She chuckled and told him that the name of the service was the same as her own last name; Rockaby. She explained quickly that the name of her company was Rockaby Adoptive Services. Andrew politely introduced himself in turn and told her he was a student at the local college majoring in English. Andrew was totally captivated by her and soon found himself telling her that his parents had died recently and that his small inheritance was financing his way through college. She commiserated with him about his recent loss and asked him if he saw his brothers and sisters often. Embarrassed with the intimacy of her question, Andrew explained that he was an only child and that aside from the passing acquaintance of his next door neighbor, Allie, he doesn’t know anyone in town well enough to talk to about his life.
While they waited for the pharmacist to refill Andrew’s prescription, Kyrstyn invited him to her house for coffee. With thumping heart, he graciously accepted her invitation. She smiled broadly as he accepted and told him that she only lived a few blocks from the pharmacy. In the dream, Andrew was ecstatic, there was something about her smile he just couldn’t seem to resist.
As they left the pharmacy, Krystyn asked Andrew if he wanted to follow her home in his car. Andrew blushed furiously as he admitted he didn’t own a car and had to either walk or take a bus to get around town. The money he had inherited from his parents was just enough to get him through his Baccalaureate and Masters if he was frugal and didn’t waste his money on things that he didn’t truly need. If he was lucky, he’d get a job in the English department so he could get his Doctorate in English. Otherwise, he envisioned himself playing the role as an English teacher in some benighted High School where English was the mother tongue but had become the second language for the horde of semi-civilized, barbaric, Kitsch mouthing, sub-intelligent teenagers that roamed the halls in search of sexual or physical conquests. The very thought of being condemned to that particular genre of anti-academic Hades gave him the shivers.
While he had gained a small reputation on the track field as a faster-than-average runner, he had never attained the status of star runner for the school. As a consequence, the main advantage his running abilities had granted him was the ability to decamp physically threatening situations at speeds no bully could match. He had had enough experiences with football jocks in his own High School to know the psychotype well and had no desire to repeat the experience. Although Andrew was always on the lookout for a potential girlfriend, he never seemed to be able to find one who met his needs. All his female classmates seemed to be either have a boyfriend already or be totally absorbed in partying and getting intoxicated on drugs or liquor. His selection of English as a major as well as his lack of a car wasn’t any help to finding a girlfriend either. “English” as a major, simply wasn’t sexy like Film Art, Jazz Saxophone or Anthropology. Even a major in Biology would have served him better than English to attract girlfriends, but his interests and his skills forced him to take the route that would ensure his academic survival.