Time Trials Read Free

to college. Dropping a son off for freshman orientation probably required less drama and a much quicker ordeal. However, surrounding the women’s freshman dorms, cars packed way past capacity filled the parking lots, while frenzied parents and deliriously hyped-up females performed repeated Army maneuvers from car to dorm room. Without the availability of microwaves or mini refrigerators, an essential for a top functioning dorm room included an electric popcorn popper…the kind that actually required oil and popcorn kernels. These popping devices could also heat a can of soup or Spaghetti-Os. A coil immersion heating device was handy to brew a cup of water for hot chocolate, a Cup-O-Soup, instant coffee, or tea. Remember, 1972…there were no hot air popcorn poppers, and no bags to throw in a microwave for a quick snack. If you were fortunate to actually know your roommate before arriving on campus for freshman orientation, color-coordinated room decors could be included in the haul coming out of the parents’ cars. And some girls, the lucky ones, even had their own vehicles.
    The eight girls in question had been assigned to one of the oldest dorms on campus. And…on the ground floor. Ground floor meaning the dorm had been built on a hill, and not only was the main floor one level above, but to see the street from a ground floor window required looking up.
     
    Disclaimer:
    The stages listed below are taken from Erik Erikson’s
    Eight Stages of Man with some embellishment from Wikipedia.
     
    Stage of Development 5: Identity vs Confusion
    (Ages 12-18…or 19, 20+…whatever it takes)
    Basic Virtue: Fidelity
  The crossroads between adolescence and adulthood.
  The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to others and begins to question their existence on the planet. Who am I? What is important?
  What sort of person do I want to be?
  If the adolescent is successful in this stage, she or he will emerge with a strong sense of self and a lasting ability to stay true to who they aspire to be and their new-found beliefs.
  If society is too insistent, the teenager will acquiesce to external wishes, effectively forcing him or her to “foreclose” on experimentation and, therefore, true self-discovery.
  The adolescent will be unsuccessful and emerge with a weak sense of personal identity and confusion about their place in the world.
    These age ranges are actually quite fluid, especially for
    the achievement of identity, since it may take many
    years (literally) to become grounded, to identify the
    object of one’s fidelity, to feel that one has found their
    place on the planet.

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 3
     
    Allison Jennings - 1972
     
    “You know your dad wanted to drive you today.” Allison’s mom gripped the steering wheel like it was the only device keeping her inside the car. Mrs. Jennings made the word tense seem more like a day at the beach. “He tried to find someone to take his place, but, you know your dad, there’s just no one who can do his job.”
    Allison rolled her eyes as if she didn’t know this information. In fact, she knew way more than her mother about her dad’s position as Head Field Director of the NCIS Corpus Christi Training Center. It was her, not her mother, who listened to all his stories about his job. It was her, not her mother, who watched Perry Mason with her dad every week. And it was her, not her mother, who had cried when the series ended in 1966. She was twelve.
    “I know Ma, it’s okay. Really.” She listened to her mother rattle on about her dad’s long hours and now Allison would be gone too, and what was she going to do? How was she going to handle everything?
    “Ma, don’t forget you have two other daughters, and they’re not in diapers. They can help.”
    “But you’ve always been the one….” Mrs. Jennings words dissipated. She tightened her hold on the steering wheel, if that was possible.
    “I’m just gonna close my eyes for a bit,