Chapter 31

The day had not gone well for Trupti. She had a major final that afternoon and it had been a bear. She detested essay tests since they played to all of her weaknesses. Her education in India had not prepared her for constructing a reasoned argument that reflected her views on a subject. She was used to knowing what the instructor wanted and writing to his or her views. American instructors asked broad questions that she found nearly impossible to answer.

The upshot of the change in education styles had been a major downturn in her grades. In India, they used a scale of one to ten and her grades had been predominately nines and tens. She had graduated well at the top of her class. In the states, they used an alphabet scale with grade points. She was suddenly a B student which, to the best of her ability to understand, corresponded to grades of seven and eight.

The low grades were not the only things driving her towards depression. Her family was having trouble coming up with the money to continue her education. During the previous decade, a growing middle class had emerged in India. Her parents had gotten considerably richer as a result of business with the United States. The failure of the American economy had directly affected her family. Her father had told her that unless she could find some way to cut back expenses that he wouldn’t be able to fund her continued education.

Her immediate reaction had been to head over to financial aid. She was told to add her resumé to the stack of resumés already on the desk and that if there was a position on campus that she would be informed. She had stared at the stack of resumes trying to estimate how many of them there were. When she had asked, she was told that they already had eight hundred resumes for fifty unfilled jobs. Even worse, she had been told that most of those jobs would go to Federal Work Study students. As a foreign national, she didn’t qualify for the program. Disheartened, she added her resume onto the stack and left the office.

Her day had only gotten worse when a student had made some nasty comments to the effect that she should go home to India and never come back. Tensions on campus had been rising over the past few months. She didn’t like that ugly looks that were sent her way when walking around the campus. She knew that a lot of the students were on edge because of finals, but she didn’t think things would improve.

Trupti followed Melissa into the strange little house in an older neighborhood. She felt like there was a spotlight on her when every face turned to look at her. Standing just two inches over five feet tall; she felt very small. Americans were so big and intimidating. She looked around and smiled weakly.

In a loud voice that carried across the room, Jack said, “Everyone, this is Trupti. She is Melissa’s roommate at the university.”

A chorus of voices rang out greeting Trupti. She found it a confusing cacophony of noise. In a soft voice that was buried under the general loud noise of the room, she replied, “Hello.”

Melissa said, “She’s shy.”

Hoping to put the petite woman at ease, Bev said, “She’s a cute little thing.”

“Like a doll,” Wanda said nodding her head in agreement.

“Where’s the red dot? I thought all Indian women had a red dot on their forehead,” Gail said openly staring at Trupti’s forehead.

Trupti felt a little uncomfortable about being discussed as if she wasn’t there. Jack leaned over and whispered in her ear, “They are just interested in knowing you a little better. It just hasn’t dawned on them that they can ask you directly.”

“Okay,” Trupti said feeling like a strange insect under a magnifying glass. She wondered how the old women at home would have reacted to an American woman showing up there. She realized the discussion would probably be much the same. They would be asking why the American woman wasn’t thin as a rail like the women in the fashion magazines. They would comment on how tall the woman was. In a way, those thoughts reassured her.

Wondering if this had been such a good idea, Melissa said, “They don’t all have red dots.”

Looking surprised at that little piece of information, Gail said, “I didn’t know that.”

Rising from her chair, Claire said, “Come in, Trupti. Have a seat and make yourself comfortable. We don’t bite.”

Trupti went over to the nearest chair and sat down like a good guest. She looked around nervously and then said, “Thank you.”

“You’re a polite little thing,” Gail said smiling at the young woman.

Trupti didn’t know how to respond. The woman next to her said, “I’m Liz. I don’t know if Jack told you, but he suggested that it might be mutually beneficial for us if you rent a room from me.”

“He mentioned something about that,” Trupti said although she didn’t understand everything that Jack had said. She didn’t know what a commune was or how joining into it would save her money.

“We’ll be eating soon. Do you eat meat?” Liz asked.

“I eat chicken and fish,” Trupti answered.

“We’re having spaghetti tonight,” Liz said. Turning to Bev, she asked, “What kind of sauce are we having?”

“Vodka sauce,” Bev answered. She had chosen that because it didn’t have any meat in it. She added, “That doesn’t have any meat in it.”

“That would be fine,” Trupti said familiar with the dish. She had been forced to get used to American food at the university since she was on the meal plan there.

Liz said, “If you decide to move in, you’ll have to cook on occasion. I hope that isn’t a problem.”

“I don’t know how to cook American food,” Trupti said apologetically. She was a good cook, but she only knew how to cook the dishes that her mother had taught her to prepare.

“Do you know how to cook?” Bev asked looking at the petite woman.

“Yes, but only my kind of food,” Trupti said.

“I like Indian food. Do you know how to make that spinach dish with the chunks of white stuff in it?” Bev asked.

“Yes, I know how to make Saag Paneer,” Trupti answered.

“I like that and the flat bread. How about the red chicken?” Liz asked.

While the women discussed Indian cuisine, Jack and Melissa were over at the other side of the room having a subdued conversation while keeping an eye on the discussion between Liz and Trupti. As a host, Jack felt that it was his duty to make sure that his guest felt comfortable. Leaning over to Melissa, Jack said, “I’m afraid that I have some bad news.”

“What?” Melissa asked with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

Jack said, “I found out that my job won’t cover your tuition until I’ve worked at the university for a year.”

“What does that mean?” Melissa asked pretty sure that she knew the answer to her question. She was positive that this was the death knell for her dreams of getting an advanced degree.

“It means that we’ll have to pay your way through school for a year,” Jack answered. It would be another bill, but he felt that they would be able to cover the cost.

“I guess I could put my education on hold for a year,” she said disappointed. She knew that she would have to find some way to help out with the bills. She wasn’t employed and it didn’t look like there were any jobs available, but she would look for work.

“That’s not an option,” Jack said. He had found a little happiness and he wasn’t going to let a small setback like this jeopardize it.

“I can take a year off,” Melissa replied feeling a little depressed. She had a feeling that if she left the university that she would never return to it.

“I was thinking that you could still go. You could go part time until my benefits kicked in,” Jack said. Although he didn’t think she was marrying him just to stay in school, he was confident that she wouldn’t be happy leaving school and that would be a disaster. He wasn’t afraid that this would make her reconsider her decision to marry him.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Melissa said feeling slightly relieved. She wasn’t concerned about having to go part-time. It was better than having to leave college completely. She could spend time working on her thesis without having to pay for it. She would have to talk to her advisor about the new timeline for her thesis, but she doubted that he could object too much.

“I really didn’t realize that it wasn’t an immediate job benefit,” Jack said apologetically. He was still unsure of the thought processes that had brought the marriage proposal to his mouth, but he didn’t regret it.

“That’s okay. I’ll be continuing my studies. Who cares if it takes an extra year? There for a while I was thinking it was completely over,” Melissa said. She hugged him and added, “Besides, it will give us more time for our honeymoon activities.”

“God, you are beautiful,” Jack said.

Looking at his torn up face, Melissa smiled and said, “You’ll be good looking when your face heals.”

Knowing that he looked like a prize fighter who had gone twenty rounds with the champion and lost; Jack laughed and said, “I guess we can say that you didn’t marry me for my looks.”

“You can say that again,” Melissa said with a grin. His face was still a little swollen, the raccoon eyes had turned to an ugly yellow color, and his face was still scabbed over where he had scraped the skin. It didn’t matter to her; she loved the man and not his looks. She had watched him help the ladies of the commune deal with their families over Thanksgiving. She knew that he was as tenacious as a bulldog in continually fighting back against whatever life threw at him.

“I was thinking that when you moved in with me that you could use Abby’s old room for an office. I’ll build some bookcases for all of your books. I think that we can pick up a desk somewhere for you,” Jack said. He had also discovered that when she stopped being a full-time graduate student that she would lose her office at the school.

“That would be lovely,” Melissa said.

“We might not even have to look too hard for a good desk. With so many people moving out of their houses and trying to sell off the things they can’t take with them there are a lot of good deals out there,” Jack said.

Abby came in the house and took off her coat. She hung it on the coat rack while looking around the room. Spotting Melissa, she headed over to the young couple. While approaching, she said, “Hello, Melissa.”

“Hello, Abby,” Melissa said thinking that Abby looked pretty cheerful for a change. She added, “You look happy.”

“I just finished packing up another house and got a contract to watch over it until it sells. She also asked me to handle the garage sale,” Abby replied happy to have two hundred dollars in her pocket. The fact was that she was getting more work than she could handle alone. She now had two houses to manage, four more packing jobs, and a garage sale to arrange. Since she was getting a commission on the garage sale, she was going to go through the remaining items and put the better ones online for sale. She figured that she would get more money for them that way.

“That’s good,” Melissa said.

“I’m making way more money now than when I was at the Taco Emporium,” Abby said with a satisfied smile. She had also discovered that she enjoyed living with Wanda a lot more than with Jack. The two of them would sit around and have tea every night before heading to bed. Living with Jack had been nice, but he wasn’t good company. It seemed to her that there was always a little distance between them because of the gender differences.

“That’s good,” Jack said. He was happy that things were finally working out for Abby.

Turning to Melissa, Abby asked, “When are your classes over?”

“I’m basically done. I have to turn in a paper tomorrow. I finished it over the weekend,” Melissa said. She planned on giving it a quick edit in the morning before handing it in. She wasn’t worried about it.

“I’ve got more packing jobs than I can handle. I have work for you if you would like to earn a little extra money,” Abby said. She knew that it wouldn’t be difficult to hire someone to work but she preferred to have someone she could trust.

“That would be great,” Melissa said. She was going to be busy over the next week if she helped Abby. She had to pack her dorm room to move her clothes over to the house. That was nothing compared to emptying her office. She had a ton of books, papers, and a computer.