The Common Vein

Gary Davis 

Copyright 2009 

After School

After I graduated from high school, I did my civic duty and went to Walvis Bay where I volunteered to be a driver. I learnt my driving skills driving Bedford trucks in the Namibian desert. To break the boredom I requested to go to the Caprivi Strip by the Angolan border. One night while I was standing guard looking for stray Cubans, I decided as soon as I graduated from Wits as a Civil Engineer I must depart this forsaken land.

After Graduation

After graduation I took the first plane to London where I realized I was a nobody. Nobody would employ me as an engineer, so I became a draftsman until an oil company requested my skills. I packed up my Citroen Dyane and departed for Barrow-in-Furness. When I arrived I understood why I got the job. No one in their right mind would want to work there. It was like entering a Charles Dickens novel. Hordes of people on their bicycles daily crossed a dirty grey bridge to go to work in the ship yard. To keep my sanity I rented a cottage on Lake Windermere in the Lake District. At least there I was living in a Beatrice Potter novel. I put a few good miles on my poor little car commuting back and fourth to work. To lessen the burden I found a job in the center of London ..Berkley Square and lived in St. John?s Wood. Life was good. I was travelling back and forth to Scotland and Holland inspecting oil rigs and arguing with Llyods of London. Every play, classical and rock concert, museum and soccer match that was possible to attend, I attended.

USA

Three years later I received my green card for the USA. I said goodbye to good friends and family. I had not seen the sun for a long time so when I arrived in Los Angeles I threw my brolley away and decided it was time to concentrate on my goal which was to design and build structures. I found a structural engineering job in Santa Monica. I recognized I was inept in seismic design and had no clue how to build with sticks ?so off to college I went, but this time to UCLA, part time. For extramural activities I played tennis.

Karen

One weekend on the tennis court I was invited by a South African to meet his girlfriend and her friend who had arrived from Boston. I did not feel like studying that night so I decided to go. I was stunned when I arrived because his small apartment was crowded with about twelve South African guys. Eventually the two ladies made their entry. Karen, the friend, was not very congenial to the macho attitude that was being bantered about and with the conversation of how much better it was to live in South Africa. I just sat back in awe and watched this beautiful intelligent woman put these guys individually in their place. I decided that night this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. The following day we started to elope. Unfortunately Karen had to go back to Boston because her school vacation was over. She was a school psychologist. Both our savings quickly diminished with our flights back and forth and the respective telephone calls. The time had arrived that I was invited to meet her parents who lived in New Jersey. They were intrigued to meet this guy from Africa. They had never met a South African. To make life a little more complicated it was December and her family celebrated Xmas. Being my first Xmas, Karen over the phone enlightened me about her family tradition which was that there will be a tree, a lot of gifts underneath it and an abundance of food. The gift thing I was not so enamored with. I suggested I will bring an assortment of Californian wines for her dad. I was into collecting wines. I asked her if she could buy my gifts for her mom because I did not know her taste and it would be my pleasure to do the gift wrapping. So the scene was set. I flew into New York and Karen and I drove to New Jersey. That night I did my best to charm her parents. I used all my skills that I learnt at school. We stayed up late wrapping gifts. The following morning it was gift giving. I presented Karen?s mom with my first gift. She appreciated the wrapping and opened the box. There was a momentary silence which seemed an eternity. She nervously laughed and announced that there was nothing in the box. Inadvertently with all the excitement and my idiosyncratic wrapping skills, I forgot to place the gift in the box. Not to worry, even after that faux pas, Karen and I continued with our cross country travels and telephone conversations. During one of our calls I announced to Karen that she should think about moving to LA. She responded ..is this a marriage proposal because she would not give up her job and move unless it was for her husband. I responded ..OK it is a proposal to which she replied that maybe I should give up my job and move to Boston. Once again I flew to Boston, but this time to examine the terrain as a potential place to live. I reached a conclusion when I wrote my initials on the inside of the window of Karen?s rented house that I could not live in such a cold climate. Karen concurred because she was tired of digging herself out of the snow. I told her with her intellect and tenacity she will easily find a job in LA.

Religion

We discussed religion and we both felt for our future children sake we should have a common religion. She did not mind converting. I said there will be no mikvah and no months studying the Jewish religion. I would find a nice ultra reform rabbi in LA who will welcome her into the flock. We packed up her car and travelled cross country. It was amazing to experience the vastness and diversity of America. After a week or so we arrived in LA. Karen immediately started applying for a job. There was only one school psychologist position and unfortunately the interviewing period had expired. She called the school system and told them that she just arrived from Boston and they should not make a decision until they interviewed her. She got the interview and the job. In the meantime I found the perfect rabbi. He drove a Porsche and his license plate was ?Nudge?. I explained our predicament and told him that I laid tefillin until I was fifteen and studied the book of Isiah. He was impressed. He was willing to accept Karen into the fold as long as she said that she did not believe in Jesus Christ. I immediately told Karen to take the 5th ?that is to refuse to testify. I explained to the rabbi that I don?t believe Jesus actually walked on water, and I am not sure if  the Red Sea parted ..for definitely I don?t believe that Lot?s wife turned into a pillar of salt. With that we left and decided that we will have to explain to our children that their parents are from different religious backgrounds. My next task was to find a rabbi to marry us. In fact Karen found him. He was a rabbi who was also a psychologist. All I needed was a silver wedding cup so we could keep it as an heirloom with my Bar Mitzvah cup. I went shopping in Fairfax which is a religious orthodox neighbourhood. It was tough because most of the cups had stones attached to them. I just wanted a plain silver cup. With cup in hand, that was made in Israel, we were ready to be married. We got married in a quaint beautiful restaurant in Beverly Hills. The chuppah looked great by the outdoor fountain. The four pole holders looked handsome. By the way one was Michael Katz. I broke the glass. There was great jubilation, but I could not keep my eyes off the table cloth on top of which was placed our silver wedding cup. The white cloth was slowly turning red. I realized I was sold a defective cup that had a minute pin hole through the stem. After all the celebrations concluded we concentrated on our professions. I eventually started an engineering company. At the peak I had fourteen engineers. My motto was ?We will make your dream a reality?. There were amazing talented and some weird architects in LA. It was exhilarating times. We designed anything and everything ..from room additions, residential cliff hangers to six storey buildings ?but I had not reached my goal. I decided I better do it or move my goal line. I am very flexible. I got my general contractors licence and my real estate brokers licence. With all my licences firmly in place I designed, built and sold a condominium development. Karen and I were in our mid-thirties and at a stage in our professions that we felt we could have children and give them whatever their little hearts desired.

Our Tough Times

We had a miscarriage which was devastating ?but we gathered ourselves and started the fertility evolution. After months of drugs that I had to inject into Karen, we decided this could be dangerous. Who knew what the effect it could be on our child. It was for definitely effecting Karen. We started the adoption process. We met with a lawyer and he asked us what we visualized. I told him that we would like to adopt a child from a pregnant Harvard student that did not believe in abortion. He explained the facts of adoption to me. Eventually the lawyer found a couple in St. Louis that had a child, she was pregnant with her second, lived in a trailer park, could not afford another child but did not believe in abortion. It was a gift from heaven. We flew to St. Louis and met at a hotel to interview them all. I arranged their trip down to LA, stopping at various locations. Eventually they arrived in LA where we put them up in a furnished rented apartment so that we could monitor them during the pregnancy for drugs, alcohol and give them good medical care. Karen insisted that I move our big TV into the apartment so that they could be more comfortable. They came to our house to celebrate Halloween ?.Halloween is just another excuse for a party. One day Karen called me at work and told me she went to pick them up for a hospital check up, but no one answered the door. I told her not to worry because this is Hollywood and they might have forgotten and gone site seeing. She was not satisfied with my logic, so I drove to the apartment, unlocked the door to find a totally empty unit? no furniture and no big TV. I just stood there aghast ?.visualizing Edvard Munch?s painting ?The Scream?? I then came to my senses. We had been screwed. I requested all their phone bills from the manager and realized from day one they were phoning Greyhound and the railway station plotting their exit route. We decided that it was our fate not to have children. It was a real pity because every time I saw Karen with some of her child clients and or our friend?s children, to me she was so radiant. I dissolved my engineering company and concentrated on designing and building because I loved the smell of dirt and to see slowly ones creation evolve was so gratifying ?well sometimes.

Learning to Ski at Forty

When I turned forty Karen asked me what I would like to do to celebrate. I told her I would love to learn how to ski. She being a proficient skier told me that no one learns to ski at forty. I responded that I waterskied on the Vaal river and body surfed down dune 7 in the Namibian desert and at least I will be able to bounce down the mountain. So off to Vail we went. I took a few lessons. Little did I know that I started at the top ?not really? Whistler mountain is also very impressive. Since then, my favorite vacation is to go skiing. A few years ago Karen announced that she was going to get her doctorate in psychology. I was stunned and lost for words. That is difficult for me because by now I am sure you realize I suffer from verbal diarrhea. I looked at her and thought what an amazing, beautiful and intelligent wife I have. My parents always wanted to have a doctor in the family. Unfortunately my mom was not alive to celebrate this exciting revelation. My dad claimed the nakhes, bless his soul, shortly before he passed away.

The End

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Gary Davis
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