HOM: Back to NNC

Back to the grind, such as it was. I enjoyed the weekend security job, and it did have its humorous moments as well as its salacious ones. Every now & then I had some company on my rounds of the campus, sometimes invited by me and sometimes self-invited. Carol used to walk around with me -- she loved poking around in the closed buildings and exploring them. We were checking out the Science Building one night, and she kept bopping along ahead of me, in and out of empty classrooms and labs and having a great time, till I asked her what she was going to do when she interrupted an intruder and a pair of hands came out of the dark and grabbed her around the throat. She walked beside me holding my arm for the rest of the tour. (Flashback -- one of the kids I was in class with in my first tour at NNC got a part-time night job in a mortuary. He hated it, but needed the money. One of the other guys there knew he was kind of spooky about working around the Deceased and planned a joke on him. He soaked his hands in ice water and then stood behind the door to the room where the bodies were. When the kid walked in, the guy grabbed him by the throat from behind. The kid passed out. When he came to, he quit.) The Home Ec building had a nice lounge area with a comfy sofa and a home-like setting and once in a while there were cookies or a cake left over I could munch on. I probably spent more time there than I should have when I wasn't alone. My friend Don Hoodenpyle sometimes went on the rounds with me, and was involved in, or the cause of, one of my more memorable moments. The aforementioned Science Building was the highest on campus, and one evening when he was with me we spotted some kids on the roof. We ran in, up the stairs, found the roof door open, and went out on the roof looking for the trespassers. Don slammed the door shut behind us. He said it semed like a good idea at the time. The roof was empty. The door was locked. I didn't have a key for it. I had visions of spending the night on the roof and getting fired the next day. Don scouted around and found a way down -- a set of metal rungs attached to the side of the building. Not a ladder -- just rungs. He eased over the side and climbed down. I looked down and froze. He looked up and laughed. I HATE high places! I followed, once I was able to force myself over the edge and onto the rungs. As out of shape as I always am, I think I was able to hold my breath all the way down. At least I sure panted for a while after I got my feet back on solid ground. He still reminds me of that little adventure, and grins when he does. People who don't share your phobias are no fun. I had volunteers for the patrols but nobody seemed to want to help me shovel the coal. I guess it was more boring than walking around campus. TBC (Me) (Blacktail Books)