Ike suggested that I submit my article to the Pen. Since our school paper was printed by the journal which meant I worked with the staff at the Pen twice a month they might be able to make editorial suggestions and print the article. Penny Whetstone, the copy editor made a bunch of suggestions about the article. She was a quiet, shy woman in her mid-thirties with tight lips and short brown hair. She wasn’t timid about making changes which she sometimes said, “Looks like Ike’s work here and he’ll be in to argue about my comments.” So, with my original combined with Ike’s and Penny’s help, the Pen published my first and, so far only, masterpiece.
After I graduated without honors but with a degree in Classical Literature, I went to work fulltime at B&P not because I considered it a career but I liked it well enough and I was too lazy to look for anything else, especially for something involving classical literature. Besides, my relationship with Brenda was getting serious so the job would let me stay close to her. My parents met her on one of their rare trips to town and decided she had a nice personality although a bit flashy. They had no other comment which was a sign of they hadn’t rejected her, not that mattered much. Even Ike had given up his prediction that my destination was the trash heap of rejected lovers.