Brenda and Connie Ch. 11

The incident with Tracy though did make it clear that he had to find and locate Connie. He was not interested in other girls. Connie was his girl. By the same token he had to find her soon. He did expect her to remain true but after some time he knew that his true love would likely give up the ghost and move on with her life.

He thought she would remain true to him till Christmas but starting in January she would be susceptible to advances from other males. He did have a lot of school work remaining in this term and he had to do relatively well so as not to forfeit financial scholarships and aid. He decided to withdraw from all his classes for the next semester thus preserving his financial rights in continuing his education. He could always catch up with summer school.

Spencer thus implemented his plan which he labeled "Operation Find Connie". Having dropped out for the next semester he avoided telling his parents when visiting them at Christmas that he had withdrawn. Pursuant to their ongoing promise to help with his education and because then they thought he was still in school, his parents kept providing him with funds to pay the rent for his apartment. Thus he had enough money to last until June.

When he returned to the campus in the new year, he devised what he felt was a realistic plan to finally find Connie. He had to operate on the assumption that she was a student at MSU. As he recalled that September day & night, although she never had actually stated that she was a student, her demeanor and her actions were congruent to being a student.

From that assumption, utilizing a campus map he selected with care eight buildings to patrol. He selected them on the basis that the average student at MSU no matter their course of studies would have at least one class at one of these buildings selected. He would plan to hover at the main entrance of each building each day at the beginning of each hour between nine in the morning until seven at night (skipping 5 PM & 6PM since no classes would begin at those hours). Thereby after eight full weeks he believed that he would have had to have seen every student who had a class in any one of those buildings.

Spencer did realize there were a couple of flaws in his plan. For one thing there are more that eighty buildings at MSU that have classrooms. He knew he could try for eight more buildings in March and April but he just could not cover every building completely. At least the buildings he did select should provide the maximum exposure. The other fly in the ointment in his plan was that Connie for any reason might skip the class at the time he was patrolling it. But then there is no perfect plan and this probably was as good as it can get. Besides since he had nothing else to do he could supplement his patrol with periodic searches through the libraries and other places where students congregate.

Thus when classes resumed in January Spencer started his seemingly impossible quest. Sharply at about eight thirty in the morning he would station himself in front of one of the chosen buildings and observe every one that would enter the building. Since he was a smoker he would puff on a cigarette and would not appear to be at all suspicious in his observing and not entering the building. After nine he would go to either a nearby library or some other place where there were students to do some more searching.

At about twenty to ten he would return to the chosen building for the next hour change of classes. He would continue this routine throughout the day. Between 4:15 and 6:30 he would eat his supper and scour the libraries thoroughly. At 6:30 he would return to the building but because it was dark by then he would go inside to observe those who would enter. Finally after 7:15 he would leave the building and search the libraries and other places for the next couple of hours.

The first full week of January was spent that way at the first of the eight chosen buildings. During Saturday and Sunday he would just aimlessly search throughout the campus. During the second week he patrolled the second of the eight buildings but still no Connie. He was frustrated especially since he saw some people repeatedly seemingly hundreds of time during that two week period. However he was not discouraged since he was on a mission. He had never ever endeavored to exert himself to such a scale to achieve a particular goal. With the purpose so clear, he had the intuition that he would succeed and so he became determined.

Another week passed and still no Connie. But finally on the Tuesday, of the last full week of January at about two o'clock in the afternoon his mission was accomplished. He spotted the elusive Connie! She was talking to her female companion as she was coming towards him and passed him into the building. She did not see him and so obviously had no eye contact with him. However he did get a good look at her and there was no mistake; this was Connie! He followed her to her class which turned out to be a first year history class with about a hundred students.

He sat through the class very impatiently as his heart was pounding away. He was contemplating at his good fortune in finally finding his true love again. He was thinking what to do. Obviously they could go to a café and make up for lost grounds. He was certain she would be absolutely happy to see him. His mind was racing ahead on considering their future. Since she was apparently only a freshman there was no problem that he had dropped out this semester. As he was actually a sophomore he could delay return to school until he was even with her. He would get a job so that he could take her out on some wonderful dates. Oh yes life was good. Happily he noted that Connie was still as gorgeous as he remembered her.

And so his mind was crowded with happy thoughts. He could not wish the class to end soon enough so that he could be finally reunited with his soul mate and future wife. Yes Spencer had skipped so far ahead in his mind that his infatuation with Connie had progressed to an unhealthy obsession. Finally the class was over and he took the opportunity to accost her and greeted her:

"Hey Connie."

She turned to him with a blank look and replied:

"Yes, can I help you?"

As Spencer stared at her and seeing her vacant look he got the disquieting impression that she did not recognize him. 'How could that be?', he thought. 'Surely she had been pining for him just as he had been for her. Something is just not right.' So he hurriedly responded:

"It's Spencer; you know Spencer Thorneburg. You remember the night we had after the Western Michigan game back in September."

"Oh yes, Spencer, of course! How have you been?"

"Miserable! I haven't seen you since that night. As you remember you did not have a phone number and I guess you lost my number. So we haven't been able to get together."

"Yes that was unfortunate," Connie replied noncommittally. She was starting to get uneasy as she realized she was not going to get rid of him easily and she hated confrontations.

"Well look Connie how about we now go someplace for a cup of coffee and catch up on things that have been happening?"

"Sorry I can't. I am busy."

"OK then. How about dinner tonight? You got to eat and that will give us even more time to renew our relationship."

"I am busy tonight."

"OK Connie. I understand this is unexpected short notice and you are busy. So what do you say dinner this Friday or even better this Saturday?"

"I don't think so. I have a boyfriend now."

"Darn I was afraid of that. A girl as pretty as you certainly won't be out of circulation for long. But Connie you know I did not dump you. I just did not have your phone number so that is why I could not reach you. Remember we had a great time surely you would want to relive such good times."

"This is a serious boyfriend."

Now Spencer was starting to get desperate. During all that time when he was pining to reconnect with Connie, he had never imagined such a negative outcome once he would see her again. He had been convinced even if Connie had started to see someone else she would want to dump the new acquaintance for him. He was absolutely delusional on this point. Accordingly he replied:

"Yes but if you had not lost my number, we would still be together, and this new guy would never have been in the picture."

At this point Connie became confused. Since she had met Bruce the incident with Spencer had become a forgotten blur in her memory. She had forgotten the circumstances of her not giving him her number and pretending to take his number. So she actually did not know what he was alluding to and so she replied:

"I don't understand. What do you mean we would still be together? We have never been together. All we did was hook up for one night."

"Well yes but it was obvious we were about to begin a great relationship. You had lost your cell phone and I gave you my number so we could stay in touch. We both knew that we would be going out constantly from then on. Since you did not call I assume you lost my number and thus our relationship did not start as it would have undoubtedly done so."

Connie did not have a mean bone in her body so she had a tough time from extracting herself from this unwanted attention. She wanted to get rid of him but she did not want to hurt his feelings. So she replied:

"Well Spencer, I guess that is all water under the bridge. Life is like that. Circumstances can alter any plan. In any case I have now a serious boyfriend which precludes my availability."

"Oh Connie don't you remember the great time we had? I think it is fair to say I am in love with you. I believe you were in love with me. You were so happy. We were both happy together. Why can't you dump this boyfriend? I know you would want to get back to what we had."

As Spencer was pleading, Connie was remembering what a miserable time she had had with him. The suggestion that she was desirous of him provoked her to retaliate, in a totally uncharacteristic manner for her:

"For your information Spencer I had a miserable time that night. I only went out with you so my roommate could have our dorm room to herself for fucking that night. I did not lose my cell phone. I lied so you could not call me. I did not lose your phone number; I threw it away first chance I got. See this finger and this ring. The ring is my engagement ring. It is a two carats diamond ring and cost over three thousand dollars. When I say I have a serious boyfriend that is how serious I mean. I have no interest in you Spencer. So just leave me alone. Stop pestering me."

With that Connie broke away from him and hurriedly disappeared from his sight. Spencer stood there a moment absolutely dumbfounded. He could not believe what had just happened. His love of Connie soon and quickly metamorphosed into hate. He vowed to himself:

"I will get even for this bitch!"