New Horizons

"Just a bit," Judith said.

Curious, David flipped open the folder and looked at the new copy, reading a few random paragraphs. What resentment he might have felt quickly faded as he realized that by simply tightening up his verbiage and correcting a few grammatical errors she had indeed greatly improved the story.

"This is better," he admitted, thanking her for doing it.

"My pleasure," Judith said, adding, "If you want, I'd be happy to retype anything else you might have lying around, or plan to write in the future. With one condition of course."

David was almost afraid to ask what that was, but, with the prospect of what she was offering, couldn't afford not to.

"I want to see you improve," she said, explaining that once she corrected an error, and explained to him why the change had been made, she didn't expect to see it repeated. She would of course give him a little leeway because, after all, bad habits were sometime hard to break. But if the same errors kept popping up over and over, she would stop wasting her time.

David quickly agreed to her conditions. That had been five months ago.

-=-=-=-

"Good afternoon, David," Judith said as she looked up from the paperback she had been reading at her desk. She put the book aside, but not before the teenager was able to see it was "The Chancellor Manuscript" by Robert Ludlum. "What do you have for me today?"

Smiling, David laid the mail on an open space on her desk. Judith glanced down at it, then looked back at him, her expression one of forced irritation.

"Now that's not what I meant and you know it," she said, turning her gaze to the almost empty mail basket.

David grinned even broader as he picked up the manila folder that he had taken out of his backpack and handed it to Judith. With a grin of her own, she flipped it open and scanned the contents for a few moments before closing it again and laying the folder on top of the mail.

"You know, even on that old Smith-Corona, your typewriting has gotten better these last few months," she noted, "and speaking of improving, how did you make out on that English Lit exam?"

"B-," David said, thinking it was a long way from the D he was contemplating in the beginning of the semester.

Over the last few months, Judith's insistence on his continuing improvement had also been extended to his school work, with the betterment of his grades the tangible result.

"You know, I wasn't going to mention this until you were done with it," Judith said, changing the subject back to his writing, "but I think that this is the best story that you've done so far. So good in fact that I really wish you'd let me show it to one of my friends over at Argo Books. He's looking for some writers for a new authors analogy that he's putting together."

"I'm still not ready for that," David answered, still lacking the confidence in his writing to even submit his work to one of the local fanzines.

"All right, suit yourself," she said, aware that it remained a touchy subject with him. "Did you come up with a title for it yet?"

"New Horizons," he smiled.

"I like that," Judith smiled in return.

"Well, I'd better get going if I want to get a sandwich before my lunch break is over," David said. "We still have to wrap up the quarterly report and I'd like to get out of here on time today."

"Then you'd better move your ass, young man," Judith laughed.

David laughed as well as he turned and walked out of the office. As he did, Judith watched him perhaps a bit longer than propriety called for, thinking, as she did, it wasn't a bad looking ass at that.

-=-=-=-

Twenty five minutes later, David headed back towards the mail room, eager to wrap up the day's work. The moment he walked into the room, however, he knew something was wrong. Bob Madison, the department manager, who rarely actually came down into the mail room, was down on his knees in front of the new photocopier, with the maintenance doors wide open.

"What happened?" David asked as he stepped over to the machine, now seeing Connie standing behind Bob with a worried look on her face.

"We have a problem," Bob answered as he got back up from the floor, "but not to worry; I've already called the service company and they promise to get someone over here by five at the latest. They assured me that it's just a quick replacement of the focus module and then we'll be as good as new."

"Five o'clock?" David repeated.

"That's what I said," Bob replied, "and that means I'm going to need one of you to wait for the repair tech and finish off the quarterly report once he gets it up and running."

A frown filled David's face. He knew there was no way in hell that Connie was going to stay, so what the manager was really saying that he was going to have to stay and compete the work.

"I don't suppose we could just run off black and white covers on one of the other copiers?" David asked, pretty sure of the answer already.

"Considering what we are paying on the rental of the new machine," Bob replied, "I'm not about to go up and explain to the big boys upstairs why we didn't use it. Do you have a problem with staying around, David? I know it's Friday night, but..."

"No, I don't have a problem staying," David said, thinking at the same time that if he hadn't put Peggy's project ahead of the report covers, none of this would be happening.

"Fine, then that's settled," the department manager said as he wiped off his hands on a small towel.

-=-=-=-

At a quarter after five, long after just about everyone else had left, David got a call from the service tech saying he would be there in another twenty minutes. Even if the repair only took the few minutes that they promised, there was no way he was going to be able to finish his work and still get home to his parents' house in Brooklyn before eight-thirty, not with having to make that connection between the RR and F trains. Between his disappointing encounter with Peggy and the copier breakdown, this week was certainly ending badly.

"David, what are you still doing here?" he heard a familiar voice ask from the behind the front counter.

He turned around to see Judith Katz standing there, a small package in her hand.

"The copier broke and I'm the lucky guy who gets to stay and wait for the repairman," the teenager replied. "Then I have to finish off the quarterly reports, so they can give them out on Monday."

"Oh, that's too bad," Judith said, adding that she had just stopped by to drop off the package in her hand. It needed to go out with the weekend shipment of things to the California office.

"Well, let me take care of it as long as I'm still here," David offered as he walked over and took the small box from her.

"I hope having to stay didn't ruin any plans you might have had," Judith said. "I mean it is Friday night."

"Nothing of real importance," David replied as he dropped the box into the large canvas bin that would be picked up by UPS later in the evening.

"Well, it was important to you," she noted, picking up on the disappointment in his voice. "What was it?" she asked out of curiosity.

"You'd think it was pretty stupid," he replied.

"I wouldn't, I promise," she said.

"I wanted to watch Wonder Woman on TV; it's my favorite program," he admitted.

"See, I'm not laughing," Judith pointed out.

"I know it's only a television show, but I do enjoy it," he added. "I missed this episode when it was first on and I was hoping to catch the rerun."

"I'm afraid I've never seen it," Judith commented. "I usually watch Donny and Marie at eight."

David wished he could've said he'd never seen that particular show, but he would've been lying. Next to the Brady Bunch Variety Hour, Donny and Marie was his mother's favorite program. She never missed it, which forced him to watch Wonder Woman on the old black and white portable in the basement.

The few times he'd seen Donny and Marie, he thought the idea of a real life brother and sister singing "couples" songs to each other rather creepy. At least on the Brady Bunch show they were only actors playing a family.

"You know, I'm sure Donny and Marie is also a rerun," Judith said, as if she was just thinking out loud.

Not sure why she had said that, David didn't reply.

"What I meant was, if I didn't watch it tonight, I really wouldn't be missing anything I haven't already seen," she went on.

David still didn't get where she was going with this, but gave her his attention regardless. In a few more moments, he was certainly glad he had.

"So, if you wanted to come over after you finish up here," Judith offered, "you could watch your show on my television. I'm only ten blocks from here, after all."

"That would be awesome," David replied, unable to believe his good fortune.

"In fact, we could even order a pizza and have dinner together before the show," Judith added.

"You sure you wouldn't mind?" David asked.

"Not at all," Judith smiled, "You know I always enjoy your company."

Judith wrote down her address, in case David didn't remember it from the one time he had delivered some papers Judith needed when she was out sick, a month before. She also added her phone number so that he could call when he was leaving the office, allowing her to order dinner from the corner pizzeria, so that he could pick it up on his way.

When the copier repairman arrived shortly after Judith left, it only took a bit more than ten minutes to put the machine in perfect working order. While he had been waiting, David had done as much pre-assembly work as possible to speed up things later, and once he actually began took whatever short-cuts he could. He was sure no one would complain that each booklet had only two staples instead of three.

-=-=-=-

Picking up the pizza on the way, David arrived at the high rise where Judith lived at ten to seven. At first, the doorman at the desk didn't believe that he wasn't just the delivery boy, but a quick phone call up to the tenth floor apartment confirmed that he was an expected guest.

On his previous visit, Judith had been reluctant to let David past the front door, lest he be overly exposed to the flu bug that had caused her to stay home. This time, however, she was waiting with the door open as he exited the elevator.

"Just in time," she smiled as she stepped aside to let him carry the still hot pizza past her. "I'm starving."

She directed him into the small apartment's kitchen, telling him to just lay the box on the counter. As he did so, David looked around at both the kitchen and the adjacent living room, which was visible over the half wall that divided both.

The apartment was meticulously clean, and tastefully decorated, the sort of place he dreamed of having himself one day. The centerpiece of the living room was a plush, inviting couch, before which sat a large Zenith console. It was, he quickly decided, even larger than the television that sat in his parents' living room.

"Project all done?" Judith asked as she followed him into the kitchen a few moments later.

"Boxed and ready to be distributed," he replied as he turned around to face her.

In his rush to put down the hot box, David really hadn't taken too long a look at Judith back at the door. It was an omission he now corrected. She had traded the conservative dress she had worn to work earlier for a pair of black slacks and a white pullover. It seemed strange to see her dressed so differently, but he couldn't put a finger on why it felt that way.

"What do you like to drink?" Judith asked as she laid out some plates for the pizza. "I have juice, soda, or if you want, beer."

Technically, David was still underage, but his father had been letting him have the occasional beer at home ever since he'd turned eighteen. Figuring that having dinner at a friend's home was close enough, he said he'd have the beer.

Sitting at the table and eating their pizza, they made small talk, touching pretty much on the same subjects that usually dominated their workplace chats. Judith had the kitchen radio on in the background and David abruptly paused when he heard Foreigner's Feels Like The First Time come on.

"That song is awesome," David said. "Don't you think so?"

Judith didn't seem to be too impressed by the recent release, prompting David to ask what music she thought was good.

She didn't even have to think about her answer, which surprised David.

"Back when I was even younger than you,," she smiled, pausing to take a sip of her beer, "I learned that Elvis was King. In all the time since, I've never heard anything to make me change that opinion."

"Including the Beatles?" David asked.

"Including the Beatles," Judith repeated, never having been as impressed by the four lads from Liverpool as her friends had been.

Between them, they finished off half the small pie, then, after putting the leftovers in the fridge and rinsing off the dishes, Judith suggested they take the rest of their beer and move into the living room. She turned on the television and put on Channel 2, lowering the volume with her remote control. The CBS affiliate was still running local programming and neither of them had much interest in it.

"You know, I was thinking on my way home," Judith said as they sat on opposite ends of the small couch. "If television is really that important to you, you should save up for one of those new video recorders that they're coming out with this summer. Then you could watch your favorites whenever you wanted."

"For what I read they are going to be selling them for," David replied, "I don't think that'll be happening any time soon."

"Well, perhaps you could convince your Dad that one would be a great addition to the house," she offered. "I'm sure there are shows he loves that he doesn't always get to see."

"They say the timers are only good for one show at a time, so I can just see the arguments about which show that was going to be," David pointed out. "Besides, you can't imagine the time we had convincing my Dad to go for a color TV a few years ago when the old black and white finally gave up the ghost. Change has never been his thing. He still even prefers records to 8 Tracks."

The show that was on the TV came to a close and Judith used the four button remote to raise the volume as the Wonder Woman theme song came on. Glancing at David, Judith could see the excitement in his eyes.

"I liked the show better when it was on ABC last year," David said as the credits rolled, explaining that when it had originally aired, the show had been set in World War Two. "With them putting her in the present this season," he added, "some of the storylines are just like those on The Bionic Woman."

Judith nodded her head in agreement, just to be nice. As the story unfolded, she couldn't see how a change in time period would've made that much of a difference. The show really didn't seem much different than any of the other action shows that she'd seen.

In fact, the only real variation seemed to be the curvaceous Miss Carter running around in a tight-fitting, star-spangled swim suit. Simple as it might have been, David certainly did seem to enjoy it, the physical manifestation of that enjoyment evident the few times Judith glanced over at his lap.

Not that she could really fault him for something she herself was sometimes guilty of. David's mentioning of the Bionic Woman reminded Judith that she herself had watched the "Six Million Dollar Man" a few times, for no other reason than it starred Lee Majors.

Finally the closing credits began to roll, and the on air announcer reminded viewers to stay tuned for the "Incredible Hulk", coming right up after a few words from their sponsors. Judith glanced back towards David as if to ask if he wanted to watch that a well, but he anticipated her question and said he'd already seen the impending episode. Hitting the off button on the remote, Judith caused the green giant that had replaced the dark haired heroine on the screen to instantly fade from view.

-=-=-=-

"Wasn't that great?" David asked, still filled with excitement.

"It was certainly ... something," Judith smiled, appreciative of the fact that at least David had enjoyed the show. She had paid little attention to it herself, having spent more time watching him that was happening on the screen.

"Thanks again for letting me come over to watch it," David said as he started to get up off the couch. "I really appreciated it."

"It was my pleasure," Judith smiled. "You know, it's still early; do you really have to go?"

"Not really," David replied, thinking that he hadn't had a curfew since graduation. "I just thought you might have other things you need to do, and I didn't want to overstay my welcome."

"Nonsense, I enjoy your company," Judith replied, "and aside from the little time we've talked about your latest story, I don't think we've had a chance to talk in almost two weeks."

David found himself counting backwards, and it had indeed been that long since they'd had more than a five minute discussion about anything. Normally, they tried to have lunch together at least once a week, twice if they could. He really couldn't explain why, but it was often easier to chat with Judith about what was going on in his life than it was to friends his own age.

"So tell me, what have you been up to, other than school and writing?" Judith asked.

There really wasn't much to tell; the two aspects of his life that Judith mentioned, along with work, of course, took up just about most of his time. Still, he shared what there was as Judith listened carefully.

"Would you like something else to drink?" Judith said as David finished recapping the last ten days.

"Sure," he replied, "but I think I'll go with the soda this time."

"Fair enough," Judith said as she got up and headed to the kitchen. Although she really would've preferred another beer, she took out a soda for herself as well, thinking that if David was going to be responsible, limiting himself to the single beer, she should at least do the same.

They spent another fifteen minutes talking about things at work, Judith mentioning that there was going to be an entry level job opening in research next month that she thought David should put in for. She'd be happy to write him a recommendation, of course.

"That would be great," David said.

"Oh, and speaking of the research department, I understand that you asked out Peggy McAllister today," Judith unexpectedly said, causing David to choke for a moment on his soda.

"What..." he sputtered as he tried to swallow, "where did you hear..."

He didn't finish the question, remembering that little happened in the office that Judith didn't seem to know about.

"I also heard that it didn't go as well as you hoped," she added.

'That's an understatement,' David thought, saying instead, "You could say that."

"Well, I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you," Judith assured him. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunities in the future."

David wasn't sure what she meant by opportunities, but nodded his head in agreement anyway. As far as sex went, the only relationship he saw in his future was the one he'd been having with his left hand.

"Actually, I was genuinely surprised when I heard that you'd asked Peggy out," Judith said.

"Why, because she's way out of my league?" David answered with his own question.

"Hardly that, but you have to admit, it was a reach, but not for the reasons that you might think," Judith answered. "No, I was surprised because I never imagined she might be your type."

"And how would you know what my type was?" David laughed.

"From your stories," Judith answered confidently.

"My stories?" David asked.

"Yes, your stories," Judith replied. "I've read, what, a dozen of your stories, with at least one or two female characters in each. I know you have tried to make them all unique, but if you really pay attention, you find that all of them share some common characteristics. I don't even think you realize you do it; perhaps it's more on a subconscious level, but it's there."