Marley returned to her native city of Munich, West Germany.

Cindy was introverted as a child. She’s been a loner since her childhood. She is an only child. As she got older, she began writing poetry. She never had many friends and seldom dated. Cindy has known she’s different from most people since her childhood. Cindy is detached from most people except her mother Marley and her mother’s sister Rosa. Aunt Rosa, or ‘Tante’ Rosa, has always been like a big sister and surrogate mother.

Marley believes Cindy is ‘unruhig’, restless in English, because she thinks too much. She views societal norms with skepticism when they do not make sense to her. She is an iconoclast and nonconformist. At the same time, she maintains a conservative streak. She is a study in contrasts.

She is bilingual due to her mother’s German background. Cindy is a 1965 graduate of Purdue University with a B.A. in German and Education. She attended Purdue on a scholarship and met her future husband Frank LaForge there. He graduated from Purdue in 1965 with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

They dated a few times and nominally fell in love. Cindy felt even then Frank could be cold and remote. He proposed and she accepted in spite of gut-wrenching misgivings. They were married after their graduation.

Frank works at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama as a sustaining engineer on the NASA Apollo Space Program. He was offered a job NASA before he graduated on the condition he relocate to Huntsville. Frank accepted and moved to Huntsville with Cindy in 1965. The city’s growing economy attracts people from surrounding Alabama communities, from the rest of the South, from the rest of the country, and from around the world. This demographic mix gives Huntsville a cosmopolitan and international flavor within its Southern motif. Rumbling Saturn V rocket tests would often shake the area during its development.

Cindy gave birth to Catherine in 1967. She was later diagnosed with extreme depression. Her condition continued month after month and she went into a tailspin. In 1969 Cindy spent weeks in psychiatric care at the newly opened Pineview Hospital in Hartselle, Alabama. Marley temporarily left her home in Munich to help Frank care for Cindy and her granddaughter Catherine. After spending several months with them she returned to Munich.

She has a psychiatrist to manage her depression. She was taking her medications and keeping doctor appointments. Cindy has missed seven scheduled appointments with her psychiatrist.

At first Marley believed Frank was a good match for Cindy. He is an aeronautical engineer at NASA. She holds his industrious hard-working nature in high esteem. He is also a surprisingly good cook another attribute she likes. It is one of the few topics of mutual interest she can discuss with Frank. It is surprising to her that he is a food connoisseur. It does not mesh with his otherwise bland nature. It is as if he is a minor savant in this regard.

Now she believes Cindy and Frank are emotionally and temperamentally mismatched. This conclusion was reached by her mother’s instincts, supplemented by observations she made living with them. She disdains his choleric and capricious moodiness. Bonhomie is alien to his nature. Instead, being cantankerous and ornery are his indigenous traits.

There was a time when she tried to hide her antipathy for Frank from Cindy in the interest of family unity. She gave this up when it became too exhausting.

Marley is reproving of Frank’s emotional unavailability for Cindy and his incapacity to nurture her. She does not place all the blame on her son-in-law. She suspects most men would not and could not understand her daughter. It still does not let Frank off the hook in her mind.

She has never been able to figure out her daughter’s mind. This includes Cindy’s inordinate love of dinnerware. This idiosyncrasy first became apparent after her father died when she was nine years old. Marley has attempted without success to penetrate her daughter’s inner secret world and the multiple strata in her mysterious personality.

Marley constantly tells her daughter on the phone if Cindy was in a loving marriage it would make all the difference.

Cindy previously taught German at Calhoun Community College in Tanner, Alabama near Decatur. The half hour-long drive each way from Huntsville to Tanner and back was not bad. Still, she wanted something closer to home.

She resigned from Calhoun after lucking into a German teaching position at Butler. The last German teacher left on short notice. The timing of her applying to teach at Butler High School could not have been better. On her application Cindy omitted mention of her hospitalization for depression three years ago side-stepping any hiring hurdles. She was not working when she gave birth to Catherine and later got sick.

Cindy makes the inaugural commute from her home in Jones Valley in Huntsville to Butler High. While driving to her new job she reflects on her ever-increasing estrangement from Frank. Cindy and Frank are liberals in a conservative state. They are against the Vietnam War. They are the parents of a five-year old girl. She is a member of the National Organization for Women known as NOW. He supports her NOW membership. They respect one another’s intellect.

She does not understand why these common traits do not bring them closer. Instead, they are growing apart. In her heart she knows it is not an unsolved riddle. Frank’s original sin from Cindy’s vantage point is he has a dispassionate persona.

They have a quarrelsome disconnect despite maintaining a facade of harmony for their sake of Catherine their daughter. Their disconnect is a result of living in two different worlds. Discussions between them pile on more misunderstandings instead of resolving them.

She sees him as a rigid person lacking her emotional depth. She understands dealing with her depression was a trying time for Frank and Marley. It was a horrible time for her. They would agree everyone needs somebody in order not to be destroyed by loneliness. For themselves they are not the antidote for that problem.

Cindy admires Frank’s intelligence, the pride he takes in his job at NASA, and his appetite for cooking. His intelligence is what tipped the balance in favor of her marrying Frank. This in spite of reservations she had about other strands of his makeup. Cindy and Frank have had some nice times together. Be that as it may out of the starting gate their relationship began to atrophy.

KGB Psychological Profile on Frank LaForge

Soviet KGB agents assigned to the West Lafayette, Indiana Field Office began monitoring Frank LaForge during his senior year at Purdue. A double agent working inside NASA found out Frank was being considered for a job in Huntsville, Alabama on the Apollo moon landing program. He fell into the perfect place on the KGB’s intelligence gathering bell curve as someone worth watching based on a complicated set of criteria. Psychological profiles and career projections indicated Frank would rise far enough to be involved in classified programs at NASA. They also projected he would stay low- level enough not to attract notice by American counterintelligence. His subsequent mid-level engineering position at NASA and top-secret clearance validated the accuracy of the original prediction.

Frank and Cindy bought a home in the Jones Valley suburb of Huntsville in 1965. Shortly afterwards two KGB agents covertly drilled and installed a listening device into the side of their house. After seven years of patient surveillance the KGB has accumulated a large dossier on Frank LaForge, hi wife Cindy LaForge, and their families.

First day of the fall semester September 1972 at Butler High School Huntsville, Alabama

Cindy pulls into the teacher’s parking lot driving her white two-door Volkswagen Karmann Ghia convertible sports car. Cindy is impressed with Butler’s sleek modern appearance. The school was built in the late 1960s as a futuristic state of the art building featuring pentagon shaped pods with no windows. The student population of the school tops 3,000. The large student body at Butler is the result of the post-World War Two baby boom, the presence of the U.S. Army base Redstone Arsenal, and the NASA George

C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Butler is a mix of Army brats from Redstone Arsenal, the offspring of engineers and technicians who work at Redstone Arsenal and NASA, and children of other workers living in abutting neighborhoods.

She walks in and locates the Foreign Language Department. Cindy finalizes hiring paperwork, receives a school floor map, is issued classroom and language lab keys, and shown to her classroom. She has three German classes and one homeroom. Her first German class begins at nine. She patiently waits for the students to arrive.

The nine-fifty bell rings signaling Harry and his classmates in American Government class it is time to move on to their next classes. He braves the crush of students crammed together like sardines jamming hallways during class changes. Harry is intimidated by the multitude now elbow-to-elbow and shoulder to shoulder removing and returning textbooks and supplies from their lockers. He squeezes in between students, opens his locker, and puts his American Government textboo away.

His German III class is in the same classroom he had for German II. Several students are already sitting at desks. Harry choses a front row wooden chair fused with a desktop. The teacher is a good-looking lady. She has brunette hair and expressive brown eyes. She smiles at him in friendly way. He smiles back and settles in. In a few minutes over forty students are jammed into a classroom intended for thirty as the ten o’clock bell rings. A couple of stragglers come in after the bell.

Harry sees ‘Willkommen’ written in chalk on the blackboard, which he recognizes means welcome, and the name ‘Mrs. LaForge’. Cindy almost wrote out her maiden name McGee. Seeing the class is assembled Cindy gets up from her desk and introduces herself.

Good morning my name is Mrs. LaForge. She points to the word written on the chalk board. Can anyone tell me what the word ‘Willkommen’ means?

You’re not welcome! a wise guy yells out from the back of the class.

With the skill of a comedian used to dealing with hecklers Cindy effectively deflects the comment causing everyone to laugh including the heckler.

‘Willkommen’ means welcome. Welcome to German III. This is my first day at Butler High School and my second class of the day. I look forward to teaching this class. I am going to pass out a ledger you must sign to receive your textbook.

Harry will like this class and teacher. Mrs. LaForge has an appealing quality and he has no clue why. She distributes the textbooks row by row. On the sign sheet, he notices her first name Cindy is listed.

Mrs. LaForge requests the class introduce and tell something about themselves. Harry is out of his element in situations such as this. He makes a head count determining when his turn will come. Now the person at the back on the next row is finishing. It is his turn. Harry freezes in terror.

Your name is?

Harry Richards.

What are your plans after graduation?

I, ah, ah I ah plan to go to college.

What do you plan to major in?

I haven’t decided yet.

Mrs. LaForge moves on to the nexts student. Administrative details of the first day of school take up most class time. Cindy checks the student record of Harold Richards. He is seventeen years old born in Huntsville, Alabama in May 1955. He is twelve years younger than she is.

Cindy thinks about Harry driving home. Something appealing about him caught her eye immediately. He is attractive, but that is not it. In her heart she intuits he is a shy person and has not been with the right person to bring him out of his shell. She senses he could be a soulmate. She dismisses the feeling as being absurd. It soon returns. As she pulls into her driveway Harry Richards fills her mind.

She retrieves the mail from the mailbox and goes inside the house. She places the mail on the dining room table greeting Samantha Chastain, their nanny. Cindy and Frank hired her to stay with Catherine while they are at work. She came with enthusiastic letters of recommendations and is well- regarded by her past client families.

Five-year old Catherine comes running to Cindy. She takes Catherine over to the couch and plants her there with a doll.

How is everything? Cindy asks Samantha.

Catherine’s been a good girl today as usual. I’ll see you in the morning Mrs. LaForge.

Frank will not be home until half past five. She sits down on the couch in the living room, takes her notebook, and begins tinkering with a poem. She tires of that after several minutes. Next, she re-reads the last letter from her mother. It describes annual Oktoberfest preparations in Munich, which starts in a few days. Her mother writes that her sister Rosa, Cindy’s aunt, is in the final throes of setting up her two food stands for the festivities.

Cindy’s thoughts turn to Harry, then dinner. She heats up leftover pizza in the oven. Right on time she hears Frank driving in. The front door opens.

I’m home, Frank mutters as he trudges past the dining room table grabbing the mail.

Hello Frank, Cindy shouts from the kitchen as he walks in. They smooch dispassionately.

That smells like the pizza we had the other night at the pizzeria, he observes sniffing the air.

It is. I know you were looking forward to roast, but I was too tired since it was my first day at work. I figured the doggy bag pizza we took with us from the pizzeria would be good enough.

Fine. I wish I had more time to cook us meals.

You are a good cook, she agrees. More like a good chef, she amends.

Frank picks up Catherine and hugs her. When do we pay Samantha? This Friday or next Friday?

This Friday, Cindy answers as she takes the pizza out of the oven and puts the pieces on three plates letting them cool for a few minutes. Frank sits down on his chair and begins going through the mail.

You received a letter from the high school. How was your first day at work? How was the drive? Are you going to like teaching at Butler better than teaching at Calhoun?

I have a feeling I am going to enjoy Butler much better than Calhoun, she replies smiling.

You save driving time and wear and tear on the Karmann Ghia.

That is not what she meant as Frank hands Cindy her official employment confirmation and contract letter from Butler High School.

Frank is worried about his job. Apollo 17, the last moon landing of the Apollo program, is scheduled for December. He hopes to transfer to another NASA team after the Apollo program ends. She feels remorse concentrating on Harry when Frank has job concerns. Frank is in a particularly good mood today. He is not being his usual sourpuss self. Maybe he is feeling better about his job. Maybe he is excited about the upcoming Apollo 17 moon landing.

How will she be able to hide her attraction to a teenager twelve years younger than her? An attraction that is growing exponentially? Get a hold of yourself, she thinks, you just met him today. In a moment of contemplative reality Cindy realizes she is attracted to a young kid who has no job, lives with his parents, and does not know what he wants to major in at college. The practical side of her thinking, deficient though it is, tells her after Harry Richards graduates and leaves high school, she will never see him again. She prays this is only infatuation.

Taking the bus home that afternoon Harry thinks about Cindy LaForge. Something appealing about her caught his eye immediately. She is nice looking, but that is not it. Her eyes are expressive. She seems superficially outgoing. In his heart he intuitively feels she is not an outgoing person. Rather, she is private and self-contained within herself like he is. Harry senses she is somebody who could intrinsically understand him. He is feeling confused as he gets off at his bus stop. There is a word he is attempting to think of that describes a sudden and temporary attraction to somebody. Infatuation. That is the word. Infatuation.

As Harry gets home Cindy LaForge fills his young mind. He is soul- searching and processing why he has these feelings about a stranger he just met for the first time today. Cindy triggers many different psychological and physiological sensations in his hormone flooded male teenager’s body.

Hi mom, Harry yells out as he enters the house.

Hi Harry, she responds.

His father, who works at Redstone Arsenal, will not be home until five- thirty. Harry smells a savory aroma permeating the house.

Is that pizza?

It is. Chef Boyardee. I’m making sweet tea to go with it.

Cool! Harry replies, loving both his mother’s sweet tea and the way she makes the Chef Boyardee pizza. Pizza is usually on Saturday nights.

I ran out of time to make the roast your father wanted tonight. I can’t go wrong with pizza.

Are we still having pizza Saturday?

We’ll see.

Harry hears his father driving in. His dad walks into the den picking up the mail on a lamp table.

What’s for dinner? It smells like the pizza we have on Saturday nights. It is. I know you were looking forward to a roast, but it got too late in the day to start it. I decided pizza would be good enough. His dad goes through the mail.

You received a letter from UNA. How was your first day at school as a senior? Do you want to start driving the Corvair to school, or are you still okay taking the bus?

I’m still okay taking the bus dad. I am going to enjoy my senior classes more than my freshman and junior classes.

Any specific class more than the others?

American Government, Harry fibs.

Harry’s father hands him the letter from UNA about the acceptance process.

What’s in the letter?

They want transcripts for all my high school classes and a list of the senior classes I’m taking. I’ll get the transcripts tomorrow.

His dad reaches in his wallet and hands Harry a five-dollar bill. If they charge for copies of the transcripts, this should cover it. I want the change.

Harry is feeling guilty. His parents would not approve of his thoughts about his older married German teacher. How will he be able to hide his attraction to a married woman twelve years older than him from his parents and friends? His attraction is growing exponentially. In a moment of contemplative reality Harry realizes he is attracted to an older woman who is married and one of his teachers. The practical side of his thinking, deficient though it is, tells him after he graduates and leaves high school, he will never see Cindy LaForge again. He prays this is only infatuation.

The next day Harry anxiously watches the big clock on the wall in American Government class. He cannot concentrate on the lecture. It is nine-forty-five. Five more minutes to go. The countdown begins. The teacher hands out a homework assignment. The bell rings.

He charges from his desk to his locker, deposits his American Government textbook, and clutches his German III textbook. For once he beats the hall stampede and arrives at Mrs. Cindy LaForge’s class in record time. He is the first to arrive. Mrs. LaForge is sitting at her desk writing.

Good morning Mrs. LaForge. Harry speaks to her without his standard shyness. He sits down at his desk in the front of the class deluged with happiness. Cindy looks up.

Good morning Harry. The feelings she had yesterday return in full force. While they are still alone Cindy tries small talk.

Where are you going to college next year? she inquires noticing a streak of blonde in his hair.

My parents and I are thinking about UNA in Florence.

You mean the University of North Alabama, she clarifies, noticing his blue eyes are like the color of a mountain lake.

Yes, he says, noticing her brown eyes are like those of a doe.

Two students walk in followed by three more. Their small talk is over. The ten o’clock bell rings for class to begin and the classroom is packed. Cindy wants to evaluate the student’s knowledge. She recalls a song by the German singer Hildegard Knef triggered by her noticing a blond streak in Harry’s hair. She writes the song title on the chalk board: Er war der Schönste in der Klasse.

Can anyone translate that sentence for me?

Harry puts his hand up faster than his classmates Beth Swindoll, Jeff Jacoby, and Peggy Garrison the top German students in the class. This behavior is out of character for him.

I can Mrs. LaForge. Cindy smiles warmly at him anticipating his answer with great interest.

It means he was the prettiest in the class. Or the best looking.

"Gadzooks that’s correct Harry! Best looking would be the better way of translating Schönste in this context rather than prettiest, although I think men can be pretty too."

Cindy is wading into dangerous waters and switches gears. After reviewing basic grammar principles and answering questions, Cindy returns to the sentence she had written on the chalkboard when class began:

Er war der Schönste in der Klasse. Can somebody diagram the sentence and explain every word grammatically?

Before Harry can raise his hand again, he is cut off by Beth a few desks over. As Beth breaks down the grammar of the sentence for her teacher and classmates, Harry stares at Cindy LaForge, who stares back at him. Cindy surrenders to impulse and writes a second line on the chalk board underneath the first line.

"Er war der Schönste in der Klasse is the name of a song. It is also the first line of the song. The second line of the song is beneidet, stark und semmelblond. Can anyone tell me what that means?"

Harry is not sure what the words beneidet and semmel mean and does not raise his hand. Jeff Jacoby, the top German III student in the class, raises his hand. Cindy signals for him to speak.

It means envied, strong, and blond, Jeff answers. "Very good Jeff. There’s more to explain about the use of semmelblond in this song, but we’re out of time," she says venturing not to stare at Harry as the bell rings. The class is over much too soon for Harry. He reluctantly shuffles out of the class eager to come back tomorrow.

As the days and weeks go by Harry acquires a newfound confidence and self-assuredness he never had before. This becomes obvious to his fellow students and teachers. His teachers remember the timid ways of Harry Richards. In a contradiction his timid ways were punctuated with occasional outbursts of impotent fury at other students and teachers.

It takes the German III students little time to catch on that Harry is Mrs. LaForge’s teacher’s pet. The animated way she talks to him and his demonstrative nature around her are not lost on the students. You would have to be blind not to see it. Harry becomes painfully aware of this. As he is riding on the bus a couple of guys sitting behind him begin talking to one another in a staged setup.

Did you hear that Harry has a girlfriend?

He does? What’s her name?

Cindy!

Both boys roar with laughter. Harry feels angry and embarrassed. He thought he had been able to hide his fondness for Cindy. If these two knuckleheads who are not taking German classes know, then many other students must know especially his German III classmates. Harry throttles back his apparently too obvious interest in Cindy. He will do a better job of concealing his feelings from the prying eyes and ears of his classmates.

A few days later Cindy is in the teacher’s lounge getting a cup of coffee in the anteroom. She hears two teachers enter the lounge. They sit down on the sofa outside on the other side of the wall and begin whispering. Mrs. Agatha Wingate, World History teacher, is conversing with Mrs. Hazel Curtis, Civics teacher. Cindy listens in. The two teachers, thinking they are alone, begin speaking in a normal tone.

It’s disgraceful, Mrs. Wingate says picking up where they left off. "I heard she was seen roaming through the hallway looking for Harold Richards during a class change. He’s the student who’s had comportment problems. Why would she be following a student who is a troublemaker?

Harold was in my class last year. I concede he loves history and was always cordial with me. Oddly enough he could be a prodigy in history. He has an instinct about the past and how it has impacted the present. That doesn’t take away his bad conduct with many of the students and staff. Now Cindy LaForge is taking advantage of the situation. Disgraceful I tell you disgraceful."

Mrs. Curtis takes a more nuanced view.

I’m not so sure about that. How would anyone detect she was looking for Harry? Just because Cindy has good rapport with a student doesn’t necessarily mean anything inappropriate is going on. Harry is a nice quiet boy most of the time with a few issues. You shouldn’t use such rhetoric about them or anyone else in casual conversation Agatha. It could get you in trouble. I’m telling you this as your friend.

Agatha Wingate has a disapproving smirk on her face. Hazel Curtis no longer wishes to converse about this unseemly topic with its unsupported allegations.

Don’t be naïve Hazel. You can’t ignore the facts.

Frankly Agatha I haven’t heard any facts. You want some coffee?

I’d love some. You may not have heard. She no longer wishes to be called Mrs. Cindy LaForge. It’s Ms. Cindy McGee. You’ve heard of Ms. haven’t you Hazel?

Why are you so interested in Cindy LaForge or Cindy McGee for anyway?

Cindy moves to the furthest corner of the anteroom as Agatha and Hazel walk in.

Good morning, Cindy says to them as she exits with her cup of coffee.

You suppose she heard us? Agatha asks Hazel.

How could she not hear us? Hazel quips a wry smile on her face.

Cindy throttles back her apparently too obvious interest in Harry. She will do her best to conceal her feelings from the prying eyes and ears of her German III students and the school faculty.

Cindy and Harry come to an unspoken agreement to lower the temperature between them. The other German III students’ limited teenager’s attention span causes class gossip about Harry and Mrs. LaForge to subside. Days merge into weeks then months. Harry excels in German III. Cindy and Harry still exchange meaningful glimpses and smiles. Cindy and Frank continue to drift apart.

Rita Fowler is the neighbor girl Harry took on an arranged date and to whom pledged his undying love to in a letter. She has warmed up to him noticing his cheerful demeanor. Nowadays Harry walks by his former imaginary flame Rita without noticing her. His snubs cause Rita to want him to notice her.

A day before the school Thanksgiving holiday Harry is in the language lab with the rest of the German III class. He listens to German dialogue through his earphones and answers at the prompts. Cindy approaches his small cubicle handing him a piece of paper with a type written note:

I will give you a one-ringer at noon on Thanksgiving. Let me know if you will be home at noon on Thanksgiving.

Harry writes his answer on the same piece of paper:

I think so. We will be having Thanksgiving dinner right about then at home.

Harry wonders what she means by a one-ringer. She must be planning to call him at home. That will be wonderful! Cindy almost strokes the top of Harry’s head. She stops her hand midway as she moves on to the next language lab cubicle and student. She must maintain the illusion of indifference toward him for the outer world.

The euphoria Cindy feels watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade gives her more holiday spirit than Catherine and Frank. She tries to minimize this feeling. At a subconscious level, she suspects such feelings might be ungrateful, unethical even immoral. These feelings accentuate the alienation and loneliness she frequently experiences. Surrounded by her family she is alone in a crowd.

Samantha accepted the LaForge’s offer to work on Thanksgiving because the money was good. The turkey is in the oven. She has enjoyed it as much as she can stand it.

You can take the turkey out of the oven at twelve-thirty, Samantha instructs Cindy.

Thank you, Samantha, Cindy says handing her cash with a bonus. Five minutes to twelve. Anticipation builds.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is over. Harry is basking in his favorite holiday of the year. His mother periodically checks the turkey roasting in the oven. A light rain assures he will be home at noon for Cindy’s one-ringer. It is a quarter to twelve.

The euphoria Harry feels watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade gives him more holiday spirit than his parents and sister. He tries to minimize this feeling. At a subconscious level, he suspects such feelings might be ungrateful, unethical even immoral. These feelings accentuate the alienation and loneliness he frequently experiences. Surrounded by his family he is alone in a crowd.

Harry’s mother and father are in the final stages of putting the turkey on the large plate server. He pitches in by putting cranberry sauce on the plates as his sister sets the table. The family sits down at the table. He checks the wall clock. Three minutes to noon. Anticipation builds.

Cindy checks the oven making sure everything is on track, then checks on Frank in the den. He is watching a Detroit Lions football game being played in snow. Catherine is sitting in the middle of the floor in the den playing with a toy. It is three minutes to noon.

Taking a last look to make sure Frank is not going anywhere, she walks down the hall to their bedroom and sits down on the bed next to the nightstand. Cindy waits for another minute until it is twelve o’clock. Cindy dials Harry’s number she has memorized. After one ring she hangs up.

Harry glances up at the clock on the wall and sees it is high noon. The phone in the living room rings once and stops. Cindy did it! She followed through on her promise.

Must have been a wrong number, his mother says. That reminds me I need to call momma and daddy after we eat and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.

Something is different about Harry these days his sister thinks. She has overheard her parents discussing it too. Nobody can put their finger on it. Harry is not sleeping as much. He is not as indolent, lackadaisical, and lazy as he oftentimes is.

Harry waits at the bus stop shivering from the cold anxious to get to school and let Cindy know he heard her one-ringer. He replays the moment over and over in his head. As the bus pulls in Harry sees Cindy’s white Karmann Ghia parked in the teacher’s parking lot.

He formulates a plan. It is eight-fifteen. He is due in his homeroom at eight-thirty. She is probably in her homeroom class. He thinks if I hurry, I can sneak in, say hi, and let her know I got the one-ringer. He can sneak back out before students begin assembling in her morning homeroom.

Harry reaches the door. Cindy is writing class assignments on the chalk board. Seeing two students are already in the homeroom chit chatting Harry quietly enters. He makes sure the students are still distracted. He walks up beside her.

I got your one-ringer, Harry whispers. Cindy is delighted.

I’m happy you heard it. See you at ten.

Samantha is dusting when she hears Cindy drive in. After Cindy says hello to Samantha and Catherine, she checks out her latest Waterford crystal acquisitions in the display cases. Cindy stares for long periods of time at the abundant amount of crystal, dinnerware, silverware, and Hummel figurines she has neatly arranged in mahogany display cases in the dining room. Cindy does the same with her doll collection. Samantha has made a mental note this has been reoccurring with increasing regularity.

She discovers Cindy has purchased more Waterford crystal. While the pieces she has are lovely and expensive they have a value to Cindy that Samantha cannot fathom. When Cindy is in that frame of mind, she is lost in another world more alluring than this one. She fawns over her doll collection. She returns to the real world under protest.

If she notices this inexplicable behavior, Samantha ponders, does Frank also notice it? Frank has noticed it for years. Her spendthrift purchases of Waterford, plates, dishes, cups, saucers, tea sets, spoon, forks, knifes, and on and on is a constant source of agitation. It is a fundamental reason for many arguments he has with Cindy. At first her excessive purchases had been a nuisance. Over time they began provoking feelings of contempt. Frank grows weary of monthly statements from local retailers from her incessant buys of crystal and dinnerware.

He worries her depression might flare up. Frank cannot count on his mother-in-law Marley bailing them out again. Marley lives in and is a citizen of a foreign country The Federal Republic of Germany also known as West Germany. She is also a naturalized citizen of the United States of America. That dual citizenship situation just about upended his being granted a top- secret security clearance before he joined NASA.

Frank never reported Cindy’s hospitalization for depression to his supervisor as he was obliged to do under government regulations. Such a revelation of his irresponsible behavior could affect his top-secret security clearance.

Cindy’s psychiatrist determined the proper anti-anxiety medication for her was Clonazepam not yet available in the United States. The doctor convinced Frank it was the medication needed to treat Cindy’s depression. The doctor asserted Clonazepam has been successfully used for treating depression in Europe. The doctor convinced Frank it is only a matter of time before it will be legally available for prescription use in America.

At first Frank had a problem with Cindy taking an antidepressant that has not been approved for use in the United States. He has had regrets granting permission for Cindy to take Clonazepam off the books without the traceability and validity of a prescription.

The doctor dropped hints to Frank that Cindy may need electroshock treatments for her severe depression. He was working with Frank to do this when Lithium became available to treat depression and mania in 1970. Her doctor had told him Cindy is lucky Lithium is legal by prescription in the USA. It has only been available in America for two years.

In the meantime, the doctor has a European ex-patriot source who supplies him with Clonazepam. Since Frank was and is desperate to keep Cindy’s depression at bay – he cannot withstand a second go round – he acquiesced. It was implied to Frank its usage by Cindy may have ethical and legal consequences. The doctor had insisted only his staff handle Cindy’s blood tests making her a captive patient. When Cindy took Clonazepam regularly it modulated her mood toward the upside. It also made her docile. This helped Frank overcome remaining ethical dilemmas. It was given to her in an unmarked medicine bottle. Has she been taking it? He has no idea.

At one time Frank had been diligent making sure she took her anti- anxiety medication Clonazepam, her legal mood stabilizer medication Lithium, and seeing her physician regularly. No more. With all the work he has put in over the last year in preparation for the Apollo 17 moon landing he has forgotten to check on that for a long time.

Frank contemplates Cindy may have skipped her last scheduled appointment. Perhaps the last two. She may not have seen her doctor in months. Cindy’s doctor is no longer monitoring her Clonazepam and Lithium levels by blood tests. She ignores reminder phone calls from her psychiatrist about upcoming appointments.

She has accumulated a large amount of Clonazepam she no longer takes. Cindy is out of Lithium, which she had been taking regularly until she stopped going cold turkey. She complained Lithium made her gain weight.

Frank does not realize Cindy is entering a probable manic cycle. He has discerned she has not been sleeping much for a