I skipped over something to get to World of Comics and the Champions Game. That's been over 30 years ago, and a lot of stuff has happened. So, you'll forgive me for jumping around a bit.
After graduating from Platt College, I stayed on and worked, and I gamed with Doug and Carol at the Villa. All of that was true. But when I read back the part about meeting Doug, I realized that I had got it wrong. Before that happened, my one year lease with the Villa expired. I was making an actual wage, and my rent was about to increase a substantial amount.
In contemplating the prospect of moving, I realized something. I was homesick. I missed my family and I wanted to go home, back to Coulterville. So, that's what I did. I called Mom and told her that I wanted to come back home. I didn't know about Fred being so mad at me before I had left, but things had clearly settled down, because they drove out to Tulsa to get me, and I came home.
Looking back on it, this might have been the absolute worst possible decision that I could have made. I was stuck back in Coulterville. At this point, everyone that I knew had left. Even my friend Jon who was 5 years my junior was now away at college. More than that, there were no opportunities in Coulterville. My best hope would have been to find something in St. Louis, but that was bigger than Tulsa, more competitive. I was a disabled kid with a GED and a Commercial Art Certificate from a trade and technical school.
I was screwed. I did it to myself. I wasn't going to find a decent job. My desire to "go home" may have just ruined my life. This was one of those life altering moments, and I had taken a wrong turn. Lucky for me destiny, (and a very wonderful Mike Garner) had other plans.
Mike Garner, who was the antisocial tech nerd at Platt College who was teaching me about computers and was rapidly becoming a good friend, called me. He asked how I was doing. Had I gotten a job? Was I happy? I don't think I said anything actually negative. It all felt pretty surface level as I try to recall it now, but a few days later I got a call from Jim Warren, Platt College's Dean.
Jim explained that Mike was going crazy without me, that he couldn't handle the student interruptions and that he needed me back to help. Jim offered to fly me back to Tulsa and give me my job back, with a raise. If I went back to Tulsa, I couldn't move back into the Villa. There was a waiting list. I was a hard luck case the first time. Now, it was different. The raise meant that I would be making enough money to afford a standard apartment in Tulsa.
It would be a new start.
I dodged a real bullet. I was happy to leave Coulterville again. I wasn't homesick anymore, and I never would be again. It's true what they say, "You can't go home again." I had grown up. It was time to begin building my own life in Tulsa.
Sally was back in Tulsa. (She had been unavailable for awhile, but I can't remember.) She was living in a place called the BrownStone Apartments. The thing was, these apartments were really close to Platt College. Walking distance close. This time she was on her own. There was no roommate. I was became the roommate. I moved once again in with my sister.
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