B and C Part Deux

There was a tragedy in Bea's second semester sophomore year. Sadly, Tipper the cat fell ill and slipped away. C was deeply saddened by the loss of such a good friend. For weeks he was miserable and his temper grew very short in those black days, he vowed no more pets. Bea gathered her grocery money and went on a quest to find a gift that would cheer her mentor and bring back the merry glint in his eyes. It began at the Lehigh Valley Mall, many shops ensured many options, and the shopping began. After perambulating through three quarters of the mall she finally found the ultimate cheer up gift, a stuffed animal! Now this was not the run of the mill stuffed toy, this was a gift of high quality. It was a cat that looked like a live cat, curled up, resting. It was so realistic that she stopped in her tracks, thinking that it was alive. This was the gift that C must have! Using the last of her food money she purchased this rather costly gift in the hopes that it would bring C out of the murky depths.
The following B & C night, after the evening snack, Masterpiece Theatre viewing, and Dunking Time (C would make warm Ovaltine and they would dunk Lorna Doone cookies in it. Crumbs flew as they discussed what they watched on TV) Bea cleverly excused herself to "use the bathroom" and placed the stuffed animal on the wing chair in the living room. The evening came to a close and Bea walked back to The Shack. Before drifting off to the land of Nod, the phone rang, it was C. He was deeply touched by the gift and giggled as he told her it scared the shit out of him. He wondered how a strange marmalade tabby had gotten into the house and realized it was a stuffed animal as he went to pick it up. Mission accomplished.
The next several months were financially difficult for Bea. Due to unexpected car issues things began to look quite grim. She'd been living on tuna helper (to this day she finds it difficult to eat any form of tuna) and souped up rice (instant rice with cream of mushroom soup mixed in). Her housemates began to worry about her health and expressed their concerns to C without Bea's knowledge. (She didn't find out the truth of the matter until 4 years after graduation)
On the bleakest of days, the phone rang, it was C, "Hey Bea, I need to run over to the Laneco to pick up a few bags of groceries couldya gimme a lift?"
No problem.
C handed her a list asking if she could get the items for him while he checked out the newest flannel shirts. (The store was like a grocery store and K Mart combined and C had a profound fondness for flannel)
She was delighted to help out and eagerly perused the aisles. They met at the check out counter and headed back to C's house with 8 bags of groceries. Now this may sound like a lot of food but C invited many students and faculty over to his lair and in between classes the driveway looked like a used car lot. He provided snacks and coffee/tea for all who entered, he was a generous host and notorious gossip.
Bea brought in the bags and heard him groan, "Oh shit, I didn't need another one of these. What was I thinking? Bea can you use this?"
Hell yes she could! Existing on minute rice and a 5 lb bag of potatoes could only last for so long!
By the time he'd finished going through all the bags, Bea had a large box full of food items. When she got back to The Shack she realized that C was truly a force to be reckoned with. It took one hell of a man to circumnavigate a stubborn woman's pride and present her with such a kind gift, without making her feel like the pauper that she was.

Finals loomed and one afternoon, in C's comfy kitchen Bea told him of her difficulty concentrating on drafting and studies. The Shack had become a mad house, kids were freaking out all over the place! Dogs and cats were sleeping together-it was insane. C understood her dilemma for focusing on Descartes, Kant and Socrates were quite mind bending without the frantic malestrom of housemates on the verge of intellectual breakdowns. He made her an offer she couldn't refuse. He would allow her to "move in" to his house for several weeks before finals. She had free use of his guest room, bathroom and kitchen. He asked her to be respectful of his wishes and be tidy. This offer was immense, for C was an intensley private person. Many had crossed his threshold for caffine and great conversation but it was a rule to always call first to get permission. He had no problem turning people away if he felt overbooked, over worked or too damned tired.

On "move-in day" she happily set up her drafting table next to his desk in the study and for several weeks they worked peacefully side by side, he on classwork and she on her drafting/studies. Something occured during the second week that astonished her. C was in the study banging away on his typewriter (he refused to purchase a computer-swearing that those machines were beyond him) and had just delivered a mug of Earl Grey to her as she tried to wrap her brain around Emmanuel Kant's brand of reason. The fact that he brought her a tea wasn't astonishing, they would often get hot bevvies for each other. The stunning fact was that he'd placed the right amount of sugar and 1/2 n 1/2 to her taste. Ingnoring the call of Kant, she surmised that C must have carefully observed her when she made her tea; for out of all the converstaions the topic of what they each put in their preferred hot bevvie had never come up. She knew he preferred black coffee in the mornings but switched to cafe au lait in the afternoons and evenings. It warmed her heart that he cared. It was a nice feeling that he stocked her brand of tea and didn't expect her to bring her own supply (she always had to bring her own tea whenever she went home for a visit). This gruff bear had allowed her space in his home so she could study and had turned visiting students away saying he was too busy to see them providing a buffer so she would have quiet time to concentrate. It was then that she realized how fortunate she was to have such a friend in Callahan.

That summer, when not working at HersheyPark (her most favored job on the planet) she would visit him on the weekends. They would go to the cinema, making sure they'd planned the run times of the films carefully so that they could zip out and see a second one right after viewing the first.
One evening at The Coop she almost choked on a french fry when he asked, "Bea, can you tell me who these California Raisins are? Are they a new rock group?"
She giggled and explained that they were a claymation gimick developed by the California Grape Growers to sell their produce on TV. Those clever marketing gurus had borrowed the Temptations "Heard it Through the Grapevine"; it was not on Billboard's top 10 list.
Another weekend they took a bus trip to Atlantic City, New Jersey. During the afternoon they walked along the boardwalk and ate cotton candy, listening to the kids playing and the tireless surf. C was an avid Craps player and Bea went along to play the slots. Late in the evening at the Taj, she grew tired of the plinking of the quarters and went over to watch C play. The rules of the game were beyond her comprehension, it was fun watching and listening to the silly things the rollers would say. One player crapped out and it was C's turn, instead of tossing the dice himself he handed them to Bea and told her to give it a shot. Not knowing what to do Bea tossed the dice with so much force that one of them accidently hit the stick man on the forehead. The crowd cheered, it was a great roll! She apologized profusely to the stick man for hitting him, he told her it was ok and handed her the dice again. She continued to roll, one of the other players told her she was "hot". She asked C to translate what that meant for surely she hadn't turned into Christie Brinkley overnight? He said that she was a lucky dice thrower which made her happy. She's never been lucky before, it was a nice feeling. Finally her time ended at the table, C handed her a large plastic cup filled with chips and asked her to go cash them in. He needed to use the restroom. Riding the crest of being lucky Bea dutifully walked over to the cashier and passed the cup through the metal bars. The cashier began to count out the amount of the chips and terror leapt into Bea's heart...the winnings came to a grand total of 5 thousand dollars! She'd never seen that much money in her life and that sick bastard had asked her to cash in a shit raft of ducats! C found her and she punched him in the arm, "Why didn't you TELL me it was going to be THAT MUCH CASH?"
C giggled, "Because you never would've done it. You won most of that for me, where would you like to eat?"
They had lobster at 3 am, and it was mighty fine indeed.